001Yes. points. >> I can't like interject. >> Good evening everybody. We'd like to uh start tonight's meeting and welcome to our committee the whole meeting for Monday, December 1, 2025. Like to call this meeting to order. We have met all official notifications compliance. Roll call, please. Shelley Mullen >> here. >> Nicholson >> here. >> Laura Gapsky. >> Virtual. >> She's on. Laura, I believe. >> Okay. >> Here. >> There she is. >> I don't know what my camera is not working, but I can hear everyone. Thank you. >> Hey, we can hear you. Thank you. >> All right. Katherine Gan here. >> Sarah Schuber Mcone excused. Nick Schumacher here. President Steve Olsson here. This meeting is a meeting of the board of education held in public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business
002and is not to be considered a public community meeting. There 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. The 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 3 minutes in length. Action taken at today's meeting is forward is to be forwarded to the recommendation for final approval at the regular schoolboard meeting on Monday, December 8th, 2025. So, first on the agenda
003tonight, are there any comments by our members of the public? Yeah. >> No, >> there are not. Next up is our report from our superintendent. Great. >> I have oneformational item tonight. I have a couple otherformational items next week, but tonight we're going to start with four corners. We have some students and our principal, four corners that have some updates. So, we're excited. We cannot wait to hear. >> I told you it didn't awkward. Welcome. Yeah. Thank you. Um, and good evening members of the board. It's welcome to winter, right? Feels like we got kicked into the deep into the pool. Um, so this is my first visit to the year already and we're almost at the end of the first trimester, which is is pretty amazing. We've had a really good um really good
004start to the year. It's been very very busy. It's been very good. Let's see if I can make this work. I can. Yes. Um, so I want to talk just briefly about, you know, what our goal is this year. And really, as always, our goal is that we want all of our students before they leave our building to be reading at at grade level. That's definitely the bottom line of of what's important to us. Um so as far as writing a goal this year we determined that we need to take a look at the students who are scoring at the um some risk or the at risk category in terms of reading on the fastbridge or the Ames web depending upon what grade level they are and really looking to make sure that they're they're
005making um aggressive growth because we know that they can't just make typical growth in one year. they really need to make more than one years of growth in order to to catch up to their grade level peers. And we determined that at the K1 level, it's really about the reading plan. And we want all students to be exited from a reading plan. In order to get there, they've got to demonstrate proficiency um in oral reading fluency. And by the third grade, it's on Ames as well as the forward exam. So that's kind of where we are. Um, as far as a few of our celebrations, so our student attendance is really good this year. It's currently at 96% which is up from this time last year. Um, we've got 66% fewer students this year in
006K3 who required a reading plan as compared to last year. So that's very very impressive. I think that speaks volumes to the work that our early childhood and uh K1 teachers really did this year in and ensuring that we needed fewer reading plans at at the second and third grade level. Um and I know Kadis, you're going to talk a little bit about school report cards and I emailed her to make sure I wasn't going to steal steal any of her thunder. Um but we were happy to see that we increased our overall report card score um by 2.6 points, which is pretty exciting. um our overall achievement increased by five points. This is a point that we were really ecstatic about is that in mathematics um for our one of our target groups, our
007students uh who live in poverty, they went up by 9.6 points in math. So we are closing that gap in mathematics between um our two groups which is is phenomenal. >> And our growth in ELA was higher for our target group than for our non-target group. So again, we're starting to to see that gap close, which is definitely what we want to see. Um, and then in terms of our fall data, which we're almost coming up on the on the winter testing uh time already after the winter break. So this falls, we saw that 72% of our students in K5 were above the 40th percentile in reading and 75% of our students in K5 were at or above the 40th in math. So that gives us a really good foundation to work from. um knowing
008that our kids are coming in not really seeing a huge summer slide which is which is really good news. >> There we go. And we turned 40. >> That's right. >> So yeah, it seems like a eons ago. So in September we had our our 40th anniversary and we had a a big celebration. We invited we had lots of former Falcons come back, lots of alumni come back. We had a really nice turnout. Um it was kind of yucky weather. We had planned this big outdoor barbecue and then mother nature decided, "Nope, I'm going to rain and be foggy." So, we moved it all inside, which was it actually turned out really well. Um and it was fun. We opened up the the time capsule and got to pull everything out and see what was
009in there. There was some stuff from originally from 1985. So, we got to go through, you know, like the plans for when the school was built and how much it cost and all. that was really interesting and eye opening to look at. Um, and then that the last time that they opened it was at the 25th and so we were able to go through like some of the things that the students had put in and and you know what they thought life would be like now which was you know we're all in flying cars of course you know that's that's what they thought but it was it was pretty cool. Um and then our teachers had their classes of course then make some things to add to the to the time capsule. We also had
010some of our staff write a letter to the person in their position in the future. You know, what advice would they give? >> Um, I added a few things from, you know, a big a big piece of in between the last time this was opened and now was, you know, COVID and what did that look like and knowing that, you know, at some point that's going to live in the history books. So, you know, kids in the future in AP US history are going to about the pandemic and and what that was like. So, it was a really it was a great time and it was great to see so many future or former Falcons and families and staff. Um, as far as some of the challenges in our building, you know, I'm sure this
011is not anything different than than what you've heard of other buildings is, you know, change is hard and changing over with the uh new reading curriculum. It's really it's it's much more rigorous. it. You know, I think that as the longer the teachers are working with it, they're seeing the benefits of it, um, they're working exceptionally hard and they're doing a great job. One of the things that we put in place in our building, we've really valued that PLC time and so making sure that staff had as much time as possible to collaborate with one another and really go through and talk about, okay, so what does this look like in terms of, you know, what does the writing look like? How does that tie into the reading lesson? how does that tie into, you
012know, the phonics and things like that? Um, and as well really having a lot of support from our instructional coaches. It's been great having work with our individual PLC's to help them do some planning and kind, you know, sorting through all of those those things to make a a coherent um day for our kids. So, it's been really good. Scheduling, of course, you know, that's always always tough. And I think with our we have a unique situation with our multi- multi-age grade levels and just figuring out okay so what does that look like to make sure that our kids are getting instruction at grade level in reading and math how do we schedule those interventions who's going to do those when you know there's a lot of moving parts um and I think our our
013teaching staff do a really really great job of working together to figure out okay how can we make this work what does this look like when does it happen who do we need to pull in to help us out. And so it's really an all hands on on deck approach with that. Um and then the other thing which was very unusual this year is we had I think more than gosh probably we've seen in in the last quite a number of years is movement of students in and out at the beginning of the year. So this year we had 11 students transfer in and 10 transfer out which is a lot for a when you're talking about a school of you know 196 kids and seven and four were after school started. So um you
014know when you think about that's like 6% of our student population moving in and out which which was new for us but it also was wonderful. We had a lot of homeschool families that came back to us and they're very happy. They're they're you know I get emails from the parents saying we're so glad we're back with you and you know our kids are having a great experience. So that's a good thing. >> Good. >> And our CPR card, do you want to do you want to click on that? We can just go through it. I think I made it live link. I hope. >> Um we can go to the website here. >> Yeah. And I I can just talk you through kind of what what we've done up to this point this year.
015So um you know with the new reading curriculum, one of the first things we did as a staff is determine we sat down at in August and said okay so we need to look at all of these parts. What are the things that 100% we are going to commit to every day no matter what. We did that with math a few years ago and really saw our math our math data improve and it and it is held steady. Um and so we wanted to do the same thing with with the reading curriculum to say okay what what are they absolutely no matter what that we must do. Um and then we've uh taken a look at you know like how things are going um as far as the implementation of that. Taking a look at
016what things we needed to tweak. We've gone back and looked at those things again. we've um taken a look at our reading essentials and said, "Okay, so are these things still essential that we worked on again last year?" And so we've done a lot of work throughout the course of the year. There's a family engagement piece. Um one of the things that's really great is that our PTA president and our family engagement coordinator have really taken this thing by the horns and they've scheduled a family event every month from now until the end of so it's it's a a pretty amazing thing. It's okay, Ann, if you don't >> I It's a It's a lot of clicks, I know. Um, so that's kind of where we are. You can see they're highlighted. The the things
017in green are the things we've done and then the things in yellow are really the ongoing things because they go throughout the entire the entire school year. Um, talked about just about everything on there. So, yes, this brings me then to the four corners news crew. Mhm. >> Um, so one of the things we talked about was really within the school helping kids feel like they're they're important and they're involved and they're part of the school community. And so one of the things girl they're like, "Okay." Um, so I've got Lauren and Billy with me. They're two of our our news reporters um for our Four Corners news crew and our uh library assistant uh Max Pley has really kind of taken us on as their executive producer. local um and working with the kids.
