DSD February Regular School Board Meeting

001and we'll take a roll call, Jess. >> Okay, I'm going to go slower on all of these roll calls so I can properly note it. Um, Shrader >> here. >> Madler, >> Yes, here. >> Humpy >> here. >> Who are you? >> Thompson. >> Robin Angel, >> here. >> And Woric here. All right, rise for the pledgece 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 legal meeting for Wisconsin State statute 19.84 to declare a legal meeting. Right. And it's been properly noticed. >> Yes, it has. >> Right. I'll take a motion. Make a motion. >> Motion by Mike. >> Okay. >> And second by Mike. >> Okay. Don't move on yet.

002>> Motion by Mike Pumpkkey. Yeah. >> Second Mike Miller. >> Oops. Okay. >> All right. And then we will take a a motion to approve the agenda. Or are there any changes to the agenda? We need to know. >> There are no changes to the agenda. >> Okay. >> Motion by Mike. Any second by and this one needs a roll call. >> All right, great. Let's do a roll call. Shraider, he >> yes. >> Uh Canadler, >> yes. >> Pinski, >> yes. >> Pumpkin, >> yes. >> Thompson, >> yes. >> Angel, >> yes. >> Lazor, yes. >> All right, we will move on to routine action items. And the first is approval of the minutes of the regular school board meeting on January 19th, 2026. >> Make a motion. >> Motion by Robin. >> Second.

003Second by Randall and a roll call. >> All right. Uh Shrader, >> yes. >> Canadler, yes. >> Hinski, >> yes. >> Pumpkiny, >> yes. >> Thompson, >> yes. >> Angel, >> yes. >> Wasoric, yes. >> All right. The next one will be a little troublesome because I don't have the wording for the motion. So, I don't have the values associated with the >> checks. So, we've got the approval of bow-term payroll checks, which we reviewed at the finance committee meeting, but we don't have those. Thank you. >> I think I did a little sound online. Carrie, >> do you like 2 million? >> Do you want me to pass my laptop? >> Is it in there? >> Here's the here the numbers. >> Ah, >> wonderful. Thank you. Okay, so looks like we have voucher

004and payroll checks and the total was 2,52,82356. That make sense to you? >> It's what's written in our books. >> Wonderful. >> I'll make a motion to approve. I'll second. >> Motion by Randall and a second by Mike. Trader, >> yes. >> Canadler, >> yes. >> Kosinski, >> yes. >> Humsy, >> yes. >> Thompson, >> yes. >> Angel, >> yes. >> Lazor, yes. >> All right. >> Have a speaker. >> Public acknowledgement comment. And we have Nancy Toss that would like to speak to. >> Now, I'm forgetting everything and I don't have a piece of paper in front of me. Um well, one thing we went to Newsies and thought it was just fabulous and so wonderful to see so many kids >> and in the auditorium and even young kids with high schoolers help

005using the soundboard and the lights and all that stuff. So that was just so awesome to see. So commend all the people that put in the work for that. Um couple other things sort of from the meeting um the referendum meeting but um one thing I would remind you to um remember that the state school any government entity they don't have money except from the people. So when we say well the state should do it or no the community needs to do it the community is doing it already you're asking for more from the community you know we gave money for our state taxes to have that money so the example and I asked about that the pizza example and in that example you know the $20 pizza was first paid by the parents uh

006which was the state and now the child who are the taxpayers are going to pay for that pizza but the taxpayers paid already for that pizza. So just throwing that out there. Um, and then um now I think what's the other Oh, just um when I'm I I like looking at data or thinking about numbers and looking at charts and there's lots to look at and I don't understand all of them either. Um but sometimes certainly we all do this where we put forth a chart to have our sort of um what we want to say uh affirmed by that chart. So when we saw the thing about the schools or who's passed referendum since 2013, but in 2012 a a referendum was passed in our school district. So I just caution you like if

007you said from 2005 we had the recurring referendum that continues today that we're already doing. plus the two building referendums uh plus this other nonrecurring referendum that was from 2012. So I would just have you be careful how you put forth some things like that as far as if anybody's sort of considering voting or not voting or whatever. Um just even saying this is a hard thing to ask for you know just to keep saying that so that you do understand that people have done things in the past. So it's not that people aren't willing to do it. It's just really trying to understand what is needed and um so without my piece of paper. >> Thank you. >> Then without other public comment, we'll move on to acknowledgements. >> Team, is there anybody specifically

008I know I'd just like to acknowledge once again it's kind of slow thunder a little bit but the cast and crew and everyone involved in Newsy. Um just seeing the excitement from last week Wednesday with asking kids about you know getting ready for those that were in the rehearsal and on Friday um on the way in and out of school just some of them were just very confident and others had that nervous excitement in them and then seeing it all take place on we went on Saturday and also the the elementary kids that were there. Some of them were there to watch siblings, but they also knew others that were in that they were excited to see as well. So, I did a very good job and it was very, very nice to see. >>

009Well, I'll do it now. I was going to do it during the AGR report, but since this is maybe perhaps more appropriate time, I just want to acknowledge um Greg Alman and Katie Dno. Um both Greg is our math coach and Katie is our reading coach for the district. Uh they do an incredible amount of work behind the scenes as far as helping prep teachers, meeting with teachers on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Um helping with this report that we will go through later, just putting the information together. Um, we also meet weekly as a team just to kind of touch base on where our team's at, do planning, and talk about next steps as far as just continuing to move our student achievement forward. So, I just needed to take a moment to pause

010and appreciate them and thank them for everything that they do because a lot of it, like I said, is behind the scenes that we don't always see, but it's an incredible amount of time that they've put in. Just to further on that, um, in my years on the board, this the stretch of time when we've been reporting on the data from the two programs, the math and the LA, which are very encompassing all the way from K through 8. Um, and to see the the invest, you know, all of the the the drive that's gone into just implementing them and then analyzing the results and then uh getting new teachers up to power so they can teach it. And a lot of that falls on those two individuals as well. So, kudos to them. >>

011Thank you for adding that. This has been a busy time of year with a lot of our sports, our musical groups coming. There's the culminating activities, um, and a lot of conversations that have occurred over the past month with a lot of outside groups, business groups, um, community representatives. And I do want to give a shout out back out to the board as a whole. And specifically, I know I want to thank Jessica for a lot of the editing components and added work that she's gone into helping make sure this system and this response um has a a good voice behind it. And so tonight, I do I do want to make sure you know you do it anytime you're always willing to take on. And so I wanted to say thank you um on

012behalf of all of us because it definitely is a lot of work. you're organizing a lot of outside groups to really help inform and so thank you and thank you to the whole board. >> Thank you. I'm happy to do it. >> The board have any acknowledgements? >> Middle school musical was fantastic. I thought the kids did a great job. The directors did a good job coring 80 students on stage. >> Um, and I was surprised by the talent that's in the middle school. Um, it was nice to have high school kids sitting around me watching it on Friday night and they I was hearing oo and from them, which I thought was really kind of neat, the mutual respect that they had for the kids that were on stage um, cheering them up. So,

013it was good to see. >> Yeah. I I think it's always after these moments of a big production, whether it's the the summer dance thing or whether it's the high school musical or the middle school musical or any other event or like the the event that's going to take place next week. I don't know how many are going to come to that, but I'm sure the auditorium will be have a good crowd in there. But for any community person who um wonders why we built the auditorium for them, they need to be at one of these events just to see how the event in question, whatever it might be, is so much better and so much more appreciated by audience and presenters, performers themselves. And uh you know we made that investment with u you

014know with a referendum um to build that um the gym and the uh auditorium but you know the auditorium is a real showcase thing as is the gym and uh you see the value of having it when you attend an event like middle school music. The kids on Saturday were told that there were over 400 people on Friday and they were amazed. They were so excited and the gasps from the kids was fun to see. >> You want to add the pulling together of Studio V on the basketball game. Um, I heard a quote of somebody saying that was one of the best home basketball games they've seen in a while and the fans were ecstatic and the energy was amazing and the Dodgers pulled through as well. So, that is it's always fun to

015participate in these events and see the community come together and support the kids. >> In studio view, we'll be performing tomorrow at halftime as well in case you missed the first one. >> Okay. I was there for a game last week and there were people from other the gymnastics meet and there were four other schools there and multiple people from other schools said this was their favorite place to come watch because it was they could stand up or they could they you know go down and move around and watch and they said like they're always excited when the the event is at doshell because it's their favorite place to come. So it's great to hear just a Joey Go. You got a list. >> What? >> I could talk all night. >> I know. >>

016Hold all the acknowledgements for the next committee report. >> Okay. >> All right. >> What times? >> Busy times. Okay. And with that, we'll move on to information and study and start with our auditor. >> So Quinn, if you wanna >> Quinn, I you want me to stay back here? I can come up. Come on up. Thanks. Everybody have to turn their neck this way. >> We get your chair right in center if you want. >> I don't need to be in there. >> Does anybody need a hard copy? We have nobody up there. submit. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, um the full audit report and single audit report would have been sent out previously. So, I'll just kind of touch on some of the highlights um by the same type of things

