Washburn School Board Meeting 12/11/2025

001board is connecting to educate, inspire, and empower. And our vision is a place of excellence that honors the whole learner. >> Um Heidi, there's there is public comment. >> Okay. Um public comment on specific personnel or student matters are not an appropriate subject for presentation to the school board and should be referred to the superintendent's office. Any comment that may violate the rights of an employee or students will not be permitted. Speakers are not immune from legal consequences regarding the content of said speech. Due to public notice requirements, committee board members will not discuss issues presented through audience participation. So, who do you have? >> Joel Pickers. I just have four quick things. Um, one is on the agenda when we have the the um hires and resignations and so forth, we just have the

002positions and no names. Beforehand, there used to be the names there and then also on the on in the minutes. Um but we and then after that it wasn't on the agenda but it was in the minutes and now it's not in either place at least as of let's see we're in December so November meeting it wasn't on the agenda or in the minutes and it doesn't make sense to me because I don't see where it's secret. I mean we're talking about taxpayer people in the taxpayer district. So, um I I think it's kind of a lack of transparency. And for the finances and budget, I couldn't I can't find a light line item for legal expenses. I don't know what that's under, but when you look at where to save money, I'm wondering if

003that might not be one thing that you could look at. I don't know if the board asks for legal advice that every, you know, every time there question or if it's just for important things or whatever, but just throwing it out there maybe. And I don't know what the overall total is because I don't know where it fits because I I didn't see that line item. Then under policy 5112 for the entrance age under D for initial entry quote any student who does not have the proper immunization records or appropriate waiver within 30 days of enrollment may be excluded or permitted to remain in school pursuant to policy 5320. End quote. It seems to me that if they don't have the proper imu immunization, you could exclude them or not, which is kind of like

004making a rule, but then making it subjective. So, it's kind of like why, you know, if you have a rule, then I don't know why there should be a subjective portion to it. And the only other thing is at the end of the agenda under H, I think that's the consent agenda. I can't remember, but where it says approve new uh 2026 to 27 high school courses, there was a link there, but it requires a Gmail password to access it. So, I was not able to. I mean, I wanted to see what they were, but I couldn't. So, unless I was doing something wrong. So, anyway, that's it. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Ed Grul. I've worked for the district for about seven years as a substitute teacher. Uh the high school kids

005know me as Santa. I'm not sure why. Uh today I was your advanced math teacher in the high school and work with your students on advanced math. Um, originally I had planned to talk at some length about allowing the Cub Scouts to come in, but a couple days ago a new law was passed in Wisconsin that says that uh, Cub Scouts are allowed to come in. And so uh, I have a different request. The new law says that it should be set up for the beginning of the next year. And my request would be that procedures be set up before March so that in March the Cub Scouts could come in. Um, so I'm going to talk a bit more about something different. I would suggest that a video station be set up near the

006food lines in the elementary school and the high school. While I was waiting for lunch today for about 15 minutes, I realized that there could be a tape loop or something going on there that would have all kinds of interesting information. And I would suggest that there'd be 30 second tape loops on all kinds of different stuff including outside youth groups in and out of school sports, um, music, band, chorus in and out of school, apprenticeship programs that are available, outside services, and I do want to make a shout out to the superintendent because it used to be that the school made almost no uh effort to uh have apprenticeship programs in the school and I'm also on the board of directors of Northwest Wisconsin workforce investment board and we channel millions of dollars of

007department labor money and so the CISA 12 effort that brings you apprentichip programs are actually under the control of a board that I sit on and before I was kind of annoyed that there were some districts that were really doing a good job with apprentichip programs and that Washurn wasn't and so I was really happy to find out that due to the efforts of our superintendent, we've caught up uh and we are offering as many apprenticeship programs as as many of the other schools. Also, I think dramatics could be advertised. I think college recruiting could be advertised in trade schools. I think opportunities to work in hydroponics and so on could also be uh displayed. And my approach to school is different from some people. I think the school should be an open place that

008reaches out to the community and makes as many services available as possible. I um when school started today, I had a student who came up to me and said that uh what he wanted for Christmas was his mother to be sober long enough to be home. And he said that she was institutionalized in Madison. And so I realize that there are kids who need all the help they can get from whatever direction they can get it. My three minutes are probably up. >> Yeah. >> So thank you. I won't be coming in later during the the part where you talk about my think because my nose has been dripping all day here going home. But thank you for the opportunity to speak with you. Anyone online? >> Um, it will go down to consideration of

009adjustments to the agenda. >> I'd like to make an adjustment to the agenda to have um item B2 deferred to next month in close session. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I I opposed. Motion carried. >> Um, is there a motion to accept the rest of the agenda? And can you do that? Two. >> Yes. I move to accept the rest of the agenda. All >> in favor? I opposed? Motion carried. Um, over on to be. >> Welcome. >> Well, hello everyone. I'm Kevin Mullen from Baird and I appreciate the opportunity to present uh to the board this evening. Um Denise, do you should I share my screen with the presentation? >> That's what we felt like that might work best if it works for you. >> Sure. It should work for me. Um let's

010see here. Bear with me here. Let me know that you can see it. >> Yes. >> Are you able to see it at this point? >> Yes. >> Great. Well, um, thanks so much for allowing me to be here tonight and to present to you virtually. Um later in the agenda, there is a resolution that is referred to as a parameters resolution. And that resolution um is the resolution to give you the authority to borrow the remaining balance of the referendum that was approved uh last year. And so you may recall that uh roughly at this time last year, you borrowed $9,950,000, which was roughly twothirds of that referendum authority. Um there's still $4.4 $4 million $4,480,000 uh that has yet to be borrowed. And so that parameters resolution uh basically establishes the authority to

011step forward and uh do that. And so before you had a chance to consider that resolution, I thought it would be at least a good courtesy to go back through uh what that resolution is approving. And so um there are uh four things that I want to talk to you about tonight. I want to give you a brief interest rate update. I want to discuss the overall financing plan and how this next phase fits into that. Um and then talk about u the board timeline, what needs to happen between now and the actual execution of the financing and what is specifically in the parameters resolution. Um so the first piece, you may recall this from the last time that I presented to the board. Um, this chart shows the average interest rate for a 20-year

012borrowing for a rated basket of bonds. So, it basically, think about it, is the 20-year borrowing rate over the last 30 years. So, every day over the last 30 years, what was the interest cost for borrowing a 20-year note similar to what you're going to be? And you can see that it ranged from the mid4s uh back uh in the uh you know late 1990s um to where it presently is just below 4%. Um the box up above shows what's happened over the last year. And that's important for two reasons. One um I want to show you that we're still in a very average interest rate market. Not too high, not too low. um but also very close to where we borrowed last year, which I think both things are important because we made some

013assumptions um at the time that the uh bond was being considered by the public uh not knowing what the actual interest rates would be. Those conservative assumptions were meant to be um broad and give you some wiggle room. But I want you to know that, you know, we're in a an interest rate environment that makes it very possible to deliver on the promise that we made to the public. Any questions on that? >> Cody, can you can the volume go up a little bit? >> Okay. >> All right. So when we uh embarked on a plan of finance last year, um we had a few goals in in mind. The most important goal was that we wanted to maintain the $1.99 impact. We wanted to make sure we were at or below that impact once

014the advancing was put in place to be able to certainly uh meet that expectation. But then we also wanted to minimize the interest cost and your interest rate risk. And I think we've done a good job of both of those things up until this point. And then maximize give you the opportunity to maximize your investment income. So the money, the 9.9 million that was borrowed last year, you've had that invested. You're legally earning arbitrage income on that waiting to use that money for the project. And so that's been a big benefit to you. Um, we're going to get a long-term bond rating again. And you may recall we got an A3 rating from Moody's, which is a very good rating for your credit given where you are and who you are. And we anticipate that

015that rating would be the similar rating for the next. Um, and as I mentioned, we borrowed the 9,950 back in March of 2025. That interest rate was at a 4.36%. Um, and now we're getting ready to borrow the $4.4 million. Uh, a couple of other things. We assumed that the uh growth in value for the district would be 1%. Your growth in value has been much larger than that. However, most of that growth has been um inflationary growth as opposed to new stuff. And so I still think that 1% in terms of like real growth in value is still a good estimate. So, what does it look like when we layer in this new borrowing uh that we're anticipated to be doing uh with the one that was done back in March? And so, this

016chart here, and I know it's very small, I'll try to make it larger here. Um, so the phase one, the 9,950, as I mentioned, that was borrowed um back in 20125 and uh March of 2025. It closed in April. And you can see those payments are here. We always anticipated that the new borrowing, most of the new borrowing would fill in in the front end of that borrowing plan with one maturity out in the year 2046. And that was very intentional. Um, so the reason one of the reasons that we split the borrowing into two phases uh was to allow you to get two 20-year borrowings. So the state allows you to borrow for a maximum of 20 years. By splitting this borrowing over the course of two calendar years, we actually are financing it

