001Order. Please rise and face the flag for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. The school board will meet into close session tonight to consider the employment promotion compensation performance evaluation data of public employee according to a governmental body jurisdiction are exercising responsibility under Wisconsin statute 91.85 by a friend one and friend C to consider a high school head and varsity girls basketball coach, a high school junior varsity two and volleyball coach and the middle school cross country head coach two positions that combined positions. Um do we have anyone we don't have any guests but we don't have anybody who wants to speak. Um, is there anything anyone wishes to
002remove be removed from the consent agenda? Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? I would move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Second. Questions and discussion. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carried. And that includes $2,000 from the landing resort to the softball team and $400 donation from Jeff Jeff Isacson of Harvard real estate group to the destination nationalation team and Katie Thomas residing as the school cross country coach. We will be the administrator reports and we don't have them here tonight. So that's good. We've got the reports online. So if you have questions, you can contact them or the um superintendent. We also have the athletic director didn't tell him report online. Um did you have anything to add? So I just wanted to take a moment to say
003thank you to the board for serving at the um staff barbecue on June, the last day of school. um had several staff members just saying thank you and truly appreciated um that reach out and that opportunity to celebrate the year. I want to take a moment to say it has been a full year. Um it has been an incredible year with staff and students. They have accomplished so much and we look forward to the future. I also want to publicly acknowledge Heidi Tech. Um she is taking the administrative assistant to the board and to the superintendent along with the accounts payable position for the district. She started on June 10th. So a warm welcome to Heidi. Great addition to her to the team. And then one of the pieces that we are working on this
004past year has been our security inside of the system. And there is a Department of Justice grant that would help us increase our radio connectivity with our SRO and emergency response systems. There are some spots in the district that are inside of our building that are a little hard for the people to reach out. So, working on that grant application due the end of June. Um, and hopefully would ramp up our radio system inside of our district. So, that's all I have. The rest of it will happen when we're building through rounds of Friday. Um, I would just say if you didn't find the voter voice email in your school email from WSB, pay attention to that. It's a way that you can just click and communicate with the legislators on the um on the
005budget of the educational side of things. You can just click and reply or there is a preprinted message. You can change it and personalize it if you want to, but it takes about 30 seconds is all it really takes. So try for that. It's the WB action alert that just came out I think today or yesterday. Um Jeff, did you want to talk about the community? I question at the end of the year I don't know what tool at the end of the year for themselves what went well what didn't go well and what next year and inside of the evaluation process for educator effectiveness on a threeear cycle they wrote goals they meet with the building principle talk about how they accomplish their goals and what the next steps will be moving forward. But
006that's inside of the educator effectiveness evaluation. Athletic commission um pretty much discussed everything that was in the athletic director's report. I don't think there's anything else discussed basically with the student. Well, let's wait till we get to let's wait till we get to the athletic handbook changes for um um and anything on facilities. So, in the facility piece, just a brief update. As you can see, we're working on the roof right now that should be finished getting weathered um within the next week. We're also plumbing the H for the HVAC, the two HVAC systems that that we are replacing. More than likely, they will not get placed until the fall just because they have they're custom built and we probably won't give them time for the summer placement. So, we'll look at placing them over
007for to the best of our ability not to have to disrupt our education system. So, sorry. Um, and then we will be resealing the parking lot. And those are really the three big pieces that we have um this year for building the grounds, continuing to look at how do we create efficiencies within the system. Um, we did have Junction's Control in at the end of May, um, looking at our systems and we do believe that we can make some tweaks that might help address that second floor issue on the new building where it gets hot and cold um, depending upon the time of year. So, we think we found some solutions seem to work at the end of the year. So, I'm optimistic that as we move forward, we'll be able to do that. So