018Mr. Hoy came out and worked with our students, talked to them a little bit about, you know, how do you write an interview question, what do you do, how do you prepare those things ahead of time? So, that's been it's been really cool. So, um if you just want to kind of share with them a little bit about like what what do you do, how do the videos get made, how do you decide who to interview, all those things, I'll let you talk. What we do in B four corners news is we go around and we pick people from any class and we ask them questions like we you're going to do over your like long weekend or like uh like what you're going to do on the holiday. And what we love about being
019on the news is that we get to um like interview different kids and we get to learn different things about them. >> Yeah. >> And you do then the launch and all of the weather. They do the weather they do the weather report with green screen. So that's that's quite fun. Um, and what did you guys do last week? >> Oh, um, so we had the four corners parade and we like broadcasted it. So we had some people like on it like saying like what went by and we got three facts from each class of what like they like happened like a class fact and we said that and it was just really fun. Yeah, we're still putting together the video, so I'm excited to see it. But we did kind of our own little,
020>> you know, four corners Thanksgiving Day parade and that it's it's a great STEM related project because the kids have to engineer their float. They have to figure out how are they going to get it around, you know, what are how are they going to move it, you know, they have to build it so it doesn't tip over. They have to work with with a teammate. Um it's a really cool experience. And yeah, we had our our very own post. So, I'm excited to see what the what the video turns out like because they're still still in editing mode. >> Is it just you two or there other fifth graders, too? >> Sarah's more. >> Okay, cool. Any other younger kids? You guys are teaching and coaching just fifth grade. Okay. >> Any of you
021going to be uh broadcasters when you grow up? >> No. >> There you go. You learn what you want to do and learn what you don't want to do. >> Exactly. But they do a great job and it's really fun. It's something the kids look forward to watching um every Monday to see, you know, what the what the newscast of the week is. >> It's very fun. >> Thank you, girl. >> Thanks, girl. >> All right. And that's we are in so if you guys I don't have questions about anything we talked about or anything that has come up that you're wondering. >> Thank you. Maybe do vote >> vote for some of you. >> She's been a huge huge asset. >> All right. >> Okay. I have a couple action items. You want to
022take those Steve or me? >> You can. >> Okay. So, the first action item next >> first action item is our recommendation for the 2627 academic calendar. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Um, I just want to point out a couple things. each year, you know, it's I I try to somehow incorporate staff voice into the calendar so that staff um can share their feedback as we move this forward every year. We didn't have a lot of options this year considering September 1st was on that Tuesday. So, it just kind of Christmas and um the end of the year sort of fell naturally on that calendar. I did share um a survey with staff uh before the holiday asking how they wanted to start the school year because we had some flexibility with those
023workshop days um before the first day of school. And so this calendar reflects their um uh vote on that. >> So what's PT comp day? >> So we have a couple days built into the calendar where we compensate uh our staff who participate in the parent teacher conferences. Okay. >> So, they worked before that day. They had worked two evenings which equate to one school day. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> We have a motion in a second. Is there any further discussion? >> Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Opposed. >> I. >> Oh, sorry. Laura. Motion carries. Consideration of overnight field trip request from Leah Herman Gunderson for students in grades 9 through 12 to attend Europe in June of 2027. >> Welcome. Sorry. Motion to approve.
024>> A second. >> All right. Motion to second. Discussion. >> Thank you. You're up. >> No, you're up. >> Well, there was um interest in it. This would be the fourth tour and um some families just wanted longer payment plans, smaller payment plans. So um I decided to try and roll it out further in advance. So this would be for 27. Um I'd roll it out to our 8th through 11th graders. Um if you guys approve next week, we've had some really good feedback. I've had students come back and tell me that these tours they are going to go study abroad. So, we have one graduate who's going to go in Scotland, ELLL, and we have another one who's going to study abroad in Costa Rica. Um, she's going for um sports medicine. So, said
025that inspired her and um that's awesome. And I listen to your guys's concern wanting to stick with the level one travel advisories. So these countries are all level one um kind of clumped real closely together and focused on going to different um ancient cathedrals and castles and going working with local families and having dinner with them, learning about different farming techniques. And >> is this in 27? >> 27 June 2027. >> Okay. So if I roll it out to our eighth through 11th graders, they get like a year and a half of payment plans. So it's a lot smaller for them. Um, and that was some families concerns like could I start planning them earlier in advance? Some people are like, "Oh, the kids in 10th grade, what are you doing when they're in 12th
026grade?" I'm not there yet. I'm not done. Um, but I can try to roll them out earlier to make it more a bit financially available for our families. I've had a few of your chaperones reach out and uh, you know, encourage us to support it and stuff, but um, the ones that have reached out, I know them very well and and they speak very highly of the program >> and they're a good chaperon team. Um, I've had some of their students travel with them as well. I feel really confident traveling with them. >> Any other questions or further discussion >> hearing? None. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. >> Thank you. >> Move on to the board committee reports. First up is our budget insurance committee. Katherine,
027>> I have one action item which is our gifts, grants, and bequests. The administration recommends approvals to accept gifts, grants, and bequest received in November 2025. >> Motion to approve. >> Second, >> impressive. >> Yes. Month after month. >> Nice one. >> I'm always impressed by the night grad parties, the donations we get for that. Any further discussion or questions? Hearing none. All in favor, please. >> Oops. >> Well, I just see a minor error just for the publication of Superior Youth Organization. That's all. Sorry. >> Spelling. >> Oh, thank you. >> Okay. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. >> Any opposed? >> Okay, motion carries. >> Uh, no discussion items. And then as always,formational items, fund 10 revenue and expenditure preliminary reports you got, David, anything any highlights, David? >> Um,
028one thing that's on there is there, but uh the spend reimbursement came out for last week and the estimated things. that um if you heard the state budget is going to be 42%. You know, a huge windfall for districts. Um under school math though, it's actually 35%. That's a difference of around $600,000 and that's 42 to 35% for us. Uh we budgeted at 37% because usually those numbers come in lower, but that's still a $200,000 difference. So, um there is a good chance at a bump up to probably get to 30 cents. we might be able to just hit no effect, but um that's where the the difference between some sufficient and some sort comes into play and it it usually bites us, which it does in this significantly less money. Um also, I just
029wonder if the board know that a meeting with the uh our health insurance company, our health insurance broker last week um and it is not looking good for us for our renewal for next year. Um, we've had about $6.7 million in claims going to medical and the premiums are 5.3 million. So that means the health insurance companies are, you know, in the red for $1.4 million. I asked what are we looking at for rates? They said if we looked at it right now, it would be 20% increase. You got to hope that uh the next few months don't have as much as many claims going in. But I'm not holding my breath. And it it all comes down to just unfortunately we have people that are getting sick and that's that's going to drive up
030our claims. Um so it's we just have to be prepared for that and just hope it comes down. One question I did have for him is you've always talked about going self-insured and that's a way that you can save money when you're healthy healthy. So we would have lost we would have lost this year. We would have had um you know stop insurance to cover us. So we would have lost the full 1.4. form period probably would have lost a significant amount of money. So it's it's a good thing we did go in that direction currently. We just got to figure out where our where our baseline is. And we're not alone. When I talk with other business managers, the one thing they are terrified is health insurance costs because you just can't control it.
