Board of Education Meeting: 9.9.25

001Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting to order the required public notice of this meeting. Yes. Okay Thank you required public notice this meeting was sent to community newspapers incorporated and Metropolitan Press on September 5th 2025 and posted on the doors of the district office additionally meeting notices and agendas Were distributed to the city of Brookfield and the village of Elm Grove for posts for posting and posted on the district website Let the roll call show that all board members are present. Will 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. May I have a motion to approve the agenda? Thank you. We

002have a motion by Jean and a second by Mary. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of approving the agenda as presented, please say aye. Aye. Thank you. That carries on voice vote. Our first agenda item of the evening is the Citizens Forum. This is an opportunity for members of our community to approach the board on matters that fall within the purview of the board but are not on tonight's agenda. If you would like a request to speak, see Christy off to the right. We do have one request to speak. Angie Pingel, a resident of the district. Good evening. Tonight should be all about excitement. Excitement for the start of the school year, the beautiful new space that is Fairview South, and wondering what things my son Ben will learn from his

003amazing Elmbrook teachers. I am thankful that Fairview South is back even better than before. But unfortunately, instead of excitement, I feel disappointed. Because I'm up here again following up on my previous comments requesting transparency about the lawsuit filed in 2020 against two high-ranking members of this board, which was lost following an appeal, ultimately leading to a judgment of $13,247.33 to pay the plaintiff's legal fees and those immaterial fines against the high-ranking board members. This is the third time that I have stood here requesting that a disclosure be made at a public meeting that outlines not only the cost paid to the plaintiff's counsel, but the cost to defend the action in total. This leads me to accountability. You are our elected officials. You answer to your constituents, and yet no one has responded to me.

004Scott, you're our board president. Shouldn't you at least reach out to me to talk to me about my request? Instead, today, I have submitted an open records request for this information. I look forward to promptly receiving the data I have requested so that our community has the information it needs to evaluate whether you are using our resources efficiently, effectively, and in the best interest of our children. This level of accountability is extremely necessary, especially since I heard a whole lot about a potential referendum at your August work session. You can't ask our community to provide you with even more money when you haven't shown full accountability for the resources we've already provided. And as I'm sure you expect, I'll be reporting back next month. So thank you. Thank you, Angie. That concludes our citizens forum

005and brings us to our first Action out of the evening, which is the city of Brookfield TID I'd like to welcome mayor Panto to the podium who's gonna offer some remarks regarding TID 8 and TID 9 and then Dan Ertl will be here to answer questions and provide a brief presentation Mayor Panto welcome. Thank you very much. I'm happy to be here Dan and I are here this evening to talk about a proposal for the north end of Brookfield Square Mall as you know in 2021 ergens development purchased the north 16 acres of brookfield square which is often referred to as the boston store property the old boston store has been demolished and we are now looking for the redevelopment of this 16-acre parcel the city of brookfield has had a good experience working with

006ergens we work closely with ergens on the corridor development near the intersection of blue mound road and calhoun road The corridor includes 66 acres of the old Ruby Farms property. The corridor development now includes Lifetime Fitness, ProHealth Care Clinic, Portillo's, AT&T, Fairfield Inn, Holiday Inn, and a number of retail operations. The 16-acre Boston Store property is being planned now. A key feature of this property is the development of a Brookfield public market. Like the Milwaukee public market in the third Ward a Brookfield public market would lease space to vendors presumably smaller local food businesses Public markets are often able to attract people from outside the immediate area and promote greater economic activity in the area of the public market the expectation is that people from beyond the immediate area would be attracted to the Brookfield

007public market and stimulate economic activity generally And I'll let Dan give some of the specifics. Thank you, Mayor, members of the board, members of the public. I'm Dan Dirtle, Director of Community Development with the City of Brookfield. It's good being in front of the board once again. I know many of you and worked with you in the past. Tax incremental financing is singularly the largest economic development tool available to cities to stimulate redevelopment of properties that ordinarily wouldn't redevelop on their own. In the case of the Boston store, it is in blighted condition with old utilities needing replacement dating back to the 1960s when the mall was first created. It should be noted that tax incremental financing creates new sources of taxes separate from existing taxpayer revenues that are used to pay for public improvements

008and in this case also the construction of Brookfield Public Market that the Mayor referred to. No existing taxes, including school taxes, are used to retire new debt incurred by the city. Only the new tax is created by the new development. Some get specific about two tax incremental districts The first one would be a new creation of tax incremental district number nine Consisting of the 16 acre former Boston source site that the mayor made reference to the new exciting uses that are proposed by Ergans and Visit Brookfield is the Brookfield public market an Experiential retailer and other uses these new uses would create a new taxable income beyond existing value of $56.5 million. Once all this new development is constructed, this new value would generate enough new tax revenues to create approximately $7.4 million to issue

009grants for public improvements, sewer water, storm sewer improvements, a land purchase for the public market, and some public market construction costs. Tid number nine would be created this year 2025 and would be in place until the year 2051 now it should be noted that due to the teary-eyed state of the property and the somewhat limited amount of new construction That is permissible due to private deed restrictions are in place at the mall the tid length needs to be longer than normal Previous TIFs that we presented to the board are not that long. They're usually about 15 years. This one's longer. In this case, a cash grant in the amount of just over $4.5 million would be issued to Ergens for site redevelopment, not building construction for Ergens. A separate cash grant from TID 9, almost

010$3 million, would be offered to visit Brookfield to pay for the land for the public market and some preliminary costs. The second district that is needed to create the resources to make this project occur is an existing tax incremental district number eight. So this board, in the joint review board capacity, allowed or supported the creation of TID number 8, which was the former Sears department store area that's comprised of Whirly Ball Movie Tavern, Orthopedic Associates of Wisconsin, Outback, Agujulios, et cetera, the Hilton Garden Inn, and the Brookfield Conference Center. In this case, the life of the district was expected to expire in year 2030. In order to fund the public market, we're suggesting that it be continued through the year 2045, so another 15 years for a total of 25 years. This extension of time

011would generate just over $11 million in a grant available to visit Brookfield to build a public market. The sources of that $11 million consist of a continuation of the new tax revenues that are being generated by those new uses, Whirly Ball, Movie Tavern, et cetera. But in addition... Half the debt, approximately half the debt that would be generated for the public market would be paid for by revenues from Visit Brookfield operating the public market. So beginning in the year 2030, they will have sufficient revenue coming in from the public market to pay back the city to retire the debt. So there's two sources of debt retirement. One is continuation of the tax revenues generated into number eight by those uses continued to the year 2045 and then $600,000 per year from visit Brookfield's revenue and

012by the way, I've represented of visit Brookfield is on line teams and Nancy Justman if you have any questions, so combined the two tax incremental districts new nine and more life of the TID 8 produces just over $18.5 million of revenue in order to induce redevelopment of the Boston store and build the public market. Other sources of funding for the public market include up to $1.5 million from Visit Brookfield reserves for fixtures, furniture, and equipment, potential state grants, sponsors, naming rights. So previously, the city's Community Development Authority, which is essentially the screening committee that looks at the initial proposal from developers, or in this case, Visit Brookfield as well, to make the case that indeed there is a need for public assistance. They have a checklist. We hire a financial consultant to do what's called

013the but-for test to make sure that no one's being unduly enriched by the proposal. They reviewed their checklist and suggested to the Plan Commission and the Common Council that these two entities, Ergens and Visit Brookfield, are warranted in receiving cash grants. So the financial consultant opined that the TIF asks are reasonable and do not provide any windfalls to either Ergens or Visit Brookfield. Brookfield has been very conservative. my career and its history in creating tax-incremental districts this is number this would be number nine in in the city of Brookfield other communities are in the dozens by now second of all under state law Communities can include up to 12% of its total tax base contained in a tax-incremental district. We have $10 billion worth of real estate in the city of Brookfield. We only have

