001Our mission, our mission is to enable students to enter the global society with the knowledge, skills, habits, and attitudes required to be contributing citizens. Um, and I'd also like to um extend our condolences to Linda Ned and Durst and her family. Linda's husband John passed away last week and we respect and honor the strength Linda has shown through these difficult months. Hopefully the love extended to her from her Washurn family has been helpful. It's a very sad moment. And now we will open it to public comment. Is there anyone who Okay. Um if you'd like to speak for public comment, each person has three minutes and it's their time alone and cannot be passed on to anyone else's time. If you have concerns or comments about individuals, those are not appropriate during public comment times.
002So, please don't say anything that would identify circumstances or a person or a group of people directly by what you say. Be respectful. People on Zoom are or on Zoom. >> Google Meet >> Google. That's what I was going to change. On Google Meet are welcome to join the public comment. Just put your name in the chat. So >> Juel, >> I'm Juel Pigert Washurn. And regarding the um proposed levy tax bill increase that uh you're going to be talking about tonight, um I guess I have a few concerns about that. One is at the last meeting, if I remember correctly, there was a statement made that it was a one-time only thing if it were to pass. But when I read the resolution, it said annually um to include annually on their property tax
003bills, which suggests to me that you're proposing it for every year in perpetuity. And also it has other years prior to this. So it doesn't look like we're talking about the current year. It looks like we're um bringing in uh a couple other years in the past which seems a little odd to me. And I know at the last meeting there was a term uh that was talked about the money laundering even though it was an example. Um, I don't it's a criminal term and I don't think we should be using that unless we're talking about an actual crime and no no money money laundering has been committed as far as I know. Um, and I don't think it's appropriate to demonize uh private schools. This is a marketplace of ideas and if we want
004to be better than what the private schools have to offer then it's a challenge to the school system to provide better education the basics teach kids how to think for themselves which I think is what most parents want and then you won't have uh some of these students exiting to the private schools in my opinion. Uh the other thing is about the vision statement. I'm my my thought is that for a vision statement it should be something that we are striving toward not something we're already at and we're talking about the global citizen. I know in the mission statement whatever which to me doesn't fit for what we should be doing and the whole learner is kind of like the same thing. So to me it it doesn't there's no future uh statement in in
005there and that's it. >> Thanks Joel. Is there anyone else? >> All right. Um can we have a a motion to approve the agenda as presented? I make a motion to approve the agenda as presented. Is there a second? I'll second. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries. All right. Well, we are honored to have um someone with us tonight who is soon to be recognized for um a great achievement. Um, Tina Supreme has been recognized by the Wisconsin Association of School Boards for her commitment to the school district of Washurn. Tina earned this recognition by attending Wisconsin Association of School Board training opportunities that focused on the improving student achievement and public education. And she will be uh recognized at a regional meeting next week at the landing. Yes. So, we
006are truly lucky to have Tina as a member of our board and on behalf of the board, thank you for your service to the district and congratulations on the award. I do want to give a few words. Well, no, just but I'm not sure. >> I just I I never thought of it as like I didn't realize that there's like a point system for uh board members. And so, you know, like I I get it. They're they're building a coalition of informed board members, community members. So, I always thought it was just kind of like, hey, I got to go to represent you guys too >> and for like for the folks who can't go and you know and I know that like and in other parts of your lives like we're all busy and
007there's a little bit of give and take and this is a place where I can give. So, well, thank you for doing that. All right, we'll move on to the spotlight pres spotlight presentation with Chris Ger. >> Well, hello everybody. First, I want to say thank you for letting me take the time to do this and I want to thank everybody for everything that you do for our kids and our teachers and everybody. Um, the presentation is about 10 minutes long if I go probably a little bit more from start to finish. So, I'm going to go through it without stopping for questions and stuff like that. But, if you have questions, please write them down. Or the other thing I want you to look for is um at the beginning of the school year,
008Matt Larson asked if this could go on the website for the school forest. Um, I asked him to wait until after this because I want you to be okay with what's up there. And there might be a few things in here that maybe that isn't. And there'll be a couple of stopping points in addition to what's on here that I just want to share with you the why it's in here. So any questions before we start? Okay. Um school forest history. Can you see it? Okay. Over here >> I've got it pulled up. >> You got it. I got it. Okay. Um information for this presentation has been compiled from newspaper articles, documents, notes from meetings, and personal histories. Donations of land, time, money, and materials have been integral in both the formation and the
