001Liberty and justice from. We're Start with the roll call. I think. Could you call the Roll Steve? Here. Jessica? Here. Tom? Here. Angie? Here. Tucker? Here. Chat here. 10:00 PM here. Okay, thank you. So next on the agenda's approval of the minutes from the July 21st, 2025 board meeting. Make a motion to approve May 2nd. Okay. And all in favor say aye. A Aye. All opposed nay Motion. Carrie, do We have any public comment forms? No. Okay. Alright. Um, then we are on to recognitions and commendations and to tonight we have special recognition for Kathy Luther and Chris Chuck. So, um, I'm going to read these are, um, citations by the Senate from the state of Wisconsin. And the first one is, I'm just gonna read it verbatim from the plaque. And then we're going
002to, um, invite Kathy and Chris up and, um, recognize that formally So, um, it reads, whereas Kathy Luther has led a distinguished career in education serving the students of the Athens School District. And whereas Kathy, a fourth grade teacher, played a vital role in the success of the Athens School District through her many contributions, including launching the school yearbook, initiating morning announcements, creating the generosity program and more. And whereas Kathy recognized that a career in education was the right path for her as it offered the daily challenge and excitement she sought along with the chance to work closely with children. And whereas Kathy has dedicated her time, energy, and heart to ensure the students and staff of the Athens School District receive the best experience possible. Now, therefore, the members of the Wisconsin Senate on
003the motion of Senator Jesse James and Representative Karen heard hereby congratulate Kathy Luther in celebration of her well-deserved retirement and wish her continued success in future endeavors. All right, I'm gonna read Chris's and then we will do the, um, the photo op. So, uh, whereas Chris Chuck has led a distinguished career in education serving the students of the Athens School District. And whereas Chris worked as a middle school mathematics teacher in the Athens School District and has coached a total of 59 seasons across various sports. And whereas Chris entered the field of education to be part of something greater than himself and to witness communities unite in pursuit of shared goals. And whereas Chris has dedicated his time, energy, and heart to ensure the students and staff of the Athens School District receive the best
004experience possible. Now, therefore, the members of the Wisconsin Senate on the motion of Senator Jesse James and Representative Karen heard hereby congratulate Chris check in celebration of his well-deserved retirement and wish him continued success in future endeavors. I'll Grab one. So Kathy And Chris, come forward please. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, that was fun. Okay, so, um, next we have board members reports, and in your packet you'll see the, uh, marathon County Children with Disabilities Education Board. Um, my next Should Be recognized. You don't need any action on that, any questions or any discussion on that? Alright. Um, next, um, our finance facilities and operations committee met this evening prior to this meeting, um, and a number of us were in attendance, myself, Steve Cat, John, and the rest of this table up
005here. Um, and we talked mainly about the fund balance policy, potential fund balance policy, which doesn't currently exist. Um, that will be a, a discussion item in tonight's agenda for the full board as well. Um, Steve Kat, did you wanna share any, like, highlights from that there? I can share a little bit or we can just bring it forward to the discussion. I think we can wait for discussion. We can just bring it in the discussion. Okay. Um, so we're gonna bring that in in item 10 C tonight. Um, but that was our main discussion this evening. Okay. Um, and then we'll move to the administrator's report from the Superintendent. Thank you Angie. So I'll start by welcoming back Julie, joy and Robin, um, who had some well deserved time off this summer. So you
006see my report in the packet, however, because they have been on a bit of education well deserved, I did not ask them to, uh, do principal reports tonight. So welcome back and, uh, they'll be talking later tonight on some, uh, student and parent handbooks, as are the policies. So my report in the packet this evening focuses in as it has the last several months on pillar number three in our strategic plan, which is facilities and operations. And in particular a goal that we have in that plan about streamlining sustainable building operations during the last several months. Um, in conjunction with business partners from CSA 10 who did complete a facility audit and assessment of their partners. Um, Debbie and Elise Mene and Debbie is back this evening to talk about school finances been sharing with
007the Board of Education in our community information to make an informed decision in the future about a potential referendum or referendums. And at the last board meeting there was conversation about the potential to investigate what we would call a facility study. A facility study would be intended to gather more information to determine if it would be in the best interest of the school district to consider an internal consolidation. For example, if we were to move the elementary students or Athens Elementary onto this property here for the middle and high school in a potential addition or something different or new to make a good informed decision as a board of education, it would be my recommendation that in this process we would conduct with an outside source of facility, uh, sorry, facilit feasibility study, excuse me.
