001One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We will now proceed with the administration of the oath of office for newly elected board members. Would the newly elected members, Benjamin Beede, Jill Heyer, Ann Thurs, and Chris Tiffany, please come forward. We want them to come into-- Tracy is going to be doing the oath, so if you wouldn't mind standing, and then- Oh. Would you go in together near Ben, or... Sure. Yeah. Sure. That would be great. Wonderful. Thank you. I can stand with support. No. No, you can stay right where you are. Here? All right. So do I read the information? I'm going to read this. Okay. Yes. I, Benjamin Beede, have been elected, appointed to the office of the Athens School Board, but have not yet entered upon the duty thereof,
002swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Wisconsin, and will faithfully discharge the duties of said office to the best of my ability. Oops. I do? I- It worked. Okay. Then I just need to sign. Yes. And... Here. Okay. And what else? Where's that bit? I, Jill Heyer, have been elected and appointed to the office of the Athens School District, but have not yet entered upon the duties thereof, swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Wisconsin. I will faithfully discharge the duties of said office to the best of my ability. So help me, God. I will. I, Ann Thurs, have been elected and appointed to the office of the Athens School District, but have
003not yet entered upon the duties thereof, swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Wisconsin. I will faithfully discharge the duties of said office to the best of my ability. So help me, God. I will. Okay. Chris. I, Chris Tiffany, have been elected and appointed to the office of the Athens School Board, but have not yet entered upon the duties thereof, swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Wisconsin. I will faithfully discharge the duties of said office to the best of my ability. So help me, God. I will. Congratulations to all of you. Welcome to the school board. Thank you, Tracy. Becky will now call the roll. Sure. Angie? Here. Tom? Here. Cam? Here.
004Benjamin? Here. Do you prefer me calling you Benjamin or Ben? Most people call me Ben. Okay, sounds good. Jill? Here. Ann? Here. Chris? Here. Thank you. Okay. So we are moving next to the election of officers, and this is kind of-- The way that the process runs is a little bit awkward, but I will call three times for each office, and then at that point, we will close the nominations, and I'll prompt you through all of this. And then we will cast our votes on these ballots. So you will see a clipped stack of ballots by your spot And for each office, I'll tell you when to do it, but you will select your person at that point, and then we'll pass them in. So I'll tell you everything we're going to do, but we'll
005start with the office of president. So, first of all, are there any nominations from the floor for president? I will nominate Angie Survey to continue on as president. Okay, Tom. Are there any additional nominations for president? Hearing no additional nominations, I seek a motion to close nominations. Do I-- Ah. I seek a motion to close nominations. I'll make a motion. Okay, and do I have a second? I'll second. All in favor of closing nominations- Aye ... say aye. Aye. All oppose say nay. Nominations for the office of president are closed. At this time, board members will then cast their ballots for the office of president, and then we will pass your ballots towards Becky. There's the poll. We have two coming from-- See that one? Yeah. One more. Here is the last. All right. So
006the vote was conducted by paper ballot. Votes were counted by myself. Angie Survey received seven votes. The president is Angie Survey. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we'll move to vice president. Are there any nominations from the floor for vice president? I will nominate Tom Ellenbecker for president. Vice president. My bad. Where have I gone? Are there any additional nominations for vice president? Okay. Hearing no additional nominations, I'm looking for a motion to close nominations. I'll make a motion to close nominations. Do I have a second? I'll second. And Seth will second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, say nay. All right. Nominations for the office of vice president are closed, and you may now cast your ballot on the piece of paper in front of you. I'm sorry. All right. The vote
007was conducted by paper ballot. Votes were counted by myself. Tom Ellenbecker received seven votes. Vice president is Tom Ellenbecker. Congrats. Are there any nominations from the floor for clerk? Oh, sorry. I had clerks first. Okay. Clerk. We're going for clerk? For clerk. Because treasurer was next on my ballot, that's why. I know. Yeah. I'm looking at the agenda, and the stack was different. Okay. Sorry. The clerk is next. So clerk- Would it be prudent to describe- What it is? Yeah. With the clerk role. I'm sure I thought about that before, but- Yeah, we probably should. Clerk was held by Jesse Frame in the past cycle. The clerk... I think I have the role somewhere. Do you have a minute? We don't have it in front of me. Yes, thank you. So Angie is referencing something
008she's going to pull out. This is a good time for me to share, especially with our new board members. We have a policy which defines what the roles and responsibilities of a clerk for the board would be. So when Angie and I meet each month, and we put together the agenda with input from other board members, that was something we discussed as we wanted to be able to present. So that's what we are referencing. It's the board policy around the responsibilities of being board clerk. Okay, so the clerk is responsible for the following duties, and this is in our policy handbook. So act as clerk and record the proceedings of all meetings of the board. That is mostly, I believe, in closed session when we don't have Becky because our deputy clerk, which we'll see
009later in the agenda, is a different thing. But the clerk, as a member of the board, would do that in closed session. Enter the proceedings of the board in proper record books. Enter the record book copies of clerk's report sent to municipal clerks. Draw and record orders of the treasurer as directed by the board. Be the chief election officer of the district with the authority to report the name and post office address within 10 days after the election of or appointment of each board officer to the clerk and treasurer of each municipality within the district. And so that's part of that canvassing procedure that happens after the election. The clerk is part of that, come to the schoolMake sure the votes are tallied and confirms that vote of the school board, and then performs other
010duties as prescribed, which is kind of vague. I don't have any other notes. Andrea, did you have anything else to add? What I would add is that the clerk of the board would work closely with the current seated deputy clerk, should she be reelected at the end of this evening. Work very closely together on canvassing is a role and responsibility that we would ask, and again, that is in early April. Typically, you will see the clerk's name or signature on the minutes. The deputy clerk takes those minutes, types them up and confirms with the clerk. So there's a partnership between the board clerk and the deputy clerk, and collaborations and support. So if there's any interest in that, and if anybody would like a nomination. I can try to nominate myself. I was going to
011nominate you, Jill, if nobody else did. Okay, so then I will officially ask, are there any nominations from the floor for clerk? I nominate Jill Higher for clerk. Okay. Are there any additional nominations for clerk? Hearing no additional nominations, I seek a motion to close the nominations. I'll make a motion to close the nominations. Mm-hmm. Do I have a second? I'll second. Okay. Yes, thank you. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Same. All right. Nominations to the office of clerk are closed. Please make your selection on the ballot and pass it over to Bethany. Thank you. All right. The vote was conducted by paper ballot. Votes were counted by myself. Jill Higher received seven votes. Clerk is Jill Higher. Thank you. Okay, treasurer. I guess I can go ahead and read the treasurer
012as well. The treasurer is responsible, and sorry, I did not read the vice president before asking for it, or the president. So treasurer, apply for, receive, and sue for all money appropriated to or collected for the district and disperse the same in accordance with law. Enter in the account books all money received and dispersed and specify the source of the funds and the person to whom funds are paid and the object of the payment. Immediately upon receipt, deposit district funds in the district's name in a public depository designated by the board. Present at the annual meeting a written statement of all money received and dispersed by the district in the preceding year. Perform other duties. And I know this, I believe, was performed by Chamel in the past. One other thing would be this person
013will be a signer on the checks. Anything else to add? If I could add one thing, in talking with Beth Stinky, our business office manager, whoever would assume this responsibility, we would like to set up some intermittent meetings, just to make sure that there is a solid line of communication between the board treasurer and our business office. So that would be something that would be requested of the person, again, based on schedules and when we request. Are there any nominations from the floor for treasurer? I will nominate Ann. Are there any additional nominations for treasurer? I'd also like to throw Cam in there. I don't mean to make you contested, but I'll throw Cam in there as well. Any additional nominations for treasurer? All right. Hearing no additional nominations, I seek a motion to close
014the nominations. I'll make a motion. Thank you, Jill. Second. And Tom is the second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Nominations for the office of treasurer are closed. And at this time, we will cast our ballots for the office of treasurer and pass ballots to Bethany. The vote was conducted by paper ballot. Votes were counted by myself. Kam Dietrich received five votes, and Nina Faris received two votes. The treasurer is Kam Dietrich. Okay, onto the next. Okay, so we also have on this list the deputy clerk, and at this point, Becky Lubben has served as our deputy clerk. Becky takes the minutes, organizes things, files records, posts the public meeting notices, and all the things. So at this time, I'm seeking a motion to appoint Becky Lubben as the deputy clerk. I'll
015make that motion. Okay. Do we have a second? I'll second it. Okay. All those in favor say "I." I. All opposed, nay. All right, motion carries. So congratulations to all of our board officers. Yeah. Okay. Then we are looking at the list of committees that we appoint board members to, and those are listed in six. There is also a list of these committees. So in your board packet... So new board members, you have a little Chromebook at your spot. That's yours, as you're a part of the school board, to use. And there should be a link that was sent to your original email, and going forward, it'll be sent to your athens1.org email, which we'll tell you all about coming up. And that will be a link to the board packet. So all of the
016materials are there. And one of the materials there is the Athens Board of Education Appointment of Committee and Representative Positions, which describes each of the four kind of duties that we're looking for different board members to be involved in. The first one is the CESA 9, that we have on our agenda as A. So CESA 9 is governed by a board of control that consists of 11 board of education members within the boundary of the CESA, and board members are elected to three-year terms. And there's one meeting a year in Tomahawk, and it's in August. So hearing that, do we have any interest in being on that? And I know that there's other things as well to be involved in, so I don't know if you want to skim that and see if there's anybody
017that maybe would be interested in CESA 9. So we do go one person on each of these four committees? I would say that's kind of what we've done in the past. Not to say that somebody couldn't serve on two, but I think that would be- At least one person. Yeah, at least one person. Yeah. Yes. That would be the- We have another CESA rep in a few years, afterwards? I think- Yes. Tucker Detomm was our rep the- Oh, that's right ... past two years. Yeah, okay. And I'll say a little bit more about- Yeah ... CESA 9 responsibility. So as Angie had said, the annual meeting is typically the first Monday in August. It's in the evening, probably from, say, about 6:00 to 8:00 in the evening up in Tomahawk. And at that meeting, that
018is when they elect their board of directors. So if you had an interest, then, on putting your name into the ballot for that, then it would be more regular and routine meetings. But at minimum, it'd be that one annual meeting, and you would represent our district of Athens. There are 22 districts that make up CESA 9. It's a comprehensive, typical annual meeting that gives a nice overview of the services and supports they offer our district. And so if someone were interested, I would highly recommend that as a learning opportunity, too, because we do a lot of work with CESA 9. So you would maybe learn a lot more about those things and bring that back. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Check off. This isn't a nomination process, is it? Well- We've typically- We can nominate- ... taken
019volunteers in the past Yeah, we've typically taken volunteers. My little agenda says that if there's a volunteer, then we nominate them and then vote on it. Correct. If we don't have somebody, have we had that where there's been nobody who's interested in the past? I don't remember the history. Do you remember perhaps after Janice Piela had stepped off the board, and she had served- That's right ... in that role? Yeah. I think Jim and I maybe have the same memory that there might have been a year where we didn't- Yeah ... have somebody representing us. And then Tucker, I think the last two years has been in that role. Okay. Can we maybe talk through all of them, see if there's anything that's- Sure ... worth serving on? Yeah, let's do that. That's a good
020idea. Thank you. Okay, so the next one listed is the WASB and alternative. So WASB is the Wisconsin Association of School Boards. The delegate represents the school board at the delegate assembly, and typically it has been the president, so I represented us last year, and I wouldn't mind doing it again, but we also need an alternate. So the delegate assembly is where the different school boards from the state of Wisconsin, so there's 400 and some... People. 421, thank you. 400 and some. 421 different school districts that are represented, one person from each district, and at the annual meeting in January, I think it's January 20th it starts this next upcoming year, there's resolutions that come forward from boards across the state. And then the delegate assembly discusses them and then votes on them. And those
