001I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Set this up beforehand, but I think we're at the point where we need a student to read our statement if that's where we normally are. The mega statement. So, who wants to read the mega statement? I will volunteer. You want to grab a kid at random? Put them on the spot. I think we should do that. That's a good call. Mr. Mark, send someone in. Who's the closest kid? I um I'll do it. I got the perfect student. You got the perfect. She's She just graduated, but this is my way to give back. Funny. [Music] She goes, "Oh, no. You have it pulled up.
002I got it. I do. So, kind of put me on the spot here, babe. Do you have it pulled up on your computer? Um, I do. She wants to come here. Yeah. Go over here. Can you read that for us? Yeah. Just like out loud. Yes. Yep. Your head doesn't do us any good. All students will graduate prepared with the knowledge, skills, attitude, and behaviors necessary to achieve their personal goals and make a positive I impact in the world. That's perfect. Thank you. And you know we record these. You can play these back if you want. So I will not be doing that. You know what we do next is normally after the mega statement is a student the student representative kind of tells us what has happened in the last couple weeks in school.
003You haven't had that, but anything to tell us has been going on in the last month? Um I graduated. I don't know what's going on anymore. What's going on with you? How are your college plans coming? Yeah. Oh, it's it's great. So, um I did get accepted to WPI. Told you guys about that. Yep. Last time. I did get accepted. I am going. Awesome. How about you? I am really excited about that. I have my roommates and my dorm figured out, my classes, and I leave next month. So, all right. and and your mom's getting a goat from you before you Yeah. Of all the students to choose from, why would Mr. Martyr go out and choose you? Um, when I was in ninth grade, uh, oh, here I go. When I was in ninth
004grade and um, what was it? AP uh, human geography and we were online because of COVID and we had a we had a conference and he told my parents, he said, "Megan, she is difficult in the best way possible." Yeah, I am difficult. Yeah, but in the best way possible. Yep. So that's probably why that's why you're going to be a a good problem solver. Exactly. I have to be the problem, but you know, you know the problem. So I'm very familiar with arguing. Let's say that. Yes. Well, congratulations on getting in. Congratulations. Thank you for your help tonight. Thank you. We'll also see you in a little bit. Oh, yeah. You're good. Good. All right. Uh, good idea, Mr. Bartell. 4.01 is welcome at guidelines for public comment. Do we have anyone that signed
005up for the public comment section? Just the, uh, uh, rules that we have is that we have you state your name and address when you start speaking. Uh, we do require people to be have addresses in our school district. Um then uh the only other requirement I think everything else is probably common sense but we do limit you to three minutes so I'm sure you know that everything's prepared. Uh we will start with uh Rachel Rushman. Yes, that is me. I'm going to sit if that's okay because I'm going to be reading this letter. So Rachel Rushman, my address is 102124th Street in Chip Falls. Um, I have a daughter, uh, Evelyn Rushman, who will be a second grader this fall at Hillrest. And I'm here along with some other parents of the second grade
006class at Hillrest to urge the school board to provide an additional second grade teacher for this upcoming school year. Currently, as you know, there are only two teachers for the second grade class, which have 27 students in each classroom. Out of the six elementary schools in the district, Hillrest has the highest amount of students per class. The other second grade classes in the district are only at 17 to 19 students each. Uh that is obviously not an equitable distribution among the elementary schools. Adding a third classroom at Hillrest would create class sizes of 17 to 19 students each, which would then be comparable to the other schools in the district. The Triple Falls School District has stated that the target class size for lower elementary students is 18 to 22 students per class. The current
007setup is clearly not meeting those standards. Having 27 students per class will without a doubt be challenging not only for the students but also for the teachers. When you consider the extra support necessary to ensure students are succeeding from what could be extra help with reading or math to help overcoming challenges with mental health or behavioral needs, it seems very unrealistic that a class size as large as 27 uh could be successful. Myself along with other parents have been notified of issues with bullying and behavioral outbursts in the classrooms in first grade which had smaller classroom sizes. So how will that be managed with even larger class sizes this year? Additionally, please consider the importance of each student's ability to learn to read. Research shows that if students are not reading at grade level by
008third grade, they are more likely to struggle in all other academic areas and are less likely to graduate high school. Many parents agree this current setup is not a viable solution. We've talked with teachers at Hillrest who also agreed that another class for second grade is necessary and has spoken with a school board member who is also in agreement with this. The school has said they are trying to retain enrollment and teachers, but with this current arrangement, parents, including myself, may also consider open enrollment or private schools as alternative options. Again, I urge you to consider funding another second grade teacher to ensure that these students will receive a positive learning experience and also give the teachers the necessary resources to do their job effectively. This includes hiring a qualified teacher that doesn't take any
009resources from another classroom in order to do that. Uh, thank you for your consideration. May I have a copy of that letter? Sure. Do you want it in writing or in email? Email's fine. I can email it. have a spare copy you can I do. It has notes on it if you don't mind that. I don't mind. I also have a copy of the spreadsheet indicating the difference between the second grade classrooms among district which I know you have but it's printed. Thank you, Miss Brushman. All right. Next, we have Erica Stevens. I just Erica Stevens. Um uh what's my address? 618 West Central Street in Chipoa Falls. Um I had emailed um everyone I think last week. Um so my I just want to echo what Rachel is saying that this is not okay.
