001All right. Well, good evening and welcome to tonight's regular school board meeting, Monday, December 8th, 2025. At this time, I'd like to call this meeting to order. We have met official compliance with all official notifications. Roll call, please. >> Nicholson here. Gorgski >> here. >> Katherine here. >> Sarah Schuber McCone here. >> Shelley Bowman >> here. >> Schumacher here. President Steve Wilson >> here. It's time you all please rise for the pledge of allegiance. 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. This meeting is a meeting of the board of education held in public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business and is not to be considered a public community meeting.
002There is a time for comments by members of the public during the meeting as indicated on the agenda. Members of the public wishing to address the board on any of the topics included on tonight's agenda may do so by signing up on the public comment signup sheet by the entrance prior to the start of the meeting. Board requests refraining from making any comments involving personally identifiable information about students, staff, or administration. Comment should be respectful focused on the items being considered by the board and will be restricted to three minutes in length. Action taken at today's meeting will be final approval unless otherwise noted. And do we have anybody from the public wishing to address the board? >> All right. Next up, disposition of minutes from November 3, 2025. Motion to approve. >> Second. >>
003Motion a second to approve the minutes from November 3, 2025. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I oppose. >> Motion carries. We move on to the report from our superintendent. >> Okay. Uh my firstformational item is our update from Mr. Lieers. this was is scheduled time to give an update about our middle school progress and I'm sure you'll want to give some updates on the last couple days as well. >> Sure. >> Uh so we had a we had a nice presentation prepared for this evening. Uh I had a couple of uh eighth grade students that were going to be here with me tonight. Um but in lie of things we thought that we should postpone uh that to the spring and we'll do another
004update with our student leaders. Uh they were they did a lot of work and prepared. So I'm hopeful that we can get them back back in here. I'm still going to take you quickly through some slides. Um but really proud of the work that that we've been doing and I think that'll kind of show through here as we go. Um, some of our successes, our school report card are has really come up, which is exciting. I'll show a little bit more about that. Our behavior referrals are significantly down over the last few years. Um, I'm really proud of uh our admin team, our coaches, our teachers, our support staff. Um, we've really have a a a strong academic focus right now and it's showing. Um and also with with all of these things um improving
005the climate culture and our building attendance continues to trend in a positive direction every year. So we're really pleased with what um 65.8 [clears throat] on our last report card. Um that's is going to this is a significant improvement guys. Um here's where that stands in the in our accountability rating with DPIs. we're meeting expectations, but here in the past couple of years, we've we've jumped up from a 51.7 to 65.8. That's a it's a significant jump. And so, we have a lot to be uh excited about at Spear Middle School. So, that was kind of be the the impetus for our presentation tonight. And then then our students were going to take us through some of the some of the reasons why this is all happening and what they really appreciate about being at
006the middle school. So, you can see the reduction in behavior referrals. um our kids wanting to take us through some of their favorite things about SMS. So, I'm going to save this for uh the spring. Um and you know, here's the ongoing work. Interventions are happening at a high level for math and reading, and that's what's really uh improving some of our academic outcomes, too. Uh tier 2 interventions are happening right in the regular ed classrooms, which is uh a really significant uh component to all of that. And then again, we're always working on improving attendance, communication, hard work. Our APS do a tremendous amount of leg work and and getting families in the door um to improve all that. And of course, the culture overall is really getting to that significant improvement in attendance
007as well. So, um I'm not going to go further with with this slide at this time. I think it'd be just really important to share a little bit of an update um uh with the incident that happened uh yesterday early morning. Um once once uh um the the state uh investigators kind of released the building back to us, um our buildings and grounds crew uh uh really just jumped in right away. There was a significant amount of cleanup with that front entry. Um um they were able to do a big chunk of the built the bulk of the cleanup last night and secured that entry. It was a gaping hole in the in the middle school uh main entrance. So they boarded that up, got a lot of the big debris out of the way
008uh last night. We were working probably late afternoon until 5:30 or 6 to get that shored up, which was very important to get started with planning for the next several days. Um, we've had uh we've had uh some contractors in to right away this morning to see what needs to be done. Um, and and working with buildings and grounds and our custodial staff. We've got a a new plan for that exterior to to shore that up even more with insulation and make that a really secure entrance. Our goal here is to get our kids back into the building as soon as possible. Uh, two things really have to happen here to make that work. We have to have a secured entrance. uh to for daily operations. Um so we're working hard on that and just
