001Good evening. I'll call to order the board of education meeting for Monday, October 27th, 2025 here. Please rise to the flag of the United States of America to the standy forces. Sure. Working together. >> Are there any revisions to agenda? >> Mr. President, I would request to move number 17, number 19, and number 18 to after number 10 in that specific order, please. It behind agenda item. Second by hand, follow >> I We have no request for agenda. >> Yeah. So, we're thrilled tonight to have our girls golf team and also a member of our girls tennis team who recently represented Alaska at the state tournament in a fine fashion. They all played well and did wonderful throughout the season and represented us uh just just wonderfully at the state tournament. So tonight we'll start
002off first with coachnick and I'll let him introduce who he has with him tonight and talk a little bit and then after that we'll have coach coach Jansky come up and they'll talk about the girls golf team. So coach we'll turn it over to you. Thank you Mr. Terry. Um my name is Kirk connect and uh I am the coach for this young lovely lady right here. Her name is Mara Klein and Mara uh she advanced to the state tournament this year. She's a junior and uh had a wonderful season like Mr. Kerry said and was very happy to to see her representing our our team and our area at the at the state tournament. She played uh an opponent in the first round who was just simply better than she was. Tomorrow played a
003good a good match. Her opponent just um had too many shots and too much too much skill for uh Mar to overcome. But she represented the school in a in a great man with great sportsmanship and a smile on her face most of the time. Um, so, uh, yeah, I I was very happy with with her getting to the state meet and she, like I said, she's just a junior. She's got another year to improve her skills and and, uh, hopefully get beyond the first round next year. So, um, I'll let Mara talk a little about about herself and, uh, her postseason experience. >> Yes. Um the season went really well for the whole team really. We um ended up being second in that conference which is very exciting. first date. I was just very
004happy that I was able to um that I was invited to go and just play with that level of players. It was just a cool experience. Even though it didn't necessarily go the way I wanted it to, I was still very >> and before before we're very happy for for Mara and as you said, our team did a did a great great job this year as well. And um I think it's worth noting that uh one of the school board members here, Tracy was uh she played tennis for before me and uh >> I played doubles though because I was too lazy to take the whole court. So, I'm like extra impressed you made it to this, >> right? And uh yeah, and also one of the student representative here, uh, Karina Dunn was also
005on the team this year, too. So, um, we've got a lot of representation for tennis. >> Fantastic. Experience Oh, sure. So, we had an absolutely tremendous year this year. Um, we finished pretty much second place in everything that we played in, which is awesome for these girls. Uh, their summertime commitment, their practice, uh, their dedication, their consistency is what got us to the point that we're at today. Um, we've got first team all conference with Finley sitting out over there and then we've got three second team allconerence girls here as well. So we went to state after we we we beat our long-term rival Toma at sectionals which is very satisfying as well. Um and as state we finished eighth as a team out of 12 teams I believe 75 girls total uh which is
006really It was a really cool experience to end off my high school. >> Um, honestly, these four years of playing golf has been the most incredible thing ever. I started out in JV and I never would have thought that I would have made it to this level and being able to compete at the state tournament. And to grow with these girls and see how much they've improved and to see how much they've worked over the summer and over the course of the season is so impressive and I'm really excited to see what the two future um girls have to offer for the upcoming years. Um yeah, I'm truly going to miss this team and I am just so happy that I got to be a part of it. >> And I'd have to agree with
007both of them. I definitely say that um these girls on this team were probably some of my best friends and I've built such a good relationship with all six or five of them that I golf with this year and I just thought it was so exciting to be able to go to state and experience that with them >> in a new van as well. >> Van was important. Well, ladies, this is fantastic. Uh, it's a it's a memory that the five of you will no doubt carry with you the rest of your lives. You the camaraderie that you built through the through the process and and being able to go out and compete as a team and then reach that state tournament. Very well done. Thank you. It's my pleasure and honor to be able
008to recognize, acknowledge, and share our gratitude for the following donations. A $250 Ultra Federal Credit Union for classrooms needs for Irving Perch, teacher safety Bosingham. And Abby, did he have some commentary? Yes, this um donation is actually product of a ultra credit union member but then a former student of Miss and so the parent did write a nomination and we were able to surprise him in her class but the parent that the experience of Mrs. Bingham has been remarkable that her impact extends beyond teaching and she changed the trajectory of her education environment. >> Thank you, Abby. Uh the the following $200 for Northern Hills or from Northern Hills PTO towards the Love and Logic workshops. We'd like to acknowledge and thank them. And lastly, $500 from Mia's Kitchen for the an Alaska Middle School
009web program. We share our thanks and gratitude and appreciation for those donations. >> Always a lot of thanks for any any donation that helps support our mission, support our students, and these are no. We'll move now into item number 17, which is a donation from the Eagle Book Elementary PTO for a walking pad. >> Okay. Hi, I'm Elizabeth Whitick. I am the uh current president of the Eagle Breath PTO and Jamie Cranberg the treasurer. Um and we are here today we have the last uh three years now we have changed our fundraising um setup I guess you would say. We have a big event called the Eagle Buff Rock and Roll where students raise money and then during the events they see how many laps they can walk or run. And through just um all
010these donations over the past couple years, we have been fortunate enough to raise um we're going to be donating $37,000 um towards your left square uh for members of our walking path and Mr. Sun can give you more information about that. >> First of all, just a huge thank you to our PTO and all of our families and their friends and their families. and all the people that help support us to do great things. It was hard to believe when when we started this that it would actually awesome because I thought, okay, we're just like circles. Um, but you throw in a DJ and you throw in high school kids coming and and you throw in this spirit of school community. Um, and it it really is cool. It's great. behind it. So um as