010And last year for first grade, we were contacted at the very end of last year for a third section of first grade and they asked if I would be okay with my daughter being taught by an intern and then guided. You know, that class was going to be supported by a special education teacher and absolutely not. I mean, my daughter is receiving support as did I. Okay. And I indicated in that email um in reading and I'm not going to take risks I guess with her education. Um and you know I think what ended up happening because I talked with some teachers is that left the special education department tapped and then that one teacher that was ba is basically doing double duty. She was going to the special education department and helping there and
011then also helping in that classroom. So I do also, you know, worry about those se first graders who are going into a second grade class being taught with, you know, an intern um who was in learning herself, never taught those lessons, now going into second grade with those numbers. I mean, they're going to just I I don't know. I don't know. It's too much. So, I'm going to ask for a third section. Thank you, Miss Stevens. Next is Katie Hartman. Katie Hartman, 10381 124th Street in Chipua. Here, I just echo exactly what Rachel said. I just urge you guys really consider this third teacher, this third section, write in your mission, it's you're here to support and help these kids learn, and that's setting these kids up for failure. 27 kids in a class. How
012can you learn from that? That's just chaos. So, we just really urge you guys to really consider this. Set these kids up for success. Thank you, Miss Hartman. Next is is it Ann Sorry Hamlin. Okay. Um, uh, Ann Hamlin. I live at 1715 White Tail at the tippy top of Tier. And, uh, my daughter Gan Bean is going to be in second grade. and Gan requires a lot of services from Hillrest. And so I know a lot of what happened last year just in our little tiny ecosystem. And um and these kids have been in school together for two years already. And so there's um so we know what we're talking about when we're talking about the kids. We know what we're looking at. We go to swim lessons together. you know, um, so I'd
013also urge the, you know, the decision makers to take a look at not just the teacher to student ratio, but the other services that are provided by the school. So, title one, special ed, um, not even just staff to student ratio, I'm talking demand of services. where are the levels of services happening? Um because I think there's a lot more to consider than just even student to teacher. Um you know there's no paras in these classrooms. It's one person 27 kids whether there's two tantrums happening, five tantrums happening, four four chairs falling, one teacher 27 kids. Um teaching them how to read. So, so I just want you guys to take another look at look at your um pupil count. Uh what is it? 10.01 your own handout. So, thank you. All right. Thank you,
014Miss Hamlin. All right. I don't believe there are anybody else signed up for either the agenda related or non-aggenda related items. So, next on our agenda is the robotics team. Have Dr. Wolf come in. You guys all Thank you for coming. Thank you. Thank you, ladies. You need anything cleared out? Chairs. Need a helmet. Pushing stuff out of the way, but uh not a ton of people here. We help there. I'm guessing not everyone brings this kind of prop to their presentations. Don't be shy, robot. Okay. Well, I'll just get going while they're uh lining things up. This is about like live stream. So, is that the camera I should be like pretending I'm talking to? Either one. Well, that's distracting. Uh well, uh thanks for having us. Um always fun to be here. I
015will try to keep my comments brief because I'm under no illusions whatsoever. what you really want to see is this and who you really want to hear from is them. But uh we show up every year uh in part to say thank you to the district for uh supporting our our first robotics team. And I would like to offer you something in return. Um help with part of your job. Uh I've read the district's mission statement. It's frankly a little long-winded, but what it boils down to is prepare the kids for the real world. How can you tell if you're doing it? I mean, you have these discussions and I assume they start out with uh numbers like uh graduation rates and everyone's favorite standardized test scores. And numbers are fine. Nothing wrong with them,
016but I don't think they tell the whole story. Uh I do have some numbers for the robotics team. Uh this season passed, we had 27 high school students on the team. Uh we think that's sort of the sweet spot in terms of our logistics. Uh we also continue to run a uh a farm club as it were at the middle school. It's called Robot School through the Voyagers program. Uh we're going to double the size of Robot School this fall. So if you want a ballpark number, I'd say our combined robotics program is going to be dealing with about somewhere in the low 40s in terms of numbers of kids. Uh busy challenging season. Um the um students um that we have in in uh robotics uh do a lot of other interesting things. When
017we were here last year, we uh had just finished doing the make 48 rapid prototyping competition. I was under some constraints then and I couldn't tell you how we did. Uh I can now they won and it wasn't even close, was it? Not really. Um, that particular competition, this is just kind of a side gig. They had to come up with a concept, uh, run it past patent attorneys to make sure it hadn't been done before, uh, develop a design, build a nonfunctional prototype, and then give a, a video and inperson sales pitch. But we sent a team of three kids from the robotics team there who've been working together for years under time deadlines, and they said, "Well, that's not hard enough." So they built a working prototype and they didn't need the whole
01848 hours with about three hours to go. They said, "Can we have a deck of cards?" Because they wanted something to pass the time while they waited for the rest of the world to catch up to them. Now, at least the make 48 stuff I knew about. Um, in addition, during the most intense building and competition season I've ever been part of, about a quarter of the team also did Skills USA, various engineering things. Did quite well at the uh regional level. And last month we had three kids um competing in the national skills USA. This is stuff they're doing on the side. Uh by the way, tip of the cap to the uh other Chih High students who were there taking third place in the nation in the welding competition. That is genuinely remarkable.
019So good work, John Evil. Um on top of that, we have kids who are active in National Honor Society, Future Business Leaders of America, a variety of other design and artistic uh endeavors. So this is not a bunch of one-dimensional nerds building a robot. This is a group of kids who are able to do a lot more than the standard high school curriculum gives them a chance to in fact even beyond what you can do with the AP level in my opinion. Uh so we're a group of about 20 coaches 12 coaches now. Um and we see it as our job to give these kids a sandbox to play in. Um a place they can go and there's no upper limit in terms of what they can accomplish. Now, uh, we just graduated. Uh, what
020is it? Nine. Nine seniors. Uh, six of them are going to college in various STEM and engineering fields. Three of them are going to tech school. If you fast forward, uh, a decade, I think we're going to end up with a history professor, a diesel mechanic, the best dentist in the state of Iowa, and a half dozen mechanical, electrical, and software engineers. So, pretty good. I um look forward to continue to work with y'all in the uh year ahead. Uh we share your desire to get these kids prepared for the real world. And if on occasion maybe we've gotten them a little overprepared, I'm not making any apologies. I am thinking that uh going forward uh a senior gift for our graduates in the future should be a deck of those custom uh team 5826
