001All right. Good evening. I'm going to call the uh school board meeting of the public school district of Prescott to order. Subject to section 19.83 Wisconsin statute. Our president, Mike Matik, is absent today. So, Tanya Hollow, vice president, is going to um lead the meeting. Um before we move to adopting the agenda, is there any changes? >> Uh the administration is going to remove employee two from the close session. >> Okay. Any other changes? Okay. Anybody like to make a motion to adopt the agenda? >> I move to adopt the agenda with uh the noted changes. >> Second. >> All right. We have a motion in a second. All in favor? >> I opposed. All right, that carries. Our next item is number three, pledge of allegiance. Jim, since this is your first meeting, would
002you like us like to lead for us? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. We're going to move to item number four, recognition of visitors. Uh public comment for the school board meetings. The board of education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on district matters. To permit fair and orderly public expression, please adhere to the following rules as stated in our public comment policy uh 167.3. Number one, attendees should approach the podium one at a time and state their name, municipality, and topic you would like to address. There's allotted time of 3 minutes per
003individual or 6 minutes if you're representing a group that is present at the meeting. All comments should be directed to the board and not to staff or other participants. The board will not act on any comments that are made during a meeting. The presiding officer may direct the district administrator to follow up with that individual at a later date. And the public comment section will be limited to 30 minutes unless board action is taken to extend. Anybody like to approach the podium? Okay, seeing no one in our audience other than our wonderful admin team, um we're going to move to item five. Okay, good news around the district. Jim, would you like to take that over? >> Well, Josh has agreed to be uh speaking on behalf of the administration. >> Excellent. Okay. Hey, good
004evening everybody. Um, sometimes the summer months are a little bit more quiet, but at the high school it's been really busy. Um, the month of June, we had, I think, over 550 students daily coming through our building um, for summer school. And if you were fortunate enough to walk through, we did everything from cooking and STEM games, speed and strength. Um, a couple of specific things that I saw that were really great other than an amazing amount of hugs and high fives that I got were, um, we had a great team that came together to put on 101 Delmalations, uh, the musical this summer. Um, I'm probably going to forget a number of people, but I think Faith Seawart and, um, Ally Cornish took on the the head roles of that. I know um, Eric
005Keyzer, um, Ivon Zarndorf also helped out big time and there was a casting crew of other people. And then the kids did a phenomenal job um putting that on. Amazing to put that on in three short weeks of work. Um so great job to them. Speed and strength um is still going strong. But one of the amazing things I saw was this is one of the first years where we specifically separated out middle school and embedded it into summer school. And they had um close to 100 students in that 11 to noon session. And so we had a great um crew of coaches that came in and split up that group and did rotations outside, inside in the gym. And so that was really great to see. Um our one act group just got back
006about a week ago. Um they traveled down to Bloomington, Indiana. They represented Prescott and the state of Wisconsin as the only Wisconsin one act group um to be at this national wasn't a competition but showcase. um each state uh sent somebody down and then there was a full week of learning where there were breakout sessions. Our coaches and directors taught some of these but then they had Broadway musical choreographers and fight choreographers and directors who came in and worked with our kids. So um an amazing opportunity for them. Um and then upcoming something that not a lot of people know about but we were one of the few schools selected by CVTC um this summer to expand into Western Wisconsin their health simulation camp. So, we'll have students going for three days. Um, and we
007have a a morning group and an afternoon group who will go over to CBTC in River Falls. And over the course of a number of days, we'll actually take a crash crash course um with practicing doctors and nurses um to learn a lot of the ins and outs of of healthcare, but through a simulated camp. And their last day is like an actual simulation of a emergency situation. They have to triage a person. Um, and I know what the kids get. There's a a a big surprise for them at the end in the completion. And I'm excited to tell everyone about that in August for every person who participates in that. So, that's very cool. And then lastly, um, if you walked in, which we don't have anybody here tonight, but if you walk through
008the building and every other building, um, you can see our custodial teams are kind of speeding ahead with the beautifification of our buildings, getting things cleaned up, especially at the high school here. A big shout out to our group that um has to work around summer school and having 500 plus kids in the building to get our buildings ready for about a month from now when staff are coming back. So just a huge shout out to Mike Kad the rest of their team at each building. >> Thanks Josh. >> Anything else? >> Um so I've been on the job for all that two weeks right now. Um and in the last 3 weeks the state of Wisconsin passed a budget. Um, the $325 per pupil increase is available to us due to Governor Iver's 400-year
