Board Meeting 4-14-25

00190 to 100% of our students in the high-risisk and some risk categories um on fastbridge a reading will make aggressive growth and 90 to 100% of our students that are low risk in college pathway will make typical growth. Um we are seeing good progress there. Are we near our goal right now? Absolutely not. We know that this is a long-term game. Um and we have made a variety of tweaks with how we are collaborating with how we are focusing on best practices um with our within our building and um I would even say from January on we've seen huge impacts um throughout our cl our our building. Um the ultimate goal is to see uh for grades three through five that by the end of this school year 15% of students currently scoring below basic

002category will move to basic and then 7 and a half% of students currently scoring in the basic category will move to proficient. And that was based on the last year's forward scores. Um, and I just kind of want to end with something that we put in place at the beginning of this year as we were uh and continue to try to build a culture that is creating a learning experience for students and teachers that they want to be a part of. Our motto has been every student every day, whatever it takes. Um, and I feel really confident in saying that the people in our building, um, the adults in our building have really dove into that motto and are showing up every day for kids in a really positive way. So proud to be the

003principal at Jefferson. Now I want to pass it on because as I said um our students needs from a emotional and mental health standpoint need to be met before they can do any of this. Um so I'm going to pass it to Miss Shu our school counselor and then let a couple students um speak to their learning. Yes. Good evening everyone. My name is Lauren Shu and I'm the school counselor at Jefferson Elementary. Tonight we're excited to share the positive impact second step our social emotional curriculum has had on our students. And as Jefferson as a whole, our school community at Jefferson SEAL is taught daily um using SecondStep curriculum, the digital platform along with supplemental material and activities. Within the SecondStep curriculum, there are four units that we really focus on, five lessons each

004for a total of 20 lessons that students get throughout the year. These units focus on grow growth mindset and goal setting, emotion management, empathy and kindness and problem solving. So joining me today I have three of our amazing students. I have Ayah Addison and Wyatt Wyatt sorry who will highlight the first three units of this curriculum and how it has made an impact within their own lives. So I am going to pass it over to Aya. Good evening, West Dallas West Milwaukee board members. Thank you so much for inviting us um share our learning with you tonight. We are excited to share a few of the many important skills that we've learned throughout the SE program this which taught us about growth mindset and goal setting. So Aya, why did you like learning about this

005topic? I liked learning about growth mindset and goal setting because our teachers made it fun and encouraging. It was cool to see how serious everyone was about setting their own goals. And I also liked seeing what my classmates's goals were and how they plan to stick with them. And Ela, how did you build this skill? We use goal setting when our class worked on creating a food pantry for Jefferson. Our goal was to collect 100 cans of non-p perishable food in two weeks and we did it. I learned that setting one goal can make a big difference and help others. And Aya, how does this transfer to other parts of your life? I learned that I can use goal setting to improve in anything like school or sports. I play soccer and I want to

006move from the white team, which is not as good and talented, to the red team, which is harder to get to. Um, at recess, I practice my footwork with friends and even though I'm not there yet, I know I can improve. Some of the I can statements that I've been successful with this school year are, I can help choose a good class goal using clear criteria. I can help make a plan and track our progress towards reaching a class goal and I can reflect on how we worked towards our goal and think about what we could do better next time. Thank you very much Aya. Um, next I'm going to pass it to Addison. Good evening school board members. My name is Addison Loing. I would also like to thank you for allowing us to

007present tonight. My favorite unit was unit two. Unit two taught us about the importance of having strong emotional management skills. And Addison, why did you like learning about this topic? I liked learning about emotion management because it helped me understand my own feelings more. I also learn how other people feel and act in different situations. Now I know more ways to handle big emotions. And I can be a better friend by helping others feel better, too. And Addison, how did you build this skill? I already knew a little bit about managing my emotions, but I learned even more ways to stay calm. I practice new skills, the the new skills when I felt mad or sad, and they really helped me feel better. At Addison, how does this transfer to other parts of your life?

008I use these skills at home with my friends. I can help my mom, cousins, and friends calm down when they are upset. If I get mad at home, I go to my room or sit on my bed and use deep breathing to calm down instead of getting more upset. Here are some of the I can statements that I've been successful with this school year. I can explain why it is important to manage stronger emotions. I can rethink situations and see them in a more positive or helpful way. I can use the process to rethink real life situations and make better choices. Thank you, Addison. And now we are going to go to Wyatt. Hello school board members. I would also like to thank you for letting us share our dummy with you tonight. My favorite

009unit was unit 3. This unit tell us about empathy and kindness. And why why did you like learning about empathy and kindness? I like learning about kindness because it helps you treat others in a nice way like cheering and helping people. When you do something kind, it makes other people want to do kind things too, like a kindness chain. And Wyatt, how did you build this skill? And how does kindness show up in your life? I show kindness on the playground. If someone gets hurt, I check to see if they okay. If someone is feels sad, I try to help them feel better. I also learned that being kind to yourself like eating healthy food is important, too. Here are a few I can statements that I have been successful with this school year. I

010can recognize this demos kind act that build new friendships and and stronger existing ones. I can explain how different people prefer to receive kindness, ask questions to understand, understand others feeling and generate ideas for kind acts. So, like I said, we just wanted to share have an opportunity to share the impact that Second Step has had on our students. Um, and while it may be hard to see, there's there's clear um impact on their academics here um and how that's transferring and um the strategies that they have when things get hard either u academically, personally, um in school, out of school. So, we just wanted to lift that up today and and kind of give you an insight um not necessarily of what the program is, but the impact that it's having on our students.

011So, thank you very much. Thank you. Before before you uh adjourn, we just want to make sure give board members an opportunity to ask any questions might have. So, any questions for Miss Steel? Um I just wanted to say well thank you for coming and bringing this because um I this is what I I teach these type of skills every day um where I work and I I work with adults. So I think that it's phenomenal that you guys are learning things like emotional regulation or I'm sorry you call it emotional management and things like that. Um and thank you for for sharing like coming up here and being so brave and sharing all this. I think that shows a lot of growth too. Um I think it's really important that we um treat kids

012holistically, right? That we're meeting all their needs. So, I'm really happy to see that um this this program is working so well over at Jefferson and I hope more of our schools do this because I think it's it's a really important but somewhat overlooked part of uh the school curriculum. So, good job, guys. Thank you all. Thank you. Well, thank you very much. And I uh want to echo the sentiments of Miss Deal regarding uh Jefferson's presentation. As I always say, it's wonderful to see what's going on in our schools and being able to hear from students directly is always a great benefit to us. Um, and also, uh, thank you for being the first school showcase in our new location. So, thank you very much for that. So, with that, we'll move on to

013the superintendence report. Good evening, West Dallas West Milwaukee School District. have a few updates tonight and we have some celebrations as well as some recognitions that we're going to uh go through on tonight. Legislative updates will begin. New bill circulating would allow retired employees to return to work without uh foregoing their WRS annuity. Wisconsin retire Wisconsin retirement system WRS is considering a bill that will allow employers uh to rehire annuitants without the employee uh forging their annuity. The bill would allow uh annuitants to not suspend their annuity for up to 60 months and require employers to pay into the department of employee trust funds an amount equal to what they would have contributed had they not suspended their annuity. So, I know we have some retirees. Mr. Sik, if you're interested, uh, as a possibility,

014uh, Miss Carr, uh, there there's a possibility now. Um, so very excited to see how this the impact this could possibly have on our subpool, any vacancies at some point if any teachers want to come back and work. Uh, joint finance committee co-chairs discuss state budget process and possible delays. I just wanted to highlight before we get into the meats of this particular one, there was a joint finance committee meeting uh on April 4th at the Wisconsin Fairgrounds that I attended uh along with a lot of others. Uh what came out of that? Several legislators have uh said it is premature to speculate on whether factors will push the completion of the 2325 budget pass the end of the fiscal year, June 30th. The committee will wait until the legislative fiscal bureau delivers updated revenue

015numbers typically in miday before making any budget decisions and any big decisions about the budget. Republicans want to see a ruling from the state supreme court concerning Governor Eman's previous line item voting power. So that is a pending case in the Supreme Court. And so, um, we we actually heard from legislators at the WASBY day at the Capitol that that, uh, case would definitely decide the next steps with our budget this year. So, uh, more to come on that, our district recognitions. Uh, Shelley, where are you? Is she in here? All right. You want to come on up for uh, we Okay. All right. So, bear with us at home. We're trying to get adjusted to our new space. Okay, I'd like to introduce Scott Germshide who's here with our youth theater and he will