021cards. We'll toss them a deck of cards and say, "Hey, when you're way ahead of the rest of the world and waiting for them to catch up here, it's something you can pass a time with." So, uh I believe I've used up enough time. I'm going to turn this over to uh these people. I apologize for not being able to run the robot in this room, but when you see the video, you'll understand why. Hi everyone. Uh I'm Brett Schaefer. I'm the mechanical and design lead for 5826. So I am responsible for doing most of the CAD modeling. Uh and basically what ultimately goes on the robot. So this robot was an incredible incredible feat for our team. Uh in the first six weeks of our competition, we built an entire robot and then competed
022at DUTH uh around January uh 1st and 2nd or sorry uh March 1st and 2nd. Um at that competition we had a lot of mechanical issues. So when we came back we almost totally rebuilt the robot and in another four weeks we had pretty much an entirely new robot uh to compete with at Lacrosse which was towards the uh middle of April. So that was about April 7th. Uh this robot has been done a lot of incredible things in its tenure. Um but let's talk about kind of what it does uh in general. So first of all uh we have our intake and our arm. So, what it does is it'll go around and pick up these little orange donuts uh that are called notes. So, I'll be referring to them as that. Uh basically,
023this can go and manipulate it in different locations. Uh as you see here, this is one of our goals. It's called the amp. Uh it's basically like a little mail slot that you're able to put it in. Uh and then later on in the video, it has there is a higher goal called the speaker. So, if you want to play that, we'll show a couple things on it. So, this is it going into the lower goal and then dropping Uh and then when we're going to pick up the notes, we have about six cameras on the robot that will automatically check the note and it will drive up to it called uh seeking mode. Uh and this is our automated shooting. So based off the position that is seen on the cameras, we are able
024to do all the job to get into the speaker very reliably. And then our final little thing up here that you'll see in a second is our favorite little party. Uh at the end of the match, we are allowed to launch thing called the stage, which is a chain that's about a little under 3 ft in the air. So you'll see right now the robot will, and again, this is an older version of the robot. In about 1 second, the robot will jump up in the air and latch onto a chain and then lock itself in place. So, there's a lot of really interesting things about this robot. Uh, just a little bit of statistics here. It has six cameras on it that help help us find our position on the field as well as
025look for these little orange notes. On top of that, there's about 16 sensors, 15 different motors, and a whole assortment of extra little bling to make it a little bit cooler. So, um, we'll take a little more mechanical questions at the end if you'd like. Um, but I'm going to pass it on to Megan. Hey, I'm Megan. as I've already talked to you guys before, so I'm not going to talk about my future anymore. Although although this has like been even just this past season has been absolutely incredible for me and it's been an amazing learning experience and I say that because when Brett said that we had mechanical issues in Duth um understatement. Yeah. So I'm the driver. I I drive this robot in competition. And so, did you know that when you make
026a robot that's really fancy and it looks really pretty, but it's really complicated and kind of fragile and then you give it to me to drive, it breaks. He knows that now. Learn my lesson. So, we did have some mechanical issues. I was a little rough on it. I had a great time. Okay, this was my last season of robotics in high school and I can confidently say that it was probably one of, if not the best one. We didn't accomplish as much on paper, but I had so much fun and I learned so much. And I love this robot. It's such a great robot. But, you know, now I'm going off on a tangent, but this season, no, this season's been great. We um we got um in in lacrosse we actually won an
027award for um gracious professionalism which is being kind and professional and respectful to your opponents and everybody. No matter what happens, no matter if you're winning, if you're losing, if they break, you break. you know, just be just be professional, just be nice to everybody. It's a big part of the program. So, we got that award, which I would like to partially thank the goat for because we did talk to the judges about him and how he the the goat. It's kind of a long story and I don't I I don't have that much time left, but yeah, I mean, I'm just I don't really know what what else to say. Hey, I mean I we can go for questions now cuz Yeah. I I I don't I don't have a tangent right now. What's
028the video shot at real speed? I mean, that's how fast you were driving it. Yeah. So, in a lot of our practice, we're actually throttling down. So, that's about half to 3/4 speed of our actual top motor ski. That wasn't even um I love the thing throwing it into the I don't know what you call that. Awesome. the speaker. Yeah, this the speaker is the high one. It's a lot of musical words this year for the theme. But so is speed part of the contest as well? Yeah. On the competitive side, uh just generally being faster means you can score more points uh in an amount of time. So uh if you push past like a 3/4 uh of your throttle, uh you generally come into a lot of current issues. So, we try to
029go as fast as possible and be uh as fast as possible with our arm movements and our driving and such. Okay, I have some stuff I did not forget. So, in April, I received an email from Megan pointing out that Mr. Walter has now done 25 years in robotics and how special and how much we appreciate what you've done, but all the kids really appreciate what you've done, too. And it was pointed out that you really only wanted two things from all this 25 years. One was he wanted his pay doubled from zero to zero. Non-negotiable, Steve. Non-negotiable. And the other thing was he really wanted a badge that said Dr. Walter, robotics overlord. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] We can also take care of the second part right now. Motion to double Dr. Walter
030Ser. I guess I'll have to update my resume one last time because robot overlord on there what's left. I was I was told that that was going to make All right. Now we got to make All those in favor say I. I. I. Motion carries double. All right. Any other questions? Also to tackle on what what you said. I mean, I I think this district really focuses on exactly what you said in that that mission statement. The fact that we have schools that are out there touting, you know, what the test scores in and that's all that matters in the number of kids that get into college. We are huge on the fact that if we could get a 100 kids, I don't care if they dial in the ACT and get a 13 because
031they don't care, but they can do this. We will take that any day. The people who do this and do it very well usually combine three different aspects in various proportions. We have some people with an absolutely unstoppable work ethic. We have some people who are so way more creative than you need to get through most days. And then we got they're all pretty smart. Some are really smart. Um these qualities are all necessary but they're not always evenly balanced. I forgot to mention that among our nine graduates, we had a validictorian who, and I say this with all affection, one of the laziest kids I've ever met. Anyway, we're going to keep at it. Board members have any other questions? Can I ask a question? Sure. Or two or three? Go ahead. What is