009continuation of the school forest. The first Wisconsin school forests. The first school forest program began with 1927 legislation. Wisconsin's first school forests were established in 1928 in Leyona, Brandon, and I never remember how to pronounce this city. What is it? Wino. Yeah. >> The Leyona school forest was the first in the United States. In 2025, there are 435 school forests registered in Wisconsin. And that's really, I think, increased because it was in the 200s not too long ago. In 1958, Bayfield County donated 40 acres to the Washurn School District. The district was responsible for delinquent taxes amounting to about $89. Some of the first projects were harvesting 15,000 board feet of saw logs, mainly basswood and maple, which were used in the school's industrial arts program, and planting 1,500 Norway pine and 500 white spruce
010seedlings on an open tract. It's really cool that I found these um newspaper articles that had some of this information in it. Um, in 1960, Washurn School Forest was officially registered and they're registered through W Stevens Point. For the next 25 years, not much happened at the school forest. However, during the early 1970s, high school biology teacher Bruce Wraps made use of his school bus driver's license, transporting students to plant trees provided by the Department of Natural Resources at the school forest. This program was discontinued because it was realized there needed to be a management plan put in place. Little side note on this um this was kind of a later addend slide and it happened when I was visiting my brother-in-law who lives has lived in Germany since 1974 and I was talking about
011this project I was putting together and he said, "Oh, I remember growing up with first wraps and we you know he drove us on the bus and this I'm like I didn't find I had a box of stuff. I didn't find anything about that." So when I got back, I called Bruce and I asked him about it and he's the one he gave me this information and I regret not asking him a few more questions at that time because there's a couple more things that have come up, but that's where that came from. In 1985, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources reached out to area schools to ask if there was a school forest plan in place and offered assistance in making one. This was the beginning of a partnership between DNR forester Tim Davis
012and Washurn educators John Budash and Marv Nebula. The forestry plan was approved by the school board in 1987. The 40 acres were divided into different management objectives. I won't read these, but it started out that there were 10 objectives or 10 groups and now it kind of some of them have gone together. the map. One of the cool finds was I always use this map when I brought the kids up there. Had no idea who did it, but it was drawn by Marv Nibble. Um, work days were organized for volunteers, including staff and community members to help clear a trail. Do you want to know who those are, Cody? Do you know who the people were? John and Budash, um, Cat Davis Skellyy, and one of her daughters. And I'm wondering if it's the one
013that just got recognized for um library. She's a library person in Eagle River and she just got a recognition. The first activity was a 6 acre aspen regeneration in the spring. The8 mile loop trail system was developed and a 0.25 acre wildlife opening was created and planted with grass and clover. Ivy, look close. You're going to see a couple people you know in these pictures. See if you can find them. There were three timber sales as part of the management plan. Bruce Rap's high school class worked with DNR forester Tim Davis on how to manage these sales. Proceeds raised were added to the school forest fund. Did you find them? Ivy's mom and dad are up here. Yeah. And at first I didn't recognize and then Bruce Wraps is right there. I did not identify
014individuals because I didn't want to leave any out. And of course there were some that other than some of the key people. Um, volunteers helped cut and peel the logs. Some of the volunteers who worked on clearing the trail. Kind of a fun one to look at if you've got time and you know the people. Many volunteers were staffed and their families. An outdoor classroom was built by the Wisconsin Conservation Corps in the Red Pine Plantation approximately halfway between the two entrances. Um, one thing that hit me with this slide was I never thought about how that classroom was positioned between the two entrances. It is is exactly halfway in between. And then they were built in 1991 and those benches are still there. I don't think anything's and they're still in good shape. Owl,
015bat, and raccoon houses were installed by John Gurash and Marv Neville with guidance from Tom Coger, resource conservation and development coordinator. and a deer exlosure was built. And that one, I believe, is still up there, but a road to the future classroom site was built. Informative signs were added to the trail explaining different aspects of the forest. If you've ever taken the time to really read these, I went through I don't know how many times the class kind of read them, but through this process, I really read them carefully, and it's like they're really well welled and very informative. After the trail was developed, classes were encouraged to use the forest for outdoor activities. For many years, first and fifth grade worked together, tapping maple trees, boiling sap, and sampling syrup on pancakes. Smoky Bear
016Tim Davis made a rare appearance at the forest. Local wood carver Bill Vino designed entrance signs which were paid for by the Society of American Foresters. Signs were added to mark the trail. Outouses were added in 1993. Um, a little side note about this. I know Bill Vino did this sign, the two entrance signs. I don't know who did these signs. And Bill is at the nursing home now. And I thought I I stopped to ask him about it and showed him. I said, "Did you do these signs? Do you know who did them?" Uh he didn't remember doing these signs and just said, "Give someone else credit for them." So um Washurn Public Schools presented at a conference in Milwaukee. Um I asked the group, you know, when this happened, nobody could really remember.