008Um, to have more information to determine one, if that is a viable choice and an economical choice for the school district. So I thought it was an appropriate time to bring that concept forward and I appreciate we've had board members talk about that informally. It was brought up last month in the conversation with the C of 10 folks at the table. So I'd like to engage in some conversation with the Board of education to determine if that is a decision that you would like to make and if so, if this is the time or if it isn't into the future. So wanna make sure that only the board and our community has all the information necessary as we continue this conversations. So in my report, um, I defined again a feasibility study, um, that's for
009school districts. It's a comprehensive analysis to determine if a proposed project such as a new facility renovation or district reorganization is viable and beneficial. It assesses various factors including educational needs, financial implications and potential challenges, ultimately guiding decision making for the school board and community. And then the purpose is also outlining there on, um, our report has filed. So tonight my goal is to bring this information to the board of education, engage in conversation, determine if this is something that the board would like to consider moving forward thoughts. It's definitely could start to, uh, to uh, potentially very complicated task. It's good, good to see we got one positive negative and hopefully get that out to the community as soon as possible. We do end up having to make any large decisions for change and
010I think you gotta start with getting information. The feasibility study's perfect and I'm sure it's gonna be a small investment to see if it's gonna be worth it, but then we have a better idea of what we're looking At. Do We know who provide goals? We have multiple different business partners in whom we could engage, uh, to do a feasibility study. In the past, we have worked with performance services. Um, they're a design build organization. Um, I do believe the board hired to me joining the district in 2021, I think it was around 19 20 19 20 had the first, um, feasibility study done by PSI. They were math then in the district in 2022. Um, so that would be one option. Again, they do design build, so it's like a comprehensive process. Um, I
011do have another short list of others that I knew. Um, also conducted these type of studies. Umra Anderson as one, um, business partner that could do that. Hoffman Nexus, Excel engineering. Um, Steyer, there's a variety of business partners in the educational field that could conduct disability studies. You know, some might be wrapped up in potential projects in the future where there's maybe not an upfront cost, but uh, on the back end, if we were to pursue referendum cost, some might have an upfront cost. So if this is something before let me need to pursue, I would get there more information. Thank you. Think it's something we've speculated about, right? Like when we looked at the deferred maintenance and like all the projects that would be, for example, around the elementary school, you know, it said
012what would be the higher value for our investment? Right? Like, and well, how much would it be to invest in something like bringing the students here? I think it's probably necessary information just to have Good decisions. It seems like a valid fact or a piece of evidence for the board to have to make a good informed decision. We do have to a potential and our recommendations. Great. Yep. And I'll pursue gathering more information and bring that back to the board next month, if that is Okay. You you welcome. Thank you. Okay. That's anything else? Andrea, does that conclude your report? Um, that was my report. I continue to have that focus on the, okay. Thank you. You're welcome. So going into the information discussion items tonight, we have, uh, Debbie brunette from Baird to go
013over budget forecasting and referendum. Good evening for me to stand, sit, whatever you feel comfortable with. Okay. I'll try sitting. I might have to sit. Um, good evening. Thank you for having me back tonight. I really commend you and your process in moving forward with these discussions. I feel like that Andrea and the administrative team have guided you as a board through. Let's learn a little bit about school finance and, uh, referendum 1 0 1. Let's learn about the facilities. Let's dive back into the finances. Let's dive back into the facilities. And so through that, giving you the information you need to make the decision. So my part in that tonight is to take us the next steps. Last time I was here talking about school finance 1 0 1 referendum 1 0 1. Tonight's
014goal is to provide you some specific examples and some estimated impacts to help getting you toward some of the thoughts of, wow, this is too much, this is too little. I think this is okay as, and these are the different types and how they impact us. I'll dive right in. Dramatic pause, shut it down and try again. Am I too far away? I might, I'll just manage over here. Um, okay. So let's just start with one review slide of the different types of referendum that we have access to and how they impact our school levy. So our school levy, we saw an infographic like this, uh, can be made up of up to four different parts. The revenue limit tax levy is the part that's controlled by that state revenue limit formula. That would be
015an operational referendum. You currently have an operational referendum in place. That's the 1.2 million that you have coming up in 25, 26, and again in 26, 27 before it retires. So in an operational referendum, we're asking the authority to tax more for the revenue limit in order to provide funds for operations, the, the people, the utilities, the insurances, all that to operate at the school. The second kind of referendum we have is a debt or a capital referendum. And that's where you're asking community for the authority to borrow money in order to address facility projects. It could actually be buying land or buying a building or renovating the building. It could be building new building as well. And so it is also a referendum and it gives the board the authority to borrow or to
016levy more. In this case it's to pay a loan, we call it issues and use overrule versus having more in the revenue in order to operate. Tonight, we're going to look at some scenarios of both. This one you currently have. This one could be explored. So let's start with your operational referendum. We have our current approval. Uh, we're using output one as our way to show these operational referendum asks being a familiar tool for you and it provides us much of the information we need in order to share the key variables. So highlighted here are the three main items, uh, we'll talk about tonight. The first is a surplus deficit. So as we compare our revenues to expenditures, are we balanced? Does it provide a surplus or does it result in a deficit? What does
017a mill rate estimate to? And that's, uh, per thousand dollars of property value. And then what is the non-recurring ask? And for these visuals, I'll also insert this line here to demonstrate, here's our current authority as approved. And then because it's a non non-recurring or non reoccurring set, um, both or same thing, um, it retires. So you ask the community for authority for four years when that authority expires, it cannot be replaced unless the community grants that authority to do so. And that's why we see it go down to zero here. What happens if that authority goes away and the board chooses not to ask again or it isn't approved? We, the district would lose the levy authority and we can see that there would be a resulting deficit in the budget. Kind of a,