0325826? What is what the 5826? What does that stand for? Uh, well, when you join the First Products program, you get the next number in line. Uh, so we were the 5,826th team joined. They're up in the 10,000s now. Uh, we also have a name, Ava Automata, but when you go to events, everybody calls you by your number. There's just too many schools out there with similar names. We had two different like Thor and Viking related ones at the last tournament we were at. So, everyone calls you by your number. Thank you. Um, second question. Um, what feedback did you use from lacrosse to help you to rebuild and come up with this model? Were there specific things that you uh Yeah, there was a lot of different things. Uh, one just one of the
033main things that we learned was again reliability and robustness. Um, our old robot had a lot of uh degrees of freedom and that made it very difficult to not only tune but also keep it reliable and structurally sound. Um, so pretty much right away when we got back from DUTH, we totally took the entire uh, arm sub assembly off and then rebuilt it, redesigned it, um, and then made it what it is now. Uh, and just another thing, the intake that picks up and shoots the game pieces went through 14 different iterations and four or five of them was in the four weeks between uh, Duth and Lacrosse. So, it was just a really fast like mad dash of fixing things and kind of redesigning and fixing a lot of the problems that we had
034before. And then my last question, what skills and/or knowledge did you find most helpful in your educational journey to help you be so successful on the robotics team? Yeah, kind of tired today. Sorry guys. Um, so definitely just things like um communication skills that I did from like my um you know my communications class in high school, AP seminar. Um just being I know it's very unpopular but being forced to go up in front of the class and give a speech help. It was helpful. It sucked but it was helpful. And these the I mean the communication skills are a big part of it. The technical skills too are um I I admit I was not a teched kid. I did not take many teched classes. So I um this was mostly just um robotics
035teaching me these things. But it was it was it was definitely more of the the people skills for me that the my years of just school has helped me with. Definitely. Um, kind of same thing here, just people skills, too. Uh, AP Seminar was a huge help. Uh, joining forensics this year was incredible. Um, it's a great program to just get to know and meet a lot of different people. Um, technical side, uh, a lot of the CAD classes were super super helpful. Uh, that was one of our major leaps this year was just making sure we had as much of the robot CAD before we actually started building it as possible. And that really helped a lot. See, so I I never joined forensics because it over overlapped with robotics and I didn't want
036to miss robotics. So, thank you. Thank you for giving me the time to ask. Just one last question. So, one of my favorite hobbies is I play blackjack and count cards. Do you think I can borrow your team for a weekend? There is an entire subtopic of strategy that uh transfer very very well to what you're talking about. Uh, the level of strategy discussion that that this guy in particular gets into is very very arcane. I can see that from his discussions. In three hours with you, I'll teach you how to count cards. We're watching you right now. All right. Thank you all very much for having us. Great job. Thank you all so much. Excellent. Good luck to both. Enjoy your next adventure. Thank you. I am happy to report that OE3 is in
037full compliance. Uh the documents the necessary documents associated with it are included in that document. [Music] Um, for me it's the easiest one to report on. It either is or it isn't. And it is. Board members have any questions uh before we would look for a motion to accept this as our own report for further discussion. Is there a motion to accept this report as our own further discussion? So move motion by fear. Is there a second? Second by Mawa. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Motion carries. The board has now accepted this report. It is now ours to further discuss. Do board members have any questions regarding OE3 emergency superintendent secession? It is a real easy report. The only requirement is that we have a secession plan and we do
038have a secession plan. So, um, unless there are any questions using our operational expectation policy language. Is there a motion? Motion. Are you moving that the district is in compliance with O? Yes. I'm sorry. Yeah. Motion that the district is in compliance with OE3. Motion by Martin. Is there a second? Second. Second by fear. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. The board finds the district in compliance with vote three. Thank you, Mr. Holmes. All right. Next is our board's consent agenda. Any board member request the removal of any items of the consent agenda for separate consideration? Hearing none, I would look for a motion to approve the board's consent agenda as presented. So move. Motion by Olsen. Is there a second? Second. Second by Martnau. Any further discussion?
039All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. The board's consent agenda is approved as presented. Next is the superintendent's consent agenda. Is a board member asking for removal of the superintendent's consent agenda. Any items for separate consideration? Hearing none for a motion to approve the superintendent's consent agenda as presented. Motion by Magawam. Is there a second? Second. Second by Olsen. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I opposed. Motion carries. The superintendent's consent agenda is approved as presented. Matters reserved for board action. There are no items removed from the consent agenda for board action on either the board's consent agenda or the superintendent's consent agenda. Under 9.03, we do have an action item, a budget transfer. Mr. Trobridge. Thank you, Mr. Chuck. Um this is something that we do a
040couple times a year here. Uh making sure that we're doing some budget monitoring. Uh other than your regular monthly u look at financials, uh there are several reports uh within board docs for your viewing. All as of June 30th. That's the end of our fiscal year. All booked as of July 16th, which was last Tuesday. Uh in preparation to make sure that these are ready for your work packet this evening. Uh we have an executive revenue summary, executive expenditure summary, school budget summary by object. Those are reports that are quite familiar to you. And then a couple other additional reports that we we bring to uh these updates, a budget source summary, budget object summary, a budget function report, and budget function summary. So kind of in the weeds, a little bit higher, a little
041bit higher, a little bit higher as we move along. So, first of all, uh if you would please look at the budget source summary. Uh this is our list of revenues. Uh in a fairly detailed fashion, as we know, uh state aid, property taxes, the final year of Esther dollars, Esther 3 this year are a bulk of our revenues. We are under budget in some of those areas, but we're over in other uh some there's a few coding changes in here that happened throughout the year, but one that I want to highlight is 280 interest on investments much better in that area this year uh than we did in past years and we have planned for better results uh for the next year and it's a result of economic conditions um nationally and locally uh
042and statewide. Overall, we were projecting uh to be slightly overbudget in revenue and that's where we were. Uh switching to uh more of the expense side, looking at a budget object summary. Again, as of June 30th, this lists our expenditures in a fairly detailed version of the what uh here. Again, similar to revenue uh in a budget plan, there are some overages and underages uh and we would expect some of that. When we met in January, uh we did highlight that 241 medical was trending high and it was trending high both in the active and retirey categories. So it affects 218 also. So those two different object sort objects. Um but much of it comes down to timing. Uh as we straddle a fiscal year and it seems like I bring this up every year.