021determine the priorities that the WASB uses to lobby, basically, the legislatureSo, yeah. So in order to be the representative, you need to attend the convention. If the designated representative cannot come, then the alternate representative would be the one who would go. So we have one regular representative, and then the alternate. And then I think people can go to the conference without being the actual delegate. So the school board, it's open to all school board members, but the alternate and the delegate would be the ones that are kind of going to that one piece of the conference. So that's the WASB. The Tax Incremental District Joint Revenue Board for the Village of Athens. I think, Chamos, is this you right now? Yep. I was on the TID board. Okay. I don't know what that is, but
022it's listed. Do you want to tell us what you do? And are you interested in staying on- I can stay on, yep ... if that's something that's- Basically, we attend the meeting, and it is the village, the Marathon, or not Marathon County, the tech has their representative there- Mm-hmm ... and other entities that have basically anybody you see on your tax form that has- Yeah ... tax interest, they go, and they are appraised of any changes, what the value is, when the debt date is, when it's going to be closed. If there's any changes, you have to attend the amendment meetings. Yeah. The last two years, it's been a 20-minute meeting. Oh, okay. It... Yeah. Mm-hmm. It's really quick. They're almost at the end of their life cycle now, so. Mm. Well, one is. The
023other one is not quite there, but one's at the end of its life cycle, the other one's got seven years left on it, so. Okay. And I can add, Lisa checked in, to reach out to me, and we will let her know tomorrow who- Yeah ... will get to stay. And the meeting will be scheduled just within the month, so. Yeah, and if anybody else wants to attend, I'm more than happy to step away. It literally is, like, a 20-minute meeting. Mm-hmm. Okay. Thank you. The last one is the Marathon County Children with Disabilities Education Board. So we receive services in our district from the Marathon County Special Education organization. That's who we do our special education through. And this is monthly, on the third Thursday of each month at noon, at the Marathon County
024Special Education office located in Wausau. So you get to participate in that meeting. The minutes of that meeting come back and are informational in our board agendas every month. Currently, we have a community member who is helping with that. Yes. Lori Haynes, a previous board member, has remained active in that role. I would like to ask, though, if a current board member would have an interest. It's very important, and Lori does a nice job, but she may be willing to offer it to someone else. Mm-hmm. But as Angie has said, we have a really positive relationship with Marathon County Special Ed and the consortium, and this would be an opportunity to receive then updates, not only the written report, but if one of our current board members were there on a regular routine basis, if
025there were things that we would want to look at or share, then we would also have that information. So that might be of interest to someone, too. The downside is it is that Thursday. It is. Yeah. Yes. Isn't it? One Thursday a month at noon. Third Thursday, yeah. Okay, so that's the kind of overview. And maybe knowing that, maybe we can go back up to letter A, CESA 9. Is anybody interested in that opportunity that would like a nomination for that position at this point? I think if you're still interested in the tax, the TID one, I could do CESA 9. Okay. Cam's interested. Okay, so I would like to nominate Cam to serve as the board member representative on the CESA 9 annual meeting. I'll second. Thank you. All those in favor of Cam
026serving as the CESA 9 representative, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say nay. Okay, looks good. You will be the district- ... CESA 9 representative. All right, then we have WASB and alternate. So looking for nominations. Yeah, I'm willing to be the representative. Yeah, I would nominate Angie. Okay. Yeah. All right. Do I have a second? I'll second it. Okay. Thank you. All those in favor of Angie serving as the WASB delegate, say aye. Aye. All opposed, say nay. Oops, sorry. Got real excited. Sorry. Cancel that nay. Okay, I will be the delegate. We are looking for the alternate delegate. Is anybody interested in being the alternate if I cannot attend? I would be willing to do that. Okay. I will nominate Ben. Okay. I'll second that nomination. Ben seconds. Thank you. All those in favor of
027Ben serving as the WASB alternative delegate, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say nay. Okay. Motion carries. Ben is going to be the alternate. Okay. So we're looking for now the TID, the Tax Incremental District Joint Review Board. I nominate Tom if he wants to keep it. Okay. I'll second it. Second it? Okay. Thank you, Cam. And all those in favor of Tom serving as the Tax Incremental District Joint Revenue board member for the village of Athens, say aye. Aye. All opposed, say nay. All right, Tom will be the TID board memberAnd then we are looking, anybody interested in the Children with Disabilities Education Board? I would be interested in as well. Okay. I nominate Jill. Okay. Got a nomination and a- I'll second ... second by Anne. Thank you. All those in favor of Jill serving
028as the Marathon County Children with Disabilities Education Board representative, say aye. Aye. All opposed, say nay. Motion carries. So Jill will be the Marathon County, um, Education Board representative. All right. Everybody's advocating. It's the hard part. Well, okay. So next agenda item, is the upcoming development opportunities. So just wanted to kind of, bring everybody up to speed on just development coming up. There was an in-person new member gathering for our district this past week. If you did miss that, there is one online also, that will be tomorrow in Zoom at noon. If anybody needs the information to join that, we can get you that. I think it went out, but if you need it, let me know and we'll get you that after the meeting. WASB also has a landing page for new members and
029a series, which is actually not just for new members, but it's for all board members. They are having a five-part series on roles and responsibilities of school board members, which is a nice refresher. Also, even if you are a returning board member, I believe the email went out to all existing board members, and I think the new board members would've received it also. So there's that series, and I think it begins on Thursday at noon, and the rest of them are at noon as well, spread throughout, the beginning of May, and they're all on virtual. And then also each of the new board members does have a one-on-one orientation scheduled next week with Andrea and I. We'll both be attending those. So we'll give you more specific information for our board, and all the things
030that go along with that, give you a chance to ask questions. And then for everybody, again, our board is going to be using a free tool that's been provided to us by the W-A-S-B, the WASB, I believe through School Perceptions. It's called a board development tool, and it's a survey that is free for all of us to take, and it just gets input on our perception of the board, how things are going, and I think it'll be good to just get a baseline because we have so many new members and we're building our board kind of again. Because even those of us who have been on the board, with the exception of Chamel, have not been on a super long time. So that will probably be going out in early June for everybody to take
031confidentially, and then they compile that for free, and we would like to do a board retreat, late summer, early fall, to go over that and some other board development things. So we'll give more information on the survey at the meeting in May. Could we do early summer? Early summer? We- Late summer, early fall is going to be football time. Yeah. We could think about that. We might need to back it. Maybe. Yeah. We're thinking like June? Or we could even do early August. Oh, okay. I'm just saying- Before football kicks off? Well, with games and everything else, parents will be pulled in different directions then. That's true. All sporting events, not even just football, volleyball- Yeah ... cross-country. It's let's do it before the activities start up so that- Right. Yeah ... everybody has an
032even opportunity and doesn't have to miss anything to attend. Let's do that. Yeah. So we talked about the survey itself, and we're like, "Well, we may want to wait till May is over," because there's so much at the end of the year. Very busy. So we'll get the survey in and, you know, one school's over, and then we can plan on doing that board retreat before all the activities start up again. Mm-hmm. And we've done a couple hours of retreat. We'll, kind of, I don't know, we'll bounce ideas around and come up with something that, before football and all the other fall sports is a good piece of feedback. Okay. So that's kind of just informational. I don't know if anybody has any questions on any of that, but there's a lot of things kind
033of going on right now. Hopefully, it's all helpful. All right, so the next agenda item is the approval of the minutes from the March 18th regular board meeting. I will make the motion. I will second. Okay. Thank you. All in favor of approving the minutes, say aye. Aye. All opposed, say nay. Okay. All right, now we have public comments. All right, we have Aaron Stencel, for the SRO program. Yeah. So- Too simple ... do I need to stand up or we'll just- You can do whatever's most comfortable for you. I'm going to invite Ben here. All right. I'm here again to open the conversation about that. This is a program, when we say SRO, for those of you that don't know, that's School Resource Officer program. And this kind of, this conversation started and spans
034many different boards, different district administrators. But something that I think came to the forefront and then my attention within the last two, three months, from district parents. So I'm kind of here just to start that conversation again. I thought about coming last month because this was discussed at the village level at one of our PFC meetings, so one of our Police and Fire Committee meetings in March. So I thought about coming last month, but with the election-And then coming up, I thought it would be wise to wait until we would know who the board would be. So that's kind of where we're at. I envision it being a part-time officer dedicated to the school district. However, I should say that there are other districts in our area, Colby and Abbotsford, and Spencer, kind of on
035our western end here, more rural, that do more than part-time hours. So that's just the start of the conversation. I don't know if you have any questions. You can ask them now, or you can reach out to me later, or to the village as well. So that's all I have. Thank you. Okay. Thanks for coming. We're waiting for a question. It happens. When you don't. All right. Then we're on to recognitions, and we didn't have any more public comments, I'm assuming. Mm-mm. That was it. Okay. Recognitions and commendations are next, and I have here the one for Maple Grove Charter School. I do. So I'm going to read a statement from the State Superintendent, Dr. Jill Underly. On April 13, State Superintendent Dr. Jill Underly announced Maple Grove Charter School was a recipient of the
0362026 Stewardship and Sustainability Award, which recognizes exceptional leadership in creating green and healthy learning environments. "These leaders and school communities demonstrate exceptional dedication to sustainability through their hard work and willingness to share their efforts with others," states Dr. Underly. "Their achievements show what's possible when educators, students, and communities work together toward a shared vision. I congratulate them on their accomplishments. They are truly a model for schools across the state." The Stewardship and Sustainability Award is part of Green and Healthy Schools Wisconsin, a program managed by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. This is the second year of the award, which was created to fill a gap left when the US Department of Education eliminated its Green Ribbon School program in 2025. Maple Grove Charter School infuses a strong
037culture of sustainability into everyday student experiences through projects like solar energy generation, a rain-water capture system, and local food production, including maple syrup, garden vegetables, and eggs. Students witness sustainability in action. Outdoor learning is a core part of the school's culture, with students actively contributing to the school by composting, gardening, recycling, and maintaining campus trails, providing them both with environmental awareness and a sense of stewardship. Would you please help me to recognize Maple Grove for achieving this award? On Saturday, April 11th, Robyn Hansen, her husband, and I attended the ceremony in Milwaukee. I have the brochure where we're highlighted, so I can pass it around for the board to see. But I'm going to give Robyn an opportunity to physically show the award that we received and then just share maybe a few highlights from
038the evening. Sure. So this was our award. Still looking for a place to put it up at school, but just a recognition for the stewardship and sustainability. So one of the requirements to meet this award was to become a Sugar Maple school. So it moves from a seedling to a sapling, and so on. And that was a goal prior to me even coming there. We were a seedling school, and the principal prior said, "You got to get us up to the Sugar Maple." And we were doing all the things. The things have been incorporated. Sandy, who you see at the bottom there, is the environmental. She's from Field Adventures, and she did a lot of the coaching with our staff those three years that we had the grant. And so she was able to write
039and help put together to move us up to that Sugar Maple status. And so with all the things that we are implementing at Maple Grove, we were able to apply for the stewardship and sustainability. They let us know at the program that it will be also recognized at a national level. So, excited for that recognition as well, and just to continue to grow and keep up with those pieces. We had to fall under the area of transportation and mental sustainability, which our crisp traits fall under. So there was 12 different badges we had to earn to be able to even be able to apply for the award. So it was wonderful to be recognized for our school, our staff, and our learners, and the learners themselves were excited to also have that recognition. Thank you,
