001Good evening everybody. Call this meeting area school district board of education to order. Dr. has this been properly noticed. Thank you. Do a roll call. Joel >> here. Leah >> here. >> Jessica >> here. >> Sarah >> here. Tom here. Carly >> here. And if you're all present, um could we stand? To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all to read our mission statement. kind to attend, >> please. Thank you. >> The Mount Forum Area School District in partnership with the community is dedicated to nurturing, educating, and challenging all students, preparing, and empowering them to be productive, responsible, and self-fulfilled members of society. Thank you very much. >> All right, we've got the uh agenda in
002front of us. Do I have a motion to approve as stated or do we need to discuss? >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Thank you. Motion by Jessica, second by Sarah. All in favor? I. >> Any opposed? All right. Motion passes. Next up's consideration of our November 17th regular and close session board meeting minutes. Motion second. A motion by Carly and a second by Tom. All in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Excellent. Motion passes. Dr. Serno, would you like to lead us off with our student spotlight for your rehab tonight? I'm so excited we get to recognize a middle school student, one that represents the very best of the middle school. I will steal the thunder of principal Christensen or associate principal. I'll let them introduce Marissa for us here this afternoon and also
003uh the great teachers who come to help celebrate Marissa, too. So, come on down. This is the this is your this is the time where you come with me. So this is where um Suzuki she is eighth grader here and she is um highly involved cross country be club for 3 years sources of strength which is a pure leadership group we have corral I think which is one of our choir ensembles or our co-curriculars and I'm probably missing some things and one thing that I will say is that in the 10 years I've been doing a student spotlight and there's a couple of them a year from middle school when I ask staff half for positive comments. I don't know that I've ever gotten as much as I got. So, I'm going to do my
004very best to summarize because I'm sitting here on like three and a half pages of things that your teacher said about you. All of which were just unbelievably positive. So, first of all, her teachers widely describe her as just exceptionally kind, inclusive, and positive. She's a student who lifts up others up who are around her. She is has a warm attitude each day at school, includes her classmates, um, and does something that can be very challenging as a middle schooler. She always chooses the right thing, even when that choice is not the easy one. Um, her teachers see her as a thoughtful, friendly, and someone whose quiet leadership contributes meaningfully to the classroom culture. whether she's helping a peer, building community through things like sources of strength. Like I've said, the yearbook that she's been
005in for three years, and I will tell you, Miss Tucker couldn't be um more proud of her and just that her superb attention to detail with every project she's done within our yearbook has just been phenomenal. Um and she also brings a sense of humor and just simply makes this place a better school for all of us. But beyond her character, some things that stand out are her work ethic and dedication, not only in academics, but athletics, music, extracurriculars. She's engaged in her learning. She supports her classmates, and her accomplishments reflect that. She recently earned a perfect score for music festival. Not sure how recently it was, but um I think pointed that out. And she was also awarded the front runner award in cross country this year. Um, so it it's it's just obvious
006your passion, your commitment just absolutely shines through. I can tell you that Marissa is likely someone you will hear about over the next four years in high school and likely read out in order male as she becomes a high schooler uh because she is just truly a bright spot in this building. So Marissa, congratulations. I'm so proud of you. So we have a couple teachers here. Mrs. Sold a great teacher came with and Mrs. Flynian will support you as well. And I think you've got a couple of special people you brought with. Would you mind sharing who that is? >> Um yeah. Um my dad Ryan, my mom Amy, and then my sister Daniel. >> She was such a lovely family. You should call dad Ryan. We have on behalf of the board of education
007a certificate that I hope you'll find a nice place within your bedroom or someplace uh that you can showcase this because you truly have left a positive imprint on this school and your fellow classmates. Let's give it up again. We go take a picture with Ryan and Amy and talk about your sister to include her. That'd be great. That'd be great. And then Mr. Griven, would you be willing to join us as well? And would love it if we can have our teachers join us, too. Okay. Yeah. HEAT. YEAH. BASKETBALL. YEAH. So like you come for Yeah. Can you read my name? Can't wait. Right. Matt was 2 years younger than me. like I can punctuation as far as like the kids Don't listen to I'll send And um Mr. Mr. um Christian is saying
008goodbye to the family and we'll be back in a moment with some good news. Wait a minute. Yeah. Ter members also very grateful to see Coach Finley in the audience. Coach Finley, as you know, has a consent agenda request to take another trip to Florida. It's great. I love that. Especially after the the snow. >> Yeah. >> So, >> would you want to fill in any information about that and then when it comes time for the board? >> Oh, yeah. Yeah, sure. So, um spring break again, hoping to go uh which be Saturday, March 28th. Um leave and then uh start practicing on uh March 30th spring break. 5 days down here this year. We're trying to uh get a game in. It will be our second week of practice practice this year so we