009veto. Uh, the only challenge with that is the legislature didn't assign any funds to it. So, we can uh fund school for 256 and 26 27 uh with $325 extra per student, which roughly keeps us up with inflation. But unfortunately, since the state of Wisconsin uh legislature decided not to assign any funds to that, all the burden will be on our local taxpayers. Um that's roughly $400,000 onto our local tax base. On a good note, uh special education is increasing from 30%, I typed those backwards, from 30% to 42%. Um but that's not guaranteed because it is based on last year's money. And basically they take 42% of last year's money and figure out what that dollar amount is and then that's a pot for the entire state of Wisconsin and it depends upon what
010other districts do and it also doesn't include for inflation. So uh the DPI recommended that we look at closer to 38 to 40% which is still a good increase for special education but it's it's frankly not enough and I hit a thing I wasn't supposed to hit. Um, sorry, first time through. Um, again, the general aid didn't increase. Um, Karen and I are still working through this. 135 districts will see an increase. 227 will see a decrease statewide. Um, I can get the board those specific numbers if they want and nine with no change. So, basically, since the state of Wisconsin said we're not investing any more money um outside of special education and mental health, um every district is going to change a little bit. This is where open enrollment is going to be
011a challenge. Our general aid is dropping from $8.7 million down to $7.7 million. Uh this was somewhat expected. It was a little bit higher than Dr. Spakuza and I were um expecting. Uh but it's a decrease of about 11%. Um again, the legislature is still sitting on roughly a $4.6 billion surplus in the state of Wisconsin. Um but we're going to figure out how to make this work without cutting any programs close to kids. Um and again, uh this is updated as daily as we speak. Um but the federal government is embargoing all title funds that were passed for this year. um title 1 C, title 2 A, title 4 A. Uh all these services are required of us by federal law to serve our most at need students. Um but now we'll have no
012funds to provide for them. Um unless we use local dollars. So Cara and I are really taking a look at how we can change some of these funds. Um, I'll have a better picture for you in August, but we're going to look at possibly delaying some maintenance costs, possibly uh delaying some computer upgrades and stuff like that. On a good note, the state of Wisconsin yesterday joined a multi-state lawsuit, suing the uh Trump administration and the Department of Education and Congress to release the funds that have frankly already been passed and approved by Congress. So um as always with the the local government will be dealing with the Washington and Madison changes. So with Case 11 coming on board um and our end of the book our audit and closing on July 28th. Our audit
013is July 28th to July 30th. Um we don't have enough details. Um the state budget was about 372 pages. The uh bill that the legislature passed um in in Washington was 940 pages. Uh so we got to wait for the people who the legal teams WASDA WSB and stuff to figure and the DPI itself to figure out exactly what that means to us. Um, Governor Ivers called it the year of the child, but the K12 system kind of got pushed to the back of the line. All the state funds um went to more to roads, more to the EW system, etc. And the K12 system didn't see any dollar increase. But, uh, Karen and I are going to meet with Baird. Uh, we have a meeting with Baird tomorrow and then again in early August
014to figure out what these impacts are. Um, we think we can make it work. Uh but we may be a little bit tighter on some of our non-educational purchasing this year um until we know what's happening with those federal funds. But we'll have a good update for you in August. I know it's a great way for superintendent to start. But on a good note, we got some really cool things coming up and things that I'm excited about. >> I was getting worried you didn't realize this was the good news section and not >> Okay. All right. Again, none of it came from me. It all came from Washington and Madison, but I I know, you know, maybe that is something we talk about is if you want that someplace else. >> Um, but I was
015able to meet with the administrative team uh yesterday. We spent a lot of time talking about uh teachers coming back to school on August 19th, and we're excited about that. I'd like to invite the school board. I know you all have jobs and lives, but anybody who's available to help us grill out on the 19th at 11:00 at the football stadium, uh, we'd love to have you there on August 19th. Couple things before that is we have the national night out starting with a color run at 5:00 at the high school. Um Josh, I don't know if you have anything you want to add about either of these events, but feel free to step up if you do. And then our back to school blitz August 12th from 3:30 to 6:30. This is where uh
