001All right, I'm going to go ahead and get to here. So Emily at 503 I am here. >> Yes. >> Emily. >> April. >> Yes. >> Chris. >> Yes. >> Kyle >> here. >> Yes. >> Aaron. >> Yes. >> All right. And Jada is not with us this evening. >> All right. Hopefully board members have had a chance to uh look over tonight's agenda. If there are no changes, can I get a motion to approve? Second. All right. All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? All right. Our agenda is approved. We are Do we have any persons requesting an audience with the board tonight? >> Yes. Excellent. were you we're videotaping me. So if you come up to podium so the camera can catch up. >> All right. And just before you get started, I'll
002just let you know our public comment section is a threeinut thing. The board does not engage in discussion during that time. So that sometimes feels a little awkward, but that's those are our rules. So we're going to follow them. So >> please go ahead when you're ready. >> Okay. So I'm Tamara Johnson. I'm here on behalf of myself, not an organization or the Frederick School District. Um, I'm here to share my comments regarding uh potential proposed changes to our student dress code. Um, I don't think we should include midress as a private part alongside nipples, genitals, and buttocks in our school dress code. Um, requiring students to cover their midress will disproportionately affect girls and students living in poverty. This is in direct conflict with our policy which states dress code enforcement will not create
003disparities. Nor will it be more strictly enforced against students because of their legally protected status or classification, household income, body size, type, or body maturity. So for example, I had a student come to school in a shirt that was too small and it showed their belly button. This student wasn't very self-aware and didn't pick up on doesn't pick up on social norms. They did not put on the shirt to seek attention or to disrupt learning. They put it on because it was what was in their clothes hamper. This student lives in a limited income household and their grown-up had not removed the clothing from their pile that they the clothing that they had outgrown. Under the proposed revisions, this student would be violating the school policy. A metaanalysis of 800 studies published by the National
004Institute of Health has found no association between school uniforms different than school dress code but school uniforms and academic achievement. If this is what the current evidence indicates, then we aren't doing right by our students by adding midrifts, skull caps, hoods, bags to the list of things that don't belong in the classroom. I think we should create policy that builds community and improves student learning outcomes. That said, I was happy to see that profanity was added to the list of items that students should not be wearing. It's not something that can be said in our school. I don't think it's something that we should be wearing. So, that's my comment. Thank you. >> Thank you. for sure. On to the consent agenda. Just one second here. Um, so first of all, within the consent agenda,
005there are minutes to review from previous meetings. There is one correction that we'll request in the finance and personnel committee meeting minutes. um those reflect that Renee Onus attended that meeting, but it was actually Carl. So, um when we get to approval, I would like to I I've already messaged Jessica or Renee pointed out the the change. I messaged Jessica so we can get that updated. So, um if we approve those minutes, we would approve them with that change already suggested correction suggested. So, that's just a note about those minutes. Um Kyle, are there things that you'd like to point out regarding invoices and receipts? >> Yeah, under expenses check 28517 for Winger Corporation 12,65Q. That's for the new risers at the elementary school and that's being paid for from 146 maintenance plus some of
006the funds from the three fundraising accounts that the music department has as a combination purchase between those four. Um the Unity School District payment at check 28533. That is for the early childhood program that we get at 3663. It's only $2,458. This is the cheapest way of doing that. And then the CWS security watch, that's the extra fobs and security cameras going in both buildings for $29,829.65. and that is the stronger connections grant will reimburse that money for those expenses. You see a larger one for what school district at 28566. That's $9,675. That's for the baseball and golf co-ops and Webster school district. We're sending a check for 900, but that's a combination of three different track meets. And I think that's it. Question normal. I'll cover some more of the budget when we get
007to the finance committee. >> No questions. Did you have anything on your seats to >> Nothing? No. >> No exciting. >> Nothing unusual or No. No. It's free. >> All right. >> Doesn't say your seats can get >> Yeah. Um yeah, so as as Kyle mentioned, there's budget information and cash flow statements for board members to look at. Um we will talk some more about um budget updates when we get to committee um review because the finance committee did meet. So we'll talk about that there. And then we have our contracts and hiring. Um you can see there's a long list of all of the different coaching contracts. So read those all coaches through the falls fall season fall winter. It's all the coaches he has for the 25 26 at this point. I think
008there's only a couple he's missing. And as far as teaching staff, as of today, we're fully staffed. >> It's July. It's July. We'll watch what happens in August. But we're just good today. Today we're good. [Music] Um, do you want to comment at all about the the special education teacher or the elementary system? >> Jada handled the hiring of special. Did you sit on that too? >> No. Jada did that and >> um Beth Proctor is our candidate. We were pretty excited about that. And then the other one was secretary. >> Yep. >> Aaron said led that with Kelly Scout. Correct. >> Yeah. >> We had highly qualified applicants this year which was wonderful. >> Um so yeah I truly excited about that. >> Excellent. Oh 30 plus candidates. >> There was >> So that's