008in conversation um also with what would be the opportunity for us to right now we have two systems we have Johnson control and I can't remember who thank you and so is it possible to get the entire building on one system um so that's a conversation that we're having to say would that help create some efficiency so we'll meet with the buildings and grounds committee once we have additional information and continue to bring that to look at problem solving for those solutions. Um then we have someone waiting online to present to us under new business item B the um oped report which I think is postretirement benefits. Yep. So could I have a motion to move item Business forward to the agenda at this time? So move. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion
009carried. Okay. So I will introduce John Lamar from uh Foster and Foster. They do our actuarial study um on our other post-employment benefits. Um you have the information in your board packet. And John, I don't know if you want to share your screen. Yep, absolutely. I can go ahead and share my screen here. So, I believe in in the packet, you should have the three-page summary uh that we provided that kind of briefly summarizes the full valuation report itself. And then I think just looking at the count of the number of pages, you probably have also the most recent uh updates uh and updated exhibits that we did provide this for this fiscal year end. Um, so I'm mainly going to be speaking on on this uh about this three-page summary kind of briefly going
010through that. Uh, if there are any questions, I'm happy to answer those as well. Uh, like like Tasha mentioned, I am John Lombarda from uh, uh, from Foster and Foster Consulting. Previously, we were key benefit concepts if that sounds familiar to you. Uh, but we do provide the actual services to the district regarding uh, the OPED or other postemployment benefits. So this would pertain to any kind of benefit that's provided postemployment other than pension benefits. So just starting at the top there talking a little bit about the background certification of the report. It was prepared by Foster Foster in accordance with the governmental accounting standards board gazsby statement 75 as it pertains to OPED and it was certified and reviewed by a chief actuary uh Pete Mloud who is a fellow of the society of
011actuaries. A few of the key definitions that that are kind of important to understand uh when looking at the report and the results of it are are as follows here. Uh so starting off there with the total of head liability that would be the portion of the actual world present value projected benefits attributed to past periods of service. In other words, it's we refer to that as kind of the acred benefit. So in essence what is acred by your employees through the measurement date of the report. So how much is earned of that liability until it's ultimately paid. The service cost then is what's being earned or allocated to the valuation year. So as an employee who's eligible for the benefit works an additional year for the district. They are earning a portion of that
012benefit that they're going to receive postemployment. That amount is that service cost. The fiduciary acquisition would be a market value of assets held in a peerrevocable trust. Uh if you are funding the benefit in this case the district does not have a trust established to fund fund uh the LPA benefits. It's not required to uh establish a trust or to fund that or preund them. A lot of districts do just pay as you go. Um but that is something to consider uh if if you're looking at that. The net oped liability is of course then the difference between the total oped liability and the finishing net position in this case would be uh the same as the total oped liability since there are no assets. Lastly, the oped expense would represent the expected cost of
013the benefits attributed to the measurement period. Uh it's basically an accounting item that's recorded in the note section of your financials. That's going to include things like that service cost, what's being earned or acrewed on the benefits, uh interest since we're looking at a present value figure here, as well as any kind of deferred uh inflows or outflows that are recognized during the period. Moving on to the next section talks about a few of the key benefit factors. In essence, what are the benefits or the OPED benefits that are provided to employees when they retire and what is included ultimately in this OPAD report. Uh so as we note there, the district does provide and make contributions towards medical premiums or a premium only HR to certain individuals. We kind of list those out there.