017And when I asked Mark, he just said, "Oh, long time ago." So, I figure it was sometime in the 90s, but that's a pretty was pretty cool to be asked to do that. Um, enthusiastic volunteers envisioned an indoor space to enhance learning opportunities. Architect Hamina Christensen drew up plans. It would take more than just plans to make it happen. It would take time, money, and lots of volunteers. Hamina didn't have her name on this at all, and but everybody was kind of saying, "I think it was Hamina, but we're not sure." And I finally I did get a hold of her and talk to her about it. It was her. And boy, she looked at it. She looked at the pictures I sent her and said, "Oh, but they didn't do this. But they didn't
018do this, but they did do this." It was it was >> cool to talk to her. Paul Van Dyke was Washurn's school psychologist for 11 years. When he wasn't working with students, he spent his time in nature, hiking in the woods, fishing, biking, canoeing, skiing, or working on the school forest trail. He believed deeply in environmental education and the mental health of young people and that the two were strongly linked. When he passed away from cancer in 1992 at the age of 37, his memorial money was allocated towards the school forest shelter for Giz and his family's wishes. Plans were soon underway to build a shelter at the forest. Um it was really Paul's story that got me started in all of this. Um, when I was up several times as a teacher with my
019students, I would have students read the sign and say, "Who is he?" And more Whoops. More recently, I was up with um some of our new first grade teachers just to kind of help give them a boost. And she, one of them asked me about it, and I'm like, "Wow, a lot of our teachers here, they're going to have no clue who P is. How do I what can we do to help um keep this?" So, I I reached out to Pat Davis Skellyy, who I knew was good friends with her and someone I haven't probably talked to in 20 years, and she still had contact with Paul's mom, who was in her 90s and still living at home. And she actually went down and talked to her, got some information, shared the pictures with
020me. Um, and her his mom was so thrilled that his memory that this was happening and it was going to be acknowledged. And she passed away in July. So yeah, anyway, on to the building. The concrete foundation was formed and poured by volunteers who were guided by skilled workers. Bayfield County donated logs that were used in the building. Carrie Cudis, Ulu Log cabin builder, guided volunteers in constructing the shelter. I didn't find a lot of information about him in the papers I went through, but John mentioned his name like several times, so I know he was really key in that. And I don't have any pictures. Volunteers worked on each phase of the building. Teachers continuing to do the groundwork. Um, and I just threw in a quote here from Helen Keller. Alone we can
021do so little. Together we can do so much. It was definitely a a lot of people working together. Mike Patterson, general contractor, guided the construction process from the concrete floor to the roof. In addition to Tim Davis's work as DNR forester, he donated countless hours helping with the trail shelter and working with classes on making maple syrup for many years. um he was really key in getting he really remembered a lot was very helped out with this presentation a lot and just giving information and it sounds like the initial um connection with he and John Budash was during a parent teacher conference when his son was in class and so um fifth grade classes at the shelter before completion with teachers John Burash and Na Zukus um the shelter was completed in 1996 six and
022at that time all elementary teachers were asked to take a course called project learning tree funds were provided by a grant. The following slides were from Forest Man's Eagle Scout project in 2004. This was a mystery for me for quite a while. I mean I had seen this sign said Eagle Service Project. I knew kind of who some of the um adults were at that time, but I kept running into dead ends until Bruce Lambert um got me connected with Forest. It's kind of cool that he's our band director now. So, these slides came from his dad. Lumber ready to be carried to the site of the first boardwalk. Human pack mules carry lumber down the slide to the boardwalk site. Nearing completion of the first boardwalk, some members of Troop 344 who participated on
023the project. The site, both inside and out, have changed throughout the years as how the forest has been used. The next slides show more recent ways it's been used. Northland College students led lessons at the forest. Second graders experienced some old-fashioned fun and learning when the cabin was transformed into Laura Engles Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods. Did a lot of different things up there. Many volunteers, parents, and community members helped make this happen. Our very last day was like the day before we closed for CO. Explorations and discoveries while hiking the school forest trail often led to meaningful writing experiences back at the shelter. Main reason I put this picture in, it was the one I could find that kind of showed what the shelter looked like before all of the upgrades. Trying
024to give some comparisons. They're not just playing in nature. They are learning, creating, sensing, believing, relaxing, exploring, observing, wondering, connecting, discovering, appreciating, understanding, and experimenting. When I first started putting pictures together or putting this together, I wasn't quite sure where I was going. So, I started just looking for quotes that kind of gave the reason to why it's important to get kids outside. School forest fun no matter what the season. And this picture shows the outhouses in the back. I didn't come across a lot of those. And then this tree was the one that was removed to make tree for the addition with indoor forming. For a while, it was quite the focal point of play when it was down and when they were up, too. Um, some summer school classes take place at the
