CFAUSD School Board Meeting Regular Session March 25, 2025 Source

001Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for one nation under God, indivisibley and justice for all. Right. Next is our mega statement that will be read by our student representative. All students will graduate with the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors necessary to achieve their personal goals to make a positive impact in the world. Right. And following that, of course, Addison is your student representative report. What do you have for us this time? Yes. Um, good evening, members of the board. I'm pleased to present an oral summary of activities across our school district for the month of March. A more detailed written report will be available at the CF AUDS stakeholders in the public minutes and in the board's monthly newsletter under board's um considerations. So at the

002high school, the FBLA chapter organized and hosted the Philly chip club um with 75 runners. TOSA, which stands for Health Occupation Students of America, hosted their annual blood drive and had 40 students and staff donate. Spring sports are off to a great start and freshman and sophomores took their preaccts. At Homestead, they are continuing to work through their conscious discipline implement implement implementmentation, excuse me. The students are doing great with the schoolwide readathon. Um they celebrated with an all school dance party. They will enjoy dress up days in the near future and students will start forward testing later this month. At Jim Falls in late February, families enjoyed an afterchool family glow bingo night. Um their monthly focus is determination, encouraging students to always do their best and persevere. students are participating um or excuse

003me preparing for the four tests in early April and before break they completed uh parent teacher conferences at Stillson students logged over 54,000 minutes um in their readathon money raised is going to the Stilson PTO to help fund field trips and various community building events and as a reward um earning their goal three staff members were slimed timed in an all school assembly and um they are also getting ready for forward testing. In conclusion, our district is well rested from break and ready to finish strong because summer is in sight. Thank you for your time and attention. I would be happy to answer any further questions. You're not going to tell us about what's in front of there? Yeah. Um last month I missed the meeting because I was at um the Grand Geneva in

004Lake Geneva, Wisconsin for DECA state and um I took fifth place and will be going to internationals at the end of April which is in Orlando, Florida. I'm [Applause] super missing the next meeting. Yeah, I am missing the April one. feel comfortable reading your statements now, so we're good. You should be nervous. He does a pretty good job. I know. I was a little worried he might take my job. It's the scholar. Just don't let him have the scholarship. Did you happen to interview Miss Roar about the sliming? I did not. It was a good video. It was a really good video. I will have to see that. It was warm and it felt like applesauce and it was blue. I wore a shower cap. She did not. I did not. I took one for

005the team. board members have any other questions? All right. Thank you, Mr. Zimmerman. Next is uh public comment. I see a couple of people have signed up. So, welcome. Um, we would ask that if you're going to speak, we have a timer for three minutes to allow you to speak and we ask that you give your name. Uh, members of the district and employees of the district are allowed to speak here. we don't have people outside the district. Um, and we also have rules on the total amount for each topic, but I don't think we have to worry about that number. Um, I don't believe so. All right. So, uh, we will start with Paula Downey. And again, please state your address. I know I have it here, but start by stating your address and

006then go ahead. 509 Goldsmith Street. Okay. when we retired and um my two children graduated from here so that's kind of cool and they're both teachers and um so I've always kind of had a heart for that and just seeing Chai High going through the years and everything and just the little different changes and um knowing that the young people now might be the ones that are taking care of me in the future you know gave me a greater heart to pray for them and to pray for you. So, I just had a little prayer here that I was just going to speak over y'all, okay? And then talk one other topic, okay? Um, so I asked the Lord, I said, "You be at the helm of this school board. lead each voice here righteously

007having the best interest of each child in their uh chipoa school district to develop into a productive person in this society and to give them the wisdom and strategies to steer this district in the right direction. Psalm 127:1 says, "Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. And unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain." So, we have a little prayer help that meets on Monday morning and so we're watching over you all and praying for you and lifting you up because I have a great respect for you and just the jobs that you have and what you're doing. So, that was just the prayer part and then the bathroom part. I guess I was just wondering um I know that the young girls middle school and

008such they are so conscious of their bodies you know and comparing themselves with others and everybody develops at different parts at all and then all of a sudden you stick you know a male in there how uncomfortable it must be for all of those girls not to say maybe even in the locker room. Well, I guess I just brought that up for something that maybe you could consider in whatever decisions you make about who goes where and why and how. Okay, that's all I have. All right, thank you. Next up is uh is it Katie? I can't read the first letter. Christ, you're so close and tricky. All right. Hi, I am Katie Christ. I live at 601 Squires Street. In the past week, I've had the opportunity to attend multiple events supporting our district.

009The first being the boundaries meeting. Um, while I have indeed filled out the feedback form for the committee, I felt like it was important to come talk to you face to face. Because I left that meeting with a lot of numbers and data that I know have been worked with tirelessly. However, I think it's important to put a face to who it's going to affect. While some on the boundaries committee may have students in the district, I know that many around the table um don't have children and um in the district right now and ultimately you will have say in what happens. My daughters currently attends Hillrest Elementary, a school that is very much on the chopping block. Um the West Hill has been a neighborhood for the large majority of my life. So when

010it was time to move back to Chipel Falls, my family made a huge financial sacrifice and chose to purchase a home on the West Hill so that my daughter could attend Hillrest Elementary, a very much neighborhood school. In two out of the three options proposed in the boundary meeting, it completely split the neighborhood in half, which I'm sure you'll get to later if you haven't already. Um, but it will no doubt have a rippling effect throughout the neighborhood um and how it connects to one another. However, I don't just want to give you the community aspect. That's a big part of my heart. I know that numbers talk and I personally have a lot of questions how we'll be able to pay for these boundary changes when we don't have extra money as it is.

011We need to think long term about what is best for our buildings, the the district, and our children. This whole process seems very rushed considering we're now at the end of March. School will end in just two short months and we're just finding out about the possibilities of what could happen. Mind you, these are this takes time. We don't want to rush it. Finally, I was able to attend the gala on Saturday at Market on River to benefit the Hillrest playground and I want to give a huge shout out to the Hillrest PTO who put an incredible amount of work that they have done for the playground right over there. Um, while I know some of you have may have donated out of your personal finances, I was frustrated to see to not see anyone

012um at any level of the administration or other schoolboard attend the gala or um be a part of it. When they said that we were fundraising for a playground with no support from the district, I thought that was just going to be zero money um that was given by the district, which is still pretty awful, but you got to show up in spaces to show that you care. You have to be there. So, I was sad to see that opportunity missed, but I hope that um those that represent our district can be present at those um places, especially if we're looking to a referendum in the near future. Thank you. Thank you. Next is uh Daniel B. Daniel B live at 916 Mile Street right around the corner. Um, I wasn't able to attend last

013month's meeting, but I wanted to talk about uh some of the actions or lack thereof of the staff up to the middle school when the intruder alarm accidentally went off. Um, the I brought my two middle school kids. I want them to be able to speak and tell you exactly what they went through and what they're feeling. But when the teachers aren't even present to help them u or if they're not there to help calm them down or kind of guide them in what to do and it's not just the teacher's fault. It it's up in the army used to be there was no such thing as a bad soldier. It was a bad leader. Well, the soldiers are taught by the leaders. So, you know, they always say goes down but not up. But

014so that's that's my point that it has to go higher than the than the teachers. So something something's wrong. But uh I want to defer the rest of my time to my kids so they have enough time to say what they want all feeling. Can you stop it? We're just Can you stop the call or just May I? Yeah, they're both signed up. Yeah, they're both signed up under me. Okay. After me, Rachel. Um Yeah. Okay. So, thank you, Daniel. And next is uh Rachel. Yeah. And just pause for one second. I do have an idea based on just what you said, but I do want to hear the students first. We're going to speak, but I have an idea. You and I need to connect. Yeah. Yeah. We don't have any dialogue. Just so