0141% contained in tax-incremental districts. So we've been very conservative, and we're also conservative on the front end. We have a flat tax rate. Our director of finance with input from the school district. projects a $10.50 mill rate next year, all in. That's all taxing authorities, $10.50. So we are projecting over the life of the TIFs, it's going to stay $10.50, even if it goes up. We are conservative on the front end. Second of all, we're conservative on the projected tax value. I said Ted 9 will generate about $56.5 million worth of new real estate value. It may exceed that. For example, in TID 8, we projected $32 million with Wally Ball Movie Tavern. It's exceeded that. It's about $43 million. But we start out conservative so that we don't over-promise and under-deliver. Do the opposite

015so that's our conservative nature towards TIF last week September 2nd the Common Council and the Planning Commission adopted resolutions creating tax agreement district number nine and amendment two to number eight Since cash grants are being offered by state law, we have to enter into what's called TID agreements. Once those are secured through the Common Council next week, copies of those will be sent to your Joint Review Board representative, Mary Wacker, if indeed they are approved next week. The Joint Review Board, which for those that don't know, is made up of the four taxing authorities comprised in this area. The city, the school district, the county, vocational college, and there's a public member, Mary Wackers, your representative on the Joint Review Board. We had our initial introductory meeting on this matter in July, I believe, and

016then we're going to convene in October. So I note on the bottom that the request from Ergens and Visit Brookfield exceed. amount of money available. I said we have 18 and a half million dollars available. Their current budget is at 19 and a half million. So between now, the creation of the TID, and spring when we go to borrowing and creating bond issuances, there will have to be value engineering on the building, right-sizing the building, and making sure that it falls within the budget. Or other resources will have to be asked for. Now I didn't include in the PowerPoint but there's a handout in front of you since some of you called me about What are the benefits to the school district on this particular? Tid so hopefully you have that handout. It says benefits

017to the scooters I view this as step number two in transforming and returning Brookfield Square area into the most valuable commercial Asset in Waukesha County at one point. It was the largest taxpayer in this County TID 8 and the transformation of the Sears store was step one. I consider the Brookfield Conference Center and the Hilton Garden Inn the gem of that, in addition to their retail uses. That's step one. Step two is this project. moving forward. It's projected that 770 full-time equivalent jobs will be created that could be accessed by students and residents at the public market, etc. The public market is proposed to have a demo kitchen. and entrepreneurial spaces in the public market, which I think could potentially sync with your launch program. If someone wants to go into culinary science or the

018like, that could potentially link to your launch program. Surrounding properties outside the TID boundaries will have more customers and spending, as the mayor indicated. And lastly, stabilizing the commercial core of the tax base for future years to come. I also included what are the three criteria for a joint review board to find when the joint review board convenes October 13th. There's three criteria from the statutes. First, will the development occur without the TIG creation or amendment? And our financial consultants opine, no, it will not occur without this. project moving forward in the public-private partnership. So the but-for test is met. Number two, economic benefits are sufficient to compensate for the cost. I view job creation, adding to local spending in other retailers, food establishments and attractions, and again, the potential synergy with the launch program

019as benefits. Thirdly, the third criteria for a joint review board is, do the benefits outweigh the anticipated tax recommends to be paid by the district prop owners? Again, I view the Brookfield Square Mall once the largest taxpayer in Waukesha County and step two, returning its value to the mall area. So those are the three criteria that the Joint Review Board will be asked to conclude on June, excuse me, October 13th. So here are some images and Nancy Justman. can speak to some of this that I can't. This is the general site plan of the former Boston store. Off to the left would be a medical office building proposed by Ergens. In the center bottom would be the experiential retail. Upper right bottom would be a multi-tenant retail building. The public market would be in the

020lower right-hand corner, essentially just north of Mitchell's Fish Market, if you want to sort of locate that in your mind, facing Moreland Road. Some building images on the left side are images of the medical office building and Ergen's retail on the right. That's the image of the proposed public market looking from Moreland Road. Two stories, outdoor spaces, amenities laden, and... The larger group, Visit Brookfield and others, including some aldermen, have visited public markets throughout the country to learn from them. That's the indoor image of the public market. For those that have been to public markets in other parts of the country, you might recognize that that's a theme, airy, lighted, inviting. And that's another image of the public market. In terms of floor plan, the first floor floor plan for the public market includes the

021large blue rectangle would be the anchor retail use that can't be announced, but it's pretty special. And then the small blue areas would be the vendor spaces, and in the center would be the bar, cocktail lounge, and eating area. Second floor would be rental space. As I said, Visit Brookfield proposes to secure enough revenue to help pay down the debt. This will be some of their bread and butter of renting out that space to equal that $600,000 per year in addition to the rental revenue they'll get from those rental spaces. So that's all I have. I'm here to answer questions, and Nancy Justman's also available, and the mayor's available as well. Thank you, Dan. We start with some board member questions. Gene? Yes. It's not uncommon for regional shopping centers built in the 1960s, 70s,

022to have what's called private deed restrictions that encompass controls of the entire mall managed by what's called a managing partner. So the mall has a managing partner, CBL Properties out of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Those deed restrictions... back in the 1960s, control building height, building mass, building location, and uses. So even though, for example, if our zoning permits a four-story building, their deed restrictions for the mall only permits two-story buildings. If our zoning permits 500,000 square feet on that 16 acres, their deed restrictions only permit 250,000 square feet. If our zoning permits buildings close to Blue Mountain Road, their district restrictions don't permit that. They have to essentially build within the original footprint of the Boston store. which means there's less building value that Ergans can create. Therefore, there's less tax increment that would be generated. Therefore,

023we need the full 25 years in order to capture that. If those duty restrictions didn't exist, maybe that 25-year term would be shortened. Does that answer your question? Thank you. Next, Sam. Yeah, thank you. I had the privilege of sitting on the Economic Development Commission for Brookfield, and we had this presentation yesterday. Overall, the... That board consists of several other members of the community, both business owners. At least I know one of them were another business owner. And it seemed it was pretty good feedback by everyone. It wasn't a voting. It was an informational-only item. But it seemed to be supported. And from my perspective, there's a lot of benefit to that. My question I didn't get to ask yesterday, or I didn't think about it in time, was you said today that there would

024be no lost revenue for the school district. with a TID, but you said TID 8 ends at 2030, but would that not technically be lost revenue from 30 to 45? What I meant is, for example, TID 9, the current base value of TID 9, with no buildings there, the land value is $5.5 million. So you take the mill rate, you divide that by the mill rate. Those taxes will still go to the four taxing authorities, even if we create TID number nine. In TID number eight, same case. The base value before Whirlyball and Movie Tavern was created for that district was about $25 million. All four taxing authorities are still receiving their representative taxes from that base value of $25 million, $26 million. Since I said TID number eight was planned to expire in 2030,

025yes, one could say the extra 15 years to 2045, you won't capture the revenue that maybe you anticipated in that 16th year moving forward. So that's correct. But you still will continue to receive your share of the base value taxes from the $25 million when that district was set. So 15 years until date essentially is segregated. from the four taxing authorities until we pay the debt down. And then in the 16th year, then all taxing authorities get the base value plus the new value. Appreciate that. And then just I'm not a I'm an Elm Grove resident. And after the abominational TID that was approved for Elm Grove, which gave zero value to the community, added just a bunch of housing that no one benefits from. But everyone has to pay for the services that those

026people are receiving for 20 years. This one, however, there is a lot of benefit to the community. Having this public market would certainly draw in a lot more people to. to come to the area you said it would be a tourist destination which i i think is i mean i've gone to milwaukee public market many times just just to go down there to eat or something like that so i see a lot of value in that um you're taking like you said a blighted area and you know making it into something that's useful to the community as well and and i anticipate that something you don't have in your calculations but because of this there could also be Local other businesses around that could be developed because of that That would be purely speculative at

027this point And of course the economic impact of the jobs that would be available to the community as well that you did mention that but but thank you Well you cited the Milwaukee Public Market Mayor Panto side the Milwaukee Public Market you go down to Water Street in st Paul and you go down Broadway you go down Water Street you go down Milwaukee Avenue you go to Chicago Street There's a lot of activity there that didn't exist when the Milwaukee public market was created. So there is a ripple effect. So beyond the 16 acres, there is a ripple effect. Thank you. Wes? I guess two pieces. One, on the deed restrictions, is it not possible for them to potentially enter in some sort of arrangement to affect that deed restriction? They're private deed restrictions, so

028that's a matter for... Ergun's and CBL to negotiate I have to be careful what I say because CBL has filed suit against the city on their tax value has nothing to do with this so I'd be a little cautious Ergun's has asked for some liberation on the deed restrictions with no success private deed restrictions are indeed private They don't fall under the police power of the city, so we can't force them to be removed. So I can say Ergun's tried unsuccessfully to negotiate those deed restrictions in their favor to produce. For example, it was public knowledge. Before Fiserv made a decision to go downtown, this was one of the sites we put in front of them. But they needed, like, six stories. for their office building well that would violate the destructions and I'm not

029sure what what transpired then between Ergan's and and CBL and that makes sense and I'm not saying that we could as the city would be the city would be able to force them to do that just The deed restriction undoubtedly play like that limits it But I from what I know I think there there's an opportunity and it may be just impossible There's no way to get to an agreement on that the second piece is I guess do you and do we like in the potential Brookfield public markets more of a Milwaukee public market because I mean the city has a lot of housing around that, condos. Is there another public market that better aligns with the area? Because around Brookfield Square, currently it's commercial. Is there something else that would help envision what that...

