001All right, welcome everybody. We are going to go ahead and call the meeting to order at 7 6:30 exactly. And we will rise for the pledge. I pled allegiance 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. >> Right. Notice of a legal meeting for state statute 19.84. Ryan, has the meeting been properly noticed? >> Yes, it has. >> Okay. And I will take a motion. I'll make a motion. >> Motion by Mike. Second by Mike and then we will move into an in approval of the agenda. Ryan, do we have any changes? >> There are no changes. >> Great. With that, I'll take a motion. >> Make a motion. I'll second. >> Motion by Randall,
002second by Mike. >> Do roll call. >> Yeah. >> That one. >> Oh, yeah. We didn't do roll call. Sorry. >> I was gonna come back to that one trader here. >> Oh, here. Humpy >> here. >> Canadler >> here. >> Robin Engel >> here. >> Gabel >> here. >> Thompson >> here. >> Oinski >> here. >> That's what happens when I'm not looking at the agenda. >> Um, all right. We need to move into close session. So, um, 2.1 is to adjourn to executive session for discussion of personal information as per Wisconsin state statute 19.851C and F as described the following. Consideration of financial, medical, social, and personal information, and consideration of employment, promotion, compensation, and performance evaluation. >> Make a motion. >> Motion by Mike, second by Robin, and we'll be adjourning into
003executive session at 6:32. >> Yes. Humpy. >> Yes. Jungle. Yes. >> Yes. 709. >> Uh, Shrader, >> yes. >> Lazor, yes. Hum. >> Yes. >> Nadler, >> yes. >> Angel, >> yes. >> Thompson, >> yes. >> All right. >> Routine action items. 3.1 is approval of minutes of regular school board meeting on December 15, 2025. >> Motion by Robin. >> Second by Mike. And roll call. >> Trader. >> Yes. >> Wazor. >> Yes. >> Nadler. >> Yes. >> Angel. >> Yes. >> Thompson. >> Yes. >> Kinski. >> Yes. >> Okay. 3.2. Approval of voucher and payroll checks. I need a motion and a second to approve December payable expenditures and payroll expenditures in the amount of 1,618,62989. >> Motion by Randall. >> Second by Mike. And a roll call. >> Trader. >> Yes. >> Moric,
004yes. Humpsky, >> yes. >> Gadler, >> yes. >> Engel, >> yes. >> Thompson, >> yes. four public acknowledgements and comments. Has anyone signed up for public comment? >> Oh, I have a comment. >> You do question. >> Um, so I was looking through the DPI. >> Would you tell us who you are? >> Hi Aron. >> Hi. Thank you. I was looking through the discard um and I noticed about 50% are vision math language arts why I thought >> so public comment at at the full board meeting is not really discussion u so that is something that we discuss at committee meetings however >> is it something that you and I could connect and then bring it back up. So, if I can get your contact information, if you want to sign up on that
005sheet, let me give me your contact information and then um sometime this week, I'd like to connect with you and discuss that further and then invite you for appropriate. >> Sure. >> Awesome. Thanks for coming. There's no other public comment, then we'll move on to acknowledgements. Um, I would like to send a shout out just to the entire staff here today. Um, today we brought all of the district staff together for a session on learning about who we are as a district, the strategic plan, referendum, um, and made just, uh, a connection from whether it be bus driver, uh, kitchen staff, custodian, Carrie did come in from as a board representative, um, admin, and just really tried to better understand the roles we play together and the impacts we have. Um and so as we
006get through the first semester, we're officially at the halfway point in the school year. Um it was a good opportunity to kind of reconnect. Um kitchen staff put on a brand new meal that they're going to try out with the kids next in two weeks. Uh um curry chicken and that was really good. And so it was just it was really a positive experience to work again with the staff and really looking forward to what they're going to do here in this next uh semester as they center their work around learning and the achievements that we want to see with our students. And so shout out to them. Thank you for the first half of the year and looking forward to the work that we put into this next half. So those will be the
007public comments. >> Are there anything from your side in terms of acknowledgements? Um >> I would agree. It was a good PD day back and being able to all to come together as a staff was really nice. Um as we also know our benchmark season, our midyear is happening right now. We're actually kind of on the tail end of it at the elementary and middle school. So, we're really excited to start analyzing that data and seeing the growth that our students are making. Um, so that'll be coming soon for further conversation. Um, but yeah, just all the hard work that our staff have done this first part of the year and um, we know this time of year can be a challenge with the beautiful weather and sickness going around. So just their um ondying
008commitment to what we do every day supporting our students. >> Anyone else have anything they want to add? >> Great. If not, then we'll move on to information and study. Let's start with Mr. Angle. >> Um so a lot of students were looking forward to the dance which was obviously rescheduled. That was at least for me a bit of a surprise. But uh later this week we'll have a few s we'll have a few students attend the FCCLA capital leadership conference in Madison with um Addie Hoyer, Elena Snyder, Maddie Bark, and Sydney that's skovich >> that ending. Uh the theater department has been very active between the middle school musical Newsies and the high school uh play Alice and Wonder Alice in Wonderland getting underway. And they also went on they went into Madison to
009go see the Broadway show Hamilton. And the show days for News is February 13th through 14th and the show days for Alice is March 13th through 14th. Um, for wrestling, Jenna, Shane, and Hawin all got first place in their tournaments. Uh, Maya, Michaela, Nate, and Rhett all got second place. And then we had Hawin Peterson got first team all conference, and Southwest co-wrestler of the year. Nathan Johnson, Shane Roshan, and Russley all got first team all conference. And we had three honorable mentions of Braden Newsome, Aiden Duran, and Leo Hansen. Um, on Tuesday there will be a basketball game versus Cuba City and do a wrestling invite here at Dodgeville, both at for the middle school. On Thursday there will be a middle school basketball versus Iowa Grant and there will be a high school
010girls basketball game at Platville. On Friday, there will be a high school boys basketball game versus Prairie Duchene in our lower gym and a high school basketball girls basketball game at Barnavold and a high school gymnastics tournament at Sock Prairie. And on Saturday, there will be a varsity boys wrestling match at Monroe and a JV3 boys basketball tournament at Barnifold. and the band would like to reach out and thank the music boosters for their donation to help allow kids go to the tri-state band and allowing them that opportunity to grow and grow in music. >> Wonderful. Anybody have any questions for me? >> When was the um middle school musical again? >> Um the m the middle school musical newsies is February 13th and 14th. Valentine's Day. >> Valentine's weekend. It's date night. >> Yeah,