014So starting with that second bullet, support personnel and bus drivers who retired prior to 20 7123. Uh you can make contributions towards health and dental plans at the same rate as activists for 3 years. Those who retired after 7123 uh but before this disappearing uh are provided with a premium only HRA uh for a period of three years and then those retired after as well as teachers all teachers are provided with a a or a cap kind of 14,500 into a premium HRA uh over that 3-year period. Additionally, on the next page there, we note that the at the time of the deliation, there were some individually negotiated administrators who provided up to a maximum annual amount of $10,000 uh for health insurance premiums for a period of 7 years. And then we also indicated
015there uh that certain uh there's some certain cut offs as far as continuation of coverage. So those retiring prior to 2034 are eligible to remain on the district's plan once they retire until Medicare eligibility uh or as long as the uh the carrier would allow. Um however those hiring after the limit is now uh being applied to COBRA. So in essence anybody retiring after that date is only allowed that COBRA period which uh is generally 18 months. The last uh section there uh talks about implicit rate subsidy. That might be a new kind of term or something you haven't heard before. In essence, uh what Gazby requires is us to value uh the difference between a value of the benefit that's be provided uh and then what's actually paid for that. So in this case,
016uh that additional liability is that implicit rate subsidy from individuals remaining on the district's plan once they're retired. So if you think about your health insurance plan and you have a population of individuals and everyone's kind of being rated the same uh and collectively charged the same premium on average we'd expect those older individuals who are 55 plus or retired are going to incur higher claims than those that are say in their 20s and 30s on average. So if everyone's being charged the same rate and essence there's some subsidization going on between your uh younger population and the older population based on what's been paid for that coverage. uh and Gazby requires us to account for that as an an additional liability. Now, it's not something that's actually being paid out or paid to those
017individuals. It's in essence baked into the premiums that are charged. Uh but it is an additional liability uh that that's required to be reported in the financials. Uh related to that, we did assume uh certain election percentages as far as those who would choose to elect to continue coverage both on those who are provided an actual cash benefit as well as those who maybe are not eligible for that. that and we note that in the last bullet there. The next two sections touch a little bit on some additional benefits that are provided to uh employees at the time this evaluation was performed. Um the first section there talks about some actively funded benefits. Uh in this case, one that was provided to the district administrator. Uh actively funded benefits are something that are not included
018in these OPED or post these OPED valuations since there's something that's funded actively uh while individuals are working for the district. Uh so in that case that is not included in the report or any anything related to that. And then lastly the un unused accumulated sick leave there in the bottom section. Teachers are provided with a conversion of their unused sick leave once they retire up to a certain number of days converted at $100 uh dollars per day. Uh and according to Gazsby guidelines that's something that's uh considered compensate absence and account for it separately under Gazby statement 101. Uh so that's not included as far as the cash dollars themselves for the payout of those days. However, if individuals are utilizing those funds to continue coverage on the district's plan, there is that liability
019related to implicit rate subsidy that is being considered. The last section here just touches on the valuation results themselves. In this case, we're looking at the last three full valuation periods. Uh so, as of 6:30 2023, the liability both total and net since there's no assets was about $956,000. uh comparing back to the prior two years uh or two valuation periods I should say uh two years ago was about 1.103 million and uh four years ago was 10 uh 1 million34. The last line item there also talks uh shows kind of the total pay as you go projection. So uh in our valuation reports we project out payments over a 30-year period. Uh so if we were to sum up all those payments over the 30 years from each of those valuations uh those are
020the amounts that we would get. and expect to to to see over the next 30 years. Uh so uh this most recent period being 2.96 million uh 2 years prior 3.3 million uh and 4 years prior about 3.01 million. If you look at the table update report exhibits themselves through 6:30 2024 uh that are provided I believe in those additional pages you'll see that as of that date uh liabilities are up slightly uh at about 1,900 um but relatively similar range. So that's really really the the the main points of the the report itself. Uh if there are any questions or anything else that I can talk more about, I'd be happy to do so. Questions? anyone. Wouldn't we be better just at the time of retirement to uh give them a check and show