025forest and the out, this was my out and about summer school class with kids on the sections of the tree. Laura Grat's memorial funds were used to put in new flooring and a fireplace in the shelter in 2022. Laura was an educator at Washurn schools from 1971 to 2009 and one of was one of many teachers who volunteered time in the early stages of the school forest. Kind of cool to see all the kids. This was a picture that when the people were up at the school forest, it really captured their attention. Cabinets are stocked with supplies provided by a branch from the holiday store. Nature is a tool to get children to experience not just the wider world but themselves. That Amelia shared a nice collection of pictures of the kids outside doing a
026variety of things. Fourth graders collecting and boiling snap. The pavilion near the parking lot was built in 2018 for this purpose. High school students working with elementary students collecting and boiling sap. This is Robleski's solar ovens. They're making s'mores. Um, not all classrooms have four W walls. And that's the kids in the um the outdoor classroom that was shown earlier. Um, third graders wrote haiku or acrostic poems about outdoor observations. A generous donor provided funds to make the trail accessible for all students. I'd love to have a picture here of this being used by a student, but I don't know if that's possible. That was also a big when people came up here, they had a lot of questions about that. Outside, quiet children start to talk more and children who find it hard to
027be constrained begin to relax. Children need to be outside long enough to feel at home there. Ivy, this quote's for you. Encouraging a child to go outside in all weather builds resilience, but more importantly, it saves them from spending their life merely tolerating the bad days in favor of a handful of good ones. A life of endless expectations and conditions where happiness hinges on sunshine. You get us outside all the time. I don't know if that one made me think of you. Um, this was one of my all-time favorite days at the school forest. It was so muddy, but all the kids said muck. When life gives you rain, jump in muddy puddles. Um, and this is just a little recap of the homecoming um, open house. Um the number of visitors on Friday were
02844 and I have a list of them but I just thought the numbers um would be good. Saturday 12 and Sunday 26. Um that was kind of like groups of families. Most were from out of town or people that had come back. Saturday even though the numbers were lower. I knew it was really busy. It ended up being um a group of people that it was all the people that worked on the forest shelter and Rose Hildigbran was another DNR person who just showed up and she was there. It was really cool just listening to them. Um and the ice spy walk included hunting for unusual things, letters A to Z, um rocks designed by a Washurn High School alumni and looking for different types of trees. I kind of tried to mix it up
029a bit. This right here is Tim Davis, DNR, and his granddaughter. And they're right there, too. Preserving history, making memories today, planning for the future. And that's, you know, really, like I said in the beginning, I was going for preserving, and now I'm just kind of thinking about, okay, we've got this great place. What do we do to make sure it continues? Um, so this was just I had this in the presentation and just to share it with you. There were funds in 1998 that were um like dedicated a lot um and I put them by classes and I did it because I thought maybe some people would come up there that were there. There isn't anything up there that tells what they donated and I was trying to work on a little something that
030could could do that. And there were a couple people that did come up that were there and said, "I want to donate more." So, we need to get that out there. Last but not least, this is a big thing I learned through the project and this I took from the UW Stevens Point um website. There's a lot of information on W Stevens Point. There's resources, there's online training. Um the two main pillars of school forests are sustainable management of the forest and using the property for education. One benefit of being a registered school forest is access to a local DNR forester who can provide management services for the property. DNR foresters are able to answer questions about the trees on your property, create a management plan, and help you implement any management prescriptions that are
031recommended to keep your forest healthy. very first meeting I had before I started this I mean I've had wanting to preserve the school of orchestry in my brain in my mind for a long time but last April John Buresh Marv Nebula and Tim Davis and I met at Marv's house and that's how we kind of got started just to get ideas rolling and Tim brought along with him Cara and Cara is working at the DNRL she's our she's our school forest a zone and at the time it my first meeting. I'm kind of like random. >> Yeah. What? Um yeah, I she's been she came up. She was at the um school forest shelter with us a couple of days and this is she came so we can introduce you to her and Denise has
032met with her already and kind of forg. >> Yeah, it's been wonderful. Uh Chris doesn't even realize all the connection. Well, you do know, but we met a couple weeks ago, the three of us. And then, you know, connected with Alex Predager, our our gardener, and Dustin Long, who's our high school science teacher. And then Cara followed up. And I think there's some meetings taking place, and Dustin and Alex are just all about wanting to connect. Now, I'm receiving emails from students point because I've gotten connected. So then I'm sharing those and Dustin and Alex are like, "Yes, I've never seen these before." So there's just kind of this whole world of resources and the opportunity um to just continue the management that needs to happen. And K's going to going to do a new
