001Anne? Here. Chris? Here. Thank you. All right. The first agenda item after that is the approval of the minutes from the April 27th, 2026 regular board meeting. Chair McCarthy. I'd like to make a motion to approve the meeting minutes. Thank you, Anne. I'll second. Angela, thank you. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Thank you. And then we have public comments. We have a couple. So we have Tim Schmidt, with the eighth grade advanced algebra one class comment. If you'd like to stand or you'd like to sit, it's up to you. I'm going to stay sitting because I have something tore in my knee that- That's fine ... I'm putting off surgery. Absolutely. If that's okay. Yep. So I'm just bringing it up because we were notified May 8th that the
002eighth graders that could advance to the freshman algebra one class was dropped, and they are no longer being allowed to advance. So I'm just trying to figure out, these kids that took seventh grade as a sixth grade, passed eighth grade as a seventh grader, what are they supposed to do? It doesn't... Not a lot of kids. St. Anthony's has two that would really be needing to- Okay ... look to come up. I understand. I talked to the principal here at the high school. They said class sizes and some other stuff in regards to if they take algebra two as a freshman and geometry as a sophomore, what are they to do as a junior and senior? And to me, as a parent, I would be like, "Hey, if they can advance and they can be
003done, great." So I'm just trying to figure out where was this and why did it wait till almost the end of the year to go, "Yeah, we're not going to offer it next year." Mm-hmm. Thank you for that information. So, in public comment, we take in information, and then there may be a follow-up. It's not on our agenda for this evening. No. So, we just appreciate you coming to share that and express your concerns tonight. So, thank you so much. And then we have Dee Brewster, and topic eighth grade graduation. Yes. Okay. Hello, everyone. If you don't know me, I think everybody knows me, but I'm Dee Brewster and I teach English Language Arts here for our school district. Also do a lot with the eighth grade class. Patty Hire, our class president, could not
004make it tonight. But on behalf of herself and I and Miss Starkey Peter, we'd like to invite you all next Wednesday, May 27th to eighth grade graduation. We have a couple things worked up like class prophecies, always a hit, and some speeches and things like that. So we would love to for you to attend. I know some of you will be in attendance anyway because you have students in this class. But, just would like to formally invite you to come. So I do have information. There'll be snacks afterwards as well. Snacks. Thank you. And I know you will be there. Yes. And you will be there. Thank you for your comment. That's all we have for that section this evening. We'll move on to recognitions and commendations, if we have any of those tonight. I
005just have a shout-out to our yes group for putting on a family engagement dance last week when it was very hot- ... but it turned out very nice. And the kids definitely had fun, and we learned that there's some weird new dance out there. All of a sudden, they all dropped on the floor and started flopping like crappies. I don't know what it was, but- Uh-huh. It's the- The Steelers. It was the Steelers. I don't know. We all went, "What?" They also did that at the middle school dance. Anyway, I just appreciate it because I know it's a super busy time of year, and I just appreciate that small but mighty group continues to do good things for our school. Thank you. And internally to middle and high school folks stripping gears, with Mr. Tribold
006in order to make our spring concerts go on last week. I thought all those things went very well and well-attended middle school. I think that we were packing the house for Monday night for middle school and then high school, not as much on Wednesday night, but we will take them. Great concert by both groups, all groups, last week. So shout out to them. Thank you. All right. We'll move on to the Finance, Facilities, and Operations Committee. Our committee met this evening. The members of that committee, this year, are myself, Ben, and Tom Ellenbecker, as well as everybody you see up here, and John Hire. John was out of the office today, so he wasn't able to attend. We skipped the facilities portion of the meeting because of that. And we talked about the budget process
007and timeline as well as the referendum updates and the upcoming community survey and things like that. Nothing really new. I don't know, Ben, am I missing anything in highlights that we talked about?Yeah. Okay, thank you. That's that. And next one is board members' reports. In your packet, you'll see the Marathon County Special Education Report, and this one is from the April meeting, so prior to Jill's appointment to this committee. So, that is there, and right now, we just acknowledge it, and if there's any questions or anything, potentially Andrea could field questions and maybe get more information if we need it. Any questions on that meeting agenda, the meeting minutes? I don't have a question, but I would like to share something with the board. Yes. Following the appointment of Jill Heyer, who will join the
008Marathon County Children with Disabilities Education Board starting this summer, I did personally reach out to Lori Haines. Lori Haines is a previous, 15-year standing school board member here in Athens, but she also represented us for 15 years on this board. So- Wow ... I'm going to take that opportunity to reach out and personally thank her. And also, as Jill comes on, let her know that we were transitioning in that area. So just wanted to let you know on her behalf, she appreciated the opportunity. Certainly has other things that she's going to look forward to, now she's gathered back a little bit of time. But I just wanted her to know how thankful we were for her dedication. That's good. Thank you for doing that. Of course. All right. We'll move on to administrator's reports. We
009have the superintendent's report first this evening. So I'm going to highlight under facilities and operations, and this has been a standing agenda item on my report for the past several months. In particular, I want to just provide to the board an update. Our partners School Perceptions, who's been working with our internal team for approximately the past six months, did indeed release our community survey last Wednesday. On the 13th of May, it was released to all staff by an email. And approximately two days later, it was mailed to all community residents. So if you have not received yours in the mail yet, I would anticipate it probably today or tomorrow, but by no later, probably middle of the week. And so the community survey has been released, certainly through a mailing. We've also highlighted the survey