031There's nothing we can do to make health insurance more affordable. Um and it's that's just that's where we're at right now. So um we looked at the possibility of creating a committee. I don't think we're going to go with committee because um as our our 1% we're not even touchable by fully insured companies as opposed to Medicica. They just won't touch us right now because of our our claim set up. So we're going to continue to push and see what we can get for rates and then my tenative plan is actually bring him in and have a meeting that all the employees can participate in join and hear what the what's going on with our health insurance. But I just wanted to let you guys know since I just heard about it and be prepar
032prepared for that down the road. >> When does the plan year end? >> Uh June 30th. So >> Oh, was that far over already? >> Oh, >> well it goes back a year for claims that is from December of last year till August of this year is what they have. >> Okay. >> So, yeah. And it's just it only takes a few people to get >> Sure. David, back to that uh special education funding. So, they approve 42%. And then they get together and they say, "No, we can't afford that. We've got to go down to 35." What do you know what the what is their process? >> So, how it goes is it comes in and the the the state makes an estimate. You're going to spend $100 million on special education and we're
033going to give you 42% of that. So, here's $42 million. Well, then all of a sudden, the schools come in and get the real data and say, "Actually, we spent $120 million." They said, "We're only giving you $42 million." And that's the difference between some certain and some sufficient. So, when somebody says some certain, I'm giving you $42 million. That's what you're getting. I don't care what the rate is. If it's some sufficient, if it's at 42%, they're going to give you 42% of that 120 million because they're going to give enough that's going to be sufficient to cover that amount. So that's where people really get hung out like, "Oh, is it the difference of one word, sufficient versus certain?" And when they come back and say, "So I'm certain, I know we just
034lost money." >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Are they always really conservative with that number? >> So that differences between 5% and 3%. We're really hoping we get a 3%. So that could bump us up to 38%. >> Sure. >> And we budget at 37. A lot of other districts budgeted at 38 to 39% and those are the ones that are there are some districts that budget at 42% which that's going to be extremely painful for them because now they're going to have to find a way to cut because they they assume they're getting that revenue and now that revenue just it's just gone. They just don't give you that much money. They do their break. So >> on a good note, >> thank you David for your goal there Santa Claus. Uh Dean and I
035actually went to a conference last week uh or two weeks ago for SPE and there are some opportunities we have. I think leveraging high cost which we found out some other ways to to submit for that which may give us the opportunity to get some of that high cost is the thing that the the states have really contributed to 90%. Um so we're going to look into that. We got kind of a plan in place and then also transfer service. So I think there is some opportunity. It certainly isn't covering a million dollars or anything like that, but it was nice to be there, especially with Dina being there. She understanducation and all the acronyms and I knew the numbers. So I seen the opportunity that she verbaliz. >> Can you say more about that
036conference? And I I appreciate your efforts to be optimistic. Want to give you props for that. Uh well from on my side it was just we brought in one or one district was presenting which I was surprised they were going to do it because again that high cost up is some certain so that more people will get better at it or going to get more of the money and then they're going to get less of it. But some of it was just how we broke down a high cost. Our original thought was if we had a student that's over cost over $30,000, we just had to figure out a way that that kid cost $30,000 which you most instances was a one to one aid because an aid cost. Um but it's also you can
037tie it into programs feel free to jump in or classes where you can expand it out where maybe you don't think that kid's a $30,000 kid, but when you add in all the peripheral stuff that he's required, we can get up to that $30,000 where we didn't give him the egg. >> Sure. more comprehensive look at costs. >> And just to add to that, for our professional organizations between David and I, um this is the first year they're putting out a um a special ed budgeting academy, basically bringing the two together so that we can learn the ways to maximize the revenue and reduce the expenses. And so we have four sessions throughout this year. So that was just the first one. So we have three more to learn from. So good. Little too touchy
038feely for me. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> Bye. >> Way to grow, David. >> Not a stretch. >> Okay, on that positive note, that ends my report. >> Thank you very much. >> We'll move on to the operations committee. And Sarah's not here, but there are no action items, no discussion items, informationational item. Mr. Jamie Wilson, director of food service. >> Everybody. >> Hi there. >> Hey Jamie. >> Good evening. >> So I'm here for my yearly board report and I really tried to just change some things up for you this year. I feel like I always come and tell you numbers and the same thing. So um let's go. Um changing our perception. That's kind of our that is our goal in our department. Um, school food doesn't always have a great name. Um,
039school food employees or just the food in general. And that's the perception we're trying to change whether that's in our schools, in our cafeterias, with our students, with our families, but in the community. We know our kids are worth it. And we want people to know what we're doing. We're really proud that we are ch taking that charge. We want um everybody to know that we think we're better than average. like our kids are better than average. Um this year I took last few years I've highlighted the middle school and high school. Um most of my pictures here today are all at our elementary schools. Who we are, we have 36 total staff, nine full-timers, five school year, four year round personnel. Um 4,400 to 4600 meals and snacks every day. Just under 900,000 meals
040and snacks last year. We operate 235 calendar days from July to um June last year. only 26 Monday through Fridays that we didn't serve somewhere in our community. Um week after school is out, we start our summer program and the week before school starts, we are still serving meals up until that last day before um all our inservice training. We are out in the community doing that. Beyond a school day, um middle school and high school, we serve 450 after school meals each day. Um we do concessions and catering. We support 50 to 60 school or events every year. Um, our team loves being part of that um those events after the school day. They love being at our concession events. They love getting to know families and students in a different way. Um, our
041fiscal reality, strong participation is critical. Our department must be self-supporting to maintain a stable budget and our strong fund balance. Every single meal counts that we serve. Um, breakfast. 42% of our students eat district-wide, 49% about 50% in our elementary schools, and middle school and high school about 23% um our kids eat breakfast. We have tried everything to reach that crowd. Those kids don't want to be there first thing in the morning. We do our best. Um lunch 66 67% districtwide. We're up 3% from last year. We're going to take that as a big win. Elementary 66% of our kids eat lunch. And at our middle school and high school, 70% um have lunch with us. 800 plus kids at our um middle school, we serve 600 meals a day. Um our goal is to
042get more of them. Those kids in the cafeteria that don't come in our line, we want to see them. At that high school, same thing. 1,200 kids enrolled. We serve um 800 to 900 meals every single day. Um our percentages remain really strong even with student enrollment being down. Why is our participation growing? We update manuals regularly. Um we're always looking at what works and what doesn't works. Uh doesn't work. We've expanded our scratch cooking. Um we're doing more of it at our elementary or at our middle school and high school. Um but everything we're looking at when we compare products on what we're going to bring into our school. We look for less ingredients in them. One of the things we've made a focus of is 100% beef patties in our schools. That may
043not sound like a big deal, but it is a really big deal. It's like, you know, the what's in our beef patties is beef. um across the board and we made that change about 18 months ago and to be honest it's not important to me if our kids know that that's the change we made. We know we made that and we are out that's one example of how we're always looking for cleaner labels um better variety and fresher choices, increased student engagement events. Um we'll talk more about that in a minute, but we are really focusing on how we get students involved in our cafeterias and our lunch line. I think we really have reliable customer service and that's something we talk about in our department on a regular basis. Our staff wants to be
044there and they want to interact with our kids. Um clear communication and um a heavy social media presence. This is one post we did during the government shutdown. We just thought it was important to remind families that we had free afterchool meals at our middle school and high school. We had 315 shares in the community on that. 4,400 engagements. We have 1,200 followers. People know to follow us to get their information. Um, organizations in the community share our posts on a regular basis. We are out and we want to be out um in social media at at the very least once a week. We want to be relevant. What drives our numbers? This is what drives our numbers. Our staff want to be there and want to interact with our kids. Um, fresh produce that
045you see all the time. Grilled cheese. We spent a week talking about a grilled cheese sandwich. how we serve the best grilled cheese sandwich when you don't have a flat top and don't use butter and how we bake it and how we crisp the crust. And we got to a point where we can do it very well and it's consistent. That's a big deal. May not be in your world, but it's a big deal in my world. Fresh, local, and real farm to school. This is something that started as an initiative that was, okay, we need to get a couple of pounds of produce in each kitchen to do to to to show kids that there's food from down the street or down the road. And it's something that's really grown in our school. 2,800
046lb of bay field apples. That's something we've been doing for years. The apples get picked, they go in a box, they go in a truck, and we get them the next day. They're calling me on Monday to know how many they need to pick that afternoon for Tuesday. And we're doing 12 15 cases a week. They're coming to an end of that. They'll be done with those. You know, they've all been picked. Um they'll we'll still get them through, you know, maybe the holiday break. um 1,850 pounds of blueberries. I was lucky enough to go visit this um farm in Bayfield and they pick they have a growing season or a picking season of five weeks after mo Labor Day. It's over and whatever they have left, they have um workers that pick everything. And
047I go went there and I'm like, "What what can we use? What are you going to give us? We'll give you whatever you can take." 1,800 lb of um fresh frozen blueberries. They taste fabulous. um better than anything you're getting in the grocery store. Um we bought those about that same amount last year and we're buying that same amount this year and they lasted through March or April for us. We're doing putting them in parfets and things like that in our elementary schools once a week and we just know that we're getting that product all year long. Um through Brewer Farms, we get lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, squash, melons. You see it all there. A ton of it. Um, we've developed relationships with these growers and what I've heard from them in the last couple years
048when there's just been so many cuts in just about anything. Are they we going to be able to continue these programs? And I assure them, yes, we will as long as I'm in this position. We are making our budget work to make sure that those things continue to happen. Why? Because they depend on it. And then we can get this real this great product in our kitchens and in our cafeterias each year. Um, that's what 1,600 lbs of blueberries looks like and we get it and my team does that. What are we going to do with this and we have a plan and we make it happen. Um, like I said, visiting the farms this year was something that I wanted to do and just getting to know our growers on a different level has
