Board of Education Meeting: 5.12.26

001Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting to order. The required public notice of this meeting was sent to Community Newspapers Incorporated and Metropolitan Press on May 8th, 2026 and posted on the doors of the district office. Additionally, meeting notices and agendas were posted on the district website and distributed to the City of Brookfield and the Village of Elm Grove for posting. In the event of severe weather this evening, please be aware that the restrooms and the copy room of the lobby are designated weather shelters. Although, hopefully, I don't think we'll need it, but just in case. Let the roll call show that all board members are present. Will you please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance led by Abby Welch. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and

002to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God. indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you Abby may I have a motion to approve the agenda thank you have a motion by Jean and a second by Jen is there any discussion I move that we postpone to be until a later date yeah Mikey's unable to attend tonight so second thank you we have a motion and a second on the adjustment to the Agenda postponing item 2B. Any other discussion? All those in favor of approving the amended agenda, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. That carries on voice vote. Our first agenda item of the evening is the celebration of excellence. Brett and Andy? Who wants to go first? Brett. Thank you. Hello and good evening. It's my pleasure and honor

003to be here tonight to introduce the Brookfield Central High School class of 2026 valedictorian and salutatorian. First, our valedictorian, Krisha Pakala. She earned her career at BC with 41 credits and a GPA of 5.25. She scored a composite 36 on the ACT. Krisha is a distinguished student researcher and a healthcare advocate with an extensive experience in clinical settings and community health. As a patch team consultant and co-facilitator, she championed reproductive health education and youth perspectives in statewide organizations. Her technical research spans from investigating nanoparticle I have no idea what that is, but that's what it says. Drug delivery at the Medical College of Wisconsin to developing AI-based models for clinical trial optimization. With over 200 clinical hours as a CNA and in active leadership roles in HOSA and Key Club, Krisha demonstrates a profound commitment

004to medical science and community service. Krisha's academic and competitive excellence is highlighted by several prestigious accolades, including a recognition as a 2026 National Merit Finalist and a remarkable success at the 2024 Scholastic Writing Awards, where she earned both a gold medal and a National American Voices Medal. Her leadership and skill in the healthcare were further demonstrated by a top 16 distinction at HOSA Bowl. at the Hostley International Leadership Conference. Additionally, she excelled in scientific inquiry, securing first place in both the precision medicine and ecology at the Regional Science Olympiad. At last night's Most Influential Educator Night, her heartfelt words described the impact of Mr. Rambla that he had on her and countless BC kids. I asked him to share some thoughts about her. Mr. Blaha states, she was a standout in a class of standouts.

005Her humor, wit, curiosity provided a spark that made the class a fun atmosphere to which to learn. Her desire to help other people is sincere. It shows up in her service through Key Club as well as through her visits to patients in hospitals. It is what has driven her to pursue medicine with the goal of improving people's lives and the community around her. As a student, Krisha added to class by participating in discussions, asking questions, accepting challenges, and leading groups. Her sense of humor helps create a fun atmosphere in the class. She and her partner, Sophia, were the Waldorf and Stadler. That's the old Muppet people up in the balcony there. Cohort Calculus, as they heckled me, which I don't really care for, but she was heckling her teacher from the opera box in the

006front row of the class. She loves learning, understands that growth comes from challenges and struggle. She's persistent when she encounters a new topic. She'll be attending Brown University for the program in liberal arts medical education, studying public health and applied math. It is my pleasure to introduce the BC class of 2026 valedictorian, Krisha Piccola. Do we want to do Q&A with them at the end with all four? Okay. Next, Victor Han. He is our salutatorian. He will end his BC career with 41.5 credits and a GPA of 5.150. Victor has built an impressive portfolio of professional and leadership experience centered on healthcare innovation and technology. During his time at the MIT Beaver Works Summer Institute, he conducted AI research at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, training MRI lesion segmentation models on a large-scale medical imaging data

007sets. As an independent researcher, he archived architect AI models for Parkinson's disease diagnosis with approximately 90% accuracy leading to the filing of a U.S. provisional patent for ParkinAid rehabilitation software system, which he highlighted in the March board meeting here. His leadership is defined by founding of the Parkin Aid nonprofit organization, which has delivered rehabilitation programming to approximately 2,000 community members through senior centers and outreach events. Additionally, Victor has raised $6,000 for the cause, co-founded the AI Club to mentor students in machine learning, and served as a software lead for the FTC robotics team. demonstrating a profound commitment to both technical excellence and community service. He is also a National Merit finalist, and he possesses a robust technical skill set with proficiency in Python, Java, C++, MATLAB, HTML, and Git. His exceptional achievements are firmly marked

008by his prestigious honors, such as the acceptance into the Y Combinator Startup School 2026. and being a top 300 scholar in the Regeran Science Talent Search, and earned a second place award at the International Science and Engineering Fair. At last night's influential educator night. He spoke movingly about the impact of mrs. Jessica primo I asked her to share some thoughts about him She states what truly sets Victor apart is his heart from developing AI to assist Parkinson's patients To building a custom chat bot for our district. He consistently uses his brilliance to serve others He's a kind student and receives world-class accolades with a genuine humble smile and a simple. Thank you He poured hours of his time into volunteering throughout high school. His teachers and counselor would describe him as a kind, caring, brilliant,

009selfless, and talented. As he heads to UPenn School of Engineering, we know he'll continue to leave an incredible mark on the world. As it's stated there, he'll be studying at the Wharton School of Business and the Engineering School at University of Pennsylvania. It's my pleasure to introduce the BC Class of 2026 Salutatorian, Victor Hahn. Evening, everybody. Love to have Jake join me here first. Proud to introduce the valedictorian and salutatorian for the class of 2026 from Brookfield East first love to introduce Jake Harvard bound next year in the fall as Brett mentioned we have our most influential teacher evening coming up asked Mr. Millett who is Jake's most influential educator for Jake's impact within the classroom Jake Zang is an absolute all-star and highly affable in everything he does, exemplary humility, intellectual curiosity, and scholarly

010talent. Get your popcorn ready. There's no ceiling on Jake's future. Some highlights from Jake's incredible four-year experience at Brookfield. He's class president for the last three years, captain of the tennis team, executive board member for the Hope Squad, student council executive board leader, national champion in public speaking, Wisconsin Scholars Program, Bank of America Student Leaders Program, one of 300 selected across the country of over 2,000 applicants, Morgan Stanley Finance Academy Fellow, one of 120 throughout the country, 2,000? throughout applicants throughout the country. Research assistant at UWM Applied Finance Lab, and one of the funniest stories from last year is he was a junior and they thought he was a junior at UWM. He was a junior at Brookfield East. Created 50 reports at UWM about risk aversion in that program, and then an opportunity in

011Chicago, Dream Exchange research analyst intern in Chicago. And I think the greatest highlight about Jake, and we'll talk about Alex too. They always seek opportunities for community improvement beyond school and beyond themselves. So last year, Jake was a part of a team that created the first ever Brookfield East Service Day, all school commitment on a Saturday, over 300 kids in 25 different projects. That's just a really amazing, compelling vision that organized student leaders, ninth through 12th graders throughout our community and region. So Jake Zhang, as I mentioned, headed to Harvard next year. amazing valedictorian from Berkeley's class of 2026. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Fly down. Fly down. Bring up Alex. Oh. Oh. Sorry. There we go all right MIT next fall for Alex Asked Alex most influential teacher Joslyn Hagelmeyer in her Spanish

012class and she shares this about Alex's impact within the classroom Alex is brilliant and kind genuinely Enthusiastic lover of learning and generous with her time and talents We will all be so proud to say we knew her when she was just getting started Some Alex highlights over her four-year career at Brookfield East and Beyond co-president of the computer science honor society at Brookfield East We'll talk more about that in a second. One of the national honorable mention for the NCWIT aspirations and computing award selected from over 3,700 students nationwide amazing national student leader in amnesty international where she managed a platform serving 5,000 students led seven engagement campaigns and published over 150 posts Alex's exceptional outreach beyond her group team school community country as a sophomore she attended the amnesty conference in DC for free

013because she was a community manager in amnesty international and co-president of the amnesty international at Brookfield East, National Merit Scholarship winner and caucus chair for the National Youth Engagement Organization. And my favorite story about Alex's impact at Brookfield East is we've done a lot of adult-facing work on AI. We haven't done a lot of student-facing work on AI. Alex and her colleague and the Computer Honor Society created two homerooms that were student-facing about ethicality in AI, how to use AI, appropriate use of AI, and really fostered a conversation throughout our building with students and staff together about AI now and AI throughout the year and AI in the future. So Alex, we're so proud of you. MIT bound salutatorian for Philly's class of 2026. Thank you all invite our four Salutatorians or two salutatorians and

014two valedictorians to come up here I've got a certificate from the school board for each of you Publicly recognizing you and extending congratulations By the Board of Education for being named Brookfield Central and Brookfield East valedictorian and salutatorians for 2026 and it's just an amazing accomplishment As I'm sitting there just listening to the things you've done It's making me tired. I mean, I don't know how you found the time to maintain such a high academic GPA and yet represent not only your school, but as both principals pointed out, your community. And you're going to take... the foundation that you've started here at Elmbrook and you're going to build on that and do amazing things and truly make a difference in this world. And so just again, so thrilled to congratulate you and honor you tonight.