018we often get asked like, how could we go from a surplus to a deficit where we took 1.2 million out? Okay. And then notice at the same time then because you would be levying less, the mill rate would adjust accordingly. Uh, do you wanna talk a little bit more about that in a second? There might be two additional rows that are noticeable to you that you can use the highlight in order to easily track. One is our fund balance and fund balance is a percent of expenditures. You're talking about a a board policy related to that later. And that is important to note because having a, a fund balance in order to, lemme talk about the criteria later, having a fund balance is important. You've worked to build up your fund balance and so having
019a fund balance in the future is important consideration as well. And then the other is this school based tax levy role. We, I think it's important to look at levy in addition to mill rate. And so we've included it here. Most like to look at it better on a mill rate because they like to equate it to their own home. So we'll focus on these three lines as we work through. Before we dive into the two scenarios I have, I do think it's really important to point out, uh, the 1.2 million, and we talked about this last time I was here as well. It's very common when a 1.2 million referendum falls off in the district for those red numbers after to be $1.2 million or higher. It's very common because deficits exist in school
020districts 'cause of our state funding formula. And so oftentimes when the districts ask for more and the state formula doesn't change, their need stays the same and then grows because utilities go off and such. You as a board have over the time of the referendum made some some financial decisions and have implemented them. And because you had a goal of adding to fund balance through the referendum, then this referendum falls off. The forecasted deficit is approximately 500,000 rather than what we would expect to see of 1.2 million or more. So that says a lot for what you've done over the last four years and the planning that you've put in place. It's not saying you can't replace it with the 1.2 million, but the, the model doesn't show that it's needed in order to maintain
021operations at your current level going forward. Am I explaining that? Okay. Okay. Um, the last thing I'm going to to say and I'll, I'll highlight it on this slide, but it will be true throughout the presentation. These numbers are not set in stone. Uh, they will continue to be fluid in forecast. An example of this is we started working on this presentation three weeks ago so that we could be ready. The model that we dropped in here compared to the one that Beth updated for you tonight. So you had the best information about $20,000 different so that the, and that's okay. Like we always want to continue. So please don't get caught up on exactly $8 and 38 cents tonight or exactly 522,000 because those numbers will continue to change throughout your process. What's really
022important tonight is that these are reasonable ballpark estimates with what we have right now and that they'll continue to hone in if and when you choose to move forward. The times we typically lock in are the point you go to survey. So the community has the best information and or post lead certification, um, whichever comes first and can continue from there. So we get the community the best information they have. Any thoughts or questions on this before I do the next slide? This sets our foundation for the operational part. Okay. So we've prepared two scenarios for you. One is, is leaning into that. So our 1.2 million falls off what if the district chooses to go for just an operational question and we asked for just what we need in order to balance the budget.
023So choosing a round number, it was slightly over 500,000. So we said what if we, uh, asked for 600,000? We can see that the 1.2 million drops to six, the deficit now is balanced, a slight surplus going forward. And then the mill rate would adjust accordingly. So in this hypothetical scenario of 600,000, replacing the current 1.2 million, it would show your fund balance would estimate to be to level out at about 22% and the mill rate would drop, um, from the, the estimated 8 71 down to about 7 39. Again, not getting stuck on those, those exact numbers, but because you'd be asking for less of an additional levy, the mill rate would adjust accordingly. So that's one scenario. So this is, this is a good scenario. If the board looks at the facility projects
024and says we we don't need them now. Um, we just wanna focus on operations, we're going to do this in stages. This could be the solution or one like it and it doesn't have to be 600 and 700 right? But replacing more with what we need. Another scenario districts consider is they say, yes, we need about 600,000 for our operations, but we have some facilities and we only want to ask one question. So in this scenario, you're asking one operational question for one foot 2 million, you're using half of it to address your deficit and the other half you'd be using to tackle projects on your list. You would, this is good if you can parse out those projects into $600,000 increments. So each year we're gonna do 600,000 here, 600 here or if you
025can put them together, we have to adjust for financing cost and do let's say $2 million worth of projects we pay over four years and, and tackle that amount. So this is a positive one. If the, the board wants to ask just one question for operations and still have the ability to tackle some maintenance. And as you look at your priority needs over the next three to four years, two to $2.4 million worth of projects are needed. Similar scenario could be run, you could ask for 1.4 million and then have a little bit more for facilities. So there is the, there, there is the ability to address some facility needs within an operational ask, but it's limited to the excess dollar amount over the period of time you continue to have that operational. Any thoughts
026or questions that either these concepts, Is there a maximum number of years the state allows us to Ask for operations? Ask for operations? Good question. Not currently. The last biennial budget did have, uh, proposal to limit it to only four years and only a non-recurring ask. So recurring is the other kind that goes up that is added to your basin continue on. But that proposal did not make it through into, into law. So there have been districts in the past that have asked for 10 years. Um, for instance, that's opportunity still insists under current statutes. So hypothetically if we needed, okay, I'm not gonna do the whole 11 million, but let's just say we got to like a compromise of like 5 million. We could do a combined referendum of a longer, aside from all
027of the complicated things in not wanting to do construction projects like tiny piece by tiny piece for Efficiency's Sake. But there is the possibility to do something like that within this structure. Yes. The Levy, that whole amount of money over 10 or something? Correct. Okay. The, the two things to consider cost of inflation over time, making sure you adjust for that, um, as if you do it in piecing the parts. The second is if you do choose to borrow as part of the solution because it would be considered, and this is good, this is very nuanced, but it's an important technicality because it is under the revenue limit. 'cause this is again increasing your revenue limit. It would technically be fund 38 debt, which is debt under the revenue limit, technically non referendum approved because