030And I gave an incomplete answer on your deed restriction question now that comes to mind. Those deed restrictions, even though they were created in the 1960s, they expire in six or seven years. But I don't think Ergens is willing to wait six or seven years for them to expire. So I want to get that on the table. And they've been at this since they bought the property, as the mayor said, in December of 2022, I believe. Each public market that was toured is its own special niche. I think what we have going for us here is there's an anchor tenant that will be unnamed. in that blue rectangle. You don't see an anchor tenant in the Mequon public market. You don't see an anchor tenant of that size at the Milwaukee public market. You don't

031see an anchor tenant like that in most public markets. We think that's distinctive. And Nancy Justman, who is available, do you want to comment on that? We toured some in Nashville. We've toured in St. Louis. and Illinois, and then we have a few other tours on deck. I think that one of the markets that I found to be the most interesting as far as a redevelopment situation was the Bottleworks development in Indiana, where it was a redevelopment of an area, but a little bit more in a downtown area rather than a suburb, but it really took an older property that was... in need of some definite development and really turned it into kind of this entire entertainment plaza with some retail, some restaurants, obviously the market, but also some entertainment. So I envision this entire

032development to be very experiential and very similar to that one. As Dan pointed out, we do have an iconic larger retailer who will be on the main floor that will really bring something different to our community than what we currently have. I also think that the following for that particular retailer is also substantial, and I think when we can finally announce it, it will be extremely exciting, as well as the other details on the entire development will also really bring this whole experience opportunity to life. And Nancy, you want to identify who you are with the organization, visit Brookfield. oh sorry nancy dustman i'm president and ceo of visit brookfield i've been with the organization for 16 years was highly involved in the brookfield conference center development along with the city of brookfield as well

033thank you for joining us by phone any more questions wes good other comments or questions and i also be willing to entertain a motion this is an action item this evening we're directing As a board, we're directing Mary how to vote on our one of four or five? One of five votes at Joint Review Board. Correct. So we're directing Mary how to vote on our behalf. And again, there's suggested language in Board Docs if you would help with that. Okay. I should probably look at that then. In order to get the ball rolling here, I would move to grant authority to Mary Wacker to vote in favor of the TID 8 amendment and the TID 9 proposal at the Joint Review Board where this will be presented for consideration. Thank you. We have a motion

034by Mary and a second. Let me just kick off. This is the third time I've seen this presentation, at least third or fourth, and I see the risk. I have a sliver of ambivalence about this because There's a risk in building retail space in 2025 There is a risk in taking what could be tax proceeds sooner and investing them in Hopefully larger tax proceeds later However, I appreciate that the intent here is to have this project serve as a catalyst for future growth and the area around brookfield square executive drive and certainly other parts of the city of brookfield are in need of a catalyst i was 10 years old when brookfield square opened it was my first job working at boston store when i was in high school and it did employ a lot

035of high school kids So I just, as I've weighed the pros and cons of this, here are the things that I think are good about voting yes on this. Any new potentially vibrant resource is an improvement over the blight that exists on that area right now it is a very visible blight in our city it couldn't be more centrally noticeable at one of our biggest intersections and i do remember when it was a very vibrant retail community although as i said asterisk retail is not vibrant in 2025 so that's a concern I see here gathering space, and I know that there's been, in some of the previous meetings I've attended, focus on this being a tourist destination and drawing people to this community. I remain very... grounded in the fact that if if we as

036the community don't go here this isn't going to fly so i'm hoping that this will become because it looks like it could be a very nice gathering space for the community at large for any variety of things and nancy and i have talked about that a little bit and that brings me to my third reason that i'm in favor of this and that is that it will be run by visit brookfield this will not be run by third-party entity it's going to be run by a non-profit organization that is committed to the revitalization of the city of brookfield and i think that benefits us just writ large i've had the opportunity as i said to spend a couple hours talking to nancy heard some of the ideas that she has not just for this project

037but for other projects as well if i didn't believe that this could generate some additional positive change i would be More skeptical but given the fact that we don't have a high tax Resource there right now. We have a pile of rubble at Boston store That we have the potential to grow our tax base, even though this doesn't provide new housing where new kids will move in I do think it's very visible and for those reasons and the fact that it's not really It doesn't allow us there may be a lost opportunity to gain additional Revenue, but there is a greater gain perhaps to be realized if this succeeds And I think it's it's worth rolling the dice on this one. Thank you, Mary. Mm-hmm Would anyone else like to that hasn't spoken yet speak

038before we come around Sims? Sam is a visit Brookfield nonprofit know what the six a c3 would be subject to not paying property taxes etc a c6 is subject to paying property taxes on buildings or land that it owns as well as obviously will be subject to unrelated business income tax for any of the revenues that we see coming forth from the public market as well mr wheeler In addition, Visit Brookfield is currently under a long-term contract with the city of Brookfield, probably 22 years left in the contract, maybe more, to provide tourism services for us. So it's already an entity that we're contracting with. So under that auspices, as Mrs. Wacker said, it's a known entity, and they're taking this on. Thank you for that. And I appreciate, Mary, you taking the time to

039go through this the fourth time or whatever it's been that you've seen that. I'm in 99% agreement with what you said in the sense that I do think it would be good for the community. I think I can certainly stand behind supporting that. I don't see it as the same risk as rolling the dice because I do definitely see these type of spaces becoming more and more popular and people wanting to be a part of it. I don't think this type of retail space, I think retail, there's some strong where it's strong in some areas if it's done correctly like if you see the corners or whatnot so and then the question I brought up yesterday that was answered is that the risk is somewhat mitigated for the community because Brookfield city of Brookfield will

040be holding the mortgage so if visit Brookfield doesn't perform and create the revenue that they anticipate there is some recourse of getting the property back to to sell to recoup some of those costs is that how I understood that correct Dan Yes, Mr. Hughes, as drafted, the Tate agreement with Visit Brookfield includes a mortgage stipulation. It has yet gone to council. That's going next week. But that's the intent. That's our backstop. Is that possible for that not to be a part of this? Because that could change the outcome of a vote here if we're voting on that today, if that's going to be potentially changed. I will let... If Nancy's in the position to speak on the acceptance of the mortgage concept, since she's the other agent in the agreement, Nancy, are you in the

041position to offer a comment on that? I believe I am. Our board has approved unanimously the OPEX and pro forma budget, which does include that mortgage payment. So, yes, the board fully understands that as well as staff fully understand the mortgage. as well as pushing the idea that that would come in 2030 so that we have a few years to ramp up so that we're prepared for that type of a payment. So yes, I believe I am able to speak on that. So if I could, out of consistency, if for whatever reason next Tuesday's council vote on the TID agreement does not include a mortgage, we would immediately inform your representative that doesn't include that. And we still have another council meeting between the 16th and the October 13th joint review board that could be

