6.15.26 Regular Board Meeting - 2026-06-15 22:01:02

001Um, we'll start with Ben roll call, please. All right. Angie? Here. Tom? Here. Pam? Here. Ben? Here. Jill? Here. Anne? Here. Chris? Here. Thank you. Okay. And then we have the approval of minutes from the May 18th, 2026, regular board meeting, which are in the packet. Motion for that. I can make a motion. Okay, thank you. And waiting for a second. I can second. Okay, thank you. And then all in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, say nay. Thank you. Next is public comments. Does not look like we have any in our basket. Okay. Thank you. And then we have recognitions and commendations, and we have a couple. Would you like to- I can lead on that ... take the lead on those? Yes. So I'd like to formally recognize, two individuals. One is actually

002a student athlete and one a community member. So on behalf of the Athens School District and the Board of Education, we'd like to say congratulations to Ben Hartwig, who was selected to serve as a member of the WIAA Student Athlete Leadership Team, which consists of a collection of diverse student athlete leaders from member school districts across the state. This group of student athletes will serve as ambassadors for their peers in the WIAA while learning more about the sports industry through various community activities. Within the activities, the group will provide a student voice for the WIAA and will be the point people for creating and executing an annual student athlete leadership conference for member schools. So I want to say thank you again to Ben, who submitted an application and was chosen, and for his service

003and dedication not only to the WIAA, but we know that he will represent the schools of Athens very well. So congratulations to Ben. Oh, that's great. Mm-hmm. We'd also like to recognize Gary Bystrom. On behalf of the Athens School District and the Board of Education, we extend our deepest gratitude and appreciation to Gary for his extraordinary years of service as an employee at Fisher Transportation. For 58 years, Gary has safely transported generations of Athens students to and from school, activities, events and home for them. I'd just like to state that a school bus driver is often the very first person a child sees in the morning, and the last one they may see when they arrive home in the afternoon. The role carries incredible responsibility, but it also is an opportunity to make students feel

004safe, welcomed, and valued. Gary has done an excellent job for thousands of students throughout his career, taking them to and from schools and many events. So for 58 years, his service is really more than a milestone. It's a legacy. So I'd like to recognize Gary for that. It's amazing. 58 years. Yes. Wonderful. And I just want to piggyback off the- Yeah ... recognitions, of course, for our girls' softball team. As they headed to state last week, got to watch a really good game down there. I think there was several of you sitting here that I also saw down at the game. Mm-hmm. I don't know. For me, that highlight point was when we scored those runs when, uh- Mm. When, um... My gosh. Bro- Brooklyn. Brooklyn got that great hit out in center field. Holy

005smokes. Mm-hmm. And the fact that it was only about two feet from being a- ... a home run. Oh, my gosh. You know, as a grand slam, that would've been great. But, just shout out to Coach, um, Almecker and the girls, and all the hard work that they did. I'm excited to see them progress through the rest of the school year. And I know we've got some other young ladies that are gonna be anxious and eager to be a part of that team in the next couple years, so exciting stuff. And thanks to the, to everybody for coming out to support them as they left to go down. And one more shout-out to Sarai Hartwig for also bringing home some hardware from, um, WIAA state track and field event. She, um, took first in shot

006put down there, so that's amazing. And broke a school record in all that. Mm-hmm. So again- Mm-hmm ... setting records all over the place, so we're gonna have to update some of our banners in the gym. Yeah. That was top of my mind. I'm like, "Oh, man, now we have to add some years going on here." Exactly. But it's good stuff. It's great. That's great. Thank you. Any other recognitions, accommodations, new things in the school year? Thank you. All right. Then we are moving on to the board members' reports. In the packet is the Marathon County Special Education report. Jill, I believe, is now a member of that group. Did you have any, like... Were you able to attend the meeting? Any information? We have not connected yet. You've not connected. Okay. No. So with-

007Which is really fine. Yeah. I wasn't sure if you were- Um, issue with the email. She was actually emailing John for a while before she realized- Oh, yeah. ... it wasn't me. J Hayner. Oh. So yeah, I have my orientation on the 29th. She's just gone. Would you like to come? Would you be able to come? Yeah. No. Why? And you're both Js, so- Yes We are. We know that. Yeah, that would be confusing. Yeah. And, okay, I'll have to connect with you if you got an email that I sent you, because I'm like, "I'm sure it said Jill," but- Mm. We'll have to just make sure that John didn't get that one, too. Information. All right, so it is in the packet. Are there any questions or, I don't know if Andrea has anything

008to add to that? I do not. Okay. Mm-mm. Excellent. That's great. We just need to acknowledge that. We don't need to take any action on that. Uh, the next item is the Finance, Facilities and Operations Committee- ... which met again this evening. Um, talked about some kind of timely finance, um, milestones that are coming up. One of them is going to be in our meeting tonight. We will be, um, under information discussion items, and then, um, we will be seeing the budget amendments and the preliminary budget. So we talked a bit about that and the process behind it. We also, um, got information on the cash flow renewal Audit timeline, and then John shared the school district's summer projects plan. So I think that was pretty much it for that. So just a lot of

009good information in that meeting this evening. So I think that's-- Yeah, anything else to add from the committee? We'll hear about most of it this evening. I think we can discuss updating the new board members on funding when it becomes available to us- Yes. Mm. ... which is the purpose of having the need the cash flow option at times. Yes. Yeah. And Beth has a nice resource that she's going to share with the full board in an upcoming meeting. That's going to be really helpful to understand when we get our money funding from the state versus when we actually need to spend money. It does not align all the time. So that'll be a good resource for us all. Thank you. All right. That's just a quick update from that committee. So we'll move right

010along to administrators' reports. We're going to start with the school district of Athens' strategic plan, and this is going to be around staff and student engagement goal three, which is around academic growth. And there's going to be a presentation. So thank you, Angie. Mm-hmm. So this is the time of the year that we are in front of the board collectively, the principals and myself, where we're going to be sharing updates. Now that we've concluded the school year, we want to celebrate the academic achievements of our students and then also talk about things that are on the forecast or the horizon for the fall. So we're going to start with some specific information around our vision and mission. We always like to start this way when we have a presentation. Our vision is really our guiding

011star of where we're going in the district, and our mission helps us to get there. So we are currently completing year four of our school district strategic plan. So we'll be talking more about the process to develop an updated plan in the fall into next year. And currently, tonight, we're in pillar number one, which is student and staff engagement. Each of our pillars has different purpose statements. And what I like to do is pull those out first and foremost to ground us in the work and the information we're going to share tonight. So it's really important that we provide a rigorous and relevant curriculum that is guaranteed. It doesn't matter what school your child or children attend, but we guarantee that the students are going to receive a high-quality education based on the standards and

012that we're using research-based strategies to accomplish the things that we're doing in our teaching and learning cycles. So we won't go down the page, but that's kind of a summary of the purpose statements around our goal this evening. So goal two, in particular, we indicate that we're going to implement a guaranteed and viable curriculum aligned to the standards with a scope and sequence starting in four-year-old kindergarten through grade twelve. So again, if something is guaranteed and viable, that ensures that all students have that opportunity to learn no matter, again, the school or the classroom that they're in, and that they have access to effective, highly effective teachers, as well as content, knowledge, and skills. We talk frequently about our core instruction. That's what happens on a daily basis in large periods of time. So, for

013example, at the elementary school, we have core instruction happening in all of the content area. We would typically find at the elementary, the majority of our day is also then focused on English and reading as well as math. But we also then incorporate science and social studies and other areas as well. And then we also sometimes talk about core and more. So sometimes students need not only what happens with the core of all students, but perhaps they're not progressing at the same rate or maybe they're not mastering the standard. So we offer times in our day outside of the core. At the elementary, it's win or win time, and it's approximately 30 to 45 minutes where students are getting what they need. And sometimes that's intervention resources and materials and teaching of a reteaching of

014a skill. Sometimes it's enhancement. At the middle school and high school level, we have flex time available. So Julie's been very diligent in working with staff in the past two years. So if a student at the middle or high school is not progressing or mastering skills in math or ELA, she has identified a teacher then that offers small group reteaching and support through that process. So all of these opportunities are research-based, and again, it's based on what the learners need. And then we also offer training for our staff so they're prepared to work, to teach on those either interventions or enrichments. We have action steps. Again, this is the mission, this is how we're going to accomplish our vision. And a lot of what we are doing at all three of our schools is data

015analysis. Because if we understand better what a student needs by analyzing their data, there's all kinds of data that we can take a look at, then we can best identify where they're finding success and mastering skills or mastering standards. And if they're not, through that diagnostic process, we can identify specifically a skill that we want to positively target to help them find success. And we use a variety of different assessments. We do what's called an early literacy screener. And in grades 4K through grade three, we focus with AIMSweb!!. It's actually a requirement of Act 20 that comes through the state of Wisconsin. We also then have diagnostic assessments. We use a letter spelling assessment as well as word phonics. We use FastBridge in multiple grades. This is our math screener for all students for K

016through grade 10. And then we start in grade four by using FastBridge as our literacy screener, and that also goes through grade 10. We have incorporated what's called the i-Ready Diagnostic, and that's available for students in the area of math if they're not finding success. We have some opportunity to help them with some intervention in that area, and there's built-in assessments, and there's also then individualized tracking that we can do in creating plans of success for them also. And then our teachers have common assessments. So you see a lot of assessments listed. The principals and I talk about it's really important that we don't use just one test or one piece of information or data to make a decision for a student of what they might need. We talk about triangulating. So at minimal, at

017minimum, we're looking for usually three pieces of data that will validate what a student needs before we either make an intervention or we're enhancing some type of learning Tonight, you're also going to hear Joy Redmond talk about the Achievement Gap Reduction program, or what we call AGR. This is a statewide program that we participate in. We meet the criteria based on some free and reduced data at Athens Elementary School, where we have a five-year contract with the state, and we receive approximately $86,000 each year to offset the cost of keeping class sizes low, specifically in classes kindergarten through grade three. And then we also have other performance indicators that we can focus on. So you're going to be hearing more about that after our full team presentation. Joy will give you more information about AGR.

018So this is a brief overview, again, of AGR. It's a statewide program where we receive monies. We have to identify a strategy in different classrooms at different grades of how we're going to utilize that money. Again, how we've utilized our money in the past several years is by offsetting and maintaining 18 students to one teacher. Or we could also have 30 students to two teachers. That could be an option. We also can use those monies for instructional coaching or one-on-one tutoring. So again, based on a needs assessment, depending on what those needs are in kindergarten through grade three. And these are actually the strategies that were chosen and implemented this year at Athens Elementary. And again, you'll be hearing more about the AGR data once we conclude the strategic plan presentation. So this evening, you're

019going to hear from each one of our campus principals. And on May 29th, the last day of school, we got all of our staff together. Each of the principals brought their teams together for the morning and then walked them through the end of the year data. So you're going to get a flavor for what those conversations were, the celebrations that we had, those areas that we want to focus on for next year. And we had this theme, so you're going to see the theme kind of represented tonight as well, and we're all about the team. And if we hike together, we're going to reach the summit together. So you will get a feel for our theme. And Joy's going to begin. All right. Thanks. So this is one of the slides that we used during

020our May 29th professional development with our staff. And what it is, we call it Impacting Student Success. And just by looking at this, we tried to put in a lot of the things that we've done this year and the last few years through our continuous improvement plan. So we have literacy coaching, different scheduling. We've incorporated PLCs, and we continue. That's a work in progress. And PLCs is Professional Learning Communities. DPI grant work, so we've embarked on this the last two years for early reading readiness. And then we've done progress monitoring, data digs. We have Check and Connect for social and emotional learning and for building community within our school, which I will tell you, Wednesday mornings from 8:00 to 8:15 is the best part of the whole week for us, so we love that day.

021We've embarked more on database interventions. We've worked with our PBIS, with our positive behaviors. We call it at AES Positive Behaviors in School because that's what students can relate a little bit more to, but it's our behavior expectations. We have our WING groups, like Andrea said, and Maple Grove has WING. So WING is What I Need to Grow. We have worked on our continuous improvement work and student engagement. How are we presenting those lessons? How are students engaged in those lessons and with each other? We've done self-reflection. It's been a lot. It's been a lot. And so they put this into this picture because all of our schools are doing similar things but different things. So it is a lot, and we're trying to get to student success and help our students fulfill their potential.