017I've got over the last couple of years. Uh we performed the audit for the district. Um the last one we did was for June 30th, 2025. And then we have to issue our independent auditor's reports. Okay. And we issued an unmodified opinion for 63025 which is a clean opinion. That's the best opinion you can get. Um and then there's also a it's called a single audit where we come in and do a compliance audit over your federal and state grants. Um, now that was done for 63025 because the district had over $750,000 of federal money. Um, was about 871,000. That threshold is being increased to a million for 63026. So, provided everything else stays the same, I anticipate you won't need that type of audit done um for 63026. Um, we also like to just

018remind you that even though we come in and work with the district, propose some journal entries, the books are ultimately the districts there. Everything is reviewed and approved by management before we issue any of the reports. Then along with the financial audit and single audit, we also submit some certification reports to DPI that are required and um certifying the district's balances have been audited. So we take care of that. That's usually done in August. Get all that done before the October aid. So then the audit report, like I mentioned, would have been emailed out probably previously to you. And along with the actual audit report itself, there's a couple letters that accompany that that are addressed to the board of education. Um, and I'll highlight the last page in here. I'll kind of highlight the

019big topics there. Um just going to go over some of the financial aspects from 6:30 of 25. Um main focus is on the general fund which does include the special education fund because the special ed fund is funded mostly with a transfer from the general fund. So we report on that as just one total for those two. Um for the most part you know the assets and liabilities between 630 24 and 25 were very comparable. Um but as you guys know between the revenues and expenses there you know revenues stayed pretty consistent between years but the expenses the district you know did a good job of cutting some of those expenses because the net loss in the prior year was significant and still a net loss in 2425 though. Um, if you wanted to see

020kind of the breakout of net income net loss by fund, those are on pages 9 and 56 of the audit report. But the biggest changes were that general fund uh saw another decrease and the community service fund saw an increase of about 124,000 and then the decrease in the debt service fund. So overall um between all the funds of the district increased by about $3,700 for 63025. Um and then the next page shows the general funds fund balance over the last five years. Um so that top graph just kind of shows you know how the def the significant def decrease in 23 24 and then another decrease in 2425. The district has a policy um that you need to maintain a minimum of 12% of total operating expenses in the fund balance. Uh the ultimate

021goal would be to get that more into the 20 to 25% range but right now the policy says 12%. Um at the end of 25 it was at about eight and a half to 9%. Um so the district I think is still working on trying to replenish that and meet that 12% goal. Next page breaks down the revenues between years. You know, for the most part, I think the only significant changes were the tax revenue decreased about a million and the state aid increased about let's correlate. So, one went down while the other one went up. Otherwise, the rest of the revenue stayed pretty comparable between years. And then for the expenses on the next page, um some of the, you know, bigger items that I noticed, special ed wages increased about 286,000, but general

022fund wages and benefits decreased about 1.5 million for that year. Um and then the elementary school entrance project that was being finished up in 2324. And then there was an increase in special or um sorry open enrollment related expenses in 2425. The next page shows the debt you know breakdown between principal and interest over the last five years. So debt payments have remained pretty comparable over the last few years. Um also the debt service to non- capital expense ratio that percentage there has remained around 9 to 10%. The there's a limit imposed on the district you know for how much general obligation debt you can borrow that was at aboutund almost 123 million you had 22 million outstanding at the end of 25. So district still has almost 82% of its debt capacity remaining at

023the end of the year. And then the last page there, those are the items that I noted that were in those other letters addressed to the board. Um, so any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies um that we noted, I've probably talked to you the last how many years about lack of segregation of duties. Um, this year actually with the addition of Jenny and what she's been doing, Ryan reviewing things and then Aaron being involved in the grant process, we were actually able to remove reference to the cash dispersement and cash receipt process of things. Um, because there's that extra kind of step involved and another person involved in that transaction cycle. Um but there is still lack of segregation over the payroll function with one person kind of processing everything. We also last year had

024the finding of bank reconciliations not being done timely. Uh we were able to remove all that. They're being done regularly reviewed. Um everything's been I think going great with that. Um and material audit adjustments was a finding we had last year too. um that we no longer had this year. Um when we come in for the audit, you know, most of the journal entries were either provided ahead of time or provided by the district to us. So um you know, that's important because when you're looking at financials, you want to make sure you're looking at current of number, you know, correct information and we did not have material adjustments that we proposed this year for the audit. And then we also highlight a few items where you know they're not significant to be material weaknesses

025but things that we think could improve in term control or recommendations that we have. Um the first one is just the capitalization policy or capitalizing your fixed assets. Uh right now the policy is $5,000 but the federal single audit guidelines increase their threshold to 10,000. So, we recommend increasing your policy, too, to just align with what they recommend. There were also a few checks that were outstanding, greater than a year. We recommend just taking a look at those and seeing if they need to be voided, reissued, what the next step should be with those. The next one there, we had talked about before the the policy for the fund balance is to keep 12% reserve. Um, and it was at 8 and a half%. So, I'm sure you guys have had lots of discussions on

026ways to increase that. >> And then right now, the bookkeeper prepares all the journal entries in the software. We recommend just having another set of eyes on those. That just any step in the accounting software where you can have another person reviewing and checking is always a good idea. Um, and then that last one, the payroll liabilities were not reconciled to the general ledger on a monthly basis. Um, so there was a journal entry that had to be made at the end of the year. It actually ended up decreasing your expenses by about $43,000 to get those to reconcile. Um, that actually stemmed from the prior year 23 24. Um, it was just too late in the process that I think they were going to look into it. we it wasn't material at the time.

027We just got it adjusted in 2425. Um but do recommend taking a peek at those, making sure those are reconciled on a regular basis. Otherwise, I mean, everything went well on our side for the audit and it was great working with everybody in the district. So, >> okay, questions. It's this phenomenon of not having a second pair of eyes pretty common in our district size or >> I would say a very high percentage of districts this I mean in southwest Wisconsin have the limited segregation of duties or something. Yep. So it's it exists out there for a lot of our districts. It's more like making you aware that risk is out there and then some as long as you know it's out there and it's not always cost effective to hire another person. Um but

028the steps you made this year in the other areas were great too. So >> any other questions for Quinn? >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. move on to 4.2 which is the student schoolboard rep report. >> So starting off with some updates. Uh the girls wrestling team had three people, Jenna Johnson, and Belle Walmer all qualify first team all conference with Maya Markline getting an honorable mention. The boys team had three wrestlers Hawin Peterson, Nathan Johnson, and Shane Roshan qualify for state. And the gymnastics team just recently set an all-time team high score. And they have >> and they only have two more meets left this year on February 19th and 28th. The competitive cheerleading team continues to have success and show the state their Dodger spirit. Um, as you guys all know,

029the middle school musical had it both of it shows over the weekend when they did a very good job. over 74 kids. Almost all of them had enthusiasm and bullet shows were like almost three4s full at least from the booth's perspective. And it was hard to believe that they were middle schoolers. Uh the Dodgeville boys basketball team had an amazing game on Thursday against Platville with us winning 78 to 77. And it was there were so many kids there. It was great to see and it was a massive turnout for both the students and the community. FBLA just had their re regional leadership conference with um around seven students making it past and going on to state now. And although the snowball dance was rescheduled, it still had a pretty strong turnout and all the

030students who went had a lot of fun. Um coming up, we have our last pep band on Tuesday with it being a girls basketball game against Possi. Uh girls wrestling sectionals is on Friday. Boys basketball is also on Friday. And then state cheer is in Green Bay, FCCLA regionals and donkey basketball are all on Saturday and we're looking forward to packing the gym for this event. I've heard a few concerns from the student body regarding the water quality in our school and have not many have noticed issues with just taste and clarity. And just talking to a bunch of people, they all said it would be greatly appreciated if we could get some of the water filters changed and updated. And for thanks, the FBLA people would like to thank Erin Bach or Eric Bachan

031for filling in for Mrs. Bachan at the FBLA regional leadership conference. And that's about it. >> Anybody have any questions for Mr. Angle? >> The water coming out of the bubblers or >> Yeah, the water fountains just kind of in general. Uh, I know for sure that definitely be one by the auditorium's really bad. >> Is it cloudy or just the taste? >> Um, sometime most of the time it's just the taste. I know there's a few or one or two that are cloudy, too. So, I think it's just >> aren't used a lot. >> Yeah. I will tell you we will be looking into this and making sure we can get it adjusted. >> Your voice has been heard. >> Is is there any more update on having a uh second person? >> Um