015that you guys know, we're not allowed to have any dialogue about any of these comments. This is the time where we where we listen to I just I want you guys to be aware. Yeah. Thank you. Some of the things that that go on or that have gone on You and you and I will need to have further conversation later. All right. Um, how not not to hurry up anything or whatever, but how long does the the public art usually take because they got homework to do? I'm not I'm not trying to rush anybody. Legit about doing it. Yeah. All right. Next is Rachel. Um, I live at 916 Mile Street and during the intruder drill, I was going to the locker room and then it went off and nobody knew if it was a

016drill or not and there was no teachers in the locker room. We did not know where the gym teachers were. There is two one well there's three female gym teachers. One was in the health room though, so there was two that could have been there and they were not there. So, we did not know where to go cuz we've never had a drill during when people were in the gym. So, we ran to the stalls to try to hide in them and nobody knew where to go and we were all just confused. So, then there was a girl who remembered that there is a back room. So, we found well we went to there and there was a camera in it. So, if there was an intruder they would if they looked at the cameras

017they would have knew where we were. And then we remembered that there was no gym teachers to lock the door. So one girl had to come out and close the door. I do not know if she barricaded it or anything, but we did not have the keys to lock any of the doors in there. And there was people holding the door shut. So then nobody could get in and we didn't know what to do. So everybody was panicking and they didn't know if it was real or not. Well, we assumed it was. And there was just a lot going on. So, people started calling their parents and asking them if they'd be all right and saying goodbye. And then we found out eventually after I think 20 minutes, maybe longer. I have no maybe half

018an hour. Uh we found out that it was a false alarm. Did you say your friend called your mother at Park View? Yeah. Uh there was one girl since after the okay we waited like 10 minutes and nobody was coming in the locker room to say it was okay to leave. So there was a girl and she called her mother who works at Park View I think and her mom had to call one of the counselors to come let us out cuz the gym teachers were not coming to let us out. We had no clue where they were. And so we got out and the officers told us to stay in the locker room and we were just waiting for the gym teachers and we could not find him for a little bit. So we

019were just alone and we had no clue what to do and it was really confusing. And then everybody was panicking. There was people were yelling at the cameras because they were really freaking out and a lot of people were crying. And then after the gym teachers after we finally found them and we were able everybody went to the gym and they said that they were sorry and they did not know what to do during the drill when we were alone. So then we all went back to class. That's that. Thank you. Next is Joseph B. Um, so I live at 916 Mile Street and I also go to middle school. Um, when the alarm went off, uh, it was like usual. We, uh, went to like the back corners of like the classroom, but yet

020the teachers, they they uh we had two of them. They went right by us, but like behind another desk. Some kids were like talking and we tried we tried to t tell them to be quiet like the drills but I the drill kept going on for like a little bit. I wasn't sure. I was thinking at least 30 minutes maybe. But uh the teachers they were just on their uh one of the teachers they were just on their phone trying to we we thought they were trying to figure out like what was happening because they aren't really that long usually. And uh when the okay signal came out uh still no one came and we still also left out our bags where if there was like a real person there like they saw the bags

021they can tell like we're there and they could get in and it took us a long time and every the classes then just act like everything was uh normal. I wanted him to say because nobody nobody was trying to calm them down or anything or try to explain them what they should do or nothing like that. I know they have drills, but maybe maybe every one like once or twice a year have an unannounced drill to really gauge on if people know what to do. That that would be my suggestion. Have have planned drills but then have unannounc one or two unannounced drills change on the agenda. No only so sometimes our superintendent likes to contact for information afterwards but we we can't um we have your address to contact you. Correct. That's what I

022needed to know. Yeah. And if I could ask your students to write all that down, provide that those reports to me. All right. Next is Katie Bushman. And you guys are welcome to leave. You can go now. Just write it down on a regular sheet of paper. Absolutely. Yes. Titled in any way. We can work on their penmanship. Well, we've been trying to work on his for a while. You pretty good. Okay. I I definitely want that documentation. What was your name? I will discuss further. Jeff Holmes. Okay. Um, you want to give me a phone call or if you would leave your phone number, we we actually have all that information. We'll be able to track you down. I've heard that one before. All right. All right. Well, if it's not going to last

023much longer, then we can go. It's gonna last. Okay. Thank you for Thank you for your time. Thank you guys. How are you? Do your social studies homework first. Good. How are you? Good. All right. Katie Bushman. Hi, my name is Katie Bushman. I live at 100037130th Avenue in Bloomer. Um, but don't let that fool you. I am definitely a Chipua girl. Um, I teach for the district. I sub full-time pretty much at this point. I have kiddos at Hillrest and at the middle school. And so I'm here to talk about the boundaries decision as well. Um, I attended the last boundaries meeting. I was working my other job so I wasn't able to attend the first one. And um I will be honest, I fully expected to walk into that meeting and hear that

024our house out at the edge border of the district was on the chopping block. I had made peace with moving to Parkview at this point because it is significantly closer to my home and I sort of had in my mind that that is the direction this was headed. Um, but I left that meeting, as um, Katie and several other parents and staff that I've talked to have stated, with a lot more questions, I think, than I had answers. Obviously, this is still a process that is very much up in the air, but I have a lot of concerns about um, h being somebody who works at the three main schools that will be impacted. I frequently work at Hillrest, Parkview, and at South View. And um all of the plans left me with concerns about

025implementation and how that will affect class sizes and educational quality. And I think my biggest issue that I'm concerned about right now is the fiduciary responsibility this um board has to our stakeholders in the district and with impending potential loss of federal funding, how this is going to play out um long term if we make any major changes. So, two of the three plans that were rated at the top would require some significant financial investment as well as potential additional hiring, which was made clear at the meeting. We don't have a lot of funds available, right? Um, and I would hate to see any of the buildings feel understaffed or overpressured, especially when I know those cuts often come in the form of doubling up kiddos in special ed. I see it firsthand all the

026time. And so I would encourage our board in our upcoming meeting on April 2nd, I believe, to consider a slow implementation or minor changes because ultimately the committee can recommend whatever they're going to recommend. But I just really wanted to come here and in person say as somebody who has kids in the district and works in all of these buildings. I would like to see this have the most minimal impact on the quality of education that we can manage for the students at these schools. We are a little neighborhood school and we are tight-knit and to see anybody have to move is heartbreaking, but a huge change in a very quick amount of time would be so damaging to so many of our students and it would frankly be very heartbreaking to see that happen.

027Thank you. Right. Thank you. I think that concludes uh everybody that we have signed up here. So next is a showcase of school under 5.01. We have Stilson Elementary School. Miss is going to start with us. Sure. This is on first. Right. Well, thank you so much for having us uh this evening to talk a little bit about um some of the things that we've been working on at Stillson. Um I am Jenny Sar the principal and I will let my colleagues introduce themselves as well. He's gonna move up this Laura Tingi first grade. Lindy Fisher fifth grade. Make sure I do this right. So we wanted to start the topic tonight is um about connectedness and we wanted to start with a little bit of research. Um a lot of the quotes here are

028very similar. Um but basically there's a lot of research that indicates that strong relationships with peers and teachers um give students a reason to attend school, engage in their class, participate in extracurricular activities. Um research also has linked strong student connections to school and their teachers with improved mental health, better attendance, better grades, less disruptive behavior, lower dropout rates. Um and then also the last quote that I have is just studies consistently show that increasing students connectedness to school leads to those positive outcomes kind of like we already mentioned. Um in the presentation I did include a couple of other articles if you want to read them. Um but there is a lot of research that does indicate that connection is important. Um feeling like you're a valued member of school is important. It helps