015So I'll hand these certificates to you and then we'll line up here together and maybe the principals can join us and we'll take a picture and then we'll have board member comments or questions. Board member questions or comments who would like to start off? Jean. I'd like to begin by congratulating the four of you for your amazing academic and certainly co-curricular success throughout your careers here in Elmbrook. As Scott said it's really amazing to listen to the things that you do that many don't. encounter in their lives let alone this early in your lives I would have a question for Victor as you head off to college and you've started this Parkinson's diagnostic endeavor how will you balance continuing that with all of it lies ahead of you would you have someone you can hand

016it off to or what's your plan Yeah, there's a large Parkinson's community in Philadelphia, which I'll essentially continue my research in. And here in Brookfield, I reach out to, as mentioned, Cassie's house or Brookdale, where we essentially have activities there to help with these elders and just to entertain overall. So I'll continue the same thing in Philadelphia as well. Good to hear. I'm really glad to hear it. That's truly, when you talk about contributing to... the world the community that's an amazing assist as we face that devastating neurological disease so thanks for all your work in it and keep them going with it as you keep on to college that's all thank you Elizabeth congratulations and I have a question you all have achieved well beyond what someone of your age would and I guess

017I have two questions one how did you believe in yourself to be able to get here how did you dream these goals so large and then the follow-up question would be what would your advice be to younger students to be able to dream as big as you have thank you just take turns going to the mic all four of you that'd be great Yeah, so in regards to the first question about forming your dreams, I think it really starts a lot with the people at home, right, of course. Without my amazing parents, I certainly wouldn't be here. And then, of course, it's the people you surround yourself with. A lot of my colleagues at Brookfield East, across to the administrators and the staff, they're also supportive and really encouraging me to dream big and then

018ultimately reach for those dreams as well. And so if I had to look back at my younger self, I tell myself to find a really one or two really close mentors and lean into them heavy and you know find a great group of people to surround yourself with because I think it's the people you spend the most time with that also shape a lot of who you are as well. I think the most important thing for you know middle schoolers elementary schoolers are to be as ambitious as possible just trust that whatever you dream of you can always essentially come up with a solution and find enough resources to back up that dream so just be as ambitious as possible in regards to the first question I would say that something that I learned pretty

019I would say pretty early on in my high school career is that nothing is permanent in the sense that if I was struggling if I doubt in myself that was just a temporary moment and I knew that if I could lean on the right people and if I could just find an outlet that I would be able to get myself out of that every time no matter how difficult the circumstances were or you know, whatever presented me with the idea that, oh, maybe I shouldn't try this, maybe I shouldn't do this, but I knew that it was just a blip and I could overcome that. And if I were to give any advice, I think it would be to think about, is for people to really think about what excites them and what's... igniting their

020passion and just remember why they're doing what they're doing beyond external accolades or validation. What about doing that really makes you want to do it. Yeah, I think I would for advice to give to upcoming like middle schoolers and high schoolers I would really look into opportunities beyond what are available to you I think there's like really a mindset that you need to have we need to go beyond like what you can currently to see you to what you can dream of and that really Motivates you and kind of pushes you to seek farther So I would just really encourage them to keep looking into kind of not limit yourselves no matter what other questions or comments Mary Many congratulations to the four of you. I know that the smiles and the nice things that

021are going to be said about you this week, next week, and in the coming weeks came at a cost of a lot of sweat and a lot of work. And so pat yourselves on the back for making the choices to get through those tough times. Huge congratulations to the people who support you, your moms, your dads, your siblings, your closest friends. I think we should give them a round of applause. And I finally just want to say there are people you've influenced that you'll never know you influenced. The younger kids in school who've looked up to you, your classmates when you get to your colleges, where you're going to get to be among other people who have journeyed similar paths to you, and now you can learn from them and they can learn from you.

022And to have that opportunity to be among people who are like-minded and similarly interested in the world beyond, take... full advantage of that but enjoy your summer and and really enjoy the fruits of your labor we're very very proud of you we wouldn't be elm brook without our students our students are why we are excellent and you've led the pack so congratulations and thank you thank you sure congratulations this is so amazing to see the four of you and you do set a great standard for students that are coming behind you what are some of the things that you're looking forward to in the next four years what how do you want to impact the wonderful schools that you're going to Yeah, so of course extremely excited for the next four years ahead one thing

023that I'm really looking forward to doing is continuing and building on the work that I've that I've built on here in Elmbrook district and so Continuing to build skills that are really relevant in the in the in our current age. So to me, that's really a AI literacy and kind of being at the forefront of that next wave and also continuing the impacts and the missions that are important to me. For example, in Brookfield, he's been really involved in Hope Squad, so building on that mental health piece, which I think is really big in our generation, as well as a couple other initiatives in the community, really into housing policy right now, and so hoping to sort of blend a mix of economics and government to hopefully make an impact on the legislative front and

024also in the larger community as well. Yeah, so kind of continue on to a jig we're saying I'm really excited to continue I'm getting involved in things I'm passionate about right now as mr. Farley previously mentioned I've done a lot for AI in the school and I'm excited to continue with that on at MIT and it kind of see the current labs that they have set there and to see kind of how we can continue to blend on AI and opportunity for students because there's a huge learning curve to be done for how to implement it in the classroom make sure that everyone can use to learn it ethically and I'm really excited to continue to explore this intersect functionality at MIT. I think beyond that I'm also really excited to kind of engage myself

025in the technical community at MIT. So there's a lot of different aerospace labs I'm excited to learn about and to kind of just learn from my peers and professors as I explore the next step. I would say for Brown the program that I'm in which is the program in liberal medical education it's an eight-year cohort so it's the undergraduate and the medical school and a big piece of that is mentorship and I recently went to Brown for admitted students day and I met some of the older people in that cohort and they were so welcoming and that's something I hope to be for the next wave of people in that cohort as well And then on top of that, Brown itself is a very interdisciplinary school. And I think I've done a lot of work

026in public health, but I would like to combine a little bit more public health research with kind of patient-centered initiatives. And kind of like both of them said before me, AI is definitely going to be relevant in healthcare, and I want to see how that can inform public health and hopefully make a better experience for patients from all different backgrounds. Yeah, to me, it's all about growing and scaling up the impact that I was able to build through the Ellenbrook District. Kind of like different than what they said. I'm doing AI my entire high school career. So I wanted to utilize the resource of Wharton Business School to see how I can utilize the potential of market and capital to scale up the impact to reach more people beyond what I could have done in

027high school. Jen? I'm just gonna echo the congratulations and maybe to piggyback a little bit on what Mary said is to you set a really high bar for those that follow you and I appreciate the mentorship that you talked about and wanting to be a mentor to others Please remember Elmbrook in that you will have lots of people reach out to you whether that's administration to hear you know come back and donate or come be speakers but also students students who see this example that you've set whether it's in healthcare or in business or in computer science Please be kind to them. Please be reach out to them and continue your impact and mentor mentor others you set a really high bar and You make Elmburg look fantastic and we hope that you continue to

028help us grow and succeed. So thank you Congratulations, and we are so appreciative of all of your efforts and so proud echo what everyone else said when it comes to congratulations it's amazing to hear all that you guys do every time I last year and when I've come to board meetings in the past and I hear what goes on at the this May meeting and all the accomplishments that our students do and specifically today the four of you I wonder where the time is and how you make it all happen I think back to what it was 20 years ago and I It was not like this, at least not that I recall. So with that in mind, one question that does strike me is, I don't know, you all do 30 activities, 100 activities,

029whatever it may be. Is there one activity that pulls at your heart more than the rest? Is there one that is closest to you that out of all the things you've done here in your high school, your K-12 career here, that you're like, this is the one that really I'll always remember? Yeah, for me, this is pretty clear here. And one of the organizations that I've been involved with in the Umbrook District since I was in seventh grade even has been a Hope Squad. And it's an organization that's really powerful since mental health, especially in our digitized age, is much more at risk than in previous times. And so being able to engage with my classmates as a trusted peer, as a... As you know, someone that people feel comfortable with in really important times

030of their lives is something that I really hold close to my heart and I'm really blessed to have been able to be a part of this organization for the past five years and also help continue destigmatizing that mental health. Yeah, to me the most impactful event of my whole high school career is probably joining robotics. I came into high school not really prepared for anything, super mediocre, really not knowing anything. And being part of the robotics program really taught me the technical skill, but most importantly, it's the people around that really all inspired me and pushed me to become who I was. who I'm able to achieve today. And just a little background here, Joshua Wynn and Karthik are Val and Sal last year at Brookfield Central. So having them on the team inspired me

031a lot and definitely pushed me beyond my limit. So I'm really proud of being part of the robotics program here at Brookfield Central. For me, I would say the biggest activity I've been involved in is Amnesty International. It's a human rights organization. And when I first came into high school, I think I wasn't totally aware of all these different events that were happening internationally and both nationally. And it really... deep in my knowledge surrounding the issue. And I was able to get involved both at our school level where I was able to raise awareness with the co-president, Melinda Gia, last year. And we were able to kind of petition a lot of legislators. And also I've been able to get involved on the national level to kind of inspire other people to take action in

032their own community. So kind of getting this experience has really broadened my own mindset and kind of shaped who I want to be looking forward. I would say the most impactful activity I've done is Patch, which Principal Gritzmacher was talking about before. It's a youth health fellowship, and it brings in all different people from around the state, and it's all about promoting health literacy and how youth can feel empowered to make their own decisions in health care, as well as set them up for success later in life. And I think I've met some of my closest mentors there. I've met some amazing people. And I think that was really what sparked my interest in public health. And it's really front-facing because you look at all these issues and just the way my mentors explained it,

033they made it seem so possible for youth to be able to do something about it, which I think is a very empowering feeling. And I think I needed it at that time. So I would say that. That's awesome. Thank you for sharing and congratulations. It's amazing to see you. I always feel like the future leaders of not only the state or where we are, but across the country when we have these events. So congratulations to all four of you. Let's give them another round of applause. Thank you. And we'll be hearing from you at graduation and we look forward to it. You're welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting, but we understand that you've got other things to do and you're welcome to slip out if you need to. Our next agenda item

034is the Elmbrook Education Foundation check presentation. Mark? Thank you, Scott. As many of you know, we have a strategic partnership built with the Elmbrook Education Foundation, and I want to welcome the executive director from the Elmbrook Education Foundation, Mrs. Beth Dobrzinski, who's going to introduce a number of people that are joining her at the podium. Beth, welcome. Thank you very much. We're very excited to be here tonight. So last year the Elmbrook Education Foundation embarked on a very lofty goal to raise $75,000 to provide $7,500 per year for the next 10 years for the unified sports program in our Elmbrook schools. We knew there was widespread support for this program which brings together students with and without disabilities on the basketball court and track and field in our middle and our high schools. But we

035never imagined what we could accomplish together. This program fosters empathy and inclusion while the students develop lifelong friendships and bonds. It's just amazing to watch The money raised will go towards staffing for coaching and coordination uniforms and equipment and program expansion into the middle schools a Very special. Thank you to so many in our community you attended our events you gave on the appeal site So many people answered the call to give And I just want to give a shout out to a couple of them DNM accounting and consulting Carolyn meagle she gives to us every year and that money goes to whatever our funding initiative is the generac foundation They give us $5,000 a year. Let's skate foundation Matt Sammy Svansky if you guys know him from Brookfield Central He's one of the custodians.