011it is >> dinner on a show. >> Last time we were told we needed to provide a dinner. So, right. Yeah. All right. >> Thank you, sir. We'll move on to committee reports then. Jess, you want to go? >> Sure. Um, I will speak on behalf of the policy committee. We reviewed um both in December and in January several policies and mostly in the series one policies um which have to do with how our operates but also a couple of other ones. Um and so January was the second time we talked all about all of them and they'll be on um the agenda later tonight for a vote. All of the policies that we reviewed um and will be changing are pretty minor in what we're changing. they're consolidating some language and simplifying some language
012and combining a couple of policies um that were very very short into one policy that's just a little more comprehensive. Um so the all of those policies I could go through them real quick. This is a very brief update on what each of them are. School day definition we're removing the time of the day that was listed and instead we'll hand put that time of the day that the school day operates in the handbook. Um, the school district legal status policy language was just removing a couple of sentences that were not accurate anymore and reorganizing where the language within that policy was listed. Not that it changed at all. It was just a move this paragraph first and this one third, etc. Um, policies for board legal status and organization of the board, board elections
013and oath of office. Those were four different policies. we're combining them into one. It's still quite short. All of the language remains the same in in content. Um the policy on board self-ealuation basically is being changed to remove the timing of our selfboard evaluation. So it's not tied to the evaluation of any other admins in the district. um policy on visitors to the schools is just clarifying who is considered a visitor and um which staff can allow those visitors into the buildings and what the pro protocol for that process is. Um the policy on educational philosophy was revised to include our new mission and vision statements per our updated strategic plan and policy on policy adoption and review. Um, we just clarified the language around how we review and pass policies from doing three readings
014um, and being able to bypass the three readings by having a unanimous vote on a policy change. So, it's really just clarifying it and making it easier to understand. Content of all these more or less the same as what it was before. So, >> you have any questions about that? >> Pretty straightforward. We'll go there and all of those later tonight. Any questions for you want to go, Laura? >> Sure. Mixing it up a little bit. >> All right. For building and grounds, uh, DSD is now using capital security for servicing the FOB systems. We moved away from Kendall Doors that was based out of Minnesota. Uh, three administrators have been helping with snow removal. Thank you. And this is only a short-term solution and not s sustainable for long term. Uh more help is
015needed on the custodial crew. Uh window blinds were installed in the southeast uh window in the lower gym at DHS. The dees lighting project and classrooms received new LED lights over the winter break. Uh thank you to the donors for making that possible. Um HSR will present a facility assessment by the end of March. and the solar energy update. Uh MREA is gathering information and will report to us by midFebruary. HSR will also be gathering and giving us advice on the solar project. And the board will approve the fundraising project at tonight's meeting. And the goal is to have a 10 plus kilowatt system uh with an approximate cost of $25,000 which will be paid for by donors and grants. The district is also looking at purchasing snow removal equipment for the K Cabota and
016the toolkit and discussion was had on the community dashboard and how to promote it on the district web page banner rotating slides or something out there to get all the wonderful information that we have gathered out to the public in many different platforms. Uh are those of you that were at the meeting? Are there any other tidbits or things you'd like me to highlight or in a nutshell was what we discussed in an hour and 15 minutes? >> All right. There's some other questions for Laura. Thank you, Randall. We'll pop down to you. We'll let Mike be last today. >> Okay. Um, in the finance committee meeting, um, we started out discussing items from the other committee meetings that might have a financial impact. Specifically, we we looked at the short range planning, talked about
017what was on that list. Nothing is current. Uh, so there's actually no financial implications this time. And while we didn't specifically talk about the solo pilot project, we did note that that's again no financial impact um to the district. It's going to be done with donations. Uh we talked about the hockey co-op plan that we'll be talking more about tonight. Uh that's a partnership with the local Ice Wolves league where there would be no financial impact to the district with starting this um and it's planned to start in in two years if it's approved. And then we moved from there. We reviewed the bills. No real anomalies or any unexpected expenses. Um, there were some items on the list that we were going to update to indicate what were grants or being reimbursed that were
018on there. So, we knew for sure what was actually impacting the uh the district. We reviewed the operational expenses and budgets and and we're currently tracking pretty close to projected for our expenses for the year within 1.18%. uh the electricity expenses are higher than planned and so there's been looking into that investigating why that might be and a lot of it seems to be that we are using the facilities more there's a lot more community usage of the facilities which is a good thing but then it does increase the times that the lights are on and the heat's on and so utilities will go up some for them and we'll continue they'll continue to monitor that keep an eye on what happens with that. Then our planning part, we reviewed a chart for our referendum
019on the agenda tonight as well and the attached details have been released to the public at this point. And we talked about the community dashboard, the financial charts and data that it will be on there is also that it could add three things to that. First being I do believe the uh bills have been updated so you can see that which ones were donations andor I know we were missing a couple so that has been updated. Um, RevTrack is the credit card processing system that talks between Infinite Campus. So, that's they process a service fee. So, that's what that 20 I think it was 20 or $25. Rev is a credit card processing company. And then lastly being yes, our electrical bills are higher. However, with the facility uses being part of that that increase,