017over a total of 21 years, which keeps the annual cost to taxpayers down. Um, so I mentioned that we assumed uh that we were going to be borrowing at roughly five and a quarter% in the plan of finance. We're assuming that updated to be roughly four and a half% in this current plan. That's still an estimate, but we feel good about that estimate. But when you layer in both of those pieces together, this is what the total payments for the referendum will look like under the referendum debt column. And you can see last year and this year you levied $985,000 for that borrowing plan going to uh drop the next two years and then level out at a million uh thereafter. And that was entirely anticipated. Um, you'll also notice that we're uh maintaining a

018tax rate well below the $1.99 that was uh anticipated. I think the other thing that I'm really excited about Whoops. Excuse me. This down here on the bottom, this box, um, our planning estimate when we looked at both borrowings, the planning estimate was five and a 5.05%. We anticipate our total borrowing cost will come in actually at 4.39% which will result in a reduction in the anticipated cost of about a million and a half dollars over the life of borrowing. And so you know that's something that your taxpayers will feel and uh hopefully appreciate. So, um, any questions with regard to the second phase of the borrower? So, in terms of what happens next, um, so the only board action that is required is the action that would occur tonight. So, the board is considering

019what's referred to as a parameters resolution, which basically describes the bond issue and gives us the framework to go out and market the bonds to investors. Between today and probably mid January, we're going to put all the documentation together that needs to uh be pulled together for that financing. and we're going to work with the administrative team and your bond council to get all of that pulled together. Um, we anticipate having final interest rates in the early part of 2026 and will close in, you know, a early April of uh 2026. Once the bonds have been sold, assuming that all of the bonds are issued within the parameters as described in the resolution, uh Denise can report back to the board in terms of what those sale results were. And so the parameters resolution, just

020to give you a brief look at some of the key pieces uh in the parameters resolution, um the parameters resolution states that you're not able to borrow more than $4,480,000. gives the authority to sign off on the details of the financing to the board president and to the superintendent assuming that they fit within the parameters as described. Um the maturities you would uh the you're going to have principal payments that go from September of 2026 out to March of 2046. And we gave ourselves a little bit of flexibility to increase or decrease the principal amounts in case there's a change in terms of how you want to approach the financing, but I don't anticipate much change from what was presented in the spreadsheet. So, you know, that's a lot of information, but I wanted you

021to have all of that before you consider the parameters resolution later on the agenda. So, uh, any questions with the presentation and its totality? That sounds like good news. >> Yes, we're very excited about moving forward. >> Is there um is this too early or is there a an appropriate way of making sure that community is understanding of where we're at or is this too early to be doing that? >> Yeah. So, my suggestion would be once the uh interest rates are finalized, we can report that back out to the community in a broader way once we've locked in the total financing plan. >> Okay. >> Any other questions from anyone? All right, I think we're good. Thank you for presenting to us. >> Oh, you bet. And good luck with everything. I'm really happy

022with how the project is progressing and I hope you are as well. >> Great. Thank you. Happy holidays everyone. Have a good night. >> Thank you. You too. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> All right. We got the spotlight report talking about report cards. >> Yeah. And the quality report. >> Yeah. So Ivy Shander and I are going to share out some information on our latest district and school report card. So Cody will bring up the presentation. So, the 2024 25 uh report cards were released in November. I believe maybe the 11th of November. I think it's in here. Uh and Cody, if you click through, I think we'll uh we'll take team and I'll hand it over to Ivy, our director of curriculum and assessment. >> All right. Uh so, as you know that all

023Wisconsin public schools and districts as well as choice schools receive a report card each year. Um this comes out in November, like you said, November 11th this year. um and it reflects our data from the previous year and so it'll be the usually the spring assessments for u forward preac and the ACT and um it's available on our uh website on Washford website. So we make it available to the community but it's also available through DPI and you can actually search any school any district in any year. So depending on how deep you want to get into this you can really see a lot of history um um sports. Next slide. a few cautions and limitations. I think it's always good to share this and I think the board's pretty well aware that um the

024report cards really are impacted by school size and demographics and just the way that they're configured. And so we always want to have caution when we are comparing them between district and district or even school to school um based on the way that they're weighted each year which changes uh each year and also can even change from school to school. Uh we also want to make note that it's a backwards facing tool so it reflects the previous school year. So new things that we're doing this year, we're already seeing some student data changes will not be reflected here. Um and then sometimes it can even be trends from previous years. So uh for a while there we were impacted. We had a dip in our proficiency levels after the COVID and we saw that that

025impacted us for several years afterward. So something to make note of as well. And then um this is one snapshot. It's one important piece of information, but it's really a one small piece that we use. Um we know this data actually year round which is really a nice change for us over the last few years is that we um receive the individual foods for us in the summer and we calculate them by hand even before we get them um released to us by the state. Um prior to that we do the star district assessment as you know and so that reflects these scores uh three times throughout the year and then when we're not doing the star assessment we've got assessments in our classrooms um daily on a daily basis that we're meeting about. And

026so we look at all different types of data and this is one piece of that data. Next slide. All right. Um every year the workers actually change just a little bit. Um and in some ways I think that's a great thing because it makes them um they're always changing. They're always growing. It's trying to reflect what uh the community and the state really wants to see and wants to know about. But at the same time it's a little bit tricky as you compare yeartoear. Uh two changes this year is just a little bit on what's shown. And so test particip participation flags will be on the front page. And then there's some things that are not impacted on the scoring but are still present like third grade reading and some uh state laws or local

027law violations. Um and then I think the bigger change this year is that they've updated the categories. So to meet the category of meeting expectations or exceeding expectations, they've actually increased that a little bit. Um if you go to the next slide, you'll actually see the difference. And so it's basically gone up one point. So significantly exceeds expectations. Previously was at an 83 or higher score. Now it's at an 84 or higher. And so just um kind of increasing that uh rigor expectation that we have for our schools in Wisconsin. >> Uh next slide. >> Can I interrupt? Absolutely interrupt, but I remember there being a conversation about like DPI and the governor like changing that. Was that in regards to this or was that a different metric? >> Yeah, that was a different metric.

028>> Okay. That's all I need to know. >> Okay. Yeah. every year. That was a that was two years ago, but every year there is some slight adjustment. That's pretty typical. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Uh this one just shows there's four different areas. These have not changed. These are pretty consistent over the last few years. And so achievement, student achievement is one of them. Growth is another one. Target group outcomes and on track to graduation. And so those four different categories um every district is scored on them, but it's weighted differently depending on the district and the population of students. looks like slide. And this is our weight. So it's a little bit different. The elementary, the middle school, and the high school all have different weights to them. So it's calculated a little bit

029differently, but our district report card achievement receives a weight of 22.5%. So the score that we get for that blue one for achievement is makes up 22.5% of our total score. And our total score determines if we meet or expectations or not. Growth is 27.5%. So those two scores balance out to make up 15%. And then pretty consistently target group outcomes and on track to post and postsecary readiness are always at 25%. >> Awesome. I'm also embarrassed to not know this. Is this specific to Washurn or do others? >> Yep. This is specifically Washurn. >> So other districts will have different >> very different weight. It's based on socioeconomics growth and achievement. >> Yeah. So even like uh so this is for the whole district of Warcraft but like elementary is actually slightly different percentages.

030Got it. Washington Middle School is slightly different too. Got Yeah, good question. >> All right. And then Denise, you're gonna go through the district report card for us. >> Yeah, so the district report card looks at uh combining the data from elementary, middle, and high school. And so gives us a broad uh snapshot. And then I going to dig into each building, but I was so excited to see um you can see the four target areas there with the clear bullets and our score changes from last year to this year. um pretty significant increases which is just a testament to all of the the great work happening with achievement with growth with our on track to graduation um and our target group which would be our lowest uh 25% lowest cortile of students in the

031district make up that target group um and so just overall our proficiency in both ELA and mathematics continues to increase year after year so that would be our achievement All three buildings scored above the state both in ELA and math achievement and absenteeism and attendance do continue to be in the area of improvement. It is based on three years of data averaged. So um that 22 23 data is still in >> still in there through this year and hopefully by next year we'll even pull that um that average up after co it was just really hard um to have students get back into routine school. Oh, and this was the same. It It's actually kind of It's a lot, but it's showing you the difference. I just wanted you to see the the left is

032uh last year and then the right is this year. So, just showing you that it really did increase. Um and you can see the rims of color that kind of show that. So, pretty exciting. All right. So, keep going. >> Okay. So, we'll move into elementary specifically. you go to the next slide. Uh so just to highlight a few areas and I try to keep this consistent from the presentation from last year so you can see um what that changes looked like in the past year. And so um if you're looking at the report card, the screenshot here is a nice overview, but this one is all about calculations, right? So this is all the like the mathematical adjustments that they make. the p second page or the third page on the report card will

033show that graph that shows the proficiency levels and that one's really helpful because it is exactly the number of kids who are advanced proficient um partially proficient or below proficiency and that one is what we really focus on because there's no manipulation of those numbers it's just very straightforward to us and so that's what Bander and I looked at when we looked at uh growth in all three of the buildings and so some celebrations we have is in elementary in ELA we saw a 3.1% increase in proficiency. So it means 3% of our students more of our students are either proficient or advanced in ELA than they were last year. Uh if you think about like is that good or bad? Like what does 3% mean? That's kind of the standard goal. Like if you

