001Good evening. I'm Jonathan Mitchell, the director of business services for the Greenale Schools. On behalf of the staff and the board, thank you for your attendance this evening at our annual budget hearing and annual meeting. Thank you for making time to be here this evening engage. So, I just want to lay out real quick what we're trying to cover in the conversation this evening. So, we want to talk about our goals for budget development, how we build the budget, how schools receive funding, and what is the state funding formula impact, what's the projected budget and tax levy, and what are the next steps for the 256 budget. So, that budget is a reflection of how we're allocating our resources, thinking about our time and money towards our priority areas. We want to in a way
002that's going to make a difference for kids. Talk about how we do that. And really importantly, we want to show that we're good stewards of resources, their funds, and how we're utilizing their resources and facilities. So, we're thinking about how we can impact kids in terms of how we do that. So, we really go through a four-step process when we build a budget. We're going to start off with needs identification. We're gonna then project that allow us to prioritize it within the budget. So within limited dollars that are available program that whole time we're going to be thinking about the strategic plan. How are we cultivating excellence for kids? So when we're talking about needs identification some of the things that we're as a district are staffing and class size and then what's the complexity
003student needs about that idea. How do we get programming that's meeting the different needs of different students within the district? Think about our educational tools investments in curriculum in the district and then taking care of infrastructure having the facilities to meet the needs of our students. And so at a really high level, we talk about our values. So at the beginning of the budgeting process, these are reinforced and agreed upon with our leadership team, our board and then community group. We have a finance team that helps us with identif expectations of the community and that was reinforced with operational setting expectations. We want to meet the curriculum needs. We want to show equity and equality and how we're investing resources. And then we have to think outside the box. Sometimes we're facing challenges how we
004operate and provide program. We have to possib ranges based on grade level. So for example at 5y old kindergarten that's a class size range of 18 to 22 versus fourth and fifth grade would be a range of 23. So we get the question of how does the board consider open enrollment seats when they're looking at these class target ranges. And so if we have a grade level that's projected below the low end those class targets additional seats right so an example would be at fourth and fifth grade if we were below 23 seats and creating stability We'll also utilize this for staffing levels, right? We mentioned this last year. want to reiterate investments that we've made in alignment with act 20 which was K3 reading programming. The district's invested about half a million dollars between
005the curriculum for K5 CLA English language arts curriculum summer training that was done in summer of act had funding that was tied to it the 232 stateual We have not yet received any reimbursements from that. So one of the things that we want to highlight is support of the community through the operational referendum as we're using high leverage teaching practices high quality learning materials. The district was an early implement of that reading standard and has continue making those investments to ensure that we're delivering high quality construction. We were able to do that without any delay because we have the support of the community. We're building the budget. We're considering student size targets. We're also considering what our market share is within the community. So, our parents in the community contin about 2% market share. So
006over 90% and the district's very proud of that overwhelmingly families in the community want to enroll their students within our public school program. We want to continue to provide that high quality program and vision for cultivating excellence within the school district. We think the data is so we get to the next step of the budget. We get into projecting allocation. So we have to look at revenue limits. You think about it as a cap. Sometimes in sports there's a capend student limit for each Wisconsin school. And so the formula has some complexities to it. When you look at it at a really high level, you're looking at the number of students perming gives you that revenue cap. And then How that's funded comes through two buckets of funding. There's money that's coming through state equalization
007and then there's money that's coming locally through property taxes for 2526 that student limit is $12,459 that's an increase of $325. So to see like a visual of that. So if you have that revenue limit authority right your first your number of students minus what the state is providing equalization. That would give you maxization tax revenue based on spending state increase or decrease per student and then student enrollment average. So our threeyear student enrollment average increased significantly between 2017 to where we had some decline in the last four to five years on membership. As we talk about those size targets, the districts had to make adjustments to the staffing model to match those ens. If you go back all the way to the left side of this chart to 2011, we still have an increase