033You should maybe explain a little to them with cruising. >> Yeah, I'll be taking I think there's eight stands left of the original 10 type and I remapped it a few years ago. It looks very very similar. I'm going to go through and do a standard forestry cruise on all those. And with any of the Washurn classes that you interact with those management prescriptions or not, there's several different things at least that you can do with any stand. And so it'll be a conversation about what's educationally best, what's economically feasible, and it's fun learning opportunity when we meet. Thank you. >> The um can't remember her name for Steven's point. >> Gretchen. She was interested in seeing this presentation too, but I didn't want to share it with her until I Yes, it's okay to
034share with the world or if there's any changes that you want or don't want. The last couple slides I won't put in there for sure, but >> I think you did a wonderful job on this. This is really impressive. Um, having been around a little while, I can remember some of those beginning pieces and it's kind of fun to see that all over again. Um, Paul Van was also at Inasigan before he came to Washurn. So, he's been was in the area for quite some while and and built a lot of relationships with a lot of the kids that came over here. So it was he was a wonderful man. >> Yeah, I had that part in his story originally and I thought no I'm just going to stick to I tried to cut it
035down a little bit and just stuck to the wash. >> Um but it's very nice very nicely done. Yeah, we're excited to showcase it on our website and add to the green and healthy all of our sites and classroom spaces and like Chris mentioned and I use so on top of things in the elementary building they're up there using it continually year round for a variety of different lessons and outside time. And then the middle school and high school, same in all those different in all the science classes, a little bit more focused on science. >> Um, and like we said, trying to get those specialized classes, those forestry, you know, of course, as a former high school science teacher, I'm like, you know, can I maybe I'll join in with you guys. Um, because
036I taught a forestry class. So, it's just really uh been very enjoyable to put all the pieces together and ensure that our students have these opportunities. uh which not everybody has in every school district and every community. So, we're really lucky. Thank you so much. >> Well, and I when I started this, my original in intention was really I wanted to be able to have something to share with the teachers. So, when they go over um and that that was my intention and it kind of grew a bit bigger than that, but if you're open to having me come in to share it with the staff, I would love to do that. Um, I'm also looking at and originally I I pictured a book, a sugarfly book that can be at the shelter so people
037can know and I'm hoping I'm I still I'm going to try to figure out how I can just take these slides and put them on there. >> We did have um a retired teachers group up there for a meeting one time and Chris presented the very beginnings of this. >> Yeah. And it was actually some of the questions that some of the people asked there that kind of helped drive where it was going to. So there were teachers from the area, retired teachers that came up and were like, "How did you get this?" >> You know, they were just shocked. >> It's a binder full. >> Amazing. You took all of that and then put it into this and really told an excellent story. >> It is great. We will definitely utilize it when we
038do our onboarding with new staff and administratively talk through how do we share that because we have a lot of new a lot of new faces. >> Is there any concerns with anybody about sharing this? I think we can even like double down on the sharing and like come up with like just little like smaller because we're just in such a fragmented like media world like smaller segments of your presentation too that are like very accessible and very reachable you know um >> on Insta or whatever you know so um yeah I think I think it's awesome. Thank you so much for that work because it's a lot preserve that history and bring those stories to life. Yeah. Does anybody know how common school forests are like nationwide? Like is it something that >> is
039unique to the North Midwest or >> Yeah, I will answer that question for sure. >> Stephen's point you said >> yeah might be on >> and I was curious with the numbers 435 because there's about 426 school districts in the state. So it makes me curious if some school districts have multiple forests. Well, and that might be something to double check on too because I have Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. They might have separate areas. >> Um I'm just struck by like the number of like volunteerism like to keep this like school force going too. Um and so even like even just like a short snippet on that and um >> and in alignment with our crowd sourcing policy, you know, making sure that there's like a little QR code at the bottom of this presentation,
040you know, or whatever. But um speaking of donating, like any word of like who's responsible for the little miniature fairy houses? Yeah. I was I No. >> Nobody knows. >> I of course you know. >> Of course I know. >> I'm sworn a secret. >> Oh, I love it. >> Yeah, I love it. >> I think I've heard I know you said you like the secret. When I was up with a group of kids last week, they were they were kind of like we kind of like the secret, too. >> Yeah. Nashville. >> It's kind of funny because some alumni that were here during homecoming that went hiking out there and then later came back, they were there. So, they've been posting on Facebook pictures of all the different houses. >> Yeah, it's been kind
041of cool. >> Very cool. Thank you, campus. >> Yeah, thank you. that I mean that is that's a huge project and it's a very meaningful project right we can move on all right so uh thank you car that was a fabulous presentation it's hard to beat that uh this week is homecoming week which everyone's aware of it's busy and fun and at the elementary today the color run and apple crunch day and tomorrow, fall fest. I mean, so it's a week full of just lots of energy, lots of excitement, fun activities. Um, and so just being a part of that has been has been wonderful. And the participation by students and staff, just top-notch. Uh, if you look at all of our social media, Heather has done an amazing job posting all kinds of photos.