040Robyn. Yes. Congrats. Wonderful. Any other recommendations, commendations? Sometimes those aren't always listed. All right. Then we're going to move to the board members' reports tonight. We just have the one, the Marathon County Special Education, which is in the board packet. So the minutes are there, and we acknowledge that, and the board members can review those as well. We do not need any motions on that. So then we are moving to administrators' reports, and the superintendent's report will be first tonight. All right. Thank you, Angie. So tonight, we've invited back our partner from School Perceptions. Rob is going to be with us, and as we pull him up on the screen, I want to share with the board, and most importantly with our newer board members, a little bit of a history and a timeline of
041how we got into where we are. You're going to hear tonight a general overview of a draft community survey that we'll be releasing in the next couple of weeks. But I think it's important just to share the work that's been done in approximately the past year. So in May of last year, we had business partners from CESA 10, who had conducted a facilities study in February, March, and April, join the board and give an overview of their presentation and their findings.Following that presentation in June of last summer, we partnered with Baird School of Finance, and we had a financial individual here, actually, her name is Debbie Burnett, and she shared with us some budget forecasting and potential referendum planning for the future. In July, we invited back Ursie's Attend Partners, who gave a second presentation
042to go deeper into the findings that they had around some facility needs and deferred maintenance. And then in August, as a board, we reviewed and the board approved Millwood Policy 6235, called Fund Balance. It was a policy that we did not have active at the time, and that held us responsible for our accounting practices to maintain 18% or more of our overall revenue in a fund balance, similar to a savings account. And then in August, when all of our staff came back, I hosted a variety of professional learning opportunities to gather staff feedback on both finances and operations, and also to do a touch base on communication, and did our staff have the information to know where we were specifically to our facilities, and potential needs into the future. And that was in August. We
043held our annual meeting and budget hearings in September. So the board seated at that time approved our annual budget, of which we're currently working off of. And then in October, I had worked to vet potentially eight business partners that would conduct a feasibility study. Three of those business partners were invited to the board to give a presentation. That was presentation number one. We had a very good conversation with those potential business partners. And the board came back together later in October and generated a list of questions, feeling we needed more information before we partnered with someone to do a feasibility study. So those three potential business partners came back in November and gave a second presentation. So this was last year, November of 2025. At that time, the board chose to partner with Performance Services,
044and we actually have two of our colleagues here, Jerry and Alex. So we've been partnering with Performance Services since November. In December, I brought to the board a recommendation to partner with School Perceptions. Rob is on the screen, and he represents School Perceptions, an organization that helps school districts, boards of education, and administrators create surveys so that we can gather additional feedback to make good informed decisions. So since January, members of our school performance team, as well as Performance Services, as well as internal leaders within the districts, have been meeting regularly, routinely, almost on a weekly basis, to draft a community survey. So we're now at the point, as seated board members, you're going to hear tonight from Rob an overview of the final survey before it goes into production. On my report, which is
045in the board packet and also available to the public, I have also shared with you a timeline of what's going to be happening after tonight's meeting. So, you certainly can take a look at that, but essentially what's going to happen is the School Perceptions team will then go into production for the actual community survey, which will be released in early May to our staff and then our community. And the results come in, and those are all collected through School Perceptions, so it's 100% confidential information. A report will be given to the board in June. So again, I wanted to lay out what will happen from tonight's meeting through approximately June 8th, will be when the survey deadline is, and then it will be at that June, again, board meeting you'll get a formal report. So
046I'd like to welcome Rob, who's going to walk us through the draft survey. And Rob, thank you. Thanks for your patience. We've had a busy start to our evening. That's okay. I was actually catching up on the Packers' draft picks. It's kind of a back, in terms of tackles, so no worries. Any questions, I guess, about the timeline before I walk you through the draft results? No, Rob, we don't have any questions right now. Okay. So what I want to do with you then is talk through what the goal of the survey is. Talk a little bit about how it's set up and what data you'll get back based on the timeline that Andrea just shared. So let me share my screen here. I'm going to zoom way out. You won't be able to read
047it for a second, but then I'll zoom back in and talk a little bit about the pages. So when this goes off to print, it's going to land exactly the way you would see it. So it's an eight-page survey, which is quite typical. By the way, can you see my screen up now? Am I up? Mm-hmm. Yep. Yes. Yeah. You can see it? Yes. Yeah. So that we don't have anything weird. That's okay. We're good. We can see it. Okay. So you have a very normal eight-page survey. So what'll happen is it's 211 by 17 sheets of paper, folded in half. The first and the eighth pages are the least creative. The eighth page belongs to the post office. We have to leave them room to put the name and address on here. But it's
048a booklet, so it's not stuffed inside anything else. The way you're looking at it is the way it'll land. And again, and then it just opens up like a normal book does. So not a lot of creativity with page eight. Page one, and I guess I shouldn't say even beyond page one, no matter where we are in the survey, the name of the game is the shorter the better. You will lose about 1% of your response rate for every 100 words we add to the survey. So if there's one thing that we get quite sensitive about, it is the length of the survey. I have a little literal red pen that I keep right next to me, to cut out as many words as I can. So even adding about 200 words, which is about
049the equivalent of your opening letter, it means about almost 50 households who would have given you their opinion just tossed it in the trashToo much work, too complex, takes too much time while they're trying to make dinner for the kids and figure out who's going to the softball tournament and so on. So one of the things we always do is if there are words we can cut, we do. And the other principle is make sure we're talking like people talk. So an example of that would be, we would never use phrases like, equalize assessment values from the Department of Revenue and how it affects our negative tertiary. Because what? Nobody talks like that, nobody knows what that is. So make sure that it's no matter if I have a child who's employed or not, no
050matter if I'm the business manager, if I pay you taxes, I should be able to have the ability to understand what you're saying and offer your feedback. So that everyman language here is what we're going for. So the purpose of the opening letter, in as few words as possible, is to help people understand what is this thing that's landing in my mailbox, who is it from, and what do they want me to do? So to that end, we're right off the bat in the very first sentence, the school district of Athens needs your feedback. No matter who you are, we need your feedback. There's a couple of things to celebrate here, including how many students graduate with college credits, how many are participating in an extracurricular activity or work activity. But the challenges remain, including
051a funding gap because of the expiration of the previous operational referendum and some facilities, including Athens Elementary, that dates back to 1897. And while it's been updated, some of those major building systems are reaching the end of their service life. And therefore, especially a good hook here for folks that may not have any connection to the school, but may have went to that building. Really, there's a fork in the road. Continue to invest in this building or build an elementary addition onto the middle high school. So again, even if I don't have kids in school or if I'm not employed by you, that's my hook in to say, "Yeah, this might still affect me based on how I pay property taxes." And then it's very much hat in hand. Even though you're positioned for a
052potential November referendum, the purpose here is we have no idea if we're going to referendum. All we can say is we are going to survey, because you can't make that decision until after you get the data back. So right now it's all about hat in hand. We are here for your feedback. We're here for your input, because any plan has to reflect the priorities of taxpayers, and those decisions coming up in the next few months are going to shape everything from programs and staffing to facilities for years, if not decades to come. So really this is, hey folks, all we can say right now is we're going to survey. We have no idea what's coming up next. We can't make any decisions until we hear from you because you are our taxpayers and help us
053pay our bills. And then we go into what kind of confidentiality. Once folks know what this is, then they got to know how to take the survey. So right here, kind of in this open space where my mouse is blinking, that will be a unique access code, so that nobody can cook the books. And there's not even a perception that people can cook the books. Because once that one-time use code is used and I hit Finish, it expires. If I try to reenter that code, the system will basically say, "Thanks, but no thanks. We appreciate your voice, but your voice is not allowed to be any louder than anybody else's." We don't even want the perception that somebody took your survey dozens and dozens of times. So I can take it online or about, I
054guess maybe about 70% of people will take it online. However, about 70% of your 65 plus will choose to take it on paper, and being on a limited fixed income, by nature being senior citizens, we really want to make sure that that paper option is available. So anybody, whether they're a senior citizen or not, can fill out this paper copy to their heart's content, mail it directly back to us for processing. And if I do need an extra copy, I can call the district office and request either a paper or online code. We always want that option to be available. My anticipation is we will not get that many of them. We just finished up a project with Cedar Rapids, and they have about 70,000 households and got 12 calls for extra surveys. So we're
055certainly not expecting your phones to be ringing off the hook once this goes out. And then, some accommodations for Spanish speakers. So let me pause there because I'm going to take the next couple of pages in sets. Are there any questions about the purpose of the opening letter or how I came to this today? So... Rob, this is Andrea. I'm just going to make a statement before we scroll into page two. As Rob scrolls to the bottom of page one, you are going to see my name and the previous seated school board members. Because this work has been ongoing now for almost the past year, we felt it was important to represent those that had completed the work up until this point. We certainly respect and honor our new board members, but please know that's
056why we chose that their names are on the letter as an introduction. So just want to explain that to everyone. Okay. Page two is really about operations deck. So here, the name of the game here is to be very clear about from the survey respondent's perspective, what do you want from me? What problem are you asking me to solve? Because I can't give you feedback on a solution until I know what's going on, what problem you're experiencing, and what skin in the game you have so far. So whether that is the previous referendum expiring in 2023 and how much money is currently on the books from that referendum, experiencing increasing costs at the same time that you receive less federal funding. And we don't use the term revenue limit or revenue cap because very few
057folks know what that is. But we do want to describe the fact that the state limits the amount of money available to you. It used to increase with inflation, but it doesn't anymore. So had that practice not ended in 2009, Athens schools would have approximately $1.6 million each yearOr about $3,500, $3,600 per student. But again, that practice ended in 2009, which results in a funding gap of $600k or averaging $600k per year. And then noting as well, this is not an Athens thing. As of, what was it? 20 days ago, 21 days ago, 20 days ago, on election day, 88% of school districts in Wisconsin have done what you have done, which is to seek additional revenue authority from their constituents, from their voters, from their taxpayers. And then disclosing the fact that because it's
058half the cost, the projected mill rate is estimated to decline. So we can see this roughly stair step down here from $9.50 in '23/'24 to a projected $6.82 in '27/'28, which I think makes sense to people, right? If it's half the cost, I would expect my tax rate to go down. So we want to disclose that and then ask the question: Would you support an operational referendum that provides the district $600k each year for four years to maintain programs and services? And then allow folks to explain why they may not support the replacement referendum. In a moment, we're going to, I guess, literally turn the page to facilities. But let me pause here and see what questions you have about how the top and bottom of the operational page is set up. Can you scroll
059down to that chart again, please? Sure. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. I just wanted to see the- Yep ... wording by the chart. I saw Spanish up towards the top. Do Spanish-speaking families have to reach out for a Spanish copy of this? No. Good question. So those directions, despite not being a Spanish speaker, basically say that you can put in your code, and then once you're in, there's a little toggle button in the upper right. So I'll just switch from English, and then it says something like, "To take the school survey in Spanish, click here." So that's what the little instructions say there. So no, they don't need to request anything. It'll all be available for them through their browser, and it'll be ready to go that way. So only online option, though, for that?