008over that period of time. But those changes in the last five years. Then we show the relationship total tax levy and state equalization. state has increased significantly and the district ratio of students per household relative to other communities in the state. So that number of state has over time the district's been able to maintain overall very stable tax. So you see the high points in 2011 and just about 16 million total tax levy districting tax,000 less. So we'll look at that. So one of the questions that we get from community is how do budgeting and one of the challenges is that those increases have been the last years. A chart that shows that last year and the gray being the actual index to over time studentapal increase that's in the current state budget of student
009that number 256. So the district has to be very careful in terms of how we go about manage carefully. the 242 school year. provided information on that in our financials for the annual meeting and what we have as a figure for our last year is that the district ran a surplus of 29,91 and then we looked at the 5.6 budget projection projected surplus with budgeted revenues of 38,777,855 and budgeted expenditures of 3834,712 projected surplus of $743,143. So I'll talk in a minute about the reasons why at this time we would show this balanced budget. does show the referendum author. So here we show in the blue bars one balance. So our net reserves after paying all of our bills as of June 30th after each school year and those reserves have reached a peak of
010$7.5 million and that peak of 7.5 million going back to 2018 the district utilized about$2 million in those reserves through the So that was the point where the district went to the community 2.5 million per year. So you see a big drop off that's where we hit unbalanced reserves. million that was just below the board's policy targeting system replacement that has to happenic the district sustained program as it was set is anticipated to provide for a balance budget. And in 2526, the board set a goal to restore some of that fun,000 budget. What's proposed in the preliminary districts to restoize reserves with the intention that we're trying to provide for changes. So, one of the commitments having discussion around was to continue to advocate around the board's public policy priorities and the three key priorities
011were hitting a 60% reimbursement level for special education, ensuring the state budgeted enough to pay for all Second to have an increase of $415, $430. And then third, support with addressing the teacher pipeline school districts across the state. So the board and leadership team members engaged our legislators in different ways, meeting with them. presenting at the day at the capital myself and Dr. joined our board president and vice president and having conversations with our legislators as well as presenting at the joint finance committee in April 2025 to hit on those key points advocating for additional revenues. And so here in the red you see what was approved within that state budget. So there was to increase special education reimbursement. There was actually a substantial increase from current levels to 42% reimbursement for special education in
012year one and 45% off% that happened that was below policy priority. So that had the most substantial impact the district. Second was an inflationary increase of 1530 students. for that chart earlier $33 per studentap will continue and then third was addressing teacher pipeline that was not addressed through funding measures budget so that's an advocate for legis Another reason the board at this point created a goal of increasing balance and restoring some of that fun level is ensuring consistency in educational program. So one of the areas the board has limited control over is federal funding. We provided an update in March of 202 about $2 million per year and we saw in the budgeting process for this year we had three of our title grants that were delayed and later approved. So managing the budget is
013a way to protect program as polic We want to create something doesn't have immediate impact program. >> So, we also want to highlight some of the things that we're doing to balance the budget. level staffing to match. So we utilize the extent local, state, federal contract savings. We negotiate contracted staff. So we're under a new agreement this year and grounds department allows us to invest money and then we will share An example of that is park and recreation program. We're able to split time from some of our district and share those costs between multiple programs because the schools run community park recreation. The district has switched to a self-funded health insurance plan. We've worked through increasing premium shares for employees. The biggest impact we've had with that is being able to direct contract So utilizing
014a nurse practitioner on staff to go to a primary care issue that can be treated in a more efficient way. But it also covers are like physical therapy or getting CT Mansers directly to get substantial savings. So if I'm a staff member and I need urgent care morning that's right in the facility and we have a negotiated rate of $100 for that service costly urgent care services utilizing those partnerships and I have very little friction. Those companies understand the district and they get those staff members for treatment. We've utilized community citizen facilities team for capital planning. So looking at ways that we can more objectively prioritize all of our capital planning projects within the district to make sure that item number one on that list is justified by how infrastructure facilities align with our goals