020we will have offsetting dollars that we haven't analyzed as we do have building use fees. And so those were raised this past year and so that should offset some of the increase in the electricity bill because we should have the revenue coming in um for facility use fees. So, I just wanted to make sure that was um discussed or at least brought to everybody's attention when we start talking about expenses. We also want to highlight the revenue that offsets those. >> Can we use some fungi dollars to help cover things that are when we use outside groups using the facility? >> Community community based. >> If it if it's if we're not charging them, I think is if we're charging them, it should come there. But if it's a freebased thing that's in for the
021community, then yes, we could offset that with fund 80. >> There is a way to use that fund. >> We could build fund 80, >> right? >> Anything else? If not, >> okay. Um the curricular cocoa killer committee met uh on January 7th. All the committee members were present plus two additional board members. U we had an extensive discussion about the um co-op high school hockey program. Kyle who's here tonight was uh at that meeting answering lots of questions. Is your actual title uh Kyle you're president of the high schools? >> That's correct. >> Okay. So he he present explained the relationship between uh how the Ice Wolves would basically fund the program in in many respects. It would be a a zero dollar loss for the the district for the most part. And at
022that meeting and I realize it's kind of a an evolving discussion about this proposal. um we talked about schools in Mount Hor, Barnvel, Mineral Point um to be part of it. I don't think Highland was at that time, but they've already approved of entering the program should should it happen. And so um as I say, um before long, all of Southwest Wisconsin will be part of this co-op. >> Like the way you think, Mike. Uh any event um the it would be for the 2728 school year if the program were started up and so that has gone into further discussions at the finance committee and u will be uh also on the agenda for later tonight. So um there'll be and as a potential action item as well. Um we talked about the proposed school
023calendar for next year. There's a motion to approve of that. Did you get feedback at all from the leadership team that of any significant changes about >> not have any significant changes but to make sure that we and I'll talk about this in our next one to make sure that we have a committee reviewing this for future. So that's what the next item will be. >> All right. So that's going to be discussed further and there's an action item again on approving next year's school calendar. Um then we had updates from the admin team. Um student services they've been they completed all the testing of 45 ELLL students before the holiday break and they are getting involved with midyear testing. Um at the elementary the as Heather's already discussed there sounds like you're kind of
024done with the the benchmark testing. Are you getting done? >> Getting closer. >> Okay. Um and so um and the emphasis will be to analyze the growth from the fall testing and there will also be some discussion about improving the results on the state forward exam be administered in the spring. At the middle school 60 students are involved in the school play which is musical and wrestling and girls basketball has begun. at the high school semester changeover will begin soon. So students will be doing some course changes and planning for spring testing has begun. Uh and Joy made mention of a very heav heavily attended basketball game between Dodgeville and Mineral Point. Boys game. One of the biggest crowds ever sounds like ever in the new gym at least. >> Well, regular season. >> Yeah,
025regular season. And uh and as a plus, Dodge won the game. Not that we don't want both teams to win, but the uh >> we don't >> it's also to be but it it was added to the the celeb celebratory moment. Anyway, the boys baseball team will play at a field in Milwaukee spring uh and against Portage High School. Is that correct? >> Y >> and spring play rehearsal has begun at the high school as well. And all of that five minutes of reporting took two hours. >> Good. All right. Any questions for Mike? >> Just one. Um on the calendar, was it noted that says no school on the 15th of April, but is that actually the 19th? >> We have discussion on the calendar coming up. I don't I just since Mike brought
026it up >> I'm I'm not recalling that date April and >> professional day is listed as the 15th on the days >> highlighted as 19th. >> Yeah. >> We got to make a change there. Yeah. >> And then the only other thing um on the the game between Mineral Point and Dodge Village is that my police and fire department commissioned and they stated that they raised each community raised like $1,500 >> was 1,200 total. >> 1,200 total. Okay. >> Yeah. >> For the event. So, which was nice to see the amount of money. >> Amazing night raised. That was fantastic. >> Very good. Yes. >> Just out of curiosity, how many more fans can we hold in the Mineral Point gym? >> In the at Mineral Point. >> Yeah. At that game we're at had
027been at Mineral Point. >> Yeah. Um they can hold right around a thousand if I recall. >> Um we can get 1,250 seats and about 400 around the track. So >> Okay. So considerably more in the case of the big turnout. Good. >> All right. Okay. All right. We'll move on to 5.3, which is the DHS solar pilot project. So, as you see here, we have an updated flyer looking to promote this project. Um there's been significant energy outside from those looking to donate and so looking to see if this is a project that we could put forward. District not looking to put forward funds towards this at this point. Looking at trying to bring in outside resources to get this um off the ground and start supporting some solar initiatives. So we're setting up
028the group that accept the donations of what we're doing. Y' be looking if we are okay with this then later we would need to take action that we want to allow this group to move forward and we can set up a spot and start receiving donations. >> Do we know what we're doing yet? We don't know what we're doing yet other than that we've got some lens of working with the groups that we currently have been um and that there's this array that could could cost $25,000 for a 10 kilowatt or solar >> plus. Um so there's some grants out there as well that we could write that would offset or allow us to put in a larger system. we still needed to to study where is the best location for this. Um but those
029things are all happening that that work is started. Um and then we'd have to follow our pro policies and go out for bids and do all of that. But this at least allows us to say yes, we know we have people interested and we have the interest to do something with this. Then we would figure out the where and what does it look like to expand because um from what I've heard so far we definitely could go something larger. This at least gets us started and I think would also recognize this group of students and co and class that have really been instrumental in environmental energy. >> We're looking at kind of a small whatever pilot project means just to show that it's the ability of what it can do to generate power. Right. >>
