001You should have seen the roads out in my house. It looks horrible. My poor beard barely made it through. But I got here at all. >> No. And caught. I was actually surprised how >> could they f >> Well, it used to be years ago. It's so much we lose power. They We did a lot of rounds out that way. Then I heard Chicago. >> Okay. 6 o'clock. We'll call the regular school board meeting to order. November 2025. First item business is the school board. All schoolboard members are present this evening. And 3.0 is the uh the forum. We did not receive any requests to speak this evening. Uh so move on to 4.0 the agenda. Is there anything that needs to be changed, added or deleted from the agenda? I'd like to add discussion
002about JV football reimbursement. >> Okay. At some point throughout the meeting. So let's put that down. 22 other business. Anything else? All right, hearing none. I'll take a motion to approve with the Danny's edition. >> So move. >> Okay. Motion by Scott. >> Second by Kent. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. 6.0 is the uh student council report. Welcome. >> Did I take the minutes? Oh, I'm ahead of myself. >> Hold on, guys. Uh 5.0 is the approval of minutes. Are there any changes to those previous minutes? >> I make motion by Danny. >> second by Shannon. Any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor. Motion carries. Now the student gentlemen, um I'm Aaron and we started the coin dragon sparkle planning to have movie night in the gym and
003invited the public to come. >> I'm Gen CR. To participate, you either have to pay or bring a canned good to accumulate more food for the community in response to end benefits. >> Um, concessions for basketball games are coming soon and we will look forward to helping those. So, >> I'm pleased we voted on our snow days and the theme will be fair. >> We about to start a student council Christmas party. That's it. >> Any questions for these souls? Thank you guys. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, seven is the presentation of the monthly financial reports. Uh go ahead, Drew. >> Um yeah, so going through the um monthly reports um enrollment, that's a a big uh big um subject to just always be aware of. Um this month we as of the 19th when
004we ran these reports a week ago, we were at 791 students enrolled K through 12. Um that was I believe an increase of five students from the month before. Um so enrollment is still a little bit below the original budgeted numbers. Um but we'll we'll get to it later as we get through the uh budget revision. Um but we're still relatively on track. Um no no glaring um weaknesses there with the enrollment. um investment wise, um the investment report that I put together that just shows the um bank accounts between United Prairie Bank and our uh liquid asset account as of the end of October. Um so just our last reconciled balances. um were over $13 million total between those two um accounts. And so no real uh significant changes, just kind of um regular
005business uh as usual with those. Um the uh expenditure reports, the budget reports, um nothing really to to jump out that jumps out at me. um or anything particular to be aware of as we look through these. Um these are all based on the preliminary budget that was adopted back in um June. And so there might be a few small changes um as we get through the budget revision, but everything is pretty much on track with um the the preliminary budget. Any questions for Drew? >> Any questions, guys, for Drew? Hear none. Thank you, Drew. on to the uh update proposed 2526 budget. >> So looking at the the um budget revision that um I've been working on kind of with some collaboration between Scott other uh um leaders involved here. Um, kind of the
006way that it works is and in June when um, we put together the preliminary budget, there's a lot of uh, you're kind of looking into your crystal ball, taking your best guess as to what the enrollments might be. Um, some there might be some small miscellaneous type funding changes from the state or uh, federal levels. Um and so as as we kind of get closer towards the year, we um have a better idea. We know what our contract settlements are going to be at coming into this year. Um there's just kind of a placeholder put in to assume that we we know that contracts are going to um increase or going to progress when it comes to salaries, benefits. Um, now we have a better idea where the contract settlements are going to uh um
007sit at. Um, we're closer to a point the enrollment is always going to be something that's always kind of in flux. Um, but we have a better idea. Um we're a little bit we're about 15 students under um or the the budget revision reflects about a decrease of about 15 students um K through 12 from the preliminary budget. Um so the the enrollment side of it is is reviewed. It's this um general fund is mostly what's based on enrollment. Um and so the overall general fund the 12,765,0007 $79 that's based on $786 students enrolled um like I said just touched on in our um enrollment report for the month we're at 791. So it is a little bit conservative. gives us a little bit of wiggle room to kind of still stay on track with
008these budgeted figures. Um the conservatism is another uh area that I'd like to kind of touch on. Um I think any business manager um in the state is going to always budget the uh revenues on the conservative side. the expenditures, they're going to take a little bit more aggressive side to kind of this would be our kind of worst case scenario. Um, as the auditors had touched on um at our last uh board meeting, we're in a very stable, very uh strong financial position. And so there isn't anything that's been such a drastic change where there's any alarm bells or any uh anything significant changing from the time of the close out for FY25 uh of the last auditor's report to the budget revision figures here. Um this uh the budget revision does everybody have