034are making 3% increases each year, you are doing a really good job. Uh it's not uncommon for school districts to make growth and to take a little dip, make growth, and overall you have a trend that goes up, but every year sort of back and forth. it's it's less common to see an increase every single year and I think that's a big celebration is that we have seen that increase multiple years in a row. Uh same thing for math we saw a 4.6% increase in proficiency. So more of our students are proficient or advanced than they were last year. Um and something that's really excited exciting about that is that in math we saw the biggest change in our percentage of students who were considered advanced. almost 25% of our students are advanced in math

035in the elementary and that is super exciting and a reason why we actually gave the math spotlight in November is to show some of the reasons why it's not a fluke it's not an accident is very intentional and it's really cool because so many of members of this board have been a part of the school improvement team that was created several years ago that set these plans in place and we had to be patient as we saw them be carried out and now that that's happening and that's really exciting. Um, these are the highest proficiency levels that we've had on a school report card in Washurn ever. Um, and like I said, every school report card changed a little bit, but overall the way proficiency calculated stays pretty similar. And this would dates pre-COVID and

036even further back back to when the school was awarded a blue ribbon award and some of those other exciting things that happened. We have higher proficiency levels right now. Um, just like Denise said, we have a we're higher than the state average in both math and ELA. Unfortunately, the science and social studies are not included on the state report card. It's not factored in, but ours are consistently every year higher than the state average. It's definitely a strength of ours. Um, and so I just want to make sure to highlight that even though it's not on the report card. And then the big uh exciting thing for the elementary is that the target group outcomes, so like Denise said, that's the 25% of our students who are scoring the lowest and are often impacted by

037factors like attendance and disabilities and socioeconomic status. We made a nice increased improvement in that area specifically for students with disabilities. Um it's going to continue to be an area of growth for us because it's one is it still our lowest score and two is we want to ensure equity across all demographics and all students are achieving at high levels. So we're going to keep working on that but we saw a nice improvement there. And then another kind of more specific area is that we saw a nice increase in the students who are advanced in math. And although the overall proficiency for ELA improved, the number of students who are advanced in ELA is not making the same growth as the students who are advanced in math. So that's a perfect area for us to

038just focus on a little bit more and start to monitor as we move forward. >> All right, middle school. Okay, so the watch for middle school is exceeding expectations with a score of 72.1. Um, so some of the big things that we were looking at is a 6.7% increase in proficiency in ELA, 6.6% 6% increase in proficiency in math. And like the elementary school, we saw all four priority areas were increased. We also saw the highest proficiency levels. Um, and then areas that we were going to focus on or continue to focus on are the mathematics growth and achievement as well as our absenteeism and attendance. And that has been a big focus this year. And I'm hoping that we'll see changes. Um, but it continues to be something that we're working on. Okay. And

039then the high school is meeting expectations or I'm sorry exceeding expectations. Um 6.7 increase in it's meeting expectations, isn't it? That was a change. >> Sorry that Oh, I'm on middle school. No wonder I didn't change it with me. I'm automatically updating. Okay. Meeting expectations. So our celebrations are two point or 2% increase in proficiency in ELA, 6.7% increase in proficiency in math. Again, all four priority areas have increased highest proficiency levels. Um, the areas when we were looking at the report card that we thought we could see growth growth are the uh postsecondary participation. And so this is students who are taking our AP courses, college courses, um, and our work-based learning. And that again is something that we're working on actually this year. Um, Greta, who is our fax teacher, she's been working

040um, as the YA coordinator. We're also um adding in the workbased learning piece and so we're hoping to really see some growth there and then uh continue the work with absentee absenteeism and attendance. Um so one thing that I thought was really cool is the participation by type of art courses. So you can see that when it comes to students successfully successfully completing um these different courses like we're kind of blown away the state average. So students that are completing art and design at our school is 43.4% so almost doubling what the state average is or the state percent. Um dance we're not but then music 36 to 18 and then theater 3.7 to 1.8. So I think that's pretty cool and it shows what we're doing with our art programs. And again, when we're

041talking about attendance, um, these are the kind of classes that are bringing our students to school. Yes. >> Um, I saw the theater reference. >> I But I can't think of any theater classes. What does it include summer school? Is that what it is? >> No, it doesn't. >> But we talked about this last and I'm trying to remember what the answer was. There's something being offered that counts. What would it be? Well, and I mean I do know that previously we did have >> I'm wondering would it be our show prior? >> Oh I think that's what we thought. >> I think that might be what we thought would that >> would have to be a class. I think >> something is counting. >> So every course that's put into Skyward has a code

042and that code aligns with content areas. So somehow a course that we have um falls under that. >> Well, seven people took it. So I know we'll double check. All right. And then some final thoughts. So um the admin team met and you know went through it uh with a fine tooth comb and we feel and know that high impact instruction is essential for student learning and an essential focus. Um you know we have four pillars in our new strategic plan and they're all incredibly important but a teaching and learning pillar is is why we exist and what we're here for. So um it's where we put a lot of our energy. Our implementation of high quality materials both in mathematics and the science of reading focused in literacy is working. We're seeing the results.

043Um attendance is an essential component of student success both in school and beyond and it's an area of focus for us here in Washurn. Uh we do want to work on a future development of a local report card and and love to combine that with our strategic planning process and the work from that. So, we've got the wheels in motion um on that plan and then we're just really digging into our work on the PLC process including academic interventions and advanced learner opportunities in the district. to share that with you. >> Great news. >> Um, and I I agree. I think having that presentation last month with the map >> was really helpful to see why this is and and as we move along you know not not next month but as we move along

044um it would be nice to have something like that for the literacy presentation and also with you know what's happening with the attendance and you know what kind of programming or what what strategies are being used for that. I think that would be an interesting thing to have on the spotlight. >> Any other questions from anybody or comments, right? Um Denise, my next So yes, enrollment. I'll give you the update on enrollment and attendance. I'll make my uh report short and sweet. So 537 students last month, the same this month. So um no change I should say from October to November. attendance. We did see a little bit of a dip. Uh we were down from 92.8% to 91.9. So a little bit like.9% decrease. Kind of wondering about those couple of days uh Thanksgiving

045week. That can take quite a dip. There's a lot of students that are gone which can mean uh a bit of a difference in our in our attendance. Um, I have to give a really great shout out to the community dinner that was uh hosted last night by Dustin Long in the food science class uh in our cafeteria, which was transformed um into literally a supper club or you know, you just felt like you're walking into a restaurant. Um, and to see the students cooking and serving and uh waiting tables and cleaning. Uh I, you know, my husband and I were going to stay and help and there's literally nothing for us to do. So, um, just phenomenal food and camaraderie. Cool to see our community come together. So, big shout out to that as

046well. The music was great. >> The music uh, by the jazz band and Mr. Man and the community members just outstanding. >> Do you have any idea like any like ballpark? >> I mean, it was pretty. >> I was going to guess 150 people. was sort of the number I because at one moment the whole cafeteria was completely full and there was nowhere to sit and it it had changed over and I I figured there's about a hundred seats in there so I was going to say somewhere between 150 175 it was a steady stream all I saw all ages >> yes all ages uh it was just really awesome to see that and they there was some donation involved as well so do you know how much ended up Did you get a chance

047to connect with Dustin? I did not. >> They were still kind of settling in today. >> What a great event. >> Okay. I don't think it got counted in the >> district. Brilliant. The idea was that >> it was the students in the food science class. They were the ones after the SNAP benefits had been uh Yeah, that was the spark when we started to do some food drives and donations and then the class said, "Let's do a community center." >> Yeah, it was completely students. That's a mixed class, right? Of all different high school grades, right? >> There's two of them. Yeah. Of all grade levels, 9 to 12, right? >> Yeah. It's really cool. >> Talk about keeping the school open and available for the community. That's such a great example. >> Yeah.

048It's a really cool idea. And then the blood drive as well. A shout out to Jenny Gilbert who coordinated that and I know she told me the number of units for >> and it ended up being like 66 or something. >> Oh, really? It was more than double last year's blood drive. just a phenomenal uh turnout for that and a lot of time and energy which goes into coordinating that event for the community and students and service. It's just really awesome. Um just a quick referendum update and then I'll be done. So we had our receipt of bids on December 9th on Tuesday. I believe that was Tuesday. And uh so the inbox of the email that we had created for the bids was flooded full of uh more than 40 different contractors. Myin received

049some. We did. We exchanged emails. Matt discussed um they put a spreadsheet together and preliminarily we are under budget. I mean we will be under budget based on um those bids and we will be able to do all of the alternate projects. We had to kind of create a list of like what if we don't make budget, what if the contractor bids come in higher than what they budgeted. But we are we are good to go. We are in a really great place. And so the phasing work will begin. I'm going to meet with the middle school high school staff in January and answer questions and get boxes and we're going to start to pack things up uh second semester to for example this entire library will need to be empty on June 5th. Um

050they said anything that if you were to tip the room upside down and it would fall out, it has to be boxed and moved. So, >> if the bond library can do it, we can do it. >> Do it. We can do it. It'll be some work, but I know we're up for it. So, busy. It'll be all hands on deck. >> Great. Um, there's not a lot the board goals. Um, I'm going to talk to niece today that we're going to try to >> We missed a report. Yeah. >> Oh, I'm so sorry. >> Okay. I'm just going to finish this and then I will let you do it. Um, we're going to I'm going to try to start scheduling meetings with each of the municipalities about the transparency act. So, um, I'll let