022It's an ongoing journey. It might get to one summit, and then we go to another and down the hill and up again. So it's definitely an ongoing journey, but we've made a lot of miles and a lot of progress. Okay. So our Trail Crews Focus. So this year, we focused a lot on collective efficacy, and we defined this as our shared belief as staff that our combined efforts could positively impact student learning. Now, a lot of our focus is on ELA or math and student academics, but we need all of our staff to be on board, all of us to be collective in our efforts for positive behaviors, in encouraging students to do their best. So while it may look like it focuses on ELA, we need everybody to do a lot of things, so

023it's not just teachers. But our focus areas this week-- or this week, just this week This year have been implementing a new ELA curriculum called Open Court, and we've had a lot of training and a lot of coaching support. We've had training from the Open Court representative, and we've also had coaching from her and coaching from CESA 9 and McGovern. We have built up our PLC efficiency practices. We also are looking forward to next year to changing those up a little bit more to continue collaboration and communication with not only grade levels, but also our encore specialists and speech, language, special ed. So we have a lot of things going on to help make it more communicative, and so we can support students beyond the immediate classroom teacher. And we continue to learn and utilize

024data to inform student success groups. And one thing that we continue to lean into is, yes, we have these measurements that we'll show you tonight, but beyond triangulation, there is teacher input, there is progress within the school, there is anecdotal. There's so many other pieces of data that go into just these that we'll show you tonight. Oops. Did I go too fast? Okay. So, I will dive a little bit more into the measures that Andrew just talked about. So the AimsWeb comes from our state mandate, Act 20, for early literacy, and it is a standardized curriculum that we use grades 4K through 3 curriculum-based screener. Sorry, it's not the curriculum. It's the screener that we use to evaluate reading proficiency and early literacy. The FastBridge we utilize for our fourth and fifth grade ELA. It's

025a quick research-based assessment that measures oral reading fluency. So if your kids ever talk about ORF, that's what they're talking about is- Mm-hmm. ... oral reading fluency is their ORF. That's how many words they read correctly per minute, and how accurate. So there's some big algorithm that goes together to create all of those, but we call it their ORF score. And FastBridge we use 4K through first grade for early math. It is different than the AimsWeb. It's a different company, but that's a universal screening for math, and then we use aMath in second grade through fifth grade, and that is also a FastBridge screener. It is a computer-adapted one, so as students progress, it gets a little bit harder, and if they don't get those correct, it drops them back down. So it tries to

026find that measurement of where they're at. So on this page, you will see our fourth and fifth grade, and SLO is our student learning outcome. So our goal this year was that fourth and fifth grade students would demonstrate adequate growth towards being at the next percentile level and/or demonstrate growth by increasing their percentile ranking as measured by the FastBridge CBMR reading assessment with underprepared learners receiving appropriate tiered instruction. That's where the wing comes in, what I need to grow time, so they would receive different instruction, different interventions, or if you are on the upper end, you might receive different extensions. And we call that our equitable multi-level systems of support, or perhaps MLSS. Depends on which DPI lingo. Mm-hmm. But it's a multi-level systems of support. So on the left-hand side, you're going to see

027the grade levels, our totals, students that we screen fall, winter and spring. Students in the high-risk category, the zero to 19 percentile are in the red. Orange is some risk, the 20 to 29 percentile, and then two shades of green and a blue. So one thing I want to point out is in fall, we had 52% of our students were performing at or below the 29th percentile. In spring, we have 26% of our students. So is there room to grow? Absolutely. But is this a celebration? Yes, it is. So, this is a great celebration for us that we have moved a lot of our students up to the next category. And then you'll see students at low risk are 30 to 49th percentile. And so in the fall, we had 48% of our students in

028those three end categories. In spring, we had 74% of our fourth and fifth graders that were performing at or above the 30th percentile. Now, this is the national norm benchmark, so I want to reiterate that. It's a little bit different measure than I'll talk about, but this is the benchmark. Now, I do want to go back real quick to this. We did a lot this year. We did so many things, so much practice, so much work, and when we come to this one measurement in time, our hearts kind of sink. Because we look at this, and it's almost opposite of what we were striving for. In the fall, we had 18% of our students in 4K through third grade that were performing at or below the 25th percentile. In the spring, we have 31%. That

029is not the outcome we anticipated. And in the fall, you'll see we have 82% in the final category, the 26th percentile to the 99th, and in the spring, we have 69%. So we dug deeper because why aren't our students moving in this benchmark? We'll get to that just a minute, but I'm going to do math first because they'll tie together. So you'll see that our math scores moved, but not significantly. So, you'll see on the left-hand side, the red and the orange. We have in the spring, 28% of our students performing at or below the 29th percentile, and in the spring, we have 72% at or above. But if you'll notice, there's not a lot of movement from fall to spring. So that guides our continuous improvement plan, that guides our instruction, that guides we're

030looking into curriculum changes, and as well as adult teaching practices. So a lot of information and a lot of numbers. So if you're like me, I'm very visual, and I need to see. We put so much work in this year, and what happened? Why didn't our students grow? Well, that's false. Our students grew a lot. Our students grew individually. They did not grow as the benchmark grew. So they made a lot of their personal growth, but we're going to distinguish in a minute between the benchmark and the student percentile growth. So slow but steady. We are confident that we have one year under our belt of our open court curriculum, one year of making significant changes, one year of changing up our groups during our wing time, one year of learning new interventions and shifting.

031So we are really excited for next year to come. So we're still learning, but we're not learning as heavy. So we can focus more on students' learning and growth. So here's where some of my learning this year continued to solidify. And Robyn probably will attest to this too, of having to repeat sometimes to me what a benchmark versus student growth percentile is. So the benchmark is the universal metric that you just saw in all those colors, and that shows that their math proficiency against the grade level expectations. So in that grade, that's where the proficiency level is. But the student growth percentile is a norm that's compared to that student along with peers at the same grade who started at the same level of performance. So you think about maybe weight loss or weight gain.

032Those of you that might be in that tenure category, if you are ages 50 to 60, this might be where you are, but you might be somewhere in that benchmark range. But you have individual goals and individual measures to get to where you want to go. So that's the student growth percentile. These do not reflect the benchmark. So within the student growth percentile is the rate of improvement, and that's the metric that we use to see how much academic growth a student made over a period of time. So that rate of improvement helps to help us more accurately interpret students' progress and set realistic yet challenging goals. So you think about that weight loss or weight gain, depending, you can't go from A to Z overnight. I've tried it, it doesn't work. So, but that's

033how we need to set goals for students by visiting all of their data, not just one piece or two pieces. So we have a lot that goes into our PLC work and our database. So the importance is that I want you to understand a single score just shows how a student is doing at that exact moment. But by looking at the rate of improvement, teachers can determine if a student is growing at the appropriate pace compared to the student's growth to national norms. So that's their student growth percentile, and then from there, we decide what teaching strategies need to be adjusted for that student. So looking at this chart, you see in the middle, the average growth is 50%. Okay? That's where the average student would grow at. We need to grow above that 50th

034percentile. So we need kids growing faster than 50th percent. So if they're growing below a 50, then that's below average growth, and then above that is above average growth. So there are norms that are available. They're different than the benchmark norms that we talked about at the beginning of the presentation. So we have fall to winter that we monitor, winter to spring, and then fall to spring. So, I do want to read just a little more of my notes here. So it's important to distinguish between that student growth and achievement and the growth in the percentile ranking. So our ELA data that you saw indicates many students made measurable academic gains, but not fast enough in accordance to that national benchmark. So that's where we had to look at their student growth percentile, and this

035is where the exciting information is going to come because you're going to see what we got to see that our students truly grew at some great rate. So take a look at here. When you dig down a little bit into that student growth percentile, you're going to notice that in 4K, 85% of our students made a growth of 50 percentile or higher. That's pretty awesome that 85% of our students grew and closed their own gap. And then kindergarten, it was in our early literacy battery of tests, 50% of our students grew there. In first grade, the same, but 68% of our students grew at a 50% student growth percentile or higher. In second grade, their ORL, their oral reading fluency, we only had 12%, but we grew, and combined it was a 56% of our

036students grew at a 50% rate or higher. Look at our third grade. Now, come on, you look at our third grade. Now, remember third grade a few months ago- Yes ... we had some pretty high concerns, but 89% of our third graders grew in their oral reading fluency, and 80% of our student third grade grew 50% or higher, student growth percentile or higher in the reading battery. So while all those colors at the beginning may not show this, this was super exciting to us, and kudos to Renee Haynes and Lori and all great people that really dove in and supported our kids. All of us made a great team, so there's lots of growth that was shown there. Taking a look at our fourth and fifth grade, you're going to notice that we also have

037some high numbers in fourth grade. That 74% of our students grew at 50% student growth percentile or higher. And in fifth grade, we also have some significant numbers. So, all of that comes around to, what are we trying to do? At 20, we want to be above the 20th percentile, at or above the 25th percentile, excuse me. And you can see that from the data we have from 4K through three, 80% of all of our students are at or above that 25th percentile, and 73% of our grade four to five are at or above the 30th percentile from the FastBridge reading assessment. So, we have a lot of work to do yet, but man, we made a lot of growth, and on top of that, we learned a lot. Teachers learned a lot, staff learned

038a lot. So, with that one year, couple of years now, of some intense growth and learning professionally, we're making some really good gains and learning a lot. We're learning a lot about data, I'm learning a lot about data, and we're also learning that one point, two points are not enough. So we got to keep that scale moving one way, to where kids need to be. So at the end of the school year, on the 29th, we all came together and we actually looked at a lot more data than what I just showed you. But these four things came from our staff collaboratively saying, "Hey, this is where we need to go and want to go." And so we need to continue to strengthen our PBIS behavior system. We have some great ideas that came from

039our staff and team that we'll continue to implement. We are working on our PLC collaborations. We've made a lot of gains there, and so we're excited to continue with that. Our instructional fidelity and curriculum implementations. We have one year of Open Court. We'll be looking into math next. And this last one, the professional accountability and continuous improvement is going to be one that we agreed that will be a challenge for all of us professionally because it's one thing for teachers to hold students accountable, but it's a lot harder to hold your colleague professionally accountable at times with the same language, the same teaching strategies, the same accountability. So, that's what we're committed to. It's going to be a journey and we have a great team. We have a hardworking team, we have a humorous team,

040but we have a committed to children team, so that's what's pretty exciting. So, that's where we are at. Your turn. Good job. Yeah. Can I ask a really quick question? Yeah. Okay. So for the AGR program, so it sounds like that ends at third grade, right? So is there, I guess, internal strategies that are looked at? So if that third grade class is large and going to fourth grade, that it's considered so that progress isn't lost moving forward? Yes, that's a... So stepping, I get lost in having a competition with you. So, basically, Achievement Gap Reduction used to be the once upon a time, students' Achievement Guarantee Education Facility program. So we do receive, like Randi said, we receive $86,000, which, when we calculate it out, is truly are we going to be able to

041use, for this upcoming school year. Mm-hmm. We definitely looked at where would be the benefits and trade-offs for the amount of staffing and with the students we have. So we have, without AGR, I'm going to say we're doing exactly what we would be doing with it- Okay ... in a sense, but we're receiving some extra additional monetary support, financial support. But then we have additional accountability. So, unfortunately, in one regard, the colorful data you saw at the beginning is what I will submit to DPI at the end here. So they won't get to see all the exciting deeper growth that we've had. But that will be the information that is submitted. We're not growing necessarily in class sizes. Or sorry in, just my words here, in student enrollments. Sure. Okay. So right now we have

042the same amount of teachers that we had. Right. And so we needed to make some tough decisions on next year. So if you're directly considering next year, we will have two teachers at the third-grade level next year. Mm-hmm. We'll drop down to one in second grade. In fourth grade, we are looking to have some additional supports through our wing in groups. So we will continue those supports going forward in our PLC groups. Mm-hmm. Teams, that was one of the biggest conversations we had at the end of the school year was, "All right. We've made this great growth- Right ... we've got to keep going." So it's definitely a concern of all of us, but collectively together, that's where we need to really tighten up and come together and get creative in the sense of how

043are we going to structure this so everybody is successful, not just feels successful, but is successful. Sure. So on we keep. So good question. Yeah. Thanks. If I could just add, Joy did a really nice job answering that, and I would say the perspective of what are we providing then for the students, we balance that with what are we also providing for our staff. Because the research is very clear, if we invest in and we have highly effective staff and campus leaders, we will see growth for students. So we have been seeking out different grant opportunities. You heard Joy, and you'll hear probably Julie and Robin talk about Amy McGovern's been providing coaching. Coaching's coming through our EC implementation grant. So we receive approximately $30,000 for three years, that we can invest in instructional coaching.