016introduce the cast members of Lay Miz. Adjust the Oh, press the button. Okay. Adjust the microphone to I'm a theater guy. I should know this. Oh, got it. Okay. The WWMU theater program will be presenting the the uh high school edition of Lim Miserabz in two weeks, right? Yeah. Um, running April 24th through the 27th at West Ellis Central High School. Um, tonight I'd like to invite three of our cast members to come up and introduce themselves, uh, their name and their character name in the show. Go. Oh, hi. I'm Angelina Gruda and I'm playing Coette and Lis. I'm Katie Stormer. I'm playing Fair. I'm playing. So, how many shows have you done, Angelina? Um, this is my 16th production with WWM Theater. Uh, and you are a senior, correct? I'm a junior. You're a

017junior. We have you one more year. Yay. We have her one more year. Uh, this is my fourth production with So, you guys having fun with this? Yes. Yeah. The show looks great. We finished the the lighting and the sets on Saturday. They look awesome. Um, this production is based on the um the 1500 page Victor Hugo novel novel. How many of you read it? Really? Congrat Mine too. Um, and despite that it actually has this particular production over all the others we've done in recent years. This is a really difficult show. Jordan and his his uh company are doing an amazing job. I've been watching some of the rehearsals and and they look just great. Um and I really hope everybody here has the opportunity to see it. Um because it I think it's

018going to be one of it's going to be our it's going to be our uh shining star this this season. I think um our theater program has been growing quite rapidly since we started uh this three years ago and I I certainly hope it continues and part of that of course is for all of you and your continued support of the program. Um after Lameiz we have three productions left this year. Uh the lion witch in the wardrobe and that's our middle school show that'll be at Franklidd Wright. Um, then the Willy Wonka kids edition we'll be doing at Datkkey in July. And then uh the the show that we're going to be doing this summer is the uh Wizard of Oz Jr. uh at West Ellis Central. That's again in August. Uh we're we're

019currently working on putting our 25 26 season together. Next year's theme is going to be something for everyone. I hope um we are also planning um some sort of a season reveal uh to our theater students and the public uh probably in June. We're not quite sure how we're going to do it. We're not doing what we did last year. Oh, that was a nightmare. Having a bunch of old adults like us trying to put our theater hats back on and sing in full voice was just way more than I wanted for all of us to do. We were exhausted when it was over. We're we're we're too old for that. So, so we're going to do something else a little more fun, a little more interactive with uh with who uh attends. So, um

020I think that's all I have. Any questions? Sorry guys, we got to go back and rehearse now. Oh, you do have a question. Yes. I just wanted to say my daughter Evelyn's in the show and is such a I know it's been a labor of love and get your tickets. I've already purchased for three of the four nights. So, get your tickets. It's going to be phenomenal. We already have almost 500 seats pre-sold, which is a record for us for this show. It's going to be we're going to have we're going to have some we're going to have some very very big houses for this. So, I'm really looking forward to it. So, um thanks for coming, guys. I appreciate it. Thanks for having us. Thank you all. Break a leg. Katie, will you represent

021Central? Okay, right now. So, we did want to recognize Yousef. Um, here. So, that was really neat. So, congratulations to him. Um, all of our captains are filling behind me. It's a little eerie. They're here. All right. Over here, we have girls soccer captains. We have Meena Ruiz and Sydney Sams. Hello. Our boys golf captains are Simon Pratt, Alex Coulson, and Kayen Schaefer. Rose, their coaches are also Owens, coaches girls soccer. Our baseball captains and coach are not able to be here tonight because they are playing a game at Milwaukee Lutheran. Um, but our baseball captain is Joe Webb and our coach is Josh Jaggler, one of our math teachers. And then track did something a little different. Did this do something weird? I should not touch anything. Okay. Um track did something a little

022different this year. Instead of choosing um a handful of captains, they actually chose what they call the TLC, the track leadership committee. Um so this is just a handful of upper classmen who are just great leaders. Um and then really good at kind of guiding the whole track squad. um depending on like their I guess their discipline. We have I know representation from all like distance throws all stuff like that. Um so I can go through and I can say their names. We have Diego Louisa, Trevor Fay, Shaye Liddell, Amadi Cameron, we have Seth Martinez, Laniah Varela, Jordan Terry Griffin back there, uh Gabe Lee, Ivy Lamin, Will Edgurt, and then Christian Toliffson. Um, and then their coaches are here too. So, we have Kelvin Johnson, Josh Selgi, Bailey Leonard, and then Dave Jesse back

023there, our head coach. I forgot to say Josh Schultz. He's our our pault coach. Nothing personal. So, yes. Thank you guys for being here. Sure. Yeah. circle. I win. I only need All right, ready? Everyone look at me. One, two, three. [Music] Pick it back up. Pick it back up. [Music] Okay. All right. And now we have the Huskies from hell. Come on up. [Music] All right. So, good evening everyone. I'm representing tonight. Uh Greg Lucas, athletic director is at a baseball game. So, it's u going on as we speak. Uh two groups are with us tonight. We have golf and soccer with us tonight. Uh John Bousard. Uh Bashard is the golf coach, past FIAD teacher, retired in the district, so he continues to coach uh here at at Hail. Uh with our golf

024team, we have two individuals. We have a junior captain, Alex McMillan right here, and Jonah Stenell senior heading to Whitewater he talked about. So yeah. All right. In girls soccer, we have coach Ryan Zacho with me. So, if you want to introduce your players, say anything you'd like. Uh, this is my captain, Bella Royce. She's a junior. All right. So, that's we the track the the baseball's busy tonight and track is not here. So, Okay. Uh, want to go? Last week had one today in my words. last week. I know. All right. And uh we have two co-op programs as well. Uh tennis is uh Pam Gveris, retired math teacher. She still continues to coach as well. Uh and uh let me just And it's Link uh Stiller is a junior. And are you one

025of the captains as well? I just bring standing. Okay. All right. Okay. standing for the Give me your name again. Colin. Okay. So, Colin, welcome to represent. And we have Coach Malachnik here. Do you want to introduce your squad here? Your captains? Uh yeah, I do. I have three amazing senior captains. Not just uh good base uh softball players, but great people. Good uh great student athletes. You got Hannah Cody, senior, Bella Emmens, senior, and Grace Douly, senior. All right. Thank you. district solo and ensemble music festival on Saturday, March 1st, 2025. Students from area schools participated in the Wisconsin School Music Association sanctioned district solo and ensemble music festival hosted at West Dallas Central High School. During the festival, students performed vocal and instrumental solos, duets, trios, and small ensembles before an uh an

026adjudicator. There were 12 performance sites, nearly 500 events performed during the day, over 500 musicians, and you can see pictures up there. We also want to recognize several of our medalist. So, West Dallas Central High School earned 137 gold, 36 silver, and two bronze. West Dallas Nathan Hill High School earned 226 gold, 50 silver, and one bronze. Frank Lloyd Wright Intermediate School earned 191 gold, 85 silver, and zero bronze. West Milwaukee Intermediate, four gold, 19 silver, zero bronze. And um the district total medal count was 558 gold, 190 silver, and three bronze, equaling 751 medals. And so I want to send a special shout out to all of our music instructors, teachers, Mary Pats, our um our manager for um our our music programs for an excellent job in addition to um the citywide uh

027performances as well. U just in case um I want to bring that in there as well. That happened um during that particular week as well. So shout out to them to those students. West West Milwaukee Intermediate School. Congratulations to Sophia and her basketball team, the Marquette Golden Eagles, on winning the National Wheelchair Basketball Association Championship. They are the first all female team in history to win the national championship at their level. They came in as as a six seed and took the title finishing the season at 26 and2. We're so proud of you. So, congratulations to Sophia. Nathan Hill High School, FCCLA, Family Career, and Community Leaders of America, just completed their annual state leadership conference at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells. Congratulations to the students on winning their respective awards. Gold Olivia Vance,

028baking. Gabriel Wagner, baking. Kamaya Brown, children's literature. Asa Matsyama, uh, cake decorating. and Nia Schilling baking. So, congratulations to those students as well. Congratulations to the Nathan Hale Unified Basketball team on their second place finish at the state tournament on Wednesday, April 9th. If you have not um participated or seen one of these games, it is a sight to see how our students from all walks of life are able to participate and that's the main thing is uh showing them support. I was not able to make any basketball games, but I did uh watch the football team this year. So, uh just just enjoy seeing those kids have fun and and and being what I would say just a kid. And so many times those students are not allowed or able to participate and this