036He really got behind this and talked to a bunch of people and he raised like $1,000 It was a it was awesome Kathleen and Robert Anger, Valerie Jewell, BCPTO, and then Tim Fox and our own Hannah here together raised over $5,500 from 44 donors they personally asked. Just shows the power of community. So tonight, I'm proud to present on behalf of the EEF board a check for $77,577. We exceeded our goal. Just yesterday we received another donation, so we'll be adding that as well. The appeal site will remain open. So we do have people, some of the people I mentioned, that had indicated that they want to give on an annual basis. So as we bring more money in, that money will go into the fund. So there will be a fund set up. It's

037a building block fund at the Waukesha County Community Foundation. And that will ensure that the transparency of the funds then will be spent over the next 10 years. But before we do the check presentation, I want to invite Hannah up. I've got Olivia. I've got Caroline, I knew that was Caroline. Okay, so if any of you guys would like to say anything, otherwise we are going to do the ceremonial passing of the bucket because the bucket is what we passed around at all the games. And so Danielle Lightyear-Baxter is going to hand you guys buckets. The QR code is on there. So when you use them next year, if you collect funds next year at the games, the money will go directly to the QR code and then that money will go directly into your

038fund at WCCF. okay all right hello all i first wanted to thank um mr brzezinski and the elmbrook education foundation for their year-long commitment to fundraising for unified sports i also i'm so grateful for all those who have donated this year to help the unified legacy continue but i also do truly want to thank dr hansen both principals here mr farley mr grutzmacher both ads school staff the leaders here today, Olivia, Caroline, and Matt, and all those who have helped Unified become what it is today. I am truly grateful for everyone, and I am so excited that we raised more than $75,000. So thank you, everyone. Yeah, I also just wanted to say thank you Unified has truly changed my life in so many ways I get to watch my best friend Connor play basketball.

039It's my favorite thing ever And yeah, I just wanted to say thank you for everyone who's donating and I'm hoping to keep this legacy continue Just to kind of reiterate I just want to say thank you so much for everything that everyone has put into these programs seeing the friendships foster and seeing all these kids get the chance to play has truly been a huge blessing in my life and I'm so grateful for the opportunity. Thank you. I would just like to thank all the staff that have had a part in Unified Sports and have made it very possible to spread throughout the whole district and make this such an available thing to everyone in such a special club and program we have here. As we get arranged for a picture, I do want to

040give a shout-out to the Christensen family. Thank you for sharing your three kids with us. Mom and Dad Christensen are in the back. Thank you for being believers. And if you didn't recognize the first speaker, that's Hannah Christensen. She was the person who conceived this idea a couple years ago. Any board member questions or comments for this wonderful team of people? Elizabeth, you want to start off? My kids and I love going to the Unified Games. It's really just so special, and thank you for all the hard work. I know the EEF and all of you over there, it is a tremendous amount of volunteer work, and it is such a lofty goal, and then to exceed the goal and to solidify for the next decade that we will have this program here. So thank

041you for your commitment. We appreciate it tremendously, and I look forward to a decade more of games with my kids. So thank you. Jean? I can't say it much better but I'd like to echo thanks to the foundation I work as liaison with the foundation and know the kind of work that goes into raising funds like this to support an activity and kudos to those who made that happen and all of you as the student energy behind this to make it go forward and take those funds and make them be very meaningful to so many people thank you echo everything my colleagues have said and Hannah it's so nice to see you back and to the EEF it's one thing to start something great it's it takes a lot of work to sustain it and

042providing that sustenance I know I would bet Hannah appreciates the fact that this continues on after you leave because when something is this great and it starts to have a life of its own. It's truly special. And it's special for all the people that never get to tell you that, but sit in the stands and smile from ear to ear at the Unified Games. Thank you for all of that. Cheryl. Thank you for everything that you've done to build this program and help raise the funds this year. It's not an easy thing, and it's so great. to see that we exceeded the goal. I thank the EEF and it's amazing to see the foundation and what they have done over the years. So thank you. Thank you for bringing community. I know that this program

043is to bring students together and to provide opportunities for students of different needs but please know as Mary said when you sit in the stands and you see community between our two high schools between the students it just is it creates a commonality and in a sense of community that you may not realize that you have created but you have so thank you for that and thank you for this program but also thank you to the EEF as I look back at the different programs that you have supported over a number of years I feel like the commonality is community and that you are looking to impact the most number of students but as well as trying to Bring community together. So thank you for that as well Great work all of you I think

044this is one of those things that always makes me think that Elmbrook just continues to improve and get better and get better and get better and Whether it's you know dreaming big it's like taking a microcosm sometimes of that and the EF funding and helping support whatever that vision was for the year and almost and there's a ton of work that goes into it but almost it feels like as a district we almost can take it for granted because you guys just deliver over and over and over again and so it's just it's a privilege to see that work and thank you Hannah and everyone involved with this I have a brother that's disabled and I think about how he would have loved to participated in a program like this 20 years ago and just

045seeing how we continue to create more and more community like John said and connectivity throughout all of our students regardless of background where you come from or any of that so congratulations to everyone and thank you so much for what you do Thank you the EF is a gem. I can't say it better than West said it but Beth Thank you for your leadership and making this happen every year there's an important initiative and this one feels like one of the most important that we've done to continue this program Hannah that you started and I'm excited. It's gonna be in the middle schools Probably elementary schools before we know it and I think other districts around will notice this will be a thing and it started small with an idea with the love you have

046for your brother and just it's just beautiful it's wonderful and Beth again creating this legacy that this can just continue on and grow from here is just outstanding so thank you again and let's give them a round of applause that concludes our celebration of excellence this evening brings us to the last high school representative report of the school year Mark We'll quickly turn to both high schools for an update but before we get to that I wanted to say thank you to guys for being amazing student reps you guys have been absolutely incredible thank you for your due diligence that you do every month to make sure we have meaningful dialogue in the boardroom from our students to our school board so with that let's hear from Brookfield Central on what's going on Hello so

047starting out strong with academics at Brookfield Central our Lancers are looking forward to the conclusion of AP exams as we enter the second week of testing BC is also excited to announce that 12 juniors have qualified to receive recognition in the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program. On May 1st, the class of 2026 celebrated College Decision Day, and on the 4th, BC student presenters had the opportunity to honor some of our incredible staff members at the Engaged in Excellence Awards. BC also had the opportunity to highlight our wonderful teachers at last night's most influential educator night where 15 educators were invited to be honored by members of our senior class and speaking of the senior class our seniors are getting excited to participate in a beloved tradition of the elementary school cap and gown walk held

048on June 1st this year Kicking off our activities for this month, BC Robotics just wrapped up their competition season at the Houston World Championships April 29th through May 2nd. And similarly, 17 BC DECA students represented Wisconsin at the International Career Development Conference in Atlanta, Georgia at the end of April, where freshman Avi Sen was recognized as an international finalist, placing top 20 in his event. BC Mock Trial just got back from competing in Des Moines, Iowa at their national competition, and after four intense trials, the team placed 27th overall. And in addition, I was recognized as one of the top ten attorneys in the nation. Thank you. Last for activities, BC students are looking forward to one of our favorite traditions of the year, the annual school-wide picnic, which will be held on May 27th

049this year, as well as the senior send-off assembly and spring fling dance, which this year will take place outside on our football field. Moving to our arts highlights, BC artists had the opportunity to present their work to the community with the opening of the 60th annual art show at the Brookfield Public Library. And the month of May is busy for our music department, with all ensembles performing their spring concerts at the Sharon Lou Wilson Center. BC Band had their concert on April 28th, and BC Orchestra and Choirs have concerts coming up next week. Sticking with the music department, we're excited to highlight that six BC students won WSMA's State Solo Ensemble Exemplary Performance Awards, and BC Theatre recently concluded their successful four-show run of the spring black box show, The Man Who Came to Dinner.

050The Black Box also recently hosted the first and hopefully annual Brookfield Central and Brookfield East Combined Acapella Show featuring BC's True Blue Acapella and Acapellas and Brookfield East's Unaccompanied Minors and Genesis Acapella. Looking ahead, BC is excited to celebrate all accomplishments of our artists, authors, performers, and musicians at this year's Fine Arts Extravaganza held on May 22nd. We're also very excited to highlight that our fall musical, Something Rotten, won 10 Jerry Awards, including Outstanding Musical this year, as well as our winter musical, Little Women, that won two Jerry Awards, all of which are listed out on the slide. Next show up for BC Theater is summer musical Mamma Mia, and auditions will be starting up for that one soon. Finally, for our athletics highlights, BC has hosted numerous successful college athletic commitment days in the

051last month, and we wish our athletes well as they continue their athletic careers at the collegiate level. We're also proud to highlight our girls track team, who was recently named conference relay champions, and our girls soccer team, who celebrated senior night on the 5th. That wraps it up for Brookfield Central. Nothing else? Just a couple things. Awesome. Great stuff. How about Brookfield East? I just want to say thank you for listening to us all year. So starting off with our arts, we had our 2026 Spring Band Concert also at the Sheridan Wilson Center. We had our three bands perform over 10 songs. We had almost full theater with dozens of soloists. We had a BE student, Genevieve Wagle, receive the Scholastic Writing Award for Southeast Wisconsin, and she attended a ceremony for that. And our

052Crucible, which is our play this year, had all the shows in the final week of April, and it was the hard work and sweat and labor of dozens of people and directors and the entire production. Onto athletics, we have Beast Baseball, which started off with a 7-0 record in victories, including the number two team in the state, which was Muskego, and they're trying to break out of their current dry spot into the playoffs. And on May 6th, the track team was named the Greater Metro Conference Relay Champions. Onto activities, the Women's Alliance Club Panel occurred, and it had six distinguished women from the community come to share their stories and chat with students, organized by multiple BE students, including Natalia DeGranville. On the 1st of May, B students participated in a leadership development training with

053Wisconsin National Guard and Mr. Horschner, and it was like an army-style athletic exercise and team-building activities. And finally, academics. We are in the midst of our second week of AP exams. We had 14 exams administered last week, which was like literature, chemistry, biology, U.S. history, and this week we'll have 11 tests, which include calculus, psychology, environmental science, and more. Finally, classes are finishing up the content while others are already done, and many classes are occupying students with projects and end-of-year fun. Anything else? Great stuff. Busy places. Thank you for those updates. We're going to turn to the questions. For those following along at home, these four questions are in the electronic version of our board agenda. Wanted to hear a little bit about gratitude from all of you. Before we hear that, though, thank you