029with um obviously the the students learning um and but also just that safety piece of it too. Students feel safer when they feel cared about and when others care about their school. Um so school connectedness what it means. Um I included a couple of things here. So connectedness is that belief held by students and adults that peers in their school care about them that their staff care about them as well and their well-being as individuals. Sense of belonging is feeling like you're part of a community, that your presence is valued. Positive relationships is having that supportive relationship between teachers, staff, and peers, and academic and social support, having resources and opportunities to succeed academically and socially. Why is it important? Some of the things we mentioned in the previous quotes or I mentioned in the

030previous quotes, but improved academic outcomes. Students who feel connected are more likely to have higher grades, better attendance, stay in school longer. Um that well-being piece, um that reduction in anxiety and stress, reduction in depression, improvement in that overall mental health. Um increased engagement. Students who feel connected are more likely to be engaged in learning, participating in school activities, feeling free to raise their hands, taking academic risks, um, you know, working on that, those peer-to-peer relationships, and as well as, you know, stafftoeer relationships and maybe getting out of their comfort zone. Um, and better social skills. So, positive relationships help students develop important skills such as communication, empathy, collaboration. Um, and we've always felt that that's really important. Some ways that we can encourage connection among students. Um basically how to foster those connections are

031create a positive school climate. Um this is by promoting that culture of respect, inclusivity, collaboration. Um encouraging student involvement by providing opportunities for students to participate extracurriculars, clubs, student government. I mean this year we've done some afterchool book clubs and choir and a lot of things that we are encouraging to take um students to take on. so that they do have that connection to our school and to the staff that are there. Fostering open communication, encouraging our students to express their thoughts, their feelings, um listen and staff listening actively to their concerns. Um and then providing opportunities for bonding such as organizing activities that allow students to connect with each other, which is some of what you're going to hear in the upcoming slides. Um outside of their classroom. So we do want strong connections

032within their classrooms, but we also want them within our school building, on the playground, in the halls, on the bus, whatever it might be. Um, and then showing empathy, demonstrating that understanding and compassion for students experiences and just making important connections. So goals, look, this is the why. Um, Stillson is a place where we have felt that commu that connections between staff and students, um, peer-to-peer connections are important. Um, as many of us know, education has been challenging over the past couple of years. You know, COVID, all of those things have been very difficult. Um, and you know, we do surveys, the students do surveys, parents do surveys, staff do surveys. And some of the things that we found was just while connection is strong, we've lost a little of what we had due to

033a lot of those things. And so, we need to get that back. Um, one of the things that I think, you know, just mentioned a little bit is stress is high dayto day. Um, and so some of the things that often fall by the wayside when you have those other obligations you have to meet or the increased achievement or all of those other things you have to manage, some of those connections and activities are the things that go first and we realize we can't do that. Um, so finding time to connect u brings a lot of positivity positivity to our building, a sense of family security, safety in our school. Um this year we looked at some of the surveys and the scorecard items that we had and we decided we really wanted to work

034on reestablish reestablishing that positive climate through the connection opportunities for staff and students. Um and then also with conscious discipline. I think it came up in the student report but that's one of those things that we're working on as a district and we've dabbled here and there for the last couple of years and we're moving kind of full speed ahead next year with um conscious discipline. One of the pieces is that school family. And so um we really want students to feel that when they come to Stilson that they are a part of our school and our class family. They are they belong. They are valued. Um and that leads to that greater feeling of safety and desire to come to school. Do you want to Okay. Yeah. All right. So I'm going to now

035tell you what we actually have done to make sure that we have all those student connections. And so we've been really intentional about two specific activities. And the one I'm going to talk about is called happy hives. We're the Stillson stingers. So hives get it. Okay. So it's called Happy Hives. And what it is is that the students are grouped by different grade levels with different staff members. So I'm a first grade teacher. I have kids from kindergarten, first, second, third, all the way up through fifth. Um, and obviously I'm not their teacher for all of it. So we're going to group together and those groups will stay the same as they move through elementary school. When kindergarteners come in and fifth graders go out, then we change that way. So, they have that connection

036throughout all those years. Seeing me in the hallway, oh, you're in my high, those kind of things. And we have that connection together. Um, the groups work on different activities together, but also working on just building that community. We try to do it two times a month when we can. Um, but the students are always asking when do we get to do Happy Hives again? So, I'll give you an idea of what one of those meetings looks like. So it takes a lot to get 340 students to move through the school in about three minutes and get to their happy hive with their teacher in kindergarten. Where do I go? Those kind of things. So that that is a big thing in itself. But once we get to each other, then we do some kind

037of icebreaker activity like um come in the middle of the circle if you've eaten sushi, come in the middle of the circle if you've been on a plane, things like that. So we're learning about each other, similarities, differences, um what people like to do, even a fifth grader down to a kindergartener, those kind of things. Um, and then we we just chitchat a little bit too with each other. If you know something about someone who's in a sport, something like people are chatting with with each other. And then we move into an actual activity that we do together. So some of the ones we've worked on, we're trying to show the kids that we are part of a larger community than just our Stilson school family. So one of the things we did was we

038decorated those sleeves that go on coffee cups for 4:30 a.m. coffee. And so the kids did messages, positive messages and drawings, things like that. So, if you go there and you get a coffee and give on a hopefully it brightens your day and the kids know that they're doing something for someone else outside of our school family that we have. Um, another one that we did was Meals on Wheels bags for them. Well, first of all, we had to explain to kids what is Meals on Wheels because some kids have not heard of that before. Um, didn't understand the fact that some people don't just have food that they can make on their own. So, we explained that to them. Um, and then we decorated the bags for that too, just to bring smiles to

039their faces as well when they received their meals during the day. So, that was another one of the Happy Hives activities that we've done. We've also done a more school family activity where we made a well, I would call it an abstract quilt was not connected in a quilt at all um after working together. So each group um each student got like a 3x3 square and they got to decorate it however they wanted that expressed themselves and then we put all of them on like fishing lines so they kind of looked like they were hanging by themselves. Um but then we put all of those together in an abstract quilt where people could see when they walked by and the kids were always looking for their own you know or looking for someone in their

040hive those kind of things. So that kind of brought some community as they walked to lunch or fiad. It was in our main hallway there. And then when we did this year also on Valentine's Day, we got together in groups and we made did a STEM activity with putting marshmallows and toothpicks, see who could make the tallest tower, working with their team. And conscious discipline has something called joy juice. So we just do activities to feel good inside. So there wasn't really much academic in that, but it was just fun for them to be together, working together, laughing, giggling, sneaking marshmallows when they weren't supposed to, those kind of things. but building that community together and kids feeling connected to other kids other than ones just in their class family. So, we have a couple

041photos to show from that. See, there's a lot of marshmallows there to start. So, we have the marshmallows. There's our abstract quilt. See, it doesn't look like a quilt. Um, that was the goal. And then our may have been a fire. Some other kids working together with their buddies making their meals on wheels bags. So, some from last year and this year. Um, and here's a couple others of kids just smiling, enjoying each other's company. And, um, we want to raise good humans. Not just kids who know a lot of stuff, but also good humans. So, that's what we're working on in our happy hives. Here's some Oops, sorry. I'm sorry. I do have to ask a question. Yeah. So, Principal Sar is not like Principal Trunch. Not at all. Her son was even smiling

042in that one. She also ate the most. as I found out philosophy, right? He has not. And she has a group, too. So, it's all staff members have um kids. If you're having fun, you're not learning. We believe in fun and learning. Yes. Yes. Yes. Um and then we had a couple student testimonials, too. Um I just like that we can do an activity every time, and I like that I get to bring a friend with me because like in mine, two first graders from my class go together. So, they do have someone else that they know. Um, and I like that there is a teacher to help us and they're fun because we play games and have teamwork and the fourth and fifth graders can teach us things like that. Um, and now she's