011we were thinking about um and as said this multi-year period here they've supported us in other ways too but um we're trying to think about something kind of longlasting future and so this idea is also something recess also kind of helps with um the whole site plan in terms of We're keeping all of our field so I think it might be something that even grows time. So just really really excited about it again. I will make a motion to approve the $37,000 donation from the Eagle Elementary PTO for walking path at Eagle Elementary. Second >> motion from Tracy to approve the donation from Eagle PTO $37,000 for walking. >> When do you guys think you'll build it or or install it? called tomorrow. I was like, wait a minute. But anyway, I don't know. >>
012Okay. I was just curious. >> Yeah. >> Very cool. >> Very impressive. >> All those in favor? >> I is graciously received. Action item number 19. Pretty loud voice, but there we go. Is that good? Uh um and uh Yeah, I so I teach economics for a social studies component and um I if you remember me I was here talking about Panama and we did a trip to Costa Rica recently in Panama and Karina can uh speak to how cool of experience that was. Um, so, uh, but when I kind of got into it, you know, you get emails and you get on lists of things and I started to get emails from different people about a trip to DC. Uh, and I just kind of started to think it'd be kind of a cool
013thing to offer because I I know we don't now and I don't know if we ever have as a district offered a a trip to uh, DC. So, I kind of started to put together a potential plan for what that would look like, just kind of to see if we could get it going. Um, so, uh, what I came up with was a a trip, a 4-day trip. Um, because I know like obviously there are schools that like bus to DC and stuff like that. Uh, but I found an organization that's very reputable. They've done it for many decades. They were founded on doing a trip to DC and I kind of you know, want to be conscious of like not being too long. So, making a 4 day trip that would uh be around
014a weekend so the kids only miss two days of school and kids are also super busy at the high school. Obviously, Karina can speak to that. She's in everything and does all sorts of stuff. And so, I kind of wanted it to be a time of year when it isn't as busy. So, like in mid November was, you know, kind of when we're between sports seasons because that also affects affects it. Um, and I just in general I've been lucky enough to be out to DC four times and as a social studies teacher, there's just so many awesome things that you can see out there and really neat connections uh with what we teach. Um, and and so yeah, I'm proposing like a a 4-day trip. Uh, it would leave like on a Friday and
015come back on a Monday. So then it would kind of go around the weekend. would miss just two days of school which is something but you know it's you know manageable for a lot of kids and then it be in November uh we see the uh ton of the things that there are to see in DC hopefully also learn like kind of have things we want to go there to see like targeted things to see like for me the Bureau of Engraving and Printing Teaching Economics would be really cool uh and uh the cost would be just under $2,000 and it would be proposed to next year's juniors and seniors. Uh that's kind of what I'm thinking to start. Uh and this is just this kind of a first time thing like a social studies
016trip during the year. Um but yeah, that's kind of my proposal in general, but definitely glad to answer questions that you have about it. >> How many students do you think you can take for the trip? Yeah, that's a really good question because we're starting out. Um, I mean, I would hope like 20 to 30 would be a number I think that would be getable. Um, but it's hard to say because there there's obviously other trips that they do. Um, so that's a question that I have too, but I thought 20 to 30. Thank you. Um, I went to Costa Rica in February of my junior year and I got to spend I think it was four days living with the host family in Costa Rica and I got to learn a lot about like
017the culture and the way of life there but also about the beautiful scenery um and like about the government there which is interesting part about a country seeing how their government is different than the US and I've actually been to Washington DC myself on various for trips and I can attest to like honestly how life-changing of an experience it is just being like this is my country this is my government this is how it works um and I would just say any trip or experience on Alaska is really special for students a lot of them aren't able to go like with their family Yeah, we we we learned a lot in Costa Rica for sure. Absolutely. Thank you. >> Questions. I'll make a motion to approve the trip request by Andy Beckram, OHS teacher for
018a student trip to Washington DC in the fall of 2026 as described by him and outlined in enclosure 19 trip request by Tracy to approve the trip request for student and presented by our own government, our own history. So appreciate Yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah, thank you. It's It is work, but it's really fun. >> All those in favor? >> I action item number director. Before I can just give you a little All right. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Amory Doll. This is my fourth year in an Alaska. Before that, I served 22 years in as a teacher. So, our DPI library plan, every three years, the DPI um requires that districts complete a plan, including goals. Um that needs to be So we have been working on this plan for
019almost three years. Um and it's gone through many iterations um self-study and what I want to present to you tonight is the main bulk of it which is our goals. Um we spent a lot of time um working on a self-study um including staff and student surveys um figuring out where were our strengths and our weaknesses in our programs um at all of the levels in our district. So our elementary school goals that we came up with um are we and update our collections. So these are threeear goals um weed and update collections. Weeding is a process for many book lovers. However, just like a garden, uh the old needs to come out uh to make way for the new. Um so, weeding and updating um is a big part of of our job. Um
020and then a student goal um at the elementary level, students being able to locate and use materials independently um is a huge uh step for our students in the elementary going to middle school and high school. And then our collaboration goal uh to continue collaborating uh with teachers to support the curriculum. That work is already being done. However, there is always more that can be done. Our middle school goals are very similar. Um but the needs of the middle school are different um than the elementary. The elementary we are part of um the encore team. So kids come to us. Um, so things like circulation and getting kids engaged is much easier at the elementary level because they're required to be here with me whether they want to be or not. Um, so the middle