010in the school newsletter, so that's occurred in the last several months. I sent personal emails to both staff and families. There's a record review article drawing attention to requesting our community provide their feedback to the board, and we're also using our social media outlets as well. So just wanted to share with the board all the different ways we're communicating to our community that the survey's been released. We're very optimistic that people can find a little bit of time to be able to provide that feedback, which will be very informative and we want to have an update there. The other area this evening I'd like to highlight is family and community engagement. During the week of May 4th through the 8th, we celebrated Teacher Appreciation Week in the School District of Athens. We accomplished celebrations in
011a wide variety of ways, both from a district level and also from a site or school level. I'd like to thank Becky Bliven. She came up with an idea this year to reach out to many community partners to ask for any type of donations. And, with Becky's help and our team's internal help, built what we call a goodie bag or an appreciation bag that were hand delivered to start and kick off the week. And on the back of my report, I'd like to get an opportunity to recognize. We are very grateful for all of the donations that we received. I'm going to start with Merrill Sheet Metal Works, Midwest Beverage, Red Door Family Farm, Fromwood Park Products, Auntie Ray's, Athens Dental Clinic, M&M Bakery, Culver's of Merrill, Peter Trucking, Red Robin, Hy-Vee, Green Bay Packers
012Give Back, SD Ellenbecker, Miltrum Farms, Forward Bank, Eno Oil, Athens Centex, Kwik Trip, Texas Roadhouse, SD Schwiderski, and Solutions Inc. As you can see, the outpouring of support for our school district and our teachers was absolutely amazing, so I publicly want to thank everyone, also following up with thank you letters as well. I do also want to recognize on behalf of Maple Grove Charter School, Red Falls United Methodist Church made a sizable donation to help offset any negative lunch balances that students or families might be experiencing there. So again, I just recognize how very grateful we are as a school district for the donations and support that we have from our community. It's really something. Thank you. Questions or comments? Then we are on to the principal's reports, and looks like we're going to start
013with Maple Grove Charter School with the Act 143 school safety drill. Yeah. So twice a year, we initiate the safety drill, and it varies from fall to spring. We try to do different scenarios. In the fall, in November, when we did the safety drill, it was to our evacuation site to make sure everyone knew where that was. This one was a lockdown. So all the classrooms locked down. The one thing that was different with this one from one from the past is we used our Raptor app completely for this. So we were able to initiate it. Staff were notified via their phones or their computers that this was happening. We also used the messaging part of the Raptor app to see if everyone was able to access that and respond as well in there. With
014that, we were able to tell that one of our classrooms, it wasn't set up correctly on her device, and so she continued to teach the whole time. Classroom doors, though, are always locked at school, so that wasn't an issue. The classrooms were locked. All the other classroom lights were off. And the other thing that we, umIt has always come up in conversation that all of our classrooms have a lot of windows. So how do we hunker down and hide if someone's outside? So Mr. L actually went around and checked the perimeter to see if he could see any of the students, and none of the students were visible other than the one classroom that continued teaching. But all the other classrooms, the kids did a wonderful job, and teachers, finding an area of the classroom
015that was not visible to the outside. So, some great highlights. And then from there, we were able to check that Raptor and her Raptor, the teacher's Raptor app is now working, and everything is in order again. So, questions? Just a side note. So, these reports are three items that will eventually, you'll find them under action items. And I think we have the option to approve them all together. Mm-hmm. So this would be the time to get any questions answered, and then later towards the end, then we will vote on approving all of those reports. So just wanted to give a little bit more background on where we're at with that. So, thank you, Robyn. Now Athens Elementary School. All right. We are very similar. We did a scenario of an unidentified vehicle that was parked
016out in front of the school because that's a very plausible thing that could potentially happen. So we signaled by signal through the radio, for an all school hold, and then our admin assist initiated it through the Raptor app and the PA system. So we used both, as we had similar experiences in the past when we have used the Raptor. We don't necessarily always receive it at the same time. So we did both, to have practice in both. And it's just an eerie amazement to go through the school at that time, and you can't hear, you don't even know anybody's in there. So they just do a fantastic job. We don't do as much outside communication with parents anymore. It's kind of almost like a fire drill. Good, bad, otherwise, that's where we are at. We
017are normalizing that situation, to that extent. So, through that, we reviewed the Raptor app, and we continued to consider substitutes in the building. So that's something that we're continuing to look at, like what would be helpful. What else do we need to do to make sure everybody's prepared? So, everybody did great, and we completed within 15 minutes. We had one thing, one student and teacher were not able to enter the classroom, it was already in lockdown, and they had to immediately go to a different location. So it's just having that extra practice and that confidence in, "I can't get in there, I need to keep going." So they did excellent. And teachers debriefed with students, very positive. So I think just continue with us with the Raptor app confidence, and the reunification process will be
018something we need to keep working on. Any questions? Thank you. And then Athens Villa High School, Julie. All right. So again, same as my friends here. I had prepped staff in advance just that if they were going to be out of the building, I wanted them to choose. So the Raptor app will say, "Lockdown intruder," but I wanted to make them aware that they could choose depending upon the situation. And so I prepped them with a situation of an unknown person near the boys' locker room, and so that helps them to get a gauge of where are we in relationship to the potential danger and what might we do. So actually, I did have one of our staff go out here and took cover behind our school sign. We have places of cover that they
019could go. We would probably get them over to the blue shed and making sure they can get access to that or behind the blue shed, would be more likely. For now, if he were to get out and get there and then get somewhere else, he did message me using the Raptor app, which was great, and he also messaged me that one of his other not-as-mobile students did stay in the room and do a lockdown in that other classroom. And so that was a good form of that communication. But as, again, my colleagues have said, we struggle with that app because not everybody gets those messages in a quick fashion. Yeah. And then we've had a few where it's not sounding on their phone. So we're still troubleshooting the app. We find it very helpful. We