060I'm assuming. Could we- Only the online option for that. Okay. Questions? All right. Let me go on to then... We have a few images and things here. So your facility challenges just take up a little bit more real estate. So then we have a page here about, again, what do you want me to solve as a respondent? What are you looking for me to do? What's wrong with what you currently got? So we disclose some of the issues with the current elementary school facility. So whether the classrooms being outdated, sections of the roof that need to be replaced, aging plumbing system, aging windows, exterior brickwork that has failed or is missing the mortar. Which means that the survey is coming to the community saying, basically, "What should we do next? Should we renovate the existing
061school or close that building and add onto the middle high school building to serve Athens elementary students?" Then most folks are going to say, "Well, sure, but what's the benefit?" Right? "Why would we want to do that? You tell me what the pros and cons are here." Well, a one-campus solution, that could mean staffing being used more efficiently, smoother transitions. It avoids renovations happening over multiple school years. And the cost to bring the building up to snuff is about 60% of the cost of adding on to the middle high school. And again, there's always those question marks when you get into walls that are, what is that? 129 years old now. So again, it's about 60% of the cost estimated as opposed to building fresh. Then again, basically saying, "We need your feedback. What would
062you like us to do here? Renovate or continue to invest in Athens Elementary or close the building and serve those students at the middle high school campus?" And the purpose here is to really separate variables. So what we didn't want to do is say, "Would you pay X amount to do this?" Or, "Would you pay X amount to do this?" And I believe my colleague, Scott, who's in Wylie to Fremont this evening, was unavailable. I think that's what we talked a little bit about last time, is we really want to make sure that if you hear no or hear yes, to understand why. So if we just packaged the plan and the numbers together, and you hear no or heard no, you might very reasonably come back and say, "Well, did people not like the
063plan or did they not like the cost?" So the purpose of this page is to isolate without numbers, do people want to step away from this building or not? Then we'll actually tie tax impacts to these in a couple of pages so that people know because they got to before they can make any decisions. That's all fine and dandy. Maybe I'll say yes. Maybe I'll say no. But what is this going to cost me based on how much property I have in the school district of Athens? So really the goal here is, again, to separate those variables, the money versus my preference in what we're going to do about it. And then I'll pause for feedback in just a moment again. But before we get to the money, then we got to tell people what
064we're going to do about it. So again, hat in hand here, because we don't know what the community is going to say, we want to disclose if the community prefers to keep the elementary school, here are some of the big-ticket items that need to be done, whether it's replacing the homeland systems, windows, brickwork, and tuckpointing there. Again, disclosing the total cost. Or again, if you want to build an elementary addition on the middle high school, absolutely, that's your prerogative as a respondent. Here are some of the big-ticket items we would do at a total estimated cost of $23 million while disclosing that this is notUnderline not affecting the students attending Maple Grove Charter. And then if I'm scratching my head a little bit and thinking, "Well, where are you going to put this on the
065high school campus?" With your partners, and Alex specifically, put together this little schematic here to show where the middle school, high school entrance would be. A separate Athens Elementary School addition. So it's kind of a two school under one roof model a little bit. So separate entrances and then the partition of the building right here to keep the grade levels separate so that people can kind of see, okay, where are you going to build the building? North side, south side, east side, west side, and so on. Let me pause here and see what questions you have about the setup for these two options. And I'll add a few more details while you're reflecting on what Rob has shared with you. So this is where our partnership with Performance Services has become very important. When they
066started their work with us in December, they brought Alex as the lead architect. Multiple architects and members of their team have been on site working very closely with John Higher, members of his department, doing tours, interacting with our principals and administration, gathering data. They've actually come, took a day, and did 3D design information. So you see just a small fraction of the potential work that the numbers would represent. So we just most recently talked about this with our business partners, both from PSI and from School Perceptions. If someone sees the price tag of $23 million to add on to this building, and I only see three or four items that that actually would encompass, please understand there's much more to that. We have multiple pages of information. But we had to take kind of the
067high-level information to give a general overview. Back to Rob's statement, only so many words are recommended for the survey. So we're giving a high-level overview, but there are many more details. So it's a basic summary whether we would consider as a community to potentially renovate and what are some of the highest needs to renovate the elementary school, or if we would have the addition on, here are some of the highest needs there. So just want to make sure you understand that as board members as well. Any questions? No questions. Okay. Then we separated them to the next page. Some of those things that regardless of which pathway or option I choose, are going to be tagged along anyhow. So whether that is Athens Middle High, there is some work there that needs to be done
068that's totally separate of the elementary project. So whether it's the sections of the roof, the kitchen updates, restrooms, CTE spaces, the failing base of the track, and so on. And then Maple Grove Charter as well. Roof sections, student restrooms, excuse me, and so on. And then we really want to do the math for people to show how this would come together, especially for the skimmers. If I go down pathway one, that's the renovate the current building, plus the $3.5 million at Maple Grove Charter, plus the $12.2 at Athens High, gives me a total of $29 spots. Again, those two rows stay the same because those are irrespective of the Athens Elementary School option. Here are the $23 million to add on to, plus the $3.5 and $12.2. Same. Got it. So we really want to
069show folks how we get to these numbers, because these are pretty important. Because this is what will be on a potential referendum ballot should you decide to pursue one of these options as a backup. The tax impacts won't be, that's just not the way that they're written, but the total numbers will be. So we really want to make sure we get the total cost out there for folks to begin to mirror what they would potentially see on a ballot. And again, all that's well and good, but here's where people really need to make up their minds. All of that is helpful, but we have to educate folks that to fund these, we need something different than what was described on page two. So an operational referendum can only be used for that. A building referendum
070is different. It allows you as a district to take out a loan or i.e. issue debt. The big number here is right in this row. This is how folks will make their decision basically on what they want to do next. But we want to remind people, if you want to renovate the elementary, plus the Maple Grove and middle high work, we'll repeat that number. Or if you want to add on to the middle high school, plus the other work, what that total number is. So that's a reflection of the previous page. And then the estimated annual property tax increase per, underline per $100,000 of current property value over what they're currently paying right now. So if somebody scratches their head and they stop at the post office or they stop at the grocery store and
071say, "Well, I don't know how much are my taxes going to go up?" Well, relative to what they're paying right now, if they decide to move forward with one of these, this is what the answer would be. And we recognize that nobody has a $100,000 home anymore, but it's the easiest way for people to do that multiplication on the $100k increase. So we really want to stress that it's per the $100k over the current level. And then people can tell you, "I would only support option one, the renovation pathway. I would only support two, the addition pathway. I'm good with either. I would support either no matter what you do." Or "No, I'm not going to support either option at this time. I don't support a building referendum." We disclose the fact that this is
072kind of similar to a mortgage. It's amortized over 26 years. We disclose the interest rates. And then much like the operational referendum, if you're undecided and you want to explain why, by all means, the open part here to do so. I am going to go into a different routing just a moment, but any other thoughts or questions on the tax impacts page specifically for the building referendum? I had a couple questions. So for that page- Mm-hmm. So it's amortized over however many years. So does that mean ... I'm just not sure it's clear to people taking the survey with the increase per $100,000 of property value That how long does that increase stick with them? Is that over the twenty-five years? Yeah. And it's a good question, and we've gone back and forth on this.
073The challenge you'll run into is it probably won't be whatever it is. It'll be multiple borrowings because you're limited by the state to take them out in twenty-year chunks. You may choose to do fees and pay some of that debt back early. Or you may choose to refinance. So what could be spread over twenty-six years could be twelve, fourteen, twenty, or something different than what you have. So it's kind of a best estimate, based on what the footnotes of Baird were. But you're right, we want this over twenty-six years, but it may very well not stick to that based on what you choose to do as a board and what you choose to levy come October with a new rate and new budget. Okay, that makes sense. And then my other question or my comment,
074I guess with the... Up in the improvements to middle school, high school specifically. Yep. The words- Yep. -update the kitchen and update the restroom sounds like you're remodeling it, but I know that those are because they actually need... There's coolers that are going to die, right? And there's plumbing that's not good. Mm-hmm. So just a comment. That update kind of just sounds like we want something super modern and exciting, and I don't think that's the case or the intention. So I don't know that we need to go into detail, but just so that, it's like these are necessary updates. They're not like a fun remodel with- Inky, yeah ... Egyptian marble. I don't know. How about this? Appliances. Fireplace in Andrew's office. Right. Let's see. Update the kitchen by replacing failing equipment and... Oh, let's
075see. I'm trying to think of a word that's not just updated. Renovating student restrooms, with new plumbing and fixtures. Sure, something like that. Partitions? Okay. Okay. Thank you. Perfect. Okay. And I can take that. Here we go. Do you want to take, have renovate versus renovating? Oh, yeah. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Power. Do you have an English background? I'm so hired. I had... Any more questions? Anything else stick out for questions that I can make sure you've taken care of? Nope, I don't think so. Okay. Then finally, we will collect some broader data. So this is kind of a, "Hey, I'd love to tell you how you're doing beyond anything that is related to my wallet." So overall, how are we doing in terms of delivering a high-quality education, communication, managing firms, building
076pride in the community, and then an overall net promoter score. We don't call it that, so we don't get sued. But that's what it is. It's a net promoter-like question. Not only is this valuable from a strategic long-term planning, value in that case, but it's also helpful if you do hear "No," is there something that stands out that you know you need to fix prior to taking something potentially to a ballot? So we have found that these are pretty well correlated to my willingness to support a referendum. So if I don't feel like I'm ever hearing anything, if I don't feel well communicated with, and this score is a little lower, it might help you figure out what needs to be fixed prior to taking something to a referendum on some overall satisfaction. And then
077finally, maybe outside of the tax impacts, the most important set of questions. These are the demographics. We want to make sure we're getting a good age representation. Because of where you're located, obviously, I can live in a couple of different districts, especially if I'm staff or if I open enroll into the district. Excuse me. So all staff members are going to get a copy of the survey. And you may have very, very influential staff members who act as ambassadors on your behalf but just don't live here. We want them to know about it. We want them to be able to answer questions, but we're going to filter out anybody who doesn't live within the school district of Athens because they can't vote on this. So when you get this report back in June, we'll be
078removing them from anything related to the dollars or elections. Again, might be influential, but if they can't vote there, we got to remove them. We'll slice and dice based on municipality. Two questions that we know we need, and it'll make more sense when you get your report. We're going to isolate how staff feel. We're going to isolate how parents feel. But then the most important group is the non-parents, non-staff. They'll make up about 75, maybe even 80% of any given community. So the no-no here is the biggest and will weight your support appropriately. And then whether it's referendum or otherwise, fourth graders went down to the Capitol or whatever the case may be, we want to make sure that you're not yelling into the wind regardless of what you're trying to communicate. So how would
079you like to receive information from us? People can choose the way they like. I wouldn't be surprised if mailed newsletters comes back from the top. We've seen a huge pendulum swing back to that over the last few months. People's inboxes are a disaster. They don't want to look at their inboxes. We've seen a lot of swing back to, "If you want me to know something, mail it to me." But we'll find that out through your survey. And you can also slice and dice this based on age again as well. So if your senior citizens are seeing a different method of communication than something else, you can kind of cater how you send messages out depending on who you need to direct.So that'll take care of our demographics, and then we're back to page eight. Nothing
080really there because, again, this will go out from the post office. Just in case this is the way it lands up in somebody's mailbox, we want people to know that this is a school survey. But this is our careful page to make sure we leave enough space for the post office. That's kind of what I got for you. So let me zoom back out. The goal again is to send this off to our proofer tomorrow. We'll give him about 24 to 48 hours to do his work, and he always catches something. A missed punctuation mark or an extra comma or whatever the case may be. So we turn him loose to do his work, to check what we have here, and then we'll be off to the print. Most likely as early as Wednesday morning
081to make sure we stick to that timeline that Andrea had at the beginning. Thoughts, questions, comments, concerns, though, on the demographics or any other section of the survey? I don't think so. Good. Yeah. Rob, we don't have any additional questions. I want to thank you for your time this evening representing School Perceptions. I'd like to thank Alex and Jerry for representing Performance Services and publicly recognize our partnership well with both of these entities, and the internal team and the board. Thank you for pursuing these options to gather more information and, in particular, to hear from our community some important feedback that will help to inform our future decisions. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Rob. Yeah. Give it a little thought tomorrow, we'll wrap it up, and we'll get it off to the printer
082ASAP. Sounds great. Thank you. Thanks, Rob. Okay. Take care. Bye. Alex and Jerry, do you have any comments, anything you'd like to share since you've joined us this evening? Well, I'd just say on behalf of Performance Services, we appreciate the partnership. You did such a great job hitting on really the timeline of what's brought us to today, and it's really been nice to see the interaction between both teams working through this, getting us to where we are today. So, thank you for that. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Okay. We're going to do our next agenda item. We're going to do a little bit of a swap. We have an Athens Elementary report first this evening. That's right. Thank you. Can you pull that mark? Yeah. Yeah. You've got the clicker. Is it on here? Just give me
083a second. All right, so this is Autism Awareness Month in April, and we've had some different events going on at school. Mrs. Mann, our speech and language teacher, visited all of our schools or all of our classrooms, and they did an autism awareness project. And so I have her flyer that will be out at the end, too, that she sent home to all our families on Seesaw. And Copper, was it two months ago, I think, already, Copper did a phenomenal presentation. He worked with his specialized teacher, Ms. Park, and his teacher, Ms. Shelling, and they created a PowerPoint, and he did so good. He did so good on it that I knew who I was going to ask to do an April presentation on autism awareness. So he and I have worked together. We shortened
084his presentation down. I think he's a little disappointed that it's just you here. He thought the whole school district was going to be here tonight because he said we could invite everybody, right? Yeah. So this is Copper Spangler, and this is his dad, Paul, and he's a pinch hitter here for the parent tonight. Because Mom was going to talk, but Mom's taking care of some other things, so Dad is doing a stand-in. So, we'll guide him through, and I said just ad-lib as where you feel. So, Copper, are you ready? Okay. You can stand here, and then if you want, you can just turn as you need to. Okay, cool. I'm Copper. Learning together, thinking differently. By me, Copper Spangler, obviously. Autism awareness. April is Autism Awareness Month. And the Athens Elementary School principal, Mrs.