044So then Amy comes in on a monthly basis. That's investing in our staff. And then we've also been fortunate to have other grants through And where we're investing in our leadership. So the principals will tell you that they're frequently here learning alongside me with our assistant and colleagues, because effective principals, effective teachers, are going to make really effective high-quality teaching happen in the classroom and in the school. Mm-hmm. So we're balancing, with the monies that we have available and additional grant funding, AGR money, is to be able to invest in not only what's provided for our students, but our staff as well. Mm-hmm. So that balance and that combination is really important, and I think you're going to hear all three of our principals kind of talk about that tonight, too. Great. Thank you. Absolutely.

045Okay. Well, Joy did most of the talking for me, so I don't need to explain all those numbers. So thank you. You did a wonderful job. But I'm going to start by saying, what are the Maple Grove Charter School students saying? So, we, as Maple Grove Charter School, last year, decided it's really important for all students to give their voice and hear their voice. As a district, there's a district survey, and students in, I believe, maybe eighth grade and up, seventh grade, maybe it's even sixth grade, take the survey. But we wanted to hear what our elementary kids were saying about Maple Grove and their needs and wants. And so we know it's a little tricky for kindergarten and first graders to take a survey and what they actually mean, so we took a lot

046of time as a staff last year to develop the survey and try to make it really personal to what we do at Maple Grove, to get a better feel of what we can do better. And our older kids, leadership is a huge piece at Maple Grove, so our older kids are going into the rooms with our kindergarten and first graders and reading it to them, explaining what the question means. But really also knowing you're not telling them what to mark, you're not giving them feedback what to mark, but they get to choose that. So, like any survey, it's probably not seamless, but this is what our kids are saying. One of the questions is, do they enjoy the teachers and other staff? And 81% of the students do. It was almost, always, sometimes, or never.

04782% of them like that there is an adult that they can trust at school, which to us is really important. We have a small staff, and so we want kids to be able to have that person to turn to. And it isn't always just their classroom teacher. It might be our custodian. It might be our admin assistant. It might be music or one of the encore classes. It could be one of our paras that are in the classrooms teaching with the kids all the time. But we want them to feel that they can trust someone and turn to someone. 68% feel like there is almost always a positive role model for others at school. We also talked about this as a staff. What is a role model? What do they see it? Do younger kids

048see that more as that superhero, that person that they can look up to? Or does a role model have to be that person or someone who just guides and helps them? 76% feel comfortable at Maple Grove, and 84% enjoy the field trips that happen. And we smile at that, but those field trips are truly a learning experience in so many different ways. It also teaches our kids how to be respectful out in the community. We will get compliments many times of students coming back saying how their questioning was so deep. They were excited about the questions they had to ask, how they use their manners on their field trips. And I go into the classrooms before every field trip they leave, and I talk about the CRIS traits. And I talk about how that's the

049expectation out in the community. Not only there at school, but now you're going out in the community and representing Maple Grove Charter School and yourselves. And so that is really an important piece of it. So for those of you who maybe have not heard this before, we hand out what we call Foxtails. So it's a lot like the Blue Jay Way tickets that Joy has at AES. But our Foxtails, there's a huge mural that says CRIS outside of my office. And the students, when they get a Foxtail, either from a peer or a teacher, they hang that outside on one of the letters, whatever letter they got their Foxtail for, on there it explains what they did. At our meeting on the 29th, with the staff, we really dove in, because we kept data this

050year about how many Foxtails we collected, how many were collected at each grade level. And we analyzed some of that, and which letter got the most or the least Foxtails. And craftsmanship was our one that was at the least. We often see craftsmanship as, oh, they did a nice job coloring or writing with their penmanship. And we talked deeper about at our older grades, because third, fourth, and fifth aren't receiving as many Foxtails because we expect them to do that at that level. And, we talked about changing that mindset, that kids still like to be recognized and like to see the things and be told the things that they're doing well. And craftsmanship could be creating something, developing something. It doesn't just have to be coloring in the lines or doing well at their handwriting

051book, writing a good essay. It's coming up with the ideas, the essay, all that can be a part of it. So, how we can increase that for next year. So moving forward, you'll see that in the next goals. Then you get down ... I don't know. I'll do it. It's not letting me do it either. Yeah. Okay. So this data is same kind of data that you saw from Joy. This is our kindergarten through third grade. Excuse me, EAMS web data. So it is a different test at the kindergarten. They're measuring different things. They're measuring composite scores at kindergarten and first grade. Then at second and third, they're measuring the ORF score. So when you're looking at this, you're not looking at just one piece of data, you're looking at different pieces that are kind

052of co-mingled. But when you look at this, 68% of our students are at or above grade level or in the average to above range. We would obviously like to see 80% to 100%. Our ultimate goal is 100%, because we can't pick and choose what students we don't want to make it. But right now, we're at 68%. We have done a ton of work behind this as well, talking about all the things that Joy shared. We are meeting in intervention meetings every nine weeks. We're reanalyzing this. Our K-two team meets every two weeks to look at our UFLI data, which is our direct phonics instruction data. So we're looking at that data compared to our intervention groups and moving kids based on that. We have paras teaching direct instruction happening not only in interventions but also

053during our UFLI time. They are not just rotating the room and making sure kids are doing their work. They are teaching. They are getting coaching from Amy McGovern as well on how to do that direct instruction, how to improve. So there is a ton of back-end work going on. This is one snapshot. With this one snapshot, we're progress monitoring kids who are below the 40th percentile. We have to progress-monitor kids below the 25th. But we are progress monitoring kids below the 40th, just to continue to see them grow on a weekly basis. And that data is being looked at and we are intervening with. So there is a lot happening along with classroom data that we're bringing to the meeting. You are seeing the one snapshot of that. This is our fourth and fifth grade.

054This is looking at A reading, which is an accumulation of different parts of reading. We also give them the auto reading, which looks like encoding, decoding, morphology, different components of that. That is not in this data. This is just the overall part of reading. It is also not ... Now I'm only thinking of CBMR, which is another fluency test. So this is A reading that you're seeing. And here, 71% of our learners are at low risk or above. And math. Same as AES takes it. K-one is given as an individual test by the classroom teacher. It's a composite score of a bunch of tests put together, and two, three, four, five is they take it on their Chromebooks. And with this, 72% of our learners are at low risk or above. This is an area

055that we talk about. We also give them a fluency test in this, that's not in this data. So they take a fluency test, too. So that is something we are looking at as well. We look at this score, but we're looking at fluency with kids. How are we increasing fluency? We will hear from those middle school teachers. They need to know their multiplication facts like this. But first, we need to teach them how to multiply and what it means to multiply, before they just memorize them. So we had an in-depth discussion on where do we go. Where do we go with all this data? And it's not just the data you've seen here. We actually, as a staff, look at that growth data that Joy was talking about, which looks different. So we look at

056that individually with students. I don't show that to you here just because it is with individual students. But we are looking at what kids are growing, what are we putting in place to help them to get there, and if kids aren't growing, what are we changing? And we're doing that, in my 20 years of education, more now than what we ever have done. Looking at individual students and changing things up and pinpointing really where the need is, instead of just giving them more reading to do. We're finding out how to help them grow. So finish what we start. We talk about pacing and curriculum. Are we getting through our curriculum? I'm going to tell you the first and second year that I got there, we were using EL. The first year I was there, we

057did not have training on how to use EL education, and teachers got through two units the first year. There's four units. So they only got through half the curriculum. It impacts down the road. And so how are we ensuring we are going through the curriculum but not getting through the curriculum, just throwing it at them, them actually having the understanding and the proficiency? And I'm proud to say that all of our teachers went through all four units this year and were able to accomplish them. Same with math. There was one grade level that didn't get to the end unit in math. But we know that, and we need to prepare for that. And being a one-track school, we're able to do that and have that conversation with the next year teacher to make sure that

058all those pieces fall into place Build the literacy bridge. Extend foundational literacy skills. So we have UFLI, which is the direct instruction of phonics skills. And we use a couple different resources, but moving in the direction of more of a direct instruction of phonics resources, vocabulary, morphology, decoding, all the things that they do in auto reading screener, and keeping that going through our third, fourth, and fifth. We use a model you've maybe heard me talk about, Walk to Read. Looking into extending that into our third, fourth, and fifth, so kids are getting the instruction on where they need it. And we are using our resources, our teachers, more effectively. Student leadership is a huge thing, not only for our older kids to have student leadership, but for our youngers to feel as leaders as well,

059because they too can have an impact on what happens in the world, with each other, with classmates. So, what are some responsibilities for all students, and giving kids that leadership opportunity. They will grab onto that, and it is amazing to me, as a parent myself, going home and asking my kids to do a chore, and getting the negative feedback of, "I don't want to. I'm not going to do it." And then going to school and asking a kid to go get a bucket of water, and they're like, "Yeah, sure. No problem." And they think it's the coolest thing. So I'm not really sure the difference because I can say it at school and it's a total different outcome than when I say it at home, but it is that leadership piece and giving those kids

060those opportunities. And that's what, as a staff, we are working on as a whole. Define and celebrate craftsmanship. I talked a little bit about that already. What does that mean? That was our lowest foxtail given out this year, but how can we up the ante on that? Along with keeping some of those, this year we worked with writing rubrics that we had created. Now keeping those writing samples with students to see the progress. Some of the teachers that have been doing it for a while talked very highly about how kids like to look back at what they wrote and just the growth they've made over the last couple of years. So, continuing to keep those exemplars and share those and the students' work as they go through developing craftsmanship. Increase authentic writing. Writing is one

061of those areas that is a challenge to teach, because you can't go inside their head and grab out those ideas or create those ideas. But how do you help them with the skills of writing? And the curriculum we use is rigorous in the fact that there is an expectation to write a large amount in a short period of time, according to the manual. But how do we get kids writing more often than just that four-paragraph essay paper they're supposed to do? Are they writing letters? And that is one thing we do often at Maple Grove is writing letters, whether it be to different community members as a thank you or writing letters to a friend if something happens as an apology. It really depends, but giving more of that authentic writing, hands-on approach. Elevate hands-on

062learning. We talked at this time about strengthening our labs even more than what we are. Giving more of that writing piece into our labs with our nature journaling. Talking about increasing with our BioBlitz event. We will be leading that this year and not have a coach to lead that. And how can we do real-world math problem science applications, so that they can relate better to it? Focus on accuracy before fluency. We give a fluency screener. We also give progress monitoring by fluency. But we have to remember, it's not just about reading fast, it's about reading accurate or you're not going to have the comprehension. So we want kids at 97% or higher for their accuracy, before we're looking at their reading 160 words per minute. We want them to be accurate on that. So, that

063has been a shift this year, through some of the coaching that we've had with Amy McGovern. And then this is the portfolios that are going to travel with the students and showcase their growth. And kids love to showcase. Teachers have done a phenomenal job this year, which was one of our side goals as well, was to display students' work in the hallway. And it is just a highlight for kids. You can hear them walking through the hall saying, "Oh, look at this one. Look at what they did." Or, "Look at..." They want to show their parents when they come in, "Look at what I did over here." It's a highlight for them to show it off. So instead of them just doing the work in the classroom and throwing it in the folder or taking

064it home, we're displaying it. Teachers are doing a wonderful job displaying it. So this is where we go next, and you can notice it's not all just based around the academic scores, but it's about kids being quality human beings. Any questions? I guess I'm up. It wasn't working. Here. Oh, now it's working. It liked her. It's convenient. You're welcome. You did a good job last week. You're welcome. All right. So as we started the year too, we very much talked about the same things as Joy and Robin. Just promoting growth and learning for all of our students. Identify and provide staff support. So at an earlier point in the school year, I sent out a survey to staff to say, "What areas is it that you need help in? Is it your curriculum? Is it-

065You know, classroom management, what is it that would really help us? So we could take a survey on that, so we can get through that. And then we talked, of course, a lot about behavior referrals, as many of you are aware of. So those were our goals, and we just determined very early on in the school year, if we're going to have those behaviors, what's that going to look like? How are those things going to be communicated? And at the end of the year, what you won't see on the data that I'm providing, but is that staff got more comfortable using Infinite Campus to put in behavior referrals. And so, those notifications do get sent to parents. I think as long as that is selected as one of the things you want to get contacted