020too had a sub in the building that day, prepped her in advance of, well, when that would be happening or what she needed to do. So, she just was listening in that vicinity, so when she could hear it, she knew that she should also go get herself safe. The kids did a nice job. Everybody was locked down. That one group did evacuate and messaged me with regards to that. Again, our only form of communication during this entire drill was the Raptor app. And again, in hindsight, staff, we talked a little bit about troubleshooting more to make sure we could communicate. I only had one student that did leave to use the restroom but then stayed in the restroom the whole rest of the time, so I had to follow up with that. And then we
021talked that through. I said, "Well, what happens if you're in there and this happens?" So we talked that through about you're standing up, you're getting up on the toilet seat or whatever, so that they don't see you. Although we had one good question. We all get a chuckle out of this. Those things like the flush. Oh, yeah. That's why you thought he was in there- ... on the other side of the building, and all of a sudden that's what I hear. Like, "Oh. Oh, dear." Yeah. But by and large, it went really well. We did try to get a sign out on the front door, which we were able to do just prior to the drill starting, that nobody enter or out because we had a drill in progress. And oftentimes, then they're out there
022ringing the doorbell, and nobody's answering.Should be a thought process of that, but in practice, just for a lot of our delivery folks, we wanted them to be aware of the assignment. So, all in all, really good. The only other thing I added with staff before I gave a full all clear, is that typically we have red and green cards that would indicate to EMS whether they need assistance or not. So I had them then place their cards. I did another sweep of the building to make sure all cards were placed under the door, so that they're easy to see. And again, maybe going forward, along with troubleshooting the RaptorApp would be to invite EMS. Staff up here likes to have that added feature from time to time to make sure that we're all working together
023to get those things done. I have a question. Yeah. Is the RaptorApp just on cell phones, or is that hooked to Chromebooks, too, if they were teaching with a Chromebook? Yes, it is on Chromebooks as well. Yeah. And so that two different ways. So again, which is one of the other reasons I then generally try to preface that with staff who may not have it on their phone device, that they have it up and on the ready on their device. Good question. So a couple of you guys mentioned subs and prepping the subs that day, but what is done just as a regular practice? Maybe each building is a little bit different, but when a sub comes into the building, you don't know if there's going to be an event that day or not, right?
024So is there any prepping that's done before, maybe the sub's first time at the building, that they would know what to do in the case of an event? Staff should leave a sub folder. Okay. And then sub notes and things like that are shared through the RedRover app, I believe, when they choose a subbing job. So we've got that out there. Again, if it's folks that are hired over there, we have some summer training. I don't know if either of you guys want to speak to that. Uh-huh. When we do onboard new subs, we do some general trainings. Okay. Mm-hmm. We also have sub binders. Thanks to the feedback from the principals and their administrative assistants, each school developed a sub binder, and in that binder should be an emergency plan also as a reference.
025Okay. And then the RaptorApp also allows others within the building to account for students. So if for some reason we have a sub and they can account for students, the principal can see all students in the building, so can the administrative assistant. So we give different rights to different people. So we would always have someone who could account for different students within the building, because what we also find sometimes, to Julie's point, not all the students are where we would expect them to be, especially in an emergency. So we have to be prepared. So there are different levels of accountability to be able to determine if a student is in a second-grade classroom, might they be in the title classroom, seeing the title teacher would account for them. But then in the office, they're cross-referencing
026very quickly those assets electronically, either again, it's web-based on your computer or on your phone. Okay. Mm-hmm. Is the RaptorApp on a cell phone optional, since it's their personal, or are they required to do it on their phone? It's a free app, so we highly encourage the staff to download the app and have it available. We wouldn't require personal device, though, because it's free. It's your choice. Okay. Mm-hmm. But it's already on school Chromebooks? It's a web-based product. Mm-hmm. Okay. So that part's required. It is. Okay. Mm-hmm. We upload that and make sure that is there. Okay. That's good. Okay. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Any other questions? Thank you very much. All right. We are on to the information and discussion items. The first item on that section is the 26/27 health insurance renewal, presentation by
027M3. Do I come to the circle? That would be great. So Cindy and Penny have joined us. While you're taking your spots and your friends, I'll just give a brief overview. So we are one of the six consortium members through Marathon County Special Ed. When it comes to health insurance and dental insurance, we function as though we are a larger one entity. Also, Marathon County Special Ed is part of that process as well. So truly it's seven entities under one larger one. That has benefited us the last several years, because one, M3 helps us to go out to bid. We sometimes get better renewals because we have a larger sum of clients, if you will. Although each year it becomes a little bit more challenging. This was our first year, and this year, 25/26, that
028we've partnered with Security Health. Originally, when we began this year, we did not anticipate needing to go back out to bid or maybe run a comprehensive process. But at some point in the mid-spring, our M3 partners asked to meet with us to indicate that the initial proposal renewal for next year from Security was larger than what we had anticipated. So they do their due diligence, and we decided that it was important to run a little bit more formal process. But we are now at the point, we are coming back, and with Cindy and Penny here, they're going to give you an overview of the proposed renewal, and we will be staying with Security for the upcoming year. But they'll highlight some of the important parts of our plan. So thank you for joining us tonight.