042rediscussed and revisited. But there's every intent on both parties to end to a no mortgage. Then I think just for that security and to make sure that something doesn't change between now and then, I'll propose an amendment that we would approve this subjective to the mortgage clause being added into that there. So I'll make an amendment to approve this as stated with the mortgage clause added to the city of Brookfield. Can we say like provided that the mortgage is held by the city of Brookfield? Yeah, thank you. Just to get the language clean. CHRISTIE WOODARD- Christy, did you get that language? She's working on it right now. Let's give her a second to type that up so you can see the proposed amendment. Then I'll need a second on the amendment, but wait till we

043see the language. And then we'll need a second on it. We'll all ask for a discussion. We'll vote on that, and then it just becomes a part of the motion if it passes. It does not if it fails. Meanwhile, if you can cue the elevator music. No kidding. She's doing a great job. OK, does this look right, Sam? SAM SEPAH THROUGH INTERPRETER 1 Yeah. Okay, can I get a second? Okay, Cheryl seconded the amendment. Is there discussion or questions about the amendment? Do you understand the risk? Yeah, well, you know, Ms. Justman is fantastic in a history of success. Should she win the lottery or retire, that if there was another CEO or someone put in charge that didn't have the same ambition, leadership, and drive, that if they were not able to keep that

044as a productive... facility then and not be able to pay their mortgage payment then they would be able to take that property back to cover the cost that the the city is basically funding through this tin and otherwise those costs would be lost would be lost yes the community would have to I'm assuming because you wouldn't have the incremental tax that it would be some other way that the community would have to pay that back I'd go up for sale again I would guess And in the meantime, a lot of the money, Dan, maybe you can address this, that's being moved over is for infrastructure to the site. Let me cycle through my... Most of the $4.5 million to Ergens is for infrastructure. That's correct. $2 million of the $14 million that would go to

045visit Brookfield is for the land purchase. So that would be already done, right? We'd already have sunk cost of $2 million. The balance would go for the building construction and outdoor amenities. Presumably the building would be built. There would be equity represented in the land and the building. That would be what the mortgage would count on in terms of equity back to the city. I'm not an attorney, but I know enough about discussing this in this case such that... I can't guarantee there won't be a loss of what we spent, but there would be value in land and building. And what's the value of the land right now? Land of the value of 16 acres is $5.5 million. So you take... Right. We don't have a lot to lose there. Right. Any other discussion before

046we vote on the amendment? Jean? And without the mortgage, that's not the case. The city would not have ownership. I'll let the mayor add to this, but when this project... Was first presented to the city staff. We felt that For city representatives to represent to our Common Council that the city of Brookfield would own two major Properties at a mall the conference center and a public market is probably a bridge too far So we were thankful that visit Brookfield is willing to own the land and operate it And we're providing the funding Can I add to that? And so there would be the mortgage holder. So if they're defaulting their mortgage, they would have a way to recoup the cost by forcing that property to sell or so on. So it's just basically the security

047blanket the way I see it should something happen to visit Brookfield or, you know, to help cover the community. Are you ready to vote on the amendment? All those in favor of the amendment, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you that carries on voice vote so the amendment is now part of the motion we'll just consider the motion Can I ask one other thing Dan tell me again what the date is that that decision is going to be made at the next council meeting September 16th and if not if it gets delayed the first meeting in October I believe is what's the first Tuesday in October whatever the date is the first week in October would be the intervening Common Council meeting if it got delayed on the 16th but it would

048be before the Joint Review Board met on the 13th thank you any further question or discussions before we vote on the motion hearing none all those in favor of the motion as stated please say aye aye any opposed thank you Mary you have your direction now to vote And thank you for being here tonight our representatives from the city. It's always great to work with you Our next agenda item is the consent agenda I'll start with a motion asked by asking for a motion and then I'll ask if there are items that board members would like to pull Can I get a motion? I'm sorry. I'll move approval of the consent agenda items as presented Thank you have a motion by Sam and a second by Jean. Are there any items that board members would

049like to pull? Hearing none all those in favor of approving the consent. Oh, sorry from voting on the minutes of the August 12th meeting I was not present. Then we'll vote on those separate. Well she can vote on them and she'll just abstain in the vote. Okay. Do you want to vote separately on that one? We have to do it so I can, I just don't want to. Yeah. We'll vote on it separately. Separate. So she can abstain on the A. So all those in favor of approving consent agenda items B, C, and D please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you. That carries on voice vote. All those in favor of approving consent agenda item A, which is the minutes from August 12th that Preetha was referring to, please say aye. Aye. Aye. No, I

050think we need to separate A. We have to separate them into two because there's one from the 26th that I was present at. Can we separate something when it's just one item on the consent agenda? It's one item on the consent agenda that you'll just have to abstain from. Okay, all those in favor of approving the minutes from August 12th and August 26th, please say aye. Aye. Abstain? Abstain. And those opposed? Thank you. That carries on voice vote and concludes our consent agenda. Our next action item of the evening is the first reading of the 10,000 or sorry, 1 to 10,000. Whoa, we really got a lot of new policies there. 1,000, I should just put these on. The 1,000 policy series and the 9,000 policy series. So I'll kick this over to Preetha. She

051can walk us through this and then we'll vote. This policy has been discussed and reviewed in CLE meetings. It was presented to the board on July 15th and some proposed language changes were made including changing the word office to service and Let's see 120 okay. I also recommended renaming remember the policy to 9402 to reflect its close alignment with standing board committees policy 9401 Okay, so then moving on to 9401 at the July 15th board meeting the board suggested having each committee review the corresponding job descriptions listed below so that happened at subsequent board committee meetings and so You can actually see those that have been they've been re uploaded to this document. So 9401 we recommend renaming to standing board committees with revisions to remove language associated with special board committees We recommend changes

052to clarify the process to fill open committee seats and propose consolidating company job Description policies and the practice statements attached in this policy all ad hoc board committees will be determined using policies policy 1221 which is 9402 so um then If you look further you can see here we have policies 9411, 9412, 9413, and 9414. These are each of the committee's job descriptions and again these were the recommendation was to convert the committee job description policies into practice statements and that would those that would be attached to policy 9401. So each committee reviewed its corresponding job description and you can see the dates here where those committees met and reviewed those reviewed their jobs descriptions and they're now presented in board docs today thank you are there questions for preetha i would entertain a motion

053i move approval of the policies and practice statements as presented thank you we have a motion by mary and a second by jean are there any questions or comments All those in favor of approving these policies as presented please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you that carries on voice vote and our last action item of the evening Jean recent gifts to the district. In front of you you'll see the recent gifts to the district for June of 2025 in the amount of $136,241.41 I'd like to express sincere appreciation to the donors of these gifts to continue excellence in Elmbrook these gifts will be recorded on the district website and will remain there for the foreseeable future so that all may share in acknowledging who has donated to our success and with that I recommend

054approval of the agenda item Recent gifts to the district Thank you. Do you made the motion and Sam seconded that all those in favor of approving the recent gifts to the district? Please say aye aye any opposed Thank you that carries in voice vote and concludes our action items for the evening our first Discussion item is facility planning Chris Thompson making his way Hello, good evening two weeks ago. We had a short brief work session Tonawanda Pilgrim and really started to wrap our collective brains around what a 20-year facility planning process or plan and process looks like. So tonight I was able to work with our team and synthesize all the feedback we got in our discussion and conversations to five slides. And we will just review those briefly tonight and then get your feedback

055on the scope of work and any questions or corrections you'd like to see. So the first objective statement fairly... straightforward but talks about the scope and the timeline of creating a 20-year facility plan or it's not the timeline of creating the plan it's creating a plan that covers the next 20 years and funding strategies that is prioritized and and cares for the resources that we are entrusted with by our community and so that's that's the objective I think we all understand that that's not simple task and will require a lot of work so how do we do that during our discussion it was clear at the end of the discussion that the board wanted to own this work and as that was certainly one of the options that was presented the benefit is that ultimately

056you will be making the decision on what to do and accepting the plan if you're invested throughout you'll have all that background knowledge and ideally you'll get to the finish line together and then be able to present that plan to the community. And so we are recommending leveraging our work sessions that we scheduled and then had to reschedule, thank you, Christy, over the next several months. To dedicate time towards this work those work sessions will range from one to three hours and we will hold them It'll be similar to what we did at Tonawanda and Pilgrim will have some facility tours and then topics for conversation Such as the one tonight at Swanson following this meeting so we won't necessarily need to be at all of our facilities But we will move around to give