051you know when we're doing that. So, anybody that wants to join me at those meetings would be great. >> Sorry. Oh, that's okay. >> U, so I just want to go over some things from the fall sports. This is the athletic update. Um the sports that we offer in the fall are going to be boys soccer, girls soccer of course is offered in the spring. We offer girls volleyball, cross country, and that's both boys and girls, football, middle school football, middle school cross country, middle school girls basketball, cheer, and then trap and that's a co-op done um with Ashland and our students go over there for um for that. But um once again, I just want to shine on our students and how wonderful they all are. Um it's almost constant that I'm hearing from

052other schools just about the sportsmanship. Um how polite they are when they're going places. Um so I just I really want to shine on just how awesome our students are and I don't know that there's another district I want to work at just because I'm so proud of them. So um always making us very proud. In the past you guys have asked about enrollment numbers and so I've got um enrollment from the previous year. You can see with a couple um soccer and football there was a little bit of the dip. Overall, everything kind of maintained otherwise. Um this year the girls team for cross country went to state. Originally we thought that was the first time we've had a team go to state. Um Sherry did a little digging and it looks like there

053might have been a boys team that went previously, but this is still pretty awesome thing. Um and then I got a list of our students who made all conference. So it was a very successful season. Next week as we head into break, it is an incredibly very very busy week at the high school. And so Monday there's literally like three or four games, basketball games being played. Tuesday we have the winter concert and we also have uh CJ coming in. They worked with Kristen Tetsner and our students made some portraits of some of the dogs. So those will be displayed and sold and then they're going to be bringing in puppies and so we'll have the winter concert. So, please stop by for that. 7 o'clock. Um, then on Wednesday, we have a makeup game,

054Mercer, boys and girls playing at home again. Thursday, we have the boys playing Bayfield. And then Friday, we have the girls playing Bayfield. And we'll also be having the unveiling of the 20 oh, was it 2024 uh girls soccer banner? And so, we'll have some of our previous seniors coming back to do that. Um, but so if you're bored, stop by the gym at any point and there'll be something to do. >> Super. I just a quick shout out. Thank you so much for organizing it in this way. And I just really like want to like just point out one thing that um there's a there's a school of thought and this is small. This is not even research, but there's a school of thought that says, hey, if you offer more activities, it's going

055to diminish something else. Well, if you notice all of the girls activities, they've done nothing but increase and the number of activities has increased as well. So, I think we're just tapping into new unique and diverse opportunities for kids at the school. And so, I just don't I mean, budget's tightened. It's not like we're going to be adding a whole bunch of new clubs and sports anytime soon, but I just wanted to point out that like, hey, that cheer was probably pretty wise investment. >> And I think some of that goes out to our community, too, because we've got much more happening with youth programs. I know our middle school coaches are working really hard on their communication, um, getting kids to participate, making sure that it's kind of following best practices to, you know,

056>> keep them engaged and get them on to the high school level, too. So, um, it's a lot of awesome work happening. >> Yeah. >> Great. Thank you. >> Julie, anything from >> Yeah. Um, So, CISA staff have been working with districts to address Native American student achievement, working with districts to identify factors that influence attendance at the high school level and how to address these factors collectively. Um, they're going to have a next meeting in December 17th in Ashland. Is our school involved in that? >> I'm not sure. Is it through CISA 12? Yes, >> they're working with other districts regarding their Native American population attendance. >> Yeah, >> I don't recall seeing any invitation or any of this. >> No, I don't think we were. >> Is it open to schools >> everybody?

057Yeah. I'm just Well, then you know we might not have a an issue. >> Usually we try to participate in social events like that. But I mean we might not have an attendance issue with >> I think they they kind of look for that too and then they offer help. >> Yeah. Um there was an oral report from Mary Mad Rich and um Trisha Lond and it was really interesting. It was presented on the activities they provide to C12 districts through their gifted and talented grant. That grant is amazing. Um there's three programs provided each year. Creative writers, public service announcements, um lead with confidence. It's a new program. Um those are all for grades four through 12. Um the grant pays for student transportation, materials, lunches is it's of no cost. Um if a

058teacher has to come with, they pay for the sub. Um that from what I understand Washurn is not involved in this. >> I don't ever >> So we've done Yeah, we have participated in the past with that and had some good success with it. We've sort of uh warped some of our opportunities for students to make sure that everybody has access to them. And so sometimes when it's not designed in a way that is conducive to like we've we've sent a whole entire grade of students to some of these programs before. Um and so I think CISA has designed it to be a little bit more individualized. Um and so we have partnered with them in the past and then we either each year we continue to partner if it feels like the right match

059or try to replicate those same experiences in district. But yeah, something that we've done uh quite a bit in the past for sure. >> Yeah. But this year, no. >> Great. Um, yeah, it was really interesting. They they put a nice presentation together and they they're going to put it on their website if you care to look at it. Um, showing all the the things the students accomplished and it it was just amazing. They made books, illustrations, um, the public service announcements. It sounds simple, but it's not. um they learn a lot creating videos and actually, you know, create something from thoughts of things that are happening or something that they're really passionate about. Um it'd be really nice. And there there are some districts that only one student came from the district, but then

060you know they all get to know each other. It was really good presentation. Good. Thank you. Um, okay. We are going to move on to um, Angela and um, just so that everybody's aware, we're not allowing questions from the community, but there might be questions from the board or from the administration. So, welcome and thank you for coming. >> Glad our schedule's finally aligned. >> Yeah, it took a little bit. >> Just so happens that all of your board meetings are when I'm in Madison. Um, except for this week, thankfully. Um, so thank you for the invitation and the patience and my inability to get here prior to this. Um, and so I have some thoughts about things that might be worth sharing, but then I'm happy to take questions. Um, and I'm happy to

061just get to know you and I really really want to make myself available to all of you. Um, principles, Denise for sure, but the whole board. Um, I am a staunch public school advocate. Uh it's one of the reasons I was inspired to run for this position just when I thought okay what what does our community need? What do we need from our legislature? This is definitely one of the top issues that we are not addressing well and that is especially funding public education. Um as you well know because you unfortunately have to deal with the dysfunctions that happen in Madison. Um, and so partly I want to just come and say I'm sorry, apologize on behalf of the legislature. I'm brand new. I voted against the budget. Um, for two primary reasons. One was

062things that happened against the UW system, which I think are very counterproductive. But my main reason voting against it was the budget is inadequate for K12. And you all see that. I mean, the whole emphasis leading up to that budget was negotiations around increasing special education reimbursement. I don't think honestly Democrats had any conception that there would be no increase to general aid. And in hindsight that was a mistake not to be arguing for both aggressively. It's also clearly in hindsight a mistake not to be um advocating for some sufficient when we talk about special education. I hope I get that right. The terms are so strange, some sufficient versus some certain. I think I now understand that some certain means they know the actual dollar amount that's going to be reimbursed, but because increases

063in cost for special ed happened this year, um it's not going to be the 42% that was promised in the budget negotiations. I hope we can use this as evidence that we should never be talking about um some certain when we talk about negotiations for schools. we need to talk only in terms of some submission because we can negotiate this is a case study we can negotiate a percentage of of of it of um funding and if expenses change then it's doesn't actually add up and so the budget failed to meet the needs of our communities our teachers our districts but most importantly our students who of course are the ones who struggle when we make teaching more difficult when we literally are pushing people out of the profession when we make your jobs more

064difficult, your job next to impossible um and the board's job so difficult. So, um, you know, we are in difficult times and I really worry about what's happening, frankly, right now is people are getting their property taxes and especially since half of districts went to referendum last year, including Ashlin and Washford and Superior and PE and and Maple is considering one now, but they're going to open their tax statements. They know they agreed to a referendum and it's very difficult to understand school finance. Very difficult. I've done my best in printing all these documents from the fiscal bureau like pouring over them trying to make sense of it all. Um the average person is going to see the property bill and presume that it's because of the referendum and that somehow you misrepresented that. And

065we know that's actually not the truth. It's because of the budget and the failure to fund general education. I mean general aid means that property taxes went up. And so it's just so frustrating and it's making our jobs much more difficult. Anyone who's an advocate for public schools this month begins, I think, a battle of trying to help people understand. And so, um, we're trying to do things in the legislature. I just co-sponsored a bill that would, um, backfill special education reimbursement, recognizing that we didn't live up to what the budget negotiations said we were trying to do. So, we need to increase the amount going into special education. We recognize that's inadequate, but at least it would be something. Um, we also have proposed legislation to increase general ed funding this year, not wait

066till next year, clearly because or two years from now, because the budget is a two-year process. Um, the problem is we don't have any control. We don't have any power and unfortunately the power resides in the majority party and the majority party has zero interest in talking to us about these issues. So yes, as you know Tony Ivers is a public school champion but he can't set the agenda. The legislature sets the agenda and we cannot get any pro public school bills heard him. Period. No matter how many ideas we have, they are literally ignored in the legislature. Can't get them heard in committee. Um, which is the first step before sending them to the floor. So, we are stuck and we're trying to find any solution we can. I mean, one of the things