042It's just really fun every day to go check it out. So I, if you haven't, please do. Um, I do have to uh take a moment to recognize this amazing board for all of your work. Uh, this week is uh Wisconsin Schoolboard Recognition Week. I don't know if you all know that. Um, it was something that was posted out on our socials, but we just want to take a moment to thank you for your service, your dedication, and your commitment to our students, our staff, and our families and community. We're really lucky to have you all on board. Thank you for that. Um I am including and will at a later date uh as the administrative team and I are working on some reporting updates. Um but I've included in my report to all of
043you enrollment numbers and attendance data. So monthly Heidi and I are going to work together on providing that uh verbally. Right now our enrollment as of today is uh 535 students. that includes our membership, our open enroll in, and those that are open enroll. So, we're about 13 students lower than last year at this time. Um, we are seeing that slight decline in our enrollment numbers. And so, that's reflected in um in that our overall attendance rate right now 92 and a half% um which is better than where we ended at the end of last year, which was closer to 90. So, uh, a good strong start to the year and we'll continue to work on doing our best to have students at school every day and to work on pre-excusing absences as much as
044possible ahead of time. So, that's on our radar. And then our last uh, strategic planning is coming up October 23rd, our final day to determine and finalize collective commitment work, our pillars, and our five-year goals. So, I'm really looking forward to having Joe back to facilitate that with the team and um put it all together. Thank you. Any questions for Denise? Okay. Um I just wanted to go through our goals a little bit. Um and just a brief update with them. Um the first goal was to strengthen its role as an advocate for public education um by building relationships with legislators and community advocates building knowledge of state and federal issues regarding education. Currently we have the date of December 11th which is our board meeting in December and Angela Straoud will be um meeting
045with us and addressing us and then in January 8th Roma Quinn will be here and um looking at the possibility of coming early and doing a tour of the school. So we'll try to organize that and figure out a time and date of when that will or time we got the date of that. So that's the work on the first poll. Um the second was the strategic plan as was saying we had uh two meetings so far. Um I thought it was an excellent committee and the leadership was great. Joe did a wonderful job. Um it reminded me of two things from my early days of education. One is um as an early childhood teacher um process versus product. It was the the discussion and the interaction between the people that were there I thought
046was incredibly meaningful um because that's how you make changes and you you know talk to different people and hear different things and so I thought that was great and the other thing that it reminded me of was somebody saying in education if you stay still it means you're falling behind so we take the work that has and done and we take that and we move forward and you know not that you forget history but you take that and you use that to keep going forward. So I thought the the so far the process has been very good I think. Um, and then we talked about doing the bylaws and um, there was some discussion after some questions after about when the best time to do that and whether it was during the meeting or not
047during the meeting and and so I just want to have a conversation, make sure everybody's on the same page of what's the best way to do it. Um, and I know that I've, you know, offered out a few things of similar to what we did with the the book study to come a half an hour early and and I don't know how long it's going to take us to go through them. I don't know if it would be like, you know, two, three times to do it. Um, or have a separate retreat, a separate meeting like in an evening and just kind of go through all of them. So, I'm just bringing that up once again. It sounded like people were more likely to want to do it like the book study. So, I just
048want to make sure we're still on that. And you want to do it at like 5:30 to 6. >> I'm comfortable with that. >> Okay. All right. And then um I don't know how long it's going to take. So, I don't know if you know before we were talking about splitting it up, Heidi. I know there were some people that wanted the paper copy. Did you make a copy of all of the bylaws for them like you made for me? >> Not yet. >> Okay. So, maybe we can do that and then you were just going to use it the online. >> Yeah, I'll do it online. I don't need paper. >> Are you online too? >> Two more. Okay. >> Okay. So then that means next month >> we November. >> Oh yes. Okay.
04913th. >> We'll start at 5:30 and do a half hour and we'll pull through as many as we can and then we'll see where we are and see what we do next. Okay. All right. That's what my report is on board goals. Does anybody else have anything on any one of those goals they want to bring up? Okay, now let us move on to the future report. Okay. Um the reading specialist um gave an oral report on an update on several literacy topics for our schools. Um she stated that Wisconsin is almost a full year into the implementation of early literacy screener and other act 20 requirements. Districts are gaining valuable information about how their students build literacy skills and how to strengthen some of those skills were needed. Um, CE is providing a variety
050of learning opportunities for teachers across the spectrum of the of experience and lensure. That was the high meeting. Any questions for Julie? Okay, we'll move on. Um, approval of financial reports and bills. Um, I reviewed the financial reports and bills for last month um for September and I move to approve financial statements. Is there a second? I'll second. Any questions or discussion? A motion to um confirm? All in favor? I >> opposed. Motion carried. Consent agenda. >> I move to approve the consent agenda. >> I'll second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. All right. Discussion items. the approval of the first reading of the policies that are listed. Anything that any any questions or any concerns with any of those? >> Is there a motion? >> Make a motion to approve
051the first reading of the policies as listed. >> Second. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carried. We >> I move to approve second reading of policies as listed. >> We'll second >> discussion. All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carried. See, um, could you read those for us, please? Almost for you. >> I did. I did. I did really well. >> Would you like me to read? >> Yes, please. >> Okay. So, our new mission is connecting to educate, inspire, and empower. And our vision is a place of excellence that honors the whole learner. Yep. And then linked in the agenda are also our draft collective commitments which are still a work in progress and you can see some that are highlighted that are going to be further discussed on the 23rd. But