057you some background knowledge on on the facilities and some of their needs and gaps, and then that will just serve as a basis for our conversations. Probably interrupt me if I need to. I'll just keep rolling through my, on slide four now, five. So participants, certainly you're the decision makers in this process and you're supported by our administrative team. We are prepared to go out to bid for an architect tomorrow. Because this is a short timeline, we need to act fast. A construction manager can follow shortly thereafter, but soon, and we would bid that work as well. And then financial consultants, I think that's... It's a benefit for us to have somebody who knows the district and works with the district I know that work isn't a lot of work and I don't think it's

058necessarily even fee based The consulting part of our advisement part of it. And so we felt like we could leverage our existing relationship with Baird for that portion of the support services and Then anybody else that we need to bring in we would certainly bring in other experts to fill in any gaps that These groups of people don't don't have our outcomes There are there are board outcomes and then there are District outcomes, I would say district administrative team outcomes and and certainly there will be architect outcomes as well We tried to focus here on just what? The our work sessions together would would emphasize so you can see those listed here And I think if we are able to meet these outcomes, we will have a good chance of meeting our objective of a

059plan for consideration by March and then finally you can see A little bit harder to read, but you can see the timeline in this Gantt chart and the tasks associated. Let me turn on media there. I'm going to just maximize it. Started in August. That's why it's green. Orange is to be delivered. And you see that you're engaged throughout the entire process, and then you can see some of the objectives as we go. With that, I will take questions. Questions for Chris? Sam? Thank you, Chris, and the team for putting this together. I don't remember when we left off at the August 26th that we talked about hiring an architect and a construction manager. Could you explain a little bit more of that process and what that would be needed for right now? So options

060development and phasing is what we really need because we know we have certain needs. But how we package those needs could look differently based on the price tag based on what we're trying to accomplish with with our teaching and learning programming and and so we need we need an architect who Can design it and ideally the designs that we get in this part of the project Carry through to any kind of future Referendum or facility work so that there's continuity of design And they own the design from start to finish. I'm sorry. I'm not following I get what are we designing right now and this we're trying to I thought we were I thought the goal was to understand what our needs are versus now we're designing well, but you also have to so in

061order to get to a plan a prioritized plan You have to know the scope of those plans. You can't just say I want to replace five classrooms at Pilgrim Park and ten classrooms at Tonawanda and cost that based on a square footage. You have to know where they're going to go, how they work with the existing facility, what you're going to do in those spaces so that they're appropriately sized and designed for, and then cost them out. We can't do that. Our team can't do that. I guess I'm not following at this point why we're at that I thought we were just trying to assess what our needs are and I'm not following why we're designing it maybe maybe someone else can explain it to me because I'm not I'm just not following why at

062this point here we're at that stage or even hiring a construction manager Thank you, Sam. I would just say this is the next step. This is a big process. And so I know it feels fast to you, but we have so much work to do at this point. And so as Chris was saying, identifying the needs, architects are going to help us do that, prioritizing them, architects are going to help us do it. You guys will make all the decisions, but we need to get moving on the timeline of this work because it's such a large scope. But I thought with the assessment we had from EUA, is that the right architect firm? They told us the areas that we were deficient in. That's already been defined. So at this point, you know, that was

063presented to us at the work session that these are the areas that are yellow that need to be improved. I mean, wouldn't that just be now going and getting a cost assessment to say how do we get those from yellow to green, you know, and getting a budget number off of that versus hiring another architect to what design a lot more? You'll want to consider options so so let's just take Pilgrim Park as an example because that's where we ended on two weeks ago if we are looking at the the technology education space the woodshop area and CAD lab and we're looking to design a clean manufacturing classroom and Robotics space attached to it as a replacement We could demolish that and build it new somewhere. We could demolish the wing, you know And put

064it somewhere else we could Build off the side, you know build off the edge. We could remodel the entire thing. We don't know What will be more cost-effective? We don't know what will be best in the long run if we're also trying to resolve site traffic So you have to in the design when we say design we're not talking actual Detailed plans. This is conceptual design so that you can get an estimate a construction estimate based on square footage Location site work all of that and that's why you need the construction manager to be able to provide those numbers for you So basically then that maybe I understand it now. So you're the architect Is it going to come up with the wish list that you would like to see happen, give us a conceptual

065design, tell us the cost, and then that's what we're voting on that part of it versus not the process of deciding what we really need. That's already going to be presented to us, I guess, is what I'm hearing. We're going to be responding to the needs that you help us identify. the priorities that that's the goal of this work is to kind of baseline the needs across the district by seeing different sites and the needs then we're going to give options you know you could build an addition here you could remodel this space and then we're going to give costing estimates and then you're going to compare all of that and say I think this is a priority I think this is a This is also a need. I think this is a want. I

066think that stays off the list. That's all from now until December so that you get a narrowed list of prioritized needs that you could then take to the community and get feedback for are we in line with our thinking? Is there support for prioritizing this type of work in our system? Is this a... If it's financed through a referendum, is this a dollar amount that people would be comfortable with? And then you get that feedback back, and then you make a decision February, March on what's included in our 20-year plan. But EUA already gave us that document that showed us what our needs were, right? So this will be more of a design of what our wants are. Because we already know what the needs that was already clearly marked out with that document We

067have the needs based on their assessment that doesn't necessarily mean that we agree with those needs or that those needs need to be addressed in the next five years those needs could be addressed ten years from now we might say Ton of Wanda's in good shape we're gonna hold for ten years pilgrim is the greatest need or Swanson has a couple needs and we're going to address those Because they're a greater priority that we just because there's an assessment done Doesn't mean that we just start checking things off the list because if we did everything on that list It would cost a lot of money Can I jump in on this? Because I think they absolutely see where you're coming from on this. I don't know that I'm not sure if we hire an architect

068and hire a construction manager right away that we have given them the guidance they would need to give us anything right away because we haven't had that conversation yet. I mean, that's kind of what I'm hearing, and I tend to agree. I'm not sure. I don't know what it costs per month to put an architect on retainer and a construction manager on retainer. I guess I'd like to know that because until we have. Two scenarios three scenarios to give them to say give us prices on these I don't want to have them on the Payroll waiting for us to come to that decision. So I'm not sure if We need to have and maybe this is going to come in our next meeting a little bit more when we have another work session But and

069I don't think it should take that long I'm not saying that this is going to take months and months so that we don't get to the end of this timeline by April but I'm not sure what that architect or what that construction manager can provide until we've given them some guidelines. Two things first of all this RFP process doesn't happen in a week where the RFP is open for three weeks Okay, if we're lucky second of all if it's somebody different than EUA There's gonna be a ramp up period where they need to know our facilities and study our facilities before they even get to a conversation with you about Priorities while that's happening. We have two work sessions scheduled already tonight end of September where we need to start talking about these things because

070We don't have time to talk for months about priorities and needs. Understood. So all of that comes together. The fees that are charged typically in this process for architects, as we discussed last time, they are not substantial because usually the architects will... Make their money back on any referendum work. And so it's it's not it's not hourly like in the RFP We talk about phase one phase one is developing options And phase phasing options and design options for you to consider. So you're you're talking about launching an RFP in October tomorrow Tomorrow to have somebody It's due October 1st, then there's an interview process We'd love for a board member or two to be involved in the selection process as we normally do But that still doesn't mean they're up and running until mid-october and

071again by then we're two meetings in So with no and again if it's a new company, it's gonna take a while to get ramped up. So so So have we thought of other like outside the box kind of ideas in how to accomplish a 20-year facility plan and by asking that I mean have we thought of possibly moving students to different buildings to you know have the population be less in certain schools have we considered everything that there is to consider before just thinking that what we're going to do is put construction dollars into Tonawanda and Pilgrim Park I'm not there yet on a solution but part of what we'll talk about later tonight is what's included in a 20-year plan it starts with enrollment projections and capacity we'll have our enrollment projections by mid-October