043going to talk about our next activity that we've been working on. Um, so prior to co we had book buddies and book buddies were where we had a um like a lower and upper classroom get together and read once a month or actually I think back in the day it was probably close to weekly that we would meet with our book buddies. And then COVID happened and that was something that had to go go away. So we decided to bring that back and we don't call it book buddies, we call it classroom buddies because it's at the teachers discretion or the teacher pair discretion. So like I'm with a second grade teacher um on what we are going to do. So the hives is a K5 um collaborative community where classroom buddies are like two

044grades again like second and fifth grade. So we try at least 15 minutes a month. um we often do a little bit more than that, but this is primarily educational um in the sense. So like with the readathon, you know, we were able to get together and and read for that one, but another time it might be that the second graders need help with this reading project. So the fifth graders come down and mentor or make sure they put it together correctly. Um so a lot of us really love it. The kids love that too. So, not only do they have a hive teacher and a hive group, they now have a book buddy that they can look for and enjoy like with celebrations and such. So, the example we have was the all school

045bingo. Um, if you can imagine kindergarteners trying to play bingo, it's a little bit chaotic. So, they had their third grade buddies, um, I believe it's kindergarten, third grade, they had their third grade buddies go with them to help them play the bingo card. So, we had a whole school bingo, but they were with their partners to to help support that. So, and I don't know which button it is. It's just the right button. Yep. So, here are some pictures. So, we did um fifth grade did a roll of jacko'lantern with their book buddy. One of the grades did um made friendship bracelets, you know, book buddy bracelets or classroom buddy bracelets. And then the all school they go on there too. And then um I'm guessing cards of some sort. I can't remember Valentine's

046Day being that they're pink. Um cards with their book buddies too. So like Veterans Day would be another time that they'd get we'd get together with our classroom buddy and the fifth graders would help the younger spell the words correctly and and make sure that they stayed on task and sometimes the second graders made sure the fifth graders stayed on task depending. So um so Calie said I'm going to go this way. I love it because I love to read to the little kids and go back to my classroom. I feel like I get to be in first grade again and the furniture is huge to them because like the fifth grade furniture is so big and the kindergarten furniture is so small. So, they they enjoy that part, too. Um, I like to read

047stories with my buddies. I like to getting to know other kids and teachers. I enjoy reading to the younger kids. It helps me be a better reader and helps them become better readers, too. Uh, and I get to socialize with kids I don't normally see. So, and um they've they again like just being together. So, then we realized too that staff connection is just as important. Our day today is literally from 7:15 or earlier all the way to 3:15 with very little time um for any sort of break. So we've added in some different staff connected activities. One was honey in the hives. Uh well we have a honey in the hives I guess. Do we have both kind of called the same? Um where we fill out postcards for each other to like just

048say hey thank you for doing this for me or hey I noticed you did this just to give that positive. So, um, you know, every couple weeks we end up with a postcard from a random staff member, and it might be someone that we haven't seen, you know, like regularly, but they notice something in the hall about us. So, just like we nominate students for things, as staff, we we want to point out the positives that each other is doing and that we notice. Um, we do uh every month a pod gathering. So, each one of our areas of the school pick up a month and a celebration of some sort. We have just from 2:45 to 3:15 a kind of a mini social with snacks and drinks and all of that to come down

049and uh just kind of getting to get out of your room and and get to see each other, you know, different themes and such. With that, we did a bunch of different uh clubs this year. We actually at our welcome back, we came up with several different groups and we s went around and signed it, signed papers. So, we have a foodies club that we give recipes um roughly once a month. The fantasy football team, the bookish banter, uh we meet about every two months. We read a book and then come together and you know, we enjoy each other's company and talk about the book a little. Um and as well as other different gettogethers outside of school like uh paddle boarding and kayaking in the summer or bike rides. Um we just see who's

050available on such a date and and get together. Um, our one of our newer ones was the Undercover Dressup Week. You may have seen that on social media, but where we pick a theme and everybody dresses up like that theme to just see how long it takes the kids to notice. And usually on Monday, it's not something very noticeable, but then by Friday of our the week, the last time that we did it was inflatables. So, like I brought in a ginormous ducky um, and we just walked around with our inflatables during the day, you know? So from wearing the same color shirt or having a two different shoes just again just so that the kids can see that staff are wanting to have fun and we get along well and we do um enjoy

051each other's company too. Um two other things. One was um a turkey scavenger hunt that just went on for a three days maybe a couple days where we hit a we had hit a turkey in the school. Um there was always a staff though in like possession per se of it and then it had to transport among the school and we had teams and whoever had the turkey at a select time but it was an unknown time won. So that brought people out of their classrooms walking around going oh I'm just checking to see what you have hanging up in here you know looking for that hidden turkey which I had for a really long time and then got busted by Amy for the matter. And then um the one we did last week was

052a rock paper scissors challenge and that just went for um a day and everybody got the opportunity to play paper rock scissors and whoever won the most games by the end of well it wasn't really the one the most because it was whoever when you played you had a necklace and um if you lost you lost your necklace and if you won you got the other person's all of their necklaces and whoever had the most necklaces at the end of the day um won a prize and then any extra um buyins for that. So that was that was a lot of fun. Kids were screaming. So excited of us. Their teacher won or stole somebody's beans. Yeah, that wasn't that. Yes. Was that a licensed service turkey? It was a little stuffed animal turkey that

053actually was from a staff get together probably 15 years ago as a um white elephant gift because it didn't have a leg. So I just brought it brought it back. Clarification. Not a live one. So, and like with carrying the turkey, it had to be seen. So, you would like sit there and watch. Oh, they're walking that way. I saw her go that way. Yes. We had to add some rules from last year because the kids got so involved last year, they started wanting to chase for the turkey. Like, oh, no, it's just a teacher game. So, it's just fun to see this the staff also get out there and the and the kids and the joy. And although I am concerned because I did take all the beads from a second grade teacher and

054I think that class might not like me as much anymore. So anyway, well, thank you for hearing us and thank you for understanding the importance of this the connectivity in this school um for all of our Stilson kids and staff. And if you have any questions, I guess I have a comment. So, one of the blessings of being old and retired, Jasper and Peggy know that we could go walking around our elementary schools. And it's amazes me how much ownership administrative principles and the staff and the parents have ownership in each of their individual schools. And to each one of them, their schools are the best. Yeah. And and I appreciate that ownership because that's what makes that school. And so, you know, it's a credit to you guys and you know, you still some

055folks obviously have passion and stuff and I understand why and um it it's really is appreciated that that ownership even though we have one high school and one middle school, everybody has their little niche, too. So, thank you. I'd like to just say that Steve is old. He and I are retired. He does keep trying to drag you in. Mr. Trobridge said I'm in the young category now. For the record, your grandkids count, too. So, I have multiple grandkids in the district. Yeah, agree. Yeah. Thanks you guys. And and we also know that when kids are connected, um good things generally happen, you know, and and some kids don't know how to connect, so they need that help and support. So, thank you. And thank you to both board members for that. the white that

056was I had a comment and an ask. Uh the comment would be that I echo your sentiments in that regard and also appreciate greatly appreciate you bringing this to the board tonight. It also reflects what's going on throughout all of our elementary schools. It's not just singular to still some there's been a lot of conscious effort throughout the district over the past several years to have similar activities going on in all the buildings and I've been fortunate enough to be able to see those things in action in the past at least three last five years it's going on five years now but particularly since I started being able to Angela and Peggy were able carve out time for me to get into the schools and see those things and it is fantastic to see. Those