032that's been any more discussion about that? So, I've been talking kind of at the leadership meetings for student council, and it seems like what it's going to be is when we're doing our elections for the um ne for the person, my replacement, that'll be around the time that they have elections for obviously the other person too. And then it'll kind of be like as I transition out and the next person transitions in, the other person will like follow it. >> Oh, okay. >> Just Yeah. So theoretically at least >> next year we would have two people. >> Yes. >> Anything else? >> All right. >> Thank you. if we will move on to committee reports and >> I'll go first with the uh we just had three of committee reports last time and uh the

033curricular co-curricular uh was first up and then um we heard first the administrative teams from the reports from the administrative team and that Dodgeville Elementary Um there was a discussion about what went h happened today at the PD day and um there's currently a the beginnings of a review of the I Ready math program which will go on for many months to see if it's something we're going to recommend to continue the advocacy is as is it as we would like um because next year is the final year of I ready. Correct. >> on the current contract. >> Correct. >> Okay. Yeah. Um so that'll be an ongoing thing. Uh parent conferences took place or >> will take place next week. >> Next week. Okay. >> Tuesday or Thursday. >> Okay. And uh the Kowanas

034community service for the elementary school has begun as a group called the the KIDS. Am I correct? K kids. uh ELP is going to have a welcome night soon. And then we that led to kind of a discussion also of a different strategy for organizing the ELP classes where the ELP teachers would do kind of a day of observation before they would group kids into the classes as a way to see what would be the best breakout of those classes. So that'll be uh in place for next year. And um at the middle school there was discussion of newsies which we heard lots about already and u parent conferences took place on February 18th planning for the forward exam has begun and each class had a dance to celebrate the end of the first semester.

035Then we am I correct that all of them met separately on the same day like >> yeah they each had a half hour rotated through. >> Okay. All right. And um was there a DJ for all of them? >> There was DJ Eastston Fauller. >> Nice. >> Okay. And did he he stayed for all of the groups? >> He stayed for them all. >> Okay. And did he change the music at all? >> There was very there was some requests of the same song over and over, but he did a good job of mixing it up. >> Yeah. So, lots of celebration there. And uh there's a new social studies intern also for the second semester. And in student services, uh lots of orientation for students with schedule changes for second semester primarily at the

036high school but also middle. Um readiness for students transitioning into the middle and high school for next year has begun. And as part of the grant that Aaron has talked about on a number of occasions, students are getting out into the community more to prepare for her life beyond school. And uh as another part of her job duties, Aaron talked about the the prep for the ACT at the high school is ongoing at the high school. By the way, Joey, if you can do it each time, I for one appreciated having the copy of the newspaper. >> So, so if if it's available when we have that meeting, it's really handy for us, I think, and it was fun to read and see what's going on. Um so many of the activities were highlighted through

037that newspaper and also um from what Joey said and the big excitement for me anyway just that the hydro hydroponic lettuce thing is really taken off and people are eating it in the cafeteria and um I had some myself. My wife brought home a little plateful for me to have when she was at the high school the other day. Um, three students competed well in the statewide stock market earning game. Uh, they had second place in the state, coached by, uh, Jeff Bradley, the econ teacher, but Andrew Ericson, Nathan Johnson, and Nate Bllelock, all part of that very successful team. Winter sports are winding down, but excitement nonetheless, as we just heard with the basketball game the other night with uh, is wrestling tournament this coming weekend? No, there'll be a week gap this year.

038>> Okay. Sorry. >> Team sectionals this this weekend. >> Okay. Uh and uh very uh and the Dodger drop little news show at the beginning of each day has been a very huge success. Lots of kids are interested in being part of it, which is really exciting. Uh and Mr. Gallagghan, the teched teacher, has earned his CNC fundamental certification for metals, which from what he told me he's going to start using next year. the medals courses. That's a really nice uh accomplishment for him. Um and then Heather wrapped that up kind of by talking about the uh the results from the Ames web testing the elementary school and lots of great progress with the ELA program. Um as well we had a short update about the charter school and even more of an update we

039heard after that meeting which is the number of students who have kind of entered the contract to 25 >> shown interest that so they haven't contracted yet but they've at least registered that yes they are interested and so >> we're just under 30 students at this point. >> Okay. So is it actually higher than what you told us the other day we had >> higher than higher than what we had. Oh, very good. Okay. And you said one student was from out of district. Might that or just not a current student. Might that have been a homeschooler? >> Uh we have two that are um homeschooled and so looking to join. And then we're also putting a plug in right now. We do want some community representatives on the school board for that group. >>

040Okay. The homechoolers you mean >> for um seeing forward. So there is um family members that do have homeschooled that are looking to join the board. So, we're trying to build some energy around >> right >> expanding the schoolboard. >> Oh, good. That's that's ex excellent news. >> Um and then finally, Ryan just discussed the updates to the community dashboard, but for um that was a short discussion on how those changes are on the website. And a very swift hour and a half meeting ended then. Time flies. >> Well done, Mike. >> All right. >> Any questions for Mike? >> No, but I have a question about the charter school enrollment. Um, are there any in middle school or is it all high school? >> There are some middle schoolers. Yes. Yep. >> But that

041the middle school kids will be housed in the middle school or they come over to the high school. >> No, here. So, it'll all be in one space so that we can keep the resources. Um, >> okay. >> Yeah. So, the earliest they could be part of it would be sixth grade. >> Sixth grade is currently where we're at. Yeah. >> Okay. Good. Thanks. >> Anything else? >> No, Laura. >> Yep. I'll go on uh from the building and grounds committee meeting on that Wednesday, February 4th. Um I don't the record show was only 27 minutes in length. >> It was a contest. >> Just want to get that in there. So, um, all 16, uh, lights on the DHS common have been replaced, uh, as of that day on the 4th. Uh, Brad was

042saying that it looked like they had the feature be to be dimmable. It was, uh, set with the programming. Not sure if that has been looked into yet or has been done. Furnace in the DHS tech uh, education area has been repaired. Uh, this is an older one. It predates the 2017 model. Uh, the two floor scrub scrubbers were down. I believe those are both at DHS, correct? that were um down and the temporary solution was to share one between DMS and DHS. >> There's one in each. The middle school is back up and running. >> Okay. Right. >> Yes. >> So, um and Brad spoke with the company to get parts in and then they will be repairing those. So, one got repaired and one is still in the works. Is that correct? Okay.

043All right. Um and let's see. The uh leaking air damper at DMS was uh unfortunately on that real cold morning of Monday, January 26, caused some uh temperature issues in the building, but a resourceful crew got it up and running and uh was 66 degrees by the end of the day. Uh the boiler above the library at the high school is still down, I believe, is or is it gotten back up and running? >> That is up and running. >> Up and running now. Okay. and donations were starting to roll in for the pilot solar project. Um I think Chuck Tennyson has been in contact with you, Ryan. Is that about uh the donations? Do you have an update for us at all or can you recall what >> I want to say? $5,000 is

044what we currently have so far in um >> Okay. >> Yeah, let's go with that number. >> Okay. So just a rough estimate and uh we did uh review the short range planning list but there were no new additions and discussed again the community dashboard for facilities and a focus and we focused on the dees playground safety updates and that in a nutshell is what we talked about >> $5,5005 >> is the update that I given >> the solar project. Okay, thank you. >> Any questions or comments or corrections at all? All right, >> Randall, you're up. >> For the finance committee, I didn't track the time because I'm not in that competition. >> So, we we reviewed the bills and and our expense and budget reports and there were some items discussed around the

045bills, but no real unusual activity or unexpected expenses. In our review of the budget reports and expense reports, we're looking at all the areas. In total, we're actually fairly well on target. Um, but there are some areas that will that are being continually monitor like the electric bill that were higher than using. And there was a discussion about the budget level for the start college now and early college credit injury because that was over budget today by quite a bit. But it's difficult to budget that because we don't know how many kids are going to sign up and the fact that more sign up is actually a good thing. So we just have to keep monitoring. In our planned activity, we had a discussion around the operating operating referendum and financial impacts to that and

046um a lot of discussion about what we're communicating out to families and there was a flyer in the works. So that that flyer has gone out. Correct. Uh it's final stages of printing are today. So >> so it's going slowly uh which will be the first flyer because it was obvious in conversation that there's several topics and and key points that we want the community to get. So we'll be sending out more flyers and so there'll be more discussion about really the content of those flyers to make sure we we get out the messages that we need to get out. Um, we also reviewed information on the staff compensation plan and a framework for phasing out the retirement package that has actually stopped at this point. But, um, for those teachers that have had had

047that in place for some time and find a way to deal with that, but that's both of those efforts are really dependent on the passage of the referendum. And so Ryan will continue working with staff to finalize that information so it's ready for discussion in April. And then the short range deferred maintenance list we we look at in the finance committee as well because it has a financial aspect to it but has lower reported there was no action on there so no financial impact and that's a report. Any questions? Anything on this, >> Ryan? Would the staff today have received um some version of the message during the the community meeting? >> Yeah. So, we did a entire district meeting because So, right now staff compensation is tied directly to the referendum. So, if the