072we already know our facility capacities and we've in the past we've studied options to move tracks T R A C T S in our district of students from school to school if needed or grade levels if a school was to burst at a grade level and couldn't afford it so those are all still on the table They don't necessarily address some of our facility needs that are present because many of our facilities were built in 1950 or 60. So we still need to address those. All of that together is part of a plan. We're preparing for the future in the best way possible with what we know today. And this plan... Well kind of at the end of the plan we'll also need to figure out a process to update the plan on a regular

073basis because who can forecast 20 years out that's it's a big ask and so you know to have a process every five years where a group of people or the board dedicates time To review the plan reconsider it and then make revisions That'll be an important part of this plan too but all of those are components of a 20-year plan and an important to the ultimate solution Thank you before we come back over to Sam. We do have a request to speak to the board here as we begin our discussion and So I'd like to invite Diane Sherwin a resident the district to come to the podium and then Sam will come to you next Hey guys, good evening. I think it'd be helpful to bring up things that two former board members would talk

074about. So Kathy Lim often brought up process. So obviously the presentation shows you guys that the architect and construction manager are targeted to be contracted in October. Frankly, I am a little surprised to hear Chris saying that you're already bidding for one. Now I can understand that it takes time. but when did the board authorize this did you guys actually vote on it mark was was there a board vote to send out bids for an architect we typically wouldn't have the board vote on our partners like that okay so um to me though we're we're saying that this is facility planning and kathy is talking about a process or we talk about a process i thought this was in response to her so There's planning there's info gathering but we're intertwining it already with architects

075with cost with development and It's pretty obvious to we're intertwining it with pushing a referendum through as well. So we're putting the cart before the horse We need to figure out what are our actual needs and frankly I would say I think it would save you guys a lot of time if you would identify the needs and keep the vendors out because they're financially benefiting from these decisions. And these are large capital spends. I'd like to remind you that in the last two years, you were presented a chart showing that Tonawanda was over capacity. So just a couple years later, enrollment is changing. So I really think we need to be thoughtful and slow on major spending here. Another board member, Glenn Allgaier, would ask, what is the problem you're trying to solve? And I

076just, I don't hear that. You're saying that you're facility planning, but the problem to me is it's looking like you're trying to push a referendum through while saying that you're not. You know, you're reading a book about accountability. So I think I would encourage you guys to be honest with yourselves. If the problem the administration has is that debt is rolling off and they think it would be convenient to issue new debt, you're not representing the community. You're not. So they have their own interests, but please guys Stand up for us Thank you. Thank you, Diane I guess my, and I'm open for conversation and dialogues. I'm not stuck on this, but I think the way I would approach this is the way I would approach, like, when I took out a finance loan on

077my house and I had X number of dollars I wanted to do an upgrade to my house. Like, I think that would be a similar approach. Let's decide what we want to spend, right, if that's what we're going to be aiming for. And then instead of hiring an architect, hiring a construction manager, give them, say, what are your... Top things that you feel like the district needs come back with us and then we look at that I just I think that we're way too many meetings way too much this versus just like let's give a budget number come back with numbers that you know the things that you feel we need to get done and the community and then Let's let's vote on that and move on. I I wouldn't approach it this way, maybe

078because I'm not a bureaucratic and I run a business and I don't approach it the way a nonprofit or the government would, but to me that makes a lot more sense than trying to like, let's go figure out what we want, all the niceties we want, all the upgrades that we'd want, and then go ask for the money. Let's just decide what we want to budget first and work backwards. Jean? Budget number to give. We're gonna let you spend this much money when I don't know what it is that we specifically need I think as in many processes you do an assessment you figure out what you need to do what you want to do and You have someone who can craft What that equals in dollars and cents which is where I see the

079architect in this construction managers value at that point in the process So that you can say here's here's what we need. Here's what we want help us figure out as Chris mentioned before How do we design how do we design this most efficiently so that it would cost us less so we can maximize our budget dollars? Not just we need to replace the whatever it is lab right here and now and it's gonna cost you this much when if you moved it around the corner, if you did something else, it would cost you less. So you would use the talent of folks who can give you that information. Then from there, you build the cost and you say here's what it will cost for what we need, here's what it will cost for what we

080want, and here's how we might finance this. and whether we decide to do it today or tomorrow or in 10 years that's our decision to say you know what we aren't going to go for referendum because we don't want to do that and we're going to reduce expenditures in these areas over the next 10 years and accumulate the funds so that we can do whatever needs to be done in a timely way understanding inflation will take place over however much time you delay if you will that will affect your costs in the long run so I think that to assess what you need assess what you want have someone tell you what it's going to cost and then plan accordingly I think that's makes logical sense to me more so than coming up with a

081budget number that we could spend and then figuring out where to put it Yeah, if I can respond, like I've definitely worked with a lot. I've never in my life worked with a business owner who says, I want to go hire an architect before I even decide what I'm going to spend. That doesn't make logical sense to me. Like we're hiring an architect and a construction manager before we even decide what we want to get done. So until you're ready to commit to that. So I feel like this is saying we're committed to doing this. And now we're just, this is the process that we need to do to give you the beautiful pictures and images that creates the buy-in and all of that versus working backwards. But I think that. Chris talked about it

082being more of a scope approach than a detailed down to the FF&E. It's at a higher level. And to have someone who can help you do that, they're helping in the planning process, not in the implementation and development. And as far as pushing a referendum, I'd like to make a comment about that if I could. I think that we all recognize that we have... expenses in our buildings that are gonna cost money that we may not have if it needs to be done within a certain time window that classroom that we saw where the floor is sinking I would argue that needs to be done sooner than later if we can't fund those from our capital plan the window if you will for a referendum comes up as current rolls off and would allow us

083to continue to make improvements that we need without a huge impact to our taxpayers and the insinuation that we're pushing a referendum and that's the agenda that kind of gets under my skin because I believe that there are funding vehicles that we can use and We have to explore what makes the most sense for the district and our plan and our community as we spend community dollars to do what needs to be done Mary Mary and then Cheryl pre throw West Jane. I think that's well said I don't think anybody is Angling for a referendum for the sake of a referendum. I don't like to take on debt that I don't need to take on but Facilities are multi-generational assets to the community, and when you need to do a significant renovation for safety, for

084efficacy, for any number of reasons that we've identified to prohibit, you know, to forestall future bigger costs of problems that are just going to continue to get worse, I think the solution has to be a multi-generational payment plan, which is... facility referendum we haven't had one for a generation and we have buildings now that we are taking a look at because we have an opportunity to do that without a significant impact to our taxpayer base which I think is really very important so if we can do that when we need to do that then we can should consider facility referendum not just because but because there is a need I took a look at the Madison metropolitan 2024 referendum documentation that's online and I think it's excellent and what shapes me sometimes is this needs

085wants conversation because Where is that line? They put down some hard metrics in Madison and found that they did a kind of a report card style of their facilities. You know, the power, the HVAC, the lighting, the building envelope, the safety, interior finishes, sustainability, all of those things were in their ABCD report card. And when they got to a point where 60% of the cost of renovation that would be you know that the needs for renovation would be 60 of the cost of a new building that was their tipping point to say we build a new building um i think that's something for us to consider um at what point do we stop patch working sinking rooms and cafeterias that are too small or whatnot and They passed in 2024 a hundred million dollar operational

086referendum and also a five hundred million dollar facility referendum They bigger district lots more buildings and there's a if you look online there are many buildings that they are renovating and many buildings that they are replacing and they give you the breakdown by This is what we found was an identifying challenge and you can kind of see there that's really not going to get fixed if you patch it or you can patch this and it'll work just fine you look at you look a little further in their plans and they have much smaller sites than we have when we talk about the adequacy of our school sites and they've got you know an eight acre a seven acre where they're putting kids um you realize we are in a We are in a rarefied air

087to have some pretty nice plots of land Nice facility spaces that we've been very satisfied with But and and their buildings are in many cases as old as ours in some cases older in some cases newer that they're Some they've remodeled every year. They've added two every year. So first of all, I like the way they laid it out because it's very easy for the community to read and see what's going on. But I don't think when you say the cafeteria is too small or the library is too small or we need twice as many gyms, to get into a discussion of it's a want for me and a need for you might not be as... Might not get us to the finish line as easily as to say this ends up being 50% of