009can play starting next Tuesday. So trying to find a team down there in that area we can play a game against. Um AAA team in Jacksonville that's got some home games. So we're going to plan on taking the team and parents family to AA baseball game and then um we stay in the Hampton and Jacksonville Beach and beach nice play area. So, wasn't originally planning on doing this every year, but it's kind of think maybe a couple years. Every year the parents keep asking me and love it and um we invite everybody and as much as anyone last year, I didn't get heard from the freshman parents talking about how much they enjoy it. Um but the kids got to really know the older boys are real good role models and the families out down
010there and be away in spring break. So, just come and ask for permission again and uh we can set that up and um answer any questions that you guys might have for me. So, >> did you build in a hurricane contingency never to fall usually the spring time? We're pretty safe down here. So, hope it continues. But yeah, so >> having set up and chaperon a number of trips in my day as a teacher, I know that this is not a vacation at all. >> No, it's not. But >> yet you keep on giving. >> We have great staff and the parents are actually going to help as well. So they know um they're all good parents. We actually get most of the families that do go themselves and bring their a lot of young
011kids, middle school age kids, elementary education with the family. So um and last night we had just seven seven boys that uh went without their parents. So we like 37. So it was about 30 ft. Um all took over. So you some talk we can make this happen. Some seventh grade families might come down. They got a lot of boys I guess play baseball that I have high school age kids as well. So they're they're hoping to get a little baseball I guess too if they we can make it work. So, it's a good contingent. No more baseball families down there. So, um make it work. So, I've never been before last year. Be a nice perfect spot. Pretty pretty quiet area for spring break time. So, and the Atlantic Ocean. So, it was really
012nice setup down there last year. So, worked out really well. And the practice fields are beautiful. Nice turf three turf practice field with um batting cages. So there was a lot for us last year. So we can make it happen again. >> Board will take a vote on it in just a few moments. Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and coming to support your students. You do so much to make your team run so beautifully and the sense of camaraderie is evident. I think that's a large ingredient to your team success. >> Thank you, Counc. >> We have uh Principal Christensen here. Would it be okay if we share a little good news? >> Absolutely. Thank you. Absolutely. Hi. Okay. Um just a couple of things I wanted to point out. First of all,
013um athletics are fully underway. If you didn't, if you were here for the um education committee before this, right, you probably heard they were in the hallway right before the gym was available. Um so fully underway. Basketball is tonight. Got home wrestling tomorrow. Um but that's that's underway. I will tell you it's concert season for music for music. So we started that up. sixth grade had their first band concert and and a few others recently. Um, including some of our morning groups, Corral and Jazz Band are up and running. Corral that both started about 7:00 a.m. and Corral has over 85 7th graders this year, which is beyond incredible. Um, recently, um, just a shout out to our eighth grade team of teachers and the support staff that works with eighth grade. Um they have
014done raking as a community service project for the past for as many years as I can really remember and this year was a bit tricky. Um they had to move it twice. Um fall weather doesn't always cooperate and 40 and rainy isn't the best time to get out there. Uh but neither is 22° even if it's not raining. So they moved that twice. We're successful with that in the last um just just in the past week or so. Um, the other thing I would just say is our our staff have at least embraced some collective goals as a building this year and and taken um taken the ring the horn by the ra by the horn by all. So anyway, no, they have really just taken that and and ran with it and really started
015to work hard towards um making sure that literacy is a focus in this building. Um they've got goals, they've shared them with kids, they've shared them with families at parent teacher conferences. Um and then the last highlight, we are now however many months into the school year and I can't tell you how great it is to walk around in the lunchroom and see middle schoolers without devices. Um, and the feedback we've gotten from them as well has been unbelievably positive in all the times. Maybe not every single student, but overall um seeing adolescence learn how to socialize um with each other rather than just stare at devices um during the day. It's just been it's just it's just such a different feel in this building, not just in classrooms, but hallways and lunchrooms and all
016that. So, um, there's a few highlights from the middle school over the last couple months. Thanks for letting me share. Thank you for all that you're doing and please express our gratitude to associate principal when you see her. You guys are a wonderful team. She helps out. Thank you very much. All right. school news. Andrew and Jack, you like to lead us off? >> I can start. >> Great. >> Um, so I'll start off by saying uh forensics is getting to swing uh into the swing of it. We are we've had our first meeting. Um I've already turned in all my paperwork. I'm super excited for it. Um we have dates pretty much down and we are super excited to get going. And um I know we have we starting this year we've started a
017um American Duckwin class. I don't know if you guys heard um we have uh selected the speaker of the house which is really cool. Um I also want to give positive feedback to that desk. It's such a really fun class. Um uh blood drive is coming up um on Wednesday. So that's all I have. That's all I've got to >> Hey, Thanksgiving break was nice. That's all I got to say. That's good. Thanks. Thanks, J. Uh, anyone else with school news? I have a few. If anyone's interested, there's still slots open for Wednesday morning's blood. Welcome. And thank you to Jack as president of the student council for helping to organize that. That's outstanding. Um, and I also want to mention, uh, tough to get seats to this now, but see if you can do