029program allows all of our kids to participate. So, shout out to our coaches and our students. Recreation and community service. On Thursday, April 10th, the RAD program hosted their annual hoop and lapathon to help fund an initiative that they support. So, through the event, they were able to raise $4,000 that are uh will be used uh for an adult changing table at the recreation center. So, I want to send a special shout out uh to the to the RAD program as well as um the the teachers in that program, Shelley Straer, um for um the director of um Parks and Rex for her direction and leadership. I was able to stop by. I think Miss Steel came by as well. I'm not sure if any other board members, but when I tell you they some

030of those some of them were so good, I wanted to go out there and and show my skills, but I I chose not to on this day, but hey, it it it was a great sight to see just just those kids having a great time and for a great cause. I will not go through the list tonight of my events. I just wanted to highlight a couple of things though if I could. Um I was able to um said on the 4th of April the joint finance committee meeting along with Shelley Straer uh Aaron Norris, Mr. Becker was there as well uh representing the district. Um also I attended the Nathan Hail Prom this Saturday night and um Brody you can you can uh testify and and tell everybody I did not dance. So, I

031didn't make I I just I I was a wallflower uh that night. So, um but but great event. I also want to uh send a special shout out to our student advisory group. We met on Friday. Mr. John Stleski, village president of West Milwaukee, was our guest speaker uh for our our uh our meeting. So, um and tonight that kind of segus into the video we have to show. We're going to show you a snippet of our student voice video and then we'll get into our um presentation from Brody. All right. This is this district most of the time kids will go from elementary school all the way to their last years and it'll encourage kids to want to go to school. So, I think that's a really important thing. That's where the student advocacy

032is important because, you know, as adults, we we're we're so far removed from what the reality is right now, what these kids are going through. And it's very unfair for me to kind of legislate things because this is this district most of the time kids will go from elementary school all the way to their last years and it'll encourage kids to want to go to school. So, I think that's a really important thing. That's where the student advocacy is important because, you know, as adults, we we're we're so far removed from what the reality is right now, what these kids are going through and it's very very unfair for me to kind of legislate things and um not take their opinion into account. What made me want to join the student advisory group? But really,

033it was the idea that the past couple of years, students, people in the school, no matter what grade level, you don't always have a say on the board what's getting done. you don't know the policy changes that are getting made for you. A lot of the times you show up to school one day and you hear an announcement, hey, no more phones. So hearing that, it's like, hey, I want to make a change of this. I really want to be involved to kind of help contribute to something more than me. Students really, I mean, they're the ones attending school daily. So they're going to face the the main brunt impact of policies and decision that are being made above them. Like for example, the school board. So I think it's important that students because they're

034the ones being that impact not only on themselves, but their peers as well, um, to kind of have a say in those decisions. like for example on the phone policy where there wasn't really many student input being made like from the school board per se or like district leadership. It's important that if if we went back to that, if students had an impact on that, I think it's important that they would have kind of a change in decision that was being made. I feel like even though we're students, I think our opinions are important and like cuz we have to live through this every day. Like the teachers and like the staff and all that, they like make the rules, but we have to actually be under the rules. So like at least like giving

035our opinions on things I feel like is just participating in this group has been really helpful for me just because it was a new experience. Um it's helped me realize that I do really like being part of groups like this having these constructive conversations. It's been a great thing for me to just realize some more things that I enjoy doing and also um I've been able to help make a difference within the district and within all of the schools, not just my own. So getting to have an impact like that has really um helped me a lot. These kids love having the opportunity to sit down, talk with me, talk with other leaders, board members, be a part of that conversation. Um not only participating with me once a month in our our voice group

036meetings, but also um participating in our school board meetings. Uh they they have we have a rotating schedule where uh they they sit and they're part of the day. they're part of um the board for that one night and they're allowed to to kind of weigh in on certain decisions that definitely impact the student population. So, uh not only are we building leadership skills within these students, but we're also uh creating a a a lane for their voice to be heard without uh throughout the conversation. It's important for students to have a choice in school decisions just because they are the one. Apologize to Elena later on. I cut her off. But um we we wanted to um go go ahead and go ahead and introduce uh Brody Kaminsky. Brody's a senior at Nathan Hail

037High School. He's a dual enrolled for important for students to have a voice in the district. Rotary Interact and Secretary of National Honor Society. I will tell you he was out on that dance floor on Saturday and I'm just I'm just glad he didn't pull a muscle. I saw him out there. Um so Brody, what's going on at Nathan Hill? Yeah. So, first off, thanks for having me again tonight. I know it's been a little while since I've been here, so nice one at nice to be at the new board uh building for sure. Um, so a couple things going on at Hail. Obviously had our sports teams here. Um, some good wins overall from the baseball, softball, track teams lately. Um, if you don't have a if you have a chance this weekend, we

038have a big track mondo invitational pop by on Saturday to see. Um, second thing we got going on, I mean, obviously we, as Dr. Robinson mentioned, we had prom this past weekend. So, uh, culminating with the, um, spirit week this past week and then we had a prep assembly on Friday, leaning into prom on Saturday at the Italian community center. Uh, so it was a great great overall dance that we had. Um, then also we have our blood drive on Thursday. If you guys haven't registered yet, pop by for the blood drive sponsored by HOSA. Uh, and then also I wanted to dive into our quarter 4 attendance incentive that we're doing to kind of combat some chronic tardiness that we're seeing in school to kind of mitigate a little bit of those effects that

039are happening in students. Um, so basically how we have it is perfect attendance awards weekly. So the first one this week was handed out for last week. So basically believe it's 90% attendance um in your classes. You get added into basically a pool and then drawn about 60 winners or so for advisories. Um and monthly will be a larger reward and then coming at the end of the year it'll be a larger overall one of $350 for a student to just kind of choose basically perfect attendance um for good behavior and good attendance. Um and then obviously leading into AP exams. So definitely that academic time of the year. So, not much overall to report, but um AP exams are coming up. So, that's what I got for today. Thank you, Brody. I wanted to

040uh close out my report by recognizing uh Mr. Jeff Sikage, and I I know this is his last meeting uh during his uh his long tenure in the district. I know. I know you're going to get me. And and I I I'm going to make my part quick, okay? Because this is not the official one, but I just wanted to recognize you. Um, since I've been here, um, you've really kind of just taken me under under your wing, given me advice. You you've told me, you know, the do's and don'ts. You you've, uh, kind of given me some little street cred. You you let everybody, you know, you told me where to go, where not to go, and I'm truly going to miss our our our lunch dates at, uh, the cheese and sausage, and

041and no, that's what I was going to. I I already told you that that will continue. Okay. So, um, again, um, I'm so grateful and thankful for you being on on this board while, you know, I was on boarding and coming on and and and serving, but at the same time that you are part of this district. You reminded me that this district has been a part of your life for your entire life, and that's truly amazing. I I don't remember the years, but it seemed like there was not a time other than college where you were 72 years old. I started school when I was six in West Dallas and I've been in education for 66 years. There you go. Either as a student, teacher, or a member. So outstanding. No. So, as I

042close my report, uh, shout out to you and, uh, congratulations on a long career in education. All right. All right. Thank you very much. I'll move on to item eight this evening, our public comments. And we do have someone sign up for public comments. Um, Kaden Schaefer Rose, they here in person. Oh, they are. Okay. Um, so just as a reminder for public comments, if you please start by stating your name and your address. You'll have three minutes to address the board and I'll be a back and forth conversation, but if there's anything that we need to uh respond to after your comments are completed, we will do that by the regular next regular board of education meeting. So, with that, you can go ahead. Make sure you hit the button to Hi, my name

043is Ken Schiffer Rose. I live at 2545 South 77th Street, West Dallas, Wisconsin. I'm here to talk a little about some extracurriculars. I don't know if you're aware, but the robotics team, West Robotics team was 50 is currently ranked 52nd out of 824 in the world. Um, we do aerial drone robotics. I've been on that team and helped co-star it my freshman year. I'm currently a junior. Um unfortunately this year we're running into some financial troubles and we've started to run out of money in our account and um just overall of extracurriculars especially at central there's very few um I've tried to start last year we tried to start a debate team. It was more of a club that met during advisory and then really didn't pick off and then our adviser resigned from being

044our adviser for the for the we wanted to be at a debate team and then we kind of lost that momentum going and just been kind of like sad that we haven't been able to like start up some other extracurriculars such as I've tried to start a mock child team. Haven't been able to get enough kids committed to being able to do that and that type of stuff. But specifically looking at robotics, we've had a successful program the last three years. um when I started it my freshman year. Um we've gone to this is our third year in a row going to regionals which is the highest level in our the competition that we do and I'm just looking to see if you guys are able to like help us maybe find donors or stuff.

