001Good evening I'd like to call this meeting to order the required public notice of this meeting was sent to community newspapers incorporated Metropolitan Press on March 20th 2026 and post 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 let the roll call show that all board members are present with the exception of Cheryl Milnes who is joining by speakerphone hi Cheryl Hello. Okay, good. I want to make sure we had you. Would you please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
002Thank you. May I have a motion to approve the agenda? So moved. Thank you. We have a motion by Jean and a second by Preetha. Is there any discussion on the agenda? Hearing none all those in favor of approving the agenda, please say aye aye aye any opposed thank you that carries on voice vote and Brings us to I believe our first to do we? Consent first. Okay. Our first agenda item is the consent agenda I'll start with a motion to approve the consent agenda and then I'll ask if there are any items board members would like to pull Can I get a motion? Think of a motion by Jean and a second by Sam. Is there any items the board members like to pull you want to pull minutes? Oh Are you joking? Yeah,
003there's two I know Okay, all those in favor of proving the consent agenda, please say aye aye Any opposed? Thank you that carries on voice vote Brings us to our first action item in the evening the 20-year facilities planning specifically the community survey approval chris thank you follow-up conversation to our conversation two weeks ago regarding the survey we've been through several more rounds of edits and i guess i'll point out two things about the survey just in general Our school perceptions the company we're using to help deploy and develop and deploy the survey We talked a lot about Using really plain language not edgy speak keep it simple really, you know, the most important thing are the are the Kind of the finance questions or the funding questions that are on here. And so if
004we can create a very simple narrative that flows over several pages More people will stay engaged and hopefully participate which is the ultimate goal of the survey. So so Some of the edits were around just plain language. We did talk at our last meeting about how do we present an accurate picture of the financial information and We did discuss that with school perceptions Again, the the goal is to get feedback on really that the two big questions based on the two or four school scenarios and and whether our community would support an increase of you know 11 cents per thousand dollars on the mill rate or keeping the mill rate at the same level that it currently is as opposed to letting the debt fall off and having taxes reduced by 56 cents so so
005that's the that's the focus last time we talked about making sure that it was clear that principle and interest is included in the 56 cents which it is I don't know if it's clear or not but it is included in the 56 cents and so that is called out in the survey but then we also we when we considered talking about the principal plus the interest, kind of the total cost of the mill rate impact, that gets really complicated for people, I think. And so, A, if we start talking about $160 million total cost referendum, $100 million for the investment in the property, $60 million of interest, you know... We didn't want people to get lost in the numbers, and we also know that those numbers may change over the next few months. Right now,
006because we're planning out so far from, you know, like a November question, you know, we use conservative estimates so that we could be, so that we could have confidence in those numbers that they could, A, represent real construction costs so that the work that we need to do could be done and B would account for any interest rate fluctuations from when they were provided in January February all the way out to November so they're conservative but obviously at the closer we get to November the more the tighter those numbers can be and so I think what could happen is we put the survey out there depending on the feedback if there was support for one or both of the options the board could then decide to move forward with an option for a referendum question
007we would then reassess those estimates create the new rate interest rate range and make sure that our construction costs are still good and then and then put that into the Referendum question at the end of the day So we didn't want to put out a number now and then have it change two months later based on revised estimates And we also didn't want to run with those revised estimates all the way through November knowing that they may be you know We might get feedback based on the interest rates are too high, why did you use 5.25, why didn't you use 4.75, or whatever it might be. So the closer we get to November, the better. So that's why we didn't include any other data, I guess, any financial data, but really, again, focusing on the
008key questions of... the funding support there are also other ways besides the referendum question where we can communicate financial information and so should we move forward with a referendum we will have a whole communications campaign that puts out a lot of factual information obviously about the question the needs the finances and we can expand on it in different ways that don't necessarily have to come through a referendum question With that I'll take any other any questions, I guess or Thank You Chris before we start with board member questions and comments. We do have a request to speak Elizabeth Tice the resident of the district has requested to speak to us Thanks. Hi. My name is Elizabeth Tice. I'm a resident of the district. I'm representing myself I attended for facility tours in February and it
009was clear that these four schools have facility needs Some of these needs are significant and exceed what can be paid for within the district's capital maintenance and improvement budget. I think it is wise to engage the community at this point to view their appetite for funding capital projects. By engaging the taxpayers now, the district is being transparent about its 20-year facility plan. By hiring an outside firm to facilitate the survey, the school district is removing itself from the process so that it can capture accurate and impartial data. I am concerned that some members of this school board are inserting a position about the potential referendum to the public. With fear-mongering tactics, they are establishing a bias within the community, all while the school district is trying to gather unbiased opinions from the community with this
010survey. As board members, you must be prudent with how much you ask for. You need to gather data from the community and listen to the taxpayers, which is exactly what will be accomplished with this survey. Thank you. Thank you, Elizabeth. Board member questions and comments? This is Cheryl. I have a question. Okay, go ahead, Cheryl. On the one statement in the unique opportunity I had, the first bullet, If the community approves a new building referendum, the district could invest up to $85 million in facility upgrades without increasing the debt portion of the school property tax mill rate, which includes both principal and interest. I guess what I'm asking is the which includes both principal and interest, is that referring just to the mill rate and not to the $85 million in facility upgrades? Chris in
011that sentence I read it as tax mill rate which includes principal and interest but not the 85 million no correct good question Sam yeah thank you Cheryl for bringing that up and thanks for that Chris I see how that was written but I feel like that is very misleading Because when you're looking at that most people don't 99% of people in this community don't understand mill rate So they're gonna look at that 85 million and believe that's gonna include principal and interest. So Should we just take it out? I mean we added it based on the feedback from our last conversation I want to correct you on that because I that wasn't why we added it. We were not talking about the mill rate We were talking about the actual and understand it. It was
012an opportunity for us to talk about that That's where we thought it would best fit but i don't mind removing it either that wasn't the intent of what was brought up at the last meeting it was more of explaining what the true cost is to the taxpayers i understand um so i think it needs to be in there i just think it needs to be rewarded and and and either either say which doesn't include principal which doesn't include interest um because i think that would be more honest because it that 85 million does not include interest. I would agree with that. I think we need to be just very specific that the 85 million does not include the interest. I think that the 85 million doesn't include the principal and interest well it includes a
013principal I guess but not the interest but when you're talking about the mill rate and the rest of the conversation when you look at the mill rate history is based on the mill rate and it is the truth that the mill rate contains the principal and the interest I don't think this is being untruthful or misleading it's it's a fact that we're taking an 85 million dollar debt and the amount that's indicated in the mill rate includes both the principal and the interest it's pretty straightforward now are people schooled in mill rate They aren't, but that's, as we heard Jordan talk at F&O yesterday, that is how this information is communicated for a number of reasons to level a playing field, if you will. So it seems to me that it's a reasonable approach, and
014if Jordan were here, he might agree. Well, Jordan's in the business of... You turned it off. Thank you. Jordan's in the business of making money, so I don't necessarily know I value his opinion on how we portray a survey. And I agree with you. I know the mill rate includes the principal and interest. I understand that, but the community doesn't. So we're putting out a survey that the community is going to read very differently. And I'm sorry, but that's just not open and transparent to the community. So I could not support this unless we get rid of the mill rate or be more specific about that, because I'll read that and I understand it. I didn't know what a mill rate was three years ago prior to joining this board, and I bet you 99.9%
015of the community doesn't understand that either, and they're going to look at that and think, oh, it's only $85 million they're asking us, when in reality it's actually much closer to $154 million after we saw those numbers yesterday. The other thing that doesn't include in this, which I'm not asking us to include this, but it doesn't include what we'll lose on... The revenue that we'll get from the state that will be a deduction towards the community which will then be another burden on the taxpayers which According to Jordan's numbers is about 14 million dollars more. So I I get what you were doing but that was not the intent of it all because we were talking about the statement that was used the truth and lending which a truth and lending statement says this is
016what your principal and total interest payments will be over the life of that loan this isn't anywhere close to that we're just saying this is included in the mill rate which most people understand so I can't support that so either we get rid of that which or modify that or not get rid of it because I think we need to leave it in there it says they maybe put an asterisk like we said 85 million does not include the interest i'd be fine with that what if we said your taxes won't change Because that's really the bottom line is your taxes will not change from what they are today that that finance school debt and In the future or if we looked at a hundred million, it'll go up by that 11th cents or $66
017on a six hundred thousand dollar home But if we said here your taxes will not change We're just continuing the debt as it is today or you'd have a tax refund if we didn't do it I think that's somewhere in here Would that do it? No, because the survey everywhere says the taxes won't change. It's already in the survey multiple different areas. So that isn't the point of the $85 million, in my understanding. I want to know what the actual money we're asking of the community or let the community know this only includes the principal. That's the honest and transparent way I see it, and I think that that's what we would need. But when you say, Sam, I'm sorry. We had an extensive discussion about this at F&O yesterday. This sentence, as I read
018it, is very clear. It says 85 million in-facility upgrades. That's all part of the same phrase. That doesn't talk about a total cost. It refers to a mill rate which does include both principal and interest. I don't know that I can say as Sam confidently says that 99.9% of the community doesn't understand the mill rate when every referendum in every community is translated into this is your impact on per thousand dollars of your home that's not unknown and it's used universally when we look at referenda Jordan from Baird validated that observation last night. I also don't want to start tinkering in this, which is why I asked for two weeks to see the final final to approve. I assume this has been approved by our experts at School Perceptions. They do this all the time.