066for in Infinite Campus. So, those are some things that we really tried to incorporate, and I'm going to circle back to that a little bit later because that was also part of our end of year conversation. So, some focus areas then, conscious discipline. We were on our second year of implementation with our staff here, so I was able to get a coach to come in and work with a handful of our teachers that talked about that classroom management piece. So this coach observed four different staff members and then gave them feedback. So she observed the class, took some notes, and then took time to meet with them very shortly thereafter. And then as a group, they all met again to recap what was the learning curve, what are some strategies they could put into place

067right away. And the staff that participated in this, they were grateful for just some simple little tips that they could put into practice, and it started changing immediately, right? How they accepted answers. One of the suggestions was, instead of calling on the first kid whose hand is up, you say to the children, "Okay, when everybody's hand is up, then I will call on somebody." Right? Because what we've done is we've leveled the playing field. We've given them some think time. We've taught them material. We expect that all of the students should be able to answer, but now we're going to be able to then get them to realize, "Oh, all of my friends know that answer too." Right? Give them that opportunity. And then of course, the last one there, consistent use of behavioral referral

068form in Infinite Campus. And that's still a little bit of a work in progress. All right. So the data that Joey and Robyn have already spoken about. So this is our FastBridge A reading data from the beginning of the school year to the end. And it's always good when our numbers in red and yellow get less. You're going to see that the numbers in red got a little less, but then the numbers in yellow went up to a nine. So we give and take as we go throughout the year. And as they explained, because this test adjusts as the difficulty goes on, we expect to see some of those things going on. As we look at the A reading scores, my percentages are not on there, but for A reading overall, we actually did go

069up as a percentage. We went from 60 percentile at the beginning of the school year to 63% in the low risk at the end, which is great. Because this was more of our focus this year was back to the ELA, the reading and writing. So then we went down from 40% to 37% in the high risk for the yellow and the red categories down there. So again, making some progress. All right. For our middle school, A math data, and this one intrigues me, I have to tell you, because we had a new teacher at the helm this year for middle school, and the phrase I'd use with those that ask, "How's he doing?" I said, " Middle school kids are mathing." And I don't even know if that's a word, but they are. So what

070I observed is not running parallel to what this data is indicating here. When I walk into a classroom and I see kids who, in years past, would've completely been shut down and disengaged, were like, "I know that." And they could have a math conversation. I can tell you they are mathing. So regardless of these results, our students are learning math, and they're engaging with it. Mr. Coker's done a nice job of just rolling some things in that the students are finding engaging. So to that, I'm going to celebrate that because I know it's not quite indicative here. He was a little bummed by these results, too. As we look forward to next year, some things we're going to work on, right? And he also provided the intervention strategies for our students, with the i-Ready, for

071math. And Mrs. Brewster did our corrective reading for middle schoolers, for the reading component, and her scores went up. So sometimes, right, we... One or the other, so we're hoping to get both, right? All. That's the goal. That is the goal. For our high school kids, their math actually stayed pretty steady across the board throughout the year. The percentage dropped by one at the end, 58% down to 57%. Oh, sorry. This is we're in A reading. Let me get to the right data. So reading for high school actually went down, 70% to 61% at the end of the year, and then our high risk, of course, then went up from 30 to 39%. Then I'll go to math. Which again, stayed pretty static throughout the year. Again, dropped by one percentage in the high end

072on the low risk, 58% to 57, and then the high risk went from 42 to 43. So again, pretty leveled off at that high school level. And you're going to notice we only do through grade 10, or yes, through our sophomores, so we only test those first two grade levels. The thought process there is not that our 11th graders aren't getting math. They absolutely are, but they branch off so drastically by that junior year. It's really hard to capture that. So we try to capture all of the students that are in Algebra 1 and Geometry, potentially Algebra 2 as well, so the ones that have Mr. Roache for those I don't want to say lower, our intro or our intermediate level math classes. So that would encompass Alrightiness, Algebra 1, Geometry, potentially into Algebra 2

073for anybody that's doubled up. So, mix of data there. All right. So these were some trends, but I want to get up for a minute and point something out. So these were middle school trends. This is longitudinal data from the last couple of years, and watch as those things go up and down. What I needed to celebrate with staff and point out, and it's so little, and I'm sorry, but A reading at the end, for our high school students overall, in 10th grade, none of those kids are in the red. So I had to give Mrs. Wilker a pat on the back that day, because that doesn't happen randomly. That happens with a lot of consistency and a lot of hard work and making sure our kids are rising to that level. And if those

074of you that have ever had Mrs. Wilker for class, you know that that's the standard, right? This is her standard. She's not going to lower that for anybody. So, I thought that was worth putting up there and just mentioning that, even, again, as we watch all the numbers. We've all talked about numbers, and we know that this is just one point in time. It doesn't paint the full picture. All right. So what path are we on? So, purposeful and effective PLC collaboration. You've heard my colleagues talk about that tonight as well. Regular and routine PLC team meetings, and I'm so excited because I will be embarking in some learning this summer, as Ms. Sheridan had just talked about with regards to it's not just about what our kids have, right? It's about providing us the

075training that we need to come back and really strengthen our group and our team so that we can all do better together. So we're looking forward to that training coming up. But these are some things that my staff came together with and shared with me on our last day. So, the regular routine PLC team meetings, interventions determined and implemented early. We had a great opportunity to touch base with our elementary partners, both for Maple Grove and AES, to talk about what does that transition look like for our incoming sixth graders. How can we establish some good routines for them as we get the handoff off here to the big house? And that was impactful because we had middle school teachers in the room along with the fifth-grade teachers and myself, and we talked about how

076are we going to support them, okay, including our special education staff. So that was super helpful for them to share some of their strategies with us. Instructional fidelity and curriculum implementation. This year, it's our turn to embark on a new curriculum for our English language arts program, and this will be six through 12. We have adopted the EL learning, so we will have to implement that along with some professional development and training on how to best use that resource with our students for fidelity purposes, and that way we can get the most out of that program for them. And staff was quick to come up with this as a, "Hey, where are we going with things for next year?" Coming off the heels of the behavior thing we talked about, develop a comprehensive PBIS system,

077promote positive behaviors, and enforce consequences for negative behaviors. Form a PBIS team to review and revise current practices, and then of course, update our handbooks accordingly. So staff said, "We spend a lot of time on these behaviors. What if we started recognizing the good more?" Because our middle school staff recognize students every month, right? They get feathers. We don't get the other things that the other schools have, but they have feathers that also go along with some character attributes that they cover one per month. And then teachers can put those feathers in. There's a drawing kids can win some things at that monthly recognition. The bigger scope of that was just really how do we continue to elevate our kids that are showing up every day doing the right things all the time, so that

078we could really minimize the other behaviors that are calling our attention. And then professional accountability and continuous improvement, timely written action steps and check-ins to monitor progress. And that actually circles back up to any of our interventions as well as our PLC team meetings, is making sure that we've got that tracking system so that we don't lose sight of something and stuff doesn't start slipping through the cracks, right? There's a lot going on throughout the school year. A lot of things are happening, but we want to make sure we're catching the kids. We want to make sure that we've got that safety net in place so that we can pick them up and get them back on their way. So, some other things to note, too, that the high school does, they do offer some

079tutoring for our students. I don't know if some of you are aware of that. But for some of our middle school students outside of interventions, and that's usually for kids that need a lot more intense reteaching, but we've got high school students that are paired with some of our middle school students during that flex time to assist them in various content areas. So. I'd like to say first and foremost, on behalf of our team, I want to thank Julie and Joy. You obviously hear them speak as if this is just natural and normal, the things that they're doing on a regular and routine basis. I want to highlight the fact that they put a lot of time and talent into their own professional learning so they can lead others, including the adults in their building,

080but then also those adults who can lead their children in the learning in the classroom. So I want to thank them for their commitment, for their instructional leadership, as well as other leadership that they bring to their job every single day. So on behalf of our team, thanks for engaging with us in this presentation. Any questions that we could answer, we'd be happy to do them Thank you. Thank you, everybody. So as I opened up, this was an overall presentation from all three buildings. But I'd like to give Joy a bit of time to talk about specifically our AGR data from Athens Elementary School. So I think everybody has it in their packet. So basically, what this is, is this is the required form from DPI, and you've seen it before because we needed to

081choose strategies, and then it was presented probably in December, in the winter. So on the left-hand side, you're going to see reading and math for grades K through 3, so K through 3. And we needed to set goals and to document. This is just for Athens Elementary, it's not Maple Grove. But we needed to describe what type of assessments are we going to be looking at for review. And you'll notice, for example, in kindergarten, the formative assessment, which is more frequent observation and curriculum assessment, that is our Open Court for ELA, for English Language Arts. And the summative is what you saw in the columns is the AimsWeb and then the FastBridge. So, those were the ones we chose because, number one, we've already been required by the state to do AimsWeb, and we also

082already utilize FastBridge. So those are the ones that we decided, and we have Open Court assessments. And then in third grade for math, we did use our Vision Math for formative, which is a general curriculum that we use, and then the assessments that come with that. So, that's why you will see Envision there as well. And so we needed to select the strategy, and Andrea talked about the strategies at the beginning. So which of the strategies were we going to use? Class size reduction, we're going to use instructional coaching or one-to-one tutoring, which is like our WIN time, that very WIN time that we've talked about. And so you'll notice the only classroom that we chose different for class size reduction was our second grade. Because we had the students there and looking at their

083levels and their needs, that's where we split. It was a very difficult decision, as our third grade took on a few more students after this decision was made. And so we did one-on-one tutoring with our third grade, our first grade, and our kindergarten, which is the WIN time, as well as the second grade also received that, but it just had two classes as well. So then I reported out on the end of the spring semester. What you see there are the colored percentiles and numbers that were up there. So that's what that represents, are all those colors. So I may feel like we've just spoken a whole different language right now. So what I'm hearing is this report is the one that's required to secure that and keep that funding. It's basically the colorful stuff,

084but it's now in their format. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. And this one will be the one that the board will approve tonight. So this one will need to get approved and sent along to the DPI. So this is an action item later. Any questions for Joy? Joy. Thank you so much. This is a lot of good information from all of you. Okay. We are ready to move on to information and discussion items. And we have School Perceptions as the first item under that area. Actually, I'm going to modify the agenda just a bit. Okay. Our colleagues at School Perceptions have a 16 presentation with another district. Oh, okay. So if it's okay with you- No big deal ... we could keep going through our agenda, and then as soon as they are done, they will join

085us on this call. Okay. Let's do that. Okay, great. Thank you. Yep. So we'll move to the '25, '26 budget amendments. Yeah. And those are in your packets. Yes. So just want to highlight a few of the changes. We talked about this in the FFO committee earlier this evening. But we are looking to add additional money to our fund balance, our general fund balance. Our original projection was about 18%, we are now looking at 20%. So in fall, we adopted a board policy that says we must maintain an 18% fund balance. And just to remind everyone that fund balance is not cash. It is essentially the assets plus liabilities equals the fund balance. So, it's not a cash balance that is available. When we build a budget, we build it conservatively. So for example, we

086don't count on receiving donations on our admissions, concessions, all of that. So some of our revenues are a bit higher than expected because we are accounting for some of those things that could change and are out of our control. The expenditures are a bit lower than originally projected. Majority of those are one-time expenses that were meant for '24, no, for '25, '26, but will be moved to '26, '27. Such as the HRA contributions for retired certified staff. This year we had no certified staff retire, so we'll take that expense and move it to the future years. Another big change from our original budget is a transfer to Fund 46. So that's the Capital Improvement Fund that has its own restrictions, and it is used to address needs that we have identified in our capital improvement

087plan that we have submitted to DPI Part of the reason we haven't contributed to that earlier is that fund was opened in August of 2021. DPI regulates that and says we are not able to access those funds for five years. So our five-year waiting period is up in August of 2026. So we felt it was appropriate in time to put those funds in there to save for our rainy day capital improvement projects. So wanted to be mindful of our Fund 10 cash flow and needs there, but also start building the capacity in our Fund 46. So are there any questions with the '25-'26 budget amendments? I thought that's okay to share with the board, and I shared this with our committee as a whole. When the seated board last fall was reviewing the fund balance