018it. Wednesday morning at 8:00, Carly Fiser and Adam Merz will be joining Aubrey Hanks and myself at Good Morning Mora. Tickets are limited. You can probably get them on step up for Good Morning Mora. We're going to present our proof points to our strategic plan. In essence, we went to that group uh at the time, President Aragon and myself to ask the community, what is it that you want to see in our strategic plan? And they told us and uh this has been maybe 2 and a half 3 years ago now. And we want to go back and share with them, you told us this and this is what we've done and here's where we want to go next. And I'm so grateful to have both of you uh in your leadership and getting us
019out there Wednesday morning 8:00. It's over at the um honey. >> I I was able to archively this morning. They're still available. >> All right. Black market tickets. And then word has it listed probably filling out. I hear that there's a PTO carnival next Monday night. >> There is. There is from 5:30 to 7:30, but I think the last people they're letting in is at 7:00. I think it's $5 per kid capped out at $20 for the family. There's going to be games and prizes and I'm not working the cement. So, it's always worth it. >> Uh, I see. Okay. >> I think that you could get yourself some money. >> You could make us money. >> Lastly, Mr. President, I'd like to uh publicly acknowledge the outstanding work of our grounds crew, as you
020imagine, coming uh over Thanksgiving holiday break to give up all of Saturday in order to make sure that our students and staff arrived to school safely. Uh dodging uh cars that were already parked in the parking lots uh because our students were still involved in activities throughout the weekend. Uh just it's wonderful. But uh want to acknowledge and thank led by our very own Dave Reed, coordinator of building services. Just a remarkable job to be doing it on your holiday break. All the more appreciated. Our pleasure. >> All right. >> I've got uh yeah, I had a kind of a long one. I did a visit to the IC back at the beginning of November, and so I thought I would give a little update on that. It was a it was a really it
021was a great experience. I ended up going kind of toward the end of the day um and stayed for a all staff meeting. So it was fun to get to see the kids and then get to transition with with the staff as well. So I as I got there it was the the speed bump during dismissal came we just kind of stood in the center of the hall as the waves of kids came streaming out from all directions going all directions. So um and then lots of came to give Katie high fives and hugs and say goodbye. It was it was very cute. So the the all staff meeting um it started off by reading uh they they also read a mission statement for the IC but they have students read it and that they
022video and they play that at the beginning of the of staff meeting. Um I had a few minutes to introduce myself and talk a little bit about the board leaison role which was nice. Um they also started their meeting with an inclusion activity where they we all partnered up and talked about uh a a meaningful quote, a favorite quote. Um and then the the leader of activity turned it into how we could be thoughtful about our rate of speech. And she mentioned that our number one struggle for our English learners is that the teachers talk too fast. And so it was a way to then kind of purposefully redo the conversations we had just had with our partners, but to purposefully slow down to get to a rate of speech that's easier for um for
023English learners to to follow. Um we also did an exercise based on the forward exam. We all took a section of the took a a section of the ELA exam. Um I had a third grade one that was on reading comprehension. There was some discussion of the grade level groups and what what our observations were and there were a lot of um there's a lot of discussion about that standardized test. Like first of all it wasn't like it wasn't super easy. I mean it it made me appreciate what our students have to what our students do on those standardized tests and what our teachers have to teach to in those standardized tests. There was a lot of discussion specifically about special needs students and how how do we how do we adapt teaching to meet
024the student needs where they are, but then at the same time, but then at the end of the day, they all have to take the same test. And how do you how do you strike that balance with them? Um, we talked about things like they're going to have to practice stamina over the year in order to take that test. They're going to have to practice technology because they do the practices on paper, but then they do the test on screen. um how you read boring passages, chunks of text of non-fiction or history or whatever. Um and then Katie gave an update on a preview of the IC report card um leading in some celebrations there. The the at the time I think the results have been released publicly now. at the time they were about
025a week away from being publicly released but achievement scores at the IC are about higher than 77% of the state which is great news and target group outcomes on track for graduation in the upper upper third of the whole state so good news to celebrate there um so that was kind of that's that was my over my IC visit um like I said it was a really great way to just get to see at a deeper level what what the staff are working on. So, um the other two things that I have are on December 12th, next Friday, there is the kindness retreat that they need 27 volunteers for in order to pull off the fourth graders. So, I don't know yet if I can do it in my schedule, but I feel like your
026schedule allows um be a great opportunity to get in and and work with work with students. Um, and the IC is doing a giving tree drive through December 11th. There, um, I believe there are gift registries at I think Target. I can't remember one other place. I'll find it. Um, if you just wanted to go to Target's website and look for them for a giving tree on Amazon that might be the other one. Thanks for coming. Sarah, I think is going on tomorrow at the high school. >> Um, Wednesday will be spending afternoon. >> Awesome. >> Um, Carly, one question for you. The kindest retreat. What were the hours that people uh about 7:45 until about 1:30? Okay. >> Totally worth it. Martin signed up. >> Is that right? Yeah. You've done that before, too.