009the cleanup uh so that there's not uh you know evidence of some mass destruction that seemed to happen yesterday morning. So that's been our really uh efforts today along with working with our teaching staff, our coaches, our administration team to get some good solid plans out for our kids so that they have something uh to work towards. So, I'm glad we did some some prior work with our planning for um at home learning. So, that was a big help to have that in place. Um that's going to continue for the next two days. We're our goal is to have our students back in the building Thursday morning. Secured entrance uh looking as good as it can. Obviously, there's a new some new walls going to be put in in that entryway. We're missing a couple
010of door doorways, but the but the building should be functioning in a safe manner and uh and the cleanup will be ongoing. We have to clean up some glass and some couple fixtures and then some other areas, but I think we'll be I think we'll be ready to rock and roll uh come Thursday morning. This has been a herculean effort to get to where we are even at this point. uh the superior police department uh all the different agencies. We had five or six different agencies uh on site yesterday to keep everything safe and contained. Uh I can't thank them enough for their efforts yesterday. Um made a a a really bad incident uh turn out in the best most positive way possible at the end of it. So they they were instrumental in all
011of that and and utilizing the technology in our building uh to to make all that happen was pretty significant uh component to that whole [clears throat] thing yesterday. So I'm really pleased with uh their efforts and I want to thank everybody and then our staff just jumping in right away. I had I had buildings and grounds crew on standby yesterday. Soon as we that building got released to us, they were ready to roll. they'd gone to uh uh the store to get the the lumber and materials needed for last night and we're just waiting for the building to get released to us, but they could jump in. So, >> um can I jump in there on one thing while Matt's here? Matt, would you mind just kind of sharing the conversation we had this morning
012about the investments that we made in security and how that kind of helped uh some of your efforts yesterday? >> Yes, absolutely. Um yeah um we've recently well the school district has recently invested quite a bit in safety. One of the big things was the camera system and I can't go into too much detail. Um I'm not releasing anything um that's all being done by our chief. Um but yeah specifically the camera system um was I mean it was invaluable. Um it was utilized for four or five hours and it gave us information uh that that saved lives in my opinion. Uh without it um it would have been uh much harder to do what we needed to do. Um in fact out of the the five or six agencies that were there um they
013were all waiting on communication from me uh when I was here in the office using uh the systems that we have as a school district. And so, um, I'm incredibly thankful. I think everyone is and, uh, just happy that we had that available. >> Can you talk about the film on the front because I think that's interesting. >> Yes. And, yeah, that's something I don't think many people know about at all. Right. >> One of the investments made in the middle school is a um, resistant or a shatter resistant film um, on the windows. >> Um, and it's not bullet resistant. Um, that's what people kind of think sometimes, but what it does is if anything hits it or tries to penetrate, um, it the glass keeps its integrity. Uh, so if you had something
014like an axe, you're trying to make a hole, you're going to be swinging for quite some time. Um, instead of normal glass, you hit it once and it all shatters out. Uh and what's pretty magnificent actually is uh even with that truck hitting that glass and the doors, you know, being blasted off, those panels were intact. The the the glass panels were it's something that actually a month or two ago we brought up at one of our safety meetings that we're we're hoping we can get more of. And this [clears throat] is an example of how [snorts] valuable that is. uh and hoping that we can uh get that in more places. >> And it really slows the entrance into the building when that's there. It doesn't it doesn't make it impossible, but it significantly
015slows down, >> right? >> And we have uh that installed in all of our buildings. Um and some of the conversation that we had last month was the expense and how much it would cost to put it on all the exterior windows throughout because mostly um on the front end of our building. So there's other windows on the exterior that it would benefit from. [clears throat] >> Absolutely. Yep. A threat's not always going to go to the front door. >> Right. Right. >> So we can't thank you enough um and the entire Superior Police Department, all the first responders um for your work. So thank you for keeping us safe and best wishes and healing to the officer involved in the shooting. So thank you so much. Thank you. >> Thanks. Thanks, Matt. >> Thank