045I personally went to 28 local businesses and dropped off letters asking for donations and I got two responses saying that at this time they're unable to donate to us and so we are struggling. Um after this year we won't have enough to be able to register for our competitions. We usually we usually only do one competition unless we are able to qualify for regionals the last two years. But the main cost that we incur is our hotels cuz all the competitions we go to are usually out of state. Um for instance when we go in four weeks I believe it is to Flint, Michigan for the regional competition. Um so we'll have to stay in a hotel for two to three nights in order to um be there at the competition cuz it's two-day competition.

046the last competition a couple weeks ago. I was not able to go because I had the ACT. Um, but they had to leave at two in the morning to go down to Indiana because we did not have the funds to be able to stay in a hotel. I'm just looking there's something that you all can do to maybe create for when the next budgets like a budget for extracurriculars in the high schools or programs to be able to continue having extracurriculars and establishing more extracurriculars at the schools. I want it to be something where the robotics team doesn't end when I leave high school next year since I'm the only junior on the team currently and I've been trying to recruit more, but I just don't want it to be a thing that ends when

047I leave. Thank you. Can I Thank you. Kayen, I I wanted to first thank you for coming and um letting us know of their concerns and and the needs. Um that's first. The second thing is um you see that gentleman in the back right there and the lady back there uh go talk to them, okay, about the funds, okay? Because there are funds available. This is the first I've heard of it. All right? So if if there are if there are needs, we got to figure out a better way to get that up to the top so we can make that happen. State grants and unfortunately the state grants they have for robotics do not cover the type of program we have. Yeah, I've worked with trying to work with Senator Der Hudson who represents

048the West Dallas and Brookfield areas to try to create new legislation to be able to change the the way the grants are administered in our state to be able to allow for programs like the one we have at West Central to get funding from the state. But but I guess I'm referring to more local funds. Yeah. Okay. So, go see those people in the back. They're waiting on you. Okay. All right. Sounds good. All right. Thank you very much. that was the only person that had signed up for public comments this evening. So I'll close public comments at this time and move on to item nine are board reports. So starting with 9.1 review of our board calendar. So today we have our regular board of education meeting. We also have a financial stability and

049efficiency workshop on the proposed 2526 budget as well as the preliminary tax levy number one. And then uh on April 28th, we have our next regular board of education meeting and we'll have a recreation community service workshop on the athletic strategic plan. Moving on to 9.2, our board committee reports this evening starting with 9.2.1 college and career readiness. Miss Kaiser. All right. Good evening. We met earlier tonight. We were joined today by the coordinator of secondary instruction, Chris Lishki. um as is part of the cycle of adopting and looking at curriculum. We're at the end of the cycle for uh sixth through 12th grade math. Uh in the fall they started looking at um our current resources, what resources were out there. We have had some teachers piloting several programs and a recommendation was reached

050between a couple of um blah blah. There was a recommendation reached. There will be a board workshop on May 12th with an action item possibly by May 19th. Now, I don't want to say which programs because we haven't presented on them. So, that is my board report. Thank you very much. Does anyone have any questions for Miss Kaiser regarding her report or any suggestions for future agenda items? Seeing none, thank you very much, Miss Kaiser. Move on to 9.2.2, to communication and community relations. Miss Steel. Okay. So, our committee um also met this earlier this evening. Um we had one uh item of new business. So, uh it was for a district funding flyer. So, at the recent um the uh West Dallas West Milwaukee PTA council meeting on April 2nd, um the PTA council

051board members expressed the desire to engage in more advocacy on the local and legislative level regarding school funding. Um the council requested that the district create a one-page flyer highlighting various aspects of school funding. This includes information on uh special education funding, how the mill rate is determined, and the financial implication of voucher schools on property taxes and public school funding. the district um is will work on creating a flyer for the PTA council to provide to their families and legislators. And that's all we had. All right. Thank you very much, Miss Steel. Does anyone have any questions for Miss Steel regarding her report or any items to be considered at future agendas? All right, seeing none, move on to 9.2.3, employee engagement and culture. Mr. Keller. All right. Thank you, President Lee. Um, we

052met on March 18th. Um, one of the the key points that we talked about or one of the highlights is that our vacancy report um, we're at 0.59% um, at least as of March 18th. So, that's really exciting. Um, we also talked about our contract timeline uh, for 2526. So, March 20th was the preliminary notice of non-renewal um, notices that were distributed. April 4th was the last day for anybody who received that notice to request a meeting with Dr. Robinson as well as a deadline for individuals who qualified for early retirement. Um April 30th will be the final notice of non-renewal um notices being distributed and May 1st will be full-time and part-time contracts being distributed. Um we also talked a little bit about our EA and sped EA levels and how those kind of

053differentiate between the different positions. Um, and then we talked about uh our intern snack snacks with the soup event which will be on April 23rd at 3:45 where all interns and senior student teachers are invited to meet with Dr. Robinson. Um, and uh we we'll talk a little bit about some of the benefits we offer in review of licensing processes. Uh, and then as well we have a schedule for some spring pulse checks around the schools uh with our staff. And that was our meeting. All right. Thank you very much, Mr. Keller. Any questions for Mr. Keller regarding his report or any items to be considered at future agendas? Seeing none, thank you very much, Mr. Keller. Thank you. All right, then we'll move on to 9.3 board member reports of community events. Any community

054events board members attended that they would like to report on? Mr. Burns microphones. Um, so, uh, since we haven't met in quite a while, uh, I didn't make it out to any of the school specific events recently because of spring break and all, but, uh, I did sit in on the, uh, compensation meeting, uh, introduction that happened on March 12th. And so, uh, it was good to see that group together and getting that ball rolling again. And so just staying in there. They have had another meeting on the 9th and it looks like they'll be having a couple more as they move through, but um looks like they've got a really good group to kind of come through and make some recommendations. So thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Anyone else? So I'll

055uh throw in that my son is in track and as such he participated in a few indoor track meets and uh so I was there and Central was at those meets as well. I was able to cheer on Central as well as uh my son and his hail teammates uh in the in the meet that for those you unaware the indoor season is very short. Um it starts fairly rapidly after the track practices actually start. There's a few meets and then after that it's done and now they're already moving into the outdoor season with the first big meet coming up as mentioned already uh by Brody and others um the Mondo invite which is a very large invite. Um and it'll be an all day long event on Saturday at the uh West Alis Lot

056complex. So do encourage those of you to come if you're interested in watching any of those events. If you want to look and and do the field events, those are usually happening earlier in the day and then the the other races will happen as the day continues on. So um other than that, I don't have any other events to report on. And uh now we're to um 9.4, which is other updates and information items for myself. Um, and this is where um the board uh gets to honor Mr. Sikitch. Um, Mr. Sikitch, that was him. That was him. That wasn't me. You know how it goes. You've been through a few of these, Mr. Sick yourself. So, when I joined the board, Mr. Sikitch was on the board as well, and he was president at

057that time. And so I was able to learn from at the feet of the master as I was coming into being a board member and uh how board meetings worked and and and Robert's rules and how those worked as well. And as uh the parliamentarian for our board for every as long as I've been on the board and before that which we'll go through in just a second. Um Mr. Sikage did keep us on point to ensure that we were doing everything as required which is very important to ensure everything is legal and above board. So with that I want to read a little bit of what Mr. Sik Mr. Sikitch has done here in our district as he's a board member obviously he's been in our district longer than that. So this is a

058tribute whereas the conclusion of public service of Jeff Sikitch board of education member school district of West Albus at all on Monday April 14th 2025 will historically be recorded as being a total of 13 and a half years of significant educational contributions to this school district. And whereas he has with exceptional spirit, self-dedication, and a community-minded philosophy contributed significantly to the development and enrichment of the educational and recreational programs of this school district to the end that those who participated have grown in knowledge, skills, and the enjoyment of living. And whereas during his tenure of service to the school district and community, he did provide strong leadership, guidance, and management skills to improve the instructional and recreational programs while filling the following positions as a school board member. President for three years, vice president for

059one year, clerk for two years, and parliamentarian for seven years, committee chair for communication and community relations for four years, recreation and community services for three years. Committee vice chair for recreation and community services for two years, communication and community relations for one year, employment engagement and culture for one year, and committee member for employee engagement and culture for three years, and communication and community relations for two years. Jeff Sikitch graduated from Nathanell High School, taught elementary school physical education from 1988 to 2011, previously served as president of the teachers union, continued to be a guest reader to elementary students, and whereas his example of public commitment, unfailing energy, and intellectual curiosity, has provided inspiration and admiration to all those lives have been touched by being in association with him, in particular to his many