085Redmond, asked if I would help to teach others more about autism since she said I was an expert. So I'm here tonight to help you learn more about autism through my experiences and to tell you ways we can all learn together, even though we may think differently. What is autism, you ask? Autism is different way of thinking and experiencing the world. Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain. About one out of 31 children in the United States of America have been diagnosed with autism. Autism looks different in everyone because nobody with autism is the same. Who am I? I'm Copper, and I have autism, but that is just one part of who I am. There's a lot moreI'm a fifth grader moving on to middle school later this year,
086and you need to know some things about me. I love games and parties. My favorite subject is phy ed. I'm really good at ELA, math, and games. This is my family. Me, Copper. Dad, right here. . Mom, right? Mom. Paul. No, we call him Farts. And Saoirse. My autism superpowers. People with autism often have special abilities. Autism gives me some special strengths. I notice details others might miss. I'm really focused when I'm interested in something. I remember lots and lots of facts about things I love. I think in creative and unique ways. I'm honest and say what I mean. Fun fact, I taught myself how to read when I was three years old. I could read before I could talk. Things that are challenging. People with autism may have challenges with things that people without
087autism don't. Some things that are harder for me than they might be for you are understanding social rules that aren't clearly explained. Loud noises or flickering bright lights can be overwhelming. Changes in my routine can make me feel anxious. Looking at eyes when talking, powerful smells, uncomfortable clothes, and sometimes understanding jokes or sarcasm. How to be a great friend. People with autism want to have friends and are great friends, too. Some suggestions for being a great friend are, be patient if I need extra time to answer. Say what you specifically mean. I might not get hints. Include me in activities. Ask if I need help instead of assuming. Give me space if I need a break. Stand for me if someone is being unkind. Explain things that I did that you did not like, so
088that I will not accidentally do it again. Here are things that don't help. Please don't make fun of stimming or other actions, call names, or make rude comments. Force eye contact. Get upset if I need to leave a loud situation. Please don't touch or hug me without asking first, nor assume I do not want to be friends. Your turn, Dad. Awareness. Continue to learn more about autism and the neurological differences that affect social communication. Advocation. Focus on the child first and learn what helps them be successful. Parent communications. Use both formal and informal communications to develop and maintain positive relationships between the adults on a student's team. In formal IEP meetings and plans, Seesaw notes, notebook communications, et cetera. So, this is where I'm going to give Dad, if there's anything else that you, Dad,
089would want the board to know- Sure ... from a parent perspective, or teachers to know from a parent perspective, that this is your opportunity, if you have anything to say. I guess, when it comes to autism, as Copper already said, it's a very wide spectrum. There's so many facets and variations of it, and so no two children with autism are ever going to be the same. I have two sons with autism, and they are nothing alike. And they both have different challenges, different strengths. One of the things Copper didn't fess up to, because he's a little shy about it, is the kid has perfect pitch. Oh, let's not talk about it. We can't share that. We can share that. And he can hear to the megahertz. And we just discovered that when he was three.
090He didn't start speaking until he was four, four and a half, in full sentences. So, sometimes with autism, the real challenge is to discover the hidden superpower, because they're not going to just come out and show it. But if you can dig just a little deeper and scratch that surface, spend a little time getting to know them on their terms, they're going to show you stuff you can't imagine. And we're all different. I hope that I helped you learn that everyone's brain works differently. Remember, some people are great at math, others aren't artistic. Some love sports, others prefer reading. Some are outgoing, others are quiet or shy. Having autism is just another way of being different. Different is not less. Different is just different. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks for learning about autism.
091Nice job, Copper. Good job. On behalf of Mrs. Mann- Yes, I found the issues ... would you... You did a great job reading, too. That was very good. Would you pass one of those out to all the board members on behalf of Mrs. Mann? Sure. Thanks. That way. That's fine. There's plenty. You can get one. Oh, I'll take... Yeah, I'll take. Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks, Copper. You're welcome. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Copper. You're welcome. You are so very welcome. Thank you. Is there anyone else I'm missing? You have extra. You can have one. I'll take one. Lots of extras. All right. Thank you, Copper. I'm going to take your picture and then you better go home and go to bed because you have school tomorrow. I will. My kids are starving. Thank
092you, guys. Thank you. Thanks, guys. All right, so we're going to go back to Maple Grove, and then we'll revisit Joy after your report, Robin. So, we'll do Robin's report right now from Maple Grove Charter School. Okay. So, um, as- Fire report. Fire. Not sure who tapped that one. But- ... our principal report is in your packet. Just going to highlight overall that we've, um... A lot of things around maple syrup and everything. So we've, um, been able to wrap up our syrup season and, um, we just had our community pancake breakfast yesterday at the Hamburg Town Hall. We served over 418 people. So it was once again a wonderful success. The community, both Athens and Hamburg and all over, just come out for the event and just wonderful to be able to make those
093connections and talk to people. And some of you were here when I handed them out, but otherwise you have it in front of you. We are also inviting the board, our first-grade teacher, Ms. Eden, would like to invite the board to our Mother's Day pancake breakfast, as well. That is next Friday, starting at 9:00. So, that is what our first graders traditionally have had for many years, with the Mother's Day pancake breakfast, and so they bring their parents, and we invite both the school board and our governance board to this event. So, anything else that you have questions on in my report, I'd be happy to expand on. Otherwise, I'm not going to take up too much of your time. Thank you. Okay. So we'll do Athens Middle and High School, and then when Joy
094gets back, we'll see if she has anything else to add as well. So Julie, it's up to you. All right. Just a lot of things going on for our kids right now in these last couple months of school, with music festivals that we've just completed the last couple weeks. We've got some music concerts coming up. So for those of you that are looking for something indoors to do, I know Mother Nature's not been too cooperative of late, but next week, Monday, we will host the middle school band and choir next Monday, 7:00 PM. And then our high school band and choir will host their spring concert on Wednesday, May 6th. So, some things to be aware of there. I do want to give a shout-out to... I'm trying to think here. So the Athens Area
095Fire and Ambulance Department for coming out last week Friday to help us conduct that mock accident. I know they posted pictures, and I let them because it really was their idea. Judy Wisey had reached out to me months ago to get things set up, and we were able to work with some of our students to help be our actors for all of that. Again, Mother Nature, not so cooperative, but the kids did a nice job. We had a nice group of students out. All of our kids, for the most part, were out on the bleachers. They had walked past it and then came up and sat. Judy Wisey walked them through what was going to happen. So everything, basically, it was almost as if they came upon an accident and the steps that took place
096after that. So she fluffed a little too soon, but he was here with another county deputy that helped us with that. They were the first ones on scene, and she talked about how the first, oh, they call it the brush truck, I think, right? It would come out first for our fire and ambulance crew, and then followed by another fire truck, and then the ambulance and all of that. And the purpose for that being that they could set up the staging and prevent any more accidents. So they really did a nice job explaining how that all comes about. I don't know. It always chokes me up a little bit, right? Those we just never know, timing-wise. Right before prom, we always want our kids to be mindful of the fact that paying attention is super
097important, and they did a nice job of saying it was in that particular situation, the sun was in the eyes of the driver, and they didn't see the biker. And it can-... happen in an instant. So just a huge shout-out to them for all of their efforts in putting that together. Yeah, we realized the last time we did one, I think was nine years ago when my oldest daughter was in school. So we'd like to put that on a more regular rotation, maybe once every five. That way, at some point in their six through 12 career, they get to witness something like that. So we'll kind of keep that on the docket. Mm-hmm. So kudos to them. Shout out to our parents of our junior class, Mrs. Bunkelman, for advising our junior class and putting
098on a wonderful prom this past weekend. So that went off very well. Yesterday, I was blessed to be a part of two different banquets. First one was our distinguished alumni, which is just always nice to be there when we honor various folks from the community that have graduated from Athens High School to see what they've done and where they've gone, and to bring that back. So, we had a couple educators on the docket who had 30-plus years of education. I said, "Well, I think I can hit the 30 mark," but one of them had 40. I'm like, "Ooh, I got a lot of work to do here , so maybe I can't retire all too soon." Mm-hmm. Anyway, they did a nice job of presenting that. Also, Kevin Frame, local man, of course, as many
099of you know, with a local business and homegrown and trying to build up the community. And then one of our fire and EMS gentlemen, Brian Shomer, if I've got his name right. Just going on to do great things. So just to keep in mind as you think about people that you know within our community that have risen a little bit above just the average citizen maybe to do some things, please consider nominating them next February for that Distinguished Alumni Award. So that was really nice. And our FFA, so proud of them. We had 61 members, if I remember the count. Chris, you were at that as well yesterday, right? Yes. So I think that's what they reported- 61 ... that we had 61 members in the house. They recognized, we had a senior group of
100officers that is really leaving. So that left way for a lot of new officers to be installed yesterday. So they're right in line with our board members here. We had a whole installation coming here. And the kids did a great job with that. Mrs. Bunkelman does a fabulous job. Different Mrs. Bunkelman. I have Mrs. Bunkelman 1 and Mrs. Bunkelman 2. It's a thing. But the kids did a nice job. So for me, it also reminded me how quickly the end of the school year is coming. Mm-hmm. I get a little choked up for all these things. I'm like all these beginning of the end for the seniors and stuff like that. So just something to be considering with that. So again, if you ever get out to get to any of these events where our
101kids are participating, I know I get to the ballgames and things like that. I try to be present for a lot of those things. So yeah, it gets to senior year, and oh, it's a little harder. Mm-hmm. But otherwise, there's other dates and things coming up. The flower sale, speaking of FFA, that will be coming up, not this week, but next week. So it's usually Mother's Day weekend. So mark your calendars for that if you'd like to load up on plants and flowers. Yeah, we've got eighth grade graduation coming up in May. That'll come after our next board meeting yet, so we've still got some time. Oh, the other job of the clerk I was going to mention before is you get to sign the diplomas. Okay. Important job. Yeah. I was actually going to
102like put really Put some? Yeah. Good, yeah. So, all right. Thank you. Any questions for us? Okay. Thank you. Joy, would you like to give any more comments on your report? You had a wonderful presentation there. Didn't she do a great job? Great job. Thank you, and good stuff. I guess just take a look. I tried to put lots of pictures in there and tried to highlight different things happening. It's been a busy month, a good month. Just a shout-out to all of our admin assists this last week or so, because we would not survive. We wouldn't thrive. We would survive, we just wouldn't thrive without all of them. So huge thanks. And, again, to Mrs. Mann, she put that together. She sent the autism flyer and sent it out to all families tonight, and
103she just did a really cool school project. So thank you to people who just stand up and say, "This matters, and we're going to make it matter to everybody." So I appreciate that. Our YES group, I just really appreciate. They're small but mighty. They do a lot of good things. We just had the book fair, and they're putting together some more things for the end of the year, so it'll be a busy time as well. Karen Heard here in fourth grade, that's the larger picture there. Fourth grade's headed to Madison soon, and so they will meet up with her down there. And then otherwise, there's just been a lot of good action going on here. Shout out to Anoon Colo. She is our shared art teacher, and back when we had Shrek a couple of
104months ago, she was there and she heard the actor from Hollywood come, and so she took that and she ran with it, and she had the third graders make sock puppets. And she connected that to that larger, and then connected it to our Check and Connect by having the kids perform during their Check and Connect group. So I just wanted to give her a really big shout-out because she is really busy in everybody's building, and for her to just go, "This is important and we're going to do this together." So great to her. But yeah, it's good stuff. Good stuff is happening. Thank you. Very great. Thanks to all of you. We'll move on to then the information and discussion items. And just for board members, just reference, like these items Are where we get
105to receive information, discuss information, and then later under number 14 is when we'll be able to vote on those items. So the discussion will happen now, and the voting will happen later in the agenda. So this is Sam Reed, Technologies Department, Print Services Contract and Updates. Yeah. So I usually do this once a year. I don't know. Oh, I just wanted to introduce, this is Sam Reed. He is our school district technology consultant, so he supports our technology department district-wide. And as he is going to share this evening, he is going to go over a plan for the technology department, some current needs, and then forecast some things for the future. And he also ran a comprehensive RFP process for print services. So he'll be addressing the next two agenda items. Thanks, Sam. So first