088the cost of a new building or 70% of the cost of a new building so now let's take a look at the best way to create the best learning environment for our students to succeed. End of discussion. We're not gonna have, we've never had state of the art schools in this district. We've never done the fanciest. newest flashiest margaret moore the first school board president made that very clear to me back in 1990 this school this district has never gone for the best it's gone for what we need but we have to agree on what we need a percentage of what we can get out of renovating a building or what we just can't fix and and then take a look at the option of building and then see what that costs see what impact

089it has and then take it out to the community because ultimately the community is going to tell us by their vote if nothing else what they will and will not support Thank You Mary before we go to the other board of comments Chris just a clarification since we're on this chart The top three points, I think there's been some conversation here, board members, and I would agree that that line that says, that second line that says conduct facility assessments is highlighted green in August, but obviously it's carrying through September. We're doing one tonight, and we're going to look and kind of assess some needs at Swanson. And then from that, develop capital maintenance costs. If I understood you correctly, we're going to assess, and I'd be curious to know when you see that process ending,

090like how far does that bar go across? Is that a mid-October finish for us? And then to develop the capital maintenance costs, I think that's the point where you'd want... that architect, that construction manager to say, okay, so we've now assessed, the board has assessed, and so now we need to understand our costs a little bit more so we can start to make some decisions, prioritize things, and that's where the architect and the construction manager I think would help us, right? Just to clarify conduct facility assessments. That's what EUA did for us. That's the documents we already have That's not you assessing it. That's the technical assessment that was done with our dashboards and green yellow red Engage school boards throughout We're just middle of September. So that's why it's orange but the facility assessments

091are Done if you will And ready to be used which is what we're using to guide our tour tonight Which is what we use to guide our tours the other night. So so that's that's why those are green the Throughout this process there will be many junctures where we don't have the technical expertise needed to Respond to what-if questions and scenario options. I mean is the bottom line and that's why you need partners No difference, you know, this is a big scale because we're talking all of our facilities But no different if we were doing a robotic space at Brookfield East or renovating a library at Burleigh You need that partner to kind of walk you through the process to talk about here's the square footage But here's what you can do with all of

092this space. You know, you're trying to accomplish a library a separate classroom, three breakout spaces, and something else, you can do all that in this space, and here's how you would lay it out, and then the construction manager comes in and tells you this is how much it would cost. We can't do that. I mean, we could draw it out on paper, but that'll get us nowhere really fast. We're talking about doing this on a scale of, you know, 12 really large facilities. to develop a master plan in a really short timeline. And the reason why this timeline ends in April, May, is because we really need to get this work done with this board. I mean, if this board is going to invest that much time, 30, 40 hours of work sessions over the

093next eight months, you need to finish the work. And that's what we're here talking about tonight, is is there still buy-in on the work? commitment to getting it done is this the best process and if it is then we're gonna jump right in and get after it but you know to do that we're gonna need our partners to be successful or else we're just not gonna make we can't spend months talking about priority is starting to utilize those partners starting to ask the architects some questions some what-ifs and things like that based on board feedback you think you'll have a need of that mid-october But we'll know what that's gonna cost us after the RFP and not before because that'll be part of what they're telling us Yeah, how much time we've got it got

094an estimated scope of work and they bid on that scope of work Cheryl pre-thought or West West I know I feel like we've had this discussion a number of times all these work sessions that we've had and it's it seems like one of the Sticking points and I could be misinterpreting what everyone else is thinking But is we all there's a feeling that don't know what the needs are that we have I think we've made comments that prior work sessions that EUA has all the data like we have the facility needs assessment We're going to the facilities. You can kind of see what's going on I don't know if it's a lack of one document that shows us everything in one place and that's not a criticism of Not you know, we didn't necessarily provide

095direction to give us one document that says, you know, Tonawanda Estimated cost if you did everything is this much Pilgrim Park this much Well, but for like swamp and Swanson all the other ones we have the Tonawanda and the Pilgrim Park We don't have Swanson Central East every other facility that we could do it where we're talking about if we did everything I don't know 400 million dollars if you tried to do everything and get it up like clearly not gonna go there When it comes to hiring an architect and construction manager, it seems premature because it feels like that information, we're doing another tour later because we want to see more and understand what our needs are. It feels premature in that sense, but I also understand that if we're going to meet this

096timeline, I don't know how we get there without moving forward quickly with hiring an architect, a construction manager, especially when... I think there needs to be a clear delineation between this facility plan is a plan, but this does not commit us to anything else. We are going to vote on whatever we decide to do at the end of the day. And so we might hire an architect and a construction manager, and they might put together these plans, but that doesn't mean that necessitates a referendum next year. I don't think that does not seem to be the consensus at this point. And so I guess I, like... Like I said, I feel like it feels premature for an architect and a construction manager But based on the goals of doing this 20-year facility plan in by

097you know, really March April it seems like a necessity because how are we how are we going to make any type of decisions when it comes to You know the gym at Pilgrim Park for instance if it's a two station if we need a three station well We think three stations the right option it's gonna cost us ten million dollars or we're gonna change the workshop And it's gonna look like this it's gonna be five million dollars. You could do it this way It's gonna be two million dollars How many things do we want to do and I don't know how we can do that without engaging it I do hope that the cost will be relatively de minimis part of the process like you said if the most of those costs are generally recouped

098through referendums if that necessitates a different approach should be good to understand what that entails if it's an hourly rate or something like that but I think there's like I said if we're if our goals are what our strategic plan suggests then I feel like we need to move forward quickly in in deciding what that looks like Scott can I respond to that Cheryl or Preetha and then okay I think with all of the sessions that we've had I think the one unifying thing that I see is that we need to understand priority of project and for me that's very hard to determine is the gym at Pilgrim Park a higher priority than the Floor somewhere else. I mean again, I I see the value in having the architect and construction manager Give us information

099in order for us to be able to again these planning scenarios that we're gonna have in the end Wes is right It's going to be us who decides what projects we do in a more order But I don't know that I necessarily have that information in my mind I can look at it and say like that doesn't look great and I'd like to see that look better but without further information that both an architect and a construction manager could provide. I don't know how to wrap my head around what is a higher priority and the timeline in which we want to do this as we consider our long-term plan. So I personally think it is a necessity to have that kind of information for me to feel like I can adequately decide what I think

100is right and put that forward. I guess the one thing that I do want to say is that if we would go to referendum, any referendum is a burden to the taxpayers. Regardless if it's a little increase or not, it's still a burden to the taxpayers, and I think that we need to keep that in mind. Thank you. Mary? A couple of things. The EUA report we got when we walked through the last work session, I realized it's kind of a one out of three you're still good and two out of three you're bad situation with some of the factors. So in terms of prioritization, Preetha, I'm as lost as you are in terms of, you know, maybe that one thing out of three that left this a good meant there aren't enough bathrooms in

101the school like we heard at Tonawanda. That to me. immediately makes you a red because it's not a negotiable problem. It's not something that can be ignored when you have hundreds of kids in a building and not enough bathrooms. That's a necessity. I don't think there's going to be a lot of argument about that. So the way EUA put together their red, yellow, and greens, for me, Was kind of corporate in the sense that if you were looking at the building as a whole but not thinking about the function of a school You know you'd have that the other thing I want them just thinking about now as we talk is we're really talking about two different things Aren't we Chris we're talking about a 20-year facility plan and then we're talking about the condition

102report that told us we have a couple of buildings with some significant problems I'm not sure They have to happen in tandem, but if we're going to address those poor problems pilgrim park Tonawanda, whatever's going on at Swanson, whatever else we determine, maybe we have to think about do we want to fix the problems at Pilgrim Park for 20 years or just get through the next five years and push this. Later, you know I'm not sure that we need to have a 20-year plan for every single one of our buildings while we are trying to address significant needs and Maybe we are overreaching in that sense to try to do two things at the same time that are Confusing that are there at least delaying getting the important jobs done in the comments We do