029You're welcome. Just to Andrea's point, the co-op as a whole is running pretty well. 88% loss ratio, which is good. 100% would be if you spend every penny that you invest in. So you're running better than expected. We just moved last year, so we usually do not like to go out to bid every year. It takes a bidding process, and then it's a lot of disruption for members. So we did not initially go out to bid. So when the renewal came in from Security Health Plan, it came in with a 16% increase for this year. And so we were like, "We're going to quick go out to bid." So we sent it out, and we started getting proposals back, andOne of the competitive proposals was going back to a Cyrus Health Plan. However, that would
030have meant everyone switching their health insurance again, and it is a win-lose game of some of the districts where they're located. Some have higher utilization for Cyrus providers, and some go more towards Marshall Clinic. So those who went more towards Marshall Clinic kind of lose in that situation. So it was not a proposal that we kind of entertained, because the Freedom Network, the broad network, where you can go wherever you want, came in at from a 28% to 36% operation, depending on. So that was not even feasible. WCA is also another carrier. They have a broader network. That one actually came in around the 15% to 27%. So again, no reason to move because it wouldn't have been a huge benefit, and it would have been more disruption. Anthem declined to quote, and WPS actually
031declined to quote as well. It is a really tough market this year. We know that healthcare costs are going up, but we did not really feel like the increase was justified this year. We do know that there's some changes going on with Security Health Plan. A lot of their underwriting decisions are being made out in the Dakotas by Sanford Health instead of by Marshall Clinic, so that may have played a factor. So what we did is we went back to Security Health Plan, and we were like, "Give us some plan designs that we can work with to lower the cost." So, what the co-op decided on was making a change to the coinsurance. So previously, you met your deductible, and then it was 100% coinsurance. They actually gave us a 5% reduction in rates to
032change it to an 80/20 coinsurance. So that is the decision that was made. So by adding that 80/20 coinsurance, it brought it down to a 10% overall increase, and then the annual spend for the district is the $1.36 million for the health plan for this year. Can you explain 80/20 coinsurance? Yes. Is that like-- What is the impact, I guess, to the staff? So you meet your deductible. You go in, you have your $2,000, $4,000 deductible, whereas before then the insurance would start paying at 100%. Now they will pay at 80/20. So if you have a $100 bill, if you go in after your deductible's met, and your bill is $100, you would pay $20 of that, and the plan would pay 80%. And then that, when you reach the maximum out-of-pocket amount, that it
033begins paying 100%. And the maximum out-of-pocket did not change previously when it was 100% coinsurance. Employees still paid prescription drug co-pays after, so you could meet that $500 or $1,000 by the prescription co-pay. Now you can meet it with that co-pay or with coinsurance. Yeah. So we felt that was fair because they, without increasing that out-of-pocket max, those who actually hit that, it's not a huge impact to them. It's just how they probably max it out. These remain consistent with our deductibles, the $2,000 for a single and $4,000 for family. I believe this is our third year or fourth year. We've been very consistent, so that is an area that I did not feel we wanted to increase because it would potentially create a hardship for our employees. Mm-hmm. Yeah, but 80/20 is like these
034smaller pieces. Mm-hmm. And I think it's interesting, so looking at the, you guys are on the next slide, yeah, the max out-of-pocket. So even though the deductible is $2,000, let's say, if you're single, the maximum out-of-pocket is $2,500. So really, they'd only have to pay $500 more- Yep. So it's that 20% ... to get that 100% coverage. And prescription drug co-pays, too. Okay. So they both go to that out-of-pocket max. And so that's the same as previous years, so it's not highlighted. That's it. Only what's highlighted in yellow is anything that's changing. And so that $2,500 has been the same. Okay. Any questions? I believe we'll be doing some employee education, too, so that they understand. Mm-hmm. That makes sense. Okay. Did you want to talk at all about the rise in healthcare? Yeah. We
035can talk about the why. We don't know exactly why, but we do have an aging population here. There's a lot of technological advancements that are happening, and you guys see all the commercials on TV for the prescription drugs. Usually, if it has a commercial on TV, it's $5,000 a month or greater, and those, they just keep seeming to roll those out every year. So where we used to see pharmaceuticals be maybe 8% to 10% of spend, it's now 25% and over. Some of the sphere cells and stuff are getting very popular for anti-inflammatory medications, those kind of things. There are not generic alternatives to those yet, so they're very costly, and that is probably the greatest rise in healthcare that we're seeing is on the pharmaceutical side. Testing and stuff, too, and then there are
036some treatments for cancers and whatnot that are biologicals, we call them. They actually design them based on your DNA, and they can be upwards of $1,000 per treatment. They're very effective, and of course, everyone wants them if they get sick. But with those advancements come rising costs of healthcare. And in our market here with the two local systems that we have with Marshall Clinic and with Cyrus, we do think they're kind of trying to right their ships a little bit. Sanford invested a lot of money in Security Health Plan, and we know even on their Medicaid and Medicare products, too, they're trying to balance their books, too, which does not comfort us. But we do know that's kind of what's going on. Any questions? No. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. So Madison, with that, just
037to share with the board our next steps, because that's important for our staff as well. So do you want to- So after the board meeting tonight, I will send out an email to all staff. We will have our open enrollment period May 20th to May 29th, and if they choose to make any changes, they'll have to fill out paperwork. Otherwise- Oh, okay ... it'll automatically renew for the new year and be effective July 1st. So last year we had a representative here, but felt that since we're keeping the same insurance company, we would just do it individual basis if they needed anything specific. Sounds good. All right. Looks like we've got... We'll vote on that later. Mm-hmm. 26-27 Delta Dental insurance renewal is also on the agenda. Yes. So we received word that there will
038be no increases to our plan for Delta Dental. So you have the renewal information in your board packet, and we'd ask you to take action on that this evening. Do we feel good for dental? Do you want to- Do we feel good for dental? I think we're good for dental. No increases is a decrease. Thank you. You're good. Thanks, Cindy. Thanks, Penny. So that was really good news. I mean, I was happy about that. Yeah. Do we have a vision? Okay, I know it's on the agenda, but is the vision... Does Delta Dental have a vision component to it, or is there no vision? I don't believe that we have vision as part of ours. Okay. And I know it's not a given, but I was just curious. Okay. Any questions on that? It's good
039news. Okay. We have the Maple Grove Charter School contract next. Absolutely. Just like to share with the Board of Education the process that we have followed to come to this evening, and you have in front of you the draft for the charter school agreement between the School District of Athens and Maple Grove Governance Board. We are concluding the fifth year of having Maple Grove Charter School as part of our public school district. They are considered an instrumentality, so they are part of the public school district, not a private charter school, and every five years we are required through the Department of Public Instruction to review, revise, and bring forward to the Board of Education a charter contract of which you will review and then approve, and it would move forward to the DPI. So I'd
040like to just share with you the process that we have followed over the last approximately 15 months, so a little over a year. Kelly Hearn is our current Maple Grove Governance Board president. So with input from Kelly, Robin Hansen, our principal, and myself, we designed a process where we took the previous contract, and we broke it into sections, and every month at a governance board meeting, we would review section by section the charter school contract. We were looking to identify if our practices aligned and matched with the contract language, and if not, because things have evolved or we're wanting to do things differently in the past five years, the governance board was the first entity to give feedback. So we had a very draft at that point after about a little over a year contract.