016you. >> So, next next steps for for us, we'll be uh uh working with our staff tomorrow again and uh putting out plans to help open up the building on Thursday, supporting our students who might need an extra uh support uh u counselors be available for uh students that might need any support coming back in the building or our teachers that might need extra support. So, we had a safety team meeting this morning and we discussed some of those plans rolling out. So, we'll we'll be sharing that information with uh the rest of our staff tomorrow morning and really just really preparing to open those doors on Thursday morning and be a supportive place for our students. I think we're going to do it just fine because uh you know all the work that we've
017been putting in these last few years, it's it's really [clears throat] paying off. Our kids feel comfortable being at our school, our teachers, uh our support staff, we have a wonderful team. So, I think we'll be ready to ready to roll come Thursday morning. >> How are the staff doing? Are you hearing anything, Amy or Aaron? >> I think everybody's coping differently. >> Um, I think all of our kids are coping differently. So, I think we're ready, you know, here and ready to support them as needed. And I think it's just a matter of opening the doors and listening and then, you know, giving people what they need. Yeah, we've had several in today to grab some items that they might need for for these at learning home learning days at home learning days. So,
018um the response was good. They're impressed with the work that's been done so far. I think there people were expecting to see something more and it's like I said, a lot of efforts gone into cleaning up the the mess and and and uh seeing the plan come together about how we're going to secure that front front entrance. I I think that put a lot of people at ease that were able to come. And you mentioned damage to some other cases. Were there damage to other equipment in the building or classrooms? >> Some some windows and and fixtures and things like that. So, those are all being addressed uh as well. It's again, it's that important two components to bringing our students back in. The evidence of what happened is is >> mitigated and having that
019secure entrance. So, a lot of work going into that. Uh but I think we'll be ready. >> Thank you, Eric. Yeah, the communication from you guys has been great. I mean, from what I've seen and heard. So, thank you guys for that. >> We always try to predict what questions people have and try to get ahead of those. So, if you hear other questions or rumors, please let us know. We'll get that information out. >> Thanks, I think Matt has a basketball game to get to, so he might leave. Yeah. >> Aaron and your admin team that's here, uh, thank you for being here. support of of Aaron in the school obviously, but >> a couple days. >> You need to go and relax, take some rest, >> you definitely do. >> I do want
020to just say I think part see partly why um you know I think communication and planning has gone well is Erin's leadership and the APS just >> absolutely >> very fortunate to have their leadership. Thank you, Erin. >> Well, even just the good I mean, it's hard when that is such a a huge Yeah. >> rare thing to happen, but then we also have this really great information um about our middle school, which we've just been hoping for for so long after many like Aaron so looking forward to tonight to be able to share wonderful things. And so I I'm sad for Aaron that he's not able to celebrate some of those things tonight, but uh there is so many positive things happening at the middle school. It's really exciting. >> We look forward to
021that then in the spring and >> yeah, >> there'll be more. >> It's kind of funny. You know, I said, well, some of that stuff is like Mr. Liieber's conversational pieces and and and the girls were like, we got this. We can have so ready to go. comes from. >> Well, that's good. >> Thank you. >> Oh, my my lastformational item is Brendan from High School. >> All right. Some updates for you guys. So, in recent events, pledge makers associate their annual black light volleyball tournament which went well. >> We did some Christmas decorating as a student council. We came in on a Saturday and we made the school festive. We put up trees. He put up lights and I walked in Monday morning and I I was in the Christmas spirit. I'm going to
022be honest. It It looks really good. Now, I want to give credit to everyone who helped out on that. >> And then DECA has many districts in two harbors this week and then their district's competition next week. In some student council news, we had some school board members come and visit us this month. they were able to see some of our kind of day-to-day meetings as well as some PSA videos that we were able to film. And we continued with our bright ideas contest with the student voice committee. We got the secondary survey filled out, sent out, and we got some responses back and we've been looking through the responses. We had planned to meet with Mr. Haroldson and Dr. Zei today, but uh because of extenduating circumstances, we had to postpone that until next
023Monday. So, I'm excited to meet with you guys to talk about what some of the students and what us as a student council uh have come up with. Then we have our Frostfest spirit week happening next week, kicking off with some dress up days and then an assembly on Friday. The teacher team is going to be able to get some redemption. the students will get redemption at the teacher team as the black light volleyball champions face the teachers [laughter] the volleyball tournament. So that's going to be fun there. And then kind of next steps as student council going into the new year, we're going to send out a survey and see what events or after school activities that students want to see. So, I've heard a lot of requests for uh like a floor hockey