030Yes. and >> and offset our offset our electrical usage. Yeah, >> it's actually coming up at a good time because at convention I think there's like five groups that'll have solar that we can talk to and ask about what other schools are doing for projects. >> Y >> So we have an action item later to approve the fundraising component. >> Okay. Oh yes. >> Yep. I know we talked about this pretty extensively at building and grounds. Does anybody have any other questions or concerns before we would move on on that? Okay. All right. Going down our list then. The next is the 2627 2728 and 2829's full calendar discussion. I put them all in here. We're only The only thing I would be looking for tonight action-wise is to pro approve next year's calendar. However,
031I want to get out there on people's radars that we want to start a group that's going to be looking at the next two years calendars to make sure like, okay, is this the PD structure we want to use? You know, do we want to stick with the full day PD structure? Do we want to go to an early release PD structure like we used to? um this is a larger conversation than just us making it the decision alone. We want to involve the community as well. And so this would be a group getting started to analyze is it working? Is it serving the needs that we thought it was going to? Do we want to stick with this? And then what changes should we make? And so this committee would get started here in
032the near future. I would guess would run over the summer and then we would get some information and study brought back to the board about what did we find. The goal would be then next year that we approve a two-year calendar so that we're not consistently trying to do things one year at a time. We have some sustained efforts. It helps with programming as a whole. So, tonight we've got one calendar we're going to look to um see if we're willing to approve that and then I want to just put it out on people's radars that we need to have a conversation about the next two years. >> So, was that a suggestion coming from the leadership team as well or that more >> there was no changes that they we could say like yes,
033this is the change that we need to make. Um, we're still struggling with there's not enough time to do what we need to do, but we haven't gotten to the point that we're going to say, "Okay, we're going to add PD days um or add more instructional days." It's at this point go forward with what we've got. We need to get we've got to get planning for all of the events that need to occur next year going. Now's not the time to change things that aren't uh for sure. Yes, this is broken. Fix that. There's lots of ideas. >> They were just approving next year's calendar. And did you investigate that 19 versus 15? >> Just has to be just has to be changed on calendar. >> So So the 19th is the no school
034in April. >> The 19th would be the no school in April, not the 15th. So, we'll need to change the number in the middle >> to 19. >> Okay. Anything else on the calendar? >> Not we will move on to boys hockey conversation. >> So, I think we've kicked it around fairly good in every committee. I don't know if there's any new information and I'm looking at Kyle and the lens. Is there any new information that needed to be brought up? >> No, I don't think so. I I had a really productive talk this morning with the mount information and and they're very much on board with it. It's just the timeline that it's their uh condition or their their hold up I guess we should say on it. But other than that, I don't
035think there's any more new information. Um, I guess the the one other tidbit I shared with you, um, we've been talking a lot about the zero cost to the school district and and the association uh, covering those costs. And it was brought to my attention today by Mount Horbs administration that um, I believe Mr. Martin shared at the finance meeting or one of the committee meetings that their cost per student was $1,575 per student. Their families pay that entire cost right now that the Morg School District does not cover any. they cover the uh cost any cost above that but the families themselves are paid that fee to participate in hockey is to open so it's just new I learned today so but um other than that I think it's one of those things that
036after we found out that we're not under a February 1 deadline for the 2728 season we have more time for discussion and bringing these schools into the into the mix here Did I hear you right that Mount Horb is waiting for us or have they made a decision about their current co-op? So, Mount Horb's current co-op expires after next season. They did not have to renew it until next February 1st. However, they informed me today also that Stoton has proposed adding another school to the co-op this coming season, which is going to have them redo it for two more seasons next year and the following year, which would put them not joining us until 28 29. We do have numbers to sustain a team if we started the year before they joined us. Um, I'm
037still working with them on trying to alter their decision on that because right now they have one player participating in the co-op. Um, in a couple years they're going to be up to seven or eight players. Um, so having if they chose not to renew the co-op was still they wouldn't be able to offer high school hockey next year and then they would join us in the 27 28 season. um and fact that it's only going to affect one player who would be able to play club hockey with the Dodgeville club next season with his future teammates for the following 2728 season I think is a worthwhile uh conversation to have. So um but other than that the uh they they're very much on board. I think it's a great idea after we've gotten through
038to them. I've got lots of emails back and forth about the the history of the ice wolves and how horrible are tied together through the Waja's governing body that that formed our association. So it all made sense to them and and they were, you know, very much in favor of moving forward as soon as they were able to like contractually able to. They they're not going to grade it and they don't think that WIA will allow them to get out of a year early. >> How many other schools are looking to join? >> Our core schools will be Morbell Point. That's where the majority of our players was. Um, my goal throughout this, and I dug my feet on it for a couple years, when it was brought to my attention, I didn't want to
039leave anybody out. So, we do have Highland that who has already approved it. They have one player who will be starting high school in two years. He's in seventh grade right now, and he's a goalie, so he's kind of important. Um, and then we do have one player at Belmont right now who I have not talked to at all. He would be a junior by the time uh this takes place now. So whether he wants us to pursue that or not, um we do get players from River Valley from time to time, but our core group of kids that are in seventh and eighth grade right now are all Mineral Point, Dodgeville, and Mount Hor. We do have one uh female player from Barnabel may be interested, but Barnabal, I know in years past has