060board of education colleagues and members of the educational profession. Now therefore, be it resolved that we the board members of the board of education of the school district of West Dallas West Blanc at all honor this man for his notable contributions to the fields of public education and public recreation by his self-dedication to the principle of public service, his professional integrity, his personal interest in the education and recreational needs of the school district and that this expression of our warm appreciation and affection be formally recorded and presented to Jeff Sikich. And be it further resolved that a copy of this testimonial be formally recorded in the official minutes of the board of education of the school district of West Al West Milwaukee at all. Yeah. All those things and more. So So as is customary

061uh for outgoing board members, you are given the opportunity but not the requirement to provide uh a few moments of testimony on on your behalf if you would like. It's been great. That's all I can say. Worked with some great board members. Um, this is not so great work and around that long not everything is perfect, but it was like I said, my whole life has been education. I had some friends that asked me when I was running for school board. Why did you run for alderman? I don't know anything about running the city, but I know a little bit about education. Spent my whole life and it's been fun and you guys will do well. And it was my pleasure to work with you. Appreciate Well, thank you very much, Mr. Sikage. Upon behalf

062of the board, you will be missed, but I know you won't be far, but thank you so much for your service to our district. Okay. And with that, we're going to move on to our consent agenda this evening. Starting with 10.1, approval of minutes from our regular board of education meeting on March 17th. 10.2 our employment summary and 10.3 are supplementary contracts. Does anyone need anything separated out? If not, I would look for a motion. So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Any last minute discussion? All those in favor? I opposed. All right, that passes. So we move right into our our workshop this evening, the 11.1 proposed 2526 budget and preliminary tax levy number one. Mr. Norris, good evening everyone. So kind of um jumping into our budget calendar. This is officially our first prelim

063tax levy meeting. But again, as all of you know, the board approved budget calendar really begins much much uh much much in anticipation for tonight beginning really in the beginning of the year in the fall getting into projected enrollment open enrollment seats. That's really the beginning of these conversations. So this is every other year we have different conversation at this point. So tonight we'll talk a lot about some different scenarios because the bienial budget is still up in the air and so a lot of this really is uh still to be decided upon by the state legislature and the governor's office. So uh we'll kind of talk about what we do know which is really our expenses, right? We can kind of project what those are and talk about like some worst case, most likely

064case and best case scenarios. And I think consistent with what Dr. Robinson shared and I know a few board members either were at the joint finance testimony or have seen the local news reporting on it is education was a theme at the at the conversation at the table um a week ago. So that's good to hear because um people across the state urging uh their local reps to to fund public education and to fund all schools. So that's really good to hear. So with that, we'll jump through this tonight and we'll have a chance to for you guys to ask questions at the end as always. So So again, the the state budget is again on the the two-year cycle. So 2527 is the next bennial. What we what we currently are working off of,

065most public schools, nearly all of them are working off of the guaranteed state law under statute, which is the $325 increase per student. That's in the governor's moratorium on public schools as he coined it in the last bienial. So really, that's where um we're doing most of our planning. There's other areas of focus as you guys know from uh our advocacy efforts around special education reimbursement, spendable dollars for school. Those areas are to be determined. So, um at this point, um you know, that's not a guarantee. This is being contested in court. Um but at this point, uh most public schools feel certain that even if this is challenged, it won't be successful, which would be the reversal of that in state law. So, um there's been some conversation that the current bienial could get

066rolled over, but again, this is under statute, under state law. So, if the current bienial is rolled over for another year, it would mean we would at minimum receive a $325 increase per student. So, I think it's safe and likely a worst case scenario that we get that. That's our my opinion. So, uh prelim budget is is obviously in flux at this point. I think it's interesting and sometimes helpful to look back to look forward. So, I put together kind of a what is what has it looked like over the past seven years at this exact meeting because I think it's important to go like how have we how have the how is the work of this group of our administration of our educational association and our staff on a broadly uh more broad note.

067How has this looked over the past seven years? And it's it's good to look back because you can see really back in 18 we were at this meeting talking about how do we get even on a $5 million deficit, right? And every year it's different because some years you know what the revenue is going to be and other ones you don't. So you kind have to think about that too. But you can see in 19 it was even worse and 20 got better a little better in 21 a little. So you can kind of get a flow of this. So tonight it's happy to report that in my opinion worst case scenario meaning all we get in revenue is the 325 and nothing else happens. We're balanced. That's good to report I think. So um

068I think there's opportunity to get better. I think that is worst case. I think conservative might be um getting some special education reimbursement dollars. There seems to be a loud cry across the state for that to happen. So um I'd be surprised if nothing happened in that avenue because it happened last time. Not nearly what we wanted, but certainly the needle got moved. So um I hope that when we meet again in June, we'll be able to have more information to share what that looks like for our district and then conversations can continue to happening around what are the needs where where could we move the needle with kids and our schools and that's where the dollars should go. And so we'll have those conversations in the coming months. So, um, what does $325 mean

069from a a percentage basis across our district? So, I think it's important always to to look at what does it mean for our district, but what is has it meant for an an inflationary perspective. So, you can see going back just a few years here, um, in 2324, uh, $325 meant 3.73%. And the reason it changes every year is because number of kids we have changes and your expenses also go up. So as you lose kids and your expenses increase the 325 goes a little doesn't go as far. So the 3.73 becomes 3.66 which becomes 3.16. Right? So the $325 in a declining enrollment environment actually means less over time unless expenses go down dramatically too. Right? But over that same period of time inflation's been about 15% and the 3 to 25 is about

07010%. So we're still 60 cents in the dollar here even with the guarantee. So when you hear things around the state around, oh the school's got money forever. It's like it's in this environment I it at best it keeps track like this year. In most years it really isn't going to do that. So it's uh it's important to know but also important to put it in in in that context. I think so. And this is the slide I've showed before. I think it's important to also know that if you go back really just 15 years to what has school revenue what does what should school revenue look like if it were track to inflation every single year up into uh 2425 we're short about $3,000 per student that would be about $21 million to our

071district so this is real dollars it's a real conversation and I think you're seeing a lot of public entities across the state starting to ask questions around how do you expect us to work. And I I've even seen the news recently the Walkshaw counties like there might be delays in in prosecuting cases because we don't have the people to do it because of the funding they have. That that's an ACT 10 related reason because when Act 10 was instituted, you know, 15 years ago, that impacted all public entities because they also got inflationary based revenue. So the ACT 10 conversation gets laced in education a lot, but really it's really more broad than that. And I think that's a real conversation that I think I hope legislators start having because we've been having it here

072for a long time, right? And so it's starting to happen other spaces and hopefully that moves people to come to the table to have conversations. How do you fix that? Um, so I think it's important to just keep that in the back of our mind. So before we get into fund 10, we'll hit some other major funds. Just kind of a quick overview. We really dive into other funds really in June at the at the second prelim tax budget. Um, but to kind of give you an overview, special education top of mind. I think for most uh school districts given the the push to um to receive more reimbursement for uh uh something we're required by federal and state law to do, right? So currently we receive 33.3% which is not whole dollars, right? It's

073based off of the prior year pot. So if the prior year pot doesn't change, you're at 33.3%. But as you can imagine, the expenses of last year only go up every year. So 33 cents on the dollar really gets closer to 30 cents because expenses go up. So um the the conversation among public schools has been why isn't this consistent with private schools which is 90%. Why isn't that? And that's a good conversation. And you can see from the chart in the left that public schools receive less dollars today for special education than they did in 2000. And in the '9s it was 60%. So when you hear conversations happening around why can't we get back to 60? It's because it used to be 60, right? And so it's not like we've never done this.