024tournament or a bad mitten tournament, and I want to be able to put on those fun things to kind of keep spirit up and get kids involved. And that's all I got. Does anyone else have any uh any specific questions for me? >> Really enjoyed the PSA though when I was there. >> Yeah, it was it was fun. >> They forgot their lines. >> No bugs, no cuts, coconuts. That's the one. [laughter] >> It's fun to be at the high school. There's a lot of positive energy. >> Oh, yeah. >> Yeah. >> Well, thank you for being here. >> Thanks for making it. Yeah. I appreciate you. Thanks for having me. [clears throat] >> One otherformational item. It was uh we had the presentation from Four Corners Elementary from Principal O'Donnell and uh you can
025click on that link to get an take a look at what what she presented that evening. There's two action items from our superintendent report. One, the administration recommends approval of the proposed 2026 2027 academic calendar. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> There is a motion and a second to approve the 2026 27 academic calendar. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. Consideration of overnight field trip request from Leah Herman Gunderson for students in grades 9 through 12 attend Europe in June of 2027. >> Motion to approve. >> There's a motion in a second to approve the overnight field trip for students in grades 9 through 12 to attend Europe in June 2027. Is there any further discussion? I will
026say that I appreciate her planning this far in advance to help more kids participate. >> So I appreciated that. >> Great. >> Any other comments? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. Board committee reports. First up was the budget and insurance committee report. Action items, gifts, grants, and bequests. administration recommends approval to accept gifts, grants, and bequests received in November 2025. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Motion and second to approve the gift, grants, and bequests received in November 25. There any further discussion? >> Thank you as always. >> Yes. Impressive list once again. >> Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. informationational items. We had reports on our fund 10 revenue and expenditure. David
027this time I'd accept a motion. >> Motion to accept the budget insurance committee report. >> Oh, >> I just went with the accept the whole report. >> Second. >> There's a motion, a second to accept the budget insurance committee report. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I >> opposed. Motion carries. Operations Committee, we had anformational item, food service update from Jamie Wilson, director of food service. A very passionate presentation. So, >> Miss Dan's posted about a field trip out at the school forest and um you know, they provided meals out there, too. And I I just love that. We always think, you know, just our schools, but even out at the school forest, uh they're providing meals out there. So, awesome job. >> Um, President Olsen,
028one of the requests, I've had a handful of people ask me what the cost of the damage was to the middle school. I don't have that information. So, I've asked David in the next board meeting just to if we have that information to share it at our next operations meeting just for transparency and clarity what that is going through insurance obviously, but >> So, >> yeah. And I'm guessing we'll be getting bids as well. Um or we not bidding these depends on the size. >> I think that where we need to do >> one of those things where we need to get >> done right and the jobs insurance for property is $25,000. One thing I have to evaluate is with that [clears throat] old building and that garage being hit that consider what we'll
029see. >> Thank you. >> When when would we have to go to bit? What what's our threshold? >> $100,000. >> 100,000. >> Motion to accept the operations committee report. >> Second. >> Motion accept. Second to accept the operations committee report. Is there any further discussion? >> Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Opposed. Motion carries. Personnel negotiations committee action items. Administration recommends approval of the December 2025 new hieries and separations report. Motion to approve. >> Motion a second to accept the December 2025 new hires and separations report. Is there any further discussion? >> Hearing none. [clears throat] All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries. Administration recommends releasing Joseph Floristano, math teacher from Superior Middle School, from his 2526 schoolyear contract for his request
030effective December 19, 2025 with the liquidated damages provisions enforced. >> Motion to approve. Second >> motion and a second to accept the releasing of Mr. Florest from his math position for the 2526 school year. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I >> opposed. Motion carries. Administration recommends approval of the updated salary schedule for the school nutrition manager position. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Motion and a second to approve the updated salary schedule for the school nutrition manager position. There any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I oppose. Motion carries. >> Motion to accept the personnel negotiations committee report. Second. >> Motion and a second to accept the personnel negotiations committee report. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none.