009a like a there we so we approve a bundle level um budget. So we just approve large bucket for general fund, food service, transportation, community, etc. all the way down. But each of those buckets is made up of a a large or many different smaller uh fund balances. And so in in the grand scheme of things, the um general fund, we are budgeted to take a loss of about 60 grand um for the year. But with that, 80 grand of that is tied up in the um safe schools fund balance. So that's the uh a large the large purchase there is the um intercom system upgrades at the school. And so the the uh if if I had to take my best guess right now, we'll be ending the year at approximately $2.3 million of
010unrestricted fund balance. That puts us at right about 18%. Um unrestricted fund balance, which is above the uh board goal of about 16%. So, we're still above the the uh goal in the unrestricted fund balance, which is kind of the the big ticket item that everybody's always uh wanting to review or have a kind of status update on. Everything else is kind of money in, money out for the most part. Um going down through the um other funds, one other item that I want to touch on in in food service. Um we're budgeted to take a loss of about 80 grand here. Um this it's a more significant uh number overall, but um we're in a with free meals from the state. Um, this is kind of in the same boat as vast majority of
011other schools in the state where we kind of have a bloated food service fund balance. Um, coming into the year, we closed out last year at $66,000. Um, with just over a million dollars in expenditures for the year were above the MBE guidelines of the general number is 3 months operating expenditure. So it would be approximately $250,000 that we should have as a max fund balance there with uh co and um universal free meals. The state has increased that to 50% or 6 months operating expenditures. And so, um, this this is an area where, um, this would be a good time to kind of review, um, kind of upgrades in in kitchens, uh, ovens or serving lines or, um, milk stations. I know Scott, we had talked about how um there were some expenditures in
012the past year to get some new uh serving trays to go from uh paper or the uh disposable trays to plastic kind of reusable things. That kind of helps cuts down on expenses in future years, kind of one time things to set yourself up for um success in the future. Um and so that that would be another topic. Um it kind of jumps out to me as I'm looking through these numbers. Uh just to know that food service that this is probably about as as uh good as it's ever going to get in food service. So, if you have ideas for um upgrades, this would be a good time to uh take care of that while the money is there before the state kind of starts uh enforcing the uh home balance limits. Um does
013it does anybody have any questions on anything or um I know it's it's really high level numbers um and so if anybody has any particular questions um feel free to let me know. >> So can that fund balance does it have to be used on like equipment or materials or s such like that like property or can it be used >> for food service >> for uh food service. Is that right? Yes. >> In particular, >> correct? >> Yep. So that that's anything food food food service related. So it can be uh salaries if you want to hire additional staff. Um anything related to the food service process. So um it can be on kitchen equipment, it can be on um pretty much anything to do with the food service uh process. I can >>
014but is that onetime money or is this >> so this is it's not it's not onetime money it's uh just our our balance that we've accumulated over the past few years um with the uh universal free meals the state and the the federal government the meal reimbursements that um we that schools have been receiving uh is is just at a higher rate than what schools had been charging for the meals. to uh um families. And so with that, the revenues kind of just keep kicking up. And so the fund balance just keeps growing and growing uh slowly over the past few years. Um and so if I we're able to hop in a time machine and in 10 years from now, it'll probably be a lot closer to uh um more money in money out
015if that were to ever change. But this this is it's not one time. It's just kind of the accumulated balance that we've uh generated particularly related to food service that >> yeah so it a good problem to have. Um, but it's just something to be aware of that if we know that we have old ovens that this would be a good time to really get cutting edge ovens or just kind of use this as an opportunity to kind of look at um ways that we could spend down that balance a little bit more. >> So, let me rephrase it then. Um, so we're at 600 now. Would we be at 600 every year after this as long as universal free lunches? >> Probably. I I think just looking at this I'm I think the revenue
016side of it is pretty dang conservative. Um so we have budgeted the to end the year at 520. If there isn't any like big expenditures, we're probably going to be right around 550 to 600,000 or maybe maybe a little bit more um if if we don't kind of go out of the way to uh try to spend it down. >> A couple things I can share too that are happening with food service. We are posting for another cook at the middle high school building and part of the reason for doing that is we're trying to bring back cart so that we can bring back more options for students. Um if they feel like they want more food or they want different food that we can offer some of those things for many districts over time
017that can become actually a a money maker um because tends to be a pretty uh popular item, but we need another staff member to run it because it is kind of a whole another arm of the the kitchen. So they're doing that. They've also implemented a a flavor station um of sorts that has a whole variety of different condiments um spices, things like that the kids can add to the different meals that they're getting right now. Um and then um those are conversations that I'm having with Bridget about, you know, how can we spend this money to make our our food service program better and more robust. We just had I think I shared with the the board in the updates. They did a fantastic job on the Thanksgiving meal. Um I would encourage you