074No, we have done this before. And it's not only the right thing to do, but it's, you know, schools with less revenue they've ever had are also having to have more resources put in for students across all all walks of life. So I put in here kind of our transfer amount. You can see that's the amount of dollars that fund 10 has to transfer into 27 because 27 has to balance. So for every dollar we receive we spend we receive about 30 cents roughly after you take into account inflation for the 33% that we should get. That brings it down to about 30 cents in the dollar. And you can see uh this year we're projected to spend about $12.1 million to um balance out our fund 27 and next year that is projected to

075be about 14.1. U mostly because of things like salary and benefits um transportation. We have students that are off-site locations. There's many reasons, but those all those things um increase in cost. So, oh, go ahead. No. Yep. Erin, just when it comes to special education funding, there's something that I learned when I went to the day at the capital and that was between some certain and some sufficient. Can you just talk briefly about that and how that really impacts when it comes to how public schools get special education reimbursement? Yeah. And so, it's Thanks for bringing that up. Those are the two phrases that they they're that they refer to as receiving the 33.3% which would be exactly what we're should be funded at versus the lag in inflation. So I I I'll mix them

076up actually. So correct me. Some sufficient is when we receive the actual percentage. Some certain is what we actually get. And so some sufficient would be they go 33% of this year's expenses are what you're actually going to get. So schools can go whatever we spend we're going to get 33.3%. And it's fun fact as I think Noah was alluding to it's the only thing in the state law that's like that. And so one of the questions has been well if you're going to give schools 33.3% why not make it just like every other reimbursement process in the state. Not a way to nickel and dime schools because it's real money for school districts like us. For us it'd be over half million dollars just that 3%. Right? And so if you larger districts it's

077even more. Right? So that's been a part of the advocacy. I appreciate you mentioning that because it's a big deal for schools and that that guarantee is again a known in public school funding is is like gold because we go into it going, "Hey, is it going to be 29.6 or 30.6?" That 1% is like maybe an FT and a half, maybe two teachers, right? So you got to kind of have to run a conservative budget and go hopefully it's difficult to do. So I I look forward to hopefully them fixing that as well. So, and the other point about this is what the 90% that uh private schools get is some sufficient. So, they get actual 90%. So, again, they're treated differently than public schools. I understand public schools, there's more of them, but

078we're also dealing with more special education students than any private school ever will, right? And so, I think it's a really important piece because that's some sufficient as you said, that's that's not pocket change. That really can make a difference in a budget, but then you also can plan on it. Yeah, biggest thing that I' I've learned on the board is being able to have expenses you can you can know for certain this is what we're going to get makes a lot of difference when we're here. Being able to have a balanced budget now is not was not a common thing as you saw. But having some sufficient for something like this, especially for our district that has a lot of special education students uh could mean a lot difference for us be able to

079plan, hire more staff, be more confident in what we're coming in before we get to October when they finally pass the budget. And and what's interesting is when you talk to legislators about that, the reasons we want it are the reasons they don't want us to have it because they want to know their guarantee. Well, their guarantee is based off last year. They can plan on it for the next year. Well, that's the worst it can get. Well, that doesn't help public schools. It's the opposite of the function of the legislature in my opinion, right? So, all right, jumping through here. So, fund 38 and fund 39. So, this again, these are debt service funds. Fund 38 is a nonreferendum related debt service fund. We do have fund 38 debt. That is the energy efficiency

080debt then. And you can kind of see that's falling off here in about two years. So we're almost done with that. Fund 39 are our projected payments for the uh $70 million capital bond. So um you can see kind of as the planning went into the referendum, which we'll talk about in a in a couple slides later about how do those individually impact the mill rate. We'll get into that in a minute versus what we communicated to kind of show the comparison. But you can see some of the strategy just like I compare it to a family with uh one car payment but two cars. Part of the plan is like can you have one car payment fall off before you get another one. Right? So this is kind of the same strategy. You can

081see as our 38 debt payment falls off those dollars get shifted into 39. Right? That way you're not having multiple um large expenses at once to try to mitigate that. That's part of the planning and we'll talk about how in future in in beginning years your mill rates lower on that as promised. So we'll get into that in a few minutes. That's kind of an overview of those two funds. Fund 46 and 49 are uh capital long-term improvement funds. 46 is an aidable fund. So when we have end of the year dollars we've had previously going back about seven or eight years. Attributing those dollars into 46 is important because it allows you to receive the expense in that year which then helps you with aid the following year. 49 is a fund that you

082know school not every school district has a 46 fund. So when if you can recall for a lot of you can when we sold the building at 1205 going back 7 years now we didn't have a 46. So when the dollars we received as revenue were put into 49 we did not receive eight on them which creates a spike in the in the mill rate. Right? So having a 49 is important. All that said though $49 that's where the revenue of a capital referendum goes. That's why you can see the current balance on 411 is much higher than on the beginning balance um by the difference about $70 million. So, um, currently with Whisk, we're, um, projected, um, and so far since having the funds to make about $40,000 a month on those dollars. So,

083really great to see high interest rates for a school district with a, um, very, very healthy fund balance because you can capitalize and not need to short-term borrow. So, um, trying to use those dollars to help support the district and one-time efforts is really the important here. And so, um, continue to capitalize in those dollars are important. And you can see a couple projects that we're we're working to finish up. I want to make a note we haven't transferred for the year yet into 46. We will do that for the end of the year. So whatever projects we will complete, I don't anticipate that balance changing because we haven't transferred the revenue yet. So couple things to date. I won't really get too deep into facilities until uh the June project as they finish up

084kind of what's on the docket as well as the referendum projects as well. So all right, fund 50 is our our food service fund. So, it's uh really the thing to talk about here is called C or the community eligibility provision. That is an annual action the board takes which likely you'll take again in June allowing all students um of the district to eat breakfast, lunch for free. And again, we we've been working on this plan that that balance as of June 30 was about of last year about 2.2 million. That was about almost three and a half a couple years ago. We've been working strategically to lower that because per DPI, we're only supposed to have 3 months of operating revenue in that account unless we have a plan. Well, the plan has always

085been to slowly chip away at efforts to reduce that that are that are recurring in nature. So, um, for example, we we do time and effort with custodians. Our custodians spend time in breakfast and in lunch cleaning up. Well, we can take the portion of that day and booked it to fund 50. Trying to take things like that. Certainly C. Now, we're a few years removed from that. that had some costs. Um but again, we transferred food service programs trying to just every year you don't want to overcommit here. You want to just make sure it's sustainable. This is a big deal to a lot of families. And so um right now we're projecting a surplus by about $150,000 in revenue versus expenses. So conversations as those dollars start to become finalized will be around,

086hey, are there some additional things we can do with fund 50 to chip into that 2.2 million to keep it sustainable. So, um, you know, I I really think this is a great benefit that we've been able to do for families and to continue to do it is is of even more importance. So, um, really happy to see that. The recreation levy, so this is kind of just a quick overview of where that's been, um, in previous years. So, you can see the projected, uh, levy here is down to 3.5 million. part of the referendum um conversation and and communication was that would that that would be reduced by4 million should they both pass $2 million per question. So that's why there that's a net4 million down. Um you can see the kind of the

087balance as of June 30th that a lot of that um was to do the project that we're here today in and then also the projected balance is to work on the phase two of the fitness center. So, um, that's kind of the update for the fund 80 programming. So, kind of moving into fund 10, that's kind of the quick overview of the funds. Um, the the scenarios I've really developed that that's been kind of in the consortium of the area, the Swazbel area south um, uh, the the area around here. So, a lot of the districts that are working off of kind of what are the what are the most likely outcomes, right? So, again, scenario one is nothing changes. I think that's what the most conservative of districts are operating off of like let's

088build a budget off of nothing changing from this year 325 nothing else. So that'll be scenario one. I really think I really do you'll see I really think special education reimbursement is going to something will happen in this area. I don't see the legislature giving the schools more spendable dollars. I don't see that happening because of the efforts of Governor Ivers last time we heard that at the capital for those of you went there seems to be a you know glass half empty type of conversation on more money for public schools but that's just what I think will happen but we'll go through the other two scenarios of if that went to 40 if that went to 60 operating off of a some sufficient appropriation um other projected assumptions is the compensation for employees which

089we'll talk about hopefully this evening after the workshop um reduction in staff to line with enrollment That's an annual process we go through. I think that was briefed with the board in February around enrollment projections by school staffing allocations by that projection. Um, health insurance at 15%, that's kind of a preliminary number. We won't really have that until likely end of July, early August as the loss ratio numbers start to come in. Typically, when plans change in January, you see a spike in December because everyone runs to the doctor to get something done. So, we haven't even gotten January's yet. We're supposed to get that in about two weeks. So really hoping that starts to shift. Dental, we've really we we are um self-insured for dental. So that's uh we haven't really seen much of

090an increase over the past 5 years. Um really been able to manage those costs. Utilities, uh 7% seems to be what people are working off of in the region. That certainly is consistent with what we've seen across the district. So that's great to see. All departments and school budgets are at 75% for the year under the scenario one. Um which is kind of a roll over the current budget. typically what we go off of and then depending what happens with the state budget or revenue coming in, that's the first thing that we've updated. So this year the schools are at 100. That's generally been where we've landed. There's been a few years where we haven't done that, but generally that's at 100 if we have the funds to do it. And then operating off of