021school weed and update they're they're focusing on the non-fiction collection. Um, which as materials become outdated is important for us to update. Um their second goal is increasing student engagement and participation at the middle school and then collaborating with teachers to support high school goals updating and modernizing the collection. Um if you've been in our high school library um you may have seen um that there is a very large collection um but some of it needs to be modernized. So that that is a three-year goal. um increasing student engagement and participation again um and then increasing the awareness and the use of LMC resources by collaborating with staff and providing staff training. Um the we really worked hard to tie these to our pillars um because our pillars are guiding our work um in the
022district and in our schools. Um and so under student growth engagement um you can see on the screen um locating um and using those materials and then increasing uh student engagement and participation meets that pillar. Family and community engagement. While we don't have a family and community engagement goal in our DPI plan, we have many activities that are we are currently doing um that meet this goal including um our book fair and then staff uh recruitment, development and retention. Uh that collaboration and increasing the awareness of what we can offer um along with staff training um meets those needs in that as well. And then the last pillar um with facilities uh operations and our stewardship for those of you who don't know um our common school funds um are written into the United or
023into the Wisconsin state constitution. Um so those funds um for school libraries are in our constitution. We are the only state in the United States that has it in our constitution um that provides those resources. So a lot of my job um a lot of our librarians jobs are to be good stewards of that taxpayer money. And so you can see up there um all of our collection development goals and our collaboration goals are tied uh to that to those common school funds. There are very specific things that we can purchase with common school funds and things we cannot. But mostly it's books. It's um things that are housed in the library. Um hands-on maker space activities as well. And so those amounts are um very large, very generous. Um continue to grow, which is
024amazing. Um, and so that all of the things in our DPI plan, um, we need to prove that we're meeting those goals and that they're tied to how we spend our comments. And we put a lot of thought into that. >> It's exciting. educational like learning that that's codified in our constitution is a fantastic tidbit >> but also I really appreciate about bringing students and teachers and collaborating in an age where we tend to use computers far too much to do our research and learn to put physical text in our hands and use that to Well, and for anyone who has been in one of our libraries, and if you haven't, please stop by. Um, our libraries are so much more than books. And through our plan, um, STEM, so science, technology, engineering, math is
025such a huge focus now in the American uh, school of library standards. um and helping with critical thinking and um being critical consumers of media is such a huge part. Now these three goals we we you know went with the classic three goals. Keep it small, keep it concise. Every three years we will need to update but at the end of each school year um we will um update our action plans um toward our goals and then in three years I'll be back here asking you again I just want to mention that I appreciate that you tied it to the pillars because that's you know what what guides us, right? Um and as a fellow book lover, I wrote down what happens to those books you weed out? Do you sell them donate them? What
026happens? So when we weave books, we put them on a cart for freebies for kids. We put them in our little free libraries. Um and then if worst comes to worse, sometimes the material is outdated and not necessarily what we want our kids um to have, then we just >> Can you touch a little bit on for people who may be listening and don't have this document in front of them, how do you go about weeding? What is the process and how do you decide? >> Great. All right. So weeding um I could about this two days but I won't um >> okay >> the one of the the the basic thing is looking at um age of material especially in the non-fiction text um when we're talking about things in science health technology those
027things change um pretty rapidly so looking at the age of the text looking at um if they've circulated or not um unfortunately when I go through the work of choosing selecting books I'm super pumped and then sometimes no one else is and that happens. Um and so looking at circulation um looking at wear and tear on book the ones that come back stuck together with with gum or um a strawberry in the middle of the stories I could tell you about the things we find in our books. Um so we do um aged collection um sometimes it's about um If we have books that could replace, you know, better. So, for example, the older the older texts, your more classic traditional text, they won't check out unless you get a new cover and then they
028fly. So, some of that, so for example, Babysitter's Club, I love those books when I was a kid. They have new covers now and so do the rest of the kids. And so, um, reading kind of involves um all of those things. Um, that's one of the things we learn about uh in library school, but it's also something we talk about uh professionally um to keep keeping things on the shelves that don't circulate. We're not a museum. Um, we're we're an active collection for kids and staff. Um, and so we spend a big amount of our time looking at what do kids need and what is what matches our curriculum and what do we need for our curricul So you're saying we can judge a book by it cover. >> I am say I may
029do that. Yes. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> And then I'm also here to talk to you about >> Oh yeah, please. >> This is on for approval. I would move that we approve the library plan um as presented by Marie and outlined in enclosure 18. >> Second by Bridget to approve the district library as presented by Doll. Any further questions? All those in favor? I >> thank you. That is approved. And now we can turn ourselves to conference recap item 11 and right back to you. >> And it's me. So last year um one thing that you need to know about me is I'm all about continuous um growth as for students and for staff. And um I was looking for some library um staff development and came upon the National Education Association.