009I mean 30 candidates was >> Yeah. That that's that's pretty amazing. >> All right. Um, so if I can get a um motion to approve the consent agenda and I will because my husband Rob is the volleyball coach, his contract is part of this approval. So I'm going to abstain from this vote. Um, so if I can get a motion to approve the consent agenda. All right. All in favor? >> Any opposed? And one. All right. On to administrative reports. Um Kyle, do you want to talk first? >> Sure. Joe Der and I met with the superintendent athletic director from Luck. They thought it made sense that the same school that managed baseball and managed softball because those go hand in hand. And since we had the track and more golfers, it made more sense
010for us to do that. Today, the baseball coach came in with Carl and we're going to split the season in half and Frederick half over at luck to split the games. But our baseball diamond, a low estimate, just ballpark figure, no pun intended, was about $55 or $60,000 worth of up improvements to the field cuz we haven't played baseball there in quite a while. So I said, well, that doesn't seem we're not going to get done by spring and we don't have that kind of money for that. So we're going to recommend that baseball stays over at Luck, but then softball stays at Frederick. So we'll have to have another discussion with them. Uh the really good news is our SF insurance broker going with the same Anthem health insurance our premiums will go up
0114.9%. Which is fantastic to stay single digits over 4.9%. Dental would go up 5% and the vision which is voluntary will see no increase. So that's really good. We're also looking to add um ambulance coverage on a volunteer basis like our vision. So if someone would like that to add their policy, they could on their own because in the last year we've had a couple of incidences where staff members or their people covered under a plan have had high high cost experiences with ambulance services because of geographically where we live and stuff. So that's going to be an option for our staff for this year. So that's a couple really good things. Yeah. And then the district rumage sale will be July 31st and August 1st the 31st. Yeah. Come get your chairs and tables
012that you really want. Um and and I don't know exact times going to have it, but the first he's going to have it a little later in the afternoon for people at work and stuff. So it's it's it's going to happen the end of the month. So please come buy some chairs. All right. Any questions for Kyle? All right. Great. Erin, do you want to go? >> Yeah. So, we have purchased and made the switch to Ames Web Plus, which is our universal screener that is replacing FastBridge. >> Um, I did get we are going to Kelly Fischer and I are going to onboard the staff that have not used Ames Web. um 4K to third grade is required to use English as web reading screener by the state. That's part of act 20 for
013reading law. Um so Kelly Fisher and I trained that staff in last winter. We are going to train the remaining staff for K to 8th grade in reading and math implementing the screener and then Ames web is going to come in during August in service and show us how to use the intervention and progress monitoring tools which we have not used yet. So that will fully replace everything that FastBridge gave us um with a few bonuses. So at at a savings of about 10 grand. So that's nice. Um happy bonus there. So that is all organized and in place and we're moving forward on that avenue that um I had brought that up at the last board meeting. So we're on a roll. Um, I'm working on, just to be aware, um, a curriculum review
014cycle because those of you who were here when we passed that first big referendum, we had updated very old curriculum in every subject area all at the same time and bought five or sixyear packages. Well, that means that every subject area is going to be uh expiring at the exact same time, and we can't possibly afford to renew everything at the exact same time. So trying to mindfully look forward into creating a plan for that. Um our reading and math curriculums have consumables. So for the last 5 years, we haven't had to purchase consumables because they came with our 5-year package. Right now we're going to get into a we're going to have to literally write a check for those now instead of just getting them in the mail. So that is a plan I
015brought up to um Mr. Licky that I'm I will get on paper and we can start planning ahead for those things because that would be our core subjects ELA math science and social studies there. Anything else? Yeah. >> Is it pretty organized? I mean it's too bad they're all one cycle and the budget doesn't bode well for budget. We'll figure it out. We'll get it. We just have to do it in phases. And there's things that, you know, we've certainly learned over time, what we what's essential and what's not, right? And what resources trying to work smarter, not harder, right? There's there's certainly far more resources now that do not involve consumables. And we want to make sure that our intervention practices are using, you know, resources that aren't a annual subscription or an annual
016consumable. We're trying to find those highfidelity pieces that are just a one-time purchase that, you know, we're really trying to hone in on that because you really can go deep in the weeds with costs when you start getting all these licenses and especially when they're per head. Um, so anyway, that is being thoroughly dug through. Pardon me, just taking some. Okay, I catch up. Um, okay. Thank you. Any questions for Aaron about those things? >> All right, Marcus, welcome. >> First admin. Yeah, very exciting. >> Um, okay. So, um, it's the first time I I'll share, but, uh, Miss Thotti and some teachers, uh, my first task I was to rewrite and re update the student handbook. Um, so that was a big task that we accomplished um, at the end of June and beginning