027>> I did the Yeah, the seventh grade one. Okay. >> Yeah, it's it's really I'm really excited to see how the fourth graders do cuz the seventh grade one was there was that there was crying and like kids were kids. It was it was a courage one. This one's a kindness one. But kids were saying stuff and I was just kids that I've known since they were I was like that kid's not going to talk and they got up and they spilled their guts in front of the school. It was it was awesome. So I'm really excited about this kind of swag. Very cool. I cleared my whole account. My boss called me and goes, "What's a kindness retreat?" People request. I'm not 100% sure, but I'm going. Yeah, it sounds it sounds like they'll
028they'll break the whole grade out into small groups. And so each adult will have a small group with like a facilitated discussion and then and then I think and then I think other than some like discussion facilitation that they'll give you, they basically just also need crowd control. Fair enough. >> Thanks for the uh the detailed report for everyone for getting out to the schools. I know it's so important to have those interactions and be visible. Very cool. Uh any other school news from anyone? All right, sounds good. Thank you very much. Uh no citizens comments. You're correct. Okay. Uh item four is a personal transactions. Dr. have anything to note? Yes, please. If you don't mind, board members, uh there's actually three attachments for you this evening. Uh we have an addendum as well
029as a recommendation for uh administrative contracts. And you may recall uh last time the board received very late in the afternoon, we received a retirement notice from Al Martin. Al I know is a name you know because he's been a member of our school district since February of 1997. Uh just a jack of all trades. uh he is preparing to retire here. Actually, I think today is his first day of retirement, but today his first day. >> Yeah, today is his first day of retirement. But I want to um publicly recognize him on behalf of the administrative team and the buildings and grounds team. Uh knowledgeable, just friendly, salt of the earth fell. He served the Marines and so we're grateful for his service uh there. taken a lot of what he knew from that
030experience and uh put that to good use uh in support of our young people and the staff. Really remarkable man and it's very welld deserved his retirement. We're grateful for his his title with the district. So please join me in congratulating him for his service. >> That's great. Thanks for having Thanks. >> Motion to approve the personel transaction. Got a motion by Jessica and a second by Leah. All in favor? I. >> Any opposed? All right. Motion passes. Next up is our consent agenda which concludes the baseball trip as mentioned by Coach Finley. Board members. also before you tonight uh consent agenda. Please allow me just to also recommend three 4K contracts uh to the public uh and then also our annual safety drill evaluations. A special note of gratitude to our presidents and director
031of student services, Brian Johnson, for calling the data for us. Any consideration of this one? We'd like to make a motion to pass. So move second. >> All right, got a motion by Sarah and a second by Jessica. All in favor? >> I I Any opposed? >> Great. Motion passes. >> Appreciate it. Thank you very much. >> Yeah. Thanks for doing. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate it. >> Excellent. On to our discussion items, our committee member reports. Tom, you want to lead us off with uh BGT? >> Yeah, I would love to. Um BGT met on November 24th. We got a donation round update that we were fully staffed. Um we discussed uh the retirement of Alan Martin for having worked here for 28 years. His last day was yesterday as we just uh
032discussed. So shout out to him. Um ground team the grounds are getting the fields ready with grow bands on the fields. Um it helps in the springtime getting them up and ready for all the spring sporting events. um the snow assaulting equipment was getting ready to use and I'm sure it's been put to good use at this point with the big snowfall. Um and the staff has been handling many work requests uh coming from the the buildings. And then we also got a transportation update. Um two CDL drivers are now fully licensed and doing their daily routes. And we added a new wheelchair van driver. Um, also, uh, the staff and drivers are getting refreshing refresh refresher training on, uh, winter driving and key winter practices such as what when they need to plug in
033their buses, fueling, and things like that. Um, the Wisconsin school bus legislation day is at the end of January and we'll have some folks going to that. Um, we got an update on the electric bus. It is getting closer to being in the district. It's now in Dayton County. So, slowly but surely. Um, and then we talked a little bit about the capital project update. Um, we talked a little bit about the traffic alteration on Academy Street and there was a question from the garbage truck folks on pickup on that route. Um, and it seems they would need to go the opposite way of the oneway street, but it sounds like it won't be a problem. They'll be doing it early in the morning. So that sound like um that would be managed. Okay. And
034then we talked about some future dates of importance. January 7th is the pre-qualifying contractors um get their bids in. And Monday, January 19th, contract the contra uh contractors get to walk through the building um so they can do their bidding process. And then Monday, January 26th, um they get to walk through addendums. And then February 4th, um, we will open up the bids. And then for this month, we will just get an email update instead of having a meeting on December 22nd. All right. Any questions for Tom? Thanks for the detailed report. There's a lot going on there. >> Joel, I know finance comes in in odd times since we had it three three weeks ago. I got one next week, but is there anything worth uh reinforcing for the group? Yeah, I think there's