030Our union, our national union um has grants available that I've never knew anything about. And so I started looking into them. Um and they have one that's the learning and leadership grant. So I went to Abby and sold her my little plan. Aby's really good about all the goofy crazy things that I want to do. She was really good about humoring me and going along with a uh Yeah. Yeah. So, she gave me the okay to apply. So, I wrote a grant to attend the American Association of School Librarians conference. This conference happens twice a year in the United States. Um and it this most recently was in St. Louis. So, when I wrote the grant, I asked for coverage of flight. I asked for coverage for food for my sub um for my for
031the actual conference fee. Um, and then I padded it with $750 to buy things for our library when I returned because often you go to conferences and you get excited and then you come back and you can't implement. Um, and I was granted it. So, um, after a little happy dance from the library, ran down to Todd. I think I was at EB teaching at EB that day. Abby was out of town. Ran into Todd to tell him. Um, and this last uh two weeks ago I got to go. Um, so I just thought I'd share a few of the highlights with you last year. Um, one of the things um that I got to do as part of the conference. you could attend um field trips and I got to go to the Kaplan
032Feldman Holocaust Museum which was an amazing um museum, very sobering uh museum um but I had never had that opportunity and so went to the museum and then they talked to us about what kind of books we can include in our collections um that are appropriate at the elementary, the middle and the high school level um and how and talk with kids about this part of history. So, that was pretty amazing. I I know this won't track you, but I am I spent a lot of time fangirling. I love authors and um one of the neat things about the conference, I got to do author speed dating the first day I was there. We sat around tables and got to meet authors and learn about their books, um their process, and how to use those
033with kids. So here are some of of the pictures of me um with some of the famous authors um which was just amazing. When you go to these conferences, everybody told me bring a second suitcase. They weren't kidding. Um in the um exhibit room, you could stand in line to get autographs. So I had brought money along because I was going to buy these books. They give you the books for free. So, I was able to get 14 books for the value of about $300 uh to bring back, which was pretty amazing. Um, let alone getting to meet the authors. In between the times at the exhibit hall, I got to go to different sessions. These are a few. Um, I'm on the district uh committee with Lis looking at AI. So, I went to
034some sessions on AI. went to a session on AD compliance with websites and making sure that we are updating um being compliant with ADA and I'll be talking to a few people uh getting us on board with that soon. Um lots of ways to engage students learning about the five types of non-fiction and books and how to explain that to staff and students. Um and then some technology as well. And then um as I talked in the last plan talking about maker space and STEM, I was able to find lots of really cool hands-on um the item on the left is they're actually coding um pieces that kids kindergarten first graders can put together and it tells these little um robot trains how to go um in a complete circuit. Um then there's um two
035other items on there as well um that that we'll be purchasing for the elementary schools. My main takeaway um people from 50 states, eight countries, we are blessed and lucky in the state of Wisconsin to have those common school funds. Um there were people that I met that the only money they have to buy book is what they make for their scholastic book fair. um which is less than $1,100. So knowing that and they're like, "So what's your budget?" It really made me see how we are blessed and um I'm very grateful for um your support in allowing me to go for my sub that was able and for my par that held down the ship um while I was gone. But it was an amazing once in a-lifetime opportunity because I did not spend
036all the allocated money for my food and my uh travel expenses. That money will roll over um to be able to buy more items for our library. So it'll be about $1,150 um from your things from this grant. So pretty amazing. Thank you for letting me share my experience with you. really exciting to see your passion and see that that come through and for taking the risk to to apply, right? We don't ever know we get get the opportunity unless we take that chance. >> That's right. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, I'm going to be talking about two bigger topics today. First, some of the award ceremonies going on at the high school on November 3rd. Um, and then some new engage opportunities that I spoke a little bit about last month. So,
037first on November 3rd, there are two ceremonies going on at the high school um to recognize students. The first begins at 6 p.m. and it's the National Honor Society induction ceremony. And this is a ceremony that honors junior and senior level students who have above above a 3.5 GPA and demonstrate leadership in school and community activities. And right after that, the second ceremony is the academic award ceremony. So this ceremony takes place each year um and the students in the PhD at 6 PM after the NHS induction ceremony. And this ceremony honors students who earned above a 3.5 GPA or raised their GPA by a minimum of.5 last school year. And I believe the duality of this event shows on Alaska's commitment of ensuring higher levels of education for all by recognizing the high achieving
038students have over a 3.5 GPA and also students who are working hard and showcasing self-discipline and quality performance to raise their grade point average.5 um from last year to this year. And then another of this ceremony is the student speaker and this year our school or selected Nu Yang who's a student at Anaska High School to speak at this academic award ceremony and Nu is a high school student who grew up speaking and English and she'll be talking about how growing up and communicating with her family schoolmates and friends in different languages pushed her to be more involved within the community. So I'm really looking forward to that presentation just because I've never know heard from a student or anyone before about how that can change their life and push them to do more things.