088policy, they did agree that 18% was a conservative beginning spot. But as a board at that time seated, they had an interest of growing that to 25%. So just to share with you, in good faith, we were looking for opportunities in the conservative budgeting process where if we've had those additional monies, that we would continue towards that in the future, potentially 25% in that fund balance. So just want to share that with all the current seated board members. Okay. This will also be an action item later to approve these budget amendments. I should add to that Korber & Rose puts together our financial statements, and those will be presented to the board after the audit is complete, which we'll invite them to the board meeting in around December, depending on their schedule and availability. Thank

089you. Some good news. All right. Then we have the preliminary budget for '26-'27. You can take that. So this is our '26-'27 preliminary budget, and is exactly that, preliminary. There's a lot of unknowns and factors that will have to be determined, such as student enrollment, property values, tax levy, and the state's equalization aid. Overall, there's not a lot of significant changes from last year to this year. Just want to be mindful of that fund balance. So we're looking at about 25% that this current budget will take us to for our fund balance, assuming all goes as expected. We did work together, so Julie and I met with her team, and we set up small group meetings to get input from teachers and staff in this building. Joy and Robyn worked with teachers in their buildings,

090so we gathered input from all of them. We've added that into the budget. We've taken the staff salary increases that the board had approved a few months ago, as well as consideration for health insurance. So all of those are factored into this budget. So you will see it again in September during the annual meeting and budget hearing, which the community is invited to, and they have a voice and a say in the budget. And then the board will be asked to approve and adopt the final budget in October after all of those final figures are determined. Can I ask a question? Okay, I'm going to- Yes, you can. So when it says other school districts within Wisconsin and other districts outside Wisconsin, what does that mean exactly? Which one, what line you're looking at? So

091like line 19 through 23, that's other school districts within Wisconsin. So line 20 is payments for services. Yes. So that is primarily open enrollment. Okay. So we pay the tuition out for those that open enroll into other schools. Okay. And that also includes the voucher program payments. Got it. Okay. So that's an expense and a revenue that comes in. Okay. Thank you. I can also just draw your attention on the second page under curriculum. So you heard the principal speak. This year at Atkins Elementary, we implemented Open Court, a new elementary ELA resource or curriculum resource. Next year, we'll have an implementation at the middle school ELA, and the high school. And then, I think one or more of our principals might have indicated we're going to begin the vetting process in the upcoming year

092around math, and that will be from 4K through grade 9 minimum, and perhaps even into the high school. So to be able to afford that curriculum, which is not inexpensive, I had to work with Beth very closely the last couple of years. And we've incorporated that into our yearly budget because we should be really monitoring what we call six-year curriculum cycles. So we vet new curricular resources, we then purchase them, we implement them, we monitor, we make adjustments. But every six years, we should see that cycle continue. That's just a very good practice. And we also want to make sure that they're aligned with current research and what our teachers need to be able to do their job. So I just think that's important for the board to know, too. That's been a practice we've

093implemented, but it does come with some needs for our financial support. So we have included that again in the upcoming years as we continue to have those six-year curriculum cycles. And is that like line 62? Is that where that would be for that regular curriculum expenditure? What kind of statement or where would that- I can confirm with Beth. Is that, did we add it? Yes. So those curriculum areas include the actual textbooks. Okay. But it also includes staff salaries- Oh ... and benefits. Okay. So it's everything that goes into- Gotcha ... curriculum. Okay. That makes sense. So yes, it is included along with other things. Okay. Other questions on what things are or differences or anything like that? So we will see this again in August, and then it will eventually get approved and adopted

094in October. Yes, September and October. September and October. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So tonight, the item that we will be seeing as an action item will be approving the preliminary budget, but it is not yet finalized. So you guys know that. All right. There's another district that also behind. Oh. He's going to come back and do a presentation for us. Okay. So we have School Perceptions. Perfect. Thank you for your flexibility. All right. So we're going to go back to the School Perceptions presentation on the survey results. So as Becky is pulling up the screen, Scott is our business partner from School Performances. He's going to be here tonight to present the board and our community with a preliminary overview of the community survey results. We also have members from Performance Services on the

095screen as well because they would like to hear the presentation. So Scott, welcome. Thank you for your flexibility. Oh, absolutely. Thank you all for having me tonight. Appreciate the opportunity to share some results with you both. I'm getting a bit of an echo. Scott, do we have to be muted? There we go. I think that'll do it. Thank you. There's nothing I hate more than hearing my own voice. Oh. Let me know if you're not seeing the presentation, otherwise, I will assume you're seeing my shared screen. And here we are to share the preliminary community survey report as June 15th. So first, a little look at the type of information you're going to see throughout tonight's presentation. So we've got background info. That's going to look very familiar. It's mostly what was in your survey,

096a reminder of what was presented to your community. We've got survey respondent information, about who took your survey. Results and analysis, of course, and then time at the end for a wrap-up and questions. Reminder about who we are at School Perceptions. We've been doing this work since 2002. Our mission is to help educational leaders like yourselves gather, organize, and use data to make strategic decisions. And we have helped more than 1,400 school districts navigate the strategic planning and referendum planning process. So as of this morning, your survey results presentation here got a fresh update this morning, and you are at 311 respondents. We are going to continue to update this report. That's the reason that front page said preliminary, because we will continue to get mailed surveys. Normally, we aren't even looking at data really

097until at least a week after the deadline, because we get those mailed surveys that folks put in the mail on deadline day, and we want to honor that data. Because your meeting was scheduled for tonight, we wanted to make sure to get you this information, so you could start thinking about the decisions you have to make in the months ahead. But we will continue to update the information you see tonight, and we'll get you a final report for when we see those surveys not coming in anymore. So by the end of the month, we will have a final report that'll just have some updated numbers of this version. With 311 respondents, you have 14.1% response rate. Our average is in the 15 to 18% range. So you're right approaching the bottom of our average range.

098And if we do get a few more surveys in, you'll get right into that range. But we still feel good once we get to double digits. The data is very reliable. Given the number of respondents, and this is just because of the size of your community and the size of your district, there is a plus or minus 5.67% margin of error. Again, there's nothing you can do to change that margin of error. It's just a function of the size of your response base. But it's an important number to keep in mind as we go through some of the results tonight, that 5.67%, plus or minus. So age demographics of your survey respondents. The largest group was 65 plus at 30% of respondents. We like to see them as the highest group on your surveys because

099they are both overrepresented on Election Day, they vote at a higher proportion than their population, and they are often the group with the least direct connection to the school district. So hearing from them and communicating to them is really important to see that that's happening. So we're really pleased to see that number as the highest age range here. Second is the 35 to 44 range at about a quarter of respondents, so 23%. That's a typical parent age range, so we see that very commonly to see that group be in the top two respondents and be engaged with the school district. Then you had both your 45 to 54 and 55 to 64-year-olds in the teens, mid to upper teens, 25 to 34 at 11%, and 18 to 24 at 1%. That group at the bottom

100there is 1% on pretty much every one of our surveys, so not out of the norm there at all. 90% of your survey respondents have a primary residence in the district. 9% do not, and 1% are not sure. So when we're looking at some of the results tonight, that 9%, it could be staff who live outside your boundaries, it could be open enrollment families. It's really important to hear from them on some of the decisions you're making. But when we're looking at the potential for referendum outcomes, we have to look at just that 90% of respondents that would be voters if there were something on the ballot. So we do some filtering down to that group for certain questions when we're looking at predicting a referendum outcome. Municipality-wise, 40% of your respondents were from the

101village of Athens. That was the biggest group. You had four other municipalities, all at 10% and above. The town of Vernon at 9%, and the town of Ridge Falls at 1%. 14% of your survey respondents are staff members in the district. 38% of your survey respondents are parents in the district. The remaining group, your non-parents, non-staff, so the biggest group on your survey and also the biggest group in your community. So we feel really good about how those groups broke down. Those are three key subgroups we'll keep returning to, and the first time is on this slide here. So we asked, how would you like to receive information from us? The purple bar represents those non-parent, non-staff respondents. So again, folks who said, no, they do not work in your buildings, and no, they do

102not have children attending a school in the district. 75% of those respondents, so the group that is, once again, the biggest in your community and the least directly connected to the school, they want to hear from you via mailed newsletters. And that is something we are seeing in pretty much every community we survey right now. That group wants something in the mail, something they can hold and page through or look through. It sets it apart as something that's really important. It doesn't get lost in their email inbox. The second most chosen option for that group was the record review at 45%. Once again, reinforcing the idea of something they can hold on to. Parents, meanwhile, 73% of them, so about three-quarters, want to hear from the district via email, 56% on social media. And then

103you have three options in the 40% to 46% range, including mailed newsletters at 42%. So just some ideas on how to reach different groups in your community there, whether it's about a potential referendum or about other information regarding the schools in the district. So a reminder, in the survey, we presented some of the financial challenges the district is facing. And we explained that because the district is asking voters to consider a smaller replacement operational referendum to maintain operations, the property tax mill rate would actually decrease. We then asked, would you support an operational referendum that provides the district $600,000 each year to maintain programs and services? This slide shows your staff residents. So 90% of your staff who live in your district boundaries and therefore would be able to vote if something were on the

104ballot would probably or definitely support that operational referendum. 3% said no, and 7% remained undecided. 73% of your parent residents would probably or definitely support that operational referendum, compared to 18% no and 9% undecided. 41% of your non-parent, non-staff residents, again, that big group, would support that operational referendum, 45% would not, and 14% are undecided. So we have to take those numbers and we have to weight them for what your voting groups are going to look like on Election Day. So using some census data, we're able to estimate that about 25% of your voters are going to be parents. About 75% of your voters are going to be non-parents, non-staff. So we want to weight their support. So if you look at the equation down there on the bottom of the slide, the 0.25 represents

105the 25% of voters that are parents. We multiply that by the 73% support that parents have for this plan. Then we do the same for your non-parents, non-staff. So 0.75 multiplied by the 41% that that group had for the plan. We add those two numbers together, and on the right side of the equal sign, that 49.0% is the estimated level of support if that operational referendum from the survey were on the ballot today. The reason that's highlighted in yellow is because while it is 49%, it's just below 50%, it is within that margin of error that we talked about. So that plus or minus 5.67%, it's on the cusp of 50% and within that margin. So then the survey, we moved on to facility challenges, and we outlined some of the challenges and that there

106were two options, renovating the existing school or closing that building and adding on to the middle high school building. When we asked without numbers tied to it and without a tight plan tied to it, what you can see is that a majority of both parents and staff prefer closing Athens Elementary and adding on to the middle high school. Non-parents non-staff, once again, that biggest group, between the two options, have a preference for renovating or investing in Athens Elementary, 36% to 23%. However, the biggest group for non-parents non-staff is not sure, which means they're looking for more information on the cost of those options, more details. So the biggest group there, with two-fifths of non-parent non-staff responders, are going to be that not sure group. So then we did share some more information about the options.