106one up is the print RFP. Every three to five years, schools go out for printing services for their copy machines and printers. This is not dealing with paper. That is separate. And we've been with E.L. Johnson, I think for almost eight years now, or longer than that, but it's our current contract. We had a five-year, and then we extended it for three more years after that. So we are up this summer. And so we took the opportunity to write an RFP and sent it to E.L. Johnson, Ryne, and also Barnheim out of Marshfield. And each one of them gave us back a price for what the new devices across the entire district would be, because we have devices in varying states, but it's nice to get them all on the same page, especially for looking
107at a new contract. E.L. Johnson did come in the cheapest, and with the manufacturer Ricoh, so we've been moving away from our HP printers and copiers that we currently have. So the annual cost for E.L. Johnson for the device lease was $8,700. And then based on our average print usage, we pay per page that is printed. Different for color, different for black and white. And so when you add all those in for our average utilization for a year, that gets you to those three numbers on top, the $20,115.63. So overall, compared to our last contract, we're about $10,000 less a year in savings compared to our last contract. There's a lot of things that factor into that. But one of the biggest ones is Ricoh and Konica Minolta, the two big manufacturers, are being really
108competitive with state and local government pricing. Our rates also went down significantly, as well for our black and white and color. That's good news. Yes. But now we have time for questions, if the board has any. Yeah, first for print RFPs. For print. Anything that you want to ask, anything you want to know about, hello. I'm just curious. Does that per page pricing, does that include consumables? Or I guess what all is... Like, is our paper not part of that, or is part of that? I'm just curious. Paper, and I think paper is really the only thing that's not included in that. I think staples is basically the only other consumable in that. So bottom line would exceed that number somewhat as an overall budget line item. But once you added in paper. Yeah. Once
109you add it in, it would be a little higher. I'm just curious. We usually go out every year to find what we need for that on paper from our vendor. Yes, from CSA. Yeah. Little familiar, kind of get with the print leasing structure. Yep. Mm-hmm. Yep. So the brand is a different brand than we have now. It's like Ricoh versus- Yes. Are the functions, as far as the teachers and everything using them in the buildings, are the functions similar? Like, as high of quality and all the things that they can do now? Yes. So one of the biggest complaints that we had, surveying staff and administrators, was our current copiers are slow. And so this option helps us to bump those speeds up significantly, and that saves time at the copier but also allows us
110to decrease a copy machine as well in order to save some time in the hallways and some space and dollars. So Ricoh is one of the major manufacturers besides HP and Konica Minolta. They just have really good state contracts, and it's something that E.L. Johnson has been deploying for years now, so we're really familiar with it. So staples, three-hole punch, and we are adding a booklet finisher onto each office as well, or a three-fold finisher, not a booklet. So we can have machines fold for us as they print off, so we don't have to have a person doing that. We can stuff envelopes and send them. That's nice. It's a five-year lease, too? Yes, five-year lease on this one. There was three other options. E.L. Johnson worked with us really well. They gave us the
111base option, which everyone was bid against, and then when they did come in the cheapest, I asked for two other options. The base option was to decrease by two copiers in the high school. We have five copiers in the high school. We were going to go down to three, one in the office and then two in the hallways. The other two options included slower devices for option number two, but you can keep all of your locations, which was a little bit more money. And then the option three was to keep the same speed of devices that they proposed but add one more back in to hopefully alleviate some staffing issues and especially at the beginning of the year when some teachers need to print a lot. Right. And so that's what option three was, and
112they were all within $1,000 of each other a year. So that's all laid out in the forecastSo my recommendation is to approve that later on for option three. That would be the $8,747.84, plus the additional for the three hole punch kits, which are not part of the original RFP, but we added in afterwards after seeing they were in use on the Walkers. So the next one up is student devices. This is something we usually do in June or July. This year, technology is hitting very expensive point of the year and only going up. And so I asked to be able to present this earlier on, and instead of waiting for July so then we can get a purchase, we might get it here in August, but most of the time, these things are taking 60
113to 90 days to ship now, so it wouldn't be in time for the new school year. I asked to purchase them earlier on in the school year. So that way, it gives our tech Trevor access and time to actually deploy them and get them set up for the new school year and to get them here. The cost right now for 80 devices, so we have would be 42,560. That was before we got back, actually. So I actually had that updated and that's in your board packet. I got a discount of about $70 to $80 a device from Acer approved. So that brings that total cost down for 95 devices. That's with the additional devices now to be $40,891.80. This is higher than last year that we paid, but right now, devices are on average $150
114or $20 more than last year. And we're talking about a $500 device right now. That's quite a bit of money. Mm-hmm. We're hoping that this is a one-year kind of thing. A lot of it goes into supply surcharges and things like that. But this will give us a good price and get us locked in before all the other major schools start buying Chromebooks up in the next few months. And then, we'll be rotating our two grade levels down to the first and second grade at the elementary schools of our current devices that we have. So my ask would be to approve the quote that you guys have in your packet for $40,891.80. So those are the two. I guess any questions on that? Is there any savings if you would have a consortium with the
115other local small schools? So say if our 95, Edgar would get 95, and Stratford would get 95, is there a cost savings doing it that way, by bulk buying? That is something I've looked into since I helped deal with a lot of those schools around the area. As of right now, no, not with Chromebooks. Got it. Typically when they give you that discount, it's about 75 to 100 devices. If we hit that, it is going to be whatever that discount is. Okay. So we've hit that, so a lot of schools have. Yep. That's a good question. So these are not action items. These are just technology updates. So the first one would be staff devices. We have most of our staff now with new Dell devices. We still have a few left that were not
116end of life yet. So those will be purchased this summer, and then we also will be purchasing out of common school funds, two devices for sub checkouts and different things like that that are needed in the buildings. Those are all bid out on Midwestern Higher Education Compact state contracts, which are really nice contracts. But again, these are also going up at least $100 to $200 a device since last year. And it's only going up more. So these, we'll be waiting until July to purchase for the new school year, because they're not critical to be in before school starts. So we're not approving that tonight. Nope, just an estimate of where we might be at. Okay. Depending on how things go. Mm-hmm. Network upgrades. So our Wi-Fi, we had upgraded at the elementary schools last year.
117I believe that was a significant improvement to what we had. The high school is up next this year, and that would complete our wireless refresh. So we have 44 new devices. This was all bid out with federal E-rate funds for schools. We pay 30% of that given cost for those, so it's a good discount. And we don't use the money, we lose it, and this is one of the things we desperately need. And so we try to use those funds over a course of four to five years to spread it out a little bit. This would be year one of the new money. They give you new money every five years on that. So the switches that we would have to run the Wi-Fi, we're good there till 2028 to start replacements. And then one
118of the items to note is we will be getting internet in a little press box June 2026, for any kind of puddle or video or stats there. Network updates for the firewall, which is what we use to access the internet. It's an old device, installed in 2018, but is still currently supported. So this would be a plan of replacement for next summer, so summer 2027. And then our servers, we have two, three. All of our servers have been replaced now. The camera server was supposed to be an item we replaced this summer. That did die. So we replaced that and got a new camera system in that's mobile friendly and we can access on MacBooks. Everyone in our facilities can access the cameras now on any device they choose. But inHaving that hardware failure did
119actually save us around $8,000 from the prices I've seen on those new servers that have been quote in the last month, even it's only been since February. So the prices have increased that much on this stuff. So looking ahead, so this summer we continue our interactive board refresh. We refresh about five interactive boards a year, just to kind of get them on a cycle. And then two gradebooks of Chromebooks, the high school Wi-Fi upgrade, and then also our print lease. The following summer is a smaller summer, just in terms of devices, but we'll have five more interactive boards, Chromebooks, and then the firewall. And then '28, we'll start upgrading our staff devices again, along with some switches. The switches and the firewall will both be available to use E-rate money for, so those should be
120discounted when the time comes to that. Some of the things that we haven't currently budgeted for, which is part of the long-term building feasibility studies and stuff like that, the CESA presentation mentioned last year and continuing on, is our paging systems at all three schools are needing upgrades for the announcements over the intercoms. The phone system is starting to show its age, where that needs to be probably refreshed as well, along with our physical cameras. We replaced the server for those, but the cameras themselves, most of them are going five to seven years or older. So we're going to start seeing hardware failures that are out of warranty. So those are three big-ticket items that we'll probably be discussing more so later on. The last item I have to note, which is not on here,
121is we are upgrading the Maple Grove internet connection this summer to hopefully reduce a lot of the downtime we've been seeing with the internet out there. When the internet goes out, we lose cameras, phones, any kind of emergency services. It goes down. And that's happened quite a few times this year. So we made the decision to upgrade that system to hopefully reduce some of the complexities in the internet connection to make that more reliable. Any other questions or comments? What is available out at Maple Grove as far as internet access? Not a lot. So right now, we use actually, I think, three different providers out there to get us to the internet in some way, shape, or form, in a cost-effective manner. Okay. This summer, we are going down to one provider, Spectrum, who actually
122will be building out fiber to get out there. That's over the course of the longer term. That is also E-rate eligible, so we pay a portion of that. It was not cost-effective when we first brought in Maple Grove to do that kind of systems. I wasn't sure if that was part of Mount Tecumseh's fiber build-out for that area. I know I got within- Yeah ... a few miles. Yeah, it's those extra few miles that cost a lot of money. So... Any other questions from the board? Thank you so much. Thank you. That was a great presentation. All right. Next, we have the fencing project at Athens Elementary. John Heyer is going to share with you an overview of the need to replace the fence at Athens Elementary. Thanks, John. All right. I'm John Heyer, the
123building and ground supervisor. If you don't know me, that's where. On the screen there is the fencing project around our Athens Elementary School. I believe the purpose of this new fence will be the safety and security during recess and playtime for all of our students, and just knowing that we have them in a safe spot and position. In your board packet, you have three quotes from the fenced area, and a map to follow. I'm requesting approximately 800 feet of fencing to be installed around the recess area, door A, which is on the right side of your screen, around the north side, back to door E. So any time a child gets let out for recess or on and off the bus, they will be in the enclosure. The only two accesses will be on the
124south side of the building, and there's two doors there. That is where children get dropped off and picked up. About 600 feet of a six-foot high fence, and that's the blue ground there will be the six-foot high fence. 200 feet of 10-foot high fence, that's the orange on your top of your screen. There's four gates. Three of the four gates will be six-foot walk gates. The yellow, green, and the other yellow by door E, bus pick-up. And then a gate by the playground in case of an emergency, we can get out between there and the ball fence. And the red gate will be a 30-foot rolling gate on the north side that will be efficient for food services to come in, or if we have events for people for parking, because if you haven't driven
125past it now, I got a makeshift fence just to kind of reroute the few- But it has worked many times. It has worked. We've heard it many times over. The six-foot gate, you'll have a double latch system. It's easy for adults to operate and even accessible for older students in an emergency who need to get out. They're not getting locked in. It's accessible to get everybody out. The 10-foot high section of the fence, the orange fence, is where our kickball and a lot of our sports get playedAnd we have a numerous amount of balls that fly out into the traffic, so it'll keep them from going out there and a student or somebody darting out into the road are a safety issue. We also have a pretty significant amount of fence in our inventory through