054again for being board reps from the student council. You guys have done an outstanding job. Really well done. What did you hear from your student colleagues related to things they're thankful for? Yeah, so as I said, gratitude was a big highlight of all these questions. So starting off, for specific accomplishments, athletically, several sports teams had strong seasons advancing far in the competition and beating rival schools. Academically, a standout moment were students earning third place in the Trickstar exam, and students also expressed pride in the school's... culture of mutual support, supporting each other in EP exams and hard, intense finals. Overall, this resilience really showed how everyone was navigating these type of exam seasons. And then finally, student leadership shown through student council's efforts, particularly around teacher appreciation, where we handed out dozens of donuts to

055all of our teachers and alongside participation in the fall pre-SAT. Additionally, for which club or student organization that had the biggest impact, a lot of students said that student council for its role in organizing major school events and credited with fostering greater school participation in spirit. Initially, debate was recognized for strong team culture where members generally support one another. Finally, Hanerton for Hope also earned a mention for its quiet but meaningful... full service work with students describing the joy of writing cards specifically towards patients that makes someone's day a little brighter. Additionally, for one word that some students would use to describe the past year, a lot of students said that it was really fun, fulfilling, and eventful, but others acknowledged that the real demands that it placed on them, choosing words like tiring and

056rigorous. In honor of Teacher Appreciation Month, we've kind of created a summary of the themes that we've earned that a lot of students recognize. So teachers that were recognized had notable traits of engaging in teaching styles. Clear expectations, positive encouragement, mentorship beyond the classroom, being trusted, and creating a safe presence for students. Sounds a lot like what we heard last night at the Most Influential Educator event. Awesome stuff. Great. How about Brookfield Central? First for some athletics highlights that we saw throughout the year we had dozens of state qualifiers both individuals and teams that we were happy to report on and in regards to arts we had lots of outstanding performances from the dedicated cast and crew members of the BC theater department specifically our collaboration with Brookfield East students on the Blacks Box Summer

057Show Footloose, the Fall Musical Something Rotten receiving 22 Jerry Award nominations and 10 Jerry Awards in Outstanding Musical, the Black Box Winter Musical Little Women receiving 20 Jerry Award nominations and winning two, and the Black Box Spring Play The Man Who Came to Dinner Keeping Crowds Laughing through an Impressive Four Show Run. For some clubs that we thought had big impacts this year, Key Club, who was officially recognized as the largest key club in the entire world with BC Key Club volunteers making an incredible impact on both our school and community as a whole. Then lots of students also recognized Student Council for working diligently to strengthen school culture and reimagine school events such as Spring Fling this year and to boost student engagement. Then finally Hope Squad, which we heard Jake Zane touch on

058for Brookfield East, where there were lots of life-saving student contributions to improving mental health. Then for one word that students would use, as Brookfield East also stated, was eventful. BC students kept their schedules full by engaging with their school community across numerous academic and extracurricular areas. Though it became stressful at times, students are grateful for the opportunities and memories they made. And then finally, in honor of Teacher Appreciation Month this May, it was hard to pick a few teachers, but we took some that were majorly recognized by a lot of students. For example, Mr. Brenning. Students appreciated his dedication to helping a wide range of students and clubs achieve their academic and creative goals. mrs fennell where students were grateful for her work to make the library a welcoming space and her consistent support for

059bc clubs and finally mr mayotch where students recognized his encouragement engagement and non-judgmental learning environment great summaries open it up to board members for questions or comments i feel these students the um i think it might have been you avi mentioning that um ap coursework is done because ap exams are Here here or done and so what's next for the run out of the school year? What happens next? Yeah, so this is a problem. I think a lot of AP teachers try to like fix so in a lot of classes we sort of skip over skim parts of the exam that are like 1% of the exam so if there's a piece of Say AP calculus that's only 1% of the weight of the exam the teacher probably won't put a lot of emphasis and

060won't like make you stretch your learning a little bit. So we might go back and touch on that. But most often I'd say what teachers do is we work on projects. So, and field trips, in case you're wondering. So in AP Gov, we're going on a big field trip to Madison, to the capital. In AP Environmental Science, you go on a field trip canoeing. You also have final projects often and yeah, it's just a lot of fun things to wrap up the year. Thank you, appreciate the detail. Mary. Just briefly, I want to give a special shout out to the staff and the students who performed the crucible at Brookfield East. Their tech week, which is always a crazy week anyway, happened in the midst of our floods, and they had to, at the last

061minute, redirect their production to Pewaukee High School, which took, I'm sure, a lot of sleepless nights for Mr. Schneidevent and other people as well. it was a phenomenal production i got to see it and it was absolutely beautiful and uh big thanks to the people at pewaukee high school as well as everybody at brookfield east that made that happen that was extraordinary and then to the four of you i just want to echo dr hansen's words you keep us the schools you you help us understand what's going on in a way that I don't know that you fully appreciate and we love it thank you and I hope you guys have a great summer and a great last couple of weeks of field trips Thank you for coming here and I just want to say

062this is my favorite part of the meeting I really enjoy it and appreciate it and listen to everything you say very seriously and it is a great reminder right before we dive into the rest of our meetings about why we're here why we're doing this work so thank you very much and I look forward to these similar presentations from the students next year Jen Thank you. I will echo Elizabeth that this is your presentations are part of the meetings that I miss the most so glad to have them back and very happy to see familiar faces with Abby and Lucia I do not know the east representatives as well so if you are a senior will you share with us what's happening next year I'm a senior I will be going to University of Wisconsin-Madison

063next year and majoring in English on the pre-law track I'll also be attending UW-Madison and I'm going to be majoring in biology and public policy on the pre-med track. Okay. And you two are back next year. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you for sharing. Cheryl. Thank you so much. This has been a delight to get to talk with you this year and I've just really enjoyed your highlights. I echo what everyone else has said. You are the eyes for us into the schools. So thank you so much. Wes? I'll echo what everyone else has said. Thank you so much. I had a recent conversation with someone that lives in another district, and they were telling me about how they approach it. They're board reps or student reps. I could say like you guys show up monthly. You

064guys are here all the time. You provide unique insights that when I had that conversation, they were wondering whether they should add that to their board meeting because they just they hadn't thought about it. And it's just a testament to how valuable the insights that you provide really are. So thank you guys for showing up monthly and sharing all your wisdom. I've got certificates for you. We'll take a picture. But certificates honor you on behalf of the Board of Education and give you thanks and congratulations for being such wonderful student representatives to the Board of Education. It's a lot of work, as has already been mentioned, and what you've done is outstanding. We appreciate your perspective, and I don't think we've ever been able to ask you a question that's stumped you. And I leave.

065these meetings, this portion of the meeting, especially impressed with just all the things that are going on in our schools and you seem to have a finger on the pulse and are able to share that with us and so thank you. It's very, very valuable and the Board of Education thanks you. So if you want to join me, I've got your certificate and we'll line up here. I don't know which logo we're going to have in the back. Oh, yeah, there we go. Lucia, there you go. Abby. Thank you guys great job That concludes our high school representatives report and brings us to the citizens forum an opportunity for members of our community to Speak to the Board of Education on matters that fall within the purview of the board, but are not on tonight's

066agenda There are papers over here available with Kristi on your right if you would like to speak We have one request to speak tonight Angie Pingel a resident of the district Welcome Angie. Good evening every April Elmbrook residents shape our Board of Education by voting to seat two to three school board members incumbents return new members join and this year previous member returned but now that you're in those seats it's time to really think about your roles you're no longer catering to your campaign supporters you now have ethical obligations to represent our entire community That means all Elmbrook residents, not just those with children in the district. You serve residents from all political parties, Democrats, Republicans, moderates, and people aligning with other political groups. When you make decisions, you should consider the public interest, constituent

067feedback, ethical guidelines, and evidence-based analysis. Your goal is to act as a steward of the community's long-term well-being rather than merely acting on your personal conviction, political pressure, or the desires of our administration, no matter how successful they've been in the past. Most importantly, it's time to lead. And I'm hopeful all seven of you will decide to be strong leaders this year. It's time to put aside differences. Be respectful to all and set good examples for our community and our children. Take the high road, which John C. Maxwell defines as the art of uniting people in a divided world by valuing individuals, practicing accountability, and placing the collective good above personal agendas. You will need to act with fidelity and unwavering integrity. It's being transparent instead of just claiming you're transparent. It's questioning why we

068spent $3,018 in legal fees during March on public record requests when we're so transparent. I'm not suggesting that that number should be zero, but it seems to climb higher and higher every year. It's making sure we provide our community with all the facts and not just flashy marketing pieces or spin. And this is going to be so important as we approach the issue of the upcoming referendum. All of you play an important role, but so does our community when we challenge our district to do better. There's always room for improvement, even at the top. And I hope to see you on the high road this year. Thank you. Thank you, Angie. And that concludes our citizens forum for the evening. Our next item is the consent agenda. Are there any items that board members would

069like to pull? Hearing none, I'd entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. Jean? I move approval of consent agenda as presented. Thank you. Cheryl made the second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of approving the consent agenda, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. That carries on voice vote and concludes the consent agenda. Our next agenda item is action items. The 2027-28 school year calendar DPI waiver. Pam is making her way to the table or podium. I don't know. Welcome, Pam. Choose. Do you want to sit or stand? Standing is fine. Thank you. So good evening. the creation of a school year calendar involves input from a wide range of stakeholders this year a group of 19 individuals met twice in april to create the draft calendar featured this

070evening for discussion it received the unanimous support of the group that included board member mary wacker administrators and teachers from all levels many who are also wearing a parent hat two high school sophomores, and representatives from the Elmbrook Education Association, Transportation, and Before and After School Care. The group considered the input from the district's five employee roundtable groups in the development of this calendar. This draft calendar also received personnel committee support. The district identified a variety of priorities that were taken into consideration in the development of the 27-28 school year calendar. These include meeting and exceeding the Department of Public Instruction required hours of instruction, three teacher work days in August, strong start conferences included during the contract year for the first time, increased prep time for elementary staff represented by three days in which