067that we're really encouraging districts to take a look at is the voucher transparency idea because it's something we can do at the local level. So, I'm happy to hear that you all are already, and I know you are, you've been talking to my staffer about this, um, on the path to try to do that. Ashlin's doing that. superior is doing that. We proposed a bill to make it just standard statewide so you don't have to go through this really opaque process of trying to figure out how to do it. Um that of course is not going to get a hearing anytime soon. Um but where we can take control at the local level, we have to be willing to do that. And the goal there is for people, the public just to know that there

068is money being diverted into a a second system. And a lot I cannot tell you how many people do not know that. I knock a lot of doors. I talk to a lot of people and they say, "What explains why we keep giving more and more and more to schools and getting worse results?" And I have to explain, we're not giving more to public schools. We're actually giving less. And when you look at act how that would u play out with inflation, it's dramatically less. At this point now, we're like $3,500 behind per pupil on average in the state because we haven't kept up with inflation. Meanwhile, we are diverting now almost a billion dollars to voucher schools and we cannot afford two systems. We can hardly afford one system. Um but that billion dollars

069is is a huge cost. Um and so part of the the larger goal of educating the public so that they can understand the consequences of the legislaturator's decisions is this transparency. So I appreciate your efforts there. I don't wish anything more in my office can do to be helpful. Please let me know. Um, I will tell you that the partisanship around public schools is shocking to me. I had no clue that the majority party in Madison is hostile toward public education. I don't understand it. They go to they live in communities, too. They represent the public that represent a lot of public schools, even in rural communities. >> Yeah. I don't understand it. I genuinely I think that the only thing that explains it is that the public doesn't really know what's going on. I

070think if the public genuinely understood what was going on, there is no way that position could be reelected. I'm not saying the person a person a Republican being pro public school, they could absolutely do that. But that position of ignoring their public schools because that's what's happening. And I find that I try to talk to our senator, I get ignored when we talk about public schools. So I it's the leadership that's on the Republican side and I I think it's just a deep commitment to the voucher process and to privatization. Um yeah, that's the the tricky thing is how do we ask other districts because you elected a propos I mean you I don't know who you voted for. Doesn't matter to me. I'm a pro public school champion. We have to have more pro

071pro public school champions in Madison. If we don't have that, we will not dig out of this hole. That is I mean I it's it's that simple. And I hope we can get Republicans on board to be pro public school. I really do because this is not healthy. It's not healthy to have this be partisan. It's very very very toxic. You can't have the whole fate of public education in the state rest on who wins the governorhip. Has there ever been just some data looked at as far as the number the legislators themselves? How many of them have children that are in public schools and private schools? >> Great question. Uh I don't know the answer to that. I I've never seen it or heard anyone talk about it, but it's a great question. >>

072It would be interesting to see that. >> Yeah. And even if we were to ask how many can we get a breakdown of how many public school students each of us represents >> versus private school students, >> you know, that would be because I think that data might be more readily available than their personalized. So um I will try to see if I can get that and I genuinely I am not a hyperartisan person. I am I I I think of myself as an independent-minded person. That's how I act in in the building. That's how I act with legislation. But I have to be honest when partisanship is the barrier to progress. And in this case, that's what's going on. It's not because I I it's not because I have a deep commitment to my

073party. I have a deep commitment to solving problems for the people I represent. And unfortunately, the partisanship of how education is treated is one of the biggest problems to progress. And I say this not to heighten the partisansship, but just to say we need to talk to our neighbors, no matter who they vote for, what signs they put in their yards. And I know this area is, you know, tilt quite blue. Um, but we need to talk to all of them to see where do we have influence. How can we encourage our future senator, whether they're a Republican or a Democrat, to really be an advocate for our students? We've got to get out of this partisanship around this generally, I would love to do that on all topics, but if we don't somehow get

074past that with public education, we are really in trouble because especially the governorship, but every it's the whole legislature. every time we have a sea change, we're going to see huge impacts. So, the budget is my biggest concern, but of course, there are all kinds of ways the legislature tries to micromanage what you do. Sorry about that as well. Um, one of my goals, the way I try to rep represent you all is to be in close contact with um your leadership to make sure you have a voice in the things that affect you. I don't think that we should be deciding for you policies that you have to then teachers especially principles enact. Um and so you know the goal is and I talked to Nick Madison at season of 12 and you know

075because that's kind of easy. He coordinates to to to say please let me know what you're hearing from your superintendent. Please let me know what you're hearing from your principles, your teachers. Um what can I do to support you? That's my job and and that's why I like this work. So, I'm happy to take any questions, comments, thoughts. What do you need from me? >> So, did they just totally ignore the fact that I mean it costs everybody more to live? Um, and they they have a surplus. It's not like there isn't I would I would have some sympathy if there was no money anywhere, but they have a huge surplus. >> Surplus was basically folded into the budget this year. So there were some reserves held back because when we were debating the budget,

076it was in the midst of the federal negotiations for the budget and there was acknowledgement and awareness that the decisions being made by the Trump administration was probably going to have effects on us. And so they did hold back about $2 billion in the budget afraid that the federal choices are going to impact us. We're going to have to backfill programs. But other than that two billion, the 4.5 billion that we were at with the surplus was folded in the budget tax cuts for people for example that average about $100 per household. Like the benefit the re but the reality is that like we need to make these investments because we pay for them one way or another and we we there's this argument about tax cuts but what we see then is when we

077don't fund public education our property taxes go up. So we actually end up paying more in the end. And that's true if you own your home, if you own the property you live on, or if you rent. Everybody's going to be impacted by this failure to fund schools from the state coffers, not from local property taxes. Any other thoughts or comments? >> I have some. >> Sure. Happy to happy to hear them. Um, but I think I think I'm going to when you talked about that deep commitment to privatization, I think that answers a lot of my questions >> because you kind of wonder like you hear all of this um you know the governor like of course is like vetoing consolidation bills and things like this, right? Is that did that happen this week

078or last month? I don't remember. >> Two weeks ago we voted on those bills. >> Yeah. And the governor vetoed >> just this week. Yeah. So, um, so like you said, can't rely on that all the time, but it just helps me understand that dissonance between like you have this rural life, which I love and value. Um, and obviously consolidation like destroys some of the hearts of our communities. like there aren't going to be any community dinners at the school anymore because there isn't going to be a school, you know, and um and so I can see that like why on earth would would you advocate for consolidation? That doesn't make any sense to me. And then at the same time like even if you did consolidate because sometimes like as we know the like

079demographics of the state are changing so maybe there just aren't as many children. So now we have to consult. Sure, let's make that argument. But then the schools are still going to need infrastructure changes, which is what our last referendum was. And we're going to have to be able to like build schools that accommodate our students needs. And we couldn't do it. >> We like went through all of the numbers and we want to build this facility that meets our needs in this century and we couldn't do it. And so like how even consolidation, how is any district in a rural area gonna be able to do that for their students? So, so I think that that this idea of this like deep commitment to privatization, I think that kind of helps me answer those

080questions, which is like to your point of deep commitment to public education and you have to like just keep working on like all of the wonderful things that um that you're going to do for students. >> I mean, what it comes down to is it's expensive. Yeah. Educating people is expensive, >> but it's an enormous investment that we're making in having functional human beings, >> you know, like this is what we we've always done in this country since the middle since the the 20th century and we some of it started in the 19th century. But when we realize, oh, if we want to like have literate people in this country, we want to have people who are able to, you know, meet the moment economically and and contribute something to the world and be able

081to be citizens who can understand what it means to participate in democracy. We have to have them have these basic skills. And it's not just literacy and math and all the great things you all are doing. Congratulations, by the way. Awesome scores. Um, but it's the social stuff and the arts and all of those things that we learn how to live in society together in our public schools much more so than in any other school context where people go for a particular reason because they have a particular belief or whatever it is. This is where you you kind of live with the diversity of the people in your communities including that bottom 25% that we struggle to to to bring up but are always committed to who otherwise get left behind. Private schools get to

082choose who comes in their doors. they don't have to meet their needs in terms of disability. Like public education is one of the best things this country has ever created, but it is expensive. But that's what we do in this country. We all contribute a little and we get this huge benefit that we all benefit from. Even if you've never had kids, you might need a nurse someday. Or you might want someone who is a police officer who understands something about the world or a counselor or a social worker who knows how to interact with other humans or someone who plays music who learned how to do that because they went to a school that had a music program. So all of us need well educated people. Yes, it's expensive. That's the kind of thing

083we want our taxes to go to though. I think the people I talk to say this is the reason I want to pay taxes. And so we have to I mean it's really simple. We have to raise the money required to have a functional society. It's not rocket science. But we have for some the desire to cut cut cut an opposition to paying taxes. And so when you look at well if we're going to cut taxes what is one of our biggest expenses is this. And so can we cut? And you know there's only so much. and really looking at how much we have cut, how little we have invested, and for what. Again, so the average household can get $115, it's very shortsighted when we think about the bigger picture and the fact that