052it's a draft form of the the commitment work as well. But tonight, we're just looking to approve the new mission and new vision as part of the process. This is this is going to be kind of a um a baby step process. So, we'll start with something and keep moving on as we go. Um so, this is where we're starting is those two things. Um any questions? um wonderings about the whole process or anything like that or your is is there any benefit to waiting until after the 23rd to just approve everything? >> You can do that too. Yeah, >> that was mentioned. We could do it either way. So there's no reason to do everything in one soup, but I guess it's just nice to have the floor for conversation if you wait >>
053so that you're not discussing all the aspects of the plan in one meeting, >> but we can certainly wait to do the approval until the end. >> Is there um is that like a comfort level for you or for in general or >> I just I guess I'm just curious. But yeah, no, it makes it makes sense to me that I think that like I think that Joe did a great job of just building consensus and just understanding um and like really getting Yeah. really just like pushing us because I don't I don't know if there's any like because or I didn't feel that that same thing, but like in reflection of your statement like oh it's like the process more than the product like that. Yeah, I haven't reflect on that but like it
054really makes a lot of sense and it was just lovely. It was great. Um, so anyway, I I just really I don't know. >> And it does make sense in some ways if we wanted to prove it all as one in its entirety. I can see where your thoughts are on that. Um, I felt that the the mission and the vision statements were pretty honed in when we were there. you know, it was um a struggle is the right it took us a long time to get those those few words put together. Um there was a lot of conversation about it and um and healthy conversation. So your your decision, do you want to approve those the mission vision statements tonight and then we'll go on to the commitments um next time or do you
055want to wait? I like to wait because as you know I'm sick for the days I've been sick. Um I just like to sit on it a little bit. I would appreciate a little break. I apologize. >> Not a problem. Is that okay with everybody else? >> Okay, we'll wait on those two things. >> Thank you. But in other discussion like you know um I think that there was just like yeah there's just like some really great >> um like you would you wouldn't think that like the mission or the vision would change too much but I think people really liked the short and succinct >> I think that was like a standout conversation uh that we had. I agree. I mean that was my first thought because mission and vision statements are supposed to
056be fairly direct, short and concise which they were not >> previously. So, and I think >> if you can jog my memory, uh, the ones that are highlighted in the commitments, those were not necessarily the ones like one, two, three, four, there's like five elements that aren't highlighted there. Boom. Every like there's like some immediate consensus about those top five and then the others are still in like kind of draft. I think the celebration joy one was the one that was definitely not clarified for sure. >> Um I think up until I think through the green and healthy we were it was pretty close quote but >> um >> we thought that there could be like some link smithing and some other some other things with those highlighted aspects. just just to give you just
057a little bit of like the conversation that was going on there. those those five others or six others were just like pretty solid like yeah this this feels like what we want to have in our um in our commitments our mutual commitments with each other and with our community it's too bad that we can't figure out how to get all the you know like many small groups like that to have these same discussions you know because it's it is very meaningful, you know, to see where people are coming from and just to have that conversation. >> We need to have a motion to um table this until next month. >> Sure. Would it be next? We have next month. >> I believe it would be in November. We should be able to Okay. Finalize the
058whole >> Would you like to make that motion? >> Sure. just uh move to table the um approval until um both the mission vision and commitments are >> it'll actually be everything >> oh yeah the whole strategic plan is presented from the committee >> okay >> second >> any other discussion all in favor >> opposed motion carries approve the 2425 financial audit I move to approve the 2024 2025 financial audit. >> Any discussion? Um I did not get to uh like reach out to Janet um ahead of time, but I noticed like a couple like hey room for improvement here like this is how like fulfill the need but it looked like in that audit structure that's like broken out by sections. Was there any other like opportunities for improvement or any identifiers that the
059auditors recommended or saw that we need to do better or adjust? No. Okay. I forgot where we were on that now. >> Okay, thank you. All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carried. Um, early college credit. Move to approve the early college credit students for spring 206. >> I'll second discussion. All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carried. >> A move to approve the WCF donation to purchase the electronic messing board elementary school. >> I'll second discussion. >> Is like are we excited about this? It seems like we're like, you know, sometimes it's hard to like switch the letters and like you don't get updated information. >> Yeah. >> Will it like fit with the aesthetic? Yeah. It's like I'm like steel boards like it's gonna >> that actually still look very similar to what it
060looks like right now, but it will be an electronic screen instead of a old school one. We're still going to have the flower bed with the flowers that students plant. It'll still have the brick work. We're going to do some repairs there to make that a little more um sturdy and sustainable, but overall the still have the trees um around it. So, it'll look very similar. >> Yeah. Nice. >> Will align with our goal for increased communication to get messages out to families. And the um and the grant from the education foundation, does that include like the masonry work as well? >> Yeah, that should cover that that amount that they are donating will cover everything. >> Yeah, that's cool. >> So, um you guys can now I'm losing track of again discussion. Okay. >>
061All in favor? Oh, wait. One more question. Oh crap. Um, oh, it's a 10-year contract. Like is this I'm assuming like subscription? Um, and then it like we'll go into like a renewal phase, I'm assuming, and just kind of address it as it comes. Got it. Okay. Sorry. All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carried. So, will there be a a letter, a thank you letter sent to >> Yes, most definitely. We Ivy and I will work with WCF to give them the quote and the update on uh moving forward and then we'll be sure we do a a really nice Thank you, especially once we have it installed, we can maybe even take a little field trip up there and have them check it out. >> Perfect. >> Yeah. Updating the high school. Yeah, right