015of the district. How that meets the needs of talked about shared services. We also share services with the village and then I talked about creating revenue through open to seek out alternative revenue streams. So some of the competitive grants that we've gone through as a district, one that we have right now is a two-year grant called the stronger connections grant federal funds of $300,000 earlier that was specifically for provided $30,000. some of the areas where we've received grants and some areas where we've either not been successful or still waiting. We did a grant in partnership with Franklin School District under the Renew America Schools grant $300,000 between both districts that did not receive it. There's the transition readiness grant. We received it multiple years prior. This year we submitted application for 78,000. We did not
016receive and then the cop school violence prevention. So myself and our high school principal Mr. waiting for that anticipated final decision. So I want to cover some of the non operational funds. our special education fund revenues and expenses of 7,376,30 that local transfer of just under 4 million is significantly lower than prior years as I mentioned earlier that change to the state budget to provide a higher level of state revenues for special education freed. adds service. So these are debt issues that were taken out that were not specific. So we have one final payment for Wisconsin that will be the budgeting process and then we have trust fund loan support also supported building renovations that we've done to provide continuum for the district and then as well 139 are those debt issues that are approved
017through funding. So both the 2007 high school,000 remaining paid net issue and then the 2018 referendum 27,400 total outstanding debt 29,138,467 is the capital expansion fund that falls under the revenue cap. These are dollars set aside under the cap specifically for capital projects for buildings and sites. And so for the 25 26 year the projects are HVAC heating ventilation cooling controls for the middle school the high school sur The district ran a deficit for 242 and that deficit was a little over $120,000. So the budget for 25.61 million867 and with that deficit came out of reserves that have been accumulated over multiple years. So the current fund balance after that deficit is 352,145. The goal is to close that deficit in the 256 school year. That fund balance is fully expended and there's no reserve
018any service would have to be subsidized through 173 is our other employment trust. So we began the year with 42,2864. There were investment returns of $1,999 and district contributions of $120,000 leaving an income balance of $164,285 community service fund. What's proposed is budgeted expenses of 2,150,625 and total budget revenues of 2,230,624 that would be $8,000 and the district is adjust. to add a second building. So, here's a breakdown of that 256 tax levy. So, we have both items that are part of the school tax levy that the community will provide vote on this evening. So, that's that highlighted portion school levy with vouchers. That's full district tax, this refin. So you see here in the top section we show the general fund operations without private school vouchers. So the private school vouchers end up getting
019added to the general fund tax that doesn't represent programs will provide those dollars will end up being the two debt funds, the referendum and nonreerender debt tax levies, community service tax levy and facilities that really get the private school voucher amount of11,000 an estimated number will receive the final number on October 15. And then what gets added to that bill is the amount of tax increment for the village. So we were able to get an updated estimate from the village manager that estimated amount Wanted to revisit this is a slide that was presented in January 2024 when administration presented to the community regarding operational referendum at that time had a tax levy of about 15.4 would estimate that the tax levy for schools would stay within $100,000 of that level through the 5year period if
020it was approved. And so that school tax levy when those discussions were occurring was 15,431,28. The board actually had a decrease in the 2425 year,000 when we had those conversations with the community and what is proposed even increase. So that maintains the So here we see another chart with those tax levy levels in the blue chart as well as mil. So in summary the presentation the administration board are Managing the budget proactively to protect program work has led to present tax levy.5 million tax levy this evening. The board continues to advocate for public policies with to find solutions to challenges. Upcoming dates for the board will be present even tax levy itself. I would stay tuned to that date after that question. Hello. Hi, my name is Jeff and I was looking at the I
021believe the number 29 million was a deficit. Is that correct? >> 29,000 >> was the projected surplus from last year. deficit. >> Is that what you're referring to? So you're talking about total outstanding debt. >> Yep. So not deficit, but that represents debt that will have to be paid in future years. >> That's a debt outstanding. >> Thank you. Yes. Um I have violent prevention $200,000. about where that money goal that proposal does not include metal detectors but it would have significant security. So that would be outside of the budget itself but that topic will get covered in the annual meeting super Good evening. I'm Rob Klesto, president of the Greenale School Board. At this time, I hereby call this uh call call to order this annual meeting of the Greenale School District. At this