071only middle school and high school students will attend. Elementary staff will use those days as prep days. Balanced student days per instructional term. teacher records days at the end of each term, five professional development days during the school year, the day before Thanksgiving off, MLK day off, a commonly aligned spring break with area districts, the third term end date occurring before spring break, and high school graduation on the second Sunday in June. You will notice that a new feature of the recommended 27-28 school year calendar is a differentiated schedule for the elementary level. This calendar includes a start date for middle school and high school students of Monday, August 30, 2027, and a start date for elementary school students of Wednesday, September 1, 2027. August 30 and 31 would be used by elementary teachers to

072hold the Strong Start conferences. Because the Department of Public Construction, or DPI, requires that schools start on or after September 1, The district would need to request an exemption to the school start date requirement. The two exemptions typically honored are based on construction projects and the cost of transporting private school students in August. Our request would be for transportation costs. It should be noted that the primary factor in starting school on August 30th is for the efficiency of the 27-28 calendar. If the board is supportive of the August 30, 2027 start date represented in this draft calendar and approves tonight's motion to initiate the DPI school start date waiver request, the district will initiate the following steps. First, we will contact private schools to coordinate a school start date on or after September 1, thus

073eliminating any excessive August transportation costs if they agree. If the district is unsuccessful in coordinating the September 1, 2027 start date with the private schools, you will be asked to consider passing a motion at the June 16 board meeting to adopt a resolution that would be sent to DPI with a start date exemption request. After the district submits the start date exemption request, if DPI approves it, the board would take action to approve the 2728 school year calendar at the July 14 board meeting. Thank you Pam. Are there board member questions or comments? Jean. I'd first like to thank the calendar committee I've participated in that group on a couple of occasions and this room is pretty full of folks from all aspects as Pam listed the long list of folks who are really interested

074in and have valuable input into putting that calendar together did you consider this did you consider that and so that we can come out of the gates with something that's workable for all constituencies rather than wishing we'd talked about this or wishing we talked about that. So I thank the committee for their time and effort in pulling this together and especially Pam for your leadership in knowing what are the requirements, gathering input from the round tables and then facilitating that group through conversation to arrive at a recommendation like this. I also would like to emphasize the fact that this school calendar is not something you should put on your wall or schedule your vacations around, there's a big draft watermark on it because it is in process and we need to pursue this waiver to

075make it real. So it's, I'd say maybe, but don't count on it yet till it's final. I think given the amount of work that went into it, the amount of voices that combined to get us to this point, I can certainly support pursuing this waiver. I also want to say thank you for all the work I do have just a couple questions do we know the dates of the private school start times now not for the 27-28 school year we don't know that at all and have we in the past or even this year considered starting early because of the AP exams as we heard we have more school left over after the AP exams. Is that ever a possibility for a waiver to move up the start time because of the academic calendar for

076AP exams? That is not one of DPI's exemption requests categories. If I could add to that Cheryl we have testified to the state legislature to return local control to school start time to the school board and we have not been successful in getting that adjustment made so we feel our students have a different process for taking AP classes because the start time is after the August 30th deadline The 30th and 31st is there cost savings? There is because right now the elementary teachers who participate in strong start are paid at the curriculum rate which is $28 per hour outside of their teacher contract so there will be a savings I have a question about the DPI waiver and then also about the calendar for the DPI waiver and I know that we will have other

077opportunities to vote on this on the board as you explained and this would just be approval tonight for going in and speaking with the private schools start time so I'm not sure if I should hold this question for another discussion but my question would be there's possibility of construction large construction If we successfully received a DPI waiver for cost savings for transportation, could we then later go and get a DPI waiver related to construction? Yes we could absolutely request an additional waiver to adjust the calendar that previously had received a waiver approval My second question is as I look at this calendar so elementary school in this proposed calendar would have three or five less days than a typical calendar school year calendar we've had five five so I have five last days has there

078been any coordination with teaching and learning because it would actually be five less days of instruction yep Emily Greiber the assistant superintendent for teaching and learning participated on this committee okay thank you so we could entertain a motion and then and again that what we're voting on tonight is to approve or ask the administration to start the process of a DPI waiver which they would do by discussing the school year calendar and start dates with the private parochial schools in our community. We're not voting on approving an actual waiver or resolution. So entertain a motion, and then we can have further discussion or questions. I move approval of the administration's recommendation to initiate the Department of Public Instruction school start date waiver request. I think we have a motion and a second. Are there additional

079questions or comments board members would like to make? Jen I just wanted to clarify we're not and I think it's stated in the agenda here that we're not necessarily voting on this calendar and approval of that or adjustment to elementary school days or anything else it is just the motion to go and seek approval for this waiver or to have the discussions Right because if we don't get the waiver then we're back to making some other adjustments Any other questions? Okay all those in favor of the motion please say aye Aye. Any opposed? Thank you that carries on voice vote. Thank you Pam for all your work on that. Our second action item of the evening is the board committee liaison appointments. This is something that I worked on and I'll be frank that We

080take input, or I take input, looking at board member preferences, asking board members to rank the committees on which they'd like to serve, one, two, three, four, as there's four committees, and trying to get everybody their first choice and as many people as possible their second choice. And in the first time that I know of, certainly my time as president, everybody has their first and second choice. that as I plugged that in, first and second choices just worked out perfectly. Frankly, it just aligned perfectly. So every board member received their first and second choice. And the second criteria that I layered on top of that. in terms of committee chairs was to look at basically years of board service and experience on those committees with the exception of the treasurer because Mary Wackers elected as

081the treasurer and I heard loud and clear a couple years ago when I didn't make the treasurer the same person as the F&O board chair that or it's Committee chair that people didn't like that so Mary just put her in that position Due to her position as treasurer which all of you voted on that So then looking at committee liaison assignments just trying to make sure that the work is spread out Again able to basically honor everybody's preference to give you you've got two assignments generally as committee liaisons to various community organizations you selected three and I think we were just able to match that up out of the three you selected so I'm would entertain any questions or a motion on this agenda item I'll move approval of the committee and liaison appointments as

082presented I second give a motion by Jean and second by Jen are there questions or comments hearing none all those in favor of approving the committee and liaison appointments as presented please say aye aye any opposed Thank you that carries on voice vote and our last action item of the evening is the recent gifts to the district West I'm pleased to acknowledge and thank donors of gifts to the district for February 2026 in the amount of eighty four thousand four hundred and fifty seven dollars We're grateful for your generosity and support of excellence in Elmbrook a record of these donations will be maintained on the district website into the future and I move approval of gifts as presented you have a motion by Wes and a second by Jean any comments or questions just as

083always I look at that number and I realize how much more we can do in this community because of the the gifts that we are given that serve needs that go far beyond and above what our budget can provide and it is really heartfelt thanks for people who put in their money and their time to support all these initiatives Well said thank you Mary all those in favor of approving recent gifts to the district, please say aye aye Any opposed? Thank you carries on voice vote and concludes our action items of the evening Our first discussion item is the 2026 27 employee handbook Pam hello each year the employee handbook is reviewed for language clarity and to identify necessary additions and deletions Feedback is sought in a variety of ways that includes employee input at

084our five roundtable groups, guidance from the Wisconsin Association of School Board Administrators, a legal review by the district law firm of Bulow Vetter this year, and administrator review. Updates generally fall into the following four categories. The first would be simply just updating any of the linked documents for the most recent version of the school calendar, the benefits guide, and our compensation model and incentive plans. The second would be clarification language. This year that would include the first one, the refinement of the purpose statement for the employee handbook to provide express language that the handbook does not create a guarantee of employment. Additionally, in the event of a discrepancy between the handbook and other insurance plan documents, the insurance plan documents will prevail. Number two, deductions for overuse of sick leave upon termination of employment. the

085third is the approval of discretionary use leave discretionary leave use under FMLA clarifying the obligation to repay health insurance premiums if the employee on leave does not return to work for 30 days after being cleared to do so and then the way in which spouses both employed with the district are able to access their own full 12 weeks of eligibility The third type of change in the handbook would include new handbook items. This year, the military leave, the limit of a two-week absence, is being removed for compliance with the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. There's clarification in the teacher training requirements to include a description of required training for AP instructors, Project Lead the Way instructors, and dual credit instructors. there's a recommendation for a pay rate adjustment an increase of $2 per

086hour for in-house subbing that would be teachers who teach during their prep time for absent teachers increasing that from $24.15 per hour to $26.15 per hour this rate has not been adjusted in at least the last eight years and this can be accomplished within the existing budget And there's also an additional pay rate adjustment of $1,000 for the varsity coaches for cheer and dance. This $4,000 request is subject to budget approval. And finally, some deleted handbook language. with the review of teaching and learning would include under the professional responsibilities language the removal of obsolete language that refers to data days ignite days are now scheduled in the summer with follow-up work occurring on records days and this language just never caught up with that strong start days currently have the option for payment at the

087curriculum rate or a comp day to be used on a teacher records day and we are removing the comp day option And finally, Elmbrook Literacy Foundations. The district training is no longer necessary with the passage of Wisconsin Act 20 that requires all teachers be trained in the science of reading with an approved DPI training. This information was reviewed twice, actually, with the personal committee, with unanimous approval to advance for board consideration. Thank you, Pam. Are there questions or comments about the employee handbook? Mary? I just want to... clarify the the statement that Pam made about the high school athletic coaching salary schedule increases that's four positions increasing at a thousand dollars each that you have not had the preliminary budget with all the coaching costs put in front of you yet and we at the

088F&O just saw it yesterday but the to my knowledge based on what Pam told me this is the only coaching contract that is being put forward for an increase And the cheer dance because it's multiple seasons correct? Yes, it's an 11 month obligation And I know I had asked this at personnel there's no adjustment to the assistant coaches The athletic directors are going to do a review of that this year and then potentially next year make a recommendation Any other questions? Okay, if you have questions in the meantime, please direct them to Pam Casey This will be back at our June meeting as an action item. Thank you Pam. Thank you to your evening our Other second discussion item of the evening is the 20-year facility planning community survey results Turn the time to Chris

089and school perceptions who joins us by is a video or telephone up video. Here we go Yeah, so we may not have the same delay that we normally have on the telephone But we I would remind board members to please Make sure you're speaking into your mic on this agenda item that allows school perceptions to hear you when you're asking questions or making comments so With that, Chris, go ahead. Sure. Quick introduction. I'm happy to be here to talk about facilities and not have to own the content tonight. So I'm excited about that. But very excited to introduce both Bill Foster from School Perceptions and Matt Wolfert is from BRAVE. Many of you have seen him before from our planning session. So Matt is joining us tonight as well. But really, tonight is about presenting.