016families and students can get free donated supplies and shoes. Uh quick note that the parent or guardian must be present with the student uh when that happens. So, I ended on a positive note. Sorry. Budget talks budget talks are never fun. >> Um, before we move on, I just like to welcome you to our uh district and this is Jim's first um meeting with us. Your first couple weeks here and uh it's part of our good news. We look forward to working with you for I think you promised us 10 years. So, >> actually you guys in 11 years I hit 65. So, that's my goal. >> Well, thank you and welcome. Yeah. All right. Moving on to school business. Um, let's see. Agenda item A, consent agenda. Is there anything that anybody would like
017to pull out? Okay. Um, if there's nothing for anybody to pull out, do I have to make I don't have to make a motion here. Right. Move to approve all the items in the um consent agenda. Okay. Moving on to the next item on there. Oh, I actually can I I just want to go backwards because I'm going to read those items. I think Mike probably does. Yeah. Concent items. Item one, June 18th, 2025 regular meeting minutes. Item two, the finance report. Item three, personnel report for non-licensed staff. Um, and then we have hires, which I don't think we have anybody at this time. Resignations. Um, and then retirements, which we have none at this time as well. Uh, additionally, we have a squeaky clean janitorial agreement, OSHA guidelines for annual approval, head coaches that
018we are going to rehire back into positions, and then we're going to consider the um, Prescott School District's 2526 academic standards, which were required by law to announce one um, board meeting annually. Anything that anybody would like to pull out? Okay, with that we're going to approve the consent agenda items and move on to item B, adopt the consent agenda items and move on to item B, which is consider personnel reports for certified staff. And at this time, um, we have one hire, we have one resignation, and no retirements. Jim, anything you want to add to that? >> Uh, no. Um we just added uh Miss Grow that was accepted as of this morning. Correct Josh? So um she's coming on board. We're still actively pursuing a couple other positions and Chantel and the admin
019team are doing a great job with that. >> Wonderful. Helen, anything you'd like to add or comment? >> Yeah. Vicki Pat, >> no questions. Welcome. >> Wonderful. All right, we need a motion to approve those items. Uh, I move to approve the personnel report for the licensed staff listed. >> All second. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second. All in favor? >> I opposed. All right, that carries. Our next item, item C, consider the administration and finance offic's recommendation on fund 46, CD time frame, allocations, and amounts. >> This is me. >> Good. Um, so this is something that Rick kind of set up and one of I do want to give Dr. Spousa a shout out. Um, I was in district I think 5 days in June and we were able to
020meet and he was be able to get keep me up to speed as as much as possible and taking over such an important role. Um, but uh the administration is recommending that we transfer up to $250,000 or roughly 25% of the funds available from fund 10 to fund 46. Um this would allow us um and again that $250,000 will be will have an exact dollar amount. We're looking at probably close to that amount. Um there are some funds that uh in fund 50 which is our food service balance. There's a negative balance there that we have to offset and we have to get the final numbers for um the special education fund transfers and get those taken care of. those are take we're kind of stuck in a position that CLA's audit starts on the
02128th and we have to have all of this stuff done by August 1st. So, um it'll be the first thing the auditors tackle is getting those final amounts down to the exact penny. Um so that's where we're asking to transfer up to $250,000 uh from fund 10 into fund 46. Um and then after that we'll have roughly a million dollars in our fund 46. And um Rick had already negotiated and talked had quite a few meetings with PMA and he brought me into one of those meetings. Uh PMA manages our uh all of our assets uh to purchase two CDs um for roughly 25% each or 50% of the total funds. PMA is predicting that well right we're currently getting 4.14% on our interest rate on our money market account. uh they're predicting that in
022the next 18 months that is going to drop down to about 3.1%. So what we can do is um at 12 months we can lock in uh 4.14% 4.13% at 12 months and about 3.9% um at 18 or 24%. um by locking in about $250,000 roughly in each one of those um we'll be able to make sure we ensure that interest rate is solid while still having half a million dollars liquid in our money market account. Um so it's a good balance between making sure that uh half of our money is liquid but unfortunately subject to the Fed rate and half of our money is protected um over the next several years. Um, talking to Mike Ha, there's not really anything that should break in the district that's going to cost us anywhere near half
023a million dollars, but multiple boilers going out is every superintendent's worst nightmare. So, >> thank you, Vicki. Anything with that? >> No, we had Rick had kind of, like you said, he teed us up for this, so we were we were informed on on what >> what it could look like. So, yeah, it's just a matter of waiting and getting the final final numbers. >> All right, Pat. >> Uh, no. Um, makes a lot of sense. Uh, it's strategic. Thanks to uh to Rick and to Jim for uh watching these things and um making good decisions here with our with our finances. >> Helen. >> All right, we need a motion. I move to approve the administration of finance offic's recommendation of fund 46 CD time frame allocations and and amounts. >> I'll second. >>