028you'd be asking the authority to levy more for revenue limit. You're just choosing to borrow as part of the solution. If you have more than a million dollars of principal outstanding, you do have an additional step of a petition period. So the board would approve a resolution to borrow X dollars and then it would get published and posted and the community would have 30 days to come and say, we don't want you to do it. It's very atypical in this setting because the board has already approved the referendum in order for you with this communication effort in place. But know that that would still exist to move forward. Is is there any like reliable or consistent information about the like longer referendums? Like are they more likely less likely to be approved that a four
029year, like a four year or comfortable and if you push it past that people are gonna be like scared or is there data to support Any of that there? Uh, there really are very few examples that are longer than four or five years. So the data would be, would be skewed with that. Okay. Um, I can think, I know there have been a few, I can actually leave over one district that has so, and I know there are more, but okay. Um, and this, that was part of their strategy too. I can get two off the top. Um, and I know there's been a few more, but what are the negatives of doing some Six year? Like what, like is there a financial negative from your standpoint of double doing it that way? Um, if,
030if it is really just, if the community supports it and if fund 38 is part of it, then it's that additional petition process. Okay. For facility need, you'd be spreading out the cost over the next six years rather than potential 20, possibly pay less of interest because you're doing it over the next six, but a higher impact to those taxpayers over the next six versus, you know, sharing over 20 years worth of taxpayers and facility less longer. So there's all those nuances, but, but this could be a great solution if you have, you look at your priorities and say $2 million worth of work that you can piece out it to sections, this could be an option. So now let's pivot to a facility question. So it's not uncommon for districts to look at their
031projects and say, we have more than we feel we can build into our referendum ask. And so we want to ask the community for a capital referendum. And when I say facility referendum or capital referendum or you see debt referendum, those three terms are synonymous. You're asking the community for the authority to borrow in order to do projects and then levy order to be paid debt. And so leave the operational referendum aside, we're going to come to just, if you just chose to go facility or capital, we ran for you three different amounts of 10 million, 15 or 20. Your max will, will look is about 44 million under current hidden value. So we're well below that's your top end. Uh, you can go lower than this as well. We're trying to give you a
032range of scenarios. So in a case of a capital referendum, we can spread the borrow out over a longer period of time. So that's how you can get a lower annual impact. Um, there is an interest expense to it in these scenarios we have, uh, assumed one borrow if it's 10 million or 15 or two, stagger them in order to help keep the impact lower. We've built it on estimated property value growth. This will change as we head to October 1st and finalize it. So statewide municipal values came out at 8%. So that will help this forecast. So there's another example of a variable that will change, uh, but we based it on 1% property value growth, knowing you possibly and likely will grow more, but a lot of it, a large percentage of property
033value growth in recent years I been due your property being valued more and maybe you didn't even do an addition or such. So what we're trying to focus on is possible new growth so we don't overburden the existing tax base with these estimates. And then I'll show you the detail of this next slide. We're basing this over that 1.2 million that you already have built in for operations. So now we're looking at all the referendum approval that you have in place and then could have, uh, as a total picture. So how to interpret this are the highlights showing that? I can't tell. They must be, yeah, they were. Okay. So we have our 10 million, the estimated mill rate impact. So the 10 million is 47 cents per thousand. And again, this is just an
034estimate. Um, the 15 million, a dollar 42 and the 20 million a dollar 74. And how we equate that if you have a hundred thousand dollars property, that would equate to an additional $47 per year of over the life of the referendum. If repaid ask it will. The board common questions we get is, can you prepay in order to save interest costs? Yes. And can you refinance it? The interest rates gone down. Can I just Okay, just talking point what? Yep. We're talking about 141 for 20 years basically. Right? So it's gonna live with that property for people's adult life basically. Possibly, yes. Okay. Mm-hmm. Yes. So wait, say that again. So as, so as opposed to what people saw in their tax bill, well, which has we all know it is all these other
035complicated things that happened all at the same time in a way that was not great for pr um, and was not controllable. Correct. Um, but just pretend what people did see was a pretty big increase in their property taxes for many reasons. Referendum being one of those reasons. This would be a much smaller impact. If you look at that, let's say $141 a year. Yeah. But it is, I would call it a semi-permanent in terms of how people are going to under understand it. It's basically a semi-permanent chase your property taxes. It's not a three year bump down. Right. It's a, this is what you can expect all your property taxes forever going forward. Pretty much. I mean for 20 years. 20 years. 20 years. Yeah. Okay. So thank you for clarifying that because I
036don't know that I understood that before. Yeah. So 20 year origination, I least the, the next slide. Yep. Okay. Now we, we get asked, um, sometimes why can't it be 30? Right? The, this building's going to last a lot longer than 20 years and it's because municipal debt can be issued only up to 20 years. We can, we can borrow part of it in one year and part of it in the next year so we can get 21 years out of it. But, um, and uh, we just aren't able as a municipality, a school district issuing municipal debt to spread it out for more than 20 years or steps 20 year borrows. And you can't do 30 because you have to borrow money within five years passing the referendum. So you can, you could creatively
037get you to 30, I guess for that. Okay. Is such a big jump from 10 to 15. Yeah, that's a great question. And that is because the, we're first using, and I'm gonna jump to a lot of detail now, um, um, we're utilizing the drop. Sure. In your operational ask, you're freeing up $600,000 of loving authority. So we're utilizing that and it fills up the first, the 10 million utilizes most of that. So then the other amounts are above and beyond. So that's an addition to what they're already paying for now. Correct? Correct. So we're saying, um, and this is an estimate, so No, you know, it says hypothetically this is an estimate. You haven't set the levy yet. This hasn't been set yet. But if we using all these assumptions we've been utilizing the