090Our community survey results, and just as a reminder, we sent our school survey, or our community survey, sorry, to about 19,500 households, roughly. That's the number of households in the community. That was a paper version. We've also emailed our staff and invited them to participate, and then we emailed our families, invited them to participate electronically, too. With that, I won't take any more of Bill's thunder. I'm just going to turn it over to him. And certainly I think what we want to get out of tonight's discussion is A, to share the results, B, to answer all of your questions. And I think a lot of those questions revolve around just confidence of the results. What can we take from these results and how should we move forward? So hopefully we can get that through the

091presentation and your questions and discussion. Bill, I'll turn it over to you. Thank you. Well, great. Thanks for having me tonight. Can you hear me okay? Okay. So here we go. So my job tonight is to present you, as Chris said, with the results of your community survey, the report. Right now it's a preliminary report, but once we... Get all the final surveys in it would be updated, but the report is organized around really three primary areas. The first is the background information. Everything that was contained in the surveys in the report. So that's important because it creates context for the responses. We're going to look at the demographics and then we will slice and dice and try to make sense of the final results for you. So school perceptions, we've been around for almost

09225 years. We work in about 13 different states. We've conducted over 13 million staff student parent surveys, and we've done about 1,400 community-wide surveys for the sake of both strategic planning and referendum preparation. So your survey deadline was April 30th. As I mentioned, we're still getting a few paper surveys in. As of the risk report, which we wrote last week Thursday, we had 2,915 responses, which gave us a response rate of 15.4%, which is good. But from a statistical standpoint, we're at plus or minus 1.85%. And I guess the point is if we get another thousand surveys in, the results aren't going to change. So we're really locked down. Your margin of error will drop slightly, but we've got a great response rate. A couple of demographic questions we asked. What is your age? When

093I look at this slide, I always go to the top to make sure that our seniors are well represented. They're actually a bit overrepresented. I checked back and your senior population is about 22.5%. So you're a bit overrepresented. But when it comes to voting, that seniors tend to turn out a little bit more than our younger folks, the 18 to 24 year olds, they don't take surveys and they don't typically vote. So we're skewed a little older, but that's okay. Is your primary residence in the district? We had 93% of our samples saying yes with 7% saying no, which raises the question, who's taking our survey that they don't live here. In your case, it's primarily staff. So if the person is not a resident, We remove them from the funding support question because they

094can't vote. So that's really why that question is there. So we'll be looking at the 93% of the residents when we get the funding support question. We did have one question. In what high school attendance area do you live? We can cross-tab the data by both Brookfield East and Brookfield Central. We had a few folks that weren't sure. Approximately 13% of our sample were staff. And 52% of our sample were parents with 7% being a parent of a private or parochial school child. So, and by the way, you could be both. You could have a child both at a K-8 private school and maybe they go to your high school. Again, the information that was in the survey itself is in the report. So it started out and shared a little background information in terms

095of what the district's been up to. Describe this unique opportunity ahead, which is that your tax mill rate will be dropping. It provided a little process information in terms of what you've been doing over the last year in terms of planning. Where we are today is April, and the goal is to finalize a facility plan in May or June. So again, the background information that was in the survey talked about the facility background in terms of the needs. And then we asked the question, would you support the Elmbrook schools exploring a building referendum at this time? Now, this is important because when you do a survey like this, you're actually overrepresented with staff and you're overrepresented with parents because by definition, they're a little more interested in what's going on. And the non-parent, non-staff are

096underrepresented in the sampling. So to remove any bias, what we do is we look at three mutually exclusive subgroups. The first being staff. And staff is really, by the way, extremely important because they're not only talking to parents every day, but they're talking to their friends and neighbors. If they're not on board with what you're proposing, you've got big problems. But they are on board at 82% supporting the district exploring a building referendum. Parents are just slightly under that at 78%. And the most important group, we call those folks the purple people, non-parent, non-staff. They, by definition, aren't working in the district, don't have kids in the district. They're arguably the most important, though, because they represent the majority of your taxpayers. So we've got to be sure when we look at this, we put

097literally more weight on the non-parent, non-staff. But in your case, a majority of all three subgroups do support you exploring a building referendum at this time. So then we tested two different plans. The first plan was a four-school plan. It was called a comprehensive plan. We shared the corresponding tax mill rate impact that at 11 cents. And then we asked, question, would you support a $100 million capital or building referendum to fully fund the comprehensive plan? These are the staff residents. Again, they're in at 78% with 14% saying no. For our parents, they're in at 81% with 13% saying no. And the most important group, there are purple people, the non-parent, non-staff respondents subgroup, they're supporting at 61% with 29% saying no. So better than a two to one. Support level with 9% undecided. Typically

098on just about every survey we see around 910 11% of folks are undecided, so basically one out of 10. They just don't make up their mind, so that's that's not a problem. So what we do is we do a weighted average analysis so. For your case, you're actually a bit closer to 35% in terms of your population that have kids, school-aged kids. But some of those might be in a parochial setting or a private school setting. So we adjusted this to say, let's assume it's 30% parents and let's assume it's 70% non-parent, non-staff. With that assumption, We ended up at 67% support for the $100 million proposed for building a referendum plan. And then we also tested a two-school plan. This would actually not increase the tax no rate over the current level. And same

099format, we had 71% of staff on board with that with 16% saying no. So we actually had a little drop. 74% of parents and 18% saying no. And 57% of our non-parent non-staff and 30% saying no. So when we did our analysis, we found that we actually dropped from 67 down to 62%. So one of the questions is that normal? Do we typically see that? And the answer is no, it's not normal. With most situations, as the price goes up, typically support will drop. In your case, that is not the case. We've seen that at a few other districts. One of them is Nicolet, had something kind of similar on the operating side, and there's actually more support for spending more money there. But I'd say you're the anomaly, you're not the rule on that.

100We did have a section of questions in terms of kind of overall satisfaction. How is the district doing in each of the following areas? Could be great, good, fair or poor. If everybody said you're doing great, you'd be a four. If everyone who responded said you're doing poor, you'd be a one. And then we calculated a simple average for each subgroup. And you can see the numbers there. Of course, you're all above three, which. Feels pretty good, but is that really good? And the answer is yes, it's actually quite good. So we we use this question on just about every community survey we send out in our software has the ability to go out and do a comparison analysis with similar schools. And we did that in your case. So again, you can see the

101percent who said greater good. The combined score and then your your percentile rating so you're. keeping the public informed, you dropped to a 95%, but no, you're certainly a top quartile, top 10% of all the districts we've used this question on. So you're clearly doing well. Just based on the first hour of the board meeting tonight, and your students are doing well too. So that's very important. One other overall question on a scale of zero to 10, how likely do you recommend to a family member? You scored an 8.78. Your comparison was a 7.34. And that puts you, you can't get to 100th percentile. You can only hit 99th. So you're at the top of our comparison group. This is important because at the end of the day, referendum support does correlate with overall satisfaction.

102So if folks are frustrated with something you're doing, they tend not to be supportive. That does not appear to be the case. There's just a few folks in that are scoring 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. You got a few at 6% at a neutral level, but just about everybody else is right up there at about as good as they can get. So way to go, school board, way to go administration. It's very impressive. So I think that is the end of the presentation, but let me go back to the... referendum questions and if you've got there's something that I didn't answer let me know and I'll try to be more clear perfect thank you board member questions or comments Cheryl is there a concern about the discrepancy between the Brookfield East and Brookfield Central

103areas where the people said they were from Is there a concern? My understanding of the project, you know, one question I have is why did the project that has the cost more have higher support? I guess my understanding is that the larger project really was maybe more comprehensive in terms of the areas that it touched. So all in. It seems like people want a comprehensive solution as opposed to a regional solution. But no, I didn't see anything in the data that would cause, at least for the comprehensive plan, any concern. I would just add, excuse me, that we... We split about 53% Brookfield East as far as our families and population and 47% Central. So you're already starting with an imbalance. This was beyond that, but that's important, I think, context too. Who else has

104a comment or question? Jean? I don't have a question about this particular slide, but I wondered about the, you said that 19,500 households were surveyed. I wondered how many households reached back for an additional code to complete the survey did I miss that or do you have that Do you know that bill No that went back to the district so the request came to the district so we don't have that information I think probably less than 20 for codes we did mail out Maybe the same number of surveys extra surveys too so paper surveys they could request either But I would say it would be under 40 for sure Which to be fair bill is is very typical right right other than my wife and me when you surveyed my district I'm wondering if you

105looked at age cohorts I know you looked at the parents non-parents and that breakdown but I'm wondering if you looked at kind of what the response rate was for that 65 plus categorization and if you also looked at what our population looks like who typically votes in a November election because I think that's when we might pose this question So the yes to the first question, no to the second question. So as far as the overall population, you're a bit overrepresented in the survey sample for the seniors. As far as the seniors that actually turn out to vote, we don't do that sort of analysis, but we have found the data to be very predictive when the dust settles in terms of being an accurate indication of what the voters will. we'll do. But no,

106we don't go into voting records or anything like that. When we first started doing these, I believe you said a significant percentage of survey takers are voters, right? Yeah, that's true. People that vote take surveys. Yeah, so we asked the question, do you normally vote in elections? And for years we did it, and the answer was about 94% of the folks that take the survey typically vote in elections. Maybe even more importantly, The people have formed an opinion. They kind of fall into a group that I would describe as being the influentials in the community. They tend to talk to their friends and neighbors whether this is a good idea. or this is a crummy idea. They're also the ones that are much more willing to take a survey. The ones who don't know, don't

107care, don't vote, they typically don't take a survey. And that's why I believe after over a thousand projects like this, we found that this ends up being a very predictive process in terms of representing taxpayers. Okay, thank you. I appreciate I was gonna ask if you asked that question and do you vote or do you typically vote and you answered that that you don't even need the question because it usually comes back yes, so I appreciate your Experience and expertise in that as well. I could go on but I'll let someone else ask questions Were you looking for a breakdown of just that 65 plus into their preferences? Yes, yeah, I know that you know, I think that's probably you know, just having gone through a campaign um the group that was a little bit