018to come out and have it in the future because it was awesome. I had it myself. Um so, uh yeah, we're it's a good thing to be in this place where we have a little bit of money to spend because we can work on upgrading some things. say like we could probably take a little bit more risk on what kinds of foods we offer to see if stuff goes over well or not, >> right? >> Is there another tier we can go up to? So, the food is better than this tier. >> Well, I mean, the the Thanksgiving meal, the most comments I got was, "How come we can't get that much food every day?" Um, and then the grade school said, "Hey, we don't get that. We didn't get that." So that's another thing
019we need to look at too is right the we did it out here but we didn't necessarily do that at the great schools. >> Are we sorry are we able to look at I know some schools have like microwaves available to students to use for those that bring their lunch. Is that something that we could ever potentially look at? >> We can. >> Yeah. >> Could that be something that we could spend those dollars on is purchasing? >> Yeah, that would be that would be a great example of kind of things. Yeah, maybe other schools have different ID or different uh kind of processes in place. Something like that. That would be just kind of a perfect use to uh kind of set yourself up for uh success in the future. kind of open up
020uh some new um new new uh things for students. So, if they want to bring their lunches, we can have microwaves available to them. Um like here at at Minowasa in the last month, we got some big uh water purifying stations um that we're using food service to uh kind of uh um pay for. And so we have water issues out at the high school. And so, um, these these water stations are kind of a a big, uh, bonus for kids that, uh, um, really like to complain about the water quality. And so, it's just kind of like, uh, having a a good thinking cap on going into it, saying, what can we do that uh, isn't going to kind of create issues for us uh, financially going forward. It's not it's not um long-term
021dollars, but kind of one-time expenses that can kind of uh help spend down that balance and also help out with some a better food service overall product. >> And I would actually invite the board to please stop in and eat the school food a few times. you know, um if you you ever have a day you can do that, let us know. We'd love to have you do that >> and so you could experience it for yourself. Anything any questions on the budget? >> Okay, thank you Drew. We'll move on to nine, which is the truth and taxation of here tonight. >> He's already on holiday somewhere. >> It's not Monday. It's Wednesday. I'm all screwed up. All right. So, we'll take a motion to approve the updated proposed budget for 2526. >> I'll make
022a motion. >> Okay. >> By Matt, seconded by Scott. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? >> I post. >> All right. Now, none of the truth and taxation presentation and hearing. >> All right. Drew is going to stay on hand for this one, too, just in case we have any questions. But, um, we're going to go through this. This is kind of the public hearing part of our meeting. Um, just talking a little bit about our levy and our our taxation here in our district. So, a couple of things we're going to be talking about is what what factors affect people's taxes. Um, and obviously there could be a lot of disparity between what types of taxes people pay based on the property type they have. Um, those types of things. So, we'll
023we'll go through those. Big picture, who sets the school levy? Um the um it's set by the state formula or by the legislature and that deals with the general education formula, operating capital, career technical money, um remployment etc. And then the second portion is voter approved as authorized by the state. Those would be your operating referendums or building bonds. And then how is property tax determined? The county assessor determines the market value for each parcel of property within the the school district boundaries. Minnesota legislature sets formulas for tax capacity and then those are used to determine how the tax burden is split between the different types of property. The county auditor calculates the tax capacity and then the auditor divides the total levy by the total tax capacity of the district to determine the tax
024rate needed. And this is just this is actually from um from the state from MDE. But this gives you an idea of the sources of funding statewide for schools. So uh roughly 72% of of the funding schools received in state sources. You can see 7% is federal sources. Property taxes make up a little under 20% and then the other local sources um fundraising, any of those types of things would make up the additional 5%. This is just a a a metric I like to show because it it essentially shows if you look at these two lines, the solid line represents inflation or what inflation has done over time within the general education formula allowance and then you look at um the the dotted orange line is the formula allowance adjusted for pupil weight change. So
025basically you can see the funding that we receive um by way of taxation um doesn't necessarily keep pace with um with the cost of living. And then this is another graph showing schools versus non-schools. Um, so like non-school local government agencies, that would be the dotted red line that shows you the trend line for them. And then the the blue line shows school districts. Again, we we uh we have more rules on us for school districts as to what we can levy for um and and what things we have to approach voters for versus what things we can just make decisions on ourselves. whereas counties, other local entities, um, more often can can simply just make the decision by vote to levy those dollars. So, this comes to the 2526 school year budget. And this
026is uh, this slide is really just kind of a really chopped down version of what Drew just went through. So, you can see kind of a snapshot of our budget. I don't know, Drew, is there anything you would add on that slide? Yeah, this this is all kind of obsolete now. We just had our last uh um item on the agenda. This is all from the uh original budget from back in June. And so um this was our best kind of snapshot or estimate of the year at that time. Um obviously just kind of what we kind of touched on in the in the last uh budget revision item. That's kind of it gives us a better estimate, but this is all just based on our estimates, best guess for the budget back in June.