0381.2 million would represent approximately $2 and 83 cents for this year's levy. We have that levy authority again in 26, 27. Reason that goes down is a 1% property value growth assumption. And then we've assumed in this scenario you've replaced it with the 600,000. So just enough to balance your budget. And in lieu of asking for extra in operations and piece doing piece work, we're saying let's do $10 million worth of projects. And so the first portion of that 10 million is a trade. You're turning off operations and turning on debt doesn't cover all of it, but that's why the 10 million seems less the trade is done. So the 15 and 20 million would be just asked. That's a great question. Does this help demonstrate that clearly? Clearly does that can be confusing. You
039would think that it's just incremental, right? Like a price per million kind of calculations once we get beyond the 20 million could probably get you there because we'd be at a two phase borrow consistently. Um, when we're in the 15 million and below, we'd probably want to run your specific scenario, 8 million or more million. So coming back to the detail is at the board level, this is more than some of you may want, but I think it's important to talk through and how it comes together. So in this scenario, we've assumed the 1.2 million is replaced by the 600,000. We've assumed it for four years and then we, we left capacity for it in the future. So imagine you chose not to, or you went longer or shorter. We, we have it here if
040you choose not to do this, let's say it drops to zero in the future, you can just pay this off more quickly or you can see a lot of decrease at that time. Right. So we've just, we've left this here to give you the, the most flexibility going forward. If you did continue it, we've, we've added that in this case, the 10 million to it. So from a levy standpoint that 1.2 million current levy, additional levy authority for referendum would go to a gross levy of about 1.45 million. So about $250,000 increase district wide. The state shares in some of it. So the net impact would be about 200,000 leveling you out at 1.4 million of referendum approved authority that the community would granted through the pro the referendum process would cover operations and 10
041million, that's a goal of this. All this detail. Um, and then showing you that mill rate transition, um, to get to that impact then that went back to that summary we just saw. So We would not, I mean assuming we didn't need, which is a question I have, but assuming we did not need, um, we would not need more operational referendums into the future. That's basically like we would be able to say that to people like, I mean we wouldn't say that, but we would say like, you know, we would, we would basically be replacing that in the future. We would not need to borrow again. You would be Leaving capacity for 600,000 to continue into the future but not increase. Yeah. And if you came forward to me and for the next meeting and
042said we wanna leave 800,000 future structure around that scenario, we can do those. But in this one it's saying you dropped from 1.2 million to six and then you could do it in the future. But as a non-recurring, you have to come back and ask, But would our operations be stable without the non reoccurring with this or we would have to ask, There are so many factors that go into the school finance formula Yeah. That are unknown. It might be to premature to make the decision I guess. I mean there's enrollment, there's open enrollment, there are state budgets. How you, how you utilize a capital referendum could create more or less efficiencies in your budget that preventions late into that. But this model is saying that we could ask for that the next four years,
043but it's not taking any comfort here. Right? Yeah. Right. It's saying you could end, there's space for it, there's space for it, but it's light gray because we aren't just in That we're gonna get Right. Or that we're gonna try for. Can I ask a follow up question to you Andrea, or any of the people that know about money, is that actually enough money? Because I feel like we have this question about like rules leaking and we have this other question of like, do we actually have, like right now we're running a school and meeting requirements and trying to staff as best we can with as many certifications as we can, but is this 600, like is that actually enough for real? Like we're making it making do, but like, is that like when we
044think about what we want as a school, there's infrastructural things, but then there's like teachers like, do we actually need because teachers aren't coming out of these other things, right? You've been clear about that teachers can't come out of these other buckets. So if, do we need more teachers? Because if we do then like I feel like that's a different operational for us as a board to think about. Like I know we can make do wish at 600, but I mean if we're engaging with our community about what people want, you know, like is that the number or is it actually like 800 or, that's my question. Yeah. I don't know that I know facts. The facts to be able to answer that. And you brought up some really good points. I'll go back to
045that suggestion for a feasibility study. Part of that study is also focused on education, teaching and learning. So we potentially then could gather some more information. Um, we do have through um, the Baird analytic tool options to analyze student teacher ratios. Mm-hmm. Um, which indicate then short term, long term revenue, what's needed through our expenditure process. Um, and are we in alignment with what might be appropriate class sizes to student teachers, you know, that we have. So we've taken all that information, so don't necessarily have the answer for you. Um, but we certainly could gather more facts to make it informed decision forward. Let's Get that the feasibility study includes that is kinda what you're saying, right? Like it looks at those student success and like staffing type of issues also. That's what I been
046looking for when I engagement partners and conversations to find out what they offer. Mm-hmm. And, and using our analytic tool, we have been exploring that more. Beth and I have been doing that, um, through Bear to find out, um, you know, what does it look like to cost for enough students and enough staff and where are we in that. Last thing on this, and I should have mentioned it on this slide, is we have assumed a five and a half percent long-term interest rate you were to borrow today be about a hundred basis points lower this, this flexibility has been built in because you aren't borrowing today. Interest rates can change. We believe that they will come down and in that case you lock in at the lowest rate possible that day. This provides flexibility
047in case that shouldn't happen. We've been thinking and hoping that they've come down for the last 18 months. Mm-hmm. Um, and they just haven't budged. So, uh, I point that out because as we move forward, we get asked questions such as, you know, how likely is this going to happen? You know, are confident in these numbers, the assumptions that we use, such as the 1% property value growth, right? Conservative, we assume 19%, uh, paid reimbursement from the state, which is your current level. And we compare that to past to make sure that it's not out of line. And then the interest rate we use, we make sure that we leave a basis point planning adjustment so that if any one of them should come in not as good as we hope the others had a