041We then presented that to Works, that's the Wisconsin Charter School Organization. They are supportive of any public charter school in the state. So their team took a look and provided us feedback. And then at that point, our Kelly Hearn, our governance board president, completed what's called a checklist presented by the DPI. So we have now phase three, and we presented at the DPI a performance checklist as well as our draft contract. They, too, provided us, at this point, minimal, really, feedback because we've been very strategic along the way. And the last step in the process is we engaged our legal counsel for the School District of Athens to take a look at our draft contract. We're very fortunate because, as I found out, our representative has a colleague by the name of Laura who's running
042Lewis & Mercy as our legal counsel. She actually is the one who created and drafted charter school contracted templates. So the two of them took a look, also provided us feedback. I took the opportunity then to meet with Robin Hansen and Kelly Hearn. We looked at the feedback at this point in the process from the attorneys. And then just last week at the May governance board meeting, we presented the draft contract, which, what we call red line at that point from the attorneys. I wanted to honor and respect the work that the governance board had done for almost a year and explain to them why an attorney might have given us some direct feedback, of which they approved then also. So you have in your packet tonight, through that process, the final, although it's still
043in draft, charter school agreement that you would be approving to enter into for the next five years. So I'd ask you to review, discuss, and then potentially approve this evening. I am interested to talk about the objectives, which are a little bit different than I think the last charter school contract. So I was on the other side during the last charter school contract, looking at it from the governance board standpoint, and it's kind of neat to see that the goals are more aligned with what the charter school is doing now. So obviously there's the student success, right? We always want the academic growth in reading and math, which is always important to all of our schools, but they also have the character development and positive school culture component that is a part of the objectives
044that they're trying to meet. So I think that was a really nice addition to get those crisp character traits added to the contract as something that's going to be measured. So I just want to comment on that. I don't know if you have anything else to say about that. I just wanted to add, the mission of the governance board, too, is to encompass the whole child and look at the whole child. So I think it's really important that we do look at the crisp values and that we know those values exist in the school and the community. And so that is why we felt it was pertinent to put into the contract I think that's really good. I don't know, were there any other, I guess, with Andrea and Robin, were there any other major
045changes that were-- that you think are important for the board to know about from the last contract? I know that none of us were on the board last time when the contract was approved anyway, but anything that you wanted to note with the changes that might be? I could say that the current or previous contract that we're currently working under, again, was at the positive assumption, was before my tenure, but was drafted with an attorney lens as well. Mm-hmm. So many of the topics remained the same, and they would be requirement-based since the statute could be in a charter contract. So I believe that, we are well representative currently, and then again, maybe tech new things up moving forward. I really feel the value of the process of that year-long review by the governance board
046was when you're forced to get into a document such as this and really better understand, we had some great discussions around why the language reads the way it is. Mm-hmm. And then to your point, Angie, are we actually doing those things right? Mm-hmm. If we have a contract and we're bound by that, then our practices should align very tightly. I think your example of adding the Chris Trace, and it's that whole child concept, came out of those conversations, and I know Robin met with her staff on multiple occasions to gather their feedback also. Mm-hmm. I remember, when Robin and I first joined the district and we were reviewing the current contract, Robin brought to my attention too that we had multiple different curriculums listed. We had EL curriculum, we had environmental curriculum. We had a
047variety. So we knew over time too, that we wanted to streamline and really represent what curriculum are we using and what's our outcome, our goals in the end. So I'd say in those areas now, it is absolutely in line with what we are teaching, the resources and curriculum that we're using, and what we focus on at the school. Mm-hmm. Good. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Sure. Any questions or comments about the contract? No, nothing. Okay. All right. Then we will move on to... That will be an action item later. Then we'll move on to the '26, '27 employee handbook. Which is also in the packet. Just to say that, that is also in the packet. So again, I'll share with the board the process that we follow each year. Every year in the spring, I bring together,
048either in person or using electronically, through surveys and emails. We have approximately an eight-member employee handbook committee, that two years ago met for six months regularly, routinely, and really did an overhaul, to revise and edit a previous handbook. And I had shared with the board at that time that the goal would be each year that committee reconvenes. And we offer every employee an opportunity to provide feedback, things that they would like to either see us revisit, revise, update, or add to the employee handbook. This is the third year in that process, and I will celebrate that we got very few comments for change. So that also illustrates that our employees feel that handbook is comprehensive, provides good guidance when they need to make decisions, as well as the leaders in our district. So there are
049just a few red line changes that you'll see in the employee handbook, which is a draft in your packet. And let me just take a... We had a suggestion under paid holidays to make sure that we included information about the three days that are recognized for SchoolYear full-time employees. We had recognized them for 12 months, but it was just a missing component. So again, someone gave us a recommendation. The committee agreed, in consensus, to add that as well. We also have under health insurance, benefit and dental insurance, some additional information just for employees to better understand open enrollment and what that period means. As well then, see we got term life insurance, and we added a section, a sentence here, "Term life insurance enrollment only available during the first thirty days of hire." Some of