040co-op girls hockey uh with a school. They're not currently co-op with girls hockey, but they have done it. >> So um so she may not be factor into the discussion. So did that I understand when you were talking about Stoden adding another school. Are they going to be pressuring Mapor to extend that contract now or correct? That's what the ongoing talk just started this week. They said it just came up last week that Stoen wants to add a school which reopens the contract and forces everybody to sign for two years. So, so that would that would be delaying Morb's entry into a co-op with other by one season because they would still be tied to Stoton for the 27 28th season. >> So, it sounds like they plan to do that. >> As of this
041point, that was their intention. We're still having discussions. We have uh almost all of our middle school members are at their school building tonight, excuse me, in the public comment section to try and sway that opinion. So, the uh the Stoen Co-op was something they did out of necessity because no other schools would take them on. And it was unfortunate because almost anybody from our association would have told them stolen would be the last choice because stolen's our biggest rival from the time they're seven years old until they get into high school. So yes, so but yes, that's that's the situation right now. If they renew with if they choose to stay in the co-op with Stoden, they will be tied to it for next year and the following year. So Thanks. >> Okay. Anybody
042else have anything for boys hockey? Invite boys hockey. It is a boys program that girls can participate. >> Yeah. >> Absolutely. >> Just the rivers. Correct. >> That >> boys can't participate, girls, but girls can participate with the boys. >> Correct. As long as there's not a girls hockey co-op out of the school. Y or I think does have an agreement for girls hockey right now. So any any female player that's would have to go to that co-op. >> Okay. >> Thanks, Scott. >> All right. Discussion of the Donville School District notice of educational options for children who reside in the school district and of school accountability and performance. So in here, I you don't want to go in the packet and those of you that have a packet, I have an updated version because
043the original that's in there had our old mission. So I had to update that. So if you want our new mission, I do have one of those. That's the supplementary here. It is correct online. Um this is an annual report that we have to give per DPI. It talks about how did our performance measures come in. So you'll see the elementary school exceeded expectations on the school report card, the middle school met, middle school and high school both met. And then we do have the scene for charter school that will be beginning in 2627. So this is an annual report that we have to give for BPI on that. We've reported this out to the community and it's TED action at the board level. Then it also will talk about the programs that exist, the
044partnerships with our um start college now early college credit programs, talk about enrollment options for our families. And so this gets reported back to DPI. So it's an annual report. Those of you who want an updated one have this different in the boards. But the only change is on part I that talks about our mission as that was approved in our strategic plan >> and it is the exact same as last year. >> The notice has to go out to public every year. It's mandatory. Correct. >> Y the report cards are on our website. So it's following compliance with DPI's guidelines. >> So we have an action item later to approve this. There's any other questions or comments. >> We'll move on to 5.7 which is operational referendum scheduled for April. So just again as
045a reminder um I gave this presentation today to the staff so that they could start to see the ongoing list of the challenges that exist within public education and the list just keeps growing but the time that is given to do so and the resources continue to be restricted and so we continually are being asked within public education to do more with less. Um, we talked about how the where the funds are going to be spent. And so, again, this has been a one of those we just keep rehashing and giving the staff this information where 43% is going right back into developing our staff as we know. We've had a turnover and significant turnover in veteran staff and making sure they have the skills they need to provide high quality instruction to re research
046and analyze how our students performing on a daily basis and then making adjustments as they go. And that from a veteran teacher knows that takes a ton of skill being able to do those things on a daily basis. And so we need to develop our staff and continue to try to retain the staff that we have because in this market um more and more districts there's that shortage in teachers wanting to get into the workforce because it's a workforce that is very demanding and does not compensate at the levels that others would. So we need to get into that game and I'll talk about kind of where our district stands compared to other districts around southwest Wisconsin. The other part is is our daily operations. So we have to have enough cash on hand in
047order to pay our bills. And so we need to make sure we know that as our fund balance. So to operate a business, you have to have money on hand in order to pay your bills. And our fund balance is lower. So we've been having to return borrow. The other part in education is is we don't get a paycheck like most people get one every Friday or every two weeks or twice a month. We get it sporadic. We get big checks four times a year and then we get other checks throughout the year. And so it is one that we have to plan for larger periods of time where there won't be cash flow coming in and so we have to have a fund balance that gets us through those periods. The other smaller portions
048are we haven't been updating technology and so those expenses are going to continue to rise as we're behind the um life expectancy on most of our devices. We've been staying on top of the cycles with student Chromebooks, but all of our classroom technology is behind. And so, we've got to be prepared that if this referendum doesn't pass, there's going to come a period where we can't buy these resources. We're going to have a bulk of things now dying and it could be one of those that they die tomorrow and we can't fix those. And so, that that will cause gaps in our learning. Um, curriculum updates. We know we have two large resources that we need to update here in the next couple of years, both in our ELA and math at the elementary and
049middle school levels. We also know across the district, we've been putting curriculum updates on hold for the past few years because we've been frozen in where we're spending our money. And so, this is something we've put on the radar. Um, our day-to-day facility maintenance, repairs, and replacements is at 4%. We know our elementary school playground, the safety concerns that come into that is sitting at 3%. And then we've tried fundraising last year to offset the cost of classroom supplies. That did not go over real well. And so to continue to ask the community to fund raise for those components, we need to make sure we have the supplies that we need to teach on a daily basis. So that came up with the total amount. We did reduce it down. We did have our playground.