017of July. Um, I surveyed teachers to see like some things that they wanted in the handbook. Um, and then had a lot of the work done with Missia and myself. And then I had about six teachers come in to go through discipline and uh through a lot of the the the book and updated it and then also Mr. Licky was involved there. So I think overall the the process was went pretty well and I feel like everyone had a chance to to have input on it. Um but the asset director Mr. Draxler and Motti and myself and and Mr. Liy also also attacked the athletic and extracurricular code um had some procedural updates. really it was an organizational uh thing where it just changed some of the wording that was kind of weaker uh to
018um stronger wording and uh some of the eligibility um issues that where we were having our students were were still failing some courses maybe and then we're still eligible for competition. So we kind of changed some of that so that the focus was more on being academically eligible before they're athletically eligible but we found to be pretty important. Um so that routine of getting eligible again was was scammed out and then uh this week we had training for July hours. So we had the the teacher started working on syllabus syllabus sylli for their classes um but we use the templates so that they're all kind of uniform. um that we worked on lesson mapping which will tie into our district goal of curriculum um planning um there so or curriculum mapping u so that will
019be something that goes to once the it'll feel kind of heavier this year um but after this year I feel like everything kind of just need adjustments of of the work we've done this year and that'll tie back into our lesson plan as well and then we also did some back training which is just a platform for our required training that we do like those I feel like I see so many videos on social media with like the bloodborne ma pathogen training being this this looming daunting thing I've never really thought of it that way I although I have taken it every year but that's why that thing is like poor bloodborne pathogen training no one ever thinks of its feelings just to But I I feel like like those things, it's those kinds of
020trainings that we do on on Vector and it's it's pretty nice. It's self it's pretty good. And then I I only had one training to do. So then there's a lot of other like you can learn how to there's carpentry classes on this thing and so there's a bunch of random weird ones in there. So uh there's some people learn some more stuff too, but uh we had a lot of teachers in attendance. um from that day and uh went over the rest of the the expectations for summer summer hours as well. So, I think it all went pretty good. Um a lot of people got a lot of stuff done and the deadlines are pretty reasonable. They're all before school, but um but they still have a couple months to get there. So, overall
021pretty good. >> Excellent. Any questions for Marcus? All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, you can see notes that Jada provided. She was unable to be with us tonight. We need her updates there as well. Any additional questions before we move past administrative reports? All right, we are on to our um board member reports and governance. Starting with our committee reports. The policy committee met on the 8th. We finished the final go through of everything once. Now Neil already has in the year it took us to get through all policies for the first time. They already have an update ready to go. So >> So we're done, but we're not. We never end. But we're still a little behind because we just got through everything once. But in that time we were going
022through everything update came through. So we'll get there but it's all ready to go. >> Okay. Can I >> go ask the new it's like a hired thing to put the vocabulary right to follow state and federal >> for the school district policies. >> Yeah. So we >> so instead of like someone writing it where it can get misconstrued, it's like you guys are going to do that and does it get sent back to them. So Niola, so that was kind of what Kylo was talking about with the updates. So Niola puts together the policies and they all are um in line with current state law, federal law, >> federal and state law and then they have a team of lawyers that review them all. >> Right. Okay. So then that so as we adopt
023those then we make and we can adjust a few things and then to make them our district, you know. Right. >> But um then we make sure that we're always in >> so then when you send it back they're going over to make sure it's right and send >> well when we get it we basically in different sections we get a couple options to choose and >> there's no wrong leg there's no legally incorrect option to choose. >> They only they only give you positive good. So, we make our choices, then it goes back to them in their processing process as we approve it, and then it puts then we get it put on our website, right? Okay. >> And then their team of lawyers keeps watching what's happened with state and federal laws and
024say, "Hey, now the law changed. Now your policies got to be in compliance." And the so that's when the updates >> we'll have another so then we'll have another meeting to go through what the changes have been sent through the policy committee and then back to the no but actually it it is really nice knowing that >> being compliance that yeah that because there's so many things that change so fast that you know we're all just here everybody's trying to do their job so >> yeah we have to keep up with all the policies for help >> and part of why we chose Yiola. Also, I mean, aside from it is a incredibly common tool used in Wisconsin. The vast majority of districts are starting to use this tool because policies have become so complicated