050these recommendations perhaps came from, and also confirmed with members in our business office, because some of this is also based in law. So if somebody's experienced an area where there was a question, and they thought it would benefit everyone, that's when we put it in the employee handbook as well. Oh, yes. And there was a recommendation, and our committee, again, consensus thought it would be important that for a substitute for educator, we also offer a free hot lunch. We do that for our certified staff as well. So it seems like a small honoring of their time, but we do receive positive feedback. So that was a recommendation that we thought that was a good idea, so. So as you can see, very few suggestions for change, but this is the time of the year that
051I bring the draft handbook to the board. It becomes very useful as we hire new staff in the summer. This is an important document, where either members of my team or myself meet with new employees, and we walk through the importance of our employee handbook. Thank you. Any questions on the handbook? Okay, then we'll vote on that later. And then Human Resources report is in the packets. So this month, you'll see, we have four, current employees, Taylor Bears, Ann Wangan, Sarah Globach, and Samuel Hartman. Each of these individuals has an interest in working as a paraeducator in the summer learning program. Last month, the board approved our certified staff and, last count, I believe we have around 120 elementary students that will be participating, in summer learning. So we do have a need for some
052additional paraeducation support, which is why we waited until this month, and we're wanting to see what those-... members were. And Alyssa Antoniewicz, she's our current high school social studies teacher. She's going to pursue another career option, so she has tendered her resignation. So we'd ask the board to approve that so that she can follow her career path. Okay. Okay, next we have the school board meeting dates for next year in your packets. And generally, but not always, these are going to be the third Monday of the month, but there are a couple of exceptions. So, one of the exceptions is July. And selfishly, kind of, I'm going to be out of town. We're going to be in Alaska on the third Monday of July, so we bumped it back to the second Monday. It works
053out fairly well because normally the Maple Grove Governance Board meets the second Monday, and they don't meet in July. So it frees up Andrea and Robyn then to attend this meeting. Other exceptions, October and April. So do you want to speak to why we move October and April? I know there's very good reasons. Sure. October is based upon the date that the state will certify our numbers, which are important for our budget in the upcoming year. So it's highly recommended. You would probably find across the state of Wisconsin, most all school board meetings in October are the last week of the month. So for us, that means that we'll move the meeting one more week. And then in April, as you have just experienced joining the board of education, we're also bound by a specific
054date when a new board member can take the oath of office, and it is in the last week of the month of April. So then we design our calendar to be on the fourth. So those are the changes. So I know this is like a year in advance, basically. Mm-hmm. But are there any major, or any concerns with the dates? Like there's this big event going on or anything like that. Of course, if needed, a member could always miss a meeting. We'd love to have everybody here at the same time, but it's just not always possible. But if there were a date where it was like we're all going to be gone because of some just particular reason that... We couldn't think of anything. But if there is anything. Awesome. Okay. All right. Again, we'll
055hold on that. We are going to table the Athens Elementary fence project for this evening until the June meeting. We will still have time, I believe, to complete that over the summer. But John is out of the office, and we'd really like him to be here for that. So that'll be a June item. And then we have the 26/27 nutrition services summary for meal price increases. And Beth Henke is going to provide this presentation for you. So tonight, I'm asking the board approval to increase our meal prices for breakfast and lunch for our students as well as adults. We went through an audit, and we used the Paid Lunch Equity tool to help us navigate if we're charging an appropriate amount for lunch. Currently, we are under the recommendation, but we want to be mindful
056of the impact to families. So we are proposing to increase breakfast by $0.20 and lunch by $0.15. Adults are outside of the reimbursable meal, but we would increase that by $0.30. So we want to be mindful of the impact to our families, but once we increase the prices, we cannot decrease below that paid equity recommendation. So there's more information in your packets. But tonight, we're just asking for approval to increase those meal prices. After that, we would submit our contract to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction for their approval for the new year. Is the recommendation based off of statewide, or comparable to other districts our size? Or is that- Well, the Paid Lunch Equity tool is its own tool for us. Okay. And we enter in data from October of 2025. We take how
057many meals we had served and what we had charged for those meals, and then it does a calculation for us, and it compares from last year to this year, and then it gives us a recommendation. Along with that, though, we do take into consideration area districts as well. Okay. If we're in the ballpark, because we don't want to be- Right ... way high or way low. It's not always apples to apples, because they might charge for middle school or pre-K a different price, things like that. But we are about average- Mm-hmm ... with area districts. Okay. Yes, even with the increase. Okay. I'm assuming the tool, and tell me if I'm wrong or on the right track, that it calculates based on the cost of food, right? Does it or no? There's several tools, and
058yes. Okay. I'm assuming because there's a rule, right? Where we can't charge more than what we expend, right? That always needs to be a zero. So, we can't make any profits off of what we're doing. So I don't know if you want to... Yes. So there's the reimbursable meal is one we focus on a lot. That is, a student comes in for lunch, they take their dietary needs that Heather has, works with them, and they have all their food groups. That's a reimbursable meal. So what that means is that the federal government will reimburse the school district a certain amount for a free student that qualifies for free lunch, a different amount for reduced lunch, and a third amount for paid lunch. Mm-hmm. So that is one piece of the puzzle. Mm-hmm. The other piece