022time, I ask you to please stand and join me for the national anthem performed by members of the Greenale High School Orchestra. Thank you. Uh the purpose of this meeting is that state law requires that school districts hold an annual meeting. The meeting provides provides residents with an opportunity to hear about the operation of the school district, have an advisory vote on the levy, and learn about the future direction of the district. The meeting also provides administration with the opportunity to focus on achievements, needs, and the future of the district. At this time, I'd like to invite Dr. Okay, thank you. Um, the first group that we'd like to recognize is the Canterbury PTO. Um, in 2020, we did a significant amount of work to our buildings and our three elementary schools had some improvements
023that changed the footprint of those schools. So, Canterbury, Highland View, and College Park had additions that impacted at least one of the playgrounds on site and therefore three playgrounds were replaced when the building took over the space that they had previously occupied. Last summer, the Canterbury PTO said, "Hey, we noticed that the playground on the west side of the building, which has been around for a very long time, has not been replaced. When is that scheduled for replacement?" And due to budgets, that is further down on our replacement cycle. And our opportunity to redo that was going to a little ways out and longer than they felt was good for their children. So they said, "We have a solution. We're going to raise the money to get you a playground." And we've heard that from
024groups before that with athletic facilities that were looking to fund raise and frequently we get about 25 to 50% of the funds raised and then they looked to the district to make up the difference. Not the Canterbury PTO. They said, "How much do we need?" and they embarked on a design project with the students for what they wanted on that playground for their kindergarten and first grade students on the west side of the building. And that was their goal. So their goal was to raise $60,000. We thought it might take them a couple years to raise that money, but not them. They raised all $60,000 in the last nine months. And with that fundraising, we were able to replace that playground on the west side of the building in August. And our kindergarten and first
025grade students have started playing on that playground that they raised the funds for. So, they really expedited that project and made a difference for kids. So, the board would like to commend the the Canterbury PTO for making that happen in such a short period of time and benefiting students. I'm going to invite the PTO down to accept a small commenation. Now that that playground will also have a sign that acknowledges all the donors that contributed to them. But today we're going to have a small presentation. Angie Bar and thank you guys so much for this. We really appreciate it. It was a lot of fun and we really hit the ground running and he really appreciate the Um, I'll just say I want to say thank you my committee here Martinez. I'll mention the board
026too and thank you so much for your support and I don't think any community ever failed if we invested in our kids. So, I think we all got together and did that, right? And thank you, Angie. The second group that the board would like to recognize is the Greenale Historical Society. The Greenell Historical Society celebrated 50 years in existence and their goal is to really restore and maintain the history of our community. But why would we be recognizing them as we look at uh Greenell schools? And the reason is because the Greenale Historical Society had the foresight to think about education and they have an education committee that works directly with our schools to make sure that our students know and understand the history of this community. So, um, every year we have a number
027of volunteers who work with our teachers and come into our classrooms. They give tours of our community. They give tours of uh some of the historic sites that are part of our historic landmark community and they take into consideration and embed that into the curriculum for social studies around some of the history nationally and locally. So we appreciate the time and dedication that they give to meet with our students and to work with our teachers to make sure that our students know as much about this the history of this community as they can. So I would like to welcome members of the historical society board and people who have volunteered extensively to provide tours and programming for our students. So, come on down. Sorry. Also in the room with us are two teachers who have
028worked directly with the historical society to make sure that um students access to that information. You want to sing? You don't have to. Okay. Stephanie Rodenk, a second grade teacher, and Sean, eighth grade teacher. We've been partnering um at Highland View in second grade with the historical society for a few years now, working with Ted directly as well as several others. Um as a part of our community social studies unit, we take a field trip. The team brings out the original Model T. kids. They take them on tours around the village. Um, and the kids just they love it so much and it's because the rumor mill is starting a little bit in the school and the kids are looking forward to it. So, it's really great. Um, and we really appreciate all of your
029support for our kids. >> Um, I've really appreciated partnering with you guys. eth grade. Every year we do either a walking tour or some years we've actually toured the house that is owned by the Green Historical Society. And the kids are always amazed. Even kids that live in the originals, they know a lot of the facts. That's a good one. But no, I always appreciate working with you and I'm looking forward to >> anyone. Jim, >> we uh really enjoy uh bringing the kids to the history of Greenell and your kids are so well addressed. They come here and they really come through our buildings and the tours that we do and they want to learn. You can see they have a lot of questions about where Greenale came from and how it was built.