048chance to balance. Hopefully all three do we come back with a three meeting and say the impact of lower interest cost. Both are, but we wanna make sure that we go in a planning rate that allows us the ability to come back to them and deliver on what district talked about. So coming back to the chart, this is a visual represent representation of what was on the last slide. So these dollar amounts again, are estimates based on all these assumptions we've put in. And then you can see the di the specific 10000047 cents. Those are replicated from the summary page. If you do choose to move forward with the facility referendum as a component of the operations, we would take out the extra bars and look at just the one we are doing and we
049would make sure we continue to focus on these estimates to give you the best estimate if comes survey time or come communication time. So these still stand as estimates, but I think represent a good visual of how they layer in together and we can take that parts. So I mentioned this earlier, just to ease your mind. Uh, we, the dollar amounts that we ran today from the facility side do fit within your borrowing capacity. This will update with the 2025 final when final. Uh, but using last year's numbers, you had about 44 million of capacity from the statewide funds. From there it's the tax impact and the need that filters you for. Okay? So your options as a board, here are some things that you'll talking, these are the, the considerations that we make as
050we go forward. Do we want to replace our current operational referendum? And if one of the options is to, to not ask, um, if you do choose to go to referendum, do you just want do the operational act? Then that would be similar to those first scenario. So asking for just what you need to operate or a little more to address facility need as you can. But under one operational act, another operat, another option, and I I don't think this is as likely is just a facility task. So letting the operations fall off completely and just doing facilities. I don't think based on your numbers that that's a likely scenario. But, and then the fourth is you could do two questions. You could do an operational ask and facilities ask. So considerations within that. So
051the first part alluded to this earlier is how much do we need for operations going forward? This is the minimum we need, but is that best for us as we, maybe it's not 600,000 needed somewhere in between the next, and I think this is going to be the crux of the one question or two is your facility needs and timing. So when do we need to address those projects and how much do they like they add up to? If it's 15 million, it's more likely wouldn't have to, but more likely would be you'll end up with two questions just because of like what you had said, spreading it out over operational ask, um, not required, but just more. And then the final consideration is our upcoming election dates. So this continues to be our allowed
052election cycle. Your current operational referendum extends to the 26th, 27 school year. So if, if you wanted to ask, if you did want to replace your operational and you wanted it in place in time to turn off the old turn on the new, this would be your last opportunity. If you wanted a chance before this would be it. If you wanted to have a, a plan in place earlier, you could go this, this spring, uh, spring of 26. The other component of that is no more than two board resolutions per year. So this is going to factor into one question here. Two, if you choose an operational and a facilities and you choose to go, let's say in spring of 26, that that, that would be the only two questions you could ask for the
053calendar year. So if one of them didn't pass, you would not be able to come back in the fall because you used your two resolution. And then the final part is on this slide, I just wanna make sure I explain this. If two questions during one election cycle, no, if then consideration, we often get asked can we ask an operational question? And if that passes can be considered a facility, some states do allow that in. But in Wisconsin they have to be considered separately. So if you ask two questions at the same time, an operational and facility operational could pass not facility. Facility could pass not the operations they both committed pass, both fail, any combination we carry through. So I, I think that's really important because I think operations is most important. I think
054as I'm looking at your numbers, I shouldn't speak that turn. Um, but so just know that we can't do it then they have to do two and only two. You could do two here and then do two here. Um, just knowing those indications questions, Do you know of any districts that have done the like first option where we like roll in triage, like where we do the 1.2 continue for three years or four years, whatever that number is, and then go like say, you know, say to people very openly, we're going to keep operations very conservative, but we're gonna use this to fix the roofs. And then, um, this is like, I know that this isn't a good decision. Like if we were putting up a building, put up the big building first, I know
055that's like a better decision, but I'm trying to think about like from a tax payer standpoint, like and then go to big infrastructural after. Is that like a thing you've seen? Yes, I've seen, I've seen some districts who have been in a cycle of non-recurring multiple times where, you know, you're asking for a flat amount and expenses, you don't always need a flat amount, right? So they'll say we're gonna ask for what we need in the last year and for early years we're just gonna use what we can for facilities up until then or you know, an average of 600 per year. Yes. That, that is a common approach in the communication. Say this is operations and then as part of it we're going to do boiler, you know, two boilers, a roof, carpet or
056facility. You can decide how specific. Um, so yes, I've seen districts, um, go past their operational operational ask and then in the middle of their operations go with facilities and then come back for operations to worry a little bit about fatigue. Um, but I see that structured, I see districts go with both at once. Um, I've seen, so really seeing the gamut. Um, but but being able to address some facility needs is not uncommon. So the lowest dollar amount was 10 million and it's hard to tell like at this point what our actual dollar amount would be without the feasibility study. Right. I'm assuming you could go for less, right? That's not a minimum, right? Like is there a minimum? No. No. Okay. It May seem like a silly question, but No, it's not at
057all. Okay. It's not okay. In some ways like that is more attractive even though it is like over 20 years, it's a lower ask, right? It's a lower impact. It's less shocking. I mean, what we like actually need, what do we need is I think is my opinion. We need a non-recurring operational referendum, right? We need it, it would stabilize our entire district. I feel like getting that and then also asking for more is, that's hard. Even though we also need buildings that aren't leaving, we also need that. We do not, we need both of those things. But I feel like the non-recurring stabilizes, the, it stabilizes everything. Uh, I it stabilizes teachers. I mean it stabilizes morale and families. I feel like I don't clearly that didn't go well the last time because we