021which tax-free things they can go into and we're done with any type of I don't know John if you could hear the question. Yeah, just talk about why don't you just give individual amount and um 120 days but just 12,000 if they do 120 days a day. So you would allocate 12,000 to go to some fund that they're responsible that they can select and it's no longer our folks to the payment of today's dollars. Tomorrow's dollars will be more expensive. So Randy, I don't know if you want to answer some of that. Otherwise, I can answer some of that. Um, that is something that the district is working towards essentially by moving people to the HASS to the 14,500 per year HR um contribution. Um, it's a conversation that we need to have as we
022continue to look at financial risk and responsibility and what is the best for us to be able to move forward. Um, and really one of the pieces that I know, um, has been worked on in the past is sunsetting our employees who retired and staying on our districts insurance health insurance policy. And part of the reason that you look to do that, as you know, as a district, our usage was over 130% 2 years ago when we went out to bid for our health insurance. Part of that reason is because you have retirees on your district health insurance plan. So to your point, Jury, there are some of those pieces that you work with in conversation to be able to look at maintaining the benefit for staff, but also reducing that liability and risk to
023the district. We didn't address those conversations at all this year. Um, and I think just as we continue to move forward, um, if I was going to, you know, look at what we received from OPEC, we're in really pretty good shape for our district and for our size with the liability that we have moving forward. And it's not a liability. Sure, there's a dollar amount out there that we are, you know, accountable for, but it's not astronomical. It's not something that we can't continue to build into and maintain in our budget. We unfortunately don't have a fund. So some districts preund it and then you just have a fund that you reduce down. We don't have that. We just take it out of general every year to make the payment. So, I think it's an
024opportunity for us to look at as a district as we continue to look at how to maximize the resources, the limited resources that we have. I mean, is there any pros or cons that you would get into your revocable trust for any of that stuff? Um so if you do establish a fund 73 which is related to OPAD there are some additional um categorical aid eligibility that you would be potentially eligible on from the amounts contributed to that. So there is some benefit as far as um as that goes. Uh I know as um other than that um you know just the the earning interest on the assets that are being set aside can help offset future payments. uh but mainly just that additional uh category played for special education uh that's that's uh being
025applied to those kind of machines. But again, I mean with the plan we have right now this that if you can stay on our health plan years after you retire, we are now our health plan is taking on it shoulders a much more expensive risk group than they are in and and I don't even think GM does that Yeah. Be a while before we actually get to 2034. Yeah, Jerry. Um the district sunset the ability to continue on our insurance, but they grandfathered in we grandfathered in a number of staff who had been here for a certain amount of time in order to stay on health insurance. So those individuals if they retire before 2034 are allowed to stay on the district's health insurance policy. So it will be some time before we are out
026of that um out under that situation. change. You mean like yes the board can all of a sudden say you know if you are retired and on our health plan and you also have Medicare then you're not eligible for our plan anymore. Yeah. I think they should the idea is they would they they had the ability to stay on it until they were added eligible. So that's but sometimes that's so is that correct? Once they get to Medicare, once they get to Medicare, they can remain on our plan, but it's a reduced premium plan. A supplemental plan. Yeah. And I think they're only payers. So we we carry the front end risk. That's for those grandfathered individuals. for the individuals who are not grandfathered, they are required to get their own. How many like people
027is that? Like what? I do not know the number off the top of my head, but I'm going to say it's probably 20. I would, if I remember that list, yeah, somewhere around there. I would not suggest trying to dump that immediately and create bad among our employees. If we got to a point in our finances where four years from now we can't pass a referendum and have to make huge big cuts, that might be the time you have to do something like that. I don't have to change it just so the so the board has its eyes wide open that is a risk group and most most organizations are I think it's I do think it's a risk group. I think on the other end of this group with a lot of parents with
028young children that go to ER a lot. So I don't young kids don't cost that much. Um do we have not as much as the year you guys have questions for for Do we have any other questions for um the gentleman from Foster and Foster? Thank you very much for your time. Sounds good. Thank you so much. Have a great night, guys. You do. Okay. Um, under old business, we have the second reading of these three policies. We had them last month to look at to ask any questions or make any changes. Um, they're back now for a second reading. Is there a motion to approve those policies updates? Move to approve the uh policies public participation and coordinate third grade promotion and retention and the students and funding. Is there a second? Second. Questions