043you know, we don't as we hit June 30th, July 1st, uh we have some stop-loss reimbursements that we'll we will receive for coverage that was services that were rendered prior to to June 30th, but we won't get those revenues till after July 1st. Uh we did have some some savings. Another area that I'll highlight here was some unfilled positions. That's an unintended benefit. Obviously, we would rather have our people in our positions. Um, and we also ran into a couple projects that we were working on that we had intended to finish up by by fiscal year end that the amount of rain that we had uh delayed those projects a little bit. So, the end of the day, it all worked out okay. Uh, but some of those portions of those we were able to
044progress bill all of them, but some will push into 2425 and we somewhat anticipated that could happen. uh between the end of the school year and June 30th is not a large amount of time. So, some of these projects are a little bit bigger than we can normally accomplish in that time. As we filter all of this through, expenditures are slightly over budget, but overall slightly below our revenues. So, as we we hit the end of the fiscal year, I think we're in a decent position here. We do have a few other reports that I'll highlight and then just kind of give you a kind of a recap here, if you will. We have a budget function report again as of June 30th that's summarized by some of our uh program categories and as that
045filters out into a different book uh some overages and underages uh mostly healthc care cost related but we do have some open open enrollment expense sometimes that fluctuates throughout the year that uh is difficult to budget for. We also have a budget function summary and this is a little bit more major so rolled up. Um again as we filter through a higher level of function here there are some overages and underages. Uh but based on those things previously mentioned when paired with revenue overall from my perspective I think decent. We also have for backup and viewing if you want to get a little bit more granular, take a deeper dive, an executive revenue summary, executive expendit expenditure summary, and that schoolboard summary by object. And I always like to just say a reminder on that
046object report. Remember, it's by fund and then revenues first, then expenses. So, sometimes that report's a little hard to navigate, but uh all of our year-end payroll payables, receivables are all playing out pretty well. uh we have everything captured that we know of. We may have some things that will trickle in here uh over the coming days and weeks. Uh but I wouldn't expect that that should be anything major. Uh we're recommending to leave uh the year-end budget as is. This will set us up well for our final aid figure that we won't receive until October 15th. But it's important to get our aid that we spend our budget and I think this does that for you. This doesn't rep require a budget publication. We will be able to do a a restatement of this
047when we do our fall budget report. We're not moving money between between funds or anything. Another thing I'll add, our auditors are here this week. Uh things are going well. Uh well, I shouldn't say they're working remotely. Uh but the audit is taking place this week. Uh things uh from an audit perspective are going well and I would expect that that will continue. Uh so as we finish our year-end work, finish the audit, we would come back to you in August if something turns up that is different uh than we expect or if we need we have some sort of material issue that we would need to address or we need to to restate anything that's significantly different than than what we have before you tonight. So, our recommendation is to ask for a motion
048to approve the budget year-end plan as presented just so we're all on the same page in terms of that and obviously answer any questions that you might have. Board members have questions for Mr. Trobridge. So, we're over budget 149,000. Is that what I'm reading then? Yeah. And what is that like 0.12? Pretty small. Yeah. 01. Yeah. And being a little bit over in revenue, you know, overall 129,000. Well done. Any other questions? Otherwise, the recommended action is to approve the budget year end plan as presented. Motion by M. Second. Second by fear. Any further discussion? Second. Clerk, roll call, please. Sharon Malam, hi. And Miss Fair. Hi. Dave Martin. Hi. Eggy McKelp. I Steve Olsen. Hi. Dave Czech. Hi. All right. Motion carries. Uh, thank you, Mr. 9.04 consideration of communication committee meeting notes. Uh
049members present were Steve Olsson, Dennis Fear. Others present were Kathy Striker, Jeff Holmes, Chad Trobridge, and Angela Hills. Uh Files, sorry. I always call you Angela. Should be Miss Files. You should added yet. Yeah. All right. Uh so is it who is the chair of the committee? Is that Dennis or nominated Steve Olsen? That's what I saw. Yes. Um we met um as we discussed earlier um we're going to develop a program where we are going to open up our walk and learns to public. And so Kathy's finishing up the thing. So, it'll be an invitation and so we'll we're inviting we're going to take recommendations from principles or administrative people as far as how the names are. We're probably going to limit it to three to four to five people um per walk and
050learn. This will be serve a couple purposes. is going to um give the public, especially the people that are maybe thinking down the road of running for the board or want more information, they'll get a chance to walk and see some of the what's happening on the inside. Um, also it lends itself to more transparency as far as what's happening in the school district. And um so I like I said I think it's a good opportunity and also when we go to a school and sometimes it's three or four board members and the staff this is and they've gone to all this work this will be an opportunity for that specific school to feel like there's you know more people seeing what's happening. So that's going to be happening as a former principal. You think
051that's a pretty good idea? Kind of exciting. Um, so anyway, Kathy is going to work out the details and get back to us and um, so they'll be coordinated through the through the communication program through the district. Court members have any questions? I guess the last thing is we're we have been getting some inquiries as far as you know what the next when the state is going to decide on revenue stuff. So, um, we just had discussions on how we can get that information out, um, in case anybody's looking and so Chad and Jeff are working on that. Thank you, Mr. Olsson. The recommended action is to approve the uh, July 16th, 2024 communication committee meeting notes as presented. Is there a motion? So, move by Olsson. Is there a second? Second. Second by Maw.
052Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Next under 9.05 is consideration of the policy committee meeting. And on this one, committee meeting members present. We're here. Peggy Mckelair. Who's the chair? Dennis. Yeah. There you go. So, um, you know, we met, we talked, uh, mostly about Title N. Um, a lot of that is still up in the air. So, we kind of went through the preliminary um policy changes and that sort of thing with it, but um due to the fact that a lot of it's still up in the up near with the state, we've set another meeting for I believe the 30th and we'll uh go through it at that time and hopefully have something to present to the board or recommend to the board after that.