057things are extremely important to our kids and it's greatly appreciated. My ask is that would you please share those pictures with Kathy Striker? We have some upcoming PR things that those photos would be great for. Absolutely. All right. Thank you all for your presentation. All right. Next is 6.01 101 which is OE4 treatment of stakeholders. Members of the board have received the CEO's monitoring report on OE4 treatment of stakeholders. It is now the board's responsibility to consider the report as evidence of compliance in this area. Superintendent Holmes. Yes. I have developed this mantra report for your review. At this time I will provide a quick overview of it. The board was already provided that report in their um board packet and had the opportunity to peruse it. And I am pleased to report that the

058Chipo Falls Area Unified School District is in full compliance with all indicators of O4 treatment of stakeholders as demonstrated by the evidence provided throughout the monitoring document. Board members were provided with new indicators as indicated in the report. The district has effectively maintained confidentiality of information, handled complaints appropriately, and fostered an organizational culture that values stakeholder input through multiple feedback mechanisms, including surveys, community forums, and direct communication channels. Particular strengths within this include the proactive approach by our new HR director in updating the employee handbook and the implementation of new processes to better address difficult employee situations. At this time, I ask for the board's acceptance of the monitoring report. Board members, any questions relating to the acceptance of the report? Otherwise, I would look for a motion to accept this report as our own

059so that we can further discuss it and vote on it appropriately. So moved. Read the Got to read the operational expectation. No motion by motion by fear to accept OE4 um treatment of stakeholders as our own report. Is that right? Yeah. Yes. Okay. Second. Second by Olsen. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. This is now our report to discuss further. Board members have any particular questions for Superintendent Holmes before we decide using our operational expectation language whether to find the district in compliance, not in compliance or in compliance with those exceptions. There are no questions. I would look for a motion to accept the monitoring report OE4 treatment of stakeholders as prison. Next one. Sorry that the district is in compliance with monetary report. Motion by fear.

060Is there a second? Second. Second by Mark. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. The district finds the board to be in compliance with OE4 treatment of stakeholders. Good timing for your computer to do all questions. All right. So, we survived OE4. Um, I'll give you a little time to get that up if we need to, but most of this stuff should be fine here. All right. Uh, board consent agenda. Uh, is there a request by any board member for the rem removal of any item for separate consideration from the board's consent agenda? Hearing none, I would look for a motion to approve the board's consent agenda as presented. Motion. Motion by Martin. Is there a second? Second by fear. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I.

061I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. The board's consent agenda is approved as presented. Next is the superintendent's consent agenda. I don't think we have anything in there, so you can't really remove the removal. Um, so the superintendent's consent, I don't believe needs to be approved at all. Correct. There's nothing in there. Great. All right. Matters reserved for board action. No items have been removed from the board's consent agenda. There were no items in the superintendent's consent agenda. Uh, so we're down to 9.03, 3 which is consideration of compensation scale district services school nurses OT's PTS SLPs school sites and co-curriculars pursuant to OE5 Mr. Thank you. So, um what you're going to see tonight is not much different from what you've seen in the past two months um regarding our um my recommendation I guess for

062compensation for the groups that President Czech just read off to you because we are studying those groups this year. We've been in this work since November and we're at the final recommendation for board action tonight for those groups. Um so again, you saw this last month and the month before. There have not been any significant adjustments. We've looked and placed um people based on again making sure everyone would be moved on the current scale and then moved again for that increase in compensation um on the new scale, the the next step that would give the increase which is the uh current approved process. Um I did include in the next slide a sideby-side comparison. Um, just to highlight that we did have some conversation between using the 51st percentile and the 61st as our median.

063Um, but again going back to what our current approved process is by our board. Um, and in conversation with our group um I am making the recommendation that we move forward with also co co-curricular costs. Um I have shared that in this committee they are suggesting or recommending along with me a 2% increase to each of our current co-curricular assignments that we have or uh positions and that would put everybody give everyone a 2% increase in every position for next year. you'll see that total increase cost of about $23,000 with that 2% increase with all of the opportunities we're able to provide for our students. And then again, the recommendation of the subcommittee to move the co-curricular study to the same rotation as certified staff because there is a desire to link co-curricular compensation to

064the base salary of our certified staff. Um, and again, we'll get more into that next month about kind of how that all lays out. But for next year, the co-curricular um, in our study and making us, um, as competitive as we can be at this point in time with our information, a 2% increase. That takes me to this slide, which is the recommendation um, for these different groups. uh the in increase using the 51st percentile as our median to help set our base and then the scales for each of those individuals and those subgroups along with the co-curriculars. So you can see that the total increase from what it would be if everything stayed um with our status quo approved compensation scales, it would be an increase of around $166,000. supposed to be so questions

065clarifications that are needed around the recommendation. So I think there was some discussion last month about the co-curriculars essentially being part of that step. Are you thinking that that's going to be joined in at the in the next year or when when would that discussion start? So it so certified staff is on rotation for next year. So, we would revisit um the co-curricular or schedule C. Um and with the intent of we we think that we will be competitive if we use our new base salary and tie our base salary to the uh different positions. However, part of that study will also be getting our our comparables and ensuring that if that doesn't make us competitive with our comparables that we may need to go back and have a go to a different approach. Um

066but the conversation with the group is that they felt that if we moved or increased the certified scale next year at base that that would give an increase to all of the current positions. And then we would talk about how we would look to stay competitive for the next three years until compensation is studied again for certified staff and co-curriculars if our new process is approved. I just want to make sure I'm hearing that right. So 2% this year, it's going to be looked at next year to make it competitive to compare to our potential new comparables. Yes. And make sure that it aligns and keeps us competitive because it's going to be based on the um uh base salary, right? And so then you'd have to get that figured out before you would be

067able to move on with the uh what model that they would like to pursue. Correct. So, do you have a a framework where you place the different um co-curriculars? I mean, if you're going to are you going to base it on um the base rate hourly rate or No. So, currently what we have done is we've done the work on figuring out what percentage of our current base rate for teacher pay is, which is the $43,000. And so our intent would be to apply that same percentage of base to the new base salary for teachers, which would again I'm making an assumption that our our base would increase based on our study, which would mean that then all of our schedule C positions would increase as well. However, I just want to be clear that

068if that doesn't make us competitive with our comparables, then then we need to have another conversation. But that will allow us because if our comp comparables change um with our new recommendation, which they are different from what they currently are, we wanted to have the most up-to-date information for those groups. So, making a change this year because those people in those schedule C have not experienced a change in compensation for a handful of years wanting to recognize that yes this was your rotation. Um we did we did study with the information and data we got back. It is fairly as comparable as we can be, as competitive as we can be with a 2% increase, but we want to come back to it with our new comparables next year. And again, with the intention of

069comp of tying it to our base salary, which is what we're seeing a lot of seeing some of our comparables do. Um, and our base salary right now is slightly below what some of our comparables base salaries are. Just just to be clear on that, let's say I just picked one out, gymnastics head coach. Yep. Are you saying that gymnastics head coach has a it's a certain percentage of the base salary? So, when the base salary of the teacher goes up, that salary is going to go up. Or are you saying that we're actually going to do a study and look around and see what other gymnastics coach are paid so we can remain competitive in that particular field? Yes. So we want to run the number. So answer yes to that question. So our

070our thought our thought is that by tying it to base because again some of some I won't say all or many because I don't have an exact number but there are comparables that use their base salary to set what their co-curricular pay is. So we are hypothesizing that that will put us in a competitive light if we move to that structure for schedule C. However, we want to also make sure that that's not where it stops. We want to compare to our comparables to see are we still within plus or minus I'm making up a number $500 of the gymnastics head coach for on average for our comparables. Yep, we are. We're competitive. We feel okay about being able to move forward. Okay, that makes sense. Board members have Other questions? Let's see. Matters reserved