126numerous projects from our baseball field getting torn down, and I went to all the vendors and I showed them what we had and we can reuse anything that is in great shape, top rail and a lot of the six-foot fence. There isn't much 10-foot fence, but they all agreed that the prices that they gave that are on their quotes are going to be if we use nothing extra, and then we will remove the old fencing, which I will lead that project, and we can have a cost savings on that and reusing the old fence. I think the old rolling gate is laying out back over there too. We might be able to utilize that, and we can save quite a bit of money that way. We can hang proper signage up, like play at your
127own risk. We're not liable because this, as you all know, the playground will be used by more than just school kids. There's weekends, summers, all the time, and you can hang the proper signs up so it's not a liability anymore on our school. The plan is to get it approved and start the project to be done early this summer. Yeah. Any more questions for me? Concerns? I'll answer to the best of my knowledge. The rolling gate planning on being locked throughout the school day? I don't know about locked, but there'll be a latch on it to- Just for, what kind of system to open it? Is it literally easy enough to roll open? Yes. Okay. Just push it open. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Hard enough for the kids not to be able to screw
128with it, but- If you go out to Maple Grove, they have the same type of gate, not as long, but that's fairly simple to roll along. Yeah. Okay. I just sometimes- There's a latch on there you can- Yeah. And then have we thought about, with the liability concern, keeping these gates locked in the summer? Because I've been at a lot of ball tournaments and that playground equipment gets beat on in the summer bad, and I know it's nice to keep it open to the public, but at what point-- We're looking for new playground equipment, and I would be more concerned if we were putting new playground equipment in with it. But at some point, if the referendum goes where we renovate or nothing, and we end up putting new playground equipment there, we may have
129to look at locking that up all summer long and keeping the kids off of it. And there will be an option for that. There will be probably a spot you can lock it with a lock- Yeah ... during the summertime. Just something for thought down the road because if we're going to invest in a playground setup, I get it, it's for the public good, but also it's for the kids during the school year as well. We have to make sure that it's available for them when they need it in August through November when the snow flies, and then once again, when it's nice out again, hopefully in February one of these years where it's nice for the record either. But just a thought. If we're going to invest in all the fencing, that's an option
130we have moving forward. Yeah. Well, definitely. It does get utilized a lot in the summer. Correct. And it serves its purpose, but you're right, it does get abused- Yes ... pretty hard. I like the fencing. It will probably help with some of the abuse. You won't have kids- Yeah ... I don't know. My only concern is that parents, "Oh, it's fenced in. I can just throw my kid in there and walk away now." It's true. Yeah. And I don't know if down the road, maybe, say, we go to one campus and then a resale on it for kids- Daycare ... daycare kids. Yeah. Nursing home for kids. Yeah. You don't think you'll repurpose that fence? Oh, you could. We could theoretically, quite frankly, yeah. Yeah. But I believe there's quite a bit of stuff in
131our inventory, in the new section that got damaged by the milk truck we can reuse. I think we're going to be reusing a lot of material we already have, so it's cost saving what we got. So like I said, the quotes that I got is everything brand new and install. Is there any... The prices between the middle one from Gilman is quite a bit higher. Yeah. Is that one, in your opinion, higher quality, or it's just the same thing but their prices are just higher? I was struck by that too. Yeah. I think he just started his smaller business, and- Sure ... I don't know why his prices are so high like that. They all got the same information. Yeah. So they're really all doing the same- Yeah ... thing. I know the two quotes
132that are pretty close together, one was a different square footage of money you get back if you use their... If you had your own fence or the rail and also- Mm-hmm. The refund rate was different. The other thing I noticed between the two is almost close to a 200-foot disparity in what they gave as lengths of material used. Yeah. So I'm wondering, is the price given based on the number of lineal footage that they quoted, and if lineal footage on that one is corrected? If so, that would put probably them in a little better position. Yeah. The other question I had is, technically all of these quotes are expired. In terms of honoring that pricing- Yeah You know, a lot of like this countryside, they only, I think they want the holding price for five
133days from submittal. I talked to them, and Andrea and I, we had talked about this a while back, so I wanted to get some quotes to see where we're at. And I kind of talked to him about, "It's not going to go within the 10 days of what you're saying has to be done. Will you honor it?" And they said yes. Or they didn't say yes, they said, "We look at it, and if we do one side it will someday." Yeah. So before approval then, we probably need something in writing up to date. Yeah. Current dates on it, just so everything's- Yep. So we have to carefully word this motion then. Yeah. Another option perhaps could be if the board, with John's guidance, wants to choose one of the vendors, you could give that feedback
134back to John, not take the approval and formal action tonight, and then next month at night. That doesn't delay the project too much. I guess I'd like you to speak to that. You could bring back an updated current quote letting the vendor know like the board date, and that way- Okay ... it could, that might be an option. You won't start this till school is done anyway. Yeah, it'll be... Yeah. So we can technically approve our fencing project, and then approve the contract at the May meeting. So that's how we should word that. We should... A motion to approve a fencing contract. We'll select the contractor at the next month's meeting. Of the fencing project, right? The contractor we can select at the May meeting. So tonight we will just approve a fencing project, not
135the contractor. And then at that point, we can know what our May meeting is. We can get the solicitations in the day or two before we can have that approved, and then the contract can be signed, so we're within the parameters and all done with the contract then. Let them know when that meeting is- Yeah ... so we can RSP that one. Quotes are due on, if our meeting's on Monday, then we do that Friday. We can approve on Monday. The contract will be signed Monday night, and that way it's covered. So then a good plan. Mm-hmm. I guess in the meantime, a question I would pose based on the security quote was, their number of six-foot high fence is substantially higher than everyone else's. Um, if you give them- Yeah ... an opportunity to
136double-check measurements. I'll have to reach out, yes. And I saw that too, and boy, one guy did- One did a satellite measurement. Yeah, one guy did a satellite measurement. The other guy walked the... Or- Okay ... he walked it with a wheel, and... Eh. You know, on the satellite, I know it isn't perfect, but according to the satellite measurement I did, they are about 160 feet strong. Okay. That's quite a bit. Yeah. Yep. Mm. Considering how they measured though. So they maybe followed the curbing on the playground. I walked it with all of them and I showed them- Okay ... walked and showed them exactly where to go. Because as quoted, they are in the middle price-wise, but they also have a higher- Mm-hmm ... per foot- Per foot ... credit amount on the reused
137material. So- Yeah ... kind of feel like we need more information to make- Yeah. I'll have- ... a more informed decision. If you guys want this for another meeting, I will get another quote from them, have them on the scope old project and take the action then because- Our meeting is the 18th, correct, for May? I think so. It's a Thursday. Yes. So then they would have... Their analysis of those would have to be in the 15th. By Friday, 5:00, by Friday the 15th. That way we still fall within the 10-day period, correct? I think the first one said five days. School's done. So we want it on the Wednesday. And maybe that's what we need to ask for, 10. Yeah. Well, do we have to have it on the Wednesday for the Wednesday meeting?
138The initial packet can come out. That's fine. We can amend that. Okay. That's just the notification. So we can always update that data Friday or even Monday morning, send it out. It's going to be a recommendation anyway. We'll have time to look at the three submittals, but... I think if you're clear with them too, that we are reviewing this on this date. And I did tell them, when I got the quotes from them, I said, "Probably not going to meet until April. I just want to get a price down to, and then you'll have to review it." He said, "Yeah, we'll review it, but it shouldn't change much." We'll see how much it changes. And the other thing that might be helpful to get a accurate bottom line number is just get a good estimate
139as you can of how much material is reusable- Yeah ... in terms of footage. They might not be possibly exact, but- Yeah. They basically told me this. I took them and showed them the rolls we had, and they said, "Well, we won't know until we roll it out and we're not going to roll them all and check them. We're going to do that-" Yeah "... as we..." Okay. "When we get there, we'll roll them out, see what we got, what we can use." They don't want to roll them all and have to roll them all back or they won't be sure. Okay. To ascertain the condition- Yeah ... they didn't know that we're trying to do that anymore. Yeah. Okay. Are they encasing the corner posts? Can you- Yes. The corner posts will be all
140gated or- Okay. I did want to make... That was the other question I had pop up. I didn't read it thoroughly, so my bad, but just making sure. Yeah, the fence that got damaged, the posts came out of the ground there. It was not installed correctly on the north side. And with the flooding and all that on the north side caused some of these up and down where our fence was not in good shape. So I'm hearing, we will look at finalizing the vendor and the contract in May, but be more vague with the action items tonight. We'll just approve a fencing project- Okay ... at this meeting. Okay. Any other comments for John as he goes out into the world? Just tell him 5:15, by 5:00, they want to go at the end of
141his amendment. Okay. But we know what we haven't covered then. Mm-hmm. Thank you. We have 2026 Summer Learning Catalog. And it has Robin Hansen, who is co-facilitator of our Summer Learning Committee this year. She was working with Lori Jacoby, who is our title reading teacher, to put together some summer learning options. That was intentional, because for those of you on the board, you've heard us speak in the past about Act 20. There was new legislation that was passed about a year and a half ago, which does require to have options in the summer for students in grades pre-K through three who are not reading at grade level. We need to offer them the opportunity to have some additional learning occur in the summer. So, we knew we needed to address that. So, Robin and Lori
142brought together a committee to be able to put together some not only options for reading, but other things as well. So Robin, I'm going to turn it over to you. So I know I have a new packet, but you can see how we're looking to have it go out to families. Shout-out to the committee. So Lori Jacoby and I co-facilitated it, but we had representation from both Athens Elementary and Maple Grove. So Renee Haynes from Athens Elementary joined us, and we also had Sabrina Really in kindergarten join us from Maple Grove, along with Beth Push, who is our administrative assistant, and who also, by the way, designed these. So I have to give her a shout-out for that as well. So we are looking to host summer school June 8th through June 19th. But we
143are looking to do a full day of that. So Monday through Friday for a two-week period, all day from 8:00 to 3:00. And the location we're looking to have it at is at Maple Grove, with busing provided from Athens Elementary to Maple Grove. If there are families in Athens that want to attend and can't transport, transportation will be provided from that location. How it ties in with the Act 20 is a separate letter will go out to families of students that have PRPs, personalized reading plans, and they'll be invited personally to be part of summer programming, summer learning. And that will take place from 8:00 to 9:00 for those specific personalized reading plan students that will need that instruction. And it'll be all hands on deck. So all of our staff will be able to
144offer that personalized reading plan time, that direct instruction during that time period for those two weeks. We then additionally want to offer another 10 hours of reading support to those learners in August. So they will have the option to sign up if they want to join us in those two weeks in June and again in August, or they can choose one or the other. Really want to bring it back in August, just because we're coming back to school and getting them ready and getting them pumped up and making sure that we are on track to start the school year. So, hoping to offer that. Depending on the number of students that are coming into August, will depend on the needed staff. But right now, we have two for sure that will be offering that, and
145it'll be up to communication who's going to come, where that... If they'll host it at Maple Grove or at AES will depend on cleaning schedule as well, and if they're going to do it in small groups or if it'll be individual. Just depends on who signs up for that. But the rest of the time in June will be that 8:00 to 9:00. The kids that do not have PRPs during that time will be able to go out, and they will have a structured activity held by two of our other teachers who aren't classroom certified. They are phy ed and art. So they will be hosting a structured activity during that 8:00 to 9:00 for kids that are not getting PRP support at that time. Then, for the other sessions, they will be hour-long sessions. So
146from 9:00 to 10:00, 10:00 to 11:00 will be sessions, as you see here, like Around the World Explorers, Beads and Beyond, Stories and Design, Archery. We're going to have students broke up into two groupings as a K-2 group, and then 3-5. So they'll be intermixed in between those groups, and moving to those different stations, with four stations offered for each grade level. So, for example, Courtney Curtis is looking to teach archery for grades three through five, and she will teach that four times throughout the day. So we are hoping that we will get enough learners to offer that session four different times. And then, those 3-5 learners, if they have archery from 9:00 to 10:00, they might have Around the World Explorers from 10:00 to 11:00. All learners will have from 11:00 to 12:00, they'll