049been unreal. So, and rule I keep, you know, you don't they they tend to give us like the ripest product like we get it on Tuesday and need to be using it by Thursday or Friday. >> You know, you want to give us an underripe product. We're okay with that because we know how to handle it and we can store it in our fridge and we'll use it on the day that it's like the peak of ripeness. And Jamie, you might want to come to our farm and see what we do. and I see how busy they are and they are running around picking at the peak of right ripeness not because they choose to because that's when they have to pick because they have so much more going on. So I learned a lot
050that okay you do what you do I'll do what I do and we'll just keep this going. Um it was just really neat to see though. Um we do a lot of promotions we call them and we've really changed how we're talking in our department. Um, one of the strategic plan pillars is student engagement. We shift you from promotions to that intentional student engagement. That's what we want to do. We want to engage our students every time they come through our line. Um, this there's events designed for excitement and connection, just anything for us to be able to talk to our kids to get them in the door. Students help share future menus or help shape future menus. We had a week in October where we didn't follow our menu week to week. We just
051shared a bunch of new products and they gave us feedback. And I hear from colleagues of mine like, "Do you give surveys? Do you how do you get this feedback and stand in line and listen to kids or get in cafeteria?" They will tell you it's not hard to get information out of them at all. Um we did a state fair, menu day, fall food fun weekly. Um we're just always trying to do anything to get kids involved. Um one of our bigger events was um Orange Chicken Day. We started it last fall and now it's um about every two weeks, every 3 weeks we serve it. Um we've had t-shirts made that say Spartans love orange chicken. Um we don't wear those on orange chicken day. We wear them the day before Orange Chicken
052Day because and that was an argument with my staff like no we promote the day. We need to get kids to talk to us and we need them to come in the door. Um sometimes it's just the little things. Actually a lot of times it's just the little things that get them tag. change a parfait and put it in a jacko'lantern cup around Halloween and we got more kids coming through the line. >> Um, what's our greatest strength and challenge? It's staff. Um, we have I I believe it's fun how we've gone through this exercise about what we're doing in our department and it really aligns with what is going on with the strategic plan. Talk about exceptional staff. I'll tell you, we have it. I I I I know we do. They work hard
053to do what they do. They are here because they want to be. Um they helped us drive a training book. We we've met um during all inservice training as well, not just about knives or not just about how to cut vegetables or how to cook a grilled cheese. Um we talk about how they can be leaders in our district, how they can be leaders in their cafeteria. And that's really driving our training right now because they want help with that when we bring new staff aboard. They want they want to be consistent with that strategic plan and with our vision that we are exceptional and we're going to continue to be exceptional for our kids. So that's something we've been working on. So what it reinforces is who we are and how we show up
054for our kids. Our current challenge, we are short three full-time managers. Um one retirement planned. Cindy Frost, last day of work today, 38 years. Um she going to be hard to replace, but we started looking for her position last March knowing she was going to leave. Um we have interviewed and offered positions. Yes, we post what we pay, but it's been really difficult to get somebody to come aboard on what we pay in this position. Um this has been a major roadblock for us. Our team is stepping up. We're short those three managers that come to about 120 hours per week right now. Um long-term stability requires filling these roles. Our strength is that exceptional staff. I say that a lot. Um we are have a customer service mindset. That's for real. You know, I
055say repeat here because I say the same things over and over. My staff know I say the same things. We are focused on that student who comes to our line or doesn't come through our line. We're just student focused. Staff generally loves serving kids. Our staff wants to be there. many with five to 10 years in the district. I say this a lot also, we have a strong admin support. We couldn't do what we do without that support. That's on all levels at all schools. Um it's just really pretty amazing that they know they trust us enough to keep doing our job and it it it's really easy to know that they support us. It just makes it easier. Um community trust, I think it's another thing that we've built over the years. Families know
056why we're here and that we care about their students. that's why they send them through our line. Um I talked about that growing social media presence um just to keep stu um families informed and again that customer service culture is what we have. Where do we go from here? Let's continue student engagement. Um we need to keep doing those. We're finding that our team loves it, our students love it. Um we want to keep strengthening that staff training for them to be leaders in their kitchens but also to be leaders in their schools. um that's something they want and they've come to me and asked for that training specifically and it's really just when they ask you for something and okay how do I get it for you know just providing them the resources and
057what they need to do their job to the best of their ability and we need to fill those managers position um we keep upgrading equipment something that increases efficiency or uses less water or gas um and we want to keep expanding our local partners look at scratch cooking and still have more cleaner labels That's it. Questions for me. >> What's your favorite feedback from students so far? >> Honestly. >> Yeah. >> You ready? >> Yeah. >> Your fries suck. >> I take that very personally. Like, okay. I heard that one. I had three kids in my back seat and that's what they my my son and his two friends. And I'm like, yeah, they do, Jamie. They're you're not good. It's like, okay. So, we take this back and that's the stuff like that's a
058challenge. I don't have a deep fryer. >> Yeah. >> I have large ovens that we cook >> 60 pounds at a time. >> How do we do it better? >> And then when they come in line and say, "Anything with fries, please. Anything with fries. How do we get something to sell?" We put fries on it. So, >> um, that's a good one. I I give that one a >> little personal. Any other questions? >> They do love the Alfredo though. Oh, the Alfredo Cajun chicken Alfredo at the high school that they keep asking for. I think when kids ask for things, that's what that's it. >> Yeah. >> When is this coming? When do you even do that? I don't know. >> It's pretty I don't I don't want to lie. I have probably
059the best job. >> I mean, seven restaurants and kids just keep coming. It's a great place to be. >> Who does your Who does the social media stuff? >> We do. Okay. >> Trying to get some help. >> Okay. >> Yeah. and we just keep pushing it. Um Katie in her office. >> Yeah, she does the Canvas stuff, all the other pictures and stuff. Yeah. >> Um it's something I like to do. It might be a little control issue, too. >> Product control. >> Anything else? >> Thank you. >> Excellent. Thank you very much. >> Thanks, Jamie. >> Laura's got a question for you. >> Oh, Laura. >> Oh, no. I was just going to say thank you. Um, you always have so many positive things to say, especially about, you know, the staff you
060work with and I just feel like we don't get enough interaction uh with your amazing staff um that are doing the work, but uh definitely I know we're always welcome to come have a meal. So, that that's good news. Um, one thing, you know, I'm just thinking about I remember thinking about Bayfield specifically with the local food grants. Is that something you would imagine would ever come back or is that bye-bye forever kind of a thing? >> I don't know if it will. If it will does, we will take advantage of it. But like I said, we've worked that stuff into the budgets regardless. It's here to stay in our world. >> Thank you so much for that priority. I appreciate it. Thanks. Jamie brought up about his manager. I just want to let you
061know when um Molly does her presentation that it's fully vetted. He brought me all the information on those managers. May he talk about that. So, >> all right. Thank you. That concludes the operations committee report. Personnel negotiations committee. Mr. Nick Olsson. >> I have a few action items. The first one, administration recommends approval of the December 2025 new hires and separations report to approve. >> I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? I do see a couple of your Jamie your resignations coming up, but um Cindy, you know, having been able to work with her the number of years at the high school and how she managed that whole place and and and the product and the the food that she produced in it on daily basis and she'd come up with all these
062little snacks for Ash >> on the side. Oh, sorry. >> A couple more weeks. There were a few. Anyway, um yeah, you're going to miss her. No doubt about it. >> Any further discussion? >> Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries. Second action item. Administration recommends releasing Joseph Floristano, math teacher from SMS, from his 2526 school year contract per his request effective December 19th, 2025 with the liquidated damages provision in forced to approve. >> Second >> motion and a second. Any discussion >> hearing? None. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. And this last action item Jamie gave us a little preview to administration recommends approval of the updated salary schedule for the school nutrition manager position. Motion to
063approve. >> Second. >> And a second. Any discussion? >> Do you want to give a little background? So, like Jamie said, we've been posting this position since last spring. Um, had had interviews, put out a offers. Of course, they don't take it because of the pay. So, about a month ago, we kind of looked into for food service positions. We don't we can't just look at education world, right? Because these positions are everywhere. So we looked at the restaurant industry in the area, some other schools and um like a lot of these positions are housed in healthc care places. So either the hospital or assisted living type places and what we compared to what was open at the time we were $3 to5 per hour less than all of those positions. So, in fact, the
064last person we offered to would have been coming from an assisted living place and she was going to have to take a $5 pay cut per hour to come here, which yes, these positions are, you know, days without nights and weekends, but $5 per hour is a lot to ask somebody to take for the pay cut. Um, so we had five school nutrition managers at the start of this year. three are leaving as you guys saw on the board agenda and for reasons that are normal turnover reasons, you know, retirement, promotion to a director level position and relocation. Um, and so Jamie and I decided we it's time to bring this job forward for review. Jamie's been here for 10 years. I've been here for eight. And in that time, we've never reviewed this position
065before. We did have seven food service positions when I started here and we combined those down into four and when we combine those together we always put them at the higher level and we've also reviewed the kitchen assistant assistant cook um and head coach position already since we've been here just not this school nutrition manager position. So because of that and the timing of needing to hire people and we cannot hire anybody we are bringing this forward to increase the salary. The other thing I want to add and Jamie you can speak to this but um just a reminder that any positions in food service are separate and funded outside of fund 10 and it's a self-sustaining program so those don't affect our fund 10 budget makes sense to me answer questions too I think