091a 75 student membership reduction. Um that's kind of the current budget assumptions that the budget's predicated on. So everything you'll see includes these things. Okay. So again scenario one you can see a fund 10 total revenue and fund 10 total expense balance uh balance budget. Scenario two if if that 40 if that 33 which really is 30 goes to 40 again some sufficient so that that would be actually a 10% increase for us. You follow that? Okay. That would give us about another 875,000 of rough dollars. Okay. If it goes to 60 we're up almost 5 million. So it it is a significant increase for us. But I can tell you that that 60% to us. I heard at the joint finance committee Kosha testified with a failed referendum that if everything stays the same

092and just special education gets a 60% they're still at a minus $13 million deficit. If 60 stays at 30, they're at 23 million. So, just because we're at 60%, if we hypothetically are and we're almost at $5 million of a of a of a budget surplus, a lot of districts are going to say, "We're not even anywhere close still." So, it is really it is really wide open. You can talk to a district and they say they're in great shape and you can talk to others that we don't know what we're going to do yet. So, I'm happy that we're having this conversation because you can remember that it wasn't too far that we weren't, right? So, um, that's kind of I think the range. It could fall anywhere between that, but I think that

093is a good at least budget range for where we might land. So, if that were to happen, we certainly would be back with here are the things we recommend and there'd be conversations happening along the way. So, so I want to spend some time on like how how do you get there, right? So, I think it's important to spend some time on the tax levy, but then to go through each item of increase, right? So under the 325 um and no special special education reimbursement amount remember if that goes up that won't impact the tax that's a reimbursement. So that would be no new revenue be reimburseable dollars. So if they raise special education to 100%. This won't this picture you're seeing won't change. Okay? Because that's not revenue that's a reimbursement. Okay? That comes

094from the state doesn't impact taxpayers. Okay? So under under this assumption, I I'm assuming that the state gives no increase in state aid. Also very unlikely, but gives you a worstcase picture, right? That's what I'm trying to do tonight. So you can see the top here. Uh the tax levy this year was just over 47 million. The mill rate was 661. Okay. The 325 increase multiplied by our per pupil is about $2.2 million of revenue. That is a 29 cent milit increase right off of um the 729. So you can kind of see that's a portion of the levy as a percentage of the 729. So 2.2 million over 55 is x% that percent of 729 is 29 cents. That's kind of how we did it. Okay. Private voucher are we're projected to increase $770,000

095on top of the $8 million we're already paying. That's also 10 cents. the operating revenue and the capital you have to take into account you have to reduce those numbers by $2 million because of the fund reduction. So really the 5.8 is really 3.8 and the 3.75 is 1.75. Do you follow that? Because that's a reduction of the levy. So that comes at a mill rate for the operating revenue at 50 cents and the capital bond is at 23 cents and that adds up to the total projected tax levy with the assumption that equalized property value goes up by 7%. which impacts the mil. I know it's a lot at one time. Okay. Are you generally with me though? Okay. All right. All right. The table was helpful. I'll tell Mike that one tomorrow morning.

096So, okay. Now, the question I had I wanted to show you is what did we communicate to the community and are we following through in the promise? Right. So, as I said, the operating referendum is about a 50cent increase and we said it'd be about 56 cents. Okay? And I'll get to that in a second how that came out. the 70 million capital we projected 44 that's at 23. So you look at go to a $100,000 property $8.34 $8.34 for both right. So if you take the 50 cent projected for operating and the 23 cent you're at 73. We me so far okay the 73 annually is $73 annually. That divided by 12 is 608. So we're certainly under what we said it would be right. So that is projected. Now again, there is room

097for movement here because the $70 million capital is 23 cents. We're like 50 cents in the dollar there. You might ask why. The why is this picture um 39 right here. That number will increase over time and we'll get closer to that 44 cents as you see some fun $38, but not every dollar that it increases will be felt because right now we're spending 1.75 million in 38. When that drops to 900,000 that will shift over. So it's not new dollars being asked to the community. Does that make sense? So that commitment still will hold true. Likely will be less closer to 40 cents because of the interest rate that we got as a district. We projected at 5%. It came in at 3.75. So I say all that to to make sure that you

098each and the community feels confident that what we said and what we're doing will likely are the same. But there are other factors in a budget that will impact the bottom line. But it's not the referendum. Right? I just want people to start hearing that conversation. So that's kind of the point of the slide here. Okay, we'll keep moving here. So I mean the budget we'll continue to work on. We we have a staffing committee that meets. Dr. Robinson and I meet weekly to talk through this. We're meeting with departments. Um special education's been a conversation. We've had a number of students transfer in this year. So there's currently a review going on of what does that look like? How has that impacted staffing? How's our transfer of service claim going to look? So there's

099some things that can change, right? We have to look at that by school and then by disability status to see are we short EAS, are we short teachers and how are those transfer dollars maximized because that's one of the only things we can use under state law to increase our revenue for those services we offer students. So that's a thing and then we'll future uh we'll also be looking at every we go by department as well. So that'll be happening in the next few weeks. So again, the mill rate is about a 10% increase that includes a 7%. Again, this includes no state aid increase. That is very unlikely to happen. If the state aid increase matches the 325, about 2.2 million se uh a 10% mill rate goes down to about six. So, um

100that's what that would look like. So, this is in my opinion um like a worst case scenario picture. And then that would mean you can kind of multiply that out $700 $729 per $100,000 home value if that were to take place. And then the tax levy increase again assuming no increase in state aid which has not ever happened um is about 18% and if if our aid increases by the same amount as 325 18% becomes 13%. So significant changes could happen. Um they likely will happen but um hard to know at this point. So just painting a you know maybe a likely picture for the budget but an unlikely picture for aid and the tax levy but kind of giving you a good range here. District priorities. So we got a couple things that'll be

101coming up that are just being worked upon by different departments here. Just kind of a quick overview here. So certainly the capital referendum that's on the docket um for I think May 19th for the board to hear kind of a the the a phasing structure and a communications plan. So that's underway. We've spent a lot of time working on that over the past well really two years. But most recently the last six months getting financial pieces in place and now working with um Mr. Smith our referendum project manager and I'll see Schmidt as well and then Caroline and her team. So that's coming up. Um we've had two different meetings in the compensation mile development. A third one in May here. So that is underway. There's a couple committee members here that I'm I'm feeling

102I'm feeling very optimistic about the future of that, what that looks like. There seems to be a lot of good momentum and movement there. So happy about that. Um the technology refresh that was a conversation about 18 months ago. So the the next thing on the docket is iPad refresh. So that's in the budget for next year as well. So that we're getting quotes and working through that process now for staff. And then um some L&L pieces here with early literacy supplemental materials to support early literacy and then a 612 math curriculum resource adoption coming up. And I think that's all I had um for tonight. Questions for the board. I have some um what about low revenue ceiling? I didn't see that factored in here at all. That was something that was discussed at

103the day at the capital. Um is are you hearing that's not something they think that they're going to move on? You know, that's a great question. I we as a group have certainly been advocating. We are not alone. I know Bloit's been advocating for a lot of districts that are the have nots in the state revenue formula have been advocating for that. And the reason I didn't include that tonight is because if you go back two years that was not advocated at all but done. Yeah. So actually the reason that was done is because a lot of Republican legislators pushed that to happen. So I'm optimistic because it does narrow the gap, right? So if that happened um you know that revenue picture would change because we'd get more revenue, right? Um but not something

104that I think is likely at this point. Haven't been hearing a lot of it. So that's unfortunate. Yeah. Um on your slide showing the the breakdown of the mill rate um you for the vouchers you had that was just the voucher increase at 10 cents. Do you know what the total of the 729? What is the total amount of that 729 for voucher schools? Sure. Offhand I don't. I know that roughly it was almost $8 million. So 8 million over 47 million, you know, you're looking at almost 20% roughly, a little bit less. So um that number would likely um it'll go up, but I don't know the exact mill rate impact that is right now. So okay. So I think that that number I think every time I see um the mill rate from

105here on out, I'd love to see what the total voucher impact is. I think it's something that isn't well communicated uh as far as how property taxes work. And you know, I like seeing that, you know, this is the increase we're seeing. But I know that that 10 cents is not the whole picture. And so, um, being able to, I think, just communicate that every single time from our perspective and having this publicly available for people to see when they understand that there's one line on their tax bill for the school district. But, you know, that money doesn't come, not all that money comes to us. Yeah. And so, I think that's just important to include. So, if you could that in future, I would appreciate that. Absolutely. And I know that in previous years

106it was just south of 20%. That was roughly what it was. So for every $100 you paid the school district about 181 19 of it went to private schools and that might go down a dollar or two but it's going to live right in that area. So I think one last thing to note on that is this is the last year of the percent cap. So after this year after 2526 the amount that students can move from public to private vouchers in an income restricted environment is unlimited. So that's something that I've asked for guidance on that and everyone's like good luck. That's what they've said because they don't really know. So, but I think it's a good point and all. So, and my last piece that I had was just um how could the

107the tariffs potentially affect some of the the purchasing that we have to do for not only the referendum work that we're looking at doing since a lot of that stuff um especially you know raw materials might be coming from somewhere else but um you know we looked at iPads you know and and uh where where Apple gets their stuff and sources their stuff mainly from China. So have we looked at that at all? Have we looked at trying to, you know, pre-purchase some things with some money that we have in fund 10 and then replace it like we did similarly with the uh teacher refresh for computers to try to avoid maybe additional costs that we're not looking at right now when we're getting you know hundreds of of iPads as as an example. Yeah.