050We know we're going to have to fund raise for that. So, we did reduce that number down, which did get us down to more of an a round even number. It's it's what we need right now to get by. We're not going to have a Cadillac version out of this. It's just going to be better than where we're currently at and have some level of sustainability over the next 30 years. >> So, we talked about trying to protect where we're where we're at. We currently rank so we talked about CISA 3 the southwest region of the state when you look at the southwest region of the state there's 31 schools in the southwest region of the state that make up CISA 3 our teachers teach in classrooms where we rank 25th so that means 24
051schools have fewer students per every teacher which means those students are getting more attention from the teachers that they have. Our teachers are having to spread out the attention that they give to more students in the classroom. We're 27th in years of experience, which means we our teachers don't have the same level of experience in the classroom. So, we're sitting 26 districts, their teachers have more experience in the classroom. Um, teacher salary is higher, 21st there. And then in when you look at total salary and benefits, the key piece here is around our district, the schools immediately around us, the the lowest is paying $6,363 more. So when we start talking about retention, it gets really difficult to retain teachers when they know they're 15 minutes away from $6,000 more per year. That makes a
052huge difference in the food on their table. when we start talking about this and so it becomes we have to get more dollars into our district so that we can start paying our instructional staff more. Here's the data. So just to back it up, this is data that can be uphold from DPI on our students per teacher where we rank compared to the schools around us. I don't expect us to be first. None of us are expecting us to be first, but it would be really nice to be in the top half. It would be even better if could we be in the top 25th percentile. When we talk about academic scores, our goal is to get in the 25th percentile. Sure, we want to be number one, but being in the top 25th is
053something we should be able to sustain. Also, when we start looking about the money coming in and the money going out, the district spends $864 less per student than the state average. And it's not because we don't want to, we just don't have the funds in order to do so. So, when we look at educational expenses, we spend $864 less than the state average. In revenue, we pull in $2,721 less than the state average per student. How do we compare them to CISA? You can see we're 26th in expenses. So, we're right near the bottom of where we're at there. And and really where this all comes into play is the formula right now is pass referendum. The state's not going to give you more money. They're saying locally, you need to pay more of
054the bill. And so, we have to pass a referendum so that we have more money that we can invest right back into our students. And so when we look at revenue, we're 30th. So when you compare southwest corner of the state, these are this is the data points that we're having. I don't give the district's names. I don't I'm not going to get into that with neighboring schools and start calling out other schools. What I'm going to tell you is these are the 31 schools. I've put them in as a number so that we can see where are those numbers truly at. There was one suggestion I heard today after the presentation this morning on that particular slide. Can we indicate not the names of the district but whether or not they've passed an operational
055referendum? >> Yeah. So I can pull that down. >> Most of them because I think >> Right. But I think that that also tells the story. >> Yeah. If you pass a referendum, you get more money than I think that visual might help. >> Yeah, I agree. or just list the numbers, >> right? >> Yeah. Anything to show these they all have this higher revenue than us because they've passed referendums. >> It's not falling out of the sky. >> Then this is just a little clearer picture for people to see the first district how much they are um pulling in for revenue compared to the state average compared to Dodgeville compared to the one district in our seesaw. Then again just going through the details about where each percent is and what it means. Um
056I think that the key component that comes out of this well I'll talk mill rate which right here you can see what our district has done back to 2011. If you pull up our annual our annual meeting you can see the data back to I think 1998. Um, it's not like we're trying to get our mill rate significantly higher back to where it was even 7 years ago. We're trying to get back to 22 23. Can we get back to that level with the mill rate? Because that's sustainable for us. Right back around $810. We've hit this drop down to $5.65. It's not sustainable for us. And we've tried, and this will be the piece, we tried to cut our way out of this a little bit. And I'd say we cut ourselves or cut
057our way out a little bit. We're not doing that this time. We can't keep cutting positions to try to balance our budget. It's significantly impacting what we're doing educationally. We have to sustain some of these programs. And so what this means is we're going into debt. We're going to go deeper into debt because we have to provide an education for our students. This will break down. So if we if you have a 200 Well, if you have a $100,000 home, you're going to see an increase of $245 per $1,000. So or $245. Most of our homes would fit or our property values would fit in that 200 250 to 300. So you can see how much that's going to be per year or per month. The other thing that I talked about with them is
058you'll hear well run it run your school like a business. And I want to get back to I understand parts of that. We understand parts of the business, but we're also going to say is you also have to appreciate and understand a school is not a business. We take in all students. We don't pick and choose and we honestly we choose to take in all students because that is what public education is about. And in the end too, our expectation is we're preparing all of those students to be ready for wherever they may decide to go after postsecary. So this is that component of we're preparing students for careers that don't even exist. And when you look at what AI has done, we're preparing students for a world that most of us have never experienced.