071for board action. It's just information and discussion, right? No actions. Look at the attachment on the bottom. Um she has the recommendation that she is proposing in there. Recommendation. Okay. So the administrative recommendation as I understand it is to accept the recommended updated pay scale increases in district services, physical therapist, occupational therapist, speech and language pathologist, school psychologist, school nurse positions, and schedule C using the 51st percentile to set our midpoint. Would anybody like to make such a motion? I motion to accept. Motion by Martino. Is there a second? Second. Second by Olsen. Any further discussion? Given the money involved in this, I think we should do a roll call. Dave Martin. I Olsson. Hi. Dennis Fear. Hi. Sherry Jasper. I Sharon Mal. Hi. McKill. Hi. Dave check. Hi. All right. Motion carries. That has

072been approved. Thank you, Mr. Ner, not only for your presentation tonight, but all the work that went into this behind the scenes. Thank you. Next is communicating with the board 10.01 preliminary budget and staffing plan. That is going to start with Mr. Trobridge and also include this. Actually, I'm going to she's on a roll. I'm just um so I'm not sure if you can I don't know. Maybe if you could and I think you all have access to the preliminary staffing plan. I I hope that the new format was acceptable. is a little bit different but includes the same information. I tried to just con condense it and um organize it a little bit differently. Um so I think that because you've had time to see it and review it, I'll jump to the very

073end which has the overall proposals of increases and decreases. Thanks Angela. Um but you will see above each school. Angel, would you go to just like uh keep scrolling down and on the links like two more pages? You go to the links and just pick a department or school off. Yep. Any of those still. All right. So, if you go to the top of that U next page where you'll other way just know the format, you can see that the staffing plan at Jim Falls had no changes. So, I tried to note pluses or minuses or no no neutral changes um at the top of each one, but the very last two pages kind of the the larger overview. So you can see that currently in this preliminary staffing plan, none of this is um

074finalized and no action tonight, but just to show you the needs um that are being seen in our school on page 64 um would show that we would have an overall increase of 16.98 positions going into the 2526 school year. Uh, and then if you were to go to the the next page, it's broken down by hourly and certified staff and schedule C. And then on page 66 are the decreases. And you can see that overall it would be a decrease of 8.94. Um so how that works out um in my head is for instance at Stilson um they have some movement of teachers an increase at one grade level a decrease at another so um that evens out when we subtract the decrease from the increases um so again overall increase of 8.94 ft

075ease or about $815,000 hourly certified and taking that away from the 16.98 FTEES at about 1.4 million of an increase. So, still looking um at needing to do some work with our our leaders around decreasing to get to a staffing neutral or staffing reduction overall. Say that last part again. You're talking about increasing but also reducing. Yep. So, there have been increases requested in a staffing plan and they're represented in the green and there's also been decreases um requested in our staffing plan which are the red. So, I'm going to work with even numbers and call it 17 of an increase and uh nine of a decrease. So, we still have eight positions that we need to talk through and work work through um to get us back to neutral or or into a staffing

076decrease for this staffing plan. And may I add that part of that discussion relies on the outcome of the EBRC's work and their recommendation to the board surrounding elementary. We met today as elementary principles to do some problem solving and some preliminary planning. We'll come and reconvene after the meeting on April 2nd um to make some final decisions. I just wanted to be transparent about the needs that our leaders are seeing um for our students in our district um and showing those to you and then you have the rationale. for the requests of increase and decrease throughout the document. Yep. I appreciate that. When I first started looking at it, um I became confused pretty fast, but I traveled a lot yesterday and got home late. So, but like um I'll pick on Homestead because

077it's the first one. So when I looked at the pupil count report from January, it shows that we have three sections of kindergarten. But then when I look at the staffing, it just says two. It's not showing a negative. So for Homestead kindergarten and for Hillrest second grade, those two positions we added and were not part of the 2425 staffing plan. So they were not rolled over into being neutral. if those positions stayed because they were not part of the approved staffing plan for 2425. So that's why you still see two kindergarten positions at Homestead because there are only two kindergarten positions in the staffing plan that was approved. And then for Hillrest for example, you should only see checking um two second grade positions. Y because there were only two second grade positions approved

078in the staffing plan. And we were working to say staffing neutral to what had been approved in the staffing plan for 2425, not with the additions that were made um in August. So they're LTE my when I look at this I'm thinking it's the public report. So a public person trying to look at this was kind of where I was okay coming from. So on April 2nd we're meeting on this again. No no that's just EBRC. Okay. Elementary attendance panel. So this is for the April 28th. Okay. I was going to say that be quick. So would more narrative be helpful in the explanation when those types of situations occur? Do you think? Yeah, I you know I wasn't um or you know at the bottom where you have 24 25 and you have like

07951 students in kindergarten. And I don't know if maybe parentheses if you have three sections and then you know 25 26 is two. I don't know. It's just there's another way to see how it Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Your general public isn't going to understand the LTE and not part of that staffing plan. Yes. How uh or I should say to what degree will the staffing plan and the financial aspect of that um be a part of the presentation on the second. So, you know, we're kind of going to hear a presentation on what we think we should do about the boundaries. Can we expect some some information on how we expect that also then on the second? I know it's kind of quick, but can we kind of or will we see some justification on

080how we expect that to change the staffing plan assuming any one of those proposed options? Would Great question. And yes, absolutely. Uh whatever the recommendation is at that time will include a financial analysis. Some are neutral, some have a little bit of additional cost, some have some costs that might be a little bit hard to predict yet at this point. Um, but it was important for us to have that meeting, you know, if not before tonight's meeting, certainly between now and the April 28th meeting so that we can build whatever decision comes out of that into that final result. Perfect. You're gonna get a lot of information on April 2nd. Been listening to bringing my calculator with me. All right. Board members have any questions on the staffing plan? If not, I'll have some questions,

081but I'll get them. Good. Okay. Otherwise, we'll go to Mr. Trobridge uh on the preliminary budget. Sure. Uh Angela, if you'd want to pull that one up, too. Be great. Uh thank you and thank you, Miss Dor. Obviously, we work very close together on these two things because uh the work that uh her and her group does definitely has a pretty significant impact on the work that goes into our preliminary budget. So, I wrote down Joy Juice, and I really appreciate that because there's joy juice in process here, not maybe in the final result yet at this point, but we'll get there. Um, so first, I want to go over the format. All these items are in in the packet. Angela is actually still loading that. Uh, just give me an indication along the way

082if we need to stop uh for questions along the way, but I'll I'll try to kind of systematically go through what's included in your packet. Uh first we have a staffing and budget timeline on your first page. That's really our roadmap for this process and how we bring it all together. Kind of keeps our timelines tidy. Uh it is something that was shared with you uh at the December board meeting. Next we have our revenue limit analysis. Um this is from our budget forecast model. Uh this is trend data about projected enrollment and revenue limits. Let Angela catch up here. just a piece of output that you would have seen in uh November. Um next we have our third Friday pupil count. So we're we're trying to trying to blend these two formats without telling

083you in both of the proposals. Um this helps us with staffing. Uh it's probably more for class size. uh but it helps us identify hot spots, low spots and really is just an important tool for us in terms of planning. Uh next section, page four, is our strategic plan on a page. What this does for us is it helps us frame our budget uh to make sure that we're aligning our resources with our strategic plan pillars. Um and and amazingly, we're just over the midpoint on a three-year strategic plan, which I'm not sure where the last 20 months went, but um it won't be long. We'll be working on the next generation of this plan. Uh page five is our zerobased budgeting process. Um this is a process that we've used for quite a few