048referendum does not pass, we don't have the financial means to provide any additional compensation. staff became very much they'd been aware of that in a previous meeting, but we spelled that out. Um that it's it would be a freeze in pay for all staff um if a referendum does not pass. Um and then we also talked about there is a a chunk of the money set aside that if we do pass a referendum, we do want to invest in trying to close the gap on where our staff are compensated compared to our neighbors. It will not completely We're not going to be a top paid district. um but it would get us in the upper half of the the um compensation models in schools compared to our size in southwest Wisconsin. So they got a

049chance to look at that and then provide feedback to the leadership team. the leadership team as a whole will meet with administration and um again members of the school board that want to be a part of that that can come in and we'll continue those conversations to see if we can come up with a model that'll get us three more years um down the road. So good conversations. Um I haven't looked at the data though yet. >> Okay. >> Anything else? not we will move on to 4.4 which is the Iowa County School District's mutual aid agreement. >> So I know Brian's been a key component of working on this. However, um all the schools or a good chunk of schools in southwest Wisconsin around us are looking at a mutual aid agreement. So, in

050the event that there's some sort of major school event that occurs, it's often if we have skills here that we could send to another district, so we're highly trained in a certain area or we have resources, we can go help in another district when they're going through kind of a mass event um that might occur or vice versa. they may be sending resources to us so they can help us manage um some sort of tragedy event that could occur here. And so really looking across Iowa County, these the schools are wanting to come together to create an agreement knowing yeah there might be confidential information that during this event certain things might be occurring and we want to make sure that everybody's operating under the same premise. Um and so this is something we feel

051needs schoolboard approval. um that we would go into this agreement um with the schools specifically within Iowa County. Brian, is there anything you wanted to add? I know you've been more actively involved in this. >> Yeah. One of the things trying to do is trying to get something at a county level as opposed to um all the schools are using the I love you guys foundation and they have a model set up of in the in a tragic event of different levels and different workers that go in. And my first go around with it, oh, it's just real easy. just plug in people from the buildings and then but the problem is if there's an issue at that building those people aren't going to be able to work and it could be the same thing

052with other buildings espec es especially the smaller districts where they might not be able to they they'll be able to fill out their chart and everything looks good but when it comes time to put that game plan into play those people might not be there or they might be needed somewhere else. So this way all the schools we can put one together. So if there is that mass casually or some mass event that we would be able to support each other rather than trying to do it on our own or their own. >> So might an example be uh in an event like that where a counselor from another district would come to do grief grief counseling or something like that? um looking more at even something much larger where if there need to be

053reunification taking place or communication um you know Mr. bonsac. They might have be kind of liaison for the sheriff's department and the school feeding the information for the superintendent. Let's say an Iowa grant. Okay. >> Kind of that it go between those types of things would come kind of after. This is more for that immediate event that takes place. Are there regional type meetings also with this or is it just county based right now? >> Right now we're county based but there is also through the state of Wisconsin they do have different areas set up where you can request aid >> mutual aid. mutual aid and um I've got her name or I've got her number in where they'll reach out to if it's in like what's kind of funny when the Mount Horb incident

054took place we're not in that region we're further to the west so even though we're 25 miles away we weren't called in >> schools on the other side of Dane County were called rather than us being Correct. So it it once again it there are regional ones throughout the state and that's part of um the state program. >> Okay. >> Do we have emergency coordinators identified? >> Do we have them identified? Um I would say identified but not fully trained. Okay. >> And the other districts are all on board with the >> Well, we're going through that right now. Yes. So all districts are going through this getting the boards aware and so that we can come to an agreement. >> Okay. >> Is this countybased model one that's really being pushed by the state

055or whomever? How what was the impetus for Iowa County getting it together? So this started precoid they had Iowa county had started coming together with the schools just kind of touching base what's happening what's going on and how um sharing out what kind of some of the issues are and it's grown into now of something that was a lot more focused in in how can the schools and the county work together and with county you're also looking at upland hills um how that all can go together. We used to meet once a month going through and now we're to once a quarter now that a lot of the little finer details have been worked out. And this is one that like I said it's going to make kind of taking a small fish and making

056it a big fish to be able to once again help support each other as we go. But um anywhere from issues that are going on at the schools being able to share out what's happening to um what law enforcement is seeing and how that relates. It's just really opened up the communication between everyone and I think it's been the honest communication of not everything is always great >> that there are issues and these are some of the things um whether it comes from the county with let's say vaping or whatever also being able to partner when um who are the two gentlemen that were just here >> um on task force guys, >> the the drug task force that was some of those were brought up. Um, and with law enforcement going to different trainings

057and be able to bring that back and how that relates to school and then schools if we go to a safety training or go through to be able to share that out as well to once again so that we are on the same page and moving forward. Schools and law enforcement come at these from different directives. And so really as we're trying to work together because we can learn from each other and we've got a different approach we use than they do, but we're going to be trying to manage through a mass event and how do we learn from each other and share those resources across the county. >> So yeah. So Brian, when you were saying that you're meeting and I think you kind of answered part of my question. Not only would it

058be like school district representatives, but you'd also have representatives from local city police and the county sheriffs and people from the hospital as we know that or >> Yes, there's um Barnavald police, Highland, Mineral Point. Um Mineral Point has their SRO too and uh Joe Pepper goes as well. Then usually there is some sort of administrator from each of the buildings or a couple of them depending on what it is from Iowa County. Some attend more regularly, some will join virtually. Um Upland Hills, yes. Um so like I said, it is kind of a a big net. >> Well, it's good to have in place and you hope you never have to Right. >> Be prepared. >> Okay. Any other questions? >> This is an action item. >> Yep. >> Okay. We will move on

059to the WASBY convention recap. So, I just wanted to put this out there because um the WASBY convention provided a lot of networking for us and a lot of learning opportunities and wanted to highlight some of those things. Um I've shared some of our notes. I know a couple of you I wasn't able to get everything compiled together but in conversations put on um or docs a summary of some of the things we learned but really wanting to highlight kind of what were some of the key takeaways that you guys took at the convention and really starting with you know priorities that we have in place or vendors that you connected with and then maybe any other lessons that you learned. Our goal is not to go into an hour and a half discussion, but

060to give a brief to allow you guys to give a brief overview and then I'll try to connect it all back together. So, does anybody want to connect on some of your own highlights? There were a bunch of things that I learned and that were of interest just to me personally or to for the district, but one of them I spoke with uh Ryan about this already about prioritizing policy related to the state law about no cell phones in schools starting uh next fall. And so, um, people running that session really encouraged districts to act sooner rather than later on that issue. And so I don't know if that'll maybe even come out next as soon as next month or April or whenever. One of the things that that struck me there and I I

061went to several sessions about referenda and messaging around that and retaining staff and things like that, but the one session that I think I got the most out of was on AI because it's it's uh I I would even say it's coming at us. It's here. the kids are already using it and we don't have any policies about AI and we know that kids can use it you know they they could have AI write their papers for them and it's becoming more and more difficult to tell that but in in reality it's more about um you know our policies on integrity have always been you know if you cheat here's what happens but we don't really talk about what academic integrity is and I think AI I is going to force us to do that

062because it it's very useful. Teachers can use it for all kinds of things and students can use it as well. And I think it's we're going to have to come up with policies and procedures for how do you use it correctly. How do you use it to advance your learning, not just get your lesson done? And so I think that's something we're we're really going to have to tackle as an administration, as a board. I've had some discussions with Ryan and I think there's he has some efforts going on, but I think we're really going to have to put some uh some time and thought into this to get something in place fairly quick quickly because the kids are already using it. It's out there. It's readily available >> with that too is just more

063of like consistency too, like you know, it's okay to use it. It's not going away, but it's just when is it appropriate and when is it not? It can't be okay for one classroom and not a different one and you know certain teachers can't use it and others say like it just needs to be consistent amongst the staff and students that expectations. Um, another one that I went to, I went to a couple of them for like, um, mental health and student belonging and, um, that sort of thing. And one of talking to some students um that said like some of the things that we are doing already um if we you know theoretically even expand on it being the um back in the elementary school when the kids the fourth graders had their buddies

064in ELP they expanded inel amongst the high school to the middle school and the elementary school especially for students who were having um attendance issues or difficulties with um belonging in school and you know feeling like that was a place for them. So they would try to pair up students who um had similar backgrounds or similar interests and with the younger kids and they wouldn't tutor them but they would meet once a week and just hang out with these kids and they it just creates excitement for the little younger kids to be seeing the you know the older kids and then to become those students and in the future as well as um you know they found other ways to connect with staff and the students um if there they had like a generic staff