039Um, so I'm really excited to see that and hear from her. And then also last meeting I spoke about the high school's new engage schedule which allows students to take a short class um two times each month to learn about new new like fun topics. Um so as we near November 1st, many seniors at an Alaska are preparing to submit their college applications to universities all across the United States and even the world. And this time can be pretty stressful for students um as we're working hard to keep our good grades up to be able to go off to college in the fall um and be active in sports and activities at school like we have been for the past four years. And so because of this, the counselors at on Alaska began a support
040group for all things college during this new engaged resource. So students um they can receive help for with their application. They can receive help writing and editing their essays um completing federal financial aid applications and their and ACT scores with schools which can be be pretty hard to navigate as it's our first time doing this and not having much um guidance for it. And so this new offering has helped many seniors um feel confident as they plan for their future at OHS. And I'm pretty excited about it. It's a pretty awesome opportunity to be able to have that extra step um that extra like pat in the back when you're future. And the last thing I wanted to talk about is something that I've been involved in a little bit. Um, but the counselors at
041OHS and the student services department is applying for a grant to receive funding um to enrich the opportunities during engage. Um, so two students, Niku, who speaking at the award ceremony and then myself who will be featured in a video later this week talking about all the opportunities that we have during engage and how we build community and belonging at OHS. and we're going to talk about how we're going to use this funding to enrich the opportunities available to students during engage. So, I'm really excited about the award ceremony and about this new grant. It's going to really take engage to a new level. I mean, students are already really enjoying it at on Alaska and I'm excited to see how the funds will be used to help students. >> Is engage something for all
042grades or is it just >> Yeah, so it's all grades two times a month during our extended learning days. Um, we have a little bit shorter classes and we have 20 minutes each day to take a fun class. Last week I took dancing and I've taken cooking classes, all kinds of fun. Yeah, it's a really good time to just learn about things that you would never meet about it. So I'm guessing about Yeah, I mean I guess the neat part is allows teachers to show an excuse. We don't want to be something extra. >> I had the opportunity to uh participate in a really popular room. I was Uker and that was you couldn't even hardly get in there. So, uh, that was a lot of fun playing and it's it's pretty awesome thing that
043they know. And they taught me they taught me and they made a lot of fun of me, especially because I was wearing my Viking swag that day, too. And and apparently they they've said that Wisconsin is the originator of Uker. So, I'm not I'm not a true Wisconsinite until I master. But we're looking forward to um this Friday. We videoed every teaching staff in our building to help lead our professional Friday. Um we started doing some of this last year. Teachers let us know differently back up. Each department has organiz from grouping of students to how they're working on some of their writing prompts and so on. So um we are putting the videos together on the hour kind of share videos of what we've seen and not only of the teachers but also students
044in there as well. So it's a great time because we often know feel guilty walking into classrooms and seeing wonderful things that teachers are doing when teachers don't have the opportunity to see their own teachers. There's so much in the room and in our building that we can learn from each other that we just can't capture through conversations. So, it's been really great learning tool for our staff and for us just to kind of sit around the table. So, that's what Friday is all about. Looking forward to that conversation. Yeah, a couple things. The clubs in the high school are also in full swing by now. Um it's really it's really neat to see all the time that our students spend in the community um of on Alaska lacrosse the greater lacrosse area and then
045also inside of our building. So um it's it's a really fun thing to see and we continue to grow there. Uh in terms of some fine arts marching band they had their end of their of the year review last week in the gym. It's always a fun night and they play really really loud and and for the seniors there's some tears because that's the last time they'll they'll play that marching uh band, you know, for that that yearly show. Um but, you know, it's a neat way to kind of wrap things up and they they had another outstanding year. Um then sports, girls swimming is still going. They have their sectional meet coming up next week or this weekend. Uh volleyball's playing in a sectional Thursday night and football's playing the second round of playoffs
046this Friday night. So plenty going on as always at the high school and uh we continue because on Tuesday, a week from tomorrow, we have our winter sports meeting. So we'll be kicking right off end of the winter sports season and and all of those other areas of the fine arts that come with winter. So lot going on, but again just proud of all of our students that that represent us so well. >> Yes. So I would echo a lot going on. Um we we finished our fall season and so it related to area of belonging. We got a lot of things that are either starting or really ramping up. So specifically uh wrestling started today. I see Eric's ready for that right there. Um and boys basketball started uh last week. Um our music
047department is really ramping things up as well. Um jazz band has started as well as a new new club pep band has started in the last couple weeks. We also had a number of students qualify for honors band and um show choir is kind of ramping up their practice schedule to get ready for their upcoming season in a month or so here to start. Um we're going to do continuous improvement. Um we are also looking forward to our PD day. I know the district has a lot of um good opportunities for some of our curricular teams to meet vertically across uh buildings and so that's always good. And then we've got some stuff planned just at Austin Middle School as well to take care of some stuff that we got going on. Just a quick