084years now at the building and department level. What it helps with is ensuring that there's alignment with our needs, priorities, and all of our strategic plan pillars. So, it's not perfect. Uh, but I do feel it is a good framework for us to use for buildings and departments. Uh, page six, we have some output from our budget forecasting model. It helps guide uh in my mind where revenue and expenses um where those totals should be uh when we get to the end of this process should be at at either at least near or in the ballpark uh with where we're planning here. Next, we have our revenue limit worksheet. Uh probably the the first line of work that I do uh when it comes to budget development. Uh so this is the basis for all

085of our general fund revenue. It's factors of enrollment uh which you see in right side of the worksheet line six property values in the lower left hand corner state aid right side of the worksheet line 12A and then property taxes uh the lower right uh line 16. Next uh several years ago we started including our our budget adoption and preliminary budget adoption formats. We just felt it's it's helpful to have that be consistent as we move through this process. Uh so this this adoption format is really a more straightforward kind of simplified format of our budget. Uh it includes uh the prior year's audited figures where our current year budget is what our preliminary budget is for in this case the 2526 school year. So, it's listed by general revenue and expense function in all

086those categories by individual fund. And I I like to refer to this as a kind of a 10,000 foot view of our budget. Next section, uh pages 12 and 13, we have our budget publication format. This is the same format that we would publish in the fall as we get ready for our budget hearing. Revenue. This shows you revenue and expense categories by fund. a little higher level view, maybe 30,000 foot. Uh just a quick snapshot of our total finances. We do have some more granular reports for you. Uh starting with the executive expenditure summary, pages 14 through 20. This is really kind of similar to that budget adoption format. Um but it's something that the board sees on a monthly basis as part of your reporting package. I just feel it's important to include

087this just for consistency. It lists our expenses by type and by function or purpose. Uh just now includes the preliminary budget as part of it as well. Uh pages 21 through 30, executive revenue summary, also similar to that budget adoption format. It lists revenues by source and function or type. Also part of your monthly reporting package. Again, just now include the budget. And if you want to dig deeper, uh pages 31 to 67 is our schoolboard summary by object. This is formatted by fund first and then revenues show up first, followed by expenditures. All funds are included in this. So again, it's more granular. If you're looking to dig into some specific types of revenues or expenses, this is the the report that kind of helps get you there. Just some kind of anecdotal data

088here about our preliminary budget. uh some things that it provides for. Um obviously in the middle of our strategic plan uh heading into year three, it's important that we have resources for our student success and culture, our people and finance, facility, and operations pillars. Uh it's important to our work because of what we refer to as our cascade. So it does cascade from the district scorecard down to our pillar scorecards, departments and buildings as well. So it is wide cast across all of our facilities and operations. Uh it includes money for the strategic plan. Uh we'll be coming back and aligning that with available resources uh at the April meeting. money for technology sustainability, some of our communication efforts in public relations, our curriculum initiatives and replacement cycle. Uh money for professional de development for

089our staff uh for them to continue their learning and growth as well. Um primarily for academic success uh the biggest pillar with the most amount of money in it. uh we have had some good gains in growth post pandemic and we do look forward to those continuing uh into the future. Money for educator effectiveness uh support for our your results policies and operational expectations that also is another way for us to check for alignment uh between policy regulation coherent governance and also our strategic plan. And then some maintenance projects that support our five-year capital plan and master facility study. We didn't just have that newly updated. Uh the January meeting, I was forgetting what month that was, but our annual required contribution for OPED OPED, excuse me. Uh assumptions for salaries, fringes, CPI adjustments, and

090compensation study that you just approved. eyeballed a spot for that obviously. Uh and then uh we're at the end of our ESSER funding. Um and really just what that means for us is that the final year of expense was now and it was in the early part of July. So that's money that that we won't see in future years and have reflected that uh in our planning. So just to touch base quick on some of the fund highlights. Uh fund 10, our general fund is over budget by just under 500,000. It's about what we expected at this point in time. As Mr. Denure mentioned, our staffing plan is a work in progress. Uh we have some work to do yet in that area. Uh our leaders worked with tight parameters this year. Uh one thing

091we consistently say is that we can't we can't decline enroll grow in staffing. It's just a recipe that's not going to work for us as a school district. So, um I just I got to compliment our leaders. I think they did really well and what you see in those requests is a reflections of what the needs are and consistently we have not been able to provide all of the needs to all of our building levels and departments and and that's unfortunate I think actually. Um, and we're you and in this planning, we're also using uh the second year of our three-year operational referendum. Fund 27, our special ed fund, uh, revenues and expenses are balanced. Fun 39, our debt service account, uh, the levy, the levy amount, and bond payments. Those are all based on

092a repayment schedule from the referendum in 2018. just factoring in what that payment and revenue will be for the next fiscal year. Our food service fund fund 50 is also balanced. Fund 73, our postemployment benefit trust, uh is a reflection of what we expect for projected activity, excuse me, throughout that fund. Fund 80, our community service fund, uh again, just a reflection of what our our community service programs are. Uh just to come back to assumptions and inputs. All of these are projected obviously. Um we're we're looking to uh enrollment our September count will be taken on September 19th. Our state aid figure we'll we will receive on October 15th. Property values we receive on October 1st. So we'll be able to set our tax levy after October 15th. uh when that state aid figure

093is is known again wage increases and level movements for staff compensation study uh any adjustments to health insurance we'll know more uh as we complete our third fiscal quarter here at the end of March and we head into fourth quarter uh had mentioned in January uh things are trending high that trend is continuing uh so it's something we're definitely uh working hard to address here uh as we head to a renewal time right now. Uh even though we're heading into a bienial budget, this this this assumption model assumes a $325 per pupil revenue limit increase. That's current law. We're hoping for something much different and better than that. But in all likelihood, I I don't think we're going to see a a final budget probably until later in the fall. Um maybe we'll get surprised

094and it'll go faster than that, but that would really surprise me. And I'll add to grant numbers are estimates. Uh and I would say that I think we're a little less firm uh than we ever have been uh related to federal funding. That's something that we keep an eye on daily. Not exaggerating there. Seems like new information comes out every day. that um about funding than we are about services based on our current sources right now. It looks like that the funding is going to be maintained for the majority of programs that we have are special it doesn't look like our special ed funding is going to be impacted and it doesn't look like our title funds will be impacted which is most important to us are the title one funds. It still looks like

095that title two and title four on the top of the block at this point, but it based on communication that Secretary McMahon put out personally uh that title one and special ed definitely won't be effective and even made mention there might be increases in that area because all the savings that they're going to get on laying off all the people in the DO week. Well, we'll keep an eye on that as it continues to develop, but uh if it's not obvious, there are some challenges here. Uh many of which you've you've heard before, but enrollment, we know that our lower grades are trending lower. Uh I mentioned loss of ESRE funding. Just have to add how inadequately backfilled that amount of money was. We're in year we're we're in year two of the three-year operational

096referendum. So something that uh is intricate, I guess, as we navigate the next two-year bienium, seeing what the outcome of that is and whether or not referendum support will be needed beyond that period of time. Um I mentioned the state budget, uh but our charge is to work within our available revenues, our limits and capacities. So our intention is to come back to you with a balanced budget recommendation in April. I would like to back off what Chad just said. And Chad, if you would, could you go back to the revenue limit worksheet? Uh, Angela might be able. She's got the five or six, was it? This is page seven, nine, page nine on the computer. Yeah, but it's six or seven on the report sheets. Number nine. Thank you. Uh, one of the key

097things that I think the board needs to be aware of, if you look at 10 H andi and the private school voucher aid deductions and what those amounts right now are at, u you know, one of the things that is being proposed at the state level right now is to change how that voucher system works and separating it out and creating a separate fund specifically ally for private and voucher schools. As board members, I would ask you that as more is done in that work, if you would be advocates for that. I know I would appreciate it. And Chad, you have any else on that? Yeah, I mean, it's something that I think is confusing for people. So, it it comes out of our revenue limit, but we're allowed to levy for it. So, it