108harder to reach right so the schools in the families we know those are the people that were reaching we can directly send them an email for that survey but that might be the community members that are harder to reach and so I'm just wondering what that what their perspective was I have it Just for the 65 plus population a little dangerous to do it my head but I'm seeing 64.4% favorable 27% unfavorable so well over 50 and consistent to a little lesser degree but still consistent with the results That's really helpful thank you We can add that cross tab to the final report when that's provided in June as well I'll make a note to do that To that point the the slide about how's the district doing in keeping the public informed that non-parent

109non-staff group which would probably contain more of the 65 plus group was still high, but the lowest of the three. So that does tell us that not only are we finding it hard to reach them, they're finding it hard to get information from us. So that's a discussion that I think we ought to have. But I also just wanted to share some kudos that I heard from people who took this survey about the ease with which they could understand the financial implications. They thought this was laid out very clearly. I wonder with the undecideds, if you have any data from other surveys. I mean, if you're an undecided person, but you were presented with this information for the first time, my thought is you're probably more engaged in the process. Is that borne out by

110anything you've done? Yeah. Yes, although I would say there are some people who just can't make up their mind. I happen to be married to one. When we say, let's go out for dinner, I say, where do you want to go? She goes, I'll go anywhere, but I can't decide. So there are some people that just... They just don't make decisions. But I would say you're good at, you know, we're at 13% for this one. I think you were just at 9% for the other one. The follow-up question is how do the undecideds typically go when it comes to voting? And we've done a lot of analysis on that over the last five years. And it's actually been reduced each year. Now we're down about, it goes to about a 90-10 split. So about 10%

111will go yes, about 90% will go no when it comes to voting. So we're not sure exactly why that is, but we've seen that be a trend over the last five years. So that's one reason we don't count a lot of the undecided into the support calculations. The good news in your case, you don't need to carry that right now, but I think that's just important to know. It is really hard for every school district to reach that non-parent, non-staff group. It's just hard to, you know, you can set really what we're seeing. Number one is mailings, paper mailings is what people want to see. But even with that, do they read it? And so it's a challenge everyone is dealing with. Bill, I always appreciate what you used to say, undecided is how a

112nice person says no. That's Midwest. Midwest nice. I think that's generally been reflective of the actual referendum results when we look at the undecideds. Yeah. So they, you know, when it comes to, or, you know, if you're not sure, it would take a lot of educating to move them towards yes. So net-net, either they're Midwest nice and they really don't support you or they just don't understand the project enough to support it. Cheryl. How many of the surveys were returned via mail versus through the computer? The answer, I looked at that a couple hours ago. Let's see. We had 531 in paper. And we're still getting some in, too, so that's going to move a little bit more. Bill, could you maybe just talk about the comment themes and what your next steps are, and

113then I can add what our steps would be to use those themes once we get them back? Yeah, so we don't start doing our comment theme analysis until after we get all the paper surveys in and entered because we want to be sure everybody's represented in that. But then when we do it, what we do is we go in and do a kind of analysis to read all the comments, categorize them, and say here are the prevailing themes. We will be doing that over the next few weeks after we finish up all the paper entry. And the goal is to have that for your board meeting, I think, in June. Is that right, Chris? Yep, and then on the rate. Yes, that's right. And our plan would be to use those themes in to develop

114communication strategies You know, some of them are questions. Some of them are statements. Some of them are what about this or positions? Frequently asked questions. There's a lot of ways. I think we can use Those comments but mostly to inform our communications plan. Should we move forward with a referendum? Jean and then Elizabeth I just want to verify that the June meeting is the June 2nd meeting is that the one you're talking about or later So we have two meetings in June right so we will have a draft our draft 20-year facility plan is coming in June 2nd for discussion approval the 16th our plan for the referendum conversation would be a discussion in June 16th and approval if used so choose in July One of those two meetings will include the common themes, likely

115the second one. Thank you. And then I'd like to go back to the undecided. If you found that 90% of the undecideds eventually vote no, it would seem to me that wrapping those into the no's might make sense. Is there a reason we don't do that? No, 90% go no. So you would pick up an extra, in this case, 1.3% in your calculation. So I would say this is a bit conservative. These two calculations, so you could factor that in, and you might move up to 63.8 or something like that if you counted in the undecided. Really, it would seem it would go down, but maybe I'm not following the math. No, you so the undecided will actually move about 10% of the undecided will move to yes. So these are not in this slide.

116We did not include those. So this is a conservative, a little more conservative slide because we did not count any undecided. Yes. And my question on this slide, sorry if I missed it earlier, but if you could describe again how you came up with the 70%, 30%. Yeah, so we look at the 2020 census. Actually, there's a couple different censuses we look into, and depending on where you look, it's about a 30 to 35% population of the district that have student age children. But in your case, there's quite a few private school, parochial school options. And it might, so what we didn't want to do is say all those folks are So, you know, they're all parents. Actually, we want to be sure we look at parents of Elmbrook school children. So we actually moved

117from 35 down to 30% for this analysis, again, to be a little more conservative. Thank you. And then I just have a question for you, Chris. Do, and we can talk about this more later, but do we have ways in communicating with private school families? May not be as direct as our own enrolled student families, but we have ways Thank you a couple of questions One I know the undecided you said 90-10 No, is it in your experience? You find that the probably yeses all pretty much convert to yeses when it comes to referendums They they pretty much do now there There's really two factors. One are external factors, you know, that are out of our control. If the stock market were to, you know, drop by 10,000 points or something, that might be a

118factor. But barring something like that happening or an internal... blow up of some sort. And that does happen. But assuming those two things don't occur, it ends up being very predictive in terms of the folks who are generally on board now will generally be on board when it comes to vote, unless something major happens. We've gone back to, we look at every project we do, we have a researcher on board that goes back and our data is about 93% predictive. So there are some things that happen. Then we go back and try to figure out what happened, what went wrong. But it's about 93% predictive. Well, I think the positive here is the survey was done during the conflict in Iran and the increase in gas prices, which are two variables that we've seen in

119the past that can sway people's opinions. So my sense is that's baked into this, but that is a variable that we can't predict. Can you explain that a little further? So because of the turmoil and the gas prices, they might be more likely to vote no because of that financial squeeze. Yeah, so if we did the survey last fall before the war broke out and gas prices rose, or before property taxes came out and everyone was reassessed 35% higher or something like that, and then that event happened, then the data could be less. predictive but in your case I think all those factors were known when the survey was done so that gives us a little more confidence thank you another question and I know we didn't ask about it I don't believe on the

120survey but when it comes to grandparents with kids in the district does that have you guys ever thought about how that factors into non parent response rates because I think about our board table right here and my mom still lives in the district there are two board members here that have grandkids in the district and I wonder if that plays any role or would influence it in any way or we don't have any atypical population when it comes to that I think that's the right, I think your second answer is the right answer. I don't think it's atypical. You know, it's funny. Sometimes we do ask, you know, do you have any, what's your relationship to the district? And if we don't have, if we don't put in, I have a grandchild, people literally write

121in, I have a grandchild because they want, that's important to them. But I don't think you're atypical. I think you're probably just a typical district in terms of. the number of grandparents and whatnot. So I don't think that's going to sway it. So this page that you're looking at with the breakdown between parents and non-parents slash non-staff, have you looked at other scenarios like just doing an age population or is this based on the many, many surveys and success that you've had the best model? I would say this, yeah, this is the best model. We can do more. you know, detailed analysis in terms of cross-tabbing by, you know, the two attendance areas, by age, things like that to give you a little more. And we can put those in the final report. But at

122a high level, you know, if you're on the board, you have to decide whether or not we're going to go to rough referendum or not. This is what I would say would be your best indicator right here. I don't know what benchmark districts you looked at either but I know we have skew a little bit older I know this survey was fairly representative of that age group my only you know the risk I worry about is did we reach that population and are they gonna come out and vote in November and this would be a surprise to us Yeah, again, I'll do the crosstab of support by age for the final report, and I think Chris did that kind of real time, but I don't see it dropping off dramatically. I think the grandparents are

123holding it up. Thank you. I have a couple of questions. More centered around the analysis that we'll be getting in June, so I don't know if this is a Chris question or you guys with the survey, but when we look at that analysis, Are you going to recommend to the Board of Education some communication plans that would address some of these, I wouldn't call them gaps, but just maybe potential issues we see with the results of the survey? The first thing we're going to recommend is the pursuit of a four-school comprehensive plan referendum as part of our 20-year facility plan. So that's going to be where we start, is building our plan off of... Assumption that we will pursue that based on these results the second thing then when we Discuss the referendum question and

124the resolution. I think we will we have a CLE meeting in June where we can talk about engagement strategies. I think we'll come with a communications plan to so that You know not that it has to be approved and not that it can't be dynamic. We have if it's approved in July we have Four and a half months before November and so there's plenty of time to you know Add other strategies then that we may not have outlined in the original plan But that's that's my goal would be to take the comment feedback Think deeply about the the people that may not be as informed and Develop strategies to engage them or at least inform them not necessarily engage and then and then present that with a resolution for consideration. Bill, can you go to

125the comparison percentage data again? I don't, you can correct me if I'm wrong. I think this is, I've been involved in probably 140 of these now. I don't think I've ever seen a 95th percentile keeping the public informed score in the 100 plus. So I appreciate the question and the thought. I don't want you to think that that is somehow a bad thing. You are really doing a phenomenal job engaging your community and keeping them informed. Will we do more and will we do better? Yes. But I don't want you to think you're starting from a low level and improving. You're at a really high level already. And I would say especially for a larger district. You know, it's fairly easy for a smaller district to. Stay connected, but as districts grow larger This that

126it becomes more and more difficult. So you clearly are doing a good job on the communication front that's good to hear there was a city referendum that a lot of people in the community know about or didn't know the reason for and That was I think at one of the big stumbling blocks for that particular question to the voters my last question You're gonna obviously give us the themes. I think it was the word you use for the comments Do we see a list of all the comments? No, not typically and I don't know that we'd want we want all that time to read 2100 different comments times what three different spots in the survey they could say them We want the big picture themes based on their experience too. I mean this is what