066and I looked at this and I no exaggeration 50 to 60 70 like positions in the area and we were very close to the bottom. >> Do you think this is enough? >> I I think I'm going to ask >> because I see a $3. Okay. >> Fits in where we need it to fit in. We do have a lot to offer and we're not getting we're getting candidates up until they accept. >> Okay. Sure. >> And I think adding to like when we review these salary schedules and increase them, we obviously will look at the two managers that are left in the role and put them where they need to be on the new scale. >> Sure. Makes sense. >> Is there Jimmy, is there potential for call back for any of these people
067that we offered to before? >> I'm holding on to one right now. >> Okay, that's good. That's good. I guess we'll find out pretty quick. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. And no discussion items, noformational items. And that concludes my report, Mr. All right. Thank you. Teaching and learning committee. >> All right. We got a couple action items. Crystal Hinsman, director of curriculum and instruction will take the administration recommends the annual approval of the district academic and career plan to approve. >> Second. >> Great motion in a second. Crystal, >> I have a few items tonight. I'll I'm going to try and be as concise as possible and then you just let me know if you have any questions. Um, Caitlyn Null,
068who is our senior project coordinator at the high school, is also our academic and career planning coordinator, and she gave a a pretty big presentation last year about all of the details of what we do kindergarten through 12th grade with that plan. So, I'm not going to give a big presentation about it. We are required by state statute to have the board approve on an annual basis our academic and career plan. Um, it is posted on our website. So the link that you have as our plan is just exactly to our website. That's one of the requirements. Um I will tell you that um the law requires that we have a plan for our sixth through 12th graders on what we do for academic and career planning. We choose to go above and beyond that
069and we have a kindergarten through fifth grade plan as well. Um, we were highlighted thanks to Caitlyn's hard work at the high school um as one of the six um >> DPI models. >> Yeah, DPI models districts and um Caitlyn and then Heidi uh Sigfrids was with her as well did a presentation at the Wisconsin school counseling conference this fall and told about our plan. So our plan has been said it's a model and DPI has celebrated it and complemented um the work that we do. >> But we do need to bring it forward every year. >> Yeah. For your approval officially. >> So do you have any questions about our plan? >> What does the K through five stuff look like? So, um, we have standards in social studies and other areas at the
070elementary level that tie very closely to kids thinking about the people that work in our community and what kind of jobs there are and what kind of goals you set and what you might want to be as a contributing citizen in our community someday. Like those are things we talk about in our standards with elementary students anyway. >> So, those are just naturally built-in things. And in our plan, you'll see that some of those are named specifically like what we do with each grade level. Um, in addition, the tool that we are required to use for the 6th through 12th grade level is called Zello. Um, it's an online tool. If you have had kids in our district, you're probably familiar with it where they set goals and do their planning. Um, we choose to
071pay for that tool to start with our elementary students. It's really only about, excuse me, $2,500 for the school year for all of our K through five students. So, they start using that tool and doing planning and lessons within that with their school counselor and their teacher in elementary school. >> Okay. >> So, yeah, >> that's nice. It just gets them thinking. >> Yeah. And it's everything kind of wraps into that. Everything from the fire department visiting to talk about what their jobs are like in our community to career days teachers have or readalouds they do all the time about different what citizens in our community. How you set goals and think about what you want to do when you grow up. >> And our reporters at Four Corners knowing that they're not going to
072be doing our job. We're helping eliminate. Good. Yeah. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> I. Post. Motion carries. Administration recommends the approval of the school. Let's try that again. Administration recommends the approval of the district Spartan Library Plan. >> Okay. So, the >> motion to approve. >> Sorry. >> Second. >> Have a motion and a second. All right. Um, so this is uh something else not on an annual basis but every couple of years that the school board needs to approve. We are of course required by DPI to have a library plan. Um, tonight Jod Wright is here and Melanie Bars, two of our uh, teacher librarians. Jod is our teacher librarian at the high school and takes the lead on the teacher librarian work in
073our district. And Melanie is our teacher librarian at Northern Lights. just >> I wanted to say Cooper. Sorry. Um, and so they're here to answer any questions that you have on we're not going to do a presentation about the plan. You can review it uh if you would like to and it's on a Google site as well. Is there anything you want to add, Jod? >> No, it's I mean it's a it's been a requirement for I've been doing this forever and it's been a requirement forever. It used to be a like like a book. It was huge. It was the technology and library plan. It required insane amounts of work and documentation and then you'd submit it to DPI and they'd send it back and it like makes me cringe. Um, and now it's
074an opportunity for us to share what we're doing. Um, the requirement is that we have it, that it is board approved, and that we submit it to the state. And so this is just documentation of what we do. Any big changes from previous one? >> No. >> What are some of the highlights? The budget I saw was in there. >> Budget is in there. The budget is amazing. >> Um we're the only place in school finance in Wisconsin that our budget continues to increase. Um the common school fund um funds all of the resources for school libraries and that is a constitutionally um >> guaranteed pot of money that is interest investments um that were made in land sales forever ago. Um it's an amazing investment. Um >> it's very restricted funding too, >> but
075it is super restrictive. Yeah, >> it is like there are very specific things we can purchase, can't purchase. Um, and that's my big job is to just watch that budget like a hawk. >> Um, and Dave tries to steal things from all the times and I have to say no. Sometimes Crystal and I will >> we collaborate >> collaborate. Yes. Zo is a perfect example because it meets the criteria as a research tool. we can purchase it out of common school fund. It can be used as a research tool and an instructional tool at the same time so we can pay for it out of the common school fund. So as budgets dropped, Crystal and I work together to try to figure out what else can we work together on because as I said, our
076budget has we had a like a 25% increase in our budget last year when everything else was dropping. and they're saying it looks like it will continue to increase for the next for the foreseeable future. The the guy in charge is retiring this year though and he is like he's been really strong in leading the the push to maintain those funds. Um there are some legal battles going on right now. Milwaukee County has pulled has managed to sneak some money out of that fund for some not school related things and so >> it's being fought in courts right now. We'll see what happens but it's still in the big picture right now. It's a pretty minimal amount in the the RAM scheme that money looks safe. >> Way to rub that in to everybody else
077increase. until Dave wants to take something out. Okay. >> And I think we have done a good job too of a few of the really big purchases that the district could not sustain that I think are integral to some of the stuff that kids and teachers have become accustomed to using. we were able to get creative and make sure that we're using it in our library instruction so that because they're not research tools, but if we use them as our instructional tools, it does qualify for common school fund. So that was we're able to keep like 30 $30,000 worth of other stuff that would have had to probably go away and Google read write which is really great for allowing kids to be able to do um text to speech, speech to text um looking
078up words and even the exciting part I think is you can save all of your sources. So it it looks very similar to tools that they will be using at higher ed and things like that. So really being able to create those skills in elementary that will take that out through college and beyond. >> Cool. Nice. Thank you. Any further discussion? >> All right. Hearing none. All those in favor signify signify by saying I. >> I opposed. >> Motion carries. No discussion items, informationational items. Crystal's back update on >> this time. >> Act 20 and literacy resource. >> Friends for this one. >> I'm just trying. Yeah. >> Yeah, you're fine. I'm trying to move so you can see them. >> Okay. So, um, you've been hearing a bit about our journey, uh, since act
07920, the Wisconsin literacy law was put into place, about all of the required components and where we've been. A visual that I've shown you and Kate's shown you also a couple of times is that there are really three buckets to the Wisconsin Literacy Law Act 20 that came into place. We of course had to make sure that our staff went through required training. We need to be sure that we have a core literacy resource for teachers to use to teach the kids that's aligned with science-based literacy. And then there are all the assessments that have come with it. So the first piece that we tackled right away and you were part of some of those discussions was training our teachers. There were a couple goals of the training, of course, learning about science-based literacy instruction,
080helping improve instruction and all of the areas that are involved in that. And then really giving um our teachers the background about that so they could help be part of deciding what that literacy resource would look like and which one we would use. So, science-based literacy, of course, um has to include all of these components um that are not new to our teachers. Just because this law went into effect, um you know, this information wasn't new to our teachers. Our teachers had already been doing an excellent job um teaching literacy. We just knew that we needed to hone in and improve some of the pieces. Um this is just another visual you've probably seen before when I've talked about science-based literacy. um Scarbor's reading rope that talks about all of the components that have to
081come together magically in that classroom with the teacher and then for our students brains for them to be able to become literate. So we have uh to date trained 13 of our administrators and the administrator training is a different training than our teachers need. So all of our principles and instructional directors participated in the training with all of our teachers and then went above and beyond and did a four-month training separately as well. We have trained 156 teachers from our first initial training and then our group last year that joined the district and then this year I think we're I think we're training approximately 16 teachers. We are required by the law in the first six months of someone being employed with us if there's someone who's required to be trained to get that training
082underway. Um we are very lucky Amy and Sarah our instructional coaches went through the process of becoming trainers themselves. So they went through that work and so we can we of course have to pay a training fee to the site but they can be our trainers which saves us a lot of money. And just so you're aware on the training end, um it costs a little over a thousand dollars to train a teacher. We are hopeful over time as teachers come out of uh undergraduate with the training and the learning um which was part of the law that colleges would start including this in their methods classes that teachers will come to us as new hires already having the training. And if we hire teachers from other districts, um, especially in Wisconsin and have had
083the training, then they don't have to get trained again. So, that's just a little bit to catch you up to speed on that first bucket of all the training that we've done and some ongoing stuff as well. >> Oh, go ahead. >> Maybe you mentioned this before. Is there any kind of reertification that needs to be done for this or is it a oneanddone? >> Oh, good question. >> Yeah, there it's a it's just a one-time requirement like from the state level. I will say that as elementary teachers because literacy is your it's your meat and potatoes of what you do that all of our PD you know will always feel like ongoing training especially in the parts that >> um maybe oral language or phonics or writing where teachers depending on the grade level