031All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Opposed. Motion carries. Teaching and learning committee action items. Crystal Henman, director of curriculum and instruction, recommends and the administration recommends the annual approval of the district academic and career plan ACP. >> Motion to approve. Second. >> Motion and a second to approve the district academic and career plan ACP. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> Opposed. >> Motion carries. Administration recommends the approval of the district Spartan Library Plan. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Motion and a second. >> To approve the district Spartan Library Plan. Is there any further discussion? >> Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Opposed. Motion carries. Informational items presented at the committee
032of the whole on December 1. Crystal Hinsman, our director of curriculum and instruction, gives a very thorough update on the act 2 and literacy resource. That information is also attached. Kate Tesh, our director of continuous improvement and assessment, provided us an update on the 20242 achievement data and DPI report cards that is also attached. >> Motion to accept the teaching and learning committee report. >> Second. >> Motion to second to accept the teaching and learning committee report. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Oppose. Motion carries. Policies and rules committee action items. Administration proposes the approval. Changes to the following policies based on Neola recommendation. First reading of policy 0100 definitions. Several definitions have been updated to make them more current and a new definition
033of school district classification classification has been added. >> Motion to approve. Second. >> Motion and a second to approve policy definitions. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. First reading of policy 0144.5. Board member behavior, communication, and code of conduct. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Motion in a second to approve policy 0144.5. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. First reading of policy 4140. Termination and resignation. >> Motion to approve. Yeah. >> Motion in the second to approve policy 4140. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Opposed. >> Motion carries. First reading of policy 5112
034entrance age. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Motion and a second to approve policy 5112 entrance age. There any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I >> I opposed. Motion carries. First reading of policy 5464 early graduation. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Motion and a second to approve policy 5464 early graduation. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Opposed. Motion carries. First reading of policy 8420. Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Motion in a second to accept policy 8420, school safety and reporting of crime statistics. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Oppose. Motion carries. First reading of policy 9151. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >>
035Motion to second to approve policy 9151. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppos. Motion carries. >> President Olson, can I just say one thing? >> Yes. >> Um Shelley and I met and talked a little bit about the policy committee. We are all caught up on Neiola updates at this point and so we will have another round. We get two updates a year. We'll have another round come probably later in January, mid January or so. Um Shelley and I plan to meet to review all of those if members of the policy committee also want to join us. They certainly can. We'll talk through kind of how we want to break those up this spring so that there's some thought put into that and
036you guys have a little more information into the board meeting. So just wanted to anticipate >> Yeah, that makes sense. >> That update for after winter and thank you for all the changes you made. >> Yeah, it was good. There's a lot >> no fe a lot of small ones but yeah >> to accept please motion to accept the policies and rules committee second motion a second to accept the policies and rules committee report is there any further discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I >> I opposed motion carries other reports by members of the board I do have an update about for tax resolution. Chris Hintotop, myself and Chris Hamuk Bole, we had a meeting and uh virtually and discussed some of the [snorts] issues that we were facing and
037uh Chris Hanbach really told us that this is normal that there always seems to be one group saying you do it this way and you meet with these people and then you go and meet with these other people. So, we, you know, I told you before we've gone back and forth. Um, where we are right now is that meetings are being set up first again with Mayor Payne and President Lindsey Grai from the city council. After that, we will then meet with County President Mark Lebert and legal counsel from them. U, Mr. Libert is uh more understanding now after a lengthy conversation with Miss Kint of what this was all about and we will not have it on the tax statements this year. They're hoping that by April, the way it looks, some of the
038other hoops that still need to be jumped that for next year's statement that this information will be on there. So, um, we're watching very closely what Oaklair is doing, their entire school district. I shared with you a statement that they had last time that they're proposing and everything and with their council and their school district council and the city council from Oaklair, they've come up with pretty solid language and stuff. So, we have our resolution. We may tweak it just a little bit to to match theirs. So once once I get a final statement from Oaklair and I'll share that with you to let you see where we would really like our final statement to be. Uh another thing the board of education nomination papers are available and you can see Ann in the uh
039administrator's office to get your paperwork. Are there any reports other reports from our board members? You're going to a concert tonight? >> Yes. The orchestra concert is happening at the high school at six o'clock. >> Basketball tonight. >> Boys basketball. >> And I saw the middle school choir concert got rescheduled. >> This the listening session. >> We're rescheduling that for January. >> Thank you for January. >> Yeah. >> Any other district or program highlights? Superintendent, >> you guys covered it all. Final uh motion for approval. Consideration of bills and pre-approved bills. Motion >> to pay the bills. Second. >> Motion and a second to pay our bills. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. [clears throat] >> Opposed. Motion carries. I entertain a motion for adjournment.
040>> A motion to adjurnn. I'll second. >> Motion a second to adjourn tonight's meeting. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. All right. Opposed. Motion carries. And you all have a very joyous holiday season. >> Yeah. Thanks. >> Look out for chat.