019We don't do this all the time. And I would strongly urge us to leave it exactly as it is because we don't have an exact amount. Jean, I don't think we can say your taxes won't change because we don't know what will be approved. And if we put a sentence like that in writing, we can't promise that because we don't know what will ultimately be approved or when. I think this is a scenario that provides, as it says, a unique opportunity to take a debt that's being paid off and to do $85 million in facility upgrades without increasing the debt. portion that you're currently paying i don't know how much clearer we could make it i trust the intellect of the community to understand or find out the answers to that if they don't understand
020it and i very strongly believe we should not make any changes that that muddy the waters i um personally i could see it going both ways the survey is very good it's well written and chris i do appreciate you taking the feedback last time When I read this sentence, I read it more as I think school perceptions or Chris read it. Maybe that's just my familiarity with The mill rate but to me there's the phrase if the community approves a new building referendum the district could invest up to I was reading the 85 million as being facility at the cost of facility upgrades Because that's in that phrase. So that's how I read it. So I've appreciate this conversation to look at it in slightly different light I honestly don't know I mean I appreciate
021the wanting to keep it simple I don't know that putting an asterisk at the end of that sentence I think the asterisk would if added would go after both principal and interest asterisk estimated 85 million plus you know you could just do a simple phrase at the bottom of the page estimated 85 million plus what was the interest that you quoted 65 But we don't have a firm number and that was verified last night. That's where the estimate but I also would not recommend an asterisk All right an asterisk means that you're trying to hide something in small print at the bottom of a page Either say it or don't say it would be my suggestion and then Call it again that the most important thing is that they're understanding that 85 million dollars would
022be invested in our facility Without an increase over their debt portion of their current tax rate period And the other thing is there's a graphic right there to illustrate the tax impact. And so even if it's confusing, I think the graphic helps to illustrate our mill rate history. So I'm just not in agreement that this is complicated to understand. Yeah, I understood it. But again, I don't know if that's just my experience. Oh, Cheryl, did you have a comment, Cheryl? I don't think, I would prefer, and when I was talking about it last month, I was talking about putting the $85 million principal plus the interest. Because that's what a lot of people, when they look at when they're borrowing, they're looking at principal and interest. They're not looking at mill rate. And I believe
023that is a much, more valid way to look at it. And so that was my intent, was that I would like to see the 85 million plus interest and the 100 million plus interest. Sam, were you first and then Wes? Wes first, then Sam. So... Mean if we were gonna do anything with it, I would just remove that last piece if that's where we really wanted to go But again, I really struggle like I understand desire to have interest included But if interest rates at 10% in the next four, I don't have her many months We would be wrong on this as well I don't anticipate that's gonna occur but I don't know how we can put something in that we don't know at this time. We know what we anticipate the number being from
024a construction you know that's our best estimate so i i think it i think it's really hard to get to that level at this point um and put something in there that we just we really don't know if that's going to be the right numbers well then i have a hard time with page five where we have let me read the exact section notes about these estimates The calculations include both principal and interest. The estimates assuming a 20 year bonds at a conservative interest rate between 5 and 5.25%. So we're literally putting an estimate and a projected interest rate there. But then all of a sudden we're saying, well we have no idea what the interest payment will be, so let's not put it in there. But we put an estimate right there. So I
025just think this is double speak. And to me this is hiding. And that's what's happening here. Mary I'd refer us back to the financial background page when we refer to the previous referendum as a sixty two point one million dollar referendum we use the language of the amount of improvement dollars in all of the past and future scenarios in this entire document so once we start tinkering then we're gonna be opening up to tinkering a whole bunch of things and I just think it's unwise um i think the inflammatory language has been played on the table tonight about this being dishonest i completely disagree with and we are available to answer questions should we move forward but i don't know how this would be interpreted as being anything less than as transparent as we can
026be at this time and that was corroborated last night at the fno meeting in an extensive conversation We do have a request to speak and then I'd entertain some motions or a motion. Angie Pingel, a resident of the district, would like to speak to the board. Good evening. I'm Angie Pingel, a resident of the district. I have a couple of things on this survey that I just wanted to mention. The first page, you're touting your fiscal responsibility. Fiscal responsibility. Okay. Let's keep that in mind. And then on the second page, you're saying that there is no deferred maintenance in the district. I don't know, but I attended almost all of those facility tours, and I saw, in my opinion, what I would label as deferred maintenance. How long has the Pilgrim Park classroom been sinking?