058need to be able to operate, right? Like we can't, there's not really an option not to operate. I mean that's, I think we're, yeah. And we have a very conservative budget, So I don't know if that's, we should ask for that, but I feel, So it sounds like we got your wheel spinning. Mm-hmm. Um, this, you will get to kind take these thought and concepts forward, combine 'em with further facility need analysis and then our, how we further support is of course, at least in Beth work in the forecast model and continue to run those operational scenarios. And then how I get to continue to help is if you say we wanna run a 2 million or $4 million scenario, what does that look like? Um, so I can continue to run those and we
059hope we bring it all together, um, in time for you if you do choose to go or these cycle. And then if you do survey on the time before, and I always, I know I said survey a couple of times, some districts do, some don't. It's just you need to back this up a few months prior to these dates if you want to do it. And so I never want boards to lose track of that additional timing and planning. So you can choose whether you want to or not, but just making sure to leave enough time in your planning calendar in order to last, Is there any benefits of doing spring, spring, fall, spring, the mix of the two? I mean, is there, I think we've discussed it before, but then for a lot, you
060know, as far as same calendar year, is, is there more success asking twice in the same year, um, squeaky wheel gets the grease situation or I know it's quite the wheel, but in your opinion, is there a better ways of, of structuring your asks and when? Great question. So it's not common, although I can think of a district that did this last cycle to purposefully ask one question here, um, and then come back here with a pass pass. So the district I'm thinking of, they went here for operations because they knew it and they told the community this passes we're coming back in the fall for facilities, um, that it was the right order for them because operations was most important. But coming back that plea isn't quite as common. It was successful for them
061though they, that staged approach, um, most in that, in that timing are, you know, saying operations and then if it doesn't pass, they have that second chance for that question. Um, from there really it's a, you know, you're, you're six, seven months apart. So from where there is a data that would, but the fall general Has the highest turnout, the highest turnout has the best pass rate correct From there. So We didn't want the fall general Right. Okay. From there, yes, the fall election brings out the most voters. And so, um, that has historically had the highest passage rate, uh, fall being November, specifically spring that April elections have had second highest passage rate. Historically, We have been very intentional, um, as a board, as administration in starting these conversations as you can now tell
062for the outlook, um, well in advance of when we have kind of that deadline or that fourth year reoccurring dropping off, um, that again intentional to bring the information forward to the board in our community in a slow and steady manner, continuing to gather what the board is asking for so that in the end when the decision needs to be made, that the board has everything that you need. So I just wanna remind the board in our community that, um, we were intentional about providing ourselves with the time needed to make good informed decisions. Helpful. Very helpful. Thank you. De Our next agenda item is the Marathon County Children with Disabilities Education Board Annual Service Agreement. Yes. And I'd like to introduce, uh, Kelly Cab, uh, Jason who are here this, uh, evening. And Kelly
063is going to give us, um, a brief overview of the services and supports, um, that we receive from Marathon County Special Education because this evening we're also gonna be asking the board to take action on our annual service agreement. So I thought the timing was right, um, to have Kelly here as a guest to be able to provide information and then answer any questions that you might have. So Kelly and Kelly, Hi. That's a lot of information. Wow. It, it's great. Um, so I'm just gonna steal that clicker. Can I grab In your front of you? Thanks so much. Thank You so much. Yeah. I'm Kelly Cap, I'm director American College special ed. A little bit about me. I started my career with consortium way back in the day in the district of Stratford as
064a school psychologist. Um, and then I came back in, uh, 2000, 2000. Oh my gosh. My son was just born, he's now 25. And in the service in Japan, um, Gulf Air Force. So, uh, but anyway, I've been with the agency for 28 years and I'm really happy to be here to talk to you a little bit about Marathon County Special Ed and what we do for you. I feel as though we're kind of a silent partner for you. And also as I go through just this very brief presentation, if I say something that doesn't resonate or your questions, please stop and, and ask questions about, um, what I'm sharing with you tonight. Um, so first of all, who are we? We are a county disabilities board. Sorry, we stand over here. Um, we've been
065around since 1958, um, which is a really long time. We actually predate, um, csa. We actually predate federal legislation with regards to special education. Um, way before there was IDEA or 94, 1 42, for those of you that are of my generation, um, we've been around a really long time. That means 67 years have in school district has been part of our consortium. Um, and we're one of four left in the state. Little brief history lesson. Um, C DS county disability boards, um, as I mentioned, started the whole special education wave here in Wisconsin. And when we were created all special education services were, um, centered around A CDA. So every district in a, in a county participated in the CDA, but a lot happens over 67 years to the point where now we are
066one for that are remaining even among the four that are remaining. We are very unique. We are now a, um, county tax base, which the other three are. We do not have a school, we don't run our own programs. We are completely within your school system. So we're unique. Um, we have six districts currently in the consortium and I do them alphabetically, Abbotsford, Athens, Edgar Marathon, Marshall and Spencer. And we serve just over 570 students with disabilities in our consortium. Um, we are a pooled fiscal entity and what that means is we collectively, all six districts share our resources, human and fiscal so that we can operate. Um, we serve, uh, we part of a whole host of services, everything on this list and then some. So if it is a special education teacher, if
067it is a paraprofessional, a teacher of visual impaired, occupational therapy, physical therapy, et cetera, all of these services are provided under our umbrella. Some of these services are shared. We share Robin, we share Becky, um, and a few other services. Um, but we provide all of these. Um, and in addition to that, um, what we do is, uh, currently specifically to Athens, we are serving 63 students in your district. And this, um, represents 12.8% of your total population, which is below the state average. That's good news, um, for your district. Um, we share or we have solely, uh, 18 staff members that are part of your district and all of our specialty staff comes. So if you have a student who is staff hard of hearing, we have a staff member that comes to your