065would write a one-s sentence thing anonymous to say about themselves and it could be anything of like I came from a divorced home or I was a collegiate athlete or there's a variety of them and then the student if they would like to go talk to somebody they would pick from this list walk in and not know who that was until they get there and then they could have an conversation say realize like you know their teachers and their staff are people too. they have um you know they have other lives and histories that they might be able to connect with in order to create that connection with a safe person to as an adult with a student. So kind of some cool ideas in that that whole belonging and helping kids feel like they

066they have a home here >> of all all kids. >> Um I went to a couple of sessions that were similar. I think we went to the same platill one and that was really interesting. there's some very practical things that wouldn't be difficult to put in place which we don't have to go into tonight but I have all the notes from that session and um and the gains that they've made in their district with student belonging or in the last five years are just like pretty amazing to the point where a teacher or a principal that was there said he had somebody come interview for a job and part of the job was well just so you know this is how we um think about student belonging. It's not something we think about. It's the

067lens through which we view every decision we make. And the teacher that was interviewing said, "Yes, I know. That's why I'm interviewing here." Because it's come so such a part of their culture. And the students that were presenting, it was a student led presentation. Um, and they just, yeah, it's the biggest club in their school. um and to the point where they have to do subgroups within it because it's so popular and and it's all around making sure students feel like they belong, but it's student driven and it's just it was just fascinating. So, I'd love to talk about the those like actual detailed things that we could think about doing here. Um I went to a couple of sessions on staff retention. Um and there were some really practical applications with what we could

068do here as well. One thing I thought was really interesting was um instead of exit interviews when somebody's leaving a stay interview. So you basically target several teachers that you really want to retain and and interview them at the end of the year and say what's making you want to come back and capitalize on those six the things that um you're doing well because those are the things you want to continue because obviously that person is wanting to stay and it's somebody you want to keep. Um the exit interviews obviously are a really good idea too, but for a different reason. Um and with that, uh this one district did what they called pulse surveys. So they're like really quick surveys to get kind of immediate, very targeted information in terms of like a staff

069survey. Um but it's like where what what's the pulse on this thing? and then it can give you really instant feedback and something you can work on um to change instead of waiting for like an end of the year culture type really broad type survey. Um and there was so there were some really good staff survey um like I don't know programs or whatever that you can hire to do this but you can also just really create your own pretty easily and some of those questions are out there. So, I wrote a bunch of those actual questions down that those districts felt like were kind of I like got to the specifics of where your culture is and what you can improve on. Um, anyway, there were several other things. I are we going into

070all these things right now in detail and >> maybe we could have I mean, maybe we can have a staff retention discussion sometime and we can talk about all the specifics around it because I have more than I feel like we should talk about right now. But um because I look at her petition really great practical useful ones and the reason these people are giving the presentations at the W state law conference is because it works and so to not consider some of them and just have them in our toolkit and say like which of these ones will work for us. Um, yeah. So, staff retention was a big one that I focused on again, student belonging. Um, and there were some really practical things with the student belonging aspect that I think I'd like

071to dig into a little bit more like at another time. Um, and then the final one actually was the first one I went to and it was moving a strategic plan into strategic action. So, your plan is no good unless you have a way to work toward actually implementing it. Um so so this one was specifically about that and um so again I have some targeted things that are just like very practical relatively easy things to do um in terms of how to put it into play and I know some of that is still being worked on within our own district. So um but this can be incorporated into maybe how we talk about those looking forward to it was fabulous. I had a lot of great sessions I went to. Um, and the final

072one I went to was Mustin's story about their two failed referendums before they passed a final third referendum and were kind of running parallel to what they experienced. Um, so it was just interesting to hear from them their perspective kind of what they were going through and what that meant to their district. So yeah, >> I'm going to talk about daycare because there was a really great session about a school district that implemented um a a birth to four daycare and had the wraparound care associated like with Dodger Care. And when I think about how that aligns with our strategic planning, we're going to have spaces that are available. We want to limit open enrollment out. Um, so we know if we get those kids at a young age, we most likely ret retain those

073kids. Um, I don't know that it could be income generating, but it is a need in the community. We hear that in every session we attend. Um, that's about the community's needs that daycare is a difficult resource to find. Um, I think exploring that, at least exploring a 3K and seeing where that takes us, um, could be of a lot of value to our district. So, I'd like to see us have some serious conversations about that. That was a good presentation put on by Spencer and they built a specific facility for their 3K and daycare center and I've been up and toured it and it's incredible facility for a community with only >> 1500 people. I was >> going to say short less >> less than 2,000 for sure. Yeah. >> But Mike the superintendent

074there's done a really nice job. Um, I spent the first two days of the convention pretty much solely on the exhibit hall floor talking to all of the associates that we've used in my time on the board from HSR to my to Marshfield Book and Stationer to Baird to our insurance company um, M3 and um, who's our other >> Bortland and Clark. Borman, well Borman Clark lawyers >> and you it I think the best part of the convention is having those relationships with people and when you walk up they know who you are and you can have a conversation with them specifically with HSR and my just last Friday from HSR um came to walk through the buildings through the high school and the elementary and we were up on the roofs and looking at

075you know leaks and they offered the services to come in and look at things that aren't performing the way they should be for buildings that are only been remodeled in the past eight to six years. Um they agreed to have more meetings with the under the subcontractors that did work along with Byron and come back with solutions or they feel that they can um work on systems that need some some independent work. Um in general I I felt the convention was really well attended this year. here. It looked like it was a little bit lower than last year, but from all the vendors that I talked to, every one of them said that they had really good turnout on uh Wednesday during the breakfast and Thursday was a little bit slower because of so many

076sessions going on at CITUS simultaneously. Um I think a group of us were walking around and looking at playground equipment. There was Compan, GRG, and Burke, and they had some great examples of different equipment that we could bring in. Um, some were more natural, some were the standard plastic, metal stuff that you see everywhere. Each of them gave a good little presentation to the group of us to saying what their benefits and the benefits of their company versus the other ones that are there. But um it's nice to make those connections with people and grab their information and then make contact with them later on and let them know you spoke with them and see what they have to talk about. >> I think you all hit on a lot of great information that was

077gathered and I think the other piece was the networks that were were reestablished or reminded. Um, I was uh especially pleased with HSR knowing we've got Omni concerns and so they put some pressure on Omni to get us results. Um, different um, vendors that I know we've got one here here tonight who genuinely just cares about helping make sure like our systems running the way that they should. And we know internally in people we need our systems and people to be running efficiently is because it takes the workload off of everyone and it also predict pro provides predictability. The same is true about your infrastructure systems. And so whether it be Johnson control, alpha controls, HSR's work making sure you've got a group of people that are truly invested in your school district and yes

078they'll take more business but they ultimately want to see schools do well. Um and so that was I I want to commend I I felt that way and the networks that were created up at the convention. Um people willing to come to these meetings on multiple occasions and just hear, okay, what are the needs that you have? I don't have all of these needs down. You know, I can't say that we've got it all figured out. We've got a team of people sitting at this table here tonight um learning about water concerns like okay how do we make sure that we're getting all of these systems routinely evaluated and we've got people coming in and taking care of them and many of them are either under warranty or they know somebody and they've got a

079way that they can make sure that we get the product that we paid for. Um, and so that was kind of the reconnection of Wadby as came the mental overload, which I caution us on because there's a lot of great ideas we all have when we go to a convention. And I want to caution us on what are the highest priorities that we need to focus on. Um, and what are the things that maybe that we're focusing on that possibly could get delegated to other people to focus on? And I lean on our students or certain organizations. how can we make sure like what we're trying to pull off, we've provided the guidance and the frameworks for the students to get involved and take care of running some of these components with us. Um, and

080so I do caution us because I do know we are in the middle of referendum and not that that is the thing that we're going to say, hey, we got to focus solely on that, but we do have to make sure we've given that the due attention it needs and we're not trying to put more things on our plate and we're strategizing moving forward because regardless of a passed or failed referendum, our students deserve the programming that we need to put in place and so who is going to oversee those um and what are the top priorities so we make sure we do those things well and I I think there's certain areas and not that it's bad but we can do better and so systems as a whole I can say yeah we're we're

081going to get better in our systems but what are the top priorities that we really want to focus on in the district moving forward and I don't know that we have those tonight. But I think that needs to be established first before we start saying, "All right, we're going to do a lot of these one-offs." Um, let's make sure the one-offs fit in our top priorities. >> I guess that kind of leads to my comment or my reflection here, too, because you know, just from an educator, too, when you go to a conference or convention, you get all those heady ideas and you get that energy and that positivity and you're going to come back and you're going to change the world and everything. And there are a lot of great ideas and given time