027I don't know, just one example off the top of my head. Then I listened to this debate here in the boardroom about saying that... You're transparent. But you can't say you're transparent when you're not being transparent. And there is a huge difference between an $85 million principal debt and a total cost of $154 million. And to me... You're trying to keep that number low because you don't want people to know what the whole cost is because you have less chance of getting that referendum passed. So, in my opinion, you would want to be truthful and transparent and list the total projected cost somewhere in this survey because I guarantee you it will come out in the public comments about this referendum. and it will not portray you in a positive light when people are referred
028to this board meeting and they can see the discussion you're having right now about keeping information from your constituents. Thank you. Thank you, Angie. Scott, I move approval of the 20-year facilities plan community survey as presented. I'll second. Thank you. There's a motion and a second. Prita, seconded that. Roll call vote, please. Comments, questions before we vote? Okay, hearing none, we have a request for a roll call vote on this. Christine. Mary Wacker. Yes. Brita Curdiara. Yes. Jean Lambert. Yes. Wes Silla. Yes. Cheryl Milnes. No. Sam Hughes. No. Scott Wheeler. Yes. Five yeses, two noes. Thank you. That carries on roll call vote. Thank you, Chris. That concludes our action items for the evening and brings us to our first discussion item, which is still Chris, the school start time. Michelle Schmitz is going to
029join me she was with us at our work session Michelle fills several roles including remembering all the things that I've forgotten about school start time transportation and complicated matters so I appreciate her being here tonight I'm gonna move through this presentation fairly quickly because this is not most of it is not new information and then we'll get to the discussion part so Just some basic background some of these numbers we did update these are bus rate numbers and route cost numbers So you're aware of that? These are the numbers we're paying in this year's contract But our tier 1 tier 2 tier 3 hasn't changed and our ridership is very similar year-over-year Private parochial we did update these numbers too for last year's ridership numbers because it is less so we do have about a
030thousand private parochial students that are eligible to ride at these five schools and about half of them participated in transportation at least one time during the year when we counted them so And you can see the breakdown between the different schools and how we allocate buses to those schools and just as a reminder Brookfield Christian even though they have a hundred and four riders That's not to provide personal transportation service to their riders it's really to Put their riders into small groups of students that can be quickly dropped off at their homes so that they can get to our elementary routes Next so some so our buses pick them up kind of in between our high school and elementary routes again run their routes as quickly as possible and then they end up at our
031elementary so that's why there's so many buses to care for those students the original start time committee grounded our work grounded their work in the research and and there is I think it is important to note that there is some research that demonstrated academic improvements with later start times also some research on positive mental health benefits from more sleep so those would be the two Learnings that I would highlight from the research and we've talked about kind of the rest of the data and we'll talk about a little bit more of the same data and in a second so Just for context those districts around us. You can see that majority or all of them start their high schools first that would not be in line alignment with the research, but it is what it
032is and and then you can also see that some of them their their elementary schools times do start all the way up to nine o'clock 905 in some cases so just so you see the range around us co-curriculars I think is a big factor in decision-making certainly was a point of conversation during the committee's work you can see the breakdown here of just absences terms t1 t2 t3 those are four quarters throughout the year and then number of students that missed you can see one to eleven on the bottom and then the actual periods that they missed is on the bottom right period for the last period of the day obviously the most missed as students get out some of that is a function of when competitions start You know, certainly if you have a
033whole-day golf event, you're going to be gone the whole day. Or if you're going to a 4 o'clock, 4.30 softball game, track meet, cross-country race, you might need to get out a little bit earlier, depending on where that race is, so then you would get out. So some of it is a function of the start time and certainly the distance where you're going. But the other piece is sometimes we have to run buses early. Earlier than we might need to so that they can take the students drop them off and get back to run our routes And so just the kind of the driver shortage and the shortage on buses Causes that I would say fourth period absences to be greater than they might be if you had plenty of drivers plenty of buses I
034don't know what percentage that is, but it's certainly a function of that DPI has minute requirements our requirements that our students need to be in school you can see that our kindergarteners are crushing it they're well over the DPI requirement of 6 437 hours but one through five at elementary we are well beyond the yellow is is whether it's how far beyond we are of the our requirements so 58 hours beyond what DPI requires grade six DPI counts grades one through six together so when we pull grade six from our middle school out they are also well beyond and then you can see the difference we have two or close to three days at the high school which allows us then when we have snow days like we did a week and a half ago
035in the middle of March thank you Dr. Hansen Walk zones we've talked about that We did have a study done by the Sheriff's Department I think they determined in most cases we could have walk zones certainly for our high school students also for middle school we with some parameters you can see the criteria on the left would be the Parameters up to two miles. That's the state law or statute We wouldn't ask students to cross really busy streets like Blue Mound or Capitol. That would be a bad idea. Railroad tracks also seems like a logical boundary. And there may be some other smaller exceptions, but for the most part, two miles works. If we apply that criteria to high schools and middle schools, about 20% of students would not be eligible for busing. In our
036last work session at the end of January, we had... We talked about scenarios. We also talked about constraints the constraints that I heard most pronounced where Let's minimize the budget impact. Let's keep elementary close to their current start time and and then let's not Let's minimize the impact on our private and parochial school start times. So those are the three three of the constraints I did I was also we were you also asked us to consider what if we did walk zones at all levels which I'll speak to in a second and and an administrative Consideration that we kind of added to our conversation was what if we shortened the middle school or high school day? And I'll speak to that during one of the scenarios as well. So one of the preferred scenarios was
037scenario two in this one I present two different ways or we present two different ways 2 and 2a the difference is in this in scenario 2 the high school is the first tier middle school second in scenario 2a the middle school is first and the high school second so just so we're clear on that Two things about this with the high school starting first picked a start time of 735 there needs to be at least 35 minutes between our tiers That's cutting it really close to say that our buses especially on the back end could Pick students up run a route or drop them off and then get to their next site That's a really tight timeline, but that's the one we're proposing So high school start time is 735 in this example you'll see
038in the pink So it's 20 minutes earlier than where they currently start. We also shorten the day at high school. We have some flexibility in the passing time lunch minutes at our high schools that our high school teams felt like could be reduced which would then get us out earlier at the end of the day which then positively impacts elementary on the back end of all of that as you run your tiers so that's a benefit to putting high school first if we were to also shorten the day in this case again not aligned to research but It is an option we did not do that at middle school You've had several conversations about the middle school schedule. They put a lot of thought and time into their schedule They don't feel like there is
039flexibility. We already have really short passing periods at middle school And because we have more transitions because it's not a block schedule We felt like their length of the school day had to stay the same so you can see the rest of how this impacts then at middle school and elementary elementary end time and 3 58 we also pushed this one we wouldn't have to start at 9 o'clock we could still start at 8 50 if we wanted to it would just extend their day instead of five minutes it would be by 15 minutes and because we were so far over in hours we felt like maybe that wasn't necessary some of the feedback that we heard from staff we conducted listening sessions at all of our schools our senior leadership team did With the
040high schools one of the benefits to having our start time as it is now is that many co-curricular activities meet before school and felt like a 7 15 start or a 7 o'clock start was reasonable and students made the effort to get there for that start time and and was a Great benefit to the current start time at high school That can happen. You know all those other high schools that I showed earlier have earlier start times It just means that if you're participating in co-curriculars and you meet at the start of the day So that you don't compete with sports activities at the end of the day You're getting there at 630 645 for student council meeting and it it happens it happens to my own children But it's maybe less desirable The other