059I don't know what business does that. And so my challenge is business owners, let's meet. Help me understand what I'm missing. Come spend a day in the shoes of a classroom teacher. See what their world exists and how might we be able to solve this differently. Because right now when I talk to legislators, it is passing referendums. Yes, we have to look at our budgets and we've spent the past two years trying that model and we've made some cuts. We can't keep doing it that way. It's not going to work. And so right now, moving forward, we're not cutting more teachers. We're not cutting any positions, anything. We're bringing back some because we do need to make progress in our achievement scores. We need growth in our staff. We need to retain so we're not
060trying to consistently replace >> from the board. That's the right angle to go at it. We've done our best over the last two and three years to whittle away at what we could and there's no more to whittle. We're left with a twig. There's no more wood on the stick. Um, we need the community support. We appreciate them for supporting us when they do. This will definitely help not just the school, but the community. This is a community referendum and I hope we have the support. >> Will this go out to this PowerPoint to whom? >> So, this will go out on the dashboard. Okay. And then as we start having our listening sessions and we're going to keep bulking this up with data, but there will be more information going to staff and that
061was the big message today with the staff. >> We know the staff are going to be the driving forces behind getting this information out. So we need their help sharing this story to inform the community about what the needs truly are. Okay, good. There's paper copies that we could share if people wanted. >> Yep. >> Just print them. >> It's nice just to carry around. >> It is. >> And like before, my number is still available and I'll be doing some online sessions so that people can come in and ask questions. Um, and then we just need to also discuss like what what groups are we going to go to to try to spread this message as well. Do you have any dates in mind yet for presentations at all? Uh, >> I do not
062have them um isolated yet. I know I've got um messages out to both the village and the town of Ridgeway to speak at their um park and wreck meeting as well as um their village meeting. And then it would be um anything locally going to go to the chamber, spread the information with the chamber um outing next month. >> So I know I registered for the dinner. I don't know we've done any other >> I need to get that from everyone here tonight about who isn't already attending through a different group so that we can have a spot as well as um admin team as well. Um it is at Ridgeway this year. Um so I need to get that done here this week. >> Already registered. Yeah. >> Because you're on board. >> On
063the board the chamber board. >> So then really is what other events do we feel like we need to get to? Um >> we're also going to Are we going to host some here also though? Have at least one in the gym. >> We would be hosting one. We know attendance there is not, but it would be to host one because Y >> and we do have a spring or a middle school musical and a spring play that are both coming up too or >> we'll have some audiences we can get information to. >> Yep. And like you said, the community organizations that you can get to to speak to is important. And our strategic plan got sent out. Should have hit mailboxes, some mailboxes today. >> Probably because there was no mail today. >>
064That one too. >> Okay. Any other questions or comments? >> Right. >> Thanks, R. >> Let's move into action items. Um so 6.1 consideration of approval of resignations, retirements and hiring of district personnel and the first item is um motion to approve the hiring of Heather Ziz as the director of learning and instruction. Yeah, we were excited to put together a panel of um administration, schoolboard rep, um our instructional coaches, our guiding coalition, and knowing the instructional team as needed. We've went without this position. Um and districts our size have either had a business manager or a director of instruction and learning. And so we know when we look at the efforts of what this district needs to do moving forward, we needed a strong partner that could continue to guide the staff um on
065centered around learning because we know our students that is why we exist and that was part of the message today. We exist because learning is at the core of what we do. And so, um, that was an area that we saw. We had a gap and, um, I think the panel said what they needed to say when they put forward Heather's name as being the candidate they wanted to work with to move forward. So, I'm going to say I think tonight we should make that motion. >> Motion. >> Second. >> Motion by Jess, second by Mike, and a roll call, please. >> Shider. >> Yes. >> Lazoric. Yes. Humpy, >> yes. >> Nadler, >> yes. >> Angel, >> yes. >> Thson, >> yes. >> Kensky, yes. >> Congratulations. >> Thanks. Very excited to continue the
066work. Thank you very much for this opportunity. >> We appreciate you taking it on. Okay. Next, we have um motion to approve the hire of Andy Weber as the head girls soccer coach. Joey, anything to tell us about that? >> Yeah, we had uh four interviews um put together the last couple of weeks and that's the recommendation coming forward. Andy's been a JV boys soccer coach for us for three seasons. Um he's done a really nice job. Does a lot with the um Iowa County um so soccer association. I almost said hockey. Not even close. Um so he's been around uh very instrumental in the youth programs. Um yeah, great guy. >> I'll make a motion. >> Motion by Mike. >> Second by Gobin. And a roll call, please. >> All right. Sher, >> Yes.
067Humpy, >> yes. >> Canadler, >> yes. >> Engel, >> yes. Hsoni. >> Yes. >> All right. Next up is consideration of approval of the BHS solar pilot project. So, we'll need a motion to approve. >> I'll make a motion to approve it. >> I'll second. >> Motion by Laura and a second by Randall. And a roll call, please. >> Trader, >> yes. >> Lazor, yes. Humpy, >> yes. >> Canadler, >> yes. >> Engel, >> yes. >> Thompson, >> yes. >> And thank you for some of the people out here who have worked on this project for a long time. Thank you for all that >> sticking with us. >> And thank you. >> Let's go get them. >> All right. 6.3. We have uh we need a motion to approve the 202627 school year calendar.