107We detailed option one, renovating the school. We detailed option two, building an addition onto the middle high school building. We showed what that addition could look like, and we explained some other facility projects that would be completed with either project at the middle high school and Maple Grove. We explained the costs of both pathways with the projects with whatever solution for Athens Elementary, then the cost of the projects at Maple Grove and the middle high school to get to a total cost. And we ultimately shared the tax impact of those two options. We then asked which building referendum option would you support. What you can see here is the options that folks could choose were only option one, only option two, either, no building referendum, or undecided. So parents and staff, by far the biggest

108responses were for either. They would support either option one or option two. Non-parents non-staff, the highest response was none. They would not support any building referendum. What we then do is add those folks who said either onto the folks who said only one option or the other, just to see where support is for both options. So what you see here is that among staff and parents, it's pretty even between option one and two. Two to three percentage points difference between them. Non-parents non-staff, little bit bigger gap, six percentage point difference, but still relatively close, and ultimately for that group, outpaced for both options pretty significantly with 48% in that not supporting any building referendum option. So when we apply the weighted formula that we did earlier with the operational piece to the building referendum support,

109option one would have 38.3% support if it were on the ballot today, and option two would have 34.3% support if it were on the ballot today. Both of those are below 50% and outside that margin of error. We also asked some overall satisfaction questions. So these are on a one to four scale, one being poor, four being great. No surprise here. Staff had the highest scores, then parents, then non-parents non-staff. That tends to be the typical pattern across most measures. Another way of looking at this, we just looked at your full pool of respondents and the percent of folks who responded great or good on these four areas, and then the overall score. And a reminder, this is on a one to four scale. So delivering a high-quality education and building pride in the community,

110you have majority of respondents saying you're doing great or good, and the score is above the median of a two point five. Keeping the public informed and managing funds appropriately are the two lowest. Managing funds appropriately tends to be the lowest on these surveys, because folks just answered questions about additional funding. So that's just a trend we see pretty regularly. The other question we asked related to satisfaction was on a scale of zero to 10, how likely would you be to recommend the district to a friend or family member? The biggest group of respondents, with a third of respondents, responded in that neutral space. Not a surprise when you have a good amount of non-parents non-staff responding. A lot of them may not have been in a school building for a while, so they don't

111want to give you a great score, they don't want to give you a terrible score, so they respond with that neutral. Ultimately, your district's overall score was a 5.34, so above neutral, trending toward that green. So what did we learn? In summary, weighted support for the operational referendum at 49% is within the margin of error of 50%. This is enough support to consider putting a question on the ballot and letting voters decide. There is not majority weighted support for either of the facility referendums outlined in the survey at this time. So that's the end of the presentation, but I'd be happy to discuss anything that you all would like to ask about. I have a question. Yeah. Can you go back to the slide about the operational referendum on the non-parent non-staff and the percent

112that was undecided? Absolutely. 14%? Okay. And what I can tell you, if The past few years, we've seen that undecided group trending pretty strongly toward "no" between survey and the ultimate election day. It used to be, maybe 10 years ago, that about a third of that group would move to "yes," and we've seen that more close to maybe 10% of that group is likely to move to "yes" by election day. So, just as a piece of context around what we see from those undecideds. Okay. What other questions do you guys have? Are you able to tell what percentage of surveys were completed by Hispanic families, that requires the Spanish version, by chance? I could look that up in data a little bit, but I can find that out and share it with Andrea. I'm just

113curious. Mm-hmm. Sure. Any other questions for School Perceptions? Were there any comments that expressed concerns or drawbacks or positives? There were some comments, and so we are working on a comment theme analysis report. That's one thing that we do for a lot of districts to highlight what's coming up multiple times among respondents in answers to questions. So we're going to work on that. We are waiting, again, until we see surveys slow down so that we are sure we're including everyone's feedback to dig into those themes, but that's something we're going to provide along with the final version of this report by the end of the month. Thank you. So assuming some of those comments maybe get addressed or the community gets informed more, how often do you see, or how much percentage do you see

114change one way or another? Say, would that 34% to 38% boost up closer to that 50% if some of that stuff gets addressed, or is that way... I would not anticipate much movement between survey and election day, no. I have more of a comment. I don't know that it's really a question for School Perceptions. But when the survey items were presented for the operational referendum, it talked about the mill rate going down. But I don't recall if it had a tax dollar... So with the capital referendum options, there was a tax dollar impact increase per $100,000 of the home, like $200 and some for the one option, $300 and some for the other. I don't recall if, and I guess this is a question. Was there that tax dollar impact per $100,000 on a tax

115bill for the operational referendum that showed it would go down? I know it said the mill rate went down, but was there an actual dollar amount that they could see as it decreasing for every $100,000? I am double-checking. I believe I know the answer, but I want to make sure before I... No, so we did not have that number on there because of the way it related to the potential capital referendums funding. We were worried if we put the exact number here, it would confuse that capital referendum impact, so we only used the mill rate- Okay ... on the operational referendum piece. And I totally understand. I remember that conversation. I wonder if people knew, if there were communication before a referendum question, if they knew that their taxes would go down with this piece

116of information, not saying like the other part of their taxes, but their school district taxes would go down, if that might make a difference. And I know you can kind of infer that from this chart, that it would go down, but if they knew the exact dollar amount that it would go down, I wonder if that would change anything either way. So, just a curiosity that I'm having. I do think with the tax impacts here, I do believe we took into account the decrease from the operational referendum. Yep. So these were the increases with that taken into account. Right. Other questions? If we don't have questions for Scott, we can always end our conversation, and then maybe have some internal here. AJ and I have had interest in just finding out from the board if

117you need more information from us prior to the July meeting. Maybe if you have other questions. But I don't want to end our conversation if there are other questions specific for Scott and School Perceptions. It's okay. I don't see any other school perceptions survey result questions at this time. Well, if you think of them, Andrea, don't hesitate to reach out, and otherwise, we'll provide those reports by the end of the month. And thank you all for your time tonight. Thank you, Scott. Thank you. Thanks, Scott. Okay. So, to inform our pathway going forward, I think what might be good is to just have some discussion. We don't need to decide anything tonight. There's no action item about this tonight on our agenda. So we could maybe generate some conversation right now and then follow up

118in our July meeting with maybe more answers or things like that, deeper information. So anything, I guess, observations, comments from all of you that might help inform where do we go next. Is this report going to get sent out to all of us, too? Or is that just- That is a great question. And tomorrow during our debrief meeting, we have members from PSI, specifically Leanne. She was on the team today. She's a communication person on the back end. I had front-loaded some questions for her. When is it appropriate to release? This is preliminary, and we want to make sure if this is the report we put out, and if it were to change, how do we communicate that? We don't want to create any mistrust with our community. We heard Scott say they typically take

119three, four weeks to let those last surveys come in through the mail. We want to honor that as well. So, great question. It's on our list for tomorrow, and then we'll determine how we release it. We certainly have started to build a part on our website, not only on the community survey, but any mention of referendum moving forward. But we'd like some of their guidance to make sure we release it at the appropriate time and what we release. Okay. I feel like if the people knew the tax decrease for the operational referendum, that approval rating would go up. I agree. Because it brought down those other numbers. So, I don't know. That's just my thought, but there's really no way to know. Mm-hmm. I don't disagree with that. My initial thought is I'm not surprised

120at the capital. I'm disappointed with the results, I think. But, the operational information is promising, I think, with how it's promised. Yeah. And I think that if they had additional information, like you said, and messaging, I feel like that could potentially pass. Question about, 75% of non-parent staff want a mailed newsletter. Do we have funds for that built into the budget? If we're going to be looking at potential messaging for that. Yeah. Here's my... I'm going to say no, not at this time do we have a line item where we would have allocated, but if that is the feedback now that we've received, we certainly can take a look at that. I really appreciate this year, all three of our principals on a monthly basis, created fantastic communication pieces through their school communication newsletters. Many

121of those, obviously, are going out electronically. Could we capture that and do mailing send into the community? Certainly, we could take a look at that. So we would just need to determine the cost behind that. Right. But it is a great way to keep our larger some of our community invested and knowledgeable of what's happening. Right. For sure. Especially if that's the biggest population that's going to go vote, I would say that should probably definitely be looked into. Mm-hmm. What if we printed a few copies to have at the library and advertise that? Yeah. Well, the other consideration would be second behind a mail newsletter was the Record Review was mentioned for that demographic, which might be a lot less expensive way to reach a lot of people that same- Mm-hmm. Yeah ... same demographic.

122Right. Instead of individual mails. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And not everybody gets Record Review. Sorry. Yeah. Because you have to subscribe to it. It's a paid subscription. But I think by and large, a lot of their base is going to be that age group. Sure. Mm-hmm. Makes sense. I was just going to say, as one of the four local superintendents who have been given the opportunity in the last several years to write a column. Yes. We rotate. I think that we have May and October side of the year. So thank you, Casey, and to Kevin, who offered us that opportunity. It's usually very timely, and we try to focus in what's the most important information that our broader community would want to know. So we do take advantage of that. We appreciate Casey being present and/or representing

123what happens at our board meetings. But we certainly could look for maybe other opportunities for the Record Review as well. So that's something certainly we could look into. Can I have... I just have a quick question. With them wanting newsletters, is that newsletters like the newsletters we produce monthly, though, that just show the happenings at our own buildings? Because I'm wondering if non-parents would want that kind of information or if they're looking for something else more about the overall happenings in the building. How we're using our budget and things like that. That, yeah. Right. Instead of like, hey- Context ... we had a Christmas assembly. Right. Right. Not so much the cracks. More like the financial piece, the budget referendum, that sort of stuff is where my brain went, at least. Probably. What other thoughts

124do we have? Can you review the timing as far as if a question goes to the ballot in November, there's rules, right? When it can be asked again, what can be asked when. Can you review that? Sure. Perhaps the best place to start is if the board wants to consider a question on the ballot in November, we need to meet in August 27th, the deadline for what's called resolution. So we would work with the bond council, or those embracing our council in the past. They take up to 30 days to draft that resolution. The board would then review that potentially in an August board meeting and then take action. So if you were to approve a resolution, then that would become the question on the ballot or questions. And then in any given annual year,

125you can ask two questions on the ballot. We didn't ask any questions in April, so there could be the potential to do two in November. Then it restarts again in April? Or is it like a rolling- Two years ... like, so let's say we ask two questions in November. Could we ask another two questions in April, hypothetically? Does it start over in April? Per calendar year. Okay. If you ask two- Not saying we would, but ... if you ask two in April of 2027, then we're done for that year. Right. Yeah. Okay. Yes. Such good questions. So, I don't know who this is a question for, but let's say that we asked both questions. Let's say we asked an operational and a capital, even if we knew the capital had a poor chance of passing

126due to the survey. Would that hurt the trust in the community to ask that question, even though we technically can legally ask that question? You know what I mean? Now that we know the survey results. Would we get blowback- Should we be following the results? You know what I mean? Should we be like, "You said this, so we're not even going to ask," or, "You said this, so we're going to inform you a bit more and then ask and see." I don't know what... I think that might depend on some of the questions and comments that came in on the surveys. Yeah. Might guide that. If we do have the two questions on there, would you have a higher chance of somebody, okay, saying yes to the lesser option? Yeah. Hmm. The one we- Yeah,

127not going all the way in, but, "Well, we can go with the operational one." Yeah. What does the psychologist say? Is there a financial impact to having a resolution drafted for more than one question with corals? Hmm. I don't know if we pay for those services. I'm sorry. I didn't understand. I'm guessing we pay for their services. Mm-hmm. So that would just be a consideration. Mm-hmm. Perhaps one thing the board would also want to consider is if you were to pursue two questions, an operational and a capital in November, and let's say capital passes but operations doesn't, you would then potentially need to come back in April of '27, so in six months from an operational, and explain why we would still need that potential 600,000 just to continue to maintain and do what we

128are currently doing in our operational every day, revenue and expenses. So it's also, I guess, when you think about perception in the community, there is that possibility where one could pass and one couldn't. So just keep it in mind. As one of my colleagues used to say, if everybody votes to build on, add a new school, but you can't pick up staff or you have to reduce- Mm-hmm ... that's very challenging as well. So just things to consider- Yeah ... and really talk through, if you were to consider both. Mm-hmm. I think maybe the flip side to your comment, Cam, is that one of the common themes, I guess, that just in candid conversations with people I've had over the last several months or even longer, is kind of a general feeling with a lot

129of, especially older people in the community, that feel kind of disconnected and maybe unheard when it comes to school business. And I guess I'm just saying this is one avenue I could see people's heads going down is if survey results were fairly unfavorable for the capital referendum, and it was put on anyway. It might reinforce that feeling that, "Eh, our input doesn't really matter." Yeah, that's a good point. That is a good point. Yeah. Absolutely. I almost feel like there needs to be more work behind a capital referendum before pushing it on a ballot. Just like for people who haven't been in any of the schools for 20 years, maybe we start doing walkthroughs with Mr. Higher. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? To get people back in the building to actually see it before

130you ask them to make that decision. You know what I mean? Like, so maybe there could be more groundwork before capital, and maybe a conversation would be very different in a year. I don't know. But it feels like they're not ready for that. As much as I want them to be- I know ... they're not. And we have to acknowledge too, part of that not being ready is not that they don't want wonderful and new buildings, but that's a big tax bill. It is. And I think that recent increases in property values and reassessments- Economy ... and township taxes and everything kind of combined to, I think people are still adjusting to that. Yeah. And I think especially the older demographic. A lot of them are on a fixed income or retirees that don't have

131as much flexibility on the income side, but that tax bill comes, and it's double what it was last year or what, that's As a percentage of overall income, it has a much bigger impact. Mm-hmm. Tony, you haven't said anything. Deep in thought. The survey results are pretty much exactly what I thought was going to come through. They're not ready to build onto the school. They're not ready to maintain the school, because to them, it's a building. They don't have a personal connection to it, because their kids either never went here or are gone. Mm. Grandkids don't go here or they're gone. You're going to be better served doing an operational referendum this November. That's when I think we can, I feel safely, is going to go through, especially with the additional time to explain we're

132reducing what we need because we've spent the last few years suffering, building up the fund balance. Now we're just getting to the point, this is what we need. Mm-hmm. Why do we need it? Well, we were promised 42% from the state. We got 18 for the special education funding. Mm-hmm. There were shortfalls and gaps. Federal funding has dried up. There's other reasons why we don't have the funding now. So yeah, okay, now that makes sense. But if you put a capital referendum on with this one, there will be negative connotations to the operational referendum. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You're risking now failing both. If you fail both this fall, I have a bad feeling even if you just go with operations in April, that will not pass. It's a really good point. Got to build that trust.

133Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think we have to work hard to get that trust. And we need to do a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis over the 26 years of the loan. What are we saving by fixing the building? The electrical costs, the heating and cooling will go down, but what is the life cycle savings on that building versus putting an addition on up here? Mm-hmm. There are savings, but it's not... You have an upfront cost, and any project you do is an upfront cost. But what's your break-even point on that? Where do we get the savings from doing what we plan on doing? What year, and how fast are they getting a return on investment for their money? Mm-hmm. Because in all reality, even if we would put another building on, in 50 years you're looking at a

134massive overhaul, and we have a plan to maintain if this building would go on. Mm. What is our maintenance plan then so that we don't have to necessarily add on? I don't see there being a tremendously large boom in attendance, so we're not going to worry about classroom sizes or things like that. If that becomes an issue, then we have additional tax funding coming in where we have no choice but to build. But at this point, where we're at, we need to give them the reasons why it makes sense to do this now versus waiting 3 years, 5 years, 10 years. Mm-hmm. Because it's not going to get cheaper to build- Mm ... in five years. It's just not. Yeah. The other big thing on there was mismanagement of funds. We need to make it

135apparent to them what we're doing with the money that we have- Yes ... and what's been going. So maybe that's the emphasis that we have to focus on, is explaining. Here's what we have, here's what we don't have. And like we said earlier, none of you know, we don't get any of the money from the state or from taxes until late. So we run basically six months on money that we saved from the year before- Mm-hmm ... because that's when our tax allocation comes in. So a lot of people comment on, "Well, any business that does that has to shut down." Well, no other business does services and wait six months to get paid. Mm. Right. Right. We can't charge a 10% down payment like some of the fencing that we're going to talk about

136tonight. They want 10% down. We can't do that. Right. Mm-hmm. So it's educating the public and getting them to understand the information that we know or that we are privy to, and being more engaged with the public overall. Yeah, I definitely agree with that. I think it's great we have the 20% cushion, or however you word that. Mm-hmm. But people don't know that unless they would come here, and they're not going to actively go to the website to find that. We're going to have to lay it out for them, and I think that's the groundwork that has to be done first. I think even with those newsletters, you're printing the financial information, it's going to need to be heavily explained what it means- Mm-hmm ... because it's complicated. Mm-hmm. And a gentle reminder that the

137fund balance doesn't mean we're sitting on $2.5 million. Right. Correct. That's not cash in hand. Right. Yep. Right? Yep. Because I get that a lot, too. They're asking what got done, where'd the money go from last time? Mm-hmm. They're not going to keep willing to hand money out. They're going to want to know where it went. Mm-hmm. And maybe a mail, because I think some of that stuff hit the Facebook page, but not everybody sees that. Mm-hmm. And if there was a simple mailing like, "This is literally what the money went for." I feel like we have said it a bunch of times, but it's not necessarily being heard or applied to- Mm-hmm ... the thinking. So we've got to get that out there. Mm-hmm. Okay, so looking at timing, like Andrea had mentioned that

138there would need to be about 30 days to draft a resolution. The resolution needs to be submitted by August 27th. Our August meeting is August... We could always have a special meeting, but if we're trying to go around by meetings, then it's going to be August 17th. Is that true? 15? 17. Yes. I think 17th is a Monday. The 17th. Yep. Okay. So, and our July meeting is July 13th. Mm-hmm. Okay. So- Am I right in thinking we would basically need to have an idea during next month's meeting of what resolution we would want to have drafted by the end of the July 13th meeting? If we're following like the- To give them the 30 days- To give them the 30 days to have it ready by August 17th. That would be ideal. So what--

139I feel like we've had a really good discussion, and I think we kind of, I don't know, we may be leaning one way or another. We don't need to decide tonight. We're not going to vote tonight. But what other information might we want to have before the July meeting so that when we leave the July meeting, we can decide this is the resolution or resolutions we would want to address? Is there any additional information besides what we've already mentioned that we would want to have before we take a direction on drafting resolutions? Barring 311 all positive comebacks from additional surveys, then I don't know. I don't know either. I think we're all pretty set on just the operationals, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's fairly clear- Right ... what the survey is saying. I mean, I don't-

140If we do want to go for that, I would think we have to- I was going to say, is there another option? Right. I mean, wait till April, but- Yeah. Right. No. We don't want to wait because that's going to impact the budgeting process that much further out. Right. Yeah. I think just continue to gather some information to further support why we need that operational referendum. Kind of to your point, what was the money spent on last time? What are our future needs going to be? Here's what our plans are. Mm-hmm. And just really communicate that out in a variety of ways. And I think laying out specific needs. I mean, break it down. Mm-hmm. I mean, people see a lump sum as a big chunk of money by any household budget. What specifically, where

141is it allocated, where is it going? I think that makes it a lot more relatable. Mm-hmm. So I'm hearing there's really no additional information that's going to kind of... I think that's how it is, light bulb with new ideas. Mm-hmm. It's just, so in July, do we need to vote on drafting a resolution, or we just kind of like have to say, like, "We kind of agree this is what we want to draft"? I will add specific language in the agenda. I will go- Okay ... have that conversation. That will then indicate- Right ... what the request is at the end of that conversation, if the board is ready to make a determination. I'll just make sure the language in our board agenda is appropriate. And that would then give us the authority, Beth and

142myself, to move forward in partnership with Carlson Brady to be able to draft that resolution. Okay. And then we would bring the formal resolution back to the board on August 17th for review. Okay. All right. And I think I'm hearing the board say, it would be beneficial to have some type of presentation to answer some of the questions just around where has the money gone from April 2023 operational referendum, just as a general reminder, what did we focus on- Mm-hmm ... when we were communicating that. We can go back to, I believe it was last summer in July, we had our Baird representatives here. They gave a really nice overview presentation anticipating a future operational. So we have some things already that I think we will pull from. But if that would be okay, that's

143where we'll start. We'll just make sure we're all grounded in that information and then have a conversation. Mm-hmm. Sound good? Yeah. Okay. Sounds good. All right. Moving right along. So we are onto the Athens Middle & High School 26-27 Co-Curricular Code. Nice. So, there were no big changes. Some things to point out for any new time folks, the code is in effect 365 days a year. All coaches are expected to go over this with their athletes at the beginning of each season, and literally the beginning of each season. So even if they are a youth sport athlete, those coaches, when they meet with the students as they sign on or get their season started, this is gone over with them. Maybe one other thing to just make a note of, and again, even for myself,

144just planning ahead for next year and as we get back into behaviors, is making sure that we reiterate things as a large school. Maybe assembly, middle school separate, but high school in smaller groups. Just what does that mean as far as eligibility? What are the criteria that you need to meet, and what are the things that could end you in possible suspension? And I think those things are important. Grades are the biggest thing I always feel like kids are fearful of. But again, reiterating that behavior component will be big going forward next year. So, we do follow the WIAA, with regards to some minimum restrictions and things of that nature, and try to align our practices with them. Grades are checked at the end of every quarter. So semester grades do not impact eligibility, quarter

145grades do. Fourth quarter grades generally impact eligibility for the fall. Okay? We have found in your staff that it is really, really difficult for grades to impact a spring sport, because of when they land and when those final grades come out and whether there's a post-season or not. So in our district, a few years ago, a small committee just determined it just made more sense for them to follow up with those. So any of the students then that would've had fourth quarter Fs from this year will be notified, and as to how that would impact eligibility. And just as a side note as well, any student receiving an F for any of those grading periods at the end of the quarter, those notifications are sent to parents regardless of whether they're in our sport or

146an activity or not. Yeah. So generally speaking, we send those out in mass. On a happy note, those Fs have gotten- So that's always a good thing. So, otherwise, the code itself really has not changed at all. Changed some dates and things like that, but that is it. Just a quick comment. It would be helpful for me, for things like this, if we could have a redline version. Even if it's just dates that change, it would just be quick for me to see what changed from year to year. Mm-hmm. That's useful. Okay. Yeah, so if it highlighted, if anything's in red letters, you said if- Yeah, if anything's different. Yeah. Got it. Okay. Yep. So I've read this 1,000 times, but I'm not going to remember from year to year. Okay. Any questions for Julie?

147Okay. We will be voting on this later. The next one is the WIAA Senior High Membership Renewal application for 26/27. I don't see Todd in the audience here. So, this, in particular, membership renewal would come to our athletic directors, and that's Todd Ditton. He did review it, and spoke with us, and is not communicating any additional sports to be added, so things would remain the same. He went ahead and submitted. However, tonight the board needs to be aware that it was submitted, and then we'll need a signature from our board president. I'm not sure, Julie, if you had any other updates on the WIAA? No, just the annual renewal. Okay, thanks. And no cost associated, correct? Not to my knowledge. Okay. Thank you very much. That will be a voting item later as well. Now

148next we have the Athletic Training Service Agreement with HealthInMotion. Yes. So we've been very fortunate to have an on-site athletic trainer that we share with the Colby School District, that's Maddie, Mandy Mm-hmm. Mandi. How grateful to watch her board the softball bus on the last week, and she traveled with our team down to state. She's been an excellent employee. Although she is employed by HealthInMotion, it's a partnership that we have with HealthInMotion, so this time of the year I bring it to the board on a memorandum of understanding, asking for your support to continue to work with HealthInMotion, and then continue to partner with Maddie in that role. I do have good news. In talking to Ben, their owner, there will be no increase in the cost for the upcoming year. Yay. That was good

149news. Mm-hmm. We do, I should say, pay $23,000 a year for those services. And the contract is in the packet? Correct. Any questions? Is that a change from last year's arrangement with HealthInMotion, or is that pretty standard? Standard service. Mm-hmm. Everything's the same. So this will be a voting item as well. Correct. Okay. Then we have the human resources report. Yes. So we have, since we've been together last month as a board in administration, received a few resignations from staff. We are obviously happy if their life path is taking them, for example, they're three bolts closer to their family. They'll be relocating to the southern part of the state in Fort Atkinson. They have a longstanding history there of just some personal and professional goals. So we will be sad to see Adam and Emily

150leave us, but we are happy because it does indeed simplify things for their family. McCormick Hire went through a hiring process led by John Hire, who is sitting here, and he'll be hired as a seasonal help individual in John's department. There were comprehensive hiring processes followed by a team, Julie, and Todd, and then Jeremy- Mr. Penny ... Penny. We're the team who interviewed for varsity volleyball coach. I'm proud to say that through that process, we're actually hiring three individuals. Cathy Luther has been recommended as the head of varsity volleyball coach, and then Jess Bingham and Mandy Ellenbecker would like to share a position of assistant volleyball coach at that same level. So, I don't want to speak on behalf of Julie, but it sounds like the team was very impressed how they were willing to

151share responsibilities in a very tight team approach to coaching. Is that fair? Absolutely. Yeah. So, each of these ladies indicated where their heads were at in terms of continuing with the volleyball program. As all three of them have put in countless hours in building the program to what it currently is. So they were very interested in making sure that we didn't have a lapse in that coverage. So, you've been working with us internally so far to continue to communicate, and get things situated even after the summer, leading up into the fall, in anticipation and very hopeful, right? That things would turn out as they are. But anyway, we're excited to have them, and they all bring... And they each mentioned this, and they were interviewed separately just for a point of reference too. And they

152all indicated how they each had a strength that they were bringing to the program. And, the team of us that interviewed them, the three of us, really felt like their interest is the program, and the girls are at the heart of what they're hoping to continue to build upon. So we are very confident that this three-pronged approach, albeit a little different than our usual, will be extremely beneficial for the program and the girls going forward. So your support in that would be wonderful. Thanks, Julie. And Julie has also been busy. She comprised the team to conduct interviews for a high school social studies teacher. I had the pleasure of extending the opportunity to Gage Dee, and he was very excited, and I believe he'll be coming in tomorrow, pending board approval, to start his paperwork.