059of the puzzle is the non-reimbursable, which is the extras that students take. Our vending machine goes through the food service, adult meals-Anything that is outside of that reimbursable, that we do have the ability to increase, and that's part of why we're proposing to increase that by 30 cents for adults. Okay. Did I answer? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. So, just a question about negative lunch balances. If those aren't addressed by families for whatever reason, what happens to those? I know sometimes donations are received to help offset that, but does the district ever have to pay to cover those negatives? Yes. So, this year we did adopt a new policy- Mm-hmm ... and then admin guideline. So last year at this time, roughly, the negative lunch balance was about $7,000. The district did receive a significant
060donation to help offset some of those. But in that piece with the donation, we did adopt that policy- Mm ... which caps it at $200. So if a lunch balance is negative $200 or more, we suspend the account until they pay that balance back. So, just to keep it manageable. Mm-hmm. Okay, so if this $29.64 at the end of the year wasn't collected, and we have to have that balance where it's like zeros, could that balance go negative, or are those funds pulled elsewhere? They're pulled elsewhere. Pulled. Okay. Yes. Mm-hmm. Okay. That's with food service in general- Okay ... is we cannot have a negative balance. Yeah. And that would come from our general- Got it. Okay ... balance to offset to bring it to at least zero. Okay. Thank you. And as Beth indicated,
061the updated and new administrative guidelines, Beth and Tammy Feiner and myself worked on those, and then we communicated them out through school newsletters, also pushed that information to our families. We have seen a steady trend of families trying to do their best to pay off their bills. And it's important to note, we have approximately 39 accounts within that dollar to 100. Sometimes, maybe in 24 hours, a family is $5 positive, but if they have multiple children, the next day it could go to a negative. So they'll get the robo call. That happens. I know myself, so very quickly, right, then some people are feeding back in that account. So these are also, this is fluid information. Yeah. But in conversations with both Beth and Tammy, we have seen a steady trend in our families just
062trying to do their best to pay down if they do have a negative account. And then we go above and beyond. We will communicate via letters. We make phone calls. I've offered to meet with families. People many times find themselves in a financial situation. We want to be respectful of that, and we're willing to put a payment plan into effect that might be helpful. So we really do try to extend however we can support, because we do recognize that many times in life there's a challenge that we can try to help with. So, yeah. And I told her and I was like, "Sure, I know if there's a really good meal that's coming up and the account is negative, because then they can't get doubles." If the account is negative. So that is, they do
063not let them get a double portion if their account is negative, which is good. My kids will be like, "They should never be allowed to get double stuff." Sometimes they're hungry, I guess. And I want to recognize our nutrition staff in all three of our buildings are very professional, and this is a very sensitive topic. So if we find that there is a student or a family that either can have a second or has a negative account over that 200, it's handled in a very delicate way. So the last thing that we would ever want to do- Yes ... is draw attention to a child or a family. So we're extremely conscious about that too. That's good. Thank you. Any questions? Other questions? All right. Neola policy 8510, wellness. Yes. So you have one updated
064board policy in your packet this evening. So in December of 2025, so just a few months ago, the Department of Public Instruction, DPI, was here on site for two days, and we were in a five-year audit. That's a very typical practice, through our nutrition services department. So led by Heather Krueger and members of her team, as well as Stinky in our business office. So at the outcome of those two days of an audit through the nutrition services DPI team, we also then had some areas that we needed to modify or change. So about two months ago, there were a couple policies that came forward to the board at that time with updates out of the communication and feedback from the DPI. This new additional policy is specific to wellness. In addition to the work and
065the feedback we received from the DPI, we also started a very active wellness committee that meets quarterly, that is led by Courtney Lintzmeyer, our school nurse, and then Heather Krueger from school nutrition, because the DPI would say the two working together, you're going to have not only healthy students, but healthy employees. So we have this wellness committee, and one of the policies they recognized that we needed to update was 8510, wellness. So this committee met about a week ago. They worked together to update the policy. The feedback given by the DPI is what you see for the updates here. And so we didn't want to wait until late summer when you'll see more policies since this one was already in a solid draft. Very colorful as you can see. This is the template that we
066received from Neola, their parent company for policy. Green are things that are being recommended to be either kept or added in the policy. Anything that's pinkish and then is stricken through are things that would be to be sampled. So again, this one looks very colorful, but these are recommendations that came through that audit process. They were then vetted through the wellness committee, and on behalf of the wellness committee, I'm bringing you this policy now that needs to be updated Where has the-- so there's some that have X in the green. There's like X's for some of the things in parentheses. If it doesn't have a X, does that mean it's not selected? Correct. Okay. And again, this policy is a combination of the feedback from the DPO audit, things that they're recommending based on state
067statutes, as well as the wellness community. So for the committee representatives, it says that they could invite community members. There are no current community members as part of that? There is a community member as part of that. Okay. Because I was just thinking, we have a lot of area farmers and- Mm-hmm ... bringing farm to table. I know at one time there was talk about that. Okay. Mm-hmm. So they have to be invited. It's not a post where, "Hey, we have this committee, if you're interested." We did post- Posted ... both on the website and in school newsletters- Okay ... prior to establishing that committee earlier in the fall. Okay. On that earlier. Yeah, late fall, first of the year. Okay. So we did promote it, and we did have a community member that had
068an interest, and then we also have health aide, teacher, phy ed. We have a nice representation- Good. Okay ... on that committee. Great. Will it be, just to tag onto that, posted at the beginning of the school year in newsletters? Like if there's maybe new families or anything like that? Sure. Yes, we could do that. Okay. And if you go on our district website, we actually have a dropdown called Nutrition, and you'll actually see the notes from the meeting or the agendas. We have the committee, we also have information on the website. Okay. Mm-hmm. This is good. So wait, this is the first time we've had a policy like this, correct? Mm-hmm. Okay. Any questions on... All right. I feel like it's a pretty comprehensive policy. It's got everything. It's got- Yeah ... nutrition, recess,