041thing we heard during the other theme we heard I think in our listening sessions not I think I know we heard from our elementary staff was was an Extended day is not desirable for elementary students it already feels like a long day and to make it any longer with you know just because of busing there really is no they didn't see any added value in in the extending the day for elementary students period Scenario 2a again middle school flipped this time we don't change the length of the high school day because we can't because we still need 35-36 minutes between the time middle school ends and the time high school ends so there was no benefit to letting high school out earlier because it's be waiting for the buses then and elementary is about the
042same nine o'clock start four o'clock end This is obviously the same the benefit to this co-curricular benefit that I just mentioned of co-curricular activities beforehand and Keeps our current schedule. It's less disruptive to high school the next one a Two-tier two-tier solution. So this is middle middle school first high school second Times Little change for high school Less change for elementary on the back end. They're still able to dismiss then about 3.50 seven minute change from current Certainly a benefit to the middle school students 32 minute later start time It's more efficient buses run through our neighborhoods twice picking up students not three times And but the big concern is the cost so which I detail here And really didn't change like we tried to find ways to reimagine this and the cost we just
043couldn't get there and even with 20% reduction so With no walk zones you can see the cost on the right up to 5.75 million which would be almost a million dollars over our current expense. With a walk zone it's a $600,000 increase but as we discussed during the work session it's a little. wonky to use a really technical word of a walk zone because if you do a two mile radius around a high school and say anybody within that radius is not eligible and then a different two mile radius for a middle school you might have a family with a high schooler and middle schooler and one might be eligible to ride and the other might not be in that case and so and then if you start to make exceptions then your costs start
044to go up because you're adding more riders so Walk zones don't work too well in this two-tier model because our schools aren't close together Some districts like Hamilton middle schools right down the road from the high school and there you could kind of universally apply walks on rules if you had them but or Pewaukee for that matter But not so in our in our case where our middle schools are far away from our high schools Summary at the end just to give you a quick Quick wrap up of the scenarios discussed did I miss anything? Nope so far so good Memory still intact happy to take questions or listen to discussion. This is a discussion I'm sir their questions or comments. We do have one request to speak after word discussion So I'll take that
045at the end questions or comments Sam I make a comment Just first of all Chris and Michelle and your team what an incredible amount of work this is and this has been it's very clear you guys have thought through lots of details and and you kept going back to the table over and over and over and over and over and just want to acknowledge that and appreciate that very much and also the community members that were involved with that that's they committed a lot of time to help us get to that point so that's my main comment about that i think right now as it stands i could i could support scenario two I think that to me it makes the most sense and gets more into alignment of what the study says I do
046appreciate all the work that you've done and going back to the drawing board after board commentary multiple times that's pretty amazing the work that you've all done I'm looking at i'm looking at before school activity at the high school level and you talked about it being substantial do you have a definite idea of what that looks like well we have you want to go mark it's very seasonal it depends on the practice sessions that are in play and weather outside the most common one that occurs on a regular basis is going to be student council which meets before school at both but choirs i mean you know we have 60 to 65 co-curricular offerings at each school 20 25 of them are our sports related so between 30 and 40 I mean pre-through is probably
047a better testament to that with students who have lived it but I think many of them will meet if they don't if they aren't able to meet during resource which is also an option during the school day if they need more time or they need more frequency kind of commitment level a different commitment level from the students then they'll meet before school choirs you know small groups small musical groups I think a lot of them meet before Key Club I'm also interested to know how far out of alignment we are with the research in terms of the high school start time 2 and 2a unfortunately look like scenarios that the task force criticized roundly as trading one group's problems for another group's problems. The research about adolescents isn't just about 6th, 7th, and 8th graders.
048It's about high school age students as well. And in fact, much of the harm that comes from sleep deprivation has to do with inattentive driving, which is high school students. you can't separate the impact of sleep deprivation only to the middle school just because our biggest biggest problem is the middle school 718 start time but this came up time and time again at the task force and there was a but you tell me if I'm accurate Chris there was corroboration don't just trade one group's problem for another especially among students and especially noting the fact that it's four years versus three years of doing that earlier start time we already know that first block students are pumping energy drinks and We heard a lot of information about their difficulty getting to school on time in
049the first place the other thing I want to say about co-curriculars like Student counseling key club is those don't meet every day so you have to keep in mind that Extracurriculars that might have a monthly meeting might meet before school But that doesn't mean they're getting to school at 630 every single day during swim practice Maybe the swim team goes in and swims early. I had a kid that did that but There was also a lot of discussion at the task force about doing right for the majority of students rather than focusing in on co-curriculars as significant as encouraging people to make this choice. The research that we reviewed Talks about many reasons why kids aren't getting enough sleep. It's not just when their school day starts but time and time again People who've done
050this research they the easiest way that you can do something is to make sure you don't make them be at school too early So there are a lot of things we can't control about why kids aren't getting enough sleep what we can control is encouraging them not to have to get up too early just to get to school when it just Isn't biologically in their control to manage as well as we would hope as far as these Tier two and two a then looking at high school starting at 735 doesn't seem that Far removed from middle school or starting at 718 and that troubles me I don't know why they couldn't They couldn't start. I'm looking at a big gap between the end time of 2.48 and 3.24 or 2.41 and 3.23. Can't that earliest
051tier start later and end later and still make the second tier? Because it looks like that's more than 35 minutes in between. Well, it's 36 minutes in 2A, so no. And then the criteria. Applied for the middle school schedule of keeping the middle school schedule the length of day that it is now then determine the end of day In scenario two then I have a problem with that and I understand that there's a significant cost to the two-tier system But I will just reiterate on behalf of the task force. It was Consensus that a three-tier option was not a good choice that they were wholeheartedly in favor of a two-tier option I understand that the cost is there, but I know that We're here to do what's right for kids and find a way to
052pay for it. And so I stand in favor of 5B. I'm quite finished with my questions. If I could ask one more question. Jean, could I just say one thing to your question? The only thing I would add to Mary's response around the research would be that, you know, the middle school student is the time for most. preteens teens when your circadian rhythm changes and so you could assume that some middle school students are still operating on the kind of the elementary biological model where they are still naturally getting up early and would would be fine with a 7.35 start time and then others as that circadian rhythm changes, then others would certainly want to start having more time. to sleep in the morning or later start time would benefit them so so that's what
053you know if you're talking about impacting when Mary said you know all of your high school students will probably be in that window then of circadian rhythm changed and the need for more and later sleep versus some of your middle school students so if you think about the differences between 2 and 2a the research might say 2a is a little bit better but only because it's impacting maybe not a hundred percent of all middle school students not because of current model or anything else like that The other comment that I have has to do with that fourth period extracurricular misses I was pretty shocked by the number of misses at the end of the day although it's at both schools so when you split it in half and you split it down over every day
054of the year dilutes it certainly out of 300 and some kids in each high school class no this is across this is across the whole building we're talking about these fourth period misses so it's all like 1,200 kids It's 2,600 kids both high schools Right okay right thank you for correcting me on that still it's a big number and it would seem to me that if that's where more of the missed period at the end of the day is happening that if we pulled that back a little bit we may be missing less instruction for kids having to leave to go to an extracurricular so There was some feedback from our high school teachers during our listening sessions of wanting to kind of correct that fourth period absences and both ends because first and fourth
055were issues but that number if I'm correct is about three and a half absences per pupil if you broke it down by enrollment in a year it's not that 7,000 kids are gone every day right it's across the whole year and some of that is only part of the period if the bus is leaving at 2 30. thank you that's my questions thank you jean other comments i have a question So with the elementary time going later, what time would the student that has to be on the bus the longest, what time would they get home from school? Well, ideally, when all our buses are running as scheduled, they would all arrive somewhere between 355 if let's say we dismiss it for just to keep it simple 355 to 410 and then you board as