048highlight related to the area of achievement. Um, a classroom observation I was in last week in our eighth grade social studies classrooms. They're doing some really great work in there. And I just wanted to share with you. Um, they were talking about thesis statements. And so the teachers in there, they were talking about what makes a good thesis statement. They giving a lot of examples and the kids make their own examples relevant things. And this was all building to a summit of assessment in which they were writing a thesis statement about the actual social studies content. But I walked away really impressed thinking like today they were English teachers, not social studies teachers. They were just using social studies content. And so they've really done a great job going beyond just basic fact memorization to
049really working on some of those literacy skills as well as analytical, you know, logical thinking skills that um are going to be really helpful because Google can do the fact based researching for us, right? So that's something we talk about a lot and you know when we see it we want to highlight it, call it out, give credit where credit's due. So that's what we got. >> Um so just wanted to extend our thanks to our nutritional services team again and also the board members and administrators for coming to our elementary schools and serving lunch for national school lunch week. We also just recently had a coaching visit from CPLA for an ELA curricular resource. We had one day at each elementary school with a coach who met with teams, modeled portions of lessons, did
050some observations and then just some problem solving and question sessions with our teams um specifically around pacing and student engagement during instruction. We're looking to continue that on Friday. We do have trainers on site on Friday um focusing on unit planning with our curricular teams and then as well there. Um and then also just want to highlight the food drive that we have going on across our building. Um just gathering food for our food pantry and also just highlighting community day that was last Wednesday across elementary dressing and acceptance, belonging and kindness. >> Thank you. Building project are tidying up for sure. Wilson Street at the high school. I think at the end of its staffing are off of our main street surrounding street to our neighbors too and get everyone as much as we
051can parking in that area. So that's a big thing that's coming next week. inside building. They're just kind of working their way around our music areas are getting closer and closer. You know, our locker rooms and our functional special shape. looking. We We are so close. So exciting. Uh they're finishing up the landscaping this week. Uh, and then really it's just some some touch-ups and fixing some defects. And we got a couple of small furniture snapoos. We were seem to have misplaced about 50 chairs. Um, pretty sure they never actually got delivered, but we're trying to figure that out. That's for our larger construction room. So, no huge rush on that, but would be nice to have that space functional. That's kind of the thing holding that up. But otherwise, we are kind of busy
052making preparations for our open house and official celebration of the project being done. So, this may be one of my last updates for you all. So, it's great. our summer school report. I'm just going to go through slide two, the key points on their pulling up right now. Um, we saw some consistent enrollment in our July K8 programming and a lot of support for our enrichment programs. I know staff highlighted that you know the kids are always excited to learn enrichment and families. A lot of it is just positive feedback around the exciting part of summer school beyond math and reading. So those are always the highlights. We did have a slight increase in our June grades one through eight enrollment. Um, you know, our June programming is only half days, which is very difficult
053for families to work out and it doesn't always work with, for example, Y or other programs in the area either. So, it's something that we'll continue to look at in the future and consider what our June offerings look like so that we can continue to offer something, but it might look different. So, we'll be looking at that. We had did see a good increase in enrollment in our students entering grades 9 through 12 due to the addition of a blended learning option for our courses instead of um before it was all in person. So we did a blended learning option this year and saw a good increase there. So overall it led to an increase in our FE specifically because of the increase in um enrollment at the high school. I know um we had
054like I said continued positive feedback amilies and staff on on especially our high school and our July program and so just finding ways and our kindergarten office. So finding ways to to highlight those areas and see what else we can do because we know like for example adventure camp always get really great feedback too but we only talk about can we can we expand that or what can we do with some of those enrichment opportunities that families and children question about the >> I just appreciate the awareness of how the impact of summer school is in relationship to the other services in our area because you know we want to serve as many students as we can and I think that's fantastic that you identified that as a potential gap in the ability for people
055to participate questions discussed. >> Thank you. So this is our So I don't have the report but this reminder of 10th graders are going forward to graded assessment. This year access I'll start here in the state performable Again, you can see that we were above the state. And then here's the perspective for you. You can the class of 2020 performed in each of those different areas. We were in the top four in for our state users. And This is a breakdown of each performed for our district. what we're looking at. And here is for a little bit better than capital district. Capital district And then science in four buildings did incorporate and 11 inter forward. This is how we performed here this fall. 16.3% of our students were something of that of to the work
056that we've done. Here's a breakdown of how this is our multilingual learners. And this just shows the number of students from don't want them to as well. And a question that I know that I didn't about We also have a handful of other information to share with for eighth grade of people that come to the school. They test them and they come and they run our students. With that, I'll take any questions. having curious. Correct. State of Wisconsin. They didn't make Sorry, were you done? Okay. Um, what's done with the preac data that's done in the nth and tth grades in relationship to preparation for their 11th grade during the ACT? probably. part of our department. >> Thank you. Great report. >> Yeah, I guess I'll start and then I'll ask our board members who
057sit on that committee to follow up. Uh this was my first process going through it and it was a great learning experience for me and I will tell you that there'll be some things that uh you know we we keep the same but there'll be some revisions uh and some modifications and refinements to our process but I thought overall it was a good process. Um, we were able to uh move forward uh three items that you'll see later on in the agenda for action that were holdovers from last spring. So, we're able to work through that. And I would say that there was with with the uh policies presented in front of you, there was nothing that was uh controversial by any means. There was some good discussion and we had to make some choices