082constraints in our regular board meetings and our committee meetings I would like us to see set aside a designated time for the board to meet and just talk about these and like you said prioritize what it is that we feel that we could implement. So it's kind of like you know learn again from what we what you gathered at the convention and uh kind of implement a plan of what we think is doable. So, I guess I would challenge us to carve out some time aside from committee meetings and aside from the regular board meeting to talk about WASBY um because we also still have like the results from the survey that we did through WASBY too. And I just don't want these ideas to be dropped and I think it's important that we carve

083out that time to make a plan and uh implement some of these ideas that we can >> and I don't know when or how that happens. So, uh, being new, I would like some guidance like what would be the next step to make them happen. >> Well, it would have to be a special meeting. >> So, that's what it would have to be. So, we would need to determine if we wanted to do a special meeting when that would be But that would be the means to that >> would be a special meeting. >> And when can we talk about a special meeting or when would that happen? How would that go about? I'm very concrete, Carrie, so I have these steps. Yeah, that it's that would be on our plates to decide if we

084feel like we need to have a special meeting, we'd need to figure out the when and we'd need to figure out who we felt needed to be in the room because if if it's mostly about us um having this conversation and coming up with priorities, do do these folks need to then attend that meeting as well? So, I think we need to we would need to decide when and what that would look like. >> We could also work it into like a retreat type thing. If we want to do something like that where we could work with each other over the course of a day. We don't always have to include admin in that. we can meet as a group and just have conversations on these things and >> grow as a group and discuss

085other things outside of this. We I don't know that we've really done one offsite ever. >> Not in my time on the board. So, >> and I think it it'd be a nice option to possibly pursue if that's something I mean we can do something short term in the near term. Um, but I think it'd be nice over the summer if there's a when it's nicer out, we can do something, go somewhere and do something >> and we can do more things as a group. So, >> but I think that becomes the challenge is what things are as I'll bring up here later about we've got a lot of events going on and we're spread thin over the next month and a half. Are there things that we're saying these got to get done now

086in the next month of the month and a half or these things after the referendum season is over? >> I think some of the now, you know, of a cell phone policy, I'm sure there's a draft policy that WASBY has already put together. Um, but that should probably get on an agenda sooner than later. There's items like that that are now that we need to have in place by the time school rolls around again. Um, is anything else really now or can we wait till summer? >> I think AI fits into that now >> policy. We we need we need to be worked we need to make sure we're working that and that I know there is some efforts going on already but we may need to put some focus on that >> and that's

087also falls into policy category >> but other than you know a retreat to go over most of these things you know day starting a daycare we don't have to start it next year >> no >> but so we can we can do that in retreat plus we need multiple meetings because Jess needs one. >> Exactly. Me, too. I like I told you that I was reading. >> I just have to say none of these are like so pie in the sky. They're like very practical things that I feel like could easily fit into Yeah. what we're >> But but some of some of the things that we're talking about >> are classroom level. So, there are some of these pieces that the that there needs to be staff engagement on as well. And we we

088need to we need to kind of sort them out. Um >> have you ever had staff attend in the past? Have any teachers ever attended? >> No, it's not. >> It's not. >> Yeah, >> but some of the sessions are geared towards teachers or >> um >> No, not so much. >> That was kind of an exception I would say >> thing uh strategies that are done that filter down of the classroom. This was put on by a superintendent, >> but I mean it's practical to the classroom, but it's not meant for a teacher. >> Yeah, it's it was higher level. Like these are things that you can do at the higher level to make these things happen. I'm thinking we should get together sometime in the next couple of months and just for a

089meeting to kind of sort through the things that are in you know what what is you talked about daycare I talked about AI there were some focus things that we got from that that we could kind of put a list together >> to kind of keep them front and center and then spend more time in the summer >> digging deeper into but if we don't do anything till summer and if I lose my paper of notes then whatever reason >> the importance to keep that momentum going and to keep that energy level high so >> we don't have to spend a lot of time because we do have a lot of other things going on >> but it could just be a board special board meeting >> I mean we'll just throw out that this

090is the middle of February ruary and then there's the middle of March and then there's spring break and then there's the election. And I'm feeling personally like I I want I would rather talk about this sooner than later, but I'm I'm personally feeling like if we can wait till after the referendum, I would really prefer that. how I feel as well because >> just timewise with all of the things going on um involved with that my time's super tight >> and >> but I I'll make it happen if everyone else wants to do it. >> I'll throw all that but I think after April 7th would be an ideal time and not before. Um, so anytime after April 7th, I think we could put on a calendar and then the question would be is is

091what level of administrative presence do you want there so that we can plan accordingly based on where everybody's needs are at? Um, and if it's just myself or if it's just the board wants to meet. um just to provide some time designated for these types of conversations so that this energy isn't lost and also knowing that it does need staff and administrative oversight buyin and oversight so that it comes to life within the school district. I'm not sure how useful it would be to be board only if then we have to reiterate what we discuss within that meeting to make it I mean this is a you know anything we do >> we can narrow down the list I've got multiple pages you've got multiple pages worth of stuff I don't know that everybody needs

092to sit through the whole conversation that's where I was thinking the board can get together and we can talk about what we feel like are our priorities in advance. >> Yeah. Yeah. But do we know that those are >> what would be most impactful for the P? You know, I'm just trying to think about not putting the cart before the horse and saying these are our priorities, but like really within the the district, if we said we had eight things here that we came up with and we ordered them one to eight and they would order them 8 to one just based on what would you know that's >> well part of it is is some of it is our responsibility to make some of those decisions but I also think it is you going

093through your list and deciding like these rise to the top and these are the things that I believe in >> and then you present that case and then we do decide. If >> they tell us it's a different order then that that's fine. >> But if they if we order them one to eight and they order them 8 to one then we have a problem with our cheese point >> and so I was out there is there a value in going back through an infinity process with this about things moving forward. I also want to give the admin team time also to invest in our strategic planning goals and how we turn those into life. And so there's work that needs to be done. Um >> well and there's alignment there too. So there's things

094that we can align with our strategic planning and other things that we need to bring into into play that probably weren't talked about during strategic planning. But I do think we need to put some priorities together to help them and us support the strategic plan as well >> because we have we we have it but we also have committed to goals and and if there's work here that can help us with those goals I think we should prioritize something. >> So we should we set a date in April? I would say what I'd like to do is knowing there's some members of our admin team not here, they will be here for the curriculum co-curricular meeting. We set a date in March or can we do this planning in March for sometime in April? >>

095Pick a date >> or pick the date at the March co-curricular committee meeting. >> Yes. Nobody lose their notes in the meantime. >> Should we put them in a safe or something? Rango, >> can't guarantee anything. >> All right, let's move on to operational referendum information. So, we have the Q&A booth that documents out there and so I don't know if you guys have all had a chance to take a look at that and add an a layer from the board side of signing up for any of those dates. Um, we've added some sessions. and we know we've got uh market the Ridgeway market has uh given us availability to put up a Q&A booth there. Um and really just trying to make sure we're getting the facts out. We had a good discussion tonight

096with the Q&A session for those of you that were able to come. Um so it really is about getting the information out there and getting it out there in a way that it's factual. Um, and so we will have our flyer being sent out this week and then we'll be looking at a secondary flyer two weeks from now. And so really trying to hone in on next steps or concerns or thoughts that you guys are having as um the Q&A booths that I've been a part of and the Marramac and main discussion and the session today feels positive and I know there was a tone in our last committee meetings that we went down a path that we started to to lose some some of the ne the positive energy of what's really what's going

097on, the good things that are happening in the district and really trying to focus on selling those good things. Um, and not putting out things that we're not actually going to do. So, making sure like now is the time. We really need people to to make an informed decision and be aware of what's all at play. Um, but we don't want to we don't want to put information out there that's not factual, that's not um information that we're actually going to do. And so the the talks of cutting programs or cutting things, um, if we're not going to do those things, those aren't things that we want to start using as as weapons out there. Um, we want to make sure like the information we're giving is consistent. Um and also utilizing all of the

098resources that you have. So are there are there thoughts or that you guys were having? Just on a separate note, I had a conversation with uh Bruce Paul today and he attended yesterday's uh discussion at Marramac and Maine and he broached a good idea about maybe contacting Wisconsin Network or somebody who presented to write an article to kind of summarize it because there was a lot of information. A lot of it was very enlightening and just how complex and we're why we are where we are right now. um to have them do a summary that would be an article that could perhaps be published in the Chronicle. >> I don't know that if anybody has connections with that Wisconsin network. >> I do. Yeah, I could talk to them about that. >> But yeah, I

099know it was an idea. I thought it was had some >> it's hard to give enough context around that because we sat there and listened for two for an hour and a half, right? um give all of that information. And the easy way of of summarizing it is to say we have a structural problem with how we fund our education from a state level that goes back a long time. And um unless we're going to change the way that's done, we are being forced to fund our schools by referendums. But that's such a surface level thing that doesn't really get um people to understand why it exists in the first place. And my concern about the art, I think I think the article would be a great thing if it could get through to people,