084we live in a society. So that's really the war of ideas that happen in Madison and we have debates and we have debates on the floor. I had a very uh fiery speech about the consolidation bill. I said like it's very it's not right to defund public education for 15 years and then say oh here's some money to consolidate the first time you want to give money to people in a bill it's just to get them to think about closing their schools and research is very clear that when you clo imagine Washurn without this school district people won't move here they don't want their 5-year-old on a bus to go to Ashland they want a community school. That's one of the beautiful things of living in a rural area. So, you know, it's our job

085to help you do your job. And um you've got to figure it out. There's and I know that's why you all are here. There's no other uh option but to keep trying to figure it out. >> So, just to think about like some of these other like are there other opportunities to engage and to like get support for our community and our school of course um and our students. So, you know, we've uh been trying to grow our early childhood learning center, the ECC early childhood care. >> ELC, thank you. Early learning center >> for the babies to the four payers. Okay. Um, so I'm also thinking about like what other ways and have you like heard from constituents or from like colleagues in Madison that we can compete for the best teachers in the

086state because our students deserve high levels of education, you know, like is there um conversations about like about that and what we can provide for teachers especially with our loss of our like higher learning institution in Bay. And then also um can you speak to making sure like what supports can we give to our community so that when students are at school they are ready to learn you know and is there any is there any room for conversation uh in regards to like that I mean on on that one I'm I'm all ears to say like what are the professionals thinking about readiness we need I when I think about public education Yeah, okay, fine. 4K or K to 12 is expensive, but we really need it to be high quality preschool because we know

087I'm a sociologist by training, but it doesn't take a sociologist to know by kindergarten you already have all these disadvantages baked in and they correlate with absenteeism and attendance issues and all these other things. So, high quality preschool is a gamecher for especially those people who come from disadvant disadvantaged backgrounds. We have to find those sorts of resources for for child uh readiness and school readiness. Um that's tough, but it also intersects with workforce. Parents need a great place to send their kids so they can go work. So it's also one of those investments that pays off economically as education does broadly. Um and that's something we talk about all the time. Every community in the state is being hard hit by lack of high quality child care. um it's going to take a huge

088investment, but there's ideas, other states do things. It's not rocket science. You know, there are various forms of um revenue generation that we could use that could be reinvested for those positions um if there's political will to do it. on the other part um of the teacher attraction and retention. I mean, we've had this 15-year experiment post act 10 of what happens when we don't invest in the professionalization of teaching. And at this point, I just posted this the other day. WPR did a great story on Wednesday morning um on the amount of money that teachers are now paying for their own healthare. And it's not even high quality. These are like expensive healthare plans with extraordinarily high deductibles. And it's representing an enormous This is maybe very familiar to you too. you agree representing

089and you you're in a school employees you um representing an enormous amount of their take-home pay and still it's not even high quality um health insurance. So that's another bill that we put forward was um committing money to do a study to say what would it take to get all public um public K12 teachers into the state health insurance that I get. And this is one of those things where you like really see that it's a game because legislators would never tolerate the health care that you get. And I think that's insane. Um, our deductibles are very low. Our uh monthly premiums are low. I think for a for a family plan, I pay $350 a month for my health insurance and the family deductible is $500. I used to work at Northland, so I'm

090used to having horrible benefits. Um, this is like the best health insurance by far I've ever had. I'm a public employee. You all are public employees. Why don't we have access to one plan? It'd be a much larger risk pool. And we have to look at it. Do you want that? I I support unions. Union should be able to say yes, we like that or no, we don't. But we have to bring down costs in addition to raising wages. If we just raise wages and we don't look at those things that are the highest drivers of cost like housing for example. >> So we have to think about housing. We have to think about childare and we have to think about healthare. Those are like the intersecting forces that you can keep raising wages but

091if those things keep going up it's not actually going to be a benefit. So we have ideas they just can't get a hearing. >> So has there been any studies on what's happened with the teachers since act 10? I mean I can tell you what I think but you know has there actually been some data generated on >> a thing that you would think someone at Madison has done right. I will look into that and get back to you. >> Okay. Um my other question or comment is, you know, our we have some goals for our board and one of them is to um increase our role as advocates for public education. >> That's great. >> And and that's part of the reason why we have you here is we wanted to do that. Next

092month, Senator Quinn will be here. >> Fantastic. Um, and you know, what can what could we do to um get more knowledge to be able to um be advocates for public education? I mean, other than what we're doing, is there something else that you see or that you know that would be helpful? >> I think the kind of thing like the community dinner um is really great. I think especially in our community, people know how important this place is. There's a huge buy in. Um, and those who are opposed, that's fine. I'm all about parental choice. Do what you want with your kids. It's just I don't think the state should pay for it. The state should pay for public education is my view. Um, one way you can be an advocate is remember that

093your representatives work for you, not the other way around. Do not be afraid to call me up and tell me what you need. Read me the Riot Act if that needs to happen. Um, tell me what you expect from your repres representative. And that's true for me or your senator or your governor. I think that there is a cultural problem that I have seen since starting this job where there's this idea that once you get elected, you kind of disappear and go do something in Madison and you're never really held accountable to the by the people you represent. And also I've heard people say like what should I ask them? And I'm like what's on your mind? Whatever you think you should ask them. And I will tell you there is a narrative and I

094think you might hear this next week or whenever um Senator Quinn comes that the reason tax property taxes are going up is because Tony Ivers did the 400y year veto. >> That's going to be the narrative. And I'm sure you're all familiar with what that is. But that's a desperate governor doing making a desperate move to help raise revenues in places like Melon that has no chance of ever passing a referendum. I don't know what's going to happen to Melon. I don't represent them, but I worry about them. I That's a school that's bound for closure because there's just been disinvestment and the communities of poor and cannot afford to raise their own property taxes. Governor Emer's using the only tool available to try to help raise revenue. Use that tool. I actually don't like

095it. I'd be happy to get rid of it, but only if the state steps up and does its job. So, don't be afraid to have the debate with the people who whose job it is is to represent you, including with me. Um, we need to start holding people accountable. I want to be held accountable. Yes, it doesn't feel good when people are mad at you, but who cares? That's your job. You get held accountable all the time. School boards get held accountable. Principles certainly do. Teachers always do. It's not that crazy to think your representatives would be. Anything else? And this doesn't this is like not one and done. My schedule wasn't great in the last few months, but it gets better hopefully. >> That was that was the question like that you were probably

096going to ask anyway, which is like how can we best regenerally communicate? um was like what's the best way to >> I can come to meetings um unfortunately when they don't when they intersect with when I have to be in Madison that doesn't work but um I can put them on my um well whatever is good for you I can either put have it as a standing thing but maybe that's too often just send me an invite um when you'd like to hear from me if it just isn't working because I have to be there for committees or for floor um again that is going to free up actually pretty soon here we don't meet much apparently after March Um, I'm happy to come much more often. And here's specific things like we need you

097to know X. We could use help with Y. Um, that would be just fine. So, I can come more often. You can always email me or call my office. It's very easy to find the end. I should have brought cards, but Google it. It's very easy to find. Um, and we will call you back. And I I have to say you've been very responsive and I appreciate that. And your office has been also. They've been quick to respond and answer questions. So, I appreciate that. >> I only have one staffer. When you're a senator, you get four. So, >> your staff was great. >> Fantastic. I'm glad to hear that. I'll let him know. Yeah. Thank you for that. >> I'll end, if there's nothing else, just by saying public service is hard. Thank you

098for stepping up and helping your community. It makes an enormous difference. Without all of us putting in a little, we don't have anything really. And um I really appreciate it. and to people who are in the trenches. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You're about to get a break. I hope it's a good one. I come from a family of educators. I'm an educator or was an educator. Um I think it's sacred work. It's also extremely challenging. There's no better job though. I think um and I hope we can in the coming years do a much better job at supporting you. You really deserve it. >> Well, thank you. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate you coming. All right, we're going to move on to financial reports and bills. >> Um, yeah, I went

099through that. Um, really when I talked to Janet, uh, we did talk about this um, parameter resolution that's coming up also. And, uh, and Kevin alluded to it, but I just want to make that note that like, hey, the interest rates were a little bit higher than we expected. um get uh get a little bump um in that first arbitrage. Um and uh and just I asked her about like you know what about investments because sounds kind of scary right now to be investing in things. Uh but there are a lot of statutes that guide these investments for us and like uh like Kevin alluded to just super conservative as well. So, um, so I think that that's just all been great news and it was really great to hear about the, um, credit rating

100and all these things, uh, that we've been working so hard over, um, >> yeah, around the, uh, the 9.9 million that we have right now. So, we did get an email that we're about $5,000 above the interest earnings of where they predicted. So, in terms of interest earnings on that money, $5,000 more than the predicted number at this time. Sounds pretty sweet, right? Um but otherwise I move to approve the um November 2025 financial statements. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carried. Um consent agenda which is A and B and B is just the the first number one. I move to uh approve the consent agenda as mandated previous adjustment. >> Okay. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carried. Um discussion items.