069activity. Yeah. All good stuff. And that's where if I just add, the composition right now of that committee was very intentional with some of the internal asks, like having the school nurse, having our nutrition services supervisor, having health and phy ed teacher. So I've had experience in a different district around this policy, and what we found worked really well was to have at minimum those voices, but then also the community, the parents, and others. Mm-hmm. And that's really when it's going to have a positive impact on more than just students, but also our staff and the greater community. I will also say the committee did an internal survey of staff to look for their feedback when they began meeting. And so some of that feedback is also being incorporated into future opportunities for our staff
070in particular. Hmm. Okay. All right, we're moving on then. There are no questions on that. To the action items. And the first action item is revenue and expense reports. Anything special going on, Beth? There's always something special. Special. The district did receive common school fund payment of $73,000. That is the library aid that we received that can be used for books and technology used in the library. So that came in in April. I noticed, I probably shouldn't have asked, but the 21 fund, that's the fundraising. Is that the activities fund? Yes. So any revenues and expenditures in that one are not... It's like organizations and they're managing that. Is that correct? That is correct. That is not touched by property taxes or state aid. Got it. That is truly local dollars that are being donated
071to the activities or fundraised from students, and then it's used right back on those students. So that budget, it kind of what comes in goes in and what goes out, goes out. Mm-hmm. Each group has their own fund within that, that they have to work within. I noticed that one had some bigger dollar amounts, but I know there's always like the big spring fundraisers- Yes ... and expenditures and things like that. Yes. So at this time, we'd be looking for a motion to approve the revenue and expense reports. I can make the motion. All right. Thank you, Jill. And a second? I can second. Okay. Thank you, Anne. And then we will do a roll call vote for this one, please, Becky. Angie? Yes. Tom? Pam? Ben? Yes. Jill? Yes. Anne? Yes. Chris? Yes. Thank
072you. Okay. The next one is the approval of cash and check receipts, which is in the packet as well for your review. And then any questions on that? And if not, we'd be looking for a motion to approve. I can make a motion to approve the cash and check transactions. Thank you. Any second? I'll second. Okay. Thanks, Chris. And we'll also do a roll call vote for this one as well. Please begin. Angie? Yes. Tom? Cam? Ben? Yes. Jill? Yes, but abstain from 82827. Anne? Yes. Chris? Yes. Thank you. Okay. And next we have the F143 school safety drills, spring 2026 as presented by the building principal. So we're looking for a motion to approve those. And that's just to approve the report as it was reported? Yes. Okay. To approve the report just as
073it was reported. Okay. I can make the motion. Okay. Thank you. And who's going to second? Is that Ben? Mm-hmm. Okay. Thank you. And then for this one, we'll just do a voice vote. So all in favor say, "Aye." Aye. All opposed say, "Nay." Okay. Thank you. Then we are moving to the 26-27 health insurance renewal as presented by M3 for the option that they recommended. I'm looking for a motion to approve that. I can motion. Okay. Thank you. Mm-hmm. I can second. Thank you, Anne. Sorry. It's okay. I forget to ask sometimes. All right. So with this one, we'll also do a roll call vote, please. Angie? Yes. Tom? Cam? Ben? Yes. Jill? Yes. Anne? Yes. Chris? Yes. Thank you. All right. We have then the 26-27 Delta Dental insurance renewal as it stands
074in the packet. Looking for a motion to approve that. Thank you, Jill. I'll second. Okay, Anne. And then we will also do a roll call, please. Angie? Yes. Tom? Cam? Ben? Yes. Jill? Yes. Anne? Yes. Chris? Yes. Thank you. We'll move to Maple Grove Charter School contract, and I think we can just do a voice vote. Is that right? Mm-hmm. It's not... Or sure we just do a roll call to be safe? Roll call to be- Roll call to be safe? Okay. Sure. So we are looking for a motion to approve that, first of all. I'll make the motion. Thank you, Chris. Any second? I'll second. Okay. Thanks, Jill. And then we'll do a roll call vote, please. Angie? Yes. Tom? Cam? Ben? Yes. Jill? Yes. Anne? Yes. Chris? Yes. Thank you. And then we
075will look for a motion to approve the 26-27 employee handbook, as presented with the updates. I'll motion to approve the handbook. Thank you, Anne. Any second? I'll second. Thank you, Chris. And we'll do a voice vote on this. All in favor say, "Aye." Aye. All opposed, "Nay." Thank you. Human resources report. I'm looking for a motion to approve that as presented. I can motion. Thank you, Jill. I'm looking for a second. I can second. Thank you, Anne. Why don't we just go ahead and do a roll call? Just for fun. All right. Angie? Yes. Tom? Cam? Ben? Yes. Jill? Yes. Anne? Yes. Chris? Yes. Okay. Then we're looking for a motion to approve the 26-27 school board meeting dates. I can motion. Thank you, Jill. And do we have a second? I'll second. Thank you,
076Chris. And we will do a voice vote. All in favor say, "Aye." Aye. All opposed, "Nay." Okay. Tabling letter J. Letter K is 2026-27 nutrition services summary meal price increases. So we're looking for a motion to approve those increases as stated. I'll motion to approve the meal price increase. Thank you. And a second. I'll second. Thank you, Jill. And then we'll do a roll call vote, please. Angie? Yes. Tom? Cam? Ben? Yes. Jill? Yes. Anne? Yes. Chris? Yes. Okay. And then the last one on this action item list is the Neola Policy 8510 wellness, and so we're looking for a motion to approve that draft. I'll make a motion. Okay. Thank you, Chris. And we have a second? I'll second. Thank you, Anne. And then we'll do a voice vote. So everybody in favor say,
077"Aye." Aye. And opposed say, "Nay." Okay. Thank you. A long list of action items. So at this time, we will be looking for a motion to adjourn to executive closed session under Wisconsin Statute 19.85 ( 1 ) for the purpose of considering employment, compensation, performance evaluations, and financial, medical, social, or personal information of specific persons, which if discussed in public, would have substantial adverse effect on the person's reputation. Specifically, vacancies, resignations, layoffs, and retirements related to professional staff positions, support staff positions, and co-curricular positions. So I'm looking for a motion to adjourn into closed. I'll motion. Okay. Thank you, Jill. And do we have a second? I'll second. Thank you, Anne. And then all in favor say, "Aye." Aye. All opposed, "Nay." All right. We will adjourn at this point into closed session. Thank you