084want more of that training but from the state level it was just once. >> Okay. And Crystal, as a reminder, all that training was an unfunded mandate. Correct. >> It was an unfunded mandate. Yep. >> Thank you. >> Yep. And that is one of the reasons we tried to be strategic and have some of the training take place um on those last days of school when was it a year and a half ago when we got out of school. Our elementary students ended their year a little early. Um so we could do some of the training during the already contracted teacher time to save some money. So, that brings me to the real thing that we wanted to share tonight, and that is how things are going now that we're in that bucket of working
085with our new literacy resource, which we're implementing this fall. So, again, we are required to have a core literacy resource that has all of the components of science-based literacy instruction. Just these couple of slides just show some visuals of what benchmark advance, which is the resource we went with, look like. We used benchmark literacy prior to benchmark advance. So the big components listed on the screen were familiar to our teachers in general with the exception of the writing component which is a new piece for our teachers in the new in the new resource. Um the units are knowledge based which helps build in the science and the social studies content. You can see some examples of some of the scope and sequence of the topics the students are learning about across the grade levels. It
086has a very strong phonics and word study component and the writing is integrated which uh is different than in the past we had had a separate writing resource than our reading. So um I asked some teachers to come tonight. I'll let them introduce themselves here in a second to share with you how things are going. There's always some good, some bad, some ugly and tough times and great times when you're trying something new. So I wanted them to tell a little bit about that. My name is Megan Marthaler. I'm a kindergarten teacher at Bryant and I've been in the district for almost 20 years. >> I'm Lisa Baker. I teach third grade at Cooper and this is my first year. Um, some other things that are going well, uh, Benchmark Advance connects well with our
087other content areas like Crystal was saying, especially social studies and science, which is nice. Um, it also shows more rigor than our previous reading programs. Um, I know for me with my kindergarteners, um, some vocabulary, it's been really great, um, to see how they are using those words beyond just our full reconstruction. So, I've definitely seen it in that area as well. >> My turn. Um I I just have to say first of all as a teacher when I when I began the layout and delivery of this I think it feels really good to have something um so engaging and new because even as a teacher I appreciate that it's like we ask we ask the kids to do some really hard things and I think we need to ask that of ourselves. Um so
088this learning curve um that this has required of us I think and it's been fun to be like reignited with some passion um with these new topics that we're delivering with the kids. Um but I I wrote that the materials are rich in content and highly engaging. Something I want you to know is um as the third grade teacher, we have something that we call it our magazine, right? So, we got we take out a new magazine for a period of three weeks that goes along with our reading delivery and content. Um we just wrapped up our government um unit and there are so many skills woven into that. So when Crystal talks about that reading rope, that's exactly what's happening as we deliver this and it's exciting. Um it really goes back and forth
089between a lot of different skills that the kids have to practice. So that leads me to the next one where students are continually engaged in a multitude of reading skill practice throughout the lessons. There are many many resources that we can turn to as a teacher. So, when I know that someone in my small group reading is struggling with a specific skill, it's really kind of endless of what I can find and dig into. And I believe we've just started touching touching that because we just it's there. We're just going to keep digging and our coaches are continually available. I think we're very lucky that we can call on them whenever we need to. I need even my emergency midday emails and they they always seem to answer me which is really great because like
090guys it's urgent again but to all this but thank you for always being there for us. >> Um some of the challenges as with anything new there's going to be challenges that we're working through. The amount of planning time needed prior to starting each unit um can leave teachers feeling very overwhelmed. um just a lot of work to put in on the front end um for our three-week units. Um the website has a plethora of um extras that while it is wonderful to have, it can also be um a rabbit hole of I know this is what I want to find, yet I'm, you know, clicking all over trying to get there. So, um, those pieces are just, you know, things that we are working through, um, right now as we're getting to know better.
091>> As you try to find something you previously used before, there's probably three ways to get there. So, you really have to remember how you found it. Um, yeah, you there's just there's a lot of online materials that that's a that is a great thing. we just have to navigate it a little bit better and I think give ourselves some grace that we're we're you know having a learning curve right now. Um I found this myself the last bullet but teachers are working to find appropriate pacing. So I have to have you know a bit of a sense of humor with myself because I'm like well no wonder why we're not getting through this. It said 10 minutes and I want minute 25. Again, I think some I think as a teacher, I'm I'm often
092wanting my learners to have some mastery in a lesson because that feels good and I want to get there. But I'm finding out with this resource that I have to trust the process and trust the timing and keep delivering the way I'm supposed to. Do you find that as you've gotten into the second or third unit that the planning is getting a little bit better or is it still as challenging as it was back in September? >> I feel like it's getting better. >> It's allowing me more time to start looking at other pieces that are in there. >> Okay. I was just wondering how quickly you'll feel it better like that. Yeah, >> I just started unit 4 today and it it does feel a lot better and I must say I really like
093that the writing is integrated and that we're >> it's not separate. It >> seems natural that they would be together. >> It seems natural. Yes. And >> I can laugh at this. for the first like writing unit that I taught. I was h we were done very very quickly because I was like we've got this but now I see well actually we have three weeks to do this. is yeah showcasing learning. >> It's it is like anything new. It takes takes time. But we did hear at two of our um visits to the schools and stuff the same thing. The it's so overwhelming because it is so new and and and the time needed and there was expression by by both faculty at the two schools we visited so far so far about more PLC
094time. But then there was a concern about across the district about what's really going on at each grade level too and and making sure that there's time spent in the professional development days to to address some of the concerns or just see what what people are doing. So >> yeah. >> Well, one of the reasons we wanted to talk about it tonight is just to provide a little more context. Knowing that this has been a topic that does come up in our listening sessions, I thought we should probably give the full scope of kind of where we've been, where we're going, and be really thoughtful about what support you guys need. And that's transition. >> Is there a platform or like a somewhere that we can give or that you guys can give feedback to
095benchmark about >> complexities of it or or we have a direct rep that we can work with? >> Absolutely. >> Okay. You're talking about the big resources at the elementary level, math and literacy, like you know, we we have the cell phone number of our our big rep. Yes, absolutely. Vanessa, and she's been very responsive. She's been our rep for several years, even prior to this resource. Um, something else that's fairly helpful, even though we don't collaborate a lot with them, is Maple uh has transitioned, the school district of Maple has transitioned and uses the same resource, and Vanessa is also their rep. So, it's, you know, if we're having a frustration about something and giving feedback and so is a district in Ohio, it's also nice when someone close by is giving the same
096feedback. >> Um, so then we can always collaborate with them or talk to Brad, their principal, about how things are going. Also, >> do you feel like there's changes being made from feedback that you're seeing from that or no? There is always ongoing development in a resource, but when you're talking about this big of a resource and how many additions they will print out. I mean, they're not they're not doing that every year, you know. So, but being that there's so much in an online platform now, which is really different, of course, than it was, you know, 10 or 15 years ago, it's much easier for them to adjust things on even little things on how to make something a little more printer friendly or something like that. >> Okay, cool. Have you trainers since
097you're answering questions, have you seen common threads or themes and the types of questions you guys are getting and and maybe that can influence what kind of PD days we have and you can address that >> I think well that's the slides transition to them. Yeah, I'm Sarah's >> Amy Patel. Um, >> and we the first two official trainings in April of last year and then August before school started were facilitated by trainers that came um through well, they were benchmark advanced um official trainers. Um, and we didn't always have the same consistent trainers for every grade level. Um, and then from from that point on, I think Amy and I have tried to be very responsive in terms of working with our shared leadership team. And both Megan and Lisa are on shared leadership
098team. We have reps from every grade level and every building and really just trying to give them a lot of time to network and ask questions in the moment. So, they're supporting each other across buildings when we come together for our monthly meetings. and then getting information from them to sort of plan our staff development days. Like what do you think is the most pertinent thing that we address in October? We we looked a little bit more at assessments. Um something that we hadn't got to in our previous trainings and we'll continue to do that. So our next year leadership team meeting is in January. Prior to that meeting, we'll probably send these leaders a survey saying what do you think this group needs for us to problem solve ahead of our February staff development.
099I mean, we try and be as responsive as we can, giving them time to network and problem solve together because they're the ones, you know, I hate this expression, but in the trenches. If I could think of a nicer way to say it, I would. Um, you're in the you're in the kindergarten trenches. Um, and then, um, I think the other thing we've offered a few and we'll continue to offer them, although it's hard because people don't always show up, is trying to offer some virtual before school networking optional sessions to people. That's the challenge when you've got five buildings and everyone's got slightly different schedules. But I mean, from our perspective, 100% of what we've focused on this year has been supporting benchmark from a professional development lens. I think one of the shifts
100that's also difficult and it may continue to be difficult this year but I think in future years will get easier as Crystal showed on the slide this is knowledge based and so the themes are expecting that the kids are coming with some prior knowledge so for example Lisa shared she just wrapped up unit 3 uh we do have district level timelines so our not that it's huge but our third through uh fifth grade teachers are in one timeline K2 just because of how the resources are on a different timeline but Unit three, everyone does government. And so next year, for example, Lisa's third graders will have had the second grade unit on government coming to her and that resources written knowing what they had the year previously so they can build on that um knowledge.