056fast as you can and then most of our elementary routes run between 28 28 to 35 minutes probably is the best estimate some goal a few goal a little bit longer than that So I mean you would be looking at closer to 5 o'clock I think it's important to say you know the concerns there every year there are concerns raised about middle schoolers going to their bus routes in the dark in the wintertime it does get dark before five o'clock you know as you get closer to five o'clock and and that would also be a concern for families obviously I think a lot of them have been answered. And I'm not sure, Chris, if you're even able to tell us this, but if we do an earlier start time for high school, would that eliminate
057the need for students to leave the fourth hour for some of these other game starts after school? would they still be missing a portion of the period? It depends. I don't have a good answer on that. Again, there's three factors that would decide that. Time of the start, event distance, and availability of drivers. So those all play a factor. So I don't think I could say definitively what percentage would be reduced. I think teachers just felt like 20 more minutes of students in class is a value. from the ones that share their concerns. How disruptive is that in a class when a bunch of students are leaving the class mid-period? Mark, do you want to talk about that? I think the safest way to answer that is to think about which sport you're referencing, because
058if it's a lower, younger level sport, you might have 12 to 15 to 30 kids getting up and leaving the class. If they're all in English 9, that could be very disruptive. If they're dispersed and distributed across multiple courses, it's probably not going to be as disruptive. Okay, thank you. Thanks Cheryl Sam just one quick question I guess so would co-curriculars if the high school is now getting out 28 minutes earlier with some of them just then move to the afternoon Is that a likely scenario for the activities and clubs? Yeah, I mean I their options are go earlier. Yeah start 645 or something like that or resource if that's an option, you know for the larger clubs, it's not or figure out after school or Something else it seems like the clubs and would
059figure it out. I mean one way or another It's not like it's gonna be clubs are gonna end because of this change right? That's fair to say I don't nobody's gonna end. I think they will figure it out You know, we just said we have strong participation in our club We have nine, you know 90 plus percent of our students are in a one or more club or activity and and Most are in several as you would expect so it's it would be Somewhat disruptive freezer West I mean so for me looking at the options, I think you know I share some Concerns or I think you know and we're restricted in what we have we're limited You know, I think based on the research that I've seen and what was talked about and what's
060been shared I don't think any of these really get us to where would be recommended There'd be improvement for sure in some respects you know the 5b scenario the budget impact I know is a big piece of the puzzle here and so understanding how that would be possible I know there was one at one point of discussion as to whether we would disrupt other schools and we avoided that as one of the built-in pieces and so I'm still cognizant of the fact of when we're trading off Trading one problem for another. I mean, I think I mean two A's Still moves middle school back scenario two I mean if it is consistent with the high schools that were presented and it seems like those are probably comparable districts you would say Chris because they aren't
061in they don't have Some of the like for instance like a whitefish Bay or Nicolet or some place like that that might have more can like be more condensed or maybe have multiple districts within one these would be the comparable districts we probably say yeah these the districts that were on this list I don't believe we included Whitefish Bay or Wauwatosa because they're both walking districts they don't provide busing yeah so that and then they started for them what's an ideal time of eight o'clock and every ten minutes you know 8 8 10 8 20 or something like that there yeah so I mean my mind still ends with the like we should we should move towards improvement and You know, I think the options provide improvement. I think right now option two, I don't
062love that it brings in high school students 20 minutes earlier, but most of them are Many of them would drive It would definitely impact the before school activities But as Mary pointed out they're not every day so I don't know whether it's, I'd like us to just move forward and get towards voting on one of these, honestly. I could see being in favor of two, but there's not, there's, you know, I see the benefits with all of them. So I think two is the one that seems to be most acceptable to the most from what I'm hearing. So if that's kind of where everyone's landing, then I'd recommend we move forward with that and get to a vote on it. So my thoughts right now on all of these are scenario B I do appreciate
063that that has the most fidelity towards the work that the start time committee did it is moving in that direction although as Wes has pointed out doesn't really get us as far as the recommendation might have been from the start time committee my concern with that has to do with the walk zones I'm just not comfortable with with the idea that some of our kids may have to walk possibly up to two miles and how is that going to affect attendance as well so I again I mean I don't know that that's and again the cost when the budget it makes me look away from that one as much I am probably more in favor of 2a at this point I do understand that this would this would put Middle school still quite early But
064I do appreciate the time difference that it does at least a step in a direction for me so for me right now that's um That's where I said. I'll say a few things One night as we've gone through this whole process something that I'm reminded of and Mary you mentioned it There's a lot of factors that go into the length of sleep that an adolescent gets Certainly going to bed earlier Fix that problem. We just don't have any control over that and so for me the the length of sleep largely falls into the realm of families and students Picking bedtimes after school activities evening activities It's a struggle at the Wheeler house have plenty of late-night projects because a kid procrastinated their Spanish PowerPoint and suddenly Finishing that at 1030 night. I mean it just
065There's all kinds of factors that go into bedtime on any given night but again families are Probably the best place to navigate that my heart I mean Mark, how long have I been talking about this? My heart prefers option 5b this I've wanted us to move towards a two-tier bus system I think they're synergies with the high school block schedule and a middle school Kind of typical junior high schedule in terms of teaching and electives, and it does match with the research. I just can't get past the cost of a million dollars. I mean, I know it's slightly under that. I share concerns about the walk zones. I know walk zones, in my mind, would turn into drive zones, parent transportation zones or jump in with your friend. We don't really, again, at the Wheeler
066House, we haven't had to transport a lot of our high school kids over the years. They generally jump in with friends who can drive. And or drive themselves and so you get to that kind of age But I just just the cost It does make me think that another Thing will want to think about down the road because what will vote on one of these schedules But I think it is certainly going to be good for future boards and maybe the community legislative committee to reach out and work with our regional school district partners that something needs to change when I look back at that high school list if you flip back to that schedule it's interesting to me again looking at the high school start times of districts around us and I understand about
067the districts you left off and why that are don't use busing but look at all those high school start times that are 720 between 720 and 730 or so that that's to me a significant it doesn't match the research But it is significant we talked about kind of that extracurricular that I mean, these are our conference partners These are who our students are playing when they play a softball or baseball game a soccer game I mean, this is where they're going after school. Not all these districts not every time but but this is These are our partners and I think to move in the direction of the research Mary, which I like that idea ideally I think we're going to need some help regionally. So for me, because of the cost, I really can't do
0685B right now, although my heart is there, and I feel like that's the spot. So now I'm left with scenario 2 and scenario 2A. Scenario two does align with our neighboring districts again that slide we were just looking at where the high schools or sorry maybe regional districts we would say maybe not neighboring but there a start time on scenario two of our high schools around 735 that's right in the mix of, again, a lot of our regional partners. So I would be interested. I would lean that way if I felt like it was going to solve some of those problems of our after-school activities and sports. I'm not sure it will because one thing I heard Chris say, and it's a real issue. I know when my son traveled cross-country, they had to jump
069on that bus and use the bus when the bus was available, which was before they started the runs. That was, and track, those were the main things. They got to the meets pretty early. They were doing a lot of warm-ups and things. They could definitely use the time, but they had to use the bus transportation when the bus transportation was available. And because of a bus driver shortage, I'm just not sure we're going to see. I like the thought of seeing the benefit, you know, taking those kids, keeping those kids in that fourth block longer. I don't know that moving the high school start time 20 minutes earlier. So for me. I feel like a baby step in the right direction is better than no step at all. So for me, I would lean towards
0702A. Just because I look across, and the slide I'm looking at then is, well, the 2A slide, which is what? slide 11 where I again I'm looking at that green box at the bottom where the start difference for middle school is 17 minutes later high school 15 minutes later elementary school about 10 and the length of days not to at least that moves us kind of generally in that direction and a future board in five or ten years can revisit the issue Once our communities had time to adapt to this, once we've had those conversations with regional partners, I think some of those pieces are going to need to move. And maybe there's some more creative things with transportation. I don't know. I don't see that now. Maybe the transportation shortage goes away in a