029or discussion? All in favor say I. Oppos. Motion carried. Um, so did you have anything time you need to report on on legislatively? A lot of miscellaneous out there, but is there anything real? Uh, it doesn't count. The special ed aid, which we sent a letter of resolution asking for 60% along with school districts around the state. Um joint finance is looking at 35% in 2025 26 37.5% in 2026 27 which is a far cry from 60% and it's just a very minimal and that's one of the items addressed in that voyer voter voice if you want to communicate of the legislators on it that doesn't do and it's one of the items included there. The uh joint finance committee is uh recommending an increase in high cost special education and uh I believe we
030do have some high cost. So we don't it's not something that's applied for every year. Just to summarize, this year we applied for um approximately $41,000 and we got $7,900 back. So um and it's a it is a heavy lift to make that application. So it would be nice if they would increase that funding on special education, but I'm not optimistic in what we're hearing right now. And that's not where we really need it. we needed in the special education general funding. Um, but we have to keep in mind this is just joint finance and not all of the Republicans are on board with the joint joint finance committee recommendations. Um the governor had recommended a huge increase in mental health programs and um joint finance is not going along with that. Uh there are
031some concerns. Uh youth apprenticeship is getting a small increase but not enough given the number of students and we have several of them in the um youth apprenticeship program through CISA. Uh and some of the reactions are interesting to where joint finance is. Uh there's one comment here. The state legislaturator's joint finance committee action last night will increase the shift to property taxes to support public schools and further force the need for referendum. Uh while the $325 revenue limit authority exists, it's not going to help the state become super taxes. And unfortunately, the clear voices of school leaders, parents, and community and business leaders from around the state asking for 60% reimbursement were unheard. And there was overwhelming support at all of the hearings in the state. According to the Marquette Law School poll conducted
032in February, 76% of Wisconsin registered voters favor favor a major increase in funding for special education in schools. Majorities of all partisan groups favor increasing special education budgets. 59% of Republicans, 72% of independents, and 97% of Democrats. Wisconsin's investment in the future is minimal with this budget proposal. And as I mentioned, even some of the Republicans, uh, Senator Chris Copenga is talking about possibly supporting current funding rather than go with some of the proposals that are being presented. Um, Joel Kitchens, uh, Dick and I went to his listening session and He learned his wheel and uh his favorite line is you know agreement with you but it's just not G told us that 20 years ago it's too much money with just that's what Gary said 20 years ago and he brought we didn't even
033bring up vouchers there was another lady and I don't know who she was brought up vouchers and money vouchers years and his comment was the vouchers pay. So that's where we're at. Um the DPI made a comment regarding the proposed budget, raises your property taxes, doesn't support students with disabilities, and cuts you mental health funding. All at a time when more kids have ever struck. So that's where it's at at this point. Um we'll see where it goes next year. That's where it is every year, people. Every we hear it every year. Which is why it is so important for us to stay in front of our community and show them the great things that happen here so that when we have to go and ask for money, they know great things are happening here.
034But WSV is urging us to keep fighting the good fight. What would you do at this point? Um, we have the athletic hand movement. Oh, we need to accept I guess we need a motion to um approve accept the old report that we heard online. I make a motion to approve the 2024 report. Second. Questions or discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Um, there were some in athletic handbook changes. Does anybody have further questions on those? Do you want to make a motion to approve those? What's your pleasure? I only have one question that came out of an issue last year and it's past things in there that the coach can call for practices or practice on Sunday. Now, Sunday is one day that we family all get together. They go to church,
035they go stuff like that. Why would we ever need except that we're in some tournament and then except play on Monday. Why would we ever put pressure on the kids and the family that we got to repeat? I don't care until Sunday. I understand that there are times they can't practice more than on the weekend. There are limitations here. That's the reality. 5:00 on a Sunday. Yes. It's still a large thing. It's a family day for a family. Sometimes sports are family. That's what families do because for years and decades, there was never any athletic practices on Saturday. And now all of a sudden that's you might is there policy that they don't practice on Sunday unless they have a competition on Monday? Yes. There has to be a competition on Monday that there and
036it's after 1:00 on Sunday or I think Sunday. Does it happen very often? No, it doesn't happen very often. I mean, a lot of some some sports have open gyms on the Sunday. I'm just saying that gym space is limited. There are times and I know high school sports don't focus on Sundays with the exception to competition. There's only one practice like the Hispanic population has mass. So if they practice at 4:00 that's going to that's going to interfere with their culture with their ability to practice. I think any coach would support but athlete could not make a practice honestly because of family obligation athletes. Yeah. I mean, it says that you're not supposed to be held against us. Well, cuz that ter is made last year practicing during Christmas, not Christmas vacation. It's the