101And this year, our kids are coming with more gaping holes because they haven't had that. And so we too are reminding teachers that our focus is reading and the government learning is a great byproduct, but don't get caught on those rabbit holes of teaching the whole everything because you know our focus is reading and writing the ELA standards. And I think sometimes that's a good reminder and I think that that's a big shift that will continue to get easier as we continue to use this resource, but it's going to take a whole year. >> Sure. >> For that exposure >> and that's why you're less into 25 minutes for You're teaching government and reading. >> One of my favorites was a teacher who was >> she was doing a writing lesson and she set a
102timer for 10 minutes that the students didn't hear. The timer went off mids sentence. She stopped herself. She moved on and not one kid in the class said, "You didn't finish your sentence. Move on." Altha put in a few pictures here of some students. So you can see that that magazine that they were that she was talking about that our students uses. >> They should be coming home. So if you have an elementary kids, >> this boy on the right is doing a skill that we teach called annotating. And so yes, the content is government, but what I love about it, like he has to circle vocabulary words that he still wants to learn. He writes down questions in the margin about his text. So the skill of diving deeper, you know, into what you're
103learning is being taught through the magazine, but it's carrying on. You know, that was something that I had to teach them exclusively in unit one, but now in unit 4, I'm like, well, today you're going to annotate during this time, and they can sit down and do it. So, it's pretty they're very proud of their magazines in the middle because they'll work really hard um practicing a lot of skills. And then the boy on the left is it that's during our small group reading time where we can engage in some of the texts that go along with the unit. >> Yeah. Cool stuff. >> Do you have any other questions? >> Great job. Our teachers are doing a great job. Yeah. Thank you very much. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Okay, stepping away. Thanks, >>
104Crystal. >> All right, up next, Kate Cass, director of continuous improvement and assessment, Spears High School principal and runner. >> Forget excuse me. Okay. >> Uh, yay. It snows. Um, so >> um, hi everybody. Uh I am here in my uh director of continuous improvement and assessment role to share with you uh our data from last year. This always feels weird because we're like a year behind um the state we'll call it the state statute and the data and how we can release publicly the information is always a little lagged. Um, so this is there's a lot. I always try to simplify this, um, but I don't want to be too simple because it is important and it is an accountability measure. So I have a little bit of data and then I have the
105report card scores and some and we can engage in some question and answer if you still are not overwhelmed with all the fantastic information tonight. So, um I did share this with you in your email so you can click and open some of these things larger um in a version you have the PDF and so that way you have access and if you have questions as always please if you don't have them tonight and you want to email me feel free to do that. So I just started obviously we're all uh aware of the work we did around our mission and our vision was there our pillars I think are really important part as we talk through the student engagement growth and achievement really this presentation is around our data and our work uh looking
106at our achievement specifically and our data around student assessment data from the state level. So I always like to give a really brief overview. This is very quick around what is required because these required assessments make up the report card score in some capacity. So I'll tie that back in when we look at the report cards specifically. So the Wisconsin forward exam is the first state required assessment outside of the early literacy piece around act 20 but the first state assessment our students take starting in third grade language arts and math and that goes third through 8th grade. Our fourth and eighth graders also take science and our fourth 8th and 10th graders take social studies additionally. So from there we have the dynamic learning maps which is our alternate assessment for our students with
107significant cognitive abilities. Less than 1% typically of our population is taking the dynamic learning maps uh assessment. So that is the state assessment that is the alternative assessment. The ACT and the preACT are the high school components of so we go from the forward exam to the preACT in 9th and tth grades which transitions to the ACT in 11th grade. I always think it's really important to note that our students in the state of Wisconsin in 9th, 10th, and 11th grades all take the pre-ACT and the ACT as our state assessment. It is not optional. It is not do it if you want to do it because you're potentially collegebound. It is the measure in the state of Wisconsin, which is not the same thing as it is in Minnesota or other states where it
108is pockets of students taking the ACT. So, >> I think kids take it more seriously because of that. >> Yep. And I think it's a really great opportunity we provide to all of our students. It is a free ACT assessment. The ACT now costs $93 if you're going to take it on a Saturday on your own. I also acknowledge that not all of our kids necessarily need it for college entrance. That's not a path that they've chosen. It is still a an accountability measure for our work grades PK through 12 and it's a measurement tool. So engaging kids in doing their best and getting information around even career path pieces from both the preac and act they've done a better job of of having their reports present that information uh additionally and then the a
109I have included as web plus on this doc because it is a required state assessment. It is not yet dot dot dot wrapped into our report cards. From there, the district and classroom level assessments. I think it's important. So, we have this required piece big one day snapshot of a student's achievement level, but we know that we throughout every single day, our teachers are doing an amazing job of monitoring student progress, whether it's formally or informally. As a district, we have some district level assessments we use. You've heard me talk about FastBridge, which is our primary district level assessment to monitor progress throughout and also kind of show some trends. I think another important piece. So, what you will see is math and English language arts for each of those three grade levels. And I'll
110I'll carry on in a second. I just want you to kind of see a little bit of what is presented here. Uh I've left the trend starting in 201819. I think it's really important that you have it in your brain. The test is not always the same. So, we had a huge change in percentiles, cut scores a couple years ago. We've had the COVID uh pandemic. So, you can see 1920 we have no assessment data. So that I always struggle to say like here's a trend line because I don't we are not comparing the exact things but we are comparing forward exam scores based on the state and the and what we have. So in the blue bar graph those are that is the percent of students in superior in the grade level we're looking
111at. So in this case fourth grade who are meeting or advanced or proficient or advanced whichever terminology they're used somewhat interchangeably. So that is the percent of students in fourth grade math on the forward exam last year who were proficient. So in fourth grade 50% of our students were proficient the year prior 48%. So we made a jump there of 2% uh from the prior year and then in the red bar graph would be the entire state of Wisconsin's proficiency uh on that same measure. So uh we are closing the gap to the state in fourth grade math. And so I think that is a celebration. We have room to grow as we know and we're working I think this data shows you the same trends that we've seen from the work we identified around
112math and we're working really hard on that. So then you see ELA English language arts fourth grade exam on the lower right and the uh performance above the state average which is a huge celebration and we continue that work. I am going to flip to the next slide again. The slide you have a slideshow digest that um as you kind of go through. Thank you. All right. So here math 8th grade which we know has been uh we've struggled in that area. We did make some growth um over the last year. We've made some significant growth since 2223 and we continue to focus there as well. And then our English language arts data is in the lower right hand corner there again as compared to the state. And final achievement slideshow is our 11th are
113our 11th graders uh which again this is the ACT. So the first two were the forward exam now we're on the ACT. Uh we had some nice growth in mathematics 4% uh more of our students are meeting or advanced which is a celebration especially with our math data and we closed that gap uh a little bit to the state and we have celebration in ELA uh for our 11th graders outperforming the state uh even by a bigger margin than last year. So we have some celebrations. We have some work to do which is how making those connections to our strategic plan continues to be this continues to highlight the work that we're doing. Before I touch base on report cards specific questions to the achievement data or tests in general and the test layout >>
114in the eighth grade >> back one slide. Why why do you think and this may be a dumb question, but why is such a because we stayed pretty consistent. We're climbing, but such a big jump from the rest of the state. >> Um I h I have some theories. I think there are a number of things at play. Number one, um it is always a challenge to engage our kids in 8th grade specifically around taking a test that they see no relevancy to. So, I do think that's a I mean, that's a challenge at all grade levels. Eighth grade tends to be a tough year. They're also taking two additional assessments in eighth grade, science and social studies on top of the math and the ELA. So, it it can be like a what's the
115point, especially for kids that were trying to engage in in showing us their best work. So, we're doing work around that. I would also uh argue that we're testing concepts before the end of the year. So, we're always trying to be really mindful, which obviously the rest of the state is too. Our testing window is in March to April, but we're testing on the end of the year content. So, we have to be mindful about where we get to in our scope and sequence, which I think we do a really nice job of. Um, I did not the last two years I have not put up the not tested percentage. Um, I moved away from that after COVID. So, right around COVID times, we we noticed a pretty big discrepancy um between districts and the
116percent of students that they're testing. So, in order to receive federal funds and not have a a improvement plan in place, you need to be testing 95% or more of your students. Um it is not it is reported on the report cards, but it doesn't detract from your points. It used to a number of years ago. I will say that as you skim specific districts, which is all public information and linked into our test reports. So you can go on the website, you can look up any school district, all of their report card information. So you will see trends around districts testing 90% 88%. um we're testing 98% of our students and I would argue that that can skew data very quickly and the state is aware they do publish a number of pieces about
117the importance of test participation. Um but I think that is a big factor in some of our data points. >> And you said what what's the drawback of you have 95% or more to get >> specific funding. >> Yeah. So uh it's tied to our federal funding. Okay. Um, and in the past, and I don't know about in the future, it did uh I can't recall the years before 2019, they did deduct five points off of your report card score if you did not test five 95% or more, but then they removed that from the report card scoring. Um, so I don't know that it's intentional, but I know that we try very, very hard to test every single kid in our district because it's important that this represents all of our students. And I