030So, we really appreciate the school uh doing this for us every year and we love it. And anybody else want to >> just mention since there's all these Canterbury people here that um one of your retired teachers is working with me on getting some history because they will be 60 years next year. So we are doing something along that line as well. All right. So, we have to go over the ground rules of the meeting. Uh, business shall be conducted in agenda order unless a majority of members agree through a motion to change uh in the order. Questions regarding an agenda item will be taken following that specific report. Persons wishing to do so are asked to use the floor standing microphone in the center aisle. Those approaching the microphone are asked to clearly and
031slowly state their name and address it into the microphone for the record and limit their comments to only one time and limit their comments to three minutes. Maggie Olsen will serve as our timekeeper this evening. Maggie, if you can stand up. She has the signs. If you will be making or seconding a motion this evening, we ask that you clearly and slowly state your name and address for the record. It's my privilege to introduce attorney Sarah Hanaman who will serve as the parliamentarian for the annual meeting. Uh at this time I'm going to introduce our administrators. We have the superintendent, Dr. Kimich. Uh you already know Jonathan Mitchell, the director of business services. Uh with me up here are Vice President Tasha Hughes, Treasurer Brian Bach, Clerk Kristen Settle, member Kathy Weed Vincent, and I
032believe in the audience we have our student members Noah Thompson and Maline Matson. We have a number of Greenale V Greenale Village trustees who are in attendance tonight. Thank you for joining us this evening and thank you to every community member who is here this evening. At this time I call for nominations for chairperson for this 25 annual meeting. Please state your name and address. Are there any nominations? My name is >> May I have a second? >> I have a nomination. A nomination has been made and seconded. Robles serve as the chairperson of the 2025 annual meeting. All those in favor of Rob Pilles serving as the chairperson of the annual meeting, please indicate by saying a opposed. Nay. Anybody opposed? Nay. The motion carries on a voice vote. Thank you and good evening
033members of the board, administration, and community. I'm honored to have this opportunity to address the Greenale electorate and thank you for the opportunity to chair this meeting to take care of business of the district. I submit the agenda for the annual meeting as posted. This meeting and the 202526 proposed budget have been duly noticed in accordance with state statutes. If an amendment to a motion is to come before the elector from the floor, it will need to be submitted in writing to me as annual meeting chair. Every elector of a common school district, of which Greenale is one, is eligible to vote at the annual meeting. An elector is defined by the state of Wisconsin as a United States citizen age 18 or older and a district resident for 28 consecutive days. Members of the
034members of the electorate are to be seated in the front section of the auditorium. The back of the auditorium is reserved for individuals who are not district residents. Ushers will direct you to the appropriate area. These seating arrangements will help with the voting process. The voting procedure by the elector will be a voice vote. If the vote is close, the show hands will be counted. Thank you to the staff who served ser served as registers in the hallway as you entered into the technology and auditorium teams for their assistance. For those participants who do not attend the budget hearing but do who did not attend the budget hearing but do attend the annual meeting, we will continue to register electors at the door until the chair calls for the first vote at which point registration
035will close. Next on the agenda is a clerk's report of the Previous meeting of minutesual meeting. >> Are there any comments at this time regarding the clerk's report? The treasur's report is next on the agenda. Treasurer Bach will present the treasur's report. Purpose of the treasur's report is to update the residents of Greenale on the financial status of the school district for the year ending June 30th 2025. The district's main operational fund at the total revenues of 38,383,1650 total expenditures of 38,253,216. Therefore, the operational fund balance as not yet audited was increased from 5,489,859,519,760.17 balance increase mainly to managing departments. 14.5% operational fund balance is designated for cash flow during the year to limit shortterm borrowing costs so the cost can be covered from July to January when revenue is minimal fund balance balance policy