035a couple of things. Um, so donations, uh, obviously we approved the one that came before the whole board, uh, stuff related to the laptops and some of the desktops, uh, that were there, but we also received a second donation from O'Reilly for some auto parts for our automotive, uh, uh, program. Uh, so thanks for all of that stuff. We got the uh pleasure of speaking with Josh Bardian at uh PTMA. If you recall, that's the uh uh firm that we use for some of the additional investment we're going to do with funds and things like that. Uh we got a very nice positive report with uh what's going on there. It looks like the uh investments are scheduled out nicely. They're fit the construction schedule as we look at it. It looks like that arbitrage
036opportunity is going to net a significant amount of money for the district. So that's through excellent leadership from Steve and Scott. Uh we have that with them. There's more to come on that as well as it relates to possible additional cash flow management uh and things like that leveraging that firm as a as a possibility for that. So um that was something that was exciting. And then of course we had this uh come before the board already, the uh tax levy and the potential uh for being able to include some language in there about uh uh some of the voucher programs and things like that and what's happening in districts. So our next meeting is next Monday, December 8th, because unlike the buildings and grounds, we love to meet it's uh it's just not on
037Christmas, that's all. 400. So, >> thanks Joel. Any questions for uh for Joel? >> The investment stuff was really cool. That was >> it's a it's a very >> Yeah. Thanks to the generosity of the community, all that kind of stuff. It's it's a very big win for our district. So, yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. Another great scientist trying to do everything we can to stretch the dollar and make sure it goes back into the district. >> Awesome. Uh Jessica, safety and wellness. >> Safety and wellness. We met on November 17th. We were fortunate enough to have two of the folks from Neighbors Helping Neighbors come present to us and talked with us for quite some time about all the ways they support our students, supporting the community through um providing clothes, food, resources for you
038know housing or whatever need there might be. Um that would be um informative and really powerful to have them here. It's amazing organization. Um then we had a policy update policy 454 reporting child abuse neglect threat to school safety that will be on our agenda in January. Um Brian gave us a brief update on speak up speak out. Um, also he talked about um the fact that this month all the safety plans would be in our consent agenda that we just have passed. And uh as others have mentioned, he talked a little bit about the cultural awareness training that we carry in a few different committees now. And then Brian also shared that the youth frontiers is back kindness retreat and Dr. SLO I believe in his last weekly update included the sign up for
039anybody who can volunteer. >> Yeah. Yeah. So and we don't meet again until January. We're also going to meet again. >> Awesome. Thanks for that and uh thanks for everything that the district does, all the administration to work with NH too. I know there's some really great partnerships there that are going up. >> Um was there any parks in recent >> We also met last week and um we had someone from the soccer club come and talk about soccer field maintenance. They might be reaching out today about borrowing a piece of equipment if they haven't already. Not sure. Not the soccer club in the village. >> Yes, they have. >> Yeah. Um then they're doing some work to uh try to become a more bike friendly community and get an official designation also for the
040city. Um and then more directly related to our students, Grandma Foster is getting new playground equipment this spring. And lastly, the winter spring rectangular activity. >> All right. also not being a cyber. >> Great. Thank you very much. Um 6B is our long range facility planning. We have a special guest here tonight. Ryan Sans from Prey going to give us a little bit of a walk through. Thank you for coming all the way out for you here in person. >> Yeah, I was joking when I sat down. I always seem to pick the snowy days lucky I guess. Um but it wasn't too bad actually. Uh well tonight's uh update is a little more on the brief side. We are uh as we look at the schedule um we are uh towards the end of
041construction documents on all the projects. So um we had our 75% milestone in uh in November. We're approaching 100%. Um we'll do a QAPC review then and then as uh was noted in the building ground transportation update be issuing shortly after the first of the year on January 7th. Um we will uh have some of those milestones uh that were discussed and then get bids in February and then have uh your selected general contractor mobilize uh pretty shortly thereafter. So, uh, be exciting, uh, exciting winter, spring, beginning of 2026 as far as the the project goes. Um, like we do every month, just kind of an update on where we are. So, we are finalizing pretty much everything on that list or close to finalized, I should say, um, as we wrap up the construction