027These figures come from. And >> a couple things I would point out on this one. The community education um dollar amount. The net shows a loss of 30,000. That does not include the EDA in the hospital in Madison supporting our um child care program with a pledge of up to $40,000. Um that we that is not incorporated into that. So that would put that in the positive. And then the building construction shows a big negative because that those funds hit our our books kind of at the beginning. So on the front end of those projects, we would have shown a lot of revenue. Now that we're getting to the back end, we're not getting as much revenue anymore. We're paying a lot of our bills. So now it's showing a lot of um expenses, but
028that's to be expected. And then how does property classification and value affect taxes? So this is um based on 2025 numbers. Um this is property classification. You can just see the different farm, seasonal recreation properties, res residential homestead, apartments, etc. And then the share of the tax liability. So if you look at farms for instance in our area or in any area the market value share would be about 20% of the assets that the share of net taxes is 6.8% that would be the farm credit. Um the state basically kicks in I believe that it's drew around 70% um straight straight back >> 70%. Yeah. >> So that just shows up on your tax statement if you have farmland um of any of those types. And then uh you can see seasonal recreational properties make
029up a 2.5% share. Commercial and industrial makes up a little over a quarter. Residential homes is um obviously the the biggest portion of of our tax base. And then this is a map that just shows how LQB compares with regard to the egg to school. And that's that credit I was just talking about a little bit ago with um the light yellows are are areas where there are few or no um no qualifying properties that are affected by that egg to school credit. Um if you look at our area over there just by the bump on the left side of Minnesota on the west side you can see that we're we fall in that that greater than $380,000 in credits um in our region here. Obviously we have a lot of farming And then what
030are some factors that affect the levies? So a number of things can affect if you see changes in your um in your tax statement. Those can be due to the change in the value or the classification of your property. Um change in enrollment numbers, as Drew mentioned, our our enrollment here tends to fluctuate quite a bit. And as that happens, that does affect taxes. change in the valuation of the property within the district and then obviously local decisions and requirements. If we run a levy and pass it, that that affects people's taxes, adjustment for prior years. Um and then legislative changes and that would relate to local operational revenue when they make decisions about how um the funding formula affects us. That also affects people's taxes. So, putting it all together. So, um this is
031and Drew feel free to jump in at any point, but this is um our proposed pay 26 levy. And you can see the general 26 levy has a a small reduction in amount of 3.43%. Same with community education and then general debt service has a slight increase. So you can see our total increase for the proposed 26 level would be a little over 2%. And then Drew, anything to add to that? >> Yeah. No, this this is all kind of uh it it's going to be very small fluctuations from year to year. Um if there if there's no significant uh votes approved or um enrollment changes um it might go down in like community ed the the general fund based on um we put in estimates um a year or two in advance um for
032certain um portions of the levy whether it's uh unemployment or um program costs. to put in budget items. They uh flow through to the levy and then they do a look back a year or two later to say what did you actually end up spending in those areas. And so that's where if we uh estimated that we were going to have 20 grand in unemployment costs and we ended up only having five grand. That's where there'll be an adjustment downwards in uh different areas. And so there isn't really a whole lot. We we don't have any say um in the grand scheme of things for a whole lot for this. This is all kind of set on formulas from the state. Um and so 2% is is kind of right on track with with uh
033what what we can do. What's the average cola in in the cost of living increase per >> do you know that Drew what our average cost of living increase has been here >> um like staffwise? >> No, I'm just talking in general. What do they anticipate? So, if we're saying that we're going to potentially raise our levy up two 2.06%, what is a general person who works Monday through Friday. And does the state kind of give you a guidelines on what a cola the cola is? >> Um I I don't I don't think I have any information on that. Um >> I think we can find that for you. >> Well, I'm just asking if anybody in this room knows what it is. >> I don't. >> It's probably at two and a half now.
034For quite a few years it was zero or negative. >> Actually might be that now with all the new going on >> and and really the uh uh the the big takeaway when I look at this the the general fund going down 50,000 that that's really what we what goes in towards paying helping pay uh teachers uh pair professionals um all the kind of dayto-day um salaries and expenses that have kind of helped make the the instructional part of the school run. And so we don't we don't really have any say we can't go in say there's there's no negotiation in this. This is all just highlevel very um uh highlevel formulas from the state that they run and um come out with. And so the the general fund numbers there going down $50,000. It
035just is going to be a little bit harder to kind of count on these uh tax levy um dollars next year when we are going through this budget discussion in June to we're just going to have a little bit smaller piece of the pie made up with the the tax levy um for the general fund and um everything only gets more expensive. So, um that's it's just something that uh this is kind of the the figures that that we have that we um the highest that we can go. And so, um that that's just a big takeaway from this for me. So, you know, one of the things that Drew and I have had a number of conversations about is we are in on firm footing financially as a school district. And as we go
036through the next number of years, knowing that the funding formula may fluctuate for school districts um and there are a number of districts around us who've had to start making cuts, we've been trying to uh plan ourselves accordingly so we can go through a couple years without having to do that or without having to do significant cuts. So, as we start budgeting for the next fiscal year, those are conversations that we'll be having about just looking at our budget, knowing that we're going to have a little bit less to work with, making sure that we're we're staying in that firm financial footing. And kudos to the district. I mean, in year, the reason we're there is in years past, we've we've made proven decisions. And so, um, I think that's something to feel good about,