153And so he'll be joining our high school staff here. Carly Chawala is our current library media specialist, and she's gener- She'll be leaving us at the end of this year. And then we're very excited to be able to partner not only with John Hayer and his department, but some of our other teachers at Middle and High School who have an interest in hiring, Sac Martin as a seasonal help this summer as well. So I believe interviews will be occurring after that with the interviews this evening. Good. Thank you. And some action items as well. Academic standards, 26/27. All right. It's busy this week. Yeah. So each year, the Wisconsin DPI puts out the academic standards. It's posted right on their website, so this is just my capturing of that in a document for each of

154you. Nothing too new as of this year, except I think it was under science, and I'm sorry, I did-- This is one of those, again, I did not note that it was new, but I know I had to insert the science essential elements. And you're going to notice it says, "Standards 2025" there. That would be the newest thing that had come on as of last fall. So, all other standards are the same. And just so you guys are aware, so our academic standards is basically the roadmap that we follow as teachers. I can tell you I've taught very different grade levels, from first grade to fifth grade to middle school, and each time I'm teaching a different grade level, these are the standards by which I'm kind of figuring out what the curriculum is that

155I need to teach to those standards to make sure that our students are getting that guaranteed and viable curriculum that the state has said this is what our students need at each of these different levels. So that's what your standards are. Thanks. And these are the standards that all of the schools in Wisconsin abide by, correct? Correct. All public schools? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Any questions on those? Again, voting item. And then the last item is Athens Elementary Fence Project. Yeah, that's me. Back when we put the fence on the three. Sorry I didn't make the last meeting, I was sick. But this is basically the fence here, right? The only thing that we changed, I talked with Joy and Lenore. Instead of having our gate up here, we moved it back here. Just so

156we could see who was coming up the driveway, who was coming and getting into our building, right? And these measurements all on here, I walked it with a measuring stick here, and I gave the measurements all to all three vendors, and I told them to come out and measure for sure. Don't take my exact measurements for granted. Six-foot gate there, six-foot gate there. The reason for that is so we can get our equipment in and out of there easily for snow removal and lawn care. Thirty-foot rolling gate up there. All six-foot fence is the yellow. The blue is a 10-foot, kind of the same song and dance we talked about last time. In the quotes I got, Security Fence, I had contacted him again, he said, "Use the quote I gave you." He said, "We'll

157stand by it. I have it in an email." And about a couple of hours ago, I just got sent Countryside's updated quote, which was the same. It just had the right timeframe on it, so if Becky or somebody could send it over to them. And the option that I thought that if we don't want to go through with this at this time, would just be getting still utilizing the 30-foot rolling gate, maybe from... If you go down there now, there is from this blue point, it's probably about there somewhere. It's six foot high and then it goes up to 10. We can maybe utilize putting a post up with a netting to keep balls in. But I think the gate is very crucial for keeping kids running out in traffic, and I just think it'd

158be a great thing to put the fence. But not knowing whether it'll come with a referendum or if we're going to do it only again. Any questions for me? Is the gate locked? Absolutely. Well, it can lock, but the six-foot gates will have two-- It's like a double. You got to use both hands to get it pulled open up. Right. So it'll be easy access for people to get in and out. I'm just thinking more so after school practices and all that stuff. Is that the one that we're going in? Am I seeing that right? Yeah. The rolling gate will probably have a latch on it. It's not going to lock, but it'll be- Okay ... accessible to pull open and roll. That's something that you might leave open at the end of the day

159and then close when- Yeah. Well, we have a makeshift gate there that works, but it is a pain in the butt and it doesn't look good. But yeah, it was a good thing. They used to have a gate down there, but I don't know what ever happened to that. I think it's way in the weeds at my house or by the low down up there now, so. Last year Maple Grove got a new fence through the grant, and we have our rolling gate at the bottom where our cars go through and busing goes through. Mm-hmm. And it is easy enough. Our fifth graders go every morning to shut it after the bus goes through, and then they go and open it, so it's easy to roll and access that way. Okay. So I'm sure that

160would also be easy enough. Is that gate also the full 10-foot high or is that six- It'll actually-- I don't think it's going to be the 10-foot high. I think it's going to be probably set up about here. Okay. So it's roughly- Yeah, it's not going to be a full one. I'm just looking at that trying to think proximity to the basketball hoop video. Yeah. I feel like... Okay, so we talked about these estimates a bit, and I don't think they've changed very much. Okay. The first two are fairly similar. Yeah. The Northwoods one's half of it. Northwoods is much- They're a smaller company ... more expensive ... and I think that they have more overhead than- Okay ... Insurance. Okay. That's what we need. And tonight we would need to decide which one we

161want to go with. Is that- That's what we're doing. Okay. Did you have a preference, or was one easier to work with when you were getting quotes? I had a good experience with Security. They're very straightforward and come all the way, and easy to talk to and work with. I guess Countryside they seemed all right too, but Security is the one I usually believe. Sure. Because actually, with our storm damage on our ball diamond, now I would like to have them, whoever, maybe give us a quote on fixing insurance claim for our ball diamond too, so we can do it all at one time, if we approve it. Okay. Any other questions? The alternative of not approving this is continuing with what is currently there. Is that- Yeah. Okay. Just making sure. Yeah. We have

162the beautiful orange snow fence, but it's okay. Well... And I could add that John and Beth and I meet regularly and routinely, and depending on board approval this evening, we had budgeted some amount of money to be able to afford this project. Okay. We know that both John and Joy and others have been strong advocates, and we would agree, for safety we do need to tend to and invest in that. So as a board, please do know that we had already allocated a set sum of money, depending on tonight's outcome, to be able to pay for this project. And this is in the preliminary budget? Yes. Written, okay. So it's already allocated. Correct. The full amount is allocated? Did you say- Part of the savings from this year- Yes ... that's going into our fund

163balance, but then we allocated it in the next budget. Okay. Yeah. Is that current capital or operational? Operational. Okay. If this were to go through, is it possible to reach out to like the S group and see if they would want to allocate money to some of that? Always a possibility to ask if somebody would like to donate or provide money, but I think in this case we have in our own budget- Okay ... given the importance of it. I like that idea, and maybe in the future another project of some sort that we could invite you. Yeah. So something we hadn't considered when we started this whole project was keeping the fox off of the playground. We did send a pile up. He was trying to get in the north entrance door. Oh, no.

164We've had a raccoon try to get in, but not a fox. Oh. That's cute. Yeah. What a news reader. Had a really nice parent- Cute ... keep circling and trying to chase him away, so they're like, "We've got kids on the playground." Oh, my gosh. I dropped the kids off one day, and they're like, "Is that a dead duck?" There was a dead chicken in the parking lot. Was it a duck or a chicken? It was a duck. Okay, I called it. They're like- They're like, "Duck or not a duck?" ... they're all this age, and he's like, "Oh, no." It's not a duck. Yeah, you're more sensitive than that. I know. It's cute. That's funny. Okay. All right. You still owe me for last week. What time are we done today? Another upside to

165the project. Okay, no more dead ducks- ... on school grounds. Oh, that means they're more of them. We can have a fox screen. I actually called and I was like, "There's a whole duck." And they're like- Can we have a fox screen? ... "No." Yeah. They're like, "No, it was a dead duck." Oh, my God. Okay. So we'll be looking for some type of a motion when we get to the action items this evening on this fence project proposals here. All right, on to the action items. First one is revenue and expense reports, in the packet as well. Anything to note special, Beth? For the revenue and expense, the budget for '25, '26 is the original budget. It is not the amendments that we're asking for approval tonight. Okay, that's good. And it looks like

166everything's on track with the previous years if we look at what tracking in prior years comparison all looks fairly similar. Mm-hmm. So are there any questions or discussion or potentially a motion to approve? I'll make a motion to approve- Okay ... as presented. Thank you, Cam. We need a second. I'll second. Okay. Thank you, Chris. And then we will do a roll call vote please, Beth. Angie? Yes. Tom? Yes. Cam? Yes. Ben? Yes. Jill? Yes. Anne? Yes. Chris? Yes. Thank you. All right, thank you. And then we are looking for... So the next thing in the packet, next thing on the agenda is the approval of checks and cash receipts, and those are in the packet as well. Any questions on those? And then if no questions or discussion, I'd be looking for a motion

167to approve those. I'll make the motion. Thank you. And the second? I'll second it. All right. And I'll do a roll call vote for that as well, please. Angie? Yes. Tom? Yes. Abstain from A3030. Cam? Yes. Abstain from A2970. Ben? Yes. Jill? Yes. Ann? Yes. Chris? Yes. Thank you. The next agenda item is 2025, 2026 budget amendments. Looking for a motion to approve those. I'll make a motion on those amendments. I'll second. Thank you. And then we'll also do a roll call on that as well, please. Angie? Yes. Tom? Yes. Cam? Yes. Ben? Yes. Jill? Yes. Ann? Yes. Chris? Yes. Thank you. And we're looking at the preliminary budget for 26-27. Looking for a motion to approve as presented. I'll make a motion to approve as presented. Okay, thank you. A second? I'll second. We'll

168do roll call again. Angie? Yes. Tom? Yes. Cam? Yes. Ben? Yes. Jill? Yeah. Yes. Ann? Yes. Chris? Yes. Thank you. All right. Then we will look to approve the achievement gap reduction board report for spring 2026, and look for a motion for that as presented. I'll make the motion. Thank you, Jill. I'll second. Thank you, Tom. And then this one we can do a voice vote. All in favor say, "Aye." Aye. All opposed, nay. Okay, thank you. And then we have the Athens Middle and High School 26-27 co-curricular code. Look for a motion to approve that. I have one quick question on that that I just thought of. Oh, yes. It's mentioned in here, the middle level junior high handbook. We are not associated with the WIA at the middle school level, correct? That is

169correct. Okay. Just wanted to verify that. That's a good point. So our, the code is still in place- Yes ... for our middle schoolers. But yes, our middle schoolers are not associated with WIA. Thank you. Okay. Good clarification. Thank you. Okay, looking for a motion on that then. I'll make the motion. Thank you. I'll second. All right, thank you. All in favor say, "Aye." Aye. All opposed, nay. All right. And then we have the WIA Senior High membership renewal application for 26-27. Looking for a motion to approve that. I'll make the motion. Okay. Thank you, Chris. I'll second it. Thanks, Cam. All in favor say, "Aye." Aye. All opposed, nay. All right. Then we have the athletic training service agreement with Health In Motion for 26-27. I'll make the motion. Thank you, Jill. I'll second.

170All right. Thank you. And then we will do a roll call vote on that one, please. Angie? Yes. Tom? Yes. Cam? Yes. Ben? Yes. Jill? Yes. Ann? Yes. Chris? Yes. Thank you. Okay. And then the next item is the human resources report. Looking for a motion to approve that as presented. I'll make a motion to approve that as presented. Okay. I'll second. Okay. And I think we'll do a roll call on that as well. Angie? Yes. Tom? Yes. Abstain for Mandy Ellenbecker. Cam? Yes. Ben? Yes. Jill? Yes. Ann? Yes. Chris? Yes. Thank you. Then we have the 2026-27 economic standards. Look for a motion to approve those. I'll make the motion. Thank you, Tom. I'll second. Thanks, Jill. And all in favor say, "Aye." Aye. All opposed, nay. Okay. And then the last one, we

171are looking at a motion to approve an Athens Elementary fence project, and we are looking for specifically which proposal to go with. We would need to specify that as well. I would make a motion to accept the proposal from Security Fence. I'll second that. Okay. And then we will go ahead and have a roll call vote, please. Angie? Yes. Tom? Yes. Cam? Yes. Ben? Yes. Jill? Yes. Ann? Yes. Chris? Yes. Okay. Thank you. And then we have, next on our agenda, adjourning into, looking for a motion to adjourn into executive closed session under Wisconsin Statute Section 19.85 (1c) to consider employment, promotion, compensation, performance as stated in the agenda, and specifically for the district administrator and the campus administrators. I'm looking for a motion to adjourn to close. I'll make the motion. Thank you, Jill.

172I'll second. Thanks, Chris. All in favor say, "Aye." Aye. All opposed, nay. All right. Motion carried. We are adjourning to closed session-