071decade. Again, I don't see it, but... But you know it would be worth visiting down the road we do come back every five to seven years on curriculum Maybe this is another revisit in five to seven years once we've adapted so I'd probably lean towards to a Because I think it kind of moves us in that direction of a more reasonable start time for all but I would be fine with with two especially noting that that puts our high schools right in that range of all of our regional partners, so that's kind of where I'm at Chris just a I forgot to mention earlier you had asked in our work session what if we did walk zones for elementary and that proved to have no significant impact on our ridership really you wouldn't go too
072far out from an element for an elementary walk zone and the amount of students that live within a half mile three-quarters of a mile from our elementary schools is nominal and the because our buses hold so many elementary students you'd just be taking five, 10 students off of a bus, you'd still need to run the bus. It wouldn't save you any dollars either way. So sorry I didn't mention that earlier. Mary and then any other comments that we'll take? We do have a request to speak after. I just really feel compelled as a member of the task force and on behalf of the people that put in time to make a few summary statements here. It would be nice if it was just a family problem to get your kids to sleep early That is
073not why there's research saying that we have a problem. It is about the fact that Adolescents body clocks change and they can't shut down at that time. They also don't get up easily early. So I appreciate that you have a struggle in your home and that you think that that's where it should begin and end. I don't agree because I think we're fighting a biological issue that is really not in their hands to control or frankly as parents ours. As far as the benchmark schools that we're looking at. We're leaders here in Elmbrook people will see what we do and perhaps Use that as that catalyst that you're looking for for regional change I can't think of a district better situated to do the right thing for kids than Elmbrook and so This is a
074change that has come hard to places that have made it. It's come before this Community if not to a vote of the board many times over decades because it is a recognized hardship. the community to get kids up even before we knew the research even before there were screens and social media and a lot of other things that compete for kids time and attention and mental health and well-being so it's from that position of mental health and well-being and doing what is right for our students to be more academically successful yes they're academically successful now we don't know where the ceiling is if we're holding them back with a start time that's unrealistic. We heard repeatedly and discussed frequently at the task force how much People were pretty happy with the elementary schedule. Maybe the
075afternoon gets long. There were pros and cons of moving five minutes one way or the other, even for extracurriculars for high school. I was an extracurricular coach for 22 years. I get it. I know that that can be a hardship, and I know that kids, when we look at those big numbers, it's probably many kids in multiple activities that have multiple sports all year long. Those are choices you make when you join a co-curricular group and you gotta keep up with the work. And if we have a problem with that, it's not gonna be fixed or not fixed by our start times. We already have that problem. So I kind of take that off the table because I know that co-curriculars adapt because that's what they should do. When we had a Thursday early release
076hour for many years in this community, every club had to wait an hour to start while teachers had in service time and so there'd be kids in the halls just waiting to start practice practices sometimes run until eight or nine o'clock or later whether it's kids in the weight room or musical groups practicing or play rehearsals kids will find a way to do the things they're passionate about but that's not going to affect all 7 800 of our students we're doing the right thing for their schedules will affect 7800 all of our students and give them the opportunity to make changes maybe give parents a little bit of extra impetus to put their kids on a better schedule maybe raise awareness here what i've heard is really disappointing because we're putting a price tag on
077the right thing to do i don't think there's a lot of question that if you look at 5b we make a significant improvement to the middle school start time no we're not gonna i mean the research would say in a you you know in a utopia we'd start at nine o'clock and we'd go for five hours and we'd have an hour to be outside and we don't live in that world but we can get a lot better without changing the high school at all without changing the elementary at all the minimum disruption is 5b what we're not willing to do is invest in our kids I'm deeply disappointed I've approved a million dollars for security cameras I've approved three hundred thousand dollars for a press box I've we've found money to do the right things
078and sometimes wants very much wants and not needs and if we can't find the money to do the right thing for every kid in our district we are making that choice and I'm really disappointed in that Thank you Mary I would just add you might be advocating for 2B that changes high school start time by 15 minutes instead of 5 and 3 grades at middle school some of who haven't changed that circadian rhythm changes them 15 minutes not quite the 32 but it is only 3 grades the high school is 4 grades and by changing it 15 minutes later That is moving in the direction of the research. It's a baby step. And you're going to have kids getting home from elementary school at 4.45 and maybe later. That's a problem. It's similar. The elementary
079school schedules are similar on those two, 2A and 5B. I just, you know, I'm sorry, Gina, if I can just one final statement. I mean, we've gone around and around and around. There was a lot of skepticism about, oh, they're never going to make a change. Oh, it's always going to be about the buses. And there was so much. undeniable evidence about the need to make this change this time there was real optimism that this would happen. When we talked about making it cost neutral, I said I wasn't in support of that because I knew this couldn't be done and be cost neutral. A lot of things that are the right thing to do can't be done as cost neutral. But if we're gonna make a statement that we're gonna stand behind our kids' health
080and their academic achievement and our ability to influence that schedule to their benefit, I don't see how this is a choice. I think it's money well spent. I hear you Mary and I think in the perfect world I would love to be able to come up with a million dollars to put toward this the monies you cited were one-time capital expenses this is an ongoing every year and more expensive and another 20 bus drivers beyond what we have right now and while it is in that perfect world the thing I would love to say yeah let's do it we don't have a spare million dollars in operating funds to apply going forward but could we take that step forward as Scott suggested well and as others have suggested let's take a step forward from where
081we are now and let's improve as much as we can with the proposals that we have before us and I can get behind proposal two as well because I think it does take us forward there are some drawbacks admittedly but it does take us forward and is somewhat responsive to what in the perfect world we'd like to do but I can't at this point support looking at another million dollars in the operating budget and another 20 bus drivers when there we have a hard time finding the ones that we have right now at one point we have to decide to stop spending other people's money so maybe what we should propose is cut out the referendum and just go for operation referendum and if this is that important i mean a building can continue the
082maintenance so why not push for that okay we do have a couple of requests to speak after board discussion Elizabeth Tice, the resident of the district has requested to speak. Oh, sorry, Wes, I didn't see you raise your hand. Go ahead, Elizabeth, and kind of maybe sit right up here on the front row and Wes. Sorry. One question I did have. Are there other districts, not necessarily here, that have, like, one concern I would have is we talk about regional change. If we were to change it, let's say, in a couple years, it's not going into effect in the fall, would that keep us? Or how much do multiple disruptions, would we have any concerns about, you know, let's say regional, there's a regional push in four years from now to change it. Is that
083going to cause disruption for our students that we change it once and change it again shortly thereafter? Or do we think that that doesn't really matter? Hard to predict. I don't know that. other districts can afford to move off their models significantly and I'm not sure we studied one of one of the regions that we studied for a different way was there was a group of Northern Illinois districts that got together and they said we're all gonna start all the high schools are gonna start at 830 to 845 so they essentially they were the third tier and system but they were Union high school districts most of them in Illinois so they had kind of control over their domain and they they made it work so you know could that happen in this I mean
084maybe I've been turned to mark on that about the possibilities of that but I don't know that I would not decide based on what might happen with a lot of districts around us that we haven't even had conversations with so my name is lizabeth tice i'm a resident and i'm representing myself i was not on the start time committee but i value safety more than conveniences or sleep i mean so often as parents we do something inconvenient for the safety of our kids and so that's really my my priority and thought with all these options i mean 11 and 12 year olds We do not have streetlights in most of our neighborhoods. There's no sidewalks. Most of the school year, there's winter and snow, and kids are standing out in the street, and you have
08511- and 12-year-olds standing out there at 6.30 in the morning. Now do I want to trade that and have elementary school kids walk home? You know again, I understand the complex nature of treat, you know, I don't want to trade one problem for another but To me again sleeps the consideration cost but I think safety really needs to be up there as well Really when we look at each of these options, which one are our kids the our students the most safe for? The only other thing I'll add is with a potential referendum coming up, the finances are going to be scrutinized by the public, most definitely. And this would definitely, if we increase this expense significantly, where would it come out of the budget, first of all? Because, you know, everything's... one way or