024All right, we have a motion and a second. All in favor? >> I opposed. All right, that carries. Our next item is item Oh my gosh, are we already on seven here? All right. Like to take note of how fast we're moving without mic. Item number seven, information and discussion. Because I can't comment cuz I'm so focused. So this is maybe a good thing for all of us. >> Strategic. >> Okay. Anyways, information and discussion. Um item A, summer construction projects. Um, I want to point out, and anybody who watches this on TV, point out to the uh to the screen, some of these things are wonderful and beautiful. Uh, 207 cubic yards of uh brand new safety mulch applied to the uh Malone Elementary School playground is wonderful and beautiful, and every parent that
025walks by will see it. the new walk-off and the carpet um in a couple different places in the intermediate school. People will see the middle school bathrooms um got new partitions and freshened up a little bit. But the things that people don't see, by far the most expensive thing pictured there, and I had a bunch of more, shall we say, disgusting pictures that I could have put in there, um was the grease trap demolition at the middle school. Uh that grease trap was at least 50 years old and wasn't working anymore. and hadn't been working for a while. And the cost of that was um pushing six figures uh just because of all that had to be taken out and removed and excavated and a lot of it done by hand and put back together.
026Um, and sometimes we don't get a chance to really highlight those ideas that we all love to see the great things, the new classrooms, the new uh smartboards, the new carpeting and everything else like that. But sometimes it's the electrical and plumbing that are most important and we never see. And I want to thank the taxpayers of Prescott for um understanding that we need to maintain all the parts of the building, not just the pretty parts. >> All right. Um Pat, any comments on that? Uh, no, no, ditto. Uh, to what Jim said, I guess thank you to the administrators. I know this is a um summer slam with projects, so everybody's flexibility and understanding there's a limited time to get these done and thanks to Mike for making it happen >> uh in these
027short summer durations. >> Absolutely. Um Vicki, >> Helen. All right. All right. Moving on to item B, new flag pole at the football field. So, um, shout out to Courtney. Uh, she took a phone call from Eric Tremors and, um, I think on July 1st, uh, and we met and, um, Mike Ha came out and we had a talk. Um, Adam has been involved with this, uh, as well. And I apologize, I don't know Adam's last name. >> What? >> Adam Ro um, is involved in it as well. His brother's part of the group. So, the class of 2025, uh, largely football players. Some of the parents came together and said, "We're tired of having a small flag pole that's not right next to the scoreboard." And instead of telling me what was wrong about
028it, they came to me with a solution. They already met with the city and realized they can donate up to a 35 ft flag pole. Uh they have somebody who can lay the concrete. Uh Adam and Mike are on board with that and we'll contact Diggers Hotline and they're going to raise the approximately 2500 to $3,000 and hopefully by our first home football game we'll have a new flag pole up there. My understanding is that Matt Smith already has a flag that would be appropriate sized for the flag pole. So hopefully in August we are uh thanking them and going ahead from there. >> That's great. Um, Helen, any comments? >> No, that's great. It's good that they came to you with a solution. >> Yeah. >> Vicki, >> um, thanks to Eric and all
029the guys that put this together and the boys who decided they needed to do this. So, that's very cool, Pat. >> Yeah, good stuff. No questions. >> All right. >> And we'll do our best to get them all here at the August uh board meeting. Yeah. And I'd just like to comment and Jim, this something that you'll find that's really wonderful about Prescott is we quite often have people step up like this and it's really it's great. It's definitely um our schools are very much so a valued part of our community and we see it all the time. So, thank you. All right, item C, Prescott Foundation. Another um good news piece really. >> Yeah. Um so, following up on this um again, we'll formally accept this in August because it came to us on
030Monday. Um, but the Prescott Foundation uh is offering us a $10,000 grant. Um, Sandy couldn't be here today, but I want Sandy to be here in August so that she can talk more about this. Um, but basically this $10,000 grant um the district was able to approve and pay for a lot of the practical assessment exploration system. So, for some of our most high need students uh to be able to work in a lab and really learn a lot of those life skills. Um, basically we've been we were able to fund it under Dr. Spukuza's uh leadership and car's leadership and the board's leadership most importantly last year, but this $10,000 grant will kind of replenish some of those funds in fund 10. And uh, anything over $5,000 has to be accepted by the board.