058around some things. There is one uh policy that uh we had some questions on that we needed to follow up with an attorney and we weren't able to get up on this uh agenda, but you'll see it in next month or next board meeting agenda as a first read. So, I'll uh leave my comments there and ask for commentary from Eric. Appreciate it. Um, I would just say that I felt like policy committee meeting went very well and that everybody was very prepared. Ben was prepared to educate us with all of the facts from the discussions that were had um from the administrators on the policies before they were presented to us. And like Eric said, you know, we had a few questions here and there, but you know, he was able to Ben was
059able to answer almost all of the questions that we had. So, it was very productive and there was a lot of great conversation about them, but the policies that we have for first reading here are were all very straightforward. There weren't many big changes. One thing that I did note was that Previously there was some language in prior to this batch of policies where Niola had changed the word superintendent to district administrator and now we are gravitating back towards gravitating sorry that sounds weird um back from district administrator to superintendent because that's what we call that role here in our district. So if people are confused like well why is it safe district administrator before and now it's super that's just to align with the language we already use in our district. So just worth
060mentioning >> Yep. That's why we do two meetings. So now you have two weeks. If you have questions, reach out to me and we'll get all your questions answered the best that we can. We'll move on to item which is just a couple comments here. We had good discussions on these as well. These are holdovers. Uh there was a couple of questions just uh with these policies on how we might be able to better um allow our team members to share and utilize their gifts and talents um outside of school hours possibly in the summer. Uh we we didn't feel that we needed to change the policy language. Although we were able to procedurally uh find a place on our website um under families that's called activities by outside agencies. that anyone would have the
061opportunity to apply to have their information placed on this um and families would be able to go to the spot to um I guess check out what's being offered. So, we are hoping that the board will approve this as a second reading and make these policies official. >> And to echo off of Ben with the website, um it allows families to have I'm sure there's lots there's lots of resources in our area, but it's nice to have a place to go as a starting point to know what's out there because a lot of times you don't need it until you need it and then you don't know where to look. And so I was very grateful that our administration team like put this together to make this happen for all of our families and you
062know students I'll make a motion to approve the following board policies. 11:30, ethics and conflict of interest. 3230 ethics and conflict of interest, and 4230 ethics and conflict of interest. As outlined in enclosure 20 board policies >> to approve policies 1130 3230 and 4230. And if anybody's confused as to why there's three policies with the same nameish, it's because it's for different levels of staff within our district. Just to clarify, question >> I approve. Thank you for your work. Moving on to item 21, which is the 2025 26 original budget adoption and turn it over. >> I'll be as excited as this is this is our kind of our big night for for budget. As you know, we've been working on this board level since March and at the administrative level well before that. And
063my goal is always to continue to drip information out for our community and for our board members so that when we get to tonight, it's actually pretty antilimatic that we've been having pieces of this all along. And so it's just kind of pulling all the pieces together. There's two um two action items that we'll ask for tonight. I'll talk about each of them and then pull back and and take them one by one. in um in item number 21, there are two attachments in the budget adoption which is on the screen right now. And then there's um the entire presentation. And there's a lot in that presentation, but on purpose because what my goal is is for you as the board and for the community as a whole to have one place where you can
064go and if you've got a question about the district, hopefully you can find it there. And we have this um these documents as well on our uh finance and business services web page. So anybody from the community will be able to find those documents there. We'll have the original budget and this uh the budget adoption and the presentation through the entire year and then after we adopt the original budget as we do budget amendments we'll just keep building on that and you'll see each one of those on the finance page. So talking about like what are those two items that had come in when we had our budget hearing. I said there were two things that we had not yet had and that was our equalization aid and then our voucher information. Both of those
065things really don't impact this budget from the standpoint of their not spendable money. The voucher money will go from um we collect it in taxes and then it goes to the vouchers pools. So it's in our budget just as a line item, but it's not spendable money. So it doesn't need to have that. And then as you know with state equalization aid, there's a direct and inverse relationship between state equalization aid and local taxes. So again, doesn't really impact that budget bottom line by much at all. It's just which direction does it go. So for our equalization aid um that is down $1.1 million less than last year and remember in the state budget there was no new money put in equalization aid guessing that is pretty hard because it's a money and so how
066every school district in the state spends and how they're growing impacts us from both spending how they're growing and then what's happening with their profit. So all of those three factors go into consideration. It's down $1.1 million from last year and it's 66,000 less than what we had projected from our July one um equalization estimate from the department of public instruction with vouchers. They are up 223,000 over last year and we that they would go up just because the funding amount goes up and the voucher program continues to grow every single year. It it is down $79,000 less than what we had projected though. And then um and again that's just a pass then um for the presentation which is not on your screen. I just want to draw attention to a few pages in