086another and I think that this decision could come under scrutiny so I don't don't have any solutions but just things to consider thank you Thank You Elizabeth we do have a second request to speak Angie Pingel resident of the district Good evening Angie Pingel resident of the district I want to talk about option 5B and the first thing I want to say is fiscal responsibility Please stop touting how fiscally responsible you are when you're potentially going to allocate a million dollars on busting to gain 30 minutes to the middle school start time That's about 10 teachers using the most recent DPI average total compensation of full-time Elmbrook teachers Again, I'd rather have 10 teachers The other thing I want to say is that I would look very hard at the safety issues surrounding middle school
087and high school students walking up to two miles. The average middle schooler can walk two miles in 30 to 45 minutes according to the Safe Routes website. What about the youngest kids in our district getting off the bus after dark in winter? And always, during the heat of rush hour, what about the parents in our community that rely on busing and moved here because we provided busing to all students? And finally, just where in the heck are we going to get all these bus drivers anyway? Our kids are top-notch. We're among the highest performing district in the state. To use a favorite phrase of a former board member, What problem exactly are you trying to solve? How about you teach your high school students to manage their schedules? They'll need that skill as an adult
088and as a college student anyway. Thank you. Thank you, Angie. We have one last request to speak. Jen Roscoff, resident of the district. I'm John Roscoff a resident of the district I just had two points for scenario two just to consider that middle school we do get 50 minutes I believe longer in time and one thing to consider is what if we look at that and we try that scenario that is almost an hour and we take a look at what we're trying to achieve there so if it is sleep if it is the academic impact it may be Looking at the survey data of our families to understand the impact on the health of our middle schoolers Looking at the academic success after we try this for a year or two and then if
089that has been a significant impact and Potent and also looking at the impact to our high school students coming 35 20 minutes earlier Then we look at expanding that to our high school as well With that evidence and data from our own students. That would be something to consider So two things one that's a scenario that sort of gets us partway there for a subset of students and to what are the metrics? What are what problem are we trying to solve? And make sure that if we do make a change We're looking to see what that impact is and did it have the impact that we were expected to? Thanks. Thank you, Jen That concludes our middle school start time discussion item this will be back as an action item in April Is there a
090specific action we're bringing or are we just bringing options and then you'll decide And then is there anything else you need from us between now and then Mary I would ask that we not start inventing new options between now and then unless we want to start the discussion cycle all over again Because that's been a distraction Question are we just gonna come forward with are we voting on three different things options at the April board meeting is that what I'm understanding I'm just asking is there one recommendation that you're gonna start with or do you want us to put two recommendations in board Docs that you in which to let's go around maybe let's start with West will this go around is there a scenario or two that you prefer and would like to see
091I think two or two way at this point it seems like that's kind of where everyone else is so Think just to I think to a such a minimal impact I don't think we're gonna see a difference and I liked what Jen said I think that this would be a really good scenario to test it and run with it So I would just say to if we are narrowing just down to two options I would be between 2a and 5b I'm looking at two for me to a or two 5b so it sounds like they're all on the table Cheryl I would go with a scenario to Sounds great. That's clear. You heard four. I think just pick the top two that were the most. I think having three options is just going to create
092a divided board. So I think we should just narrow down to two and two A. I would ask that all options be left on the table. I'd support leaving all options on the table. We can work through that with Robert pretty fast. I said pretty fast. It's obviously opinion. Thank you, Chris. Now we have a board update great place to learn strategic objective update this is going to Emily she makes her way and grabs the mouse or the clicker I have the privilege of presenting an update on the strategy map as you know our district strategy map reports out on great place to work great place to learn and great school district and I am going to provide an update on the great place to learn components tonight So we have a tiered system of
093assessments in our organization. We look at statewide, district level, and classroom assessments. And we use the data that comes from these variety of assessments to inform universal instruction, to inform targeted interventions for students, as well as intervention and extension opportunities. And the most recent data that we have available is gathered from our students mid-year. So in our English language arts, I'll start out just with the review of the key performance indicators from our teaching and learning committee. This is data you can see on the bottom. It shows that this was information shared from spring of 2025. So our key performance indicators are all measures. from our state Wisconsin Forward assessment. And at the spring results from last year's assessments, all of our ELA data trended positively on all of our key performance indicators. So that
094was a tremendous success. And we continue to look at how do we iterate and continue to improve results for our students. So we use universal screeners in our organization and the purpose of universal screeners there's a few one of them is to look at throughout our organization grade level performance for students to help make curricular and instructional decisions and then we also make decisions specific to the needs of individual students So that's how we use our universal screening results. And we transitioned in 24-25 with the state to the AIMSweb assessment for our K1, or excuse me, our K3 students. And then this year with our fourth through eighth grade students, we've added AIMSweb as well. and the data has been really promising. So this first table shows our kindergarten and first grade results, and from
095our fall to winter, the percentage of students that are on track hitting those benchmark scores has increased. So the level of rigor increases with each of those windows. The percentage of students reaching that additional level of rigor has also gone up. And then also we've exceeded typical growth. for all of those grade levels so all of the measures that we're monitoring and then our k2 excuse me our k1 data is assessed a little differently that's why that's reported separately but our second through eighth grade ames web data also shows an overall improvement for our students from the fall to the winter. And then in every grade level, again, we've seen, we've exceeded that typical grade level growth. So lots to celebrate there. And some of the things that we attribute to that performance too, first
096of all, our focus on science of reading in our literacy instruction. So looking at... phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension, and incorporating all of those components into daily instruction. Some of our key celebrations, all of our ELA teachers are on track with the training for the science of reading. That's a state requirement for our kindergarten through third grade teachers, but we've committed to having that training for all of our K-8 teachers of ELA. And then our K-8 teacher teams continue to also look at and calibrate their writing practices. And that's not just in ELA, that's across content areas as well. But that's a big celebration and area that we continue to grow. And then we continue with next steps with that AIMS web assessment being new to learn and improve our data literacy with
097the results, along with other formative and classroom assessment data. And then through the lens of intervention and extension, we continue to focus on targeting the unique needs of each student and with the interventions put in place, monitor the impact of those interventions for students. And then some of the celebrations, we've improved our plans for students who are in an intervention that is shared with families that... is a communication tool between the school and the family and really have worked on making that a more useful and informative tool for both parties and then we've also expanded professional learning opportunities some of those throughout the year really specific to the interventions that we're delivering but we also have a variety of options over the summer that teachers are invited to engage in and the next steps include
098as well in this area looking at our data literacy and applications of the AIMS screener for students in intervention and extension to ensure that we're giving the best possible opportunities to all of our kids And then similarly in math, we also have key performance indicators. This again is spring information, as you can see noted on the bottom. And here also our teaching and learning committees, key performance indicators, all of our Wisconsin Forward trends that we were monitoring trended upward, trended positively. So a significant celebration from the spring. And we continue our momentum with math as well. So again, the same purpose, our universal screener purpose is consistent. We do use Fastbridge for our kindergarten and first grade students in math, and then AmesWeb for second through eighth grade. So for our K-1 students, the table
099on the left-hand side shows our performance in math. And overall, our performance has increased. The kindergarten scores is an area that we are focusing on. It is a different assessment than what we've used in prior years. And so our teams are digging in to understand if there's some questions regarding the assessment or if there's... some instructional moves that need to be made or a combination of both so we've been doing some learning with that that one trend downward and then in second through eighth grade our fall to winter data is also trending up in all grade levels and again the growth is exceeding the expected growth Our focus here is on what is now coined the science of math instruction, and that really looks at ensuring that students are engaging in and reaching levels of