103have a request to speak to the board after board discussion Angie Pingel a resident of the district requested speak Good evening. I've been attending these board meetings regularly now for, believe it or not, it's about eight years. So I've sat through many board members. I've been here longer than most of you. And the one thing you've always touted is your fiscal responsibility. But the one thing that I'm coming to learn as I tour these buildings with you is that we've been making questionable decisions. What do we really need? Do we need new playground equipment, or do we need to fix a classroom that's sinking? I would not prioritize a playground versus that in my own home, and I wonder how we ended up prioritizing that in our district. It seems like we're putting a lot

104of necessary repairs to preserve the value of our buildings behind things that are nice to have. Sure, a beautiful new library is exciting. It's awesome to see the kids like it. But I don't know. I went to Milwaukee Public Schools. I graduated from a school that had probably 50-year-old furniture, and I think I turned out all right. I graduated law school from the top of my class, and I didn't have the greatest furniture. I don't really think that's a need. That's a nice to have. And I guess I would encourage you to really spend some time thinking about what it is that is critical in preserving our taxpayer value in the buildings we have and focus on fixing that first. And when that's done, then you can start talking about, all right, what improvements can

105we make that might make the educational experience better? Will this help improve reading scores? Will this help improve our ACT scores? Because quite frankly, beautiful furniture is not always what it takes to do well and to learn and develop. You don't need that but you do need a floor that's not going to sink in and crack and become a trip hazard and a safety issue and all I hear a lot about is prioritizing things that are questionable needs ahead of What is essential and important? repairing what we have And without taking an inventory of that, you're just going to perpetuate the problem that we've had for the last eight years, where we're spending our money in areas that aren't necessarily needs. They are truly wants. And taxpayers are not made of money. Anything you do

106to raise taxes or prevent the natural decrease to our taxes that we've been expecting is a serious, serious decision. So thank you. Thank You Angie that Brings us to our next discussion item the first reading of the 3000 policy series Mary you've seen We've looked at this at F&O There are a couple of just reconfirmations here there is One revision that is actually not a revision because it was a typo. The changes here are extremely minor, and so I can walk you through them. Policy 3280 simply strikes. One line out of the policy that says extracurricular gifts for service are governed by policy 4306 that's not the case and the line at the end about the superintendent or designee updating a list of potential honorees with consideration to diversity and equity that's been removed and

107the Extracurricular policy 4306 no longer exists. That's the changes there in policy 3291.1 short-term borrowing We are simply reconfirming 3293 the trust fund management and other employee benefits The only change there is there a change there so the one we didn't have to change there was a change There's one typo in the second paragraph where a capital S and shell is a small lesson shell. That is the only change there the revision in 3410 System of accounts references woofer which we've been using for a long time as our Expenditure categories and account codes that's state policy now And we updated the cross reference to 3210 preparation of budget document That is the only change the other another reconfirmation so these are minor changes mostly typos and updates to changes we've made elsewhere anybody have any

108questions the questions for Mary okay if not you think of someone the month ahead just contact her yep otherwise we'll bring it back for action next month okay that brings us to our board president's report I Was so excited to this last month visit the remodel at Fairview South It's beautiful. It's functional. The staff was super excited to be in their space that just has much better amenities and function to it and They were so grateful and I think it was mentioned already this evening by Angie just it's exciting for those students just to be in that space It's so great I'm grateful to our talented administrator team. I was able to personally meet with them and thank them and our district building this in August as they met to review our spring performance data

109and develop improvement plans. Our administrators do an excellent job of setting a vision for each school. They also meet the needs of our students and families in a wonderful way and Build out improvement plans for each building that's tailored to what that building needs and their staff there and so I just wanted to again publicly thank our administrative team and It's more than I'm not talking about more than just the district team, but our building principals and associate principals it's wonderful and as I looked around that room and and marks nodding I think you would agree it just Almost seems like the A-Team. I mean, it's just rock stars, just amazing, amazing people. And so thank you publicly to them for all their work. And then the beginning of the school year, I know Mark

110will update us here in a second, but it's been successful by pretty much any measure, any way you look at it. Thank you to our wonderful staff. That includes support staff and custodial, grounds, teachers, everyone. for creating such a wonderful environment and welcoming our students back and helping them feel comfortable. On a personal note, I have a seventh grader who's new to Pilgrim Park, super nervous and to the point with an upset stomach every single morning before he goes to school. I just am personally grateful for the Pilgrim Park teachers. administrators that had just welcomed him and smiling and I he doesn't want to go to school I'm sick dad I'm sick and it's not sick on the weekend just these school days and then he gets out of the car and they're there and

111it's amazing and that's just one personal example but I know that that's repeated on a daily basis across our buildings So thank you on behalf of a grateful father and on behalf of our Board of Education mark. Would you tell your team? Just thank you to everything they do each and every day to help each and every one of our students succeed and that is my report Our next agenda item are just informational items discussed by exception only are there any items that board members would like to discuss? Hearing none superintendents report mark Thanks Scott we're up and running we have started the school year as most folks know and really appreciate the board members that had a chance to join me on the first couple days of school it was incredible to see the

112system turn on you think of the complexity of turning on an organization our size after it's been dormant for a couple months it turned on with incredible success as you can see from some of the the data points on that last slide you'll note that we welcomed a whole bunch of new kids this includes our fifth group of four-year-old kindergarteners. Welcome to 84 new employees. And you'll see some other data there that's pretty amazing. Serve 12,000 meals a day, making us the largest restaurant in Brookfield. Our IT team manages over 10,000 devices for staff and students. Executed on six million dollars of capital investment this past summer Then you start to look at what our buildings and grounds team does and our payroll team and all of the folks that are behind the scenes It's

113pretty amazing to watch the 7,800 kids arrive at school that first day was was pretty awesome As I said, we had a couple board members who had a chance to join me along the way. On the right-hand side of that screen, that's Sam Hughes giving kids high-fives at Brook L. And that's Sam and Wes in the Brook L space theme for this year. Sam, I think you're actually wearing a space helmet there, if I remember correctly. And then on the left-hand side, you'll see a picture of the robotics space at Brookfield East. This is the launch strand running. Cheryl had a chance to to see all that in action as well. So really thank everybody for joining us that first couple days Prior to the start of the school year. We did have adventures in

114middle school This is a pretty unique experience where our sixth graders are allowed to go to our middle schools Experience the middle school before any other kids are in the building their parents can come with them They can check out their lockers. They can follow their class schedule Adventures in middle school has become a wild success We did open the school year with some changes in the school resource officer alignment. Tony Cater, who is a school resource officer at Brookfield Central, has retired. Kyle Stummis, who's on the left-hand side picture there, will be replacing him and has been there since day one. In addition to that, we have our second shift SROs, Gabe and Gib. Gibb is in the middle and Gabe is on the right. Gibb will be serving the west side of town

115and Gabe will be serving the east side of town. So we thank them for their service and really appreciate the fact that we now have second shift SROs. You'll note that we had a sophomore at Brookfield East who was crowned National American Miss Wisconsin Junior Teen. This is a national competition that allows her to compete in Orlando later this year. So congratulations to all of the folks that were involved from Brookfield and Elmbrook. Pilgrim Park additionally was represented in another national competition. This was the National Chess Tournament. Ojas was a sixth grader that represented the entire state of Wisconsin. We will find out more about his final rankings as he works his way through that. Our employee spotlight has returned after a hiatus this summer. Kathy Rayburn is the receptionist at Wisconsin Hills. If you've

116not been to Wisconsin Hills, you've not had the chance to see her shining face. Just a delightful human being, and we really thank her for making the climate and culture what it is at Wisconsin Hills. And you'll report. I will be passing that out to you right now. If you didn't get this in your mailbox, it's coming. This will be arriving there is a digital version that is pictured on the right hand side of this screen and The print copy is coming around and is on the left hand side. It's an incredible celebration of all things Elmbrook from staff to students to Facilities and everything in between so thank the communications team for putting together another awesome annual report And again, there is a digital version on our district's website at Elmbrook schools org Final

117reminder is our budget hearing annual meeting is set for Monday September 22nd at the Brookfield Central Cafeteria at 6 p.m. That concludes my report are there any questions? Thanks everybody. Thank you can I get a motion to adjourn? I will note that we are reconvening at Swanson following this meeting for any that would like to join us there. All those in favor of adjourning this meeting please say aye. Aye.