037especially in And that is it for that portion of the the presentation. Does anybody have any questions on that or any other questions on the truth and taxation here? >> Good. Thank you. All right, we'll move on to uh 10, which is the payment of bills and claims for the month. I'll motion to approve the November 2025 board bills of 192,63727. October 20, 2025 annual checks of 59,331.39. and the November 2025 construction of $192,4243 for grand total of $444,119. Any questions on discussion on those plans? Okay, hearing none. All those in favor? Motion carries. 11.0 know is the uh resolution to accept the gift donations and grants for the month. You'll see those on the next page here. We thank those uh individuals and businesses for their support. >> Motion by Scott. Any further discussion
038hearing? None. All those in favor? I post carries 12.0 is the presentation consent agenda. You see those personnel um items as well as we have the annual compiance it can add a piece. Um, if you look under winter coaches, the exhibit number nine has a breakdown of who those people are. If you want to look at that Motion to approve. Motion by Scott. Second by Kent. Any discussion? See none. All those in favor. Uh 13.0 is to request uh to approve the local union 70 contract. You'll see that we have that in here. We have copies here and then um the board received copies last week as part of your updates. So it was I would say very fair um equitable negotiation took us two meetings I think. So thank you for coming in. Thank
039any further discussion there. None. All those in favor? >> I opposed. Paris for uh 14.0 is the store removal quotes for Madison. It is elite seamless at a 185 and for the Appleton mile um it would be to snow removal. You'll see those various rates there based upon what they got in. So lead seamless at Madison and TS concrete install. There's no objection motion to approve by Shannon second by Matt. Any further discussion? None. All those in favor? >> All right. Opposed? Motion carries. 15.0. This is the resolution to um have a a poll in place. So, we ran into a problem the one year where we didn't approve this. And so, we had to have bunch of polling places. So, this is allows us to um consolidate or make sure that they um get
040their votes the same way they would get for another election. So, um I'll take a So, in this case, it's like the city of city and island. So this is just a formality in case we have to run any type of referendum or election. >> I'll make second by any further discussion hearing none. All those in favor actually this is the polling place. Sorry for one ahead of you guys. So you'll see where these uh where these all end up. So Madison City Hall and I'll take a motion to >> approve by second by Matt. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor. Uh 17.0 is the policy updates. So Shannon, Kent, and Marine are on that committee. You'll see those um changes. a lot of uh if I remember correctly, a lot of
041just taking stuff out or rephrasing things. Um no major changes. There are no questions. I'll take a motion to approve. I like motion. >> Motion by Shannon. >> Second by Kent. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor. >> I motion carries. Uh 18.0. This is the first reading. Um this is a new policy recommendation from MSBA and the uh business office. So Marie, you got that? >> Is there any um anything noteworthy to point out on the 18 new policies for >> I would say no. We're just taking the personal electronic device policy and like nesting it underneath 524. Um Dr. Moro from MSBA suggested that it's a separate policy than actually 524 which is our overall internet and technology use policy in the district. And then Drew recommended that we have policy
042704 in the district which we currently do not have. And all of those details are Like I said before, we do in practice. We just don't have >> We do. We just did not have a formal policy. You are correct. And this one just makes it official. >> Any feedback on this? >> So, we don't have a policy on what Scott came up with for the tassels for graduation. >> Um, have we voted on that? Are we bringing it up tonight on the agenda? >> I don't think so, but it certainly can come up on a future one. >> He hasn't talked to me about it, so I don't know. As far as like an official policy, I don't know. >> I think we just had conversation, but I don't think >> I seen his
043proposed writing of it. I give back feedback, at least my portion of my feedback. Haven't heard any more on >> um well, we will bring to a future meeting and have the board discuss. >> Yeah, I haven't uh 19 is to establish the date and time for the school board organizational meeting. This is >> the first meeting. Sorry. >> So the the organization meeting. So typically that's is a certain day that has to happen. >> Yeah. >> Right. >> Tuesday first Tuesday. That's what we did last in the morning. >> So be January 5th. 26 >> 26 >> 7:30 a.m. >> Did you say Monday or Tuesday? >> Monday. >> Tuesday. >> January 6th. >> Do I get a choice? The morning doesn't work. >> I got to be at work at 7 a.m. Just
044one minute. Work later. >> Well, how about we have it afterwards? >> I won't be there. >> How do you know? >> One or two. >> You're that far out. >> That's most lined up. We have to have 100% participation with this or just a forum. Just aum. >> So, which one are we doing? >> 6 at 7:30. >> So, take a motion. >> Shannon second. Further discussion hearing none. All those in favor uh monthly building reports. We'll see those exhibits from um administrative staff. Marine anything you want to highlight or call out? >> I don't think so. No question. >> Okay. Move on. The only thing I was going to bring up to the board is just that um we have an event coming up and I think I mentioned this before in our
045um updates, but uh the slam dunk stigma event was something that was started last year in partnership with Dawson Boyd School District. Last year Dawson Boyd hosted the event. Um the purpose of it is to just bring awareness um of mental health and to kind of squash the stigma that or the stigmas that can be around mental health. And and so what it was last year is during the Dawson Boyd versus Slack Parl boys basketball game from pregame through halftime there were a number of booths and stations set up with people from all around our region in healthcare and mental health care providing resources um for families. It was a very well attended event last year and um the the plan when this was dreamt up was that it would switch houses each year. So
046this year it'll be in our commons area during the the boys basketball game and then in future years we're looking to shift it up so that it would be in Dawson boy next year with their girls basketball game and then the next year be ours. Um and then on the off years like this year the girls basketball game is going to have some promotional stuff going on at the game to promote the event. So um just a very positive event. I think a very worthy um cause to bring attention to and so I just want board members to be aware of it. I think it's tenatively set for February 10th this year. Um and so you'll hear more about it as we get closer, but I just want the board to be in the loop