036targeting balance of the next year's operational fund budget fund is the primary source of funding district's operational expenses such as salaries supplies and school program services short and longterm debt as of June 30th 2025 consists of the following 2740,000 for debt issued with the 2018 construction in general obligation bonds to remodel high school 2009 $733,467 for 2023 state $370,000 for the retirement system unfunded liability and 1,182,221 for capital leases. Financial highlights for the Greenale School District include proposed 2026 school property tax levy estimated at 15 million236,13. This represents no change to the levy 2024 2025 in late October when the budget is finalized based on the final state equalization. The expended all budget for 2025,94,53948 and 47,976,4648 transfers. The district continues with sustainable energy and aggressively seeks all possible streams in such facility reimbursements using
037state and national contracts to reduce costs. These practices have resulted in cost without impacting student achievement. It is important to note that student performance achievement in the Greenale School District continues to be very strong. The Greenale School District destination district. Are there any comments at this time regarding the treasur? I now invite superintendent to the podium to present the superintendent report. Hello. So, this is my fifth annual meeting. Um, sometimes I appeared in different forms in different spaces and places, but in 2021, the board of education took action to approve a new strategic plan. And at the time that that strategic plan was adopted, um there was a new mission and a new vision that was established for the Greenell School District. And our vision is cultivating excellence in every student. During that strategic planning
038process, the community and the board acknowledged that while our achievement was strong, it had fallen below what we expect and know that our students are capable of. And our first and most important priority in that strategic planning process was around improving student achievement and student performance. And this is a t-shirt that all of our staff are wearing this year because as a community, we are one team working towards that common vision of cultivating excellence in every student. And for the last since 2021, I've stood before you and talked about actions and strategies that we were taking to make improvements to learning. We talked about ensuring that all students had access to a rigorous and balanced curriculum. Uh we talked about making some improvements to teachers alignment to the standards, making sure that all students had
039access to assessments and that if students were not achieving standards on those assessments that we would reteach to mastery. We also talked about uh improvements to curriculum that needed to be made. And you heard Jonathan Mitchell talk about some of those investments that we made in new reading curriculum. And each year since I have reported incremental gains, but still not achieving and reaching the levels of achievement that we know that our students are capable of. And some of that is because nine months does not move a ship, does not turn a ship. It was starting to make the turn. But as we look at this year's results, which I can only give you a fraction of due to embargo uh components of the data, as we look at that scorecard goal that we have been
040working on for the past four years, increase the percentage of students achieving proficiency in English language arts and math on standardized assessment measures by 10%. I can report that we have far exceeded those expectations this year. And what I want to talk about is as we as I share these data slides with you and I show you what I can tell you about the embargo data that will be released from the state in uh next week which is on September 25th. Um I can give you some insights but I cannot give you the actual data yet. Every member of the graduating class represents this data and when we are working students are proficient and advanced or meeting and exceeding expectations. That represents their ability to go out and make choices about their future that they
041are guaranteed to have the knowledge and skills to make that choice of what they want to pursue and how they want to move forward with their lives. And I could tell you all about the other great things that we've told you about in years past. We continue to have strong fine arts performing arts um programming for our students. We strong programming and current technical education. We continue to have engaged citizens in our community, as you heard during our commendations tonight, that they're learning about our local history and engaging in their community. And tonight's report, I'm really going to focus on these data points around what we've been targeting for the last four years, which is improved achievement and turning that shift back into the direction and achievement levels that we know that our students are