101We're going down to the first reading of the policies. I move to approve the first reading of the policies as listed in agenda. I'll second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carried. Second meeting. Motion to approve the second reading of policy 2522, the library media centers. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carries. We've got a lot of discussion here tonight. So, let's go on to the school safety. >> Yes, we opted for an overview and it should be linked in the uh agenda as well. And so, it's a lot of information right here just to kind of see what we have in practice when it comes to school safety. I'll just go over a few highlights of it. Um so, one is we reference Alice quite a bit and

102many of you are familiar with the program, but many of you may not be. And Alice, um I really appreciate the way this is worded. empowers I think that's a key piece to it is not something that is scary or demeaning. It empowers us as students, educators and school staff to respond to an active shooter incident through training resources and communication that is age appropriate and trauma informed. And they're really mindful of being both age appropriate and trauma informed. Uh including providing lesson plans that are dependent on the grade level and then um really integrating that trauma-informed approach as well. Uh Alice is an acronym. So it stands for the different components that we're trained on. Uh an alert, uh the option for a lockdown, uh the information that's communicated, uh the opportunity to counter

103if needed, and the top priority of evacuating, getting away from an unsafe situation as quickly as possible. As you know, we had two people attend not just the Alice training, but actually train the trainer, which is a whole another level to it, which I think was a really smart investment and something that we're going to host again next summer. And so we will train two more people to be trainers and then uh a great opportunity to open this up to other school districts, other school staff, and then other people in the community. So there's other entities uh will open it up to the police force and the fire department, um the local churches, uh businesses, and really just trying to get the word out. So if you would like to start spreading that word, it

104will the training will be at the very end of June. We'll make sure to post it through social media, reach out to the chamber and really get the word out because although it's a a a fee for the program, it's a great investment and applicable to not just schools but any any setting. >> Uh in addition to train the trainers, we also have all staff trainings for both virtually and in person and this extended from the ELC, elementary, middle school, high school as well as district staff. Um but we also were just doing in-person practicing of things. some practical things. Uh we had staff meetings at both buildings where we actually went through how to do nontraditional exits, how to open the windows to exit through them, um how to barricade a door if needed,

105and just getting hands-on experience. It's one thing to learn it on a computer, it's another thing to just practice it in real life. Um but the emphasis is not on uh simulating that experience. That isn't actually helpful. It is more important to know how to do it uh than it is to pretend that that was a real situation. Uh we have a core safety team and so that's comprised of course of district staff and administrators but also has teachers, office personnel and maintenance team. We've been meeting periodically throughout the year. We'll continue to do so rolling up the training process. We'll work on the safety binders updating those in the future. Right now we're working on the uh hosting that next train to trainer. Uh I think the studentto family communication is really important too.

106This is a different system. It's more it's a further development of the system we used to use. I think it's really important that families know that because previously we really did a lockdown practice and kind of stopped there. Research shows us that's not the best way to keep our school safe and so we want to communicate to families that we're um doing more than that. But we're also doing it in a very age appropriate trauma informed way. And so uh superintendent sent out the uh letter to all families so that they knew that the beginning of the year. But then both uh Chandra and I are sending out information to families so that they know as time goes on throughout the year that we're talking about this so they can help answer questions at home

107and process it with their child and know that it's a top priority for us too. Um so we've been working on that throughout the fall. We'll continue to do that in the spring. And then the last piece is just that community collaboration. Uh always Washurn Police Department, Washurn Fire Department, Washurn EMS have been great to work with. Um and they really support the continuation of this process and specifically the Alice program. And then there's other community entities as well that we're collaborating with um so that if we do need to evacuate and get away that we have safe places to go and great plans in place. So uh our community has been awesome and really helping to keep everybody safe. >> Any questions about that process? >> Have you had any um um concerns from

108parents that it was that it was too trauma inducing for kids or >> I have not yet. I anticipated that I would because we it's such an important emphasis for us. Um but the initial way of sharing this with kids was actually just a conversation. I went to each classroom and just talk to each classroom and really emphasize like like our schools are that we don't hurt people with our bodies or our words, right? We don't bring unsafe things to school. They could give examples of things that might be okay to have at home but that you could not have at school. So they can put this into more practical application. And so the way I think we're able to present it was in a way that felt really normal. really consistent with the expectations

109and rules we have and communicate all the time. So, so far not, but as we get further into the process, we will just practice what an evacuation looks like. It's sort of like the fire drill, but it's going to be further off campus. Um, and we might have some of that those concerns, and I think we're all as an administrative team ready to work through that with families and and hear those valid concerns. It's it's unfortunate that we have to put as much priority at this as we do. Uh but I think that ultimately families just want their kids to be safe and we know this is the best way to do it. I hope this would be appropriate to share here. If not, let me know. But um in a previous district um my

110son had went through that training as a first grader and um it was done in such an age appropriate way there. He didn't come back with fear and I feel like it was it's and I mean that was years ago. So they've just done nothing but been able to increase what they're, you know, how they're presenting it, how it's age appropriate, the way that they're getting information out. Um, so coming in with that previous experience, I feel very just knowing that I was presenting it to students and the parents, I felt very secure with that. And I think speaking for um the middle school and high school students, I think there's a certain amount of empowerment they feel now because I know um as it was presented, they felt I think they felt better knowing

111that there were choices and it's very scary that this is something that we have to deal with, but it's real and it's something all the students have seen in the news. And um I I got the feeling that there's a sense of empowerment for both staff and students. >> I I did the trainer for the training for trainers. Yes. at one point in time. >> It's intense. >> It is very intense. >> Yeah. Um >> but I think that when I think back to the things that we had back in the day when I was teaching, you know, the over the low speaker to say Mr. Remington is in the building. It's like >> Yeah. >> You know, I mean that was really kind of silly. >> Yeah. You know this is this is very

112empowering so that people can take some action and feel a little more comfortable. >> Thank you for presenting this. Does anybody have any questions on it or comments? I think it's I think it's wonderful that um I think it it shows the district's response to a lot of feedback that we got about security and safety concerns. So, it's just one piece of the response of course, but I you know, it's very encouraging. I think it's job well done. Thank you. Anything else? Right. We're going on to the uh approval of the resolution. I move to approve the resolution establishing perimeters for the sale of not to exceed 4,480,000 general obligation promisary notes. Is there a second? >> I'll second. Is there any discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Motion carried. Um discussion on the request

113for the community member to hold Cub Scout lunchon meeting at the elementary school. I'm sad that he left to not be part of this discussion to hear what um what what we have to say. So I know everybody got the information on what this is all about, got the letters, got the emails, um got his specific questions. um what he was mentioning and I have so many papers here for some reason at this time that I'm a little bit lost. So, I'm glad to say even though Janice handed this to me just before um we did talk about he did talk about the bill that was passed um that Governor Iver signed and um Governor Ivers did sign a bill but he did amend it. So it says the governing body of the school this

114is just a piece of it and the governing body or it says we may schedule at least one date of time that may be which may be noninstructional time as determined by the governor governor's body governance's body. So it doesn't say we must because I think that's what the initial law said but it he amended it to change must to may. So that's the that's the difference. Yes. And I don't know, >> but even the must question is like non-instructional time like during the school day without parents present. Is that like does it delineate exactly how the um the representation happens? >> I don't how the presentation happens. >> No. And and I don't have the full thing, but that was the key point was that it says may instead of must. So even even

115if it had said must we could have been like hey we've got this open house >> and we have this event where many clubs come in and present to parents and children during orientation or something like and that would meet the requirement >> like I'm sorry to speak in hypotheticals but I'm curious we do have um we do have policy that is related to this >> and that everybody I think received that Um so it's it is definitely something um the the key sentence in that policy conducting such a meeting or activity during school day may be permitted provided it occurs during non-instructional time and parental permission is granted for any student wishing to participate and I think that's part of the concern that I have is that if we have groups coming in here

116Um, and we don't have parental permission. That makes me uncomfortable. >> Agree. >> With any with any group and I and I just am concerned that if we have a group, I mean, I don't have anything against the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, they you know, I used to be a Cub Scout leader, so it's not. But I just I don't know that this is a good pen. Plus, it's hard enough to get kids to eat have something going on. I love the idea of of groups presenting information. I don't love the idea of it ever being during school hours. I think that's adding to distraction for kids that are already prone to distraction, adding workload to staff that's already overworked. So I would think that anytime we can that's just another example of being

117able to open up our facilities to communities but you but not necessarily very full >> without be present so I can like help understand what the obligation is and like what's the time commitment and who's in charge. >> Yeah. As a parent I wouldn't want my child you know. Yeah. This sounds like a great idea, Mom. Like I I would want to be a part of that conversation so that I can ask questions. I want to be present for that. when we I feel like in the past we've done after school activities where we've had a bunch of different things that like here's a lot of different clubs or groups that our kids could participate in especially at the elementary school level where they can they're just their their interests are just peaked you know

118like that's great that's have that's a great opportunity for those sorts of things I don't see why we would ever need to do that during learning time. You know what I mean? >> But um he he was speaking of like lunch hour, wasn't he? >> Or Okay. I do kind of feel like that's the learning time though. I I get it's like downtime. Maybe a different learning situation, but I think it's >> it's still structured time in the school. It's a different such a short amount of time >> and it's very short >> and the kids the kids knowing in that time >> agreed >> and I don't think it's good I think about the idea of opening the school with a lot of groups coming in you know evening so the parents can be

119there >> and go to group and we kind of have a structure sure already where lots of I mean other groups whether it's basketball or or anything you know we're putting out a flyer saying hey or it's on the newsletter or on the on the you know we're going to do a meeting to discuss and all are welcome you know we already had that why are we trying to and I get we did this 10 years ago or 15 years ago or whatever it was. But I think the world is significantly different now. I don't want to invite too many people even if they're wonderful people like just to hang out at the school for a couple hours. look at the policy to follow the policy getting parental commissioning that would never it's just her

120policy is not a a possibility and it may have happened 10 years ago but I don't know if the policy said so and maybe 10 years ago it said that was acceptable >> so it sounds like the administration is upholding policy and that seems to be we don't have to necessarily go or do anything there's no action item do need to respond. >> I think we need to respond and I don't think it would hurt for us to vote >> on this um to deny that request >> to hold I think that would be a better way to do it. So it would be very clear. >> We need we will we will we need a motion and a second and then we will vote. >> Well, we need to vote. I think we should.