098is a direct tax impact. Um, we wish there was a different way that it was done. There's been mention of decoupling that funding. There are pros and cons to all of that, but I guess ultimately not having it run through the public school system probably makes the most sense. I do have one question. If if say next year we run out of the we spend the rest of the referendum money for operational costs, what are we going to have to cut if nothing else changes to maintain a balanced budget for the following year? That's two years down the road. Yeah. Um yeah, that's the equivalent of at least that $2.5 million of referendum money probably plus some inflationary factors depending on what happens within them. This next budget will be a very telling budget. It's

099a big It's a big one for us operational. They had one last fall. I don't know if there's another one on the horizon. Members have any additional questions for Mr. Proidge? All right. Thank you for your presentation, both of you. Next we have 10.02 elementary attendance boundary review update. Yes. Uh the board was provided with a document uh found within your board packet that was able to cover a lot of information in a very precise manner. Since your last board meeting, the there have been meetings five and six with EBRC plus public session two. During the course of all these meetings that have taken place, I you know after my medical leave absence, I have learned quite a bit. Uh some of the comments that were made in regard to elementary attendance boundaries were not

100lost on me. They weren't lost on Mr. Trobridge bridge and the EBRC has been very diligent in in taking consideration public input whether it was from public session number one all public session. Uh you know the committee has been very conscientious in their approach to studying the uh information that's being provided. Uh I the EBRC is working hard in making decisions that would be in the best interest of the district. I would also say that the EBCRC is quite conscious of the fact that to their points it's a heart-wrenching process. you know nobody I have met no one in the EBRC that is does not have a heart and you know but it is difficult decision making. One thing that the board I would like to alert you to is during the course of all

101that work the EBRC has reached a conclusion that at no point right now at this juncture for the district uh are we at a point of closing any school in the district. uh any of the rumors that might be spread on social media. I can tell you without a doubt that EBRC will not be bringing a recommendation to close any schools based on what I currently know and um again it is quite um taxing work on the individuals involved. uh they have the best interest of the district in mind in many many regards but it's a hard thing to do. Uh one of the things for me I know that in 2005 when the district was addressing elementary in its boundaries it was in a place of growth. Uh in my previous experience in my

102other district we were a district in a place of growth. Uh this experience for me has taught me a lot. It's different when you're addressing declining enrollment versus growth. And I'm I'm learning quite a bit through the process, but the work that's being done, I appreciate greatly the direction that the board gave us gave the EBRC and Chad and I as co-f facilitators. And based on the outcome of last night's meeting with EBRC members, we will be bringing you a singular plan, but we'll be looking to explain how the committee reached the decision that it will ultimately reach. And if Mr. Olson who was able to attend last night has anything further to add on where as a the board members that are on the committee are non- voting members like Chad and I are

103non- voting members so we're there purely in an observational role and you know just to see the process any takeaways from last night I commend them um they are they they take this personal and you know it's they're you know you think about when you had a group of 30 or 40 people that you know it's but the process has been such they all feel ownership in this and you will at one point they asked me if they could bring two or three proposals to the board to discuss and I said not a chance um because you know they're they're struggling with this and the reason they're struggling is because they care and it's a good cross-section you know administrators um principles PTO people and just general public um and some teachers and stuff. So

104you are getting the proposal you get will be representative of our community and it keeps getting modified too. So you know you're probably going to get a phased in approach I'm assuming something in that order. Um what I would tell you too when we get the proposal what you have to think about what is best for the students like we always do as a board for class size and for staff and I know that um like I said with the ownership that everybody has for their schools and stuff you know this this is going to be a difficult decision but at the end of the day it's going to be about the kids and what can we do but you know I commend for what they're doing that was another two and a half hours

105last night and I don't know you know how many hours they've racked up as a as a board they're probably in the 15 to 20 hours that they put into this and it's amazing how they all you know when we look at the the maps of the just the different boundary maps everybody knows well what if we just take the west end of 53 on on boundary number one and everybody's going oh yeah well let's take a look at that so they've all done their due diligence they all here and um like I said, we're they'll bring you. So, when you do get our proposal, really what you're going to decide is either we accept it or we don't accept it. It comes down to that. I think that pretty much sums up what what

106I've been seeing. So, Peggy and I have been piggybacking a little bit on this. So, but it is um I'm honored to be part of this just to see the commitment of these people. like I said, but we're not voting and we're there to listen. So once in a while they'll ask a question as far as what the board feels, but 99% of the time they're discussing this and we're just sitting there watching that. No, that was good. All right. Um, board members have any other questions regarding the elementary attendance boundary review update? Right. Thank you for your presentation, Mr. Holmes. Next is 10.03 discussion of a board activities. Uh, March 14th was coffee that was like to speak about that. Anybody at that speak? Kathy. We can still count Kathy. I think she was

107actually gone. Okay. Kathy was gone too. Never mind. Kathy was gone, too. Okay. March 20th, board learning walk at the Cardinal Transition Academy. Anybody attend that? Sherry and I were there. It was we had a great turnout for um community people and it was good because there was well the chamber was represented there and you know a couple of the nonprofits that use the transitional students coming out were there Goodwill and some other people and it was great that they could see what the transitional people do. It's that last step for student 18 to 21 years old to try to get them that last over the hump as far as transitioning into the a working place. So, it was it was very good and each of the students um put together a slide and you

108know did some presentations. So, it was very cool. And remember, all these kids are kids with IEPs, you know, who have had that extra support, you know, as they've gone through school. And it's so super cool to see them figure out, stand up, talk to these folks, and um working on their what next so that they'll be valuable parts of our communities. Excellent. All right. Anybody else? Any comments on that? All right. March 24th, business after hours. Who was it that went to that? Anybody? I was going to ask somebody to tell me what that means. Does that mean like after 900 p.m. or 10 or what is I mean? It's like you probably don't remember the 9 10. All right. Well, so nobody went to that. Okay. Next is a discussion of meeting. Board

109members have any questions or comments that they want to make regarding meeting that we had tonight? Usually we don't get very many comments on that. 11.02 future agenda items and upcoming events. Uh we have the go rightway grand opening that is going to be March 26 at 11 a.m. That's tomorrow, isn't it? It is. That is tomorrow at 510 South Avenue. April 1st is the spring election. There are three school board seats, four people running. April 2nd at 6 p.m. is the special board meeting for the EBRC. recommendation. April 28th is a board learning walk uh human resources at Corger Chestnut. April 28th is also our reorganizational meeting and our regular monthly board meeting. April 30th is our board governance learning and sharing workshop to Forest Area High School. Registration for that is required. So

110you contact Angela to RSVP. May 7th is the excellence in education banquet at Lakewood Golf and Events. Registration is also required for that. So, please RSVP to Angela. And May 8th is the Chipo Falls uh school district retirement party and that's going to be at Market on River this year. And again, respond to Angela if you would like to attend that. I know this takes us out a little bit in some respects. Is there anything going out into the next month or two that is missing from here that a board member would like to add? Do we have any exciting activities? Any band or sometimes there's a choir band and orchestra concert on Thursday at seven. Thursday at 7. Yeah. Okay. Anything else? Any board members? And I'm just going to do a plug. Harmonics

111had the best season they've probably ever had. They came in first runner up and I don't think they've ever placed that high. A really good season. That's pretty impressive. All right. 12.01 is motion to adjourn. Board member like to make such a motion. So move. Motion by McKillip. Is there a second? Second. Second by Mark. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. We stand adjourned at 8:40 p.m. Thank you all. And I already told you about that.