025and and it's just it's really hard especially for a late person to try and you know distinguish that with the >> you know what it's like for the district and then like the student handbook is different language it seems like. So then that's written differently. Student handbook would be written off our policy. So if we have a policy about something, then something in the student handbook would have to go along with whatever was in that policy. But not everything in the student handbook is a policy, >> right? And how it works is you have the laws and a policy can't break nothing can break a law and then you have policies that have to comply with law and then our handbooks have to comply with policy. >> Okay? >> Does that make that's the layers
026of it? >> Okay. So you could take something like the grading scale. The grading scale is not a law or a policy per se, but we make a agreement on how we want that to work in our district. So um but like the issue that was brought before us with like um dress code. >> I didn't see any law like federal or >> is that like a personal >> that would be right how we want to write our >> right like if we wanted a whole uniform. Mhm. >> Okay. I'm just trying to clarify that policy and there's procedure too. So, >> okay. >> Right. >> So, okay. >> And no matter how much you write down, you can't write down for every single situation because something will happen next week. And that's kind of
027where I mean like even a student handbook something too like >> a student handbook will be approved and then you know throughout the year things may happen and so the next year come back and people will say like oh we want to change some of these things up or take the athletic code for example you know that's changed through the years too based on some different circumstances and it's like all right let's let's make some adjustments to it to clean it up or make it a little bit more um >> clear language Next week, next month they'll have the employee handbook and I'm tweaking it from last year's and then throughout the whole year I just write notes and columns like okay we're missing this or we should add that or this is a better
028or something and it's always evolving all those items. >> Okay. I'm just trying >> anything else about policy committee stuff and we are obviously we have an agenda item to approve the policy manual. We'll get to that after our board reports, but just the calls committee. We're good. >> All right. Um, so we have some updates from the finance committee that met on July 9th. That's Emily and I. Um, we met with Kyle and Libby. And then Libby prepared Libby and Kyle together with mostly Libby, I think, prepared a handout for everyone to just go over um sort of the the update. Um the this is the year end estimate for the 2425 >> and we'll have the auditors come in August and then we'll end up paying a report from them in November, December.
029But the year- end estimate uh on the left you'll see some unseen costs or over budget H. That's our health uh payout for people who have claims employees in their spouses and dependent. and we're over in that area. A lot of people made claims, which is interesting cuz it's $28,374. With that much over what we had planned on budgeting, our insurance rates still only got a 4.9% increase. So, they don't toggle together real smooth. They should go up or down together, but that's okay. That's what it is. Uh, we had one IT purchase. Uh, we had some a backup system for 29,962. some back uh stages. We did the extra payment for the busing with Cyber Bus Company for 39,500. Our open enrollment, we had more out than what we anticipated by 31,831. And then
030our food service transfer, that's fun 50. We're expecting to be about 23,000 and it's $51,85.75 larger than we thought. So it we're transferring quite a bit from fund 10 to fund 50 because food service always has to be in the black at the end of the year. Um and we didn't receive in one of the reasons is we in our revenue we didn't receive as much uh aid support as we thought we would in that area. So, and then the last item for unforeseen cost, our special ed transfer fund 27 has to be in the black as well. And that was $14,193 larger than we thought it'd be. And then we had some items that came in under budget. We saved some money on the curriculum director salary of 52,563. Our co-op sports agreements would
031end up being less than what we budgeted by $23,774. our electric bill and I don't know why because of the solar yacht is 15,275 less this year than previous year. And then summer school salaries was down 17,190. I think it's cuz we cap class sizes and we're a little more efficient with like the weight room in the summertime and items like that. Uh so the total savings there is 10803 but with the total cost being 1949 9646 the estimated deficit for the year is 77,412 and you think back to the referendum in April of 24 the referendum failed when we went to referendum in November we asked for less in the first year we asked for 500,000 and 875 for each of the next three years and so with having less revenue than what the
032April proposed referendum was. We're short 77,000 which is about 1%. We are short-term borrowing until our July and August property tax payments come in. Um and then hopefully we'll see how the next year goes. It might be in the spring we might shortterm borrow. Again, depends on when those checks arrive or not, but that's where the deficit is right now for the 24 25 school year. Any other questions about >> So when you um when you and Libby look then ahead at what this means for how you want to handle the 2526 budget for for what we're looking at in the 2526 budget. Are there updates there that would help? >> Well, she's going to have to I say she because she's what says the program. We're going to have to plan on transferring more