067that presentation that hopefully you've got it up have it up or make notes on that. You can go back and look at it um later. We have more more detail in the personnel area on pages 25 through 27. And what we put in there is by teaching area. Um just the detail of where our teaching staff are and then how does that compare uh compared to prior years for both our teaching staff and our professional educators. Then the budget numbers on pages 29 through 34 have been updated again on a bottom line basis. It didn't change much at all because it's just the categories of different between equalization taxes. The voucher impact is on page 37 and that's something that I think is important to look at and just seeing how that has changed over
068time with both the growth in the program and then the increased funding for the popping it up for you. Okay. Um thank you Kristen. So um and then on page 38 you will see uh the the levy component. Go one more page forward. That's that's how our lovey component. So there's three, the general, the general and debt service and community service fund. And then you can see that change over year over year. Remember I said state aid went down 1.1 million. Look at the increase in the the levy. I mean it pretty much accounts for the entire amount of increase and remember we had a 350 or $325 per revenue limit increase. So it basically explains the entire that we had. So a 5.4% change overall. Then uh another interesting page is page 39 or
069levy by municipality. Whoops. Page 39. If we go to that one, um what I think is really important to look at here is how remember we aortion our levy on equalized value, not assessed value. And that really shows up in that of change by each municipality. Our city of an Alaska, if you remember, is by far our biggest municipality. That changed the least amount, which is closest to our average. But municipality by municipality, it changes quite a bit even though the total dollar amounts for each of these municipalities is a lot smaller just given their their smaller equalized value. And then finally, um the mill rate tax levy rate called all of those things is projected or will decrease from on an equalized basis from 813 to 86 on page 45. So again I caution
070us to not hone in on the mill rate you know it's going down. Um it's really important that we look at in a district like ours where we don't have a lot of new growth is to look on that bottom line of the dollar increase. So, if we could go back then um to the the the first page, I'll ask that we or maybe I'll go on to the the levy too and then you can go back and or do you want to make a motion on this and then go to the next agenda item? >> I'll stop. So what my recommendation would be is that you approve this as an original budget um as presented and then you go all the way down the bottom you can see like revenues and expenses but there's
071a lot of numbers on this sheet that we budget as enclosure Second to approve the 2025 original budget. Yes. original budget >> to go with that original budget is the tax and there is a resolution as an attachment in item number 22 that looks and remember we talked about those three components of the of the levy and the total dollar amount and remember I said that the total levy for this year is up about $1.4 But the amount that we'd be asking you to take action on is 26,958,76. That's 2,00 $2,000 less than what we projected. Even though it's more than um what we had last year from a projection standpoint is pretty spot on. $2,000 in our size budget is pretty close. our district that even does the resolution. So I think you can
072just you know do it as as presented. I would make a motion to approve resolution number 26,958 tax levy as detailed. resolution 2025-007 total amount of 26,958,76 Yes. >> Yes. Keeping us informed along the way. Turn to the 6 27 calendar. >> So DPI did approve your request to start early district. Um so we did our calendar committee together. The calendar committee um is has representation from each building as well as Mr. Cherry as well as myself. Um and we looked at the goal of starting as early as August 24th but also ending May 28. So looking at the number of teacher contract days, number of student days, conferences, PD days and planning of that. And so as you see what's on the screen that we came up with and really it's not we Barring
073none, I'll make a motion to accept the 20 26 2027 district calendar um outlined by Sonia and detailed in enclosure 23 calendar. >> Second motion by Second by approve 27 district calendar 23 calendar >> I school year and we'll stick with you for discussion about title >> there are Title one agreements for our schools in the school district. Give you a little background. Title one funds are federal funds that help support um two of our schools within our district, but they also allot funds to the schools to help support those that have low income families. a separate aotment that the federal government gives them, but um we are the local education agency and so we are the ones that have to provide those funds to the school to those schools. Um they do not get
074them directly to the schools. So we set these agreements up to kind of outline what they can and cannot use the funds for. We are doing the schools instead of individual teacher just Any questions? St. Patrick's Elementary. >> Second [clears throat] one agreements for St. Patrick's school. questions. Hi, >> Lori. One of our 12 weeks. We have contracted in the past for the substitute in the past and it's been a good agreement or a good partnership with her and so I reached out to her again. >> I just have a question because you mentioned that it's for 12 weeks but It says in here, and maybe I'm not understanding, I apologize. It says not to exceed 60 days, but 12 weeks is that 12 days. It's >> or school days. School days. >> Okay. I'm
075like, the numbers aren't computing. >> It's always hard to put exact dates on. >> Yeah. Thank you for clarifying that. Another thing you might notice um we actually are in need of two speech and language pathologists um and we we have two different ways sometimes where we are able to do this um kind of dependent on speech therapists are difficult to find and we were lucky to find two one prefers and you'll see on the consent agenda on the personnel report um one is under a substitute contract not a contract but a substitute the district and then this one. just a little which we're lucky to be able to make to approve an independent contractor agreement uh to cover speech and language services for an employee on leave from approximately January 15th to April 17th
0762026. request to enter into an agreement contractor language services I >> consent agenda. Are there any requests to remove items from the consent agenda for consideration? I will make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Agenda questions. All those in favor? I >> motion to >> adjourn. All those in favor? I >> we