108So I know we for the iPad specifically and speak to that the facility referendum and the work being done there. I I I won't have an answer on that. I think on the 19th it's a great question to ask like have we built in any sort of escalator for those costs. That's at that's probably the best we can do at this point. The iPads we've already received quotes on and so um you know we're in the final steps of of purchasing those hopefully now. Um because I think that's been a conversation our department but you know I'm hoping that quote's honored. I would imagine it would be we just got it. So um but yeah those are real concerns I think from most school districts. So absolutely. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Any other questions

109from the board? If not, thank you very much, Mr. Norris. Um, I would look for a motion and a second to adjourn the regular meeting and reconvene as a committee of the whole. So, moved. Second. We have a roll call, please. Okay. Miss Kaiser, yes. Mr. Burns, yes. Miss Lee, yes. Miss Carr, yes. Mr. Sikitch, yes. Mr. Becker, yes. Mr. Keller, yes. Miss Deal, yes. President Lee, yes. All right. So, this is our um second piece here, 13.2, the 2526 base wage increase for all employee groups. And I'm turning it back over to Mr. Norris. Yeah. So, thank you. Uh again, I appreciate the out of orderness that tonight is with the action coming after the workshop, but I felt it be more appropriate that the board get preview to kind of what we think

110a budget might look like for next year. Kind of giving the nice range that we did of potentially worst case or maybe to best case or anywhere in between. I thought it more appropriate for you to kind of hear that before you approve something that might have significant impact on that budget. So, it felt more reasonable this way. So, we're here tonight seeking a base wage increase for employees of both a 6% from the referendum successful package and then also passage and then also a 3% increase which is about 0.05 over what CPI was this year which is 2.95. We we really feel strongly that the the board should annually approve CPI that is the sum of the region as to not fall behind. So, we likely won't know what that's going to be from

111the area because everyone, as I shared, is waiting on the state budget. And some districts are in a great place, some districts are not. So, the conversation we've been hearing in our office is that most districts are going to try to get to three. And that's where we felt like it was appropriate to land. And that's kind of how we came to the 9%. So before I pause, I wanted to just share that part of that um approach has been to also increase employee wages that don't work here yet, which would mean impacting starting salaries or hourly rates for employees. So I kind of wanted to go through that to show you what impact that can have because without a massive bucket of money, there's no way to move everyone at one time because you

112moving the whole organization, right? So to slowly incrementally address these things allows you at future years not to have to go we can't find subs we can't hire EAS we can't find special ed teachers like to do it incrementally I think is better it's better practice so by implementing the increase to teachers the starting teacher wages this year is 47 and a half roughly that would jump to almost 51,000 so significant movement and the average is a little bit over 50,500 so that movement helps us hire people every year, right? That's that's a significant jump. A regular at EA today starts at $1654. That would be up to over $18 an hour, right? Maybe not great, but it's much more competitive, right? Special at EA. Um level one currently $18 an hour. That would jump

113to 1984. Level two would be the 21 and level three would be 22. So significant increases there to find and attract people, right? Um Secretary 1, 1915, currently they'd be at $21 an hour. That's a head secretary to school. Okay. A secretary 2 would go from 17 to $1853. Our subs, our daily sub rates is $136.50. We struggle to find subs. That's been a conversation here. It certainly is felt in the schools. That would jump to almost $150 a day. So, you know, not massive, but again, incremental progress is how you stay, I think, in line. A retiree sub rate would go to $172 a day. long-term sub would go from 168 to 183. A building sub would go from 183 to $200 a day. A building sub special ed sub would be 194 would

114jump to 212. So I think I think I'd be remiss if I just said it's for all employees, but really it's for people who don't work here either because that really is how we can continue to fill these vacancies that we've worked so hard to do. So I just wanted to paint the whole picture. So with that, I would take any Questions from the board. Mr. Keller, I don't have a question. And I just want to say thank you cuz I think what you just talked about is really important. Um we're in an environment where fewer and fewer people are going into education which means there is more competition for those individuals especially the the the talented and quality ones that we want to be able to re retain and that's been a problem for

115us for years. So being able to make this kind of effort to be more competitive is going to be huge. So, I just want to thank you for sharing that because I think it's important for everybody to kind of hear and understand. Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate other questions from the board. Sure. Go ahead. Yeah. Uh Aaron, could you talk about um the discussions that we've had with the uh the teachers union and how they've been involved in this conversation as well? Could you bring us Yeah. So, so annually there's a I see them in the back. That's why I wanted to get in the shot of representation here. Um, a long time coming. I think we've been talking about the 9%. I think it's been out there for a long time. So, it's glad this

116is like the the pinnacle of that conversation, but certainly our association's been pivotal uh in these conversations both during the referendum campaign and certainly after it in not just communication, but meeting with staff and schools. Uh, I certainly value that relationship we have. I know you guys do as well. So um currently under law they can negotiate up to CPI and so um we try to involve them in every conversation that we have around trying to make people's lives better in schools. So we have conver around benefits and leave and things like that because we think it's important that you know if we bring them into the fold it makes our job easier. I assure you it does. So um that's anything to add to that Dr. Robinson that you No, I I I I

117think that um we we've tried to be intentional about uh improving our relationship with them. And I know um you know, we we try to make things get, you know, to where they want, but I know there's always a a compromise that's kind of I don't want to say in the middle, but they usually they usually get the the better end of it than we do. But, uh I I just enjoy the relationship, and I just wanted the community to hear that as well. I think that's important that um you know whether the the decisions that we make that involve our staff that they're they're right there involved with those decisions and and I can say too a lot of our the members that I speak with directly you know they are they are real

118concerned about the budget. They want to make sure what we're doing is financially prudent because a lot of them live through some of the things we've had to deal with. And so making sure it works for our people but also works for the budget. It's everyone's best interest. So I appreciate the understanding and willing to work together. It's just important. So, did you want to say something like this car? Oh, okay. Yeah. Um, I I did I did want to mention that though too, like the the pieces that we're putting in place here to try and provide more financial compensation for our staff members is always in the lens of something that it can be done continuously, not something that's going to work for 3 years or 5 years and then we have to stop

119doing it. We want people to have that um confidence that if they commit to our district that they're going to get what we're saying. And so the compensation plan that's being discussed right now is that in mind long term. And I do know that the staff members who are involved in those conversations understand that because even people who might be retiring in the next 5 years don't want to leave their colleagues behind when they move on and then they're still left because they have 10 years left before they can retire. So, I think that's a really important thing to know because this is taxpayer dollars and we're we understand how important is that we're good stewards of that money and by being good stewards, we can provide the compensation that our staff members deserve long

120term. Yep. Any other questions? If not, I look for a motion. So, move to approve. Second. Moved and second. Any last minute discussion? All those in favor? I I opposed. Right. That passes. All right. And so before we u move in, I will ask, as I always do, I'll look for a motion and a second for the board to convene into executive session pursuant to Wisconsin statute 19.85, parent one, parent F, for the purpose of considering a student disciplinary expulsion order, which if discussed in public would be likely to have a substantial effect upon the reputation of the student involved. So moved. Second. Uh we need roll call for that. Mr. Becker, yes. Mr. Keller, yes. Miss Carr, yes. Mr. Sich, yes. Mr. Burns, yes. Miss Kaiser, yes. Miss Deal, yes. Miss Lee, yes. President

121Lee, yes. And we'll take a five-minute recess.