062now um it is on the list of you know we're going to have interest funds from the referendum because we have the money invested right now and that is on the list for one of those interest related purchases that we're hoping we can make into this building. G move to approve designating the district administrator to make compliance officer changes in the policy. >> I'll second >> um discussion. >> I should just give a little clarification at our at our last policy meeting we made uh with Shandra coming on board meets some compliance officer changes. I want to say somewhere between 10 and 12 times in policy we have names of specific officers um for title nine for example and if we don't do this then every time we make a name change I have to
063bring that to the board to get it approved but our anola rep recommended that we do this motion and have it approved by the board so that as those names change um I can just do those things and then just have them uh be processed by Nola because otherwise it can get pretty we had names from two or three principles ago still out there in policy. So just it makes it a lot simpler to >> a few years back I found my name in it in it. Yeah. >> Yes. >> So it's it's really just some of those those simple changes that are names and things like that. >> And those and the individuals will likely remain the the two principles in those roles. um or a special education director could also be someone in
064that. So, it's a it's a small pool of people, but >> there's a possibility that to be updated. >> Any other questions? All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carried. H make a motion to approve the voucher tax bill transparency resolution. Second. >> Any discussion? Um, I I guess I'm still just like a little bit on the fence because we're such a small district. I feel like people can take this information and just like not use it as just like, oh, this is transparent, but more like, oh, this is a reason or I can like deduct information and I can assume things about our district because I have this information. It's not just necessarily transparency of where your tax dollar is going. Um, so I, so I guess I'm just a little on fence. Is there
065like uh is there like a better transparency argument for that? Um, that you can like kind of help me through or also is there like a timeline like in order to get this on our tax bill? I think we're pushing it right now. >> Okay. >> Oh, it's I don't even know if we can still get it on, but we're really it's going to be a push to try to get it on yet for sure. >> All right. Um, and one of the discussions was whether because in Superior they decided to do it for two years. I don't know that we necessarily need to do that. Um, I don't think they did that in Green Bay. Um, but the the reason they did it in Superior was because there was a big change within those
066two years and they wanted to um, show that. I think that one of the things that we do need to be careful that it's not very wordy because there's not that much space on the tax bills, >> right? >> Because it would go into the notes. So, I think having just the the one year makes sense to me. Um that was one of the questions um that I had asked different people and they could not think of a good reason not to do it. >> Oh okay. >> Because I love because like we talked about last time transparency I think it's just just that's the bottom line like people just need to know and we just are going to share that information. Um, and that's that's important, >> right? And I don't think that it's
067in any way um a negative >> like people do with information what they do and we can't control that and that's not our >> and I don't think that we're trying to be negative to private schools. We're just saying this is the way to create it. >> Yeah. >> You know, and people need to know where they're going. >> Yeah. And there's also another like will be like the three kind of related school items like the overall levy, the referendum dollars, and then also the voucher dollars. Is that is the referendum dollars pulled out or >> I don't think it is. >> Okay. I misread that then in the resolution. I misread that. Okay. >> Um so it would >> just the levy. >> It would be the it would be the levy. It would
068be what we are mandated to pay, but the the levy will be on there because it's on your tax bill. >> It will be what we are required to pay for the voucher piece of it and the transportation piece. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other discussion? All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries. And then um we'll continue to work on getting that and then we'll see if we can get it done yet this year. All right. I discuss annual meeting motions. Do you want to walk us through that? >> Yeah. Just wanting us to be familiar um with the motions that we're going to be going through at the annual meeting on the 23rd. So, not only do we have strategic planning all day, but we have a coaching meeting for that. >>
069It's not going to be a short day. >> It's gonna be a really a memorable day for everyone. Uh, so we will be looking for and and tapping on some shoulders uh to see if we have some community members that will be in attendance that can help us with um doing this work. So, we'll be setting salaries for schoolboard members um per state statute. Uh, number two, we'll be walking through the sale of equipment and materials no longer needed by the district. Uh, we'll want to set our date for the next annual meeting. Also, um, a motion for authorization to uh, lease unused building space, the rental and unused building space, and then we will um, adopt the tax levy for the 202526 school year. So those will be the uh motions that we will
070go through at the meeting and then there are ground rules um below if you want to peruse that as far as well as the rule bar coding but that'll be more for the budget piece. >> Sure. >> Any questions? We don't need we don't need a motion on that. That's most of those are all state statues. >> Yep. They're all the just kind of in advance and find out. And then I would like to ask you um if you would like to go through the monthly reflection questions now or you gonna wait till after the when we open it back up after the uh um administrative part of this this special session. Let's do it after. >> Okay. All right. Then would somebody like to make a motion to go into executive session? Uh I'll
071move to move uh I'll move to go into executive session for student to Wisconsin state statutes 19.85 and see for discussion regarding custodial personnel and transportation contract for the 2025 2026 school year. >> Is there a second? >> I will second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carried. Thank you. Thank you again Chris. >> Yes. Release or sing.