100but I am concerned that without seeing graphs and and having a more casual discussion and Q&A that it you still might lose people that way. Um the benefit of yesterday's discussion was that it was recorded and Max from is actually taking the the audio and her presentation that was the the PDF and editing it together in a really like kind of nice cohesive video. So as she's talking or or Chris was talking the graph will be up and it'll kind of it'll it'll just make a lot more sense and we can share that as widely as we want. and maybe that paired with some kind of article >> would kind of get to it. But we can share that out. Um we maybe could even put it on the the district website or send it

101out to families. I don't know how we get that. >> It's a complex issue and I think it's just hard to to to show enough of that in writing for people to understand it. But it's not like we shouldn't do it, right? >> Even though it's difficult, maybe we should still try. Um, Felix was there last night to cover that for the chronicle. >> Okay. >> So, he'll he will have an article. >> Um, >> but maybe that paired with something from the network or even Julie me or something would be a good >> I think Bruce too also stressed just having a neutral organization do that presentation too. No disrespect to Phoenix at all. >> No, not at all. >> Sure. No. And and I think there's two different things you can take you

102can get from each of those two articles maybe. But um yeah, I mean I'm I would be happy to talk to Heather or somebody from the organization and see what they can do. >> I think our focus this time with the referendum, but sending out what what specifics about what the money is being used for is I think that's that's going to help. It's really hard to explain school finance, but if we can explain this is where we need the money and why, I think that will go a long ways to helping people make those decisions. And I think we have to stay positive about this. I think sending out the things that our kids are doing, the value they're providing into the community, the value that the school provides, the value of, you know,

103people being a the community being able to use these facilities, I think is good because I I think we have to we have to remain positive about about the referendum. prospects for passing because I'm very worried about if it doesn't pass not I mean we can talk about all the finances but the message that it sends to staff of continued failure for the referendum could accelerate the problems going forward and and that's I I think we have to do what we can and and share the message out of the value of the school and you know why we need the money and try to explain school finance but it's you know you can you can get down rabbit holes trying to do that. So really talking about the value of the school I think is

104critical and getting people energized to vote. I think I think there's enough people that that I mean this is a difficult time for everybody moneywise and even came up in the meeting tonight. It it's a difficult situation that people are in but I think they they can see the value of the schools. They'll support it. We just have to get them to make sure they come in and vote make their voice heard. And I think we'll be okay if we can do that. >> Speaking of positive stories, Ryan, any luck with the uh alumni uh reaching out with stories and >> we have quite a few coming in and so we're finalizing kind of how that's going to get rolled out in the Chronicle and on the um dashboard. And so I'll later this week

105get that to you guys of what that I've got the framework built. I just want to make sure the system is ready to to handle it and so then we can start. >> Are you thinking of doing a few at a time for a number of weeks sort of thing? >> Yeah. So I want to get enough built up into the first month so that if we release release a couple a week and then we can start to scale it back to maybe monthly but to start working right now about >> you know start here go anywhere. Where have our Dodgers gone? Yeah, >> you want to get the evidence leading into the referendum >> and I want to make sure there's a system that I don't want to keep being the person tracking those

106coming in. I want it to be a place and a group of people that can take that on and keep the work going moving forward. Um, so we're working out those final details, but we've got some good responses coming in. And I I can say reading those definitely reconnects me back to the students that we put through the school system have done really really well. Um and so I it's a good thing going forward for the long haul. This isn't just you know that the the highlights that's not just a referendum. That's this time of year wanting to recap and sending that information out the start here go anywhere stories. This truly is an opportunity to reconnect with our alumni staff and see where are they at because there's so many great things that have

107gone on to do and I want it to be a place that every Dodger can connect back to. So, we've got a first our first followers so to say in this and then let that energy continue to build. >> Good. >> Anything else on the referendum? >> I don't have anything else. There's no there's no new numbers. There's no new magic to this. It is um where we're at and can't thank you guys enough for the amount of vector support that you guys put into this. Um as well as take a look at the signups because it definitely helps the staff when there's a board member there to help ease the stress. Um, we got more stickers coming so we can hand out those stickers which really then is that breaking point for introducing yourself

108to the kids and getting them excited and that mom and dad get excited. The feel-good stories come out of it. >> Awesome. All right, let's move on to the AGR report. I got to stand for a while, guys, on this one. So, >> you all have a packet in front of you. >> Can they stand as well? >> Yeah, absolutely. up in stretch. >> Um you also I didn't realize it's also printed in the packet not colored but the one you I handed out is in color. So AGR report is our achievement gap reduction um progress report. So as you may recall every year we do a midyear update on this and an end of the year update. AGR is a program essentially that does give us funding and then we use the funding for

109reducing our class sizes and providing coaching. So the front page just gives kind of an overview of what we are utilizing this funding for. Tells the different sections at each grade level and how many I mentioned um reduced class sizes. The way they define that is 18 students or less. So you can see that 12 of our classrooms at dees have less than 18 students and two have 18 on the nose. Also just to point out this is kindergarten through third grade only. At the bottom of page one it talks through the strategies that we are utilizing at dees to reduce our achievement gap. I'm not going to read through everything. I figured you all can take this home and read through it while you're getting ready for bed. >> So, the first section of

110this report is going to focus on our ELA. Um, so Katie Duckno, as I mentioned earlier, is our coach. She went through and kind of just gave some highlights as far as what we have done this school year. She also mentions about the second paragraph um the use of CKLA which is our primary resource in act 20 implementation. As you guys know act 20 we started last school year. It wasn't officially needing to start until last this past January but uh we decided to start it last fall just to get ahead of everything. It breaks down kindergarten, first grade, second and third and what our indicators are that are based off of the ACT 20. So we really tried to blend act 20 into this to reduce um any gaps that we see in learning.

111In the fall of this year we had 37 PRPS which stands for personal reading plans and in the winter we did go up one. So we have 38 personal reading plans currently. The next section is going to start breaking into each grade level. And these pyramids that you'll start seeing, you saw this couple weeks ago when we had met. Um, so a couple things I want to remind you about again, it's going to have each grade level under, if you look at page two, let's go back to that just so I can kind of break this down. So, kindergarten the key indicators are letter naming fluency which is LNF and letter word sound fluency LWSF. They take those two scores as the key indicators. >> And that is what we're looking at for students who

112are scoring at the 25th percentile and below. So, you can see that in the beginning of the year we had 90% of our students scored above the 25th percentile. In the middle of the year, we held steady and we still have 90% of our students scoring above the 25th percentile. When it goes into the summary, that's discussing the pyramids. And I want to remind you that the pyramids are the composite score. So that entails more testing than just those key indicators. It's involving some additional layers of testing. I also want to mention that when you look at those pyramids and I think I said this last time, this is not showing us proficiency. Meaning when I look at the winter pyramid, it is not telling me that 83% of our students are proficient. It's telling

113me 83% of our students are showing low risk for not meeting the end ofear targets. I'm saying that because math is a little different when we get to math. So just keep that in the back of your mind that this is showing the risk level the pyramids are. I also just want to note that this is this assessment as web is a curriculum based measure along with a standardsbased assessment and so it's really targeting our foundational skills whereas I ready and I'll talk about it when we get there is a criterion referenced and I'll talk more about what that means when we get there but they're measuring different things and that makes our data a little tricky to examine. So again, each grade level is going to be broken down. Kindergarten, first grade, second grade,

114third grade. You can look at where we were beginning of year, middle of year as far as the students scoring at the 25th percentile or above. And you can also see the risk levels for each grade level. I'm going to be quiet for a little bit while you look through the MLA section. Heather, the fact that every section in kindergarten through third grade is 18 or fewer uh implies that we are achieving the AGR goal without having to dip into the coaching but we also do coaching. >> We are utilizing both strategies. >> Previously if you were over 18 and coaching was the alternative rather than keeping that class size small. >> Yes. And I will also say that even if our class sizes were to go up past 18 then what we would be

115leaning into is the coaching for this. Yes. >> But we're doing bothly. >> Um what's ROI? >> Rate of improvement. Good question. So once you kind of are done it with the pyramids, it's just going to get into the different um strategies with our tier one and tier two and tier three, the interventions that are being utilized, the coaching that's taking place on campus. And then on page six, about midway down, we transition into math and the math is measured using uh test from the I Ready system, right? >> Yep. Talk a little bit about that. So, Greg did include a little additional information um about even the stuff that he is doing up at the middle school. Keep that in mind. But again, AGR is strictly for kindergarten through third grade. But in his