068>> Motion by Mike. >> Second by Jess. And roll call, please. >> Trader. >> Yes. >> Humpy. >> Yes. >> All right. 6.4. We need a motion to revise or policy. Number 11, 110, educational philosophies. Number 120, school district legal status. Number 130, school board legal status. Number 322, school day definition. And number 860, visitors to the schools. >> Motion by Randall. >> Second by Mike. >> Bader. >> Yes. >> Wasoric. Yes. Humpkey. >> Yes. >> Madler. >> Yes. >> Engel. >> Yes. >> Thompson. >> Yes. >> Cousinsky. >> Yes. >> All right. 6.5. Consideration of approval of boys hockey co-op. Um for a motion to approve that co-op. Um and we probably need to add some additional language to it. I'll make >> I'll make the motion that um the stipulation that cost is
069zero for the district and participation numbers are sufficient for a team >> and >> is there a better number for stipulation >> to begin in the 272 >> 2728 school year >> I could amend the motion we're approving the program >> program yeah the co-off will be at a later date correct yeah Okay. >> Our approval is for just the the girls are notable. >> So, does it read um the motion is to approve a boys hockey program for the 27 28 school year with a stipulation that it is of zero cost to district participation numbers are sufficient. The >> patient numbers are sufficient. team. >> We also have the knowledge that >> a year from now or so is when we actually would make the application to the WIA with if for the co-op
070aspect of so we have a motion by Mike second. >> second by Mike and a roll call please. Shrader, >> yes. >> Lazoric, yes. Pumpkin, >> yes. >> Canadler, >> yes. >> Angel, >> yes. >> Thompson, >> I'm all for providing opportunities for kids. I think the timing in this is poor, so I vote no. >> Yes. >> Wonderful. Okay. 6.6. Consideration of approval of girls soccer co-op renewal for the 2728 and 2829 school years. >> I'll make the motion. I'll second >> motion by Jess and a second by Rob. >> This be mineral. >> Yeah. >> Trader. >> Yes. >> Lori, yes. Humpy, >> yes. >> Mler, >> yes. >> Okay. Dick seven, consideration of approval of open enrollment limits for the 2627 school year. So we need a motion to approve revisions to
071the addendum to polison 423 setting the open enrollment limits for the 2627 sports. So >> this is an annual thing and we are currently saying no spaces are available within special education. We are at our events. So one of the risks that we have was with putting those in there is we would have to take them on and acrew the costs that go with that. And so we're saying is no, we're not taking on any additional spaces within special education. So this has been very routine. Sometimes we've had one or two at certain grade levels. We're currently at the levels we're saying no, we can't take on anymore at this time. And so it is zeros. However, we do have the option for some space within the charter school. So, we are leaving that one
072at three. >> We'll make the motion. >> Motion by Jess. >> Second by Randall and a roll call. >> Yes. >> Lazor, yes. Humpy, >> yes. >> Canadler, >> yes. >> Angel, >> yes. Thson, >> yes. 6.8 Consideration of approval of the Dodgeville School District notice of educational options for children who reside in the school district and of school accountability and performance data. >> The motion. >> Motion by Mike. >> Second by Randall. >> No. >> Shider. >> Yes. >> Wizard. Yes. Humpy. >> Yes. Ryan, do we have any donations to approve? >> We do not have any donations to approve. >> Okay. >> So, that one is tabled. >> All right. We've got some reminders and announcements. So, our February meetings, um, do we need to have some discussion about that or did we
073>> We need to have some discussion. So, I put out some ideas, but because on the 11th, which is the second Wednesday, that is normally buildings and grounds, but that is when the chamber event is. And so, um, knowing that there's going to be many more opportunities in the month of February and March for us to have meetings, I would really like us to not move that to a different night, but could we somehow combine it into the two that we have? Maybe >> split them. split them or and so it's the what's the right combination finance we don't want that to go on the board meeting so thinking move finance up to co-curricular um being the first Wednesday so the question becomes is do we move policy to that first one or do we
074move it to the same night as the board meeting is there move building and grounds which combination would you prefer Do we have any idea what B&G what those agendas will look like in terms of >> how full they are >> because we know what policy is. >> We have like 10 I think about what is it 10 policies to review >> which might get a little lengthy to combine with a meeting. Maybe if they move out to BMG. I I would suggest unless there's a policy that really needs quick action to just postpone the policy for a month. >> Move that to March >> soon to March. >> So then go with curricular co-curricular finance and BNG all on the first Wednesday. try to go with you know I don't know that there's heavy
075when I think about B&G I don't think there's anything that's like hey we have this pressing so we probably that could be a lighter meeting finance is going to be a normal we've got things we have to cover curricular co-curricular >> I can make it I know we have to look at an AGR report in February um and then We could postpone looking at your data, but that would be the other probably piece that we would want to at least get some eyes on. But we could >> wait if we need to. >> February 7th should be the 4th, shouldn't it? That's a Wednesday. >> Yeah. February 4th. And >> 5:15 still be the starting time. >> 5:15 still start time. Yeah. Three committees that night postpone >> policy is >> and then the chamber
076dinner. So you're going to coordinate who wants to attend that? >> Yep. >> Where is that? >> That's at statements. >> And then the next regular board meeting on February 19th that right? I don't know. >> Yeah. >> All right. Any other reminders or announcements? >> Actually, is this am I the right month here? >> January. No, you're >> No, you're February. February. The 16th. >> No, I think it's not the >> It's not. I think it's the 16th. >> 16th is a Monday. >> It's only show you have January. >> Your two months are blended together. >> December had a whole 8th is 16th. >> 16th is a Monday. Is that the night of the meeting? >> Yeah. >> President's day. >> So the 16th is the next >> regular. I thought it was
077a >> hard to read calendars. >> Okay. If there's nothing else, I'll take a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Moved by Mike. Second by Robin. And a roll call. >> Trader. >> Yes. Wait, what time is it? >> 87. >> 17. >> Trader. >> Yes. >> England. Yes. >> Thanks everybody for coming. >> Want to thank you all for your day. Living room.