053Board members have any questions for the policy committee? Recommended action is to approve the July 17th, 2024 policy committee meeting notes as presented. So moved. Motion by Maw. Is there a second? Second. Second by fear. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I opposed. Motion carries. 1724 policy committee meeting notes as presented. Communicating with the board 10.01. We have our enrollment update. Mr. Trobridge. Thank you. Uh this is something that for us as a admin team we discuss at least weekly if not more frequently than that. um go into something for us that that does change on a daily basis as we have families transition in and out of the district. Uh what we find is that this time of year our enrollments kind of ramp up. See that kind of normal for
054this time of year, but oftent times uh later uh mid August when other schools return is when we get a lot of records requests for students who have moved out of our district and who are going somewhere else. So, uh, it's again a little bit normal for this time of year to see some higher numbers. I'll talk more globally and then maybe we can get into some, uh, kind of deeper deeper things here. But, um, there are still, um, and we we brought you an update in June. There are a couple areas that we are keeping a very close eye on. uh both kindergarten and first grade at Homestead, second grade at Hillrest, uh both kindergarten and first grade at South View, and kindergarten at still as we've been slightly declining in enrollment as a
055as a district. This is something that we've tried to be very mindful of uh both in planning, but also in keeping an eye on uh where things are trending. So out of the 75 elementary classroom sections that we have, uh 53 are within our parameters, 17 are below our parameters, and five are over our parameters. And the reason I highlight that is because the five that are over our parameters right now, if we did hire, a third section would put us below our our targeted parameters. So it just it's something we keep an eye on to make sure that we're making the right decision uh as we move forward. So Unfortunately, that's not something we can necessarily predict with a whole lot of certainty until we get closer to the start of the school year,
056but middle level and high school numbers uh seem to be fairly consistent. Again, this is just an update and FYI that there's some areas that we're definitely keeping an eye on. So, Mr. Tbridge, can you touch just a little bit on what numbers we are essentially looking at? I mean, these aren't the final numbers that we're looking at and making decisions on. Correct. And I'm saying this, I mean, obviously, um, for the people that were here speaking and and seeing those numbers, those are the worst numbers, obviously. But regardless of whether they were or not, we would want to take a look at those numbers. But when do we actually look at the numbers and make the decision on that? Good question. I'm going to turn the start and then I'll attend others to chime
057in. It's it's one for me where we're constantly looking at these numbers. Uh, it's practically on a daily basis. We have adjustments that are made daily through our registars. So, we are very mindful of monitoring these numbers and trying to do the best with these numbers that we can for our students and their families and the district. I want to emphasize that, you know, actual enrollment numbers often fluctuate during the course of the summer and they will even fluctuate during the course of the school year. Then we also take into consideration the available resources and anybody considerations that we have. And then through our curriculum and special ed departments, we look talk about educational best practices and the research on optimal learning environments. Uh we look at everything from case loads, special services and initiatives
058that come down the pike. for instance, that 20 which is going forward in this next school year. And then we definitely listen to feedback from parents and teachers and the staff in that regard. Uh I do appreciate those parents, you know, reminding us that we're being watched. I mean, I get it. Uh it's not one for me uh that we take lightly. Our preference is to have smaller class sizes. uh there's a lot of factors that go into those determinations and the earliest I think that we can make any true formal uh recommendation on class sizes will be mid August and you will you know by then we don't it's not a decision made in silo it's not me making a final decision in regard to those things. It's in consultation with numerous people and
059taking into consideration multiple factors. So that's where we currently are. So in terms of looking at these numbers just to see what we're dealing with and how difficult this process is, if we just take a look at Hillrest, the fifth grade has 48 kids in it. And a lot of these numbers are relatively the same from year to year within a couple. But you go to the fourth grade, 71 kids. Is there a reason for that or is that just something that happens that we go from 48 to 71 kids when parents decide to have their kids? Well, um I would like to point out that on the bottom and this is the number that really bothers me is the um the difference between open enrolled in and open rolled out is 290 kids. And
060if you do the math, that's north of $3 million that our budget loses because we are seeing an exodus. You look at the numbers, the first, second, and kindergarten, we have the largest numbers exiting and then they're reintroducing themselves back in when they get up to the middle school and high school. And I've said this before that what CO I I don't wouldn't say taught, but what it showed parents is is that if this were ever to happen again, they could keep their first grader or their kindergartener home, but you can't teach physics right to your kid. And that's why when you look at the numbers for high school, they're pretty consistent. Middle school, not as consistent, but you get lower there. Kindergarten, we have 60 kids opting out, which is even with our own
061numbers, that's three full sections. So my my hope is that we could find out why we're seeing this in particular. I mean, that's my guess, but to to do some sort of survey or reach out to parents and asking specifically, right, um without judgment, right, that why are you pulling them out of these grades? Because we one of our elementary schools, we have several classrooms now that are completely empty because we've lost right so many kids at the elementary level. And this puts more pressure because then you see all of a sudden, you know, 53 or 54 for two sections. Then you don't have the revenue, right, that we just lost, which kind of balances things out. So, I I'm really concerned with that that bottom piece because that to me says somehow we're not
062meeting the expectations of parents and they're opting to leave. And um so in kindergarten, oh, let me just finish one. And just in kindergarten, that's 42 kids that that opted out over those that opted in. That's that's that's quite a sizable number. at what $11,000 $12,000 ahead 11325. Yeah. And so that's an immense amount of money that we could pull to to have other resources that we need for not just those students but others. And and what I will say Dave, I I don't like the 2:1 ratio out versus an in, but it's been very consistent over time and pretty common in larger school districts to see prior to co we looked into this This this number is a little bit these numbers are a little bit skewed because right now it's intent. You know,
063people who have filled out applications and as we roll over the data and find out who's really coming here and who's not coming here, it will look different. Uh as we get to the the September count, uh sometimes we just don't always get notified though that the family's moved into our district or has decided they're going to open and roll out and hadn't previously filled out. So, it is in In my experience, and we have done survey work in this in the past, it's simply as it's described, it's parental choice. Uh, and oftentimes it's for various reasons. You know, employment being one, daycare being another. I do I do see a lot of border balancing here. Uh, we are very large geographic district and have quite a few parents who went to smaller schools surrounding
064us, have a desire for their students to go to a smaller school. Um, so there are there are a lot of factors and I I look at the data, I don't like it either. Uh, but but and I also think one of the reasons why we get people back in high school is because the options we provide at the high school level very much so. But still, even 290 kids, even if we were to somehow um with some parents get them back in the district, it just puts us in better not only financial but a better scheduling, right? Staffing and even 90, even if out of the 290, if we were to get say 90 of those back, that would make a very large impact, a positive one for our district. So, I know it's