100comprehension and then moving into fluency and accuracy with those as well. Some of the celebrations we have advanced math recovery or A... vmr training for our math teachers and 99 of our k-8 teachers have completed that and then our plc's are grade level teams that meet and look at classroom data and do instructional planning together and that work continues to gain momentum and and show results for students and then our focus on building math concept understanding and then once students have that understanding moving to speed and accuracy so that they have the cognitive availability to move on to more complex math skills and then we are in the middle of a math program evaluation so we're in our cycle for math review and that program evaluation wraps at the end of this year with potential
101to look at some resources to pilot next school year and some revisions to the curricular documents with that so you'll see more of that in the coming several months and then similarly to reading with intervention and extension we're focused on targeted opportunities for students based on their needs whether that is for intervention or for extension opportunities we continue to celebrate the improved plans for students so the plans that are in place for literacy are also in place for math that's a tool that's shared between families in the school and then also some clearer pathways for students as they transition from fifth to sixth grade and looking at those opportunities and then continuing to learn the aims assessment and to refine how we're applying that data as next steps and then finally our key performance indicator
102at the high school level we focus on the act composite score And here also in the spring, our data for our ACT composite trended up with our junior class last school year. The only data that we gather in the fall that's related to ACT is a pre-ACT for our freshman class, and that continues to be at a high level, consistently on track, a little uptick from last school year. So positive results there. and our high schools have really taken to focusing on ACT standards across the content areas within their buildings to ensure that there's instructional focus that's aligned to help improve performance on those standards which then is going to improve results on the assessment as well a key celebration at the high school has been the work that they have done with their plc's
103to review the the data that they're collecting and to use that to make instructional decisions and then the program evaluation in math will be a next step at the high school level as well and then also our school continuous improvement plans leverage the act data and standards as well because it's something that's consistent across content areas so lots of things to celebrate with a great place to learn component are there any questions as i look at the ela percent proficients in grade three i'm thinking back to the implementation of the science of reading is is this the third grade year that started with that in 2021 was it or where are we with that this is our fourth year and that starts with kindergarten so this class this third grade class that's coming up with
104an 83 percent proficient would be bearing the fruits of the transition to the science of reading. Yeah. Amazing. From the initial. Just amazing. Really incredible results, and I appreciate you and all those who made this all happen and that we're looking not just to limit our understanding of the science of reading to a few grades, but that we're going to run a K-8. I think that's the right thing to do. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Cheryl? All I can say is this is an excellent report. Great job, Emily. Gene kind of stole my thunder. I was interested in knowing kind of how long we'd been doing the science of reading, kind of jogging my memory a little bit, and where we see that change in some of our, again, it's hard. We're still
105kind of establishing that baseline and looking at trend lines, but it does seem to be making a difference. So it would be interesting to watch that second and third grade class as they go along, the second graders having it since they went through kindergarten as well. It's kind of interesting to see if that bump up continues through the upper grades. So it is really exciting. And math is just always an area of strength. And I was really interested in the ACT. I'd never seen the ACT score broken down quite that way. to have the ELA and the math component underneath, which just again reminded me that the basics, math, reading, writing, I mean, this is what makes a difference in some of these big national assessments. How do we improve ACT scores? Because I kind
106of wondered. That seems like a tough nut to crack. But it's really not when I look at this chart, seeing, well, we work on our ELA skills and our math skills. the overall ACT composite score will follow. So good work. Yeah, just really great data. Anything else before we let Emily go? Okay. Thank you, Emily. Our next discussion item is the first reading of the 5000 Policy Series. Sam. The first, just a real standard update, the changes, it describes and they're rewritten to align the changes that have occurred with the statute. Moved some details dictated by statute from practice statement to policy. So nothing significant on there, but I'll entertain any questions. Are there any questions or comments for Sam on the attendance and excuses policy or practice statement? Okay. Hearing none that will be
107back as a part of our consent agenda in April and moves us to our next policy conversation the 6000 policy series Sam again most of those are standard reconfirms or some minor changes the bigger one was the appropriate use of technology that was more in alignment to the law that was passed and There is a little bit more bigger changes in that one, but otherwise nothing was major in there rescinded a couple that weren't necessary anymore yeah that's it any questions okay questions or comments about any of these policies jean do you expect any procedural changes that would result from the change in legislation around personal devices or cell phones in the classroom yeah i think from what what i was told most of the most of that was already in place at the high
108schools and use there so I think the main thing with the technology was restricting the internet access a little bit more and basically getting rid of all personal devices so you'll see no personal devices in classrooms and I think that's the way it is now right Emily So there are phone caddies in our high school classrooms so they have devices but they cannot use them during instructional time and then middle and elementary school students keep their devices in their lockers Same with personal laptops that they don't they can't get on the internet with those or anything like that And that's the phone caddies is not a change right we've always had phone caddies so we're managing our cell phones keeping them out of students hands during instructional time that is a current practice And I
109would say there was some there was Some flexibility maybe is the word with some of that and in different places and spaces that with this legislation will There cannot be flexibility with any law So that will be an update to teacher practices. Thank you. Thank you So just follow-up question then Emily and I'm not familiar super familiar with the legislation so students that maybe before could use their cell phones go in the middle of class or work on a project or something go get their cell phone and use it I think sometimes it happened depending on the class like you said at the high school not often but occasionally they would that just won't be allowed okay interesting so Used authorized by a teacher for educational purposes during instructional time that we can still do
110that Or that's out with the new rules That's well, that's not what our policy says. It says with instructional permission. They can use it not personal devices That'll be school issue devices No Maybe want to change the wording if it's should read that then a follow-up question then will student handbooks be updated and students will be I mean obviously some teaching practices just making sure teachers are aware and students and families as well so handbooks do reflect that information An example of a use authorized would be like a device that a student might need A personal communication device, yeah. So that's not permitting like use of a cell phone during instructional time, but it might be a device that they use. Like if I have diabetes, for example, and I have a phone that helps
111track my blood sugars and I have that on me, those things are allowable. That would be number two. It would seem to me we might have to clarify number four a little bit more tightly if there's really limitations beyond, if I as the teacher say, okay you can use your phones for educational purposes during instructional time if that is allowed and that is meant to to continue then I'm good with it if it's gonna be clamped down more than it's been historically we might need to tune it up so that it's really limiting somehow Yeah I took that to mean the same thing that you did Jean and that could be somebody who's reading something off their phone in a presentation or something like that with instructor permission using it as a tool it could
112be their personal device but it requires prior approval and I don't know that that's outside of I don't know that we want to change that that's that's something I mean this is it reflects legislation and our legal counsel did review this policy particularly good to know because we wanted to ensure that it was compliant thank you are we looking at all these now Yeah, any of these yeah, yeah some points Mary yeah on 61 13 point 15 and 61 62 point five I think they should have had the Policy six thousand five reference added to them and it was not but we took language out of it and Replaced it with the reference to policy six. Oh five, but it's not listed in the references below just on those two 6113.15 work-based course or program
113and 6162.5 student assessment that disclaimer that was put in is referenced in the policy now but not referenced below yeah I think that is the policy reference in there I don't think it'd be duplicated to sit it down there as well we did in all the others and that was exactly what the update was I think we should be consistent okay so sam you can look at that with other questions or comments okay hearing none can i have a motion to adjourn i'll make a motion to adjourn second give it to cheryl okay cheryl on the second all those in favor of adjourning please say aye aye aye