118am not saying other districts don't. However, their percentages are much lower than ours. >> So those are those are three kind of pieces. um making the connections. We are seeing a higher proficiency on our fastbridge data than this. So that indicates that our kids, we need them to see the importance of this assessment if we want to get more accurate. >> Yeah, I think growth is a key, right? And we're doing that. So that's >> Thank you. >> Any other achievement related questions before I talk a little bit about the report cards? Okay. you think of something, feel free to come back. All right, you uh board members, I did put this kind of just report card at a glance sheet in front of you, which is this is a live link uh on that
119document, but it will take you right to this. I'm not going to read this whole thing, but I wanted you to have it in front of you because this is mine out like doing your tax. This is like the cheat sheet for doing your taxes and how all of these little pieces and their formulas come together. So the report cards are made up of four categories. Those four categories are achievement, growth, target groups, and an on track to graduation. So when you go uh out on the DPI's website and you look at our report card or any other report card for any schools across the state and just as an as a mention to that um private and choice schools can opt to have a report card but that is not requirement of them in
120those categories. So again that's another differentiation between public school requirements and others. So these four categories make up the report card total score. Achievement is English language arts and math. So that would be a straight achievement. What percent of your kids are needing or advanced? The growth category takes a look at students who took the test one year prior and did they grow. So for example, it doesn't incorporate all the kids. It would only incorporate fourth grade because third graders haven't taken it before and only students that are were previously enrolled in Wisconsin and took the forward exam or the ACT as a Wisconsin student and did they grow. So that's a much smaller group, but it's looking at growth. uh your achievement and growth percentage that it makes up on your report card is
121not the same by school. So your free and reduced percentage has a impact on what percent your score how your score is weighted. So if you have a higher percent of your student population that receives free and reduced lunch status, your growth has a higher weighted value than your achieve straight achievement. So they've tried to give some mathematical formulas to even out the report card process. Uh so it is very difficult to say this school and that school and here's their scores and it is the exact same thing and I say that out of fact. Uh it works well for some school like it's a bonus to some whereas if others had a higher percentage of their growth factored in their score would be way higher. So I think that's something to just be aware
122of when you're looking at the information. the target groups and Kim mentioned this in her report. The target group looks at it's like a second report card score on your bottom quartile of your students. So what they do is they take the bottom 25 percentile 25th percentile of the students. So you have a whole list and they take the bottom. So if you have 100 kids, it's the the lowest 25 students and then they run a report card on those lowest 25 students and then that score gets added back in with the goal of if we're doing better for our lowest cortile, all of our kids will achieve at higher levels. >> And so if we can get these kids to grow, it will heavily impact our overall report card score. So it is not
123just kids that are not meeting proficiency. It is so you could have your whole school could be proficient. You still have a bottom quartile or a target group if that makes sense. >> And then the on track to graduation measure is chronic absenteeism for everybody. So your attendance and then depending on your level you have one of the following measures. So high school the second measure is graduation. Elementary, the second measure is third grade English language arts achievement. So that score technically gets counted for you twice. And in middle school, it's your eighth grade math achievement score. So again, that score is being counted twice. So all four of these data points add up to the overall score. Just so you guys know, Kate explains this better than any other human. Trying my best. I
124don't want it to feel like confusing. It is confusing. I just want but I it there there are it's important to understand where the numbers come from. I can't always explain exactly why they chose those measures um as a state, but those are where the that's where the information is coming from. We have a number of celebrations there. There are two boxes on this that have links to those documents. One is the press release that David helped uh push out when the scores and the report cards became public. The other one is um information displayed in the next couple slides but in a more concrete fashion. I think on this slide the things that I want to point out are a couple uh huge celebrations. Every school in our district meets or exceeds expectations. It's
125a pretty big accomplishment. Every single school and our district as a whole. Um so huge celebration for everybody's work and collective work as a district. We had some individual schools make some really big gains this year um and had some huge celebrations and uh we have um a school cooper significantly exceeding expectations um the highest rating category that the state has. So I think some big celebrations uh to make sure that we are acknowledging the hard work that everyone is doing. This is just a layout of the scores over time. Again, we're not necessarily comparing apples to apples when we look at different schools based on their um achievement and growth scores, but I think it is a celebration as you look historically across time. And as a reminder, because there was no achievement data
126in 1920, there were also no report cards for that year. This is just graphical representation of that same information by school and district. And I think the the main point is we have all this information. We can celebrate, but the now what and the now what is really our continued work with our strategic plan, our continuous performance report. I'll be back in January to give you an update with our scorecard and some metrics that we're able to add into our scorecard into this first iteration. And then really the work is to support buildings um with their shared leadership teams and the continuous improvement efforts at the building level which are contributing to our overall district success. So that was a lot of statistics. Please take a look at it. If you have questions, please ask.
127I think it's important. I think it's an important awareness um that all of these report cards exist publicly on the website for all districts across the state of Wisconsin. But if you have questions, let me know. Any card achievement? >> Just happy that you're doing this, >> not us. >> No, you do. >> All right. Well, thank you. >> Thanks, Kate. Um that is all senior or presidente Olson >> I think that's all Mr. President Olson. >> Okay policies and rules committee shall we? >> Right. I have several action items tonight. Um administration proposes the approval of changes to the following policies based on Neiola recommendations. First reading of policy 01000 0 definitions. Several definitions have been updated to make them more current and a new definition of school district classifications has been added. >>
128Motion to approve. Second. >> Is there any discussion? Hearing none. I have a to approve in a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I motion carries. Next one is first reading of policy 0144.5. Board member behavior, communications, and code of conduct. Clarifying language has been added to several provisions as well as a direct reference to conflict of interest. Motion to approve. Second. discussion. >> Kyle, do you have any insight? Are these just all basic updates or >> Yeah, Neiola will push out these updates. If districts have asked for some things um some Neola districts or if they're seeing like a trend, obviously if there statute changes, things like that, they'll make those recommendations. So they just kind of want to keep them >> statutory case law and various liability reasons that
129they read because they're obviously in multiple states. And so >> they're keeping an eye on kind of what the trends are aside from what the law is. They make their recommendations and then typically we review them internally to see if we agree or if there's something that's unique or different that we're doing culturally here in our district that would make that policy inconsistent. So they usually add it in advance. We don't just sort of blindly accept them. >> Okay. >> Right. I have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Right. Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> That motion carries. First reading of policy 4140 termination and resignation. This revision is recommended by Niola to provide a comprehensive policy. This policy change is consistent with practices
130and policies across Wisconsin. >> Motion to approve second. >> Maybe did you want to add it all in? >> No, just that this um came forward as an Eola recommendation. Um, but we had also had some conversations recently with CISA 12 districts and recognized very quickly we're the only district that didn't have this policy in place. And so when the recommendation came forward, it made sense as to why we're moving forward with it. So any other discussion? All right, hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. Motion carries. First reading of policy 5112, entrance age. This policy is updated to reflect the current state of the law which recognizes the parental right to opt out of immunization and to file a statement regarding this choice in lie of immunization records.
131Appropriate legal citation is also added. >> Motion to approve. Second. There any further discussion? Right. Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> Motion carries. First reading of policy 5464 early graduation. This policy is updated to provide additional options for the evaluation and approval of early graduation requests. It also is updated to specify that a student who graduates early but is still participating in district programming or activities remains subject to the requirements of the board policy and other rules. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. So we don't see that often though do we for activities for instance or any other of our activities >> per the WIA they cannot compete if they're not in school. So many kids will come if they're in a winter sport if they graduate they have to
132be done on that date. So um that usually changes their city. So they can't technically from the WI do that now I don't think we have a hard line for us currently any other like kind of the activities portion but athletics they cannot Is there any other discussion? Right. Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Motion carries. First reading of policy 8420, school safety and reporting of crime statistics. This policy has been updated to reflect the crime reporting requirements enacted by the legis legislature effective for the 2024 2025 school year. The law requires high schools to collect and report incidents as described. The first deadline to report is July 31st, 2025. The Department of Public Instruction has provided detailed guidance on the reporting requirements and the scope of
133district's obligation to identify, evaluate, and report covered incidents. The guidance link is embedded into the policy to encourage consultation with a step-by-step process that if followed will constitute a good faith effort at compliance. A client alert is also included with this update that discusses this new reporting requirement and its many challenges in more depth. The policy title has been modified as well to more clearly identify that the policy includes the reporting requirements of the new law. >> Motion to approve. Second, >> anything on this same requirement? Yes. We have a motion and a second. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Motion carries. >> Last action item tonight, first reading of policy 9151, use of cameras and other recording devices in locker rooms. This policy
134has been revised to include additional language concerning media presence in locker rooms and the prohibition of recording devices. The revisions specify guidelines for media access in locker rooms and clarify the options to prohibit the use of cell phones in any capacity within these spaces. Recommended for compliance with statutory requirements. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> What's the enforcement plan? We have this in