031So, we'll formally accept that in August. >> Great. Any questions, Pat? >> Comments? >> No questions. We heard uh, I think was that two board meetings ago Sandy presented on. So, this is exciting and uh thank you very much to the Prescott Foundation. This is this is is awesome. >> Great. Helen, anything you want to add? >> No. >> Vicki, >> I would just reiterate what Pat said. Thanks Prescott Foundation for and they they've been really helpful with the schools and have been there and and are very supportive of the community and they raise a lot of money and so it's nice to have some of that, you know, that were on their mind. So yeah, great. And I just want to add that um as a reminder that the Pace Lab is going to
032be housed here at the high school and that um by law school districts are required to service students 18 through 22 years old or through their 21st birthday. And so this is one of the ways that we're um going to do that. And not only will our older kids get access, I'm sure we'll find ways that some of our other students can have access too. So it's great and it meets a need that we have in our community. Um with that we're going to move on to item D here which is new date for our September regular school board meeting. >> So this is on me a little bit. Um my I will be in Canada September 17th. We bought our tickets long before I uh came on as a Prescott school district. So in
033August I'll be asking the board to move up the meeting by one week. >> Yeah. Thanks for the early heads up on that. Anybody have questions or comments with that? >> Does that work for everybody, Mr. Courtney? >> So, it's a Wednesday. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Courtney normally checks in with us and I'm sure we'll just double check on that date. Um, but this helps having it way ahead of time. So, >> it also just aligns with we have to have our annual meeting and so this helps with that as well. So, >> it does give the new guy two weeks in between the board meeting and the annual meeting. So, >> Yep. Yeah. Did you want to add anything about the annual meeting at this time? No, not at this time. Um, again,
034we'd love to have as many Prescott taxpayers come out as possible. It is truly one of the great Democratic things uh that on, you know, at that annual meeting. You know, it's the entire the entire populace that shows up gets to be part of the meeting. >> Yeah. Wonderful. Any other comments or questions? >> Just about the 10. Just double check that. There's no effect. >> Sure. Good comment. >> No events on Lindsay, but just double check. Okay, perfect. >> So, we should be good. Okay, >> great. All right, thank you. Okay, that we're moving on to item number eight, recognition of visitors. Again, nobody has come through, but if anybody would like to come up, feel free. Wait time. Okay, item number nine, uh, the board is going to consider a motion to convene
035in close session under exemptions 19.851C 851C in room A17 at the Prescott High School. Um we're going to meet uh in regard to statute Wisconsin statute 19.85 considering employment promotion compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the government governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility. We have a one employee one and an employee two. And then the third item, third item is extracurricular assignment stipens. >> Just note employee two is the one who was canceled. So >> that was I guess so I can say three. Yeah. Okay. Item one and item three. Employee one and three. Okay. Anything else? We would entertain a motion. >> Uh I move uh to convene in close session uh in room A17 of Prescott High School at 6:35. Yes. Yep. >> Um, we have a
036motion. Anybody want a second? >> I'll second. >> Wonderful. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? >> I opposed. All right, that item carries. We're going to move at 6:35 into our close session and then we'll reconvene later. Thank you.