042documents and prep uh, the bid package that is comprised of our construction drawings. So, that's what probably most people think of when they think of construction documents. Um, but there's also a pretty robust uh specification or project manual. Um, the drawings, you know, show plans, they show quantities of things, uh, how things will go together, the specifications outline products that are acceptable, um, quality standards, warranties, um, how things should be installed, and all those types of things. So, we're wrapping up all that uh, here in December. Um, as was noted, uh, we went through a general contractor pre-qualification process. Uh, we had a really strong interest. Um, we had 11 general contractors, uh, reach out to get the RFQ, uh, information from us. We received nine signals, um, and then worked with, uh, the district
043admin team and the building grounds and transportation committee uh, to narrow down to the seven general contractors on the list there. uh we will have all seven uh their contact information listed in our specifications. So all the subcontractors, product vendors, anybody else who'd be interested in bidding the product project uh will know that they should direct their bids to um any or all of those seven general contractors and we'll send the construction documents directly to all seven of them and we'll also post them with a plan house called Builder Exchange of Wisconsin. So that will make them publicly available for any of the subcontractors or vendors that want access to the product information. Uh we've continued to work with the village raoros. I think last month when I was here, uh it was the same
044night as the public's works committee meeting where we had a petition for variance on the agenda um for our driveway with um because we're still in the um I'll say the current zoning uh ordinance uh and your zone residential minimum or sorry the maximum width is 24 ft. We wanted to be at 32 to provide a little more uh turning radius for uh buses. Uh so that was approved uh by the public works committee on the 27th and then more recently on the 19th of November we were uh in front of the plan commission um thankfully first on the agenda. We appreciate Dr. Seno working with the village to make that happen. Um so that was three different submitts the certified survey maps. That's something that the village requested. We currently have two properties at
045ELC and the primary center and they asked that we combine them um formally as part of this project. our conditional use permit. So that's again because we're zoned residential just like we had to do here uh at the middle school and the high school back in 2017. Uh we have to submit to amend that conditional use permit and then the village design review as part of the plan commission submittal. So that's more looking at the the site plan, the elevations, the materials we're using, all those things. Um so that application was approved. There were a couple of things we were still solidifying with uh staff and I think we as of today resolved all of those as well. So it was just a little bit of coordination around um some fencing the trash closure and
046a couple things um that we had more or less responded to uh the night of the plan commission meeting. So um we're in really great shape. um appreciate the village times they've met with us uh on the formal stuff and then also um as noted on the right up there uh the conversations around some of the intermediate phases that we'll have to work through during construction um and the partnership that they've provided as we talked through some of the options for for how to phase how to still make the school safe uh to operate um while we're doing the uh construction. Um, all good news there. As far as next steps, um, kind of on the first one already, uh, we're finalizing the construction phasing. So, that will also be outlined in both, uh, drawing
047form and in our specifications to, um, describe the phasing in a bit more detail. We'll have, um, start and end days for the different kind of subphases of construction. uh so that that's defined and biders know the expectations when they're bidding on the project. That is something that um you know back in 2017 we worked with uh the general contractor to massage once they were on board. They may have um thoughts on uh slightly different ways to approach things or ways to potentially be slightly more efficient, but we want to make sure that everybody is kind of fitting apples to apples based on the schedule and phasing um as we issue the documents. Uh and then as uh as Tom noted earlier, we're issuing the documents on the 27th, sorry, on the 7th of January.
048Um we're going to have a uh pre-bid walk through on the 19th and then Dave uh Reed has graciously offered to provide some other opportunities for contractors to get in the building if they have additional questions or want to look at things in more detail um during the bidding window. So those will be outlined in the specs as well. And then uh we'll receive bids on February 5th. Uh and uh then we'll shortly thereafter be able to uh make a recommendation to the board on a general contractor and uh get somebody on board to to get things going on site. So exciting times as far as the progress of the project. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions. question. >> Thanks for all all your work on this, Ryan. I think that's testament to
049all the updates we've gotten along the way here that really kept us kept us informed and uh thanks to everyone who's done all the work on the inter plan, too. I know that's one of the tougher maybe forgotten parts of the job. >> Yes. >> The construction's in motion. >> Yeah. Uh, obviously, you know, I I do the board updates pretty typically or Mark uh I know has done a few of them, but we've got a team at the office that uh is very appreciative of the partnership and is excited to issue documents and get construction under your way. So, thank you for having me. >> Yeah, it's awesome. We'll have another meeting uh of the building design team next Thursday in district the following Thursday, 11th from 10 to noon at the district office.