116narrative, you'll see some descriptions of other things that he is helping with um obviously in fourth grade too, but also up at the middle school. So the first couple pages here, six, seven, just again talks through the different assessments, the standards, the interventions that we're utilizing, the coaching that he is doing at both the elementary and the middle school. And then on page nine, we start getting into the zinga. You saw the same data a couple weeks ago. And as I mentioned earlier, I Ready is a criterion referenced assessment or score that we receive from this and that's measuring the students proficiency against a specific grade level standard rather than comparing them to other students. So this is truly checking this is more accurate to if a child is proficient at grade level versus percentiles

117don't necessarily mean that you're at grade level. So keep that in mind when you look at data. Again, when he starts breaking it down on page nine, you'll see kindergarten is the grade we're first looking at. Beginning of the year, middle of the year, that again is directly related to our AGR goal. So we tried to keep the language really similar at looking at the students scoring above the 25th percentile. Even though we recognize with this assessment uh the percentiles we struggle with a little because this one will show us if they're proficient at a standard versus the other assessment which does not. But you can see how we are doing as far as those specific goals and then he just provides a summary for each grade level. Each grade level it was kind of

118fun to see different areas they might more have show more strength. for example, kindergarten, their geometry domain seems to be really strong. And we did do some tweaking at the ELP level. So, we're wondering if that perhaps helped to bump our scores up in that area. One thing I want to mention with the criterion referenced is again going back to those percentiles. Um, I believe I had an example of a second grader, for example. a second grader could be scoring at the 50th percentile, but they're a full grade level behind. So, I just wanted to like that's the challenge of looking at criterion referenced with the percentile is again they could be scoring at the 50th percentile which in general you would say that that child's doing pretty well and yet they're still at a

119first grade standard level. first grade. I wanted to point out algebra and algebraic thinking looked really strong. Keep in mind, I think I mentioned this before too, that is a domain they have heavily focused on this first part of the school year. So, there's been a lot of instruction in that domain. I think that was a question we get asked the committee was this is really looking not the whole year but their progress up to this point but the test still does test some stuff from the whole year. >> Yep. It'll keep adjusting to the child. >> It keeps adjusting. So not really seeing the full child in this through the whole school year. Explaining that right? So if a child is answering questions, even if it's something they have not been instructed on, but

120they are getting it correct, the test is going to keep adjusting. >> Keeps adjusting. >> Yep. To continue to assess them on that area. >> Okay. >> If they start performing poorly in an area, they actually will start asking questions at a lower level because that data is then used to place them in the I Ready my path. Okay? And then that is an individualized program that those students can use to adjust their learning. On page 13, we're almost done. This really just summarizes again our reading AGR target goal that we created and our math. So the reading is on the top and the green box and the math is on the bottom. You can see where we started in the fall with our data and then the next column over shows the winter. Obviously

121spring we have not taken. So that section is blank. And you can see on the far right hand side was the smart goal that we created. So for example in reading in kindergarten in the fall we had 10% of our students who were below the 25th percentile at or below we in the winter maintained that 10% of our students are at or below the 25th. We had set the goal for 8% of our students by the end of the year to be so we are holding steady at that grade level. Second grade, you'll see a bump up in the winter, meaning that unfortunately more of our students fell below that 25th percentile. I think I talked to you about this last time. That is where we're seeing that they need more practice because their indicator

122is oral reading fluency. And so, we have increased the amount of time that they're just doing fluency practices within the classroom. What we often see with second graders is that they're they they aren't automatic enough in this. they aren't accurate enough in the beginning and as they become more precise in the reading then we just need to do the practicing and that'll increase their fluency. So that is the strategy we have now implemented. Third grade did great. You can see they're down to 12% of their students at the 25th percentile or below. And then math is below. Some of our math also went up as far as the number of students in the 25th percentile or below. But keep in mind, please bless you, that that percentile is really tricky with that math one because

123they can be scoring quite high in the percentile range and still be considered a grade level below. That one is measuring the true proficiency at a grade level. What questions do you have for me? >> They're highly proficient but a grade level below and you're told that via report or something. >> Say that again. I'm sorry. >> So the team is doing really well but their proficiency is at a grade lower. How how do you know that? >> We on our end. Yep. We can see how they're scoring as like their percentile but we also see individual students and their demands. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> So we just drill into that data even more and then we do utilize. So that's this that's the benchmark that everyone takes as I ready and then we

124do use as plus if students are scoring at that 25th percentile or below which just drills in even more to find the skills that they're really struggling with. Any questions? >> These goals that are set, are there something that these programs guide and say, well, based on this data, we would >> or do you do that yourself? >> We do that. Yeah, that's a fun project over the summer that we sit down at the table and look at the assessment. We I actually started looking at the previous years because we had to write a contract. Um remember signing off on the contract. >> Yeah. So we start kind of rounding oursel in that data. When we get the fall benchmark data, then we really say, okay, if this is where we're currently at, where do

125we think we could go, we look really closely at, you know, if our students are scoring even below the 10th percentile. It's sometimes more challenging to get them past that 25th. And so we talk about how many kids are below the 10th versus maybe they're closer at the 23rd percentile. And we can probably move them faster. We just try to make the best guess that we can based off of that information. Any other questions? Thank you for asking. Thank you. >> Okay. Got your right hand ready. >> Oh yes. Okay. Yes. >> Okay. We will move into action items. And the first action item is consideration of approval of resignations, retirements, and hiring of district personnel. And we've got a recommendation um for the following hire and welcome them to the district and that is

126Tiffany Garrison as a special education par profofessional. >> So Tiffany, we're looking to have her start tomorrow. Um, and this is a position that we have vacated and so he's filling in for that one so that um, we don't have the internal team trying to fill holes. >> I'll make a motion by Randall and second by Robin. Then a roll call, please. >> Okay. Shider, >> yes. >> Kolinski, >> yes. >> Nler, yes. Um, >> yes. Yes. >> Angel, >> yes. >> Lizoric, yes. >> 5.2 is consideration or um a renewal of an administrator contract. So, we have um renewal presented tonight and a recommendation to approve renewal of a contract for Aaron's voter. Any discussion? I don't think the motion second. >> Motion by Randall and second by Mike and a roll call, please.

127>> Shider, >> yes. >> Canadler, >> yes. >> Pumpkin, >> yes. >> Thson, >> yes. >> Angel, >> yes. >> Lizoric, >> yes. >> 5.3 is consideration of approval of the spring coaching contracts. And I know that that list is attached in board docs >> in the printer too if you guys want to see it. >> I have it. I can delete >> there are no >> I'll make a motion motion by Jess and second by Mike to approve the spring coaches contract. Shrader. >> Yes. >> And Kinski, >> yes. >> Thompson, >> yes. >> Okay. 5.4. Consideration of approval of the Iowa County School District's mutual aid agreement. And we had discussion regarding that earlier. Motion. >> Motion by Mike and a second by Randall. >> Wolf. >> Trader. >> Yes. Pumpkin. >> Yes.

128Thompson. Yes. >> Yes. >> 5.5 is consideration of approval of donations. Okay. So, we're going to table 5.5 >> and 5.6 is consideration of approval of the AGR report as presented by Heather. >> Motion by Mike, >> second by Robin. All right. And roll call, please. >> Trader. >> Yes. >> Sinski. >> Yes. >> Pumpkin. >> Yes. >> Thompson. Yeah, >> yes. Yes. >> Joey, what what is the date of this u the conference we're having here? >> Um this should be next Wednesday the 25th. We are many united against states unity summit estimated 400 kids. >> 400 >> estimated >> one of the student groups that I went to see about belonging in in the Platville school district is leading some of those sessions. >> Yeah, we're we're technically just the whole school. We've

129uh we've been in trans uh transition with Mr. Paulkill leaving us. Um he was our our WHMA adviser for a while. So um Miss Connley is a new teacher. Um so really Platville is the the MC's are all from Platville. The they got the speakers. We're just the the site host. We're the auditorium is the main space. The upper gym for lunch because it'll conflict with our school lunches. Um then the vocal room and instrumental room. They'll get displaced for a day and a half. We'll put it all back for the evening. >> 9 to 2. >> We provide the lunches for them out of our kitchen or >> provide a Pizza Hut lunch with water. Water water and Pizza Hut be perfect. Usually what typically what we do for events like that is simple

130simple. >> Okay. >> Yeah. It's all paid for by that organization. >> Great. Any other reminders and announcements before we adjourn them? >> No, just pay attention to the schedules that are being sent out because there's a lot of events and a lot of culminating activities that'll be happening over the next couple of weeks. So, >> I'll make a motion of a regular uh Wednesday for committees for next month. >> Back to our normal schedule, please. All right, I'll make a motion. >> Motion by Mike. Second by me, second by Jessica. And I'll call >> on that. >> Yeah. 828. >> Hi. >> Good. >> Thanks everybody. Without that annotated >> I know >> version. Illinois. >> Allergies or something. afternoon. >> Hey, sorry.