065been a problem, but we somehow have to become innovative and figure out what we can do. If it's child care, then we need to look at resources that uh that maybe other local governments provide and we can hook up parents with so that they can send their kids here if they have right child care needs, so on and so forth. But we just have to be innovative. We can't keep doing this. And as Mr. Trobridge has pointed down pointed out before the birth rate is going down. So if we don't somehow offset that by figuring out how to get some of these parents to bring their kids back in, then we get hit twice. I do think in addition to that, I do think we have an affordable housing problem in our community. And when
066I say that, I'm not talking about talking about affordable housing. Uh birth rate definitely is a trend statewide. Uh not scientific. People aren't having as many kids as they used to. I do I do think too that except for one. I do I I don't know how to I don't know how to analyze this, but I have a wonder. We are very heavily reliant on manufacturing jobs in our community and they're good jobs. But it, you know, when you combine that with cost of housing, affordable living and if that median price range is 350,000, it takes two really good incomes to pay for that. I just wonder if manufacturing jobs are jobs that cause people to move to work versus commute to. And I do think that contributes to some of this problem. I just
067saw a number that for a couple to buy their first house, median house, their combined income would have to be over 125,000. And so, and I know this is a tough tough thing, but we have to do we have to figure out something. We just can't just accept it. I I So, so two things in terms of what we can do about it. First, we have to trust that our administration has been looking at this problem for a long time and will continue to do. So, what can we do as a board? That's really, I believe, on a communication committee. We've talked about that before. What can we do, you know, to look at that and and and come up with some different ideas to maybe attract people here. That's what we can do is
068is have the communication committee, you know, if we want to put our heads together and bring storm back, the place to do it, you know, but we're going to be doing double duty because our administration's been actively looking at that as well. But you're right, that's something we got to look at. What I was pointing out was, you know, the the difficulty and for the parents, yes, you know, to say that that 27 is way too many kids and and we have to do something. Clearly, what we're looking at though is is a number of things. We have a difference. You know, you go from what I say 48 to 71 kids in a different class. the difficulty of of moving that around by telling parents, okay, we're going to force you to go into
069a different, you know, you're essentially redistricting. That's what you're doing to balancing it. And parents don't like to be told that, by the way, next year your kids are now going to South View or Park View or Milest, you know. So, it isn't that easy to just balance it out way. and he's but I would like to point out that the kindergarten first 2 grade the district's recommended class size is smaller than third fourth and fifth. So even at 48 24 is well within the recommended class size for fifth grade but 26 is way out of bounds right for um the the recommended for second grade. So, and yeah, um this is my this this is my a as a former teacher knowing class sizes, this is what bothers me the most and I can
070appreciate that. Um, one of the my personal idea and the thing that I'm moving forward this fall with people is it's actually an old idea that in order to counter that particular problem given everything that I currently know from all the research, what we need to do is make sure we're an organization that promotes its positives over its negatives. that the message coming out of our staff and out of our leadership, administration, board members and everything is is a focus on what positive things we have going on here. The things that we have going on with the programs with robotics, with CTE, with in the classrooms where you find success with that individual student and the things like the what the middle school did last year with positive messaging to parents and so forth. The
071best way to get people to understand how great this district is is through word of mouth. And it is just the polar opposite as well. If you want to bring a district down, let it be otherwise. My idea is to make sure that people in this place focus more on our positives, which far far outweigh our negatives. That's the answer to that problem. We need people going home, our students going home, our teachers going home and telling people how great this organization is, which it is. It's a great place to be. Chad, one question I had had about that. Um, have we considered possibly ask or maybe as a temporary solution for the Hillrest classrooms uh offering some of those parents to take a transfer bus in the morning to maybe a different if there
072was no other solution maybe we have we haven't just yet. Uh it is something that has been considered in past years. Uh it it's it's difficult. Um, some families will opt for that. It's hard to make that a one-year decision, though, but that's really what it needs to be. The other option that we do have for parents is a request for reassignment. It's not something that we necessarily promote. Um, but we may have to consider that as an option, too, to ask if anybody wants to voluntarily transfer to another school. There might be a couple people that, you know, really, you're not talking that many, but you know, three or four. The majority of people want their kids to attend their their home school. That's a tough thing to overcome. Can't you can't rule it
073out for sure. And of the the map is Hillrest the smallest if I'm if I'm trying to think, but of that distance, right, Hillrest is the smallest district or school of all of ours, right? Geographic. Yeah, geographic. Well, not actually. I'd have to I'd have to calculate them, but you know, it's probably second largest. It goes all the way to Tilden. Oh, that's right. I'm I'm thinking West Hill. Yeah. Okay, I got you. So, I guess going forward if you as an administration see a need where we as a communication committee can help or support you, let us know and then we will convene with that. Right. Uh so bottom line is when are the when are the numbers coming out that you really look at in making those final decisions? I think we'll all
074give you a different answer. Yeah. In August after the start of the school year, right? Part of the difficult it because I've done worked this job before is a lot of the smaller districts in the area don't have anybody working in their school offices during the summer. So until they come back, which is sometime mid August, they don't know who's leaving their schools and don't send their records request out. So it delays us knowing who's, you know, staying or going. So that's kind of the makes it hard. Okay. To Chad's point, often we don't know what the final number is going to be until they show up. Can I ask a hypothetical question then? So, and I'm not saying this is what we should do. I'm just asking. So, if we don't necessarily know till
075September, but we can put an extra aid in in really large classes. Is there a way to adjust it? Well, that was one of the things that we tried last year or whatever. Do you know what I'm saying? that last year for me given there were changes at the state level that allowed for us to essentially what I would call pilot that what we did at Hillrest last year and based on the outcome of it I don't think it works. So for me it's one where we have to make a decision whether it's going to be a teacher or not. Okay. I will say this though, 27 kids in the classroom, even if you put another adult in the classroom for kids that have ADHD or any type of attention, that's just way or kids
076with anxieties, it's over stimulation. And then the other thing is I worry about is we have a new principal at Hillrest and if teachers have 27 kids in a room, there's a lot of times that they just don't have a chance to work with the discipline there. they end up then having to rely more on the principal right to do that discipline just simply because they don't have enough right hands to go around. So um we are lucky in that regard we did get a seasoned principal position. Okay. Thank you Mr. Trobridge for your presentation andformational only discussion. So no action items. Next is 10.02 two is the student handbook revisions have to do with that student handbooks. Mr. Holmes, uh these are provided to the board just to give you an idea of what
077changes did occur and so that you're aware of those things. I in my review of both of those, I didn't see anything extraordinarily um different in years past. A lot of wording changes, a lot of updates to names. Um the the Title N stuff that's coming down the pike that will have to make adjustments and so forth will have to be made once we finalize the Title N and policy changes. So, nothing really jumped out to make special Uh but these are just typical changes that take care take place on an annual basis. Board members have any questions about the handbook revisions or anything that they saw that they want to discuss. Hearing none 10.03 is discussion of board activities. The only thing I have listed here is the July 10th 14th Northern Wisconsin State