121We maybe don't need to, but I think we should because that way um it's clear. >> Wait a minute. He's made a request just like can we can we do a vote if there's not a vote scheduled? >> We have a vote scheduled. >> It just says discussion. >> It says on the top discussion and action items. So we can act take action on it. Right. So, is there a motion to either agree to or deny the request? I How about this? I move to um affirm the administration's position on the policy and not have Cub Scouts lunchon meeting at the elementary school. Okay. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Would you like to take a each person vote on this? A poll on this. All >> in favor? I I >> opposed.

122Motion carried. >> Um >> Denise, >> I was just going to ask, do you want me to call him? Do you want me to write a letter to say? >> I think so. >> I think >> Okay, I will write a letter >> to him and tell him that it was denied or we affirmed your opinion, your decisions, right? >> Okay. I can share um with you. >> Okay. >> Or it's in all. >> Sure. >> All right. Approve updated attendance uh for the 202526 athletic handbook. >> I move to approve the updated attendance policy in the 2025 2036 athletics handbook. >> I'll second. Any discussion? All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carried. >> Move to approve the 2026 2027 updated uh school district calendar. All second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I

123opposed. Motion carried. Make a motion to approve a new 2026 27 high school courses. I'll second. any discussion? >> Yeah, like what a gift and I like really thankful for that opportunity, especially with the college closing and for students to be able to learn and be like it's nice to be able to like learn with others, you know, off campus sometimes when you're taking accelerated courses, but the fact that we can do it right here, um, it's just a gift. >> So thankful. >> All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carried. >> School board the resolutions. >> Oh boy. >> Um, okay. So, there's no right or wrong answer, >> but who read these? >> I tried one. >> I was like, I tried. >> I went through some of them, but >> yeah. Um, so

124I'm gonna I'm just gonna say I like I started going through them like, okay, okay, makes sense. Makes sense. Makes sense. Um, so I'm just going to highlight two of them. Um, but the the uh the resolutions varied in topic from like vouchers and accountability and funding streams and referendums and student wellness and partnerships and transparency like all of the things. So there was like no real categories this year. Everything is just in there. Um, and so I think a lot of them make sense. the policies that are not being presented in the packet but will probably come up on the floor are all just kind of like procedural and like oh it's already been addressed in this resolution and it's already been addressed in that resolution or it's in conflict with this other resolution.

125So I think that those will also seem pretty straightforward. But number 10 and 11, the rationale provided or by the policies and resolutions committee notes uh for these two oppositely worded resolutions. Number 10, supporting decoupling of private and public school funding. Okay. And number 11, opposing decoupling. So supporting decoupling and opposing decoupling of private and public school funding. Okay. So I'll just say that then the committee says the goal was to make it clear to the delegates that these resolutions take contrasting positions on the same policy topic. So both policies address the idea that public monies are going to vouchers, private schools, voucher schools, and that that is taking away from resources and increasing taxes on like communities without accountability, without, you know, all of the things that we kind of like talk about um

126over the last couple months we've been having these conversations. Okay. Um so this the decoupling supporting the decoupling the idea is that you support legislation separating the funding instead supports the state taking full responsibility to fund payments to these schools. So decoupling. So have if you want to support private schools, you have a separate item in your state budget that supports said private school. >> That makes sense, right? Like, oh man, that seems fine. Like, let's just do that. >> Um, enact enact legislation that eliminates these reductions, places responsibility for funding of private school choice programs and independent charter schools on the state government. This would allow public school districts to retain their full state equalization aid and ensure that it is used ex exclusively for the benefit of public school students and local property

127taxpayers. I think I think in general they're thinking that this might be a way to bring transparency to how much money is being spent on private schools. The group opposing the decoupling makes a compelling argument that adding a new single stream public funding for private and invented charter schools will not adhere to the uniformity in education requirements of the Wisconsin constitution would create inequality in school systems. And the equalization aid formula was meant to correct in that we're further eroding transparency and accountability for public funds used for private schools which is kind of like well there already isn't accountability like they have to take the school standardized test but they don't have to publish their results you know so there's already inequity. Um, but then they site a couple of states that have done this

128and in in two of these states, Florida and Arizona, uh they're projected to see budgetary deficits as the growth voucher programs decoupled from the regular sources. So, so basically the voucher programs already exist and they're just going to scare no more money. And that's interesting to think about given our state assembly person's perspective that point is a deep commitment to privatization. So it's like that doesn't seem like a good idea to it doesn't seem like a good idea to decouple because if you decouple the private schools will get funded because there's a commitment to fund them and they could potentially get get funded more with like either one of them are any good. >> Well, there's >> I I can see I can see the I can see the point in both of them, >>

129right? But neither one of them sound like it's really doing what we would want it to do. >> We don't want additional funding going to the private schools. >> No, no, it's not about it's not about like what the Well, right. But I but it would be >> right. I think the risk I think I think the I think the same All right. So, they're like the same policy topic. I think the same policy topic is public money is going to private schools and that shouldn't happen. >> And I think the idea is opposing decoupling would like you kind of work at it with the system that already exists. You just try and build transparency and you try and you know like work on it from the inside out, you know. >> Um like keep

130the status quo basically. >> And the decoupling is like let's try something new. let's separate it. Um, but I'm afraid in a state like Wisconsin that would just where we don't >> it might potentially expand it. Right. So anyway, that's it's interesting to think about those two things and it's very it's very confusing and it's just it's a tough one. And so I guess I'd like you guys to like think about that and maybe you know talk to Angela and talk to some other folks. Maybe it'll be too late because our meeting is >> Oh, it is before. I don't believe before >> it is before. >> Yeah. >> So, it would be interesting to I wonder if I could uh come up with a question that could >> that um >> might be able

131to provide some perspective to would be interesting to hear. >> Anyway, um that's like Oh, so now you guys have another one to read the things um and see if there's any other things that like stood out, but that was one that was just like I have no idea. And it'll be interesting to hear what the debate is on board and it will take hours and it will be really annoying. But um it will be interesting. >> It will be annoying and interesting >> and interesting because it'll just take so long and everybody's going to want to have their piece. You know, every district is going to be like this is what our students do. this is what our student like this is what my perspective is which is not gonna be the same perspective

132as New London which is not gonna be the same perspective as like okay so anyway that's the heads up and uh should be fun all right guys I'm going to run through the monthly reflection questions and then um what I want you to think about is if there's any of those questions that you would like to eliminate and or you there's any questions what you would like to add instead that um when I came up with these questions, I came up with them with the book that we did and um they were some of the ones that were that they had suggested, but you guys can decide if you want to do it or not. Um the meeting was run efficiently but effectively. Yes. Okay. Um, everyone was given the opportunity to express their ideas

133and concerns. >> Yeah. >> Decisions were discussed in a manner that was clear and transparent so that the community was able to understand the reasoning and the logic of the decision. >> Yes. uh decisions were consistent and fair for all those who are invested in this um program. The school decisions reflected the mission of the district. Any suggestions for future agenda items? You know, we talked a little bit earlier about the um strategies for the absenteeism in the ELA as as we go into, you know, I thought the math um thing last time was really good to have something that's similar to that. >> So, we put that calendar together the summer so we have things for the rest of this year, but spotlights, but we could definitely add that to next year. And that

134was kind of our thought was that we would rotate content areas. >> Sure. So we would do new, you know. >> Can can you publish the like upcoming spotlights? Like we had that calendar, but I um but I don't remember. Yeah, maybe keep that like >> we made a few different Yeah. Yeah. >> because stuff happens and we want to like maybe shift gears or maybe you know like whatever. Our plan next year is to have one that's even more robust with a little more um just even has more >> just love knowing what's coming and yeah I think it's going to align nicely with the strategic plan. >> I um I did want to just make a comment that I thought the update was very good >> considated update so there was tons of

135information >> um and I I thought it was very well done. Cheers to all of our early readers. >> Good. We were hoping it would be like one spot. >> It was it was easy to get through it. Um, so I was good. Any other comments? >> I like that it was >> Yeah, that's what we're going to do. >> Yeah, I know. >> Yeah, I like that, too. So, it was it was easy to go back and see where the differences were. >> All right. All right. Thanks everyone. >> We need a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn. Is >> there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Motion carried. We are adjourned. Thank you everybody. It's been a while.