050It is open to the public also to the board members if you would like to be a part of that. We can also get you a link uh to that as well. Happy to to have you and your input. But we end where we begin and that's in gratitude to you. Thank you Ryan and I know you'll be sticking around for some updates later on. >> Y I'll see you in a little bit. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Items 6 C and D are identifying evolving demographic trends and mental behavioral health BTE ODA awareness and sport. Brian Johnson. All right. So this is the first part is all of our student demographics which are always kind of interesting to look at from year to year. Um, but as you know, we've talked about this a
051lot is that our enrollment is declining and so numbers as as you can see are continuing to go down. Um, when you look at this year's data, um, what I would hope is it looks like our senior class is the biggest and then maybe there's some stabilization for a while and maybe even improve. So, um, that's kind of the hope that this year's senior class is is by far our biggest class we have we have left and then it kind of evens out a little bit. So, when you look at some of our student demographics and we go through it um you know the the race ethnicity remains relatively the same um across the district. It's changing a little bit um in the area of um more students who are Hispanic um but relatively um
052the same um across all areas. And then in disability status um from the previous year it has declined um a little bit um but kind of more in alignment with the 22 23 school year and significantly it was kind of on this really upward trajectory um and then hopefully it'll stabilize kind of at about this level but it's with significantly less students too. So, um, oh, but what I talked about, our students who are Hispanic have kind of continued to increase with all of the drops in enrollment. Our students who are English language learners has stayed exactly the same, pretty consistently. And then economic status over time is also one that had a slight decrease, but compared to previous years, it's still kind of a a higher number for the district. And then just real
053quickly on that one, um do the do the numbers get affected by any uh you payouts during the pandemic or anything or is this purely judged on income levels? leading levels and self-report, which is always kind of the piece that like if people are doing better or have like something like if there's not a they're in a good realm, they'll you know, maybe don't have it, it's they'll they'll report it on their own. There are times though question when the federal government did some layoffs. They did allow a window of time for people to not just rely on their tax returns from the previous year uh but report this new development in their life that if their student did need access, we would provide them access to SP. It happens from time to time when
054we see mass layoffs like what we saw here in the fall. Okay, great. So, >> I'm just curious also, Brian. So, I'm not asking how this works. So is any of this reported by the state like for people who may be on um Medicaid or different things like that does that factor into this at all? >> Yeah. So I'm not sure of all the criteria but there is a directed there are students who if you meet a certain threshold you are automatically admitted into the program. So, there is a direct admit component to it, but then most of the time you have to self-report and fill out the forms and the paperwork. >> And then our students who are homeless um have also remained the same from here the past few years. So those numbers
055are not state recorded. Those are directly from our social workers who keep track of that and support those. You say that's probably the experience over the last few years. >> Probably is. >> Yeah. Although I do know that we are getting some younger students who are reporting as well. So a couple of turnover but not all of the equally important is to explain the state definition of homelessness. Would you be able to share that? >> Yeah, so really there's quite a few different areas, right? You do have it. It really means that there's no stable housing. um component. So where most of our families fall into is doubling up so that they're temporarily living with a relative, a friend. It's not stable. It's not consistent and it could change at any time. Um we also
056have families who might have been placed um you know their their residence has has changed. They were put in another residence by the county. So, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're homeless, but maybe they're put in temporary places that are constantly moving and they don't know where they're going to go. >> Like they don't have permanent >> permanent stable housing. >> Correct. Um, and with that, um, and and you probably talk about it in some of the budget reviews, then if we have a family who lives in in Mount Horum and then they lose housing and they have to move to Verona, Verona and our school district for the remainder of the year have to pay for 50. We each split 50/50 um, the transportation cost. So what's important for this is that the kids
057who are involved in the in in stable non-stable housing um can maintain their their school district as long as possible until the stable housing um can be developed and or it becomes unreasonable, right? Um, so it doesn't it means that we need to do it if they're in Middleton or Verona or Madison, but maybe not if they're or maybe it just depends on the age of the kid, too. And so we try to figure that out together. Despite the team's best efforts, I would actually say that that number might be a bit under reported. >> Yeah, cuz again, this is another one where they have to self-report and let us know. There are some that we suspect, but then no, we're we've got it. Um, and don't want to acknowledge that fact as well. So,
058um, when we're looking at some of the data, what was nice this year is last year was the first year we kind of put in some of this like specific data on trying to track belonging. And if you remember last year, most of it was blank because we didn't have the data. And so now we finally have it. Um it's just a few years old and we've done new tests since then. But we we we don't need to go there. But um really you can see that we now really have some baseline data. One thing that I do want to record at the bottom of this chart is I did update um so the previous one that you saw um the guided questions um pieces at the bottom um at the intermediate center they asked
059do I feel included in my classroom and do I have at least one adult that I feel comfortable talking with and both of those they did it in spring of last year and then fall of this year and both of those increased by 4.3% and then 2.1%. And the school perception survey, it's the first one up there. Um, if you, they did it in spring to spring, um, and that was a 4.1 increase within a year. So, we're seeing some students reporting positive results that they're they're seeing a difference. Um, and then at the in the paragraph below in the IC or not IC, in the PC, they're doing a pee connectedness survey. So, it's hard to ask first and kindergarten, first and second graders, do you feel like you belong? Like, it's too abstract