042capable of. So, I'm going to share two uh tested areas that count twice and we know are really critical to being ready for college and career success. The first one is third grade reading. Students who are able to read at grade level by third grade have increased likelihood to have positive outcomes um when they graduate from high school and are more likely to graduate from high school. While I can't tell you the percentage of students that achieved um proficiency meeting or exceeding expectations on the statewide test, I can tell you that the percentage uh we went up more than 10% to 13.5% increase in our proficiency, which is phenomenal. More than double digits, exceeded our expectations, and we're very excited about that. In eighth grade math, eighth grade math is another important indicator because it's
043algebra 2, but eighth grade math is where we will report. On the standardized assessments, we saw the same 13.8% increase in the number of students that were meeting or exceeding expectations. But it gets better. It gets a lot better. Our ACT, which is a huge report that goes out to the community and it's how we get ranked, you're going to be rankings right now that don't reflect where we belong as a community and what we know our students are capable of. And this year we saw a significant rebound in our achievement based on the efforts over the last several years in our high school and our English language arts 65% increase in the number of students meeting or exceeding expectations on the ACT. That's As we look at math, sorry, I went backwards on you.
044All right, let's look at math on the ACT. It still says ELA, but this is math. A 50 nearly a 50% increase in the number of students who are achieving um standards and meeting expectations. So, what does that mean? For those of you who are familiar with the ACT test, ACT test is scored on a scale of 1 to 36, but no one can get a one. I think the lowest And the highest scale score is a 36. But it is really hard. Um the 30 and above which you see listed in the hallway, the the names of students who scored 30 and above is in the 95th percentile or higher. So that gives you an idea. And uh college readiness is 22. So students are scoring a 22 are considered ready for college and
04575% likely to get a B in the corresponding college level. So that the threshold that they're looking for at the university level. Over the last four years, we have seen average scores around 20 and last year it dropped, which was not the direction we were working towards. But this year, as we did some work, our composite score, our average composite went up to 21.2, which not only rebounded from where we had dropped to, but also increased nearly a point. and moving an ACT score. I don't know if you follow ACT scores, but statewide averages barely move 0.1 across the state. So to increase almost two points in a year is a huge achievement for our school and our students. And so we are really proud of that improvement. We do not know how it compares
046to other schools because that's something that Jeff asked during the the questioning at the annual meeting. But we do know that it is great growth for us. So, one of the things that we talked about and had a lot of community conversation about two years ago was increasing access to highle rigorous curriculum. And what we did was we put all students in the same course for English, science, social studies and taught the honors standards. And there was some concern. Are kids really capable of that? And we believe they were. Are you eliminating honors? Absolutely not. Now, all kids get taught the honor standards and have a swing at honors assessments. And so for the last three years, this is where our work has been. I don't have a pointer, but what we saw was incredible
047results because of that strategic action. So we took that action in the 223 school year. And what you see across the top is the total number of students taking an AP test, which is a college level assessment on college level courses. And many students take AP classes to get credit and then are tested on it in their junior and senior year of high school. We have one course that soft two courses that sophomores can take. We went from 197 to 224 and maintained at 222 in terms of the number of students taking exams. With those students, they took multiple exams. And so we've increased the number of exams to 404. And sometimes if you have more kids taking the test, more students taking the test and accessing something that they have not previously had access
048to because they took honors level course work at their freshman and sophomore level and were convinced that they could do it because they had exposure and opportunity to try it. Not only did we increase at a time that our enrollments are decreasing as you saw, but we increased the number of students scoring in a range that they earn credit to 88% of our students from 78% of our students two years ago. So that's incredible. So this gives you that percentage there in terms of our pass rates with more students taking the test. So as I've shared with you strategies over the last several years about what we're doing and how we're making um improvements to see gains. We are seeing the impact of that work and the ship has turned and we are seeing our