047on that. >> Any questions, comments for staff? >> Thank you, Scott. Um the school board reminder, next school board meeting will be on a Wednesday, December 17th at 5:00 pm. And then the uh just a reminder, the annual leadership conference is January 15th and 16th. So if you're interested, you sign up for that. Uh so then we'll move to 22 other business uh in the JV football. >> All right. So, as one of the members of the three members that are on the athletic committee, um, for those of you that are aware and those that are not aware, our JV football team, uh, was scheduled eight games. They played roughly four, one being labeled a scrimmage due to the fact that they can't play a game until varsity plays a game. And then they played
048three other games. So they played 50% of their games. However, they were unable. We had to cancel the rest of the games. Basically, due to the fact that we had such a high number of injuries on the varsity side, they pulled some of the JV players up to play varsity. However, some of those players didn't play varsity or they played some varsity, very little time because we were getting our butts handed to us for the entire game. So, at the end of the day, I felt And I still feel this way, but I need to bring it to you guys' attention for a vote that we should look at either reimbursing all of the JV players their $90 U fee or give them 50% of their fee back due to the fact they only play
04950% of the game. That's how I feel, but I think it needs to go forward. And obviously there's other opinions in regards to if we open up Pandora's box injuries and everything else and I'm willing to hear it and listen. My m my mind is made up but I mean obviously I'm only one of six so I think there needs to be some further discussion from those rescue members and how you feel. >> Yeah, I think it does open Pandora box. I think it would set a precedent that if I don't play half the season, whether it's injury or I don't play just because I'm not a starter, um that then we'll have requests to refund those activity fees. Um did this team they practiced all the way through the season or once they cancelled
050games they were done with practice? the practice. Okay. So, we got we had some we had expense there then for having coaches etc. and they got some learning from it. They didn't get to play unfortunately but they I would see it as they got a benefit because they kept practicing. Um so I I wouldn't I wouldn't uh I would be for it. I think it's too much I would agree because I think when you go out for it's not classified as AJB season. It's classified as more or less varsity 9 through 12 football or any other sport. It's you're not it's not written anywhere that you're guaranteed to get X1 games anywhere in any sport. And I think it would open up a can of worms for everything because then it do you want to
051go out and you don't play because you're not whether it's your first year playing or anything like that then then what do you do? >> I mean the unfortunate part is it it hurts the program in the long run right like the fact you have a JV is to try to build your program and you're not able to do it it discourages that. I don't know that, and I guess this would be a question, like had they known that there was only going to be three games for JD, would they have not gone out? I don't know that that would, you know what I mean? Like if at the beginning of the season, we just said, "Hey, there's only three games of JV." Would those kids not have even went out at all or would
052they have still wanted to go out and play those three games? and practice and try to get better so they can play later. And then the other part of that I guess we have a maximum amount that they have to play for sports, right? So if one of these students if their families were at those maximums and even without this one sport, this was their free one. So, do we really give that money back or because they technically had to pay for these other sports and and you get into all kinds of scenarios where I think it's it's not going to be a pretty waste go off of that too. I mean, even I get the part that they didn't get to play, but I think you start bringing in people again like talk about
053injuries. get hurt from my obviously junior high. Well, coach, but we had a kid who got hurt second day of practice. Now, do we can his parent come back and say, "Well, he didn't get a play." I mean, he got hurt. Unfortunate that he got hurt, but that again, I think you open up the box. Not just the kids that didn't get to play because they didn't have a junior JV team. But now, are we going to start getting people saying, "Hey, my kid didn't get to participate because they got an unfortunate part of practice or unfortunate part of the sport." But again, um playing time is not guaranteed for sports. So that would be my two cents on it. Create a could create quite a response. >> Why why do the games get cancelled?
054>> Because there was too many injuries. Even though we started the conditioning of our varsity sooner, we still had so many injuries that we had to pull from our JV to man our varsity. I believe there's I believe there's limitations on number of I know for like basketball you can only play so many quarters a night and I think in football since you don't double up games I believe there is a maximum number of quarters that you can play in a week so again it's one of those that you look into that sort of looking at rule and regulations now you play a full JV game on Monday and then you're expected I mean because again our starting quarterback was our starting JV quarterback he would play when the JV came in on varsity. So
055if he plays four on Monday for their game, now if he plays four on Friday night, they come back and look at and say, "Oh, hey, by the way, he was ineligible to play. Granted, we went 1 and8 on the year, so it wouldn't have affected us a lot, but it's one of those that if you did have a successful varsity season and you do you do that, now are we going to start getting in trouble at the state high school league because you have ineligible players playing?" I'm trying to remember, but was it the four games that had to be cancelled or missed. Wasn't one of them because the other team was in the same boat. >> I I believe that that I think there was and I don't know for because I don't
056coach JB, but I believe there was one that we were our ambulance was supposed to cover and we were all ready to go out there and I got a last minute message from Zack and they canled the game because they were in the same boat that we were. >> So like right now we don't have a C squad on girls basketball because numbers, right? So, how would we determine on that because there no games who would get refunded money? That that would be one of the scenarios that I know Zach expressed some concern about. Another would be that we do get hard springs once in a while where we, you know, well into April, we're getting snow storms and cancellations and things. When that happens, it's not unusual that we can't make up all those