078Fair. I know a number of us were there helping one of the booths. I think obviously we're going to have to have a discussion probably recap at some point in time of whether or not you know we feel that there's a continuing benefit of that or not. Um I know I was there with Mr. Holmes. We had a good time. I can see he used to be a teacher. He's really good with the uh younger kids that come up to the booth. I'm not sure how the other people handle it and everything, but he was very outgoing and engaging with just about every student. We tried to steal as many North kids as we could. Very keen at what sweatshirts they were wearing and what we had to do to pull them away. You talk
079about what we're doing to try to get enrollment going this way. Well, there were a lot of kids that stopped on Sunday to my booth and um when I got there I was told that there were no prizes left and not to pull out the wheel of chance. And I don't know how many times somebody goes, "Hey, where'd that that tall guy go with the wheel? We We want some more stuff." So evidently, Mr. Olsen was very uh uh gracious and handed out lots of things. Miss M Chris was there supervising me, so I can't take total responsibly a suggestion. Would that be fair, Chris? Yes. How many times did you say you Paul? You deserve a football. You get anyway. I like I said, I enjoy talking to the people. Like I said, I
080especially the first couple days um get mainly people from out of town. I don't know if the evenings you're getting more of the local people, but most of the people we were talking to were from out of town and using the same tactic that were here. been told that I when I try to talk about some of the benefits to some of the teachers that they've told me where they're teaching I I also Chris maybe said you can't say that we have a nice drug program for the staff you're supposed to be you want to rephrase that is that what you suggested our local pharmacy our our district pharmacy is good yeah yeah so it was fun you know And as a board member, when we get paired with administration, you know, you get to
081sit there for a couple hours and chat people up and I enjoyed that and I always have in the past with other people, too. So, all right. Uh, next is discussion of this meeting. This is probably one of our shortest meetings ever, which is good. Questions? Anybody had a Now's a good time to discuss this since we have time. everybody feel that they had an opportunity to speak what they wanted to say and communicate effectively stay in our roles. These are things that we've never read before. But did we not engage in side conversations, not repeat what was already said, not monopolize the discussion except for the president who's allowed to do that? direct comments to board members. Uh not interrupt each other. Speak when recognized. Uh want to jump in and everything good. Everything's
082good. So when are we going to get information regarding the kickoff as far as what time you want us there and all that stuff? Breakfast is served at 7:30 7:30 this year. And I think I sent a calendar to your calendar for Yeah, but the presentation starts at 8:30. 8:30. Okay. The only thing I don't see on here, and I talked to Kathy Striker this morning, is the Pure Water Days parade. Oh, yeah. And she is hoping that she might get one or two boards that would walk along. So, that does bring us to the future agenda items and upcoming events. We do have the policy committee meeting that is July 30th at 2 o'clock. We have CISA 10 annual convention August 1st at 7 o'clock. Uh board member Martino is the CISA 10 representative.
083Business after hours uh August 12th at 4:30 is the Oaklair or is that the Oaklair event district lunchon August 20th I would encourage board members to come to that one. They really really do like it when board members show up for their you know as new new teachers, new staff, people to have board members. Senior high schools on that. You'll also get one from our department. August 26th, 8:30 a.m. to 12 is the all staff kickoff at the high school. August 27th at 7 o'clock p.m. is the regular board meeting. And October 9th at five o'clock is our board data review time to be determined. Is that the one? That's the one. And before you discuss that, if you would, I I would also on that all staff kickoff, I would let board members know
084the guest speaker this year is Dr. Lona Cook, who does a lot of work in regard to u how would you say mindfulness? Mindfulness. positive mindsets and all those types of things and how to help promote that sort of work. Um, based on my conversation with her, you know, her being a former Chai student and a graduate of here and her outlook on things, I think she'll do a wonderful job with the president. Is this the time where I could bring up a possible agenda item for next month or is that is there a different way I should do that? I Well, I was going to suggest that maybe if you if we wanted to do that at a meeting, you should just put future agenda items as part of your agenda because then you
085could bring it up. Otherwise, I think you'd have to talk to Dave. Okay, I can do that. I just Yeah, just shoot them shoot shoot an email and we Okay, what happens is we just we'd like to have that before our uh agenda planning meeting that we have and that's usually the second week. Yeah, second week. So, you got plenty of time to do that. Um but question I think on the board data review. Um you know this is something that that uh was set up about I think what did we say five five or six years ago. Not really sure why seven years ago based on my conversation central office team members surrounding that data review which winds up being anywhere from a three to four hour night for board members and it's a
086sit and get just we bombard you with data. One of the conversations that we had at central office level is through our OES you're getting you're getting a double dose of the data uh for me it's one of those things where I I I think um you know what made a lot of sense we talked uh short briefly with the communication committee about this as well is possibly using that time for a shorter period of time and talk about strategic things rather than talking about just data and so forth, you know, still have the event that night, but make it shorter and make it more strategic. Is this the one we moved from June to October? Yeah. when this got started, I think, you know, I I want to say there was unfortunately probably a
087little bit more either discord or lack of understanding between the board and administration. And there were times when it really helped to have that extra sit down and and understand the data, understand what we were looking for in data in a in a you know, not pressure setting of having the public here where we could get the data. I it I don't necessarily see it as something that is going to benefit any of the current board members because of what you said. We are getting this data presented and I think we're getting it presented in our OES and everything and that's all it would be. Um but a a strategic session I think we could definitely use right now. Brought up one item tonight. We certainly have other things too. Yeah. One of the one
088of the things we were talking about is we have this three-year window and so we need to start looking forward to the day that our our money expires and then what what is our what do we can do to prepare and looking forward and it all encompasses everything from enrollment to just having the discussion so we don't get year three of our money and because now we're trying to figure out which way we're going. So just to kind of maybe step things out or strategically look at some stuff. So are are all board members comfortable that that our administration presents or prepares to present that kind of uh presentation rather than just basically reiterate the data and dump the stuff we've already got. Well, and to be perfectly honest, three or four hours of data
089is information overload. something a little more pinpoint useful. I agree. That give you guys an understanding of what we be looking for. Okay, sounds perfect. Any other item? You mentioned uh pure water days. Pure water days is when what's the dates of that? It's August 10th and they're meet around 12:30. You said they're looking for built along along with and pass I think pass out items. Yes. But you have to hand it to them now. You can't throw it anymore. They changed. That was an issue. Yes. Yes. Cuz kids would run out. You have to hand it to them. You can't throw it. All right. Any other activities that we didn't cover that a board member would like to point out that is going on uh with the board or the community? Hearing none. 01.
090We're looking for a motion to adjurnn. Motion to motion by Martin. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. We stand a journ. I just looked at my calendar. and actually gone there.