060of a concept. And so, what they do is they ask specific questions about positive peer connections. And so, they ask who what kind of what kids do you like to play with in your classroom? Is there any kids you don't like to play with? Um and then they do specific targeted skills on developing for any students or the students that are identified. They do some positive peer connectedness um and try to build those relationships with kids. Um and then um what Nicole stated was that overall they saw 3% positive student connectedness. Um and then the students that they specifically targeted saw a 13.2% positive increase. Um and then they said to everybody like the best story, right, is that they had one student um who had a 29% peer connectiveness increase and he went from
061zero positive endorsements to five. And so like that's a super you get some of those individual positive stories, but like that wouldn't have been done a few years back, right? So these are all kind of new things that since the board has kind of put in the goal about belonging and tracking it and doing specific interventions um directly related to it. Um it's it's making a difference and and we're also as you can see kind of from up a little bit above and below we're adding new assessments back in to really track the data and one of them that's the most um then the most powerful data is the rest screener for eighth grade students. Um and so the rest screen and it's a lot of training for our student services staff. They did all
062the training, went through is directly with Journey Mental Health and then um what happens is they do the screener and then they follow up the students who are considered at risk with really direct questions and kind of s like almost like a survey to them, a one-on-one um meeting to talk it through. And our student services team had said, you know, we've been meeting with kids, some of these in particular, we've had a relationship for the last three years with them. Um, and I learned so much new information because of the questions I asked. And so it was really considered positive. And then the students who still come out at risk or at need of more intervention, they run um the SEIDS group with our staff. Um, and so that is the cognitive behavior intervention
063for schools um training. And so it's kind of looking at at some different approaches. And so it's been really positive. And so the last part of this is table number two and it includes all of the stuff that we're doing focusing on mental health needs and wellness um and AOTA training and supports. And then the very last row um those are all things that we're continuing to do that we've done in the past. And then the student section that's in blue um is what was new this um last year. So they was brand new last year um into this year and that's the student connectedness surveys K through five. Um sources of strength has been a really positive um uh club that we're doing with kids and and we'll bring um at some point this
064year um you can bring some of our leaders in and talk to maybe safety about what that is all about and some of the initiatives that they're doing. that they I've gone to a bunch of their meetings and like they're like doing work and and how to really show positive um try to to try to change the narrative around positive positivity around mental health supports. Um the rest survey in C bits um student referral form at the high school. Um this is is kind of a work in progress kind of keeping coming out but students refer themselves or their friends. Um and then the team meets with anyone who's referred. So kind of trying to make it more formal. Um and then directly indirectly related but the peer connectedness surveys just came to Are we
065for welcoming schools is that still just a certain um demograph demographic of kids or age groups that were using that or is it or is it >> cuz I know it used to be just a >> do you know schools? >> Yeah. elementary a little bit the middle school. >> Okay, mostly up elementary. >> So, thank you. >> Thank you for leading this charge. I love seeing your students take ownership of the work around sources of strength. In fact, no one put either Andrew or Jackson on the Is that something you heard about at school? And uh why are you hearing me, I guess? Yeah, I've got a couple friends that are in it and they like it. Um, they've got a nice bulletin board for it too that I see every time I'm in
066the hallway, but they are starting a new project. Um, so they sent out a schoolwide survey. I don't remember exactly what it was asking cuz it was over a month ago, but it was pretty much geared around like what are some of these like specific things that make you feel like grateful or like safe in the schools? And I think they're hopefully I'm not supporting anything planning to do some sort of school project um that could be viewable for the students in the hallway with that. But if anything we can do to help support that, let us know. We'll be happy to. Thank you to both of you for sharing that super. Um, zero action items listed. That's right. How about that? >> Um, annual meeting later in December, July. Uh, this is great. >>
067I didn't see any other citizen comments committee. >> No, I hadn't. No, >> Mr. President, I do want to make mention of the fact that um, Director Esinger is doing a super job trying to coordinate personnel committee uh, maybe even before uh, January. Uh, some dates are being proposed and maybe a 5:15 uh, start time for that. We're trying to get staff members to be a part of those, too. Uh, so more information to follow. Thank you for sending that out. We just don't have it listed on the schedule of next meetings. We're still going to submit that. Great. Thanks. Um, as you can see, the list of the future agenda items if there's anything else we want to put on there for discussion in January. It's always a good time for contemplation in December.
068So, suggest away uh as noted by Joel Finance Committee's meeting on December 8th and then we are back on January 5th. Yes, that long long break. Um, we do have an item for close session today contemplated close session per section 19.851C 851C considering employment promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the government body has jurisdiction or exercise the responsibility and deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public properties, the investing of public funds or conducting other specified public business. whatever competitive or bargaining reasons require a close session to construction budget review and superintendent's contract. So I would ask for a motion to go into close session to discuss those items. >> So move second. >> Leah with the motion. Jessica with the second and this would be a roll call vote.
069Joel, >> yes. Leah, >> yes. Sarah, >> yes. Tom, >> yes. >> Carvin, >> yes. >> And I'm also a yes.