057games. And we could have, I think, very easily two, three in the Badger, maybe even four contests in some of these sports where they would get cancelled just simply because we can't get on the baseball field or the softball field or whatever. And that would just be something to be aware of. If that was the route we went, I don't know how we would differentiate that situation from the one we're talking about now. And is this is this usually typical? Like it's not typical, right? >> This is the first time I've ever seen that. I don't think we've ever cancelled a junior high game or junior varsity game since I've been coaching for four years. >> And we're talking about kids that probably already know that they're not varsity material, but they went out to
058G because they like to still play and they didn't get to play. But they got to practice, but they didn't get to play again. But there's still expense involved with that. Buying helmets, buying pads. >> The pads are already paid for. Are they not? Are we buying pads every year? >> Because I'd love to see it. >> There's reconditioning cost every year. Your helmet that's used has to go back to Redell or wherever you buy if they recondition it. They can throw them out if they are in a bad in bad shape. And then you are responsible to pay for that helmet again by anyone. I mean, so there are >> so we do, if I go look back, I will see expenses where it's saying that we sent our equipment in for reconditioning and
059we purchased new equipment. >> I'm sure if you love this junior, I had all brand new helmets this year. A lot of them newer helmets because we were Yeah, because and again they phase out you I believe and this is from an NFL style but like 10 years if your helmet is made older than 10 years you cannot use it get it. That's not the situation. The same with us. I'm sure there's state I school league rules that say once your helmet gets so so old that they're obsolete. There's there's styles of helmets that are obsolete now that you can't even use in games anymore. But there are reconditioning costs that that go into it that they and that's why helmets look new every year because they do send them in, they buff them out,
060repaint them. Is it all of them? That I don't know. But they they send in I mean you got to recondition stuff. So, our equipment is getting reconditioned. You know that for a fact? >> I don't know that for a fact, but I I mean, the way that the way the helmets look every year, they've got to they've got to be doing something. >> I mean, some of we would have to have a rotation of new equipment. Yeah. We'd still be playing with >> 1990s equipment. Well, in some of them they do have like in the helmet it does say like this was reconditioned this date or this part was re-evaluated at this date and extends it like date to this. >> It's it's a sticker inside the helmet. I just personally believe that as
061a kid who wants to play ball and be able to practice and play. If they were denied that, then I believe that they should get something done. >> Technically, they're not denied. It's just it's the it's just the circumstances of this year. It's not like if it would continue like that, I say, "Yeah, we'd have to do something." But I don't think one year we should give money because then that would be like saying a varsity player that doesn't get to play because technically they don't they don't get to play because they're not all fight or good or whatever. >> So if they don't play um then they get the money back. So that's because varsity you're not guaranteed to play. It's even in the um rules. >> Junior high in girls basketball, everybody has
062to play. Doesn't m doesn't say how much, but you have to play. So I mean it's just if this would happen again maybe next year, I think we'd take a look at it, but I don't think we should give money back. In all honesty, I don't I don't really like the paying for the sport to begin with. Like it's something new when I moved here. It was the first time I had heard about you had to pay to play at a public school. But I mean with the where we're at, I don't I don't know how you you make an exception here, but then like I said, girls basketball doesn't have a C squad. So >> Well, signing up for a C squad because they knew they don't have a C squad. >> Well, they
063don't know that. Everybody signs up, >> right? They signed up. But so if there isn't a C squad, then what? We don't give them their money back. >> No, they play the B squad. If they play better practice like >> that makes no sense to me. Why would you do that? >> Well, there was a player last year that was the first time she'd ever played basketball. Came out for varsity basketball as a senior and didn't play. >> Are you going to give her money back? First time they've ever played basketball. First time I ever picked up a ball. >> And I guess we need to look at it as they're they're paying to go to the practices. The games are a bonus or a privilege. >> You're still going to the practice. You're still
064>> never once paid to go to practice. Who plays the who pays money to go practice? >> People pay money to go learn the piano. So >> I learned to play. I played and I didn't have therapists on the line. And I didn't have an ambulance there during practice or a game. We played football. >> Explain. >> Oh, I broke my toenail. Okay, come here and go see the PT. >> Okay, now true. >> Brought this up probably two, three years ago that we were going to get to this point where we've got declining enrollment and our enrollment is 30 40% makers. they don't play football. So 30 40% of your junior senior class now as these kids start growing up are not going to play football. And you already had a 50/50. So your
065class is 60. You have 30 boys and 30% of them are going to be not going to play. You cut that down. Ideally we should be playing nman football but our enrollment doesn't allow for that to happen. But we can petition for it. >> But I mean, that's where we're at. Or it's a combination with Dawson Boyd for junior high and JV and things like that. And it's it's not just football. It's going to be basketball, too. We don't have a C squad anymore. We used to have ninth grade C squad >> varsity and we got cut. We don't have that anymore. And it works. You'd have to have almost every single they go out for a sport in each class to fill some of these teams. So, it's it's the fact of where we're