037holiday winter. It's a winter. It's a winter holiday and and the school's closed. So, why would they ever have a practice? Well, they practice winter sport, but but I'm saying that, okay, again, I look at the pressure on the family. A lot of families use Christmas time, excuse me, but they use that time of year to go take on a family trip someplace. And now this is going to put the kid right in the middle of the coast and the family about whether they can go see grandma in kings. Believe it or not, cultures change. I think that I think that except changing from when we uh Yeah. Well, when I was in that we didn't go any spring. We didn't go any place in Christmas. No, that's your culture. Culture has changed. But today
038more people spent more people travel and go on family trips during Christmas vacation. But it's also not just winter break because I will tell you personally I have a new upcoming ninth grader who is going to be on the volleyball team and we already have a pre-planned 10-day trip to UP and to Makana Island. I had no idea that they have two a day practices in the month of August. So my child is given the choice. Do you stay here and practice or do you come on vacation with us and she is choosing to stay here and my in-laws are coming to stay with her. So it's not just winter break, it's all summer and the like that's just the reality. Like you have to choose. There's always pluses and minuses and family values. and
039I know what is right for my family is going to be different from somebody else's. I also have children that have lived and traveled many other places. So, the trip is different, I think, for my kids than other families. But, I mean, it's not just winter break. It's they don't have practice during the uh week of the county fair. Um, didn't know that, but they sure do the next week, which is the only week that we go. So, I just think it's wrong how how we've allowed sports to become such a speaking from some experience generation sports isn't I I I would agree with Jerry in the ideal world we wouldn't have practice on Saturday on Sunday we wouldn't have any practices during winter break we wouldn't have any practices during um spring break that
040that would be ideal But the the nature of the nature of the culture and the nature of school athletics and not just school athletics maybe DI and forensics and all those things require more practice time and if we try to say to our coaches you cannot practice during winter break you cannot practice on Sunday at all although they don't want to be here that puts them at a disadvantage for their They need to have those practice times and sometimes they have tournaments during the holiday season. So it's well it's not ideal for families I understand football. Yeah. And we were having tournaments in the 1990s almost right. I mean, so that I mean, the high school in the '90s, we were I was playing basketball at the in Rochester, Minnesota, staying at the hotel Mayo
041every winter, you know, over that's and actually for kids, for young, it's it's a good exercise for them to have to make that choice. Do I stay here and practice? Do I this practice for this? Or what's important to me? It's a good exercise for them. So, He was right. I think families have to make choices. I see this with my step grandkids and and their parents are rearranging their lives around those kids athletic schedules, right? That's for so many years and then we move on to everything. So I think you know it is what it is. I guess if you'd like to see if you want to talk about it further, Jerry, you can go to the next athletic committee meeting. You can ask if they bring it back. I know sports committee. Are
042there any other questions on the um handbook changes? I would move to approve the athletic handbook from the changes as presented. I'll second questions or discussion. All in favor say I. Motion carries. Then we have the lunch prices for this school coming school year. So, inside of your board packet, um after looking at where we are with our funding for food service, we are recommending um increases across the board for our lunches to help out that negative balance. Big change for the adults. Yep. Big change for the adults. Yeah. Slight increase. I'm sure the preschoolers need more than any other any they don't have enough time. It's only like 12 minutes. That's all I hear. They don't have time to eat. Okay. Move to approve the lunch price recommendations for 2025 2026. Second. Other questions
043or discussion? All in favor say I. Opposed. Motion carry. Um, that concludes our regular business. I will take a motion to move to executive sessions. So move second. Roll call. Jeff, I I I motion carried at 6:41 p.m. We're back in open session. Back in open session. Um we'll take a motion first on the um basketball coach head girls basketball coach. I make a motion to approve the Max Hawkins as girls basketball coach. Questions and discussion. All favor I motion carried. Um we'll move then to the middle school cross country head which is California school. Questions or discussion? All in favor say I. Motion carried. Um we move them to high school junior head volleyball coach. Motion to approve vander high school junior varsity to volleyball coach. Second questions or discussion hearing none. All in
044favor say I motion carried. Um in the middle school. Second. Questions or discussion? All in favor say I. Oppos. Motion carried. We have all those spots filled. Um, our next meeting is July 16th, 6 p.m. And if nothing else, I'll look for a motion to move to. All in favor say I. I. carried distance 49