147have lunch and recess. And we are asking that students bring their own sack lunch at that time, so their own cold lunch to bring, and we'll probably go outside if we can to have picnic lunch, upper playground, lower playground, and then we'll have recess at that time.Then from 12 to 1, we are looking to either do rotations outside for different... Maybe it's learning about the gardens, maybe it's doing some exploring with insects in the woods. Just different environmental agriscience activities with different groups and rotations. And we are also looking into bringing local presenters who have expertise. So, for example, looking to maybe have Bella Zastro, who is a senior who shows sheep, come in and show our students about sheep. Another family bringing in their horses just to show them how to care for them,
148and doing maybe 20-minute rotations during that time. During that time, we are also going to offer one round of swim lessons that will start at 12:30. So it will be to the first 45 students that sign up for swim lessons, will be able to leave Maple Grove at noon, and then we expect them to be back around 2:00. So, those students will come back, and then we'll offer our last session of the day from 2:00 to 3:00. Students will go on the bus and come back to AES or get picked up at Maple Grove at that time. So, that was a lot. And there may be... And this is available to current kindergarten through fifth-grade students. Love this. This is awesome. Mm-hmm. That's really exciting. So a question, would you have to cap? I could
149see a lot of interest in this. Would you have to cap number of students, or is it- Well, I guess we'll have to look at three through five. It could really, if you have that many sessions, if you're hosting, let's say 20- Mm-hmm ... that's 20, 46, 80. So that's 80 kids in three five and 80 in K2. Looking at 160, and I don't know previous numbers in summer school- ... or what that's done in the past, so I guess I don't have that to compare to, but- I'm just curious. Yeah. And then if you were to, the August one that you were talking about, if it were held at Maple Grove, I know you said it's to be determined, but would busing be considered for that or- Well, that's going to be more of
150the teachers will call those families individually- Okay ... to set that up and figure out where it would be best, like what time of day it would be best to facilitate, or the teacher might be there from, "Hey, I'm holding groups from 8:00 to noon." Got it. Okay. And be able to just communicate with the families on that for that more specific 10-hour time frame. Okay. That's a really good question. We'll have flexibility. I was even thinking depending on the library use in the village, there could be different options. Sure. We want to meet the families where they're at. If they can make the time for us to be able to work with their learners- Yeah ... we'll make that accommodation. So, we're open right now. Great question, and we'll work, I think, directly with
151families to accommodate. Yeah. That's great. That's really... Mm-hmm. I think it's really great too, because it'll give maybe families who don't have a lot of knowledge of Maple Grove an opportunity to see how great it is. I think that's awesome. Mm-hmm. So we do ongoing resource support. You'll see some options for teachers that have graciously offered to be a part of the program. That's good to know. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Very cool. Now we got the other middle school, high school catalogs. I'm going to ask Julie to, she's been working with her staff to again meet the needs of students. So it's going to look and feel a little bit different, something similar to previous years perhaps. But again, wanting to meet not only our students and the learner staff is available to do. So Julie,
152you want to maybe address that? Yeah. So we will continue to offer the summer A-FAT class, which is the academic or fitness and agility and all those kinds of things that are mentioned there. I do need to circle back to staff because, in previous years it's been typically three four-day sessions, three, four, of that nature. This week we wanted to align with what Maple Grove is offering, so we're doing just the two week, five days a week. So right now, I just need to solidify with staff. I did have a few reply that they would help run the Friday session, and the reason for that is a lot of times what they're telling me is they don't have as many kids on a Friday. So I'm hopeful that if even I have limited staff, that
153the smaller numbers will still allow them to do and host that type of event for the kids. So at this point, I'm hopeful that it will continue to go the two five-day weeks as is currently printed. We did list the additional dates on the bottom because the coaches will continue to offer that once the summer school portion is done. So just so as, if you guys receive questions about what does that look like, those first two weeks are captured under the summer school umbrella. Coaches want to continue allowing students that access even after that is finished. So those would be the additional dates that are listed on the bottom. Mr. Triebold is all revved up and ready to go for model rocketry again. And his times look a little different, 8:00 to 11:00, so just
154three hours, but each of those five days, again, for both weeks. High school credit recovery, I set that up with parents on an as-needed basis for any of our students that might still need that. And so typically what that looks like, just for your knowledge, is if a student fails a semester and they didn't get the credit, oftentimes it's one quarter or the other, or they got really close each quarter, so we can make that work up in a smaller amount of time. And again, it's focused, so it's not often too many classes. So those kids would come each day over the duration of two weeks until work has been satisfied to meet the criteria. When students take that class, they would get a passing grade. They don't get a new letter grade, just so
155you guys are aware too. I think that's important for folks to understand. They're recovering the credit- Again, oftentimes redoing work that maybe was done poorly or completing work that may not have gotten done in those times. So that's what that looks like. And then on the bottom, we've also put in there the Rural Virtual Academy. So RVA offers some summer offerings as well. I know, and I'm not sure how quickly we can get it out there, but one of those classes that fills up very quickly is driver's education. So just if you're noting that, or for those of you that have drivers coming your way in the next couple of years, be thinking of that. This is a really cost-effective option for our families that's much, much less than the big guys. So, as far
156as the classroom part goes. So those are the offerings that we currently have. On a side note, Mr. Smith will still offer summer marching, that lives outside of summer school as well, and that will begin early August prior to the Athens parade. So with that- How does the credit recovery, does that affect GPA at all? No. Okay. Because it's just a pass/fail grade at that point. So it doesn't change it up to the job? No. The only thing it changes then is, of course, on their transcript we list it as whatever the course was. Often than not, you're going to see a CR on the transcript, and then the passing grade with them earning that half credit. So, great question. My mission is to avoid that at all costs. Right. But for now, sometimes we
157run into situations where we just need to offer something a little bit different for some of our kids. And it's been pretty well-received from families in the past as well. We appreciate that. Thank you. Okay. I think this is very much related, is the human resources report will be the next thing in your packet. Mm-hmm. So in the board packet, you'll see a two-page human resource report, and it is in response to a significant number of those listed. Employees listed are individuals who have thus far communicated they do have an interest in teaching in our summer learning program. So first and foremost, we really want to say thank you. Robin and her team have sent out multiple surveys to get an idea of who might have that interest. So you'll see Anlan, Lily, Christine, Lori,
158Courtney, Sabrina, and Renee have all indicated an interest in teaching the elementary program in Maple Grove Charter School. I'll fill in in the middle, and then I'll talk about the high school staff. This time of the year, in John's department, we need some additional help. Anlan Krachmer, I never say his name quite right. Isn't it Krachmer? Anlan Krachmer, yes. Krachmer, yeah. Has been a dedicated summer seasonal help employee for us, and in fact, has been with us online now for a little bit. So we're asking that the board approve that seasonal hire. Bernice, here at Athens Middle and High School, member of our High School Nutrition Services department, has handed her retirement letter. So she has been a dedicated employee for many years, and we wish her well as she moves into retirement. Lori Jacoby,
159I referenced Lori earlier. She is our Title I reading teacher. And she also, we extend an additional, what we call Title I Parental Engagement Coordinator contract to her. So during the year, she puts in additional hours outside of her contracted day, and she organizes a requirement through Title I, which is parental engagement activities. Jessica Buckelman, we also extend an additional FFA summer contract to her. She is very active with our number of FFA students who participate in multiple fairs, not only here in Athens but in other neighboring communities. So that's in addition to her teacher contract. Dakota Noaki is currently a high school student. He works part-time for us during the year in Maple Grove Charter School. We would like to request additional part-time, so he would be a full-time seasonal or summer help individual
160helping out in John's department. Danielle Gerke, last year, was asked to work throughout some of the summer in support of our technology department. You heard about Sam talking earlier, when those devices come in, both for the students and the staff. She really has built a capacity around helping to prepare those devices. And prior to the year, and then during the year, she's also an on-site support. So we would ask for some additional seasonal hiring support there. And here we have our secondary staff who have also shown an interest now in supporting our secondary summer learning program. So we have Adam, Brenda, Jessica, Alyssa, Michelle, Todd, Shawn, Kaylin, Andy, and Matt. So again, I want to thank our staff. We know that sometimes the summer months provide opportunity to do more things outside of your school
161learning environment. So for them to, again, dedicate time in June, we really appreciate that very much. So that's the report for this month. Thank you. Any questions? All right, so now we're going to move to action items, which is the time where we get to vote on all the things that we've heard about. In addition to the first couple items, which are only action, not in information, are 14A, is revenue and expense reports. Those are in the packet. And we just usually see if Beth has anything notable to add to these revenue and expense- Yes ... reports. So in March, the revenue in Fund 10, we did receive 25% of our equalization aid, so the next payment for that will come in in June. And then I also want to highlight Fund 21. You can
162see this year where we're trending compared to last year. That one's significantly different. However, that is truly donations and fundraising. So we will just keep monitoring that as we go. And also with the March expenditures, the benefit section is a bit higher because we paid out the second half of that HSA payment for employees. So I'm looking for a motion to approve the revenue and expense reports. I'll make a motion. I'll second it. Okay. We will do a roll call vote because it involves money, possibly. Angie? Yes. Tom? Yes. Cam? Yes. Ben? Yes. Jill? Yes. Ann? Yes. Chris? Yes. Thank you. Okay. And then the next item is the approval of checks and cash receipts, which are the next item in the packet. Any notable or questions on those before I look for a motion?
163I'll make a motion to approve those. Oh, I didn't know we were waiting for the motion. Oh, sorry. No, you're good. I was waiting for questions. No, I didn't hear anything, so I said, "Go ahead and make the motion." I will second. Okay, thank you. And then we'll also do a roll call vote on that. Sure. Angie? Yes. Tom? Yes. Abstain from 82728. Cam? Yes. Ben? Yes. Jill? Yes, but abstain from 82730. Ann? Yes, but abstain to 82744. Chris? Yes. Thank you. Okay, now we are on to the technology department print services contract presented this evening. A motion on that. I will make a motion that we approve Option Three as Sam presented. I'll second that motion. Thank you. We will do a roll call vote for that one as well. Angie? Yes. Tom? Yes.
164Cam? Yes. Ben? Yes. Jill? Yes. Ann? Yes. Chris? Yes. Thank you. And then the technology department device purchases for the students. Looking for a motion. I'll make a motion to approve. Do we need to clarify as shown versus as... Oh- Because of the pricing, yes ... the number or the dollar amount was lower. How do we want to verify that? We were that. Not as presented as shown in the packet? Because it was shown correctly in the packet, correct? Yes. And his presentation was incorrect, so shown as- I think as we said, as the quote in the packet. Correct. So approve it as the- Correct, yes ... quote in the packet. Okay. Is that your motion, Jill? So a motion to approve the quote in the packet. Okay, perfect. Thank you. I'll second that motion.
165Okay, thank you. And then we'll do a roll call, please, Becky. Angie? Yes. Tom? Yes. Cam? Yes. Ben? Yes. Jill? Yes. Ann? Yes. Chris? Yes. Thank you. And then we've got the fencing project at Athens Elementary. Motion on that one. I will make a motion to approve a project for the fencing at Athens Elementary School. I'll second it. Okay, thank you. And since there is no dollar amount given, we can just do a vote. So all in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. Okay, thank you. That one carries. More info in May. All right, we have the 2026 Summer Learning catalog. Motion. I'll make a motion to approve the catalog. Okay. Thank you. I'll second. Okay. And then, all in favor of approving the summer learning catalog for 2026, say aye. Aye. All opposed,
166say nay. That carries. And then the human resources report as presented. I'll make a motion to approve the human resources report as presented. Okay. Thank you, Cam. Thank you, Jill. And then we will do a roll call, please, on that as well. Angie? Yes. Tom? Yes. Abstain for Matt Ellenbecker. Cam? Yes. Ben? Yes. Jill? Yes. Ann? Yes. Abstain for Andy Ferris. And Chris. Yes. Thank you. Okay. The next item that we're looking for a motion is to adjourn to executive closed session under Wisconsin Statutes 19.85 1cf for the purpose of considering employment, compensation, performance evaluations, and financial, medical, social, or personal information of specific persons, which discuss the public would have substantial adverse effect, other person's reputation, specifically vacancies, resignations, layoffs, and retirements related to professional staff positions, support staff, and quote, "regular positions." I'm
167looking for a motion to adjourn that. I will make a motion to adjourn to closed session. Okay. Second. Thanks, Jill. And all in favor of adjourning to closed session, say aye. Aye. All opposed, say nay. All right, we are adjourning to closed session at 7:38.