066at and what what our demographics are and what our enrollments at. It's it's unfortunate, but >> and again, I think it comes down to I mean, like you mentioned, well, if you're not going to have you're not going to have a season squad like Ken said. I mean, you don't know that until you have kids sign up. I mean, so I think again, you can't say, "Well, we'll play like to schedule the games." Well, we'll see what August brings for football. Using football as an example, can't wait till August because by that time, trying to get everything scheduled is going to be a pain. I mean, it's one of those that truly is waiting. I mean, the for my personal example, the roster that I got for junior high last spring, I was going to
067have 14 seventh graders and I ended up with seven. So, I mean, it is one of those our team was going to look I thought we were going to have two separate games, two separate, but then eventually we weren't able to do that. So, I mean, I think it is one of those that it's going to be a yearby-year um classes that are different. I mean, our eighth grade class had 21 kids out. I think you're going to see those abs and lows where you might have a year like this and and again our issue in football was injuries. I mean it was that wasn't predicted able to be predicted. >> And for junior high for girls basketball we can almost have two teams for seventh. We just have one. So we had 13 14
068girls playing one game. >> So the eighth grade boys have 21 boys in eighth grade to try to play a game. and they're all supposed to be able to play regardless of skill. So why don't we move some of them up to C squad like we moved the JV some >> because we didn't at that time we didn't have enough um we didn't know because technically when everybody signed up there was going to be over 20 then four or five dropped out be before practice started and I know Scott um Scott um Zach was looking for another coach but it was so late like it was a day before we started practice and so there was not another coach we only got three coaches >> and the boys I think there's four out of varsity
069or something through C squad. So you can't really people up because then you'd be knocking out the others in that area >> now >> or we just did that for football. We moved them off >> didn't have enough. >> You got more than enough boys, >> right? So you can't move them off but he's talking A, B, and C. So, boys basketball has A, B, and C, right? >> So, you have 21 eighth graders out for eighth grade basketball to try to play 21 kids in two halves. They do three halves once in a while, but two halves >> and so they're not getting, you know, playing minutes is is small, right? >> It's it's the same way with baseball. If you have a strong number of baseball, which we do at last, you still
070will have kids on varsity that go up to varsity that may never see that varsity baseball field. That's why they went out for baseball. >> Now, I think that as a program, the football program obviously wants this JB to play as much as they can, right? Because that just improves the varsity program going forward. So, are there things that, you know, maybe we can take from this and learn that say, hey, when this happens, we start seeing this happen, we need to shift something and maybe set up some other type of scrimmages or things that can occur after varsity is done or something to have a couple more games to get some more of that playing time and bring some of those guys back down. You know, maybe that's something that we need to take
071away from this is the the lessons learned. How can we how can we make that better if that happened next year? What would we do? >> What Matt just said, a player can only play so many quarters. >> If you do, but if you do a scrimmage, that's not a game. That's a semantics. You know, it's funny, too. I mean, you do you. >> So, why didn't we scrimmage these kids to play? You can find team scrim deal the other issue with with football >> because you could you could call Dawson say hey you want to have another scrimmage and they might say >> well I'm saying let's say we're up against whoever let's say let's say Dawson for example it was a regular scheduled game but we didn't have enough man for JV to
072play why can't we have that before the game starts say well we're going to still scrimmage it can still count it as a win or a loss on their record but then at least we can move people around so we can call it scrimmage instead of play game. >> There was times they didn't have I think some of the issue is so the difference between I mean it's similar to baseball. I mean if you have 30 first basemans it's hard to play a game. I mean you can put them other places but you can't I mean we're not yeah we're not going to putund 110 pound kid in the line because we have four linemen because a bunch of them are hurt. It's like you can do that but then you might be looking at
073another injury. I mean >> you called it scrimmage. You could have moved some of your varsity down in order to fill the ranks of AD. >> Yeah, >> that's what I'm saying. Like >> there's a question kids want to come down and scrimmage extra with a chance of getting hurt when you're already short kids to begin with. >> What I was saying is like after the season, the varsity season's over, per se, you may be able to set up some more of those scrimmages while playoffs are still going on. We'd have to look at the rules, but from a JV perspective, you might be able to have a couple more after the varsity season is technically over because chances are if you're in that situation, your varsity is not advancing very far to the playoffs,
074right? >> But like he's saying like we lost Tuesday, WME lost Tuesday. Call them up say, "Hey, you know, we're both done. Do you want to have and they I believe YME was another one that really struggled to have I think they actually might have been the ones that canceled on us is saying, hey, do you want to bring your JB? You can bring your 10th graders that played every single snap of varsity. We don't care. Bring them so you have an 11 to 15 man people and let's just play an extra scrimmage at the end to get another round of reps in where your 10th graders are playing against kids of their equal age, size, scale level. >> Does the high school that >> that I don't know. I mean that be something that
075I think this happen in the future is if you have could possibly potentially do that to get some more. >> It just sounds like we didn't do our due diligence to ensure all of our players had an opportunity to play. That's what it sounds like to me because you're saying, "Well, we could have called it a scrimmage. We could have done this. We could have done that. We didn't do nothing. We just said, "Here, thanks for the 90 bucks. So bad. So sorry. Thank you. We got to practice." So, >> let's bring it to a vote. So, at least it's on the record that I brought it up because I still think it's an issue. >> Okay. So, you're motioning? >> I'm making a motion that we reimburse 100% of the JB or 50%. I'll
076even go down to 50% of the JB's fees because to all the JV players due to the fact that they only play 50%. Second further discussion all those in favor 50% >> I all those opposed I Thank you. All right. Anything else for this evening before we hear? None. I'll take a motion to adjourn. >> Motion by seconded by Kent. Those in favor? I opposed motion