127they do and you know we wouldn't develop micro strategies on one or two comments we really want to develop the strategies on the themes. Any other questions about the survey or any questions on next steps for Chris while we've got him here or school perceptions? One last question I think for school perceptions so with the numbers that we see and perhaps there's so much time that lapses in between when a survey goes out and when a potential referendum comes to be but from like do you see any consistent trends when it comes to let's say the questions don't change the questions remain the same between the survey results and usually see a drop of five percent you see an increase of five percent that's kind of all over the board is there anything that you

128can point to in your experience when it comes to trends between community survey results and and questions as they relate to consistency with what's asked No, I think then that you're really hitting the nail on the head if you don't change what's being proposed and what, you know, because hopefully if even if people didn't take the survey, they picked it up, they looked at it, they're somewhat informed of the two plans. The simpler, the better in terms of the predictiveness of the data. In your case, it's very simple. We only tested two different ideas. And if you don't start changing things. would have a high level of confidence that you know unless something you know happens kind of on a macro standpoint that these numbers are gonna end up being pretty predictive they're not going

129to change a whole lot one way or another thank you what's your question made me think of something else for school perceptions if we are making a decision in a month and we are then beginning to look at communication plans we've got july august september october um there's an august primary statewide is there a recommendation in terms of cadence of communication or you keep a drip going on but you don't make people think that you know it's a long time between now and november Is there a best practice in terms of the cadence of communication? Yeah, I think, you know, if you did a bunch of mailings in July or August, people will forget about what you're even talking about by November. I think, and that might be better at answering this than me, but

130kind of what I've seen is the, when parents are going back to school, that's certainly an opportunity that kind of begins to the crescendo of, you know, the few weeks before November. So, you know, kind of the early September start with parents, it's kind of like the, the drop in the pond, maybe even when staff come back to opening day in August, they're educated about the plan and the parents are then educated about the plan and then the broader community in that October timeframe. I don't know if... No, I mean, you nailed it. It's hard to keep a community's attention for more than two to two and a half months at most with any level of energy. And so the ideal cadence is board approves in July-ish, mid-July, ideally, late July. That gives us a

131month as a team to prep and engage and be ready for back-to-school activities. So parents... We've got boards and handouts and all that stuff for families when they're doing back-to-school activities. But the big push really is that, you know, two and a half, three months max. So I think, Bill, you summarized it well. Did I hear that you all are involved then in the communication as we go forward? Bray and C.G. Schmidt are with us throughout so I mean school perceptions once they complete the report and the themes then their their work is finished but Bray and C.G. Schmidt both have communication arms to them that that will help support us throughout the process through November Well, we'll say he doesn't go away. When we get a FAQ, we'll call him and say, hey, is

132there anything in your data that says this is a theme we should have seen? But he's not a core part of the messaging and communication strategy for the next four or five months. Any other questions? Thank you. Excellent work. I really appreciate the high-level overview of the results of the survey. It's intriguing, for sure. Great. Thank you. Have a good night. Thanks, Chris. Okay, that concludes our discussion items for the evening and brings us to the board president report. Over the past month, the board has welcomed two new board members. And again, I'll just officially welcome Elizabeth to the table and Jen Roscoff returning. Welcome. We also reorganized board leadership and the committees was done tonight. April and May is a busy time when our schools remain focused on academics especially as you heard tonight

133from our student representatives the AP tests and they'll soon be final projects and final exams over the next month. Before our next meeting board members are definitely looking forward to honoring our seniors at the awards nights, graduation and the many opportunities we have to to do so over the upcoming month. Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week, so I just wanted to take a moment and just publicly thank our teachers. The success of Elmbrook would not be possible without, of course, students and our amazing educators that help them achieve and learn. They're there every single day with lesson plans, the skills, teaching as an art, something that's been developed over the years, and so many of our teachers have gone above and beyond in terms of their training. and also their lesson preparation and their ability

134to reach students and help them individually. So in honor of our teachers last week with Teacher Appreciation Week, on behalf of the Board of Education, just thank you to our wonderful staff and teachers who do so much. The board is looking forward to reviewing district priorities soon and setting and affirming district goals and metrics for the year ahead. Last year, the... board embarked on a pretty ambitious objectives a series of objectives and i'm pleased to note that the board and district have made significant progress on those and is continuing to work on those one of the things that we recently finished was the school start time vote that happened at our last board meeting The board in the future will continue to spend a lot of time with facility planning and funding as we just

135talked about. Finally, I just want to thank our families and community members for their engagement and feedback on the survey. Your partnership remains an important part of the success of our schools from the donations that we talk about each month with our recent gifts to the district to the information and feedback you give us on things like this community survey that just took place. So again, Thank you, we could not do it without you, and that is my report. Are there any questions? All right, our next agenda item is the informational items that are discussed by exception only. Are there any items the board members would like to discuss? Hearing none we'll move on to the superintendent's report mark Thanks, Scott a couple different things first of all the months of April and May are

136really busy we kicked off the month of May by Mourning the loss of Meg Wartman and wanted to just highlight and thank all the board members that had a chance to attend that I know some of you were very close with Meg Meg was a dear friend and amazing asset to this community if you're interested in making a donation to the scholarship fund that's been set up with the elmbrook education foundation you can click on that link or scan that qr code and that will get you to the donation page i am really happy to report that that number is over forty thousand dollars already so thank you to the generosity in this community and thank you to the wartman family for allowing us to be a part of mike's life Many of you were

137in attendance actually all of you were in attendance at the Brookfield Central most influential educator event This is another indication of the amazing things happening in this district This is where our top ten GPAs and our five biggest GPA movers in the system are asked to Recognize and invite the most influential educator in their life to be presented through the foundation's dinner and gift program The foundation sponsors this. We will be hosting Brookfield East Program on May 26th, which is around the corner. The month of May flies by. The months of April and May also include our celebration known as the Engaged in Excellence, and here's a chance for us to recognize a couple different things. First of all, I want to thank Chris Thompson and the entire communications team for pulling together what was

138an awesome, awesome presentation. We had a wide variety of things, including the highlight of... The artificial intelligence superintendent. Appreciate their ability to make fun of me. That's a great picture, by the way. It's better than the real-life example. We also had a chance to honor our retirees, which is on the next slide. This is hundreds of years of service cumulative across the district, and we thank all of these folks for their incredible contributions to the district. If you click on that link for the tribute video, you can see some of the amazing things that people had to say about this incredibly talented group of educators. If you're looking for a great summary, Mikey's Minute highlighted the Engage in Excellence event, and you can see that by clicking on that link. This is also spring concert

139season. This is a picture of a number of different events across the district. The program on the left-hand side is a picture from Wisconsin Hills concert, and then Burleigh's concerts are featured in the photos on the right-hand side. Thank you to all of our families for getting the musicians to the concert performances on time, and also to all of our students for executing flawless, flawless concerts. It's an amazing time of year. Speaking of that, it's also a time of year where we see our choirs perform at a number of different sporting events, including the Brewer Game. This picture is of the Pilgrim Park Choir Concert that was done at the Brewer Game recently. We also had a chance to do some recognition of some other folks, and we were asked to join the Brookfield Police

140Department for their recognition of Rick Domach, who is being recognized through a letter of appreciation and commendation for his work around school safety and security in our school system, his partnership with the Elmbrook School District and the Brookfield Police Department. Fabulous. Had a chance to attend Dixon High Interest Day. I know some of you have parented kids that are at the elementary age, but the High Interest Day is a day that the energy is at an all-time high in the building. And this is a picture of the kickoff event at Dixon where they had the Milwaukee Flyers in for BMX and jump ropes. Congratulations to our two Herb Kohl fellowship winners. Pictured on the left hand side is Allison Urban, pictured on the right hand side is Amy Kosmider. Allison was also named one of

141the five teachers of the year by the Department of Public Instruction which is highlighted on the next photo you can see. this was a picture from yesterday jill underly and other representatives from dpi are in the picture along with me and kelly sesterniak the principal from pilgrim park allison is in the middle she'll be vying for the full teacher of the year honor that will be announced at the january state education convention which many of you will attend We did receive news from Moody's, which does the bond rating for schools across this country, and Elmbrook falls into the 1% of public schools in the country that are receiving a AAA bond rating. A lot of that is due to this board's work around fiscal management, and we really appreciate the efforts that have gone into

142finding ways to stretch dollars and do capital investments as opposed to deferred maintenance, which often is the answer in some school districts. we have also done some refinancing of debt over the lifetime of the high school referendum we refinanced that debt to save taxpayers three million dollars in interest so congratulations to everybody for that We also celebrate Arbor Day and this is a picture of Brookfield Elementary School where the city of Brookfield picks one of our schools to plant trees at every year. The mayor comes out. You can see Mayor Ponto on the right-hand side. Our first graders are singing a song to the city people that are here to help us with tree planting and you can see the shovels the city brings and I think they planted three different trees that day. In

143the village Elm Grove planted... gob of trees on Tonawanda's property. There are probably 25 trees that they put in the ground, but we're very thankful for the Village and City of Brookfield for their participation in Arbor Day. We had a reference to this from one of our student reps. We hosted the 60th annual Elmbrook Art Show that was on display up until last week at the City Library. We thank the City of Brookfield Library for hosting. This is the 60th annual show. The picture on the far right is the picture that received the Superintendent Art Award because it brought me back to my childhood when I had a boombox that I carried on my shoulder. At the engagement excellence. We also highlighted two community partners Thank you to the Brookfield Senior Center and discover come

144Discovery Commons for being community partners Also want to recognize Burleigh elementary school in Pilgrim Park for being schools of recognition This is an elite award for schools that have high performance and also high student growth And just a reminder, I think we're on the tail end of this, but Pilgrim Road is still closed. I saw that they put the final coat of asphalt on. Now they're probably just waiting for lining. So we should be open in time for the May 22nd deadline that they promised us they would be open. That will change everything again for the last few weeks of school because our transportation system will once again be disrupted. But thank you to everybody for being involved in that. And also thank you to Mrs. Wolf's class for their contributions to the art that's

145on display in the back of the room. The artists from Brookfield Elementary School create some amazing work. So thank you to everybody involved with that. That concludes my report. Are there any questions? All right. Sam's gone. Can I get a motion to adjourn? thank you cheryl cheryl and second by dean all those in favor of returning please say aye aye aye thank you we are adjourned