049achievement those student data points that are indicators of their readiness for college and career improve and increase. And we look forward to continuing to see that as we have set a goal again this year and as we set the scorecard goals around improving achievement. We said that we wanted to improve by 10% but our board being astute as they are the target is 80% or better of our students and some of those space some of those grade levels are already close enough to 80% that it is 10% or 10% increase or 80% meeting or exceeding expectations which would be less than a 10% increase but our students achieving those goals. So, we will continue to focus on this work and we have new reading curriculum that is two years in at our elementary, middle, and
050high school levels. And we are working to review our math curriculum. Although we've seen gains and results just by leveling up and ensuring that um our standards are aligned to instruction and assessment. We are looking to do even more with that work. I want to share two additional goals that the has set for the schools this year and our strategies that we're working on. And one of those areas is around increasing consistency of our oneway and two two-way communication between families and district staff through a universal platform. So a lot of our communications you see consistent communication in our school connections newsletters in life in the village magazine. you are seeing stories about those successes that our students are experiencing and anecdotes about amazing programming and opportunities that our students have. Uh you're also um
051seeing posts on social media. But as you look at your social media feeds, we know that our social media feeds are also filled with algorithms that might filter out the Greenell schools and you really want to see the Greenell schools content. So we have adopted a new website and that website includes an app. So if you have not go to the app store and look for Greenell schools. It is not just for um parents and students, although they have specialized content that they only get access to for their classroom teachers because they are associated with the student, but everyone in the community can have a Greenell schools social media feed free of ads and so I encourage you to download that app. You have an opportunity for consistent um communication and news about what's going
052on in our school. And then you heard from Jonathan Mitchell about one of our prior one of the board's goals this year is to increase fun by 1% to get us closer to a place where we have the level of reserves that are necessary to continue to offer programming for our students. And so that is another area that we're working on and you see that we have addressed that within our budget proposal that we will be taking action on this. That concludes my report to the community. Are there any comments at this time regarding the superintendent? At this time, may I have a motion to approve the tax levy as presented for the 2025 2026 school year. >> Marty Jan Kak presiding at 5498 Oxford Drive. I move to approve the tax levy for 2025
0532026 as presented. May I have a second? >> It has been moved and a second to approve. tax levy tax levy of 11,663 $663,860 for the general fund operations 2,419,719 for debt services 1,10,524 community services and 1,500 for capital expansion. Uh the total tax levy being 15,236,13 to support the green school district's 2025 2026 budget. Is there any discussion? I believe 150,000 capital. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say I. opposed. Nay. Motion carries on a voice vote. Thank you. May I have a motion to approve the annual school board member salary of $5,000? circle. >> It has been moved and seconded to approve the 2025 2026 annual school board member salary at the rate of $5,000. Is there Any discussion? All those in favor say I. Opposed? The motion carries on a
054voice. May I have a motion to authorize payment of actual and necessary expenses of a school board member when traveling in the performance of duties? I'm Marty Jakual and necessary expenses of a school board member when traveling in the performance of >> May I have a second circle. motion to authorize school. It has been moved and seconded to authorize payment of actual necessary expenses of a schoolboard member when traveling in the performance of duties. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> Opposed? Nay. Motion carries on a voice vote. At this point, I'd like to propose the next annual meeting of the Greenale School District for Monday, September 21st, 2026. Are there any objections? Yeah, we'll get back to that. Uh, see no objections, the annual meeting is scheduled for Monday, September
05521st, 2026. This concludes all matters that are to come before the Greenale electorate at the 2025 annual meeting of the Greenale School District. I want to thank you for your attendance and thanks to the many district staff and volunteers that helped with this meeting. At this time, we'll take a short 10-minute recess and reconvene at the space for regular business meeting.