068district for that. Um, we get a lot of questions about we're expensive and so how do we compare to our neighbors? So how does Athens look compared to, um, neighboring kolby, Orran or what have you? And there are a couple ways to answer that question. The first of which is, um, look at how much you just spend in special education. The other is, um, cost per student. And then to notice just time over time that on average Athens spends about 7% year over year on special education, your up a tick for this upcoming year. There are a lot of reasons for that, which we'll talk about. But you have also had years, you've had 0% increase or you've had 1% increase, or you've been minus a percent. So it kind of fluctuates depending on a
069lot of variables, um, including staffing requests, um, special needs, students that have high needs, et cetera. But it just gives you a sense of what it looks like year over year. So I'm gonna just give you a graphic, which I think is part of your packet, um, that Becky shared with you. Um, now this is the lagged data and why is it lagged? It means because we have to wait for the state of Wisconsin to sort of get all its ducks in rows and reconcile all of the budgets. So this is 2-year-old data, but what you'll see is what we compare to your neighbors on average. And this is listed from the lowest paying to the highest paying. Athens is at the top of the list as being one of the lower paying for special
070education. Then you can look at the per pupil and again, leg data. And this is again, lowest to highest. Athens is right there at the top per pupil. I do put in here, um, some information that comes right off the DPI website that also shows what you pay per pupil for just general population. So if you were to look at how much money you spend per pupil, you'll see that on whole Athens spends a SMID more. And this is all general ed population because if you have, I'll use, um, special education first as the example. If you have to have an elementary special ed teacher, if you're serving five kids or 10 kids, you still have to have that staff member. And so obviously if you have 10 kids, the per pupil looks better. If
071you have five kids, it looks less. Same with kindergarten. If you have 10 or 12 kids in a kindergarten class, you're gonna pay the same amount of money for that teacher if you have 10 kids or if you have 20 kids. So smaller districts tend to have higher per pupil ratios, and that's true in special education too, but it just gives you a sense of how you compare, um, special ed versus how am I doing so far. Um, there are a lot of reasons that costs go up. Um, the obvious one, and you all know that insurance never is cheaper. We keep waiting for it to be cheaper. It never will. Um, so if the insurance costs go up, it, you know, all costs of the consortium go up. We also are an entity that
072keeps to CPI. So if the rate goes up 3% or 4% or 2%, we follow that and that goes out. Um, agency-wide, um, you're part of a consortium and so this is really important to know. If a teacher is added in a neighboring district, that particular district, bless you, um, does not pay the full freight. We share in that cost. Similarly, if Athens, um, decreases a teacher, you don't save the full freight for that. The consortium saves that, and it's a lot like insurance in that manner. But if we share in the cost, then it makes it possible for everyone to have everything at a reasonable and affordable cost. Um, other reasons that it goes up is that we, um, have other staff members that service your, um, school. So behavioral consultants and occupational therapy
073if we have to add those people that is shared consortium wide. Um, and then we do get requests. Last year we had a number of requests within our district for, um, staffing either in Athens or elsewhere. And if we have requests that we have to meet to meet the demands of special education, that can drive up the cost of special ed. You also, um, are, um, a, a school that does have students that are placed outside of the school system. It does happen, it's not common, but it does happen where a student or students, um, might need a high level of need that we cannot support within your school. And so that cost is born completely by Athens and those can be expensive, $30,000 per student. It is our goal always to bring those students
074back to our school to reduce those costs. Um, but that can be a reason that some of your special education costs for and transportation. One of the things we don't do, we keep saying we don't do transportation, but we don't do transportation. So, um, if your transportation costs go up or you have to have a special route per student with a disability, Athens does pay for that. Um, so how do we make sure you get the most for your investment? Um, and we do a lot of things. So we do grants, um, a number of grants, and those are often for, um, post-secondary education, meaning things like project search, which you may have heard of. Um, or we try to get, uh, dollars to help offset the services that we currently provide. Um, annually we
075also do what's called a transition incentive grant. And that is what we actually call all of your graduates kids who have disability head IEPs. And we find out what they're doing. And then for every successful survey, we get a dollar amount back for that. Last year we only had one graduate, so um, we got about a thousand dollars for that. The other thing we do is transfer service, transfer services. Your ability to, um, increase your revenue authority because students with IEPs move into your district and they actually increase the cost of providing new services. Last year, the amount of money that Athens, um, recouped is just over $12,000. Also, Medicaid, um, students who have IEPs in certain areas who get certain services, we are able to bill Medicaid for those services. And last year, um,
076Athens received directly $20,000 or just a little over $20,000. These dollars come directly to you. There's no pass through. We don't keep a percent. All of that money comes directly to you to use to either offset special education or in the case of Medicaid, there is an amount of money that comes back here. It's $10,000 that's unrestricted. That means you can use it for anything you want. So if it's offsetting special education, that's great. It also could be used to offset regular education costs or other things that you might have. Um, we have to keep an eye on maintenance of effort. Maintenance of effort means that if I'm making this number up, if you spent $600,000 last year, the district has to obligate $600,000. That seems to be our number. So we're looking but not
077related in any way to your referendum, but if you spend a certain amount of dollars in special education, you are required to continue to spend that unless certain stipulations are met. Sometimes we have those stipulations where we have reduced our expenditures because of that, but we're always mindful that we're meeting that requirement. Um, so when it comes to time to add or subtract staff, we have to make sure that we work within the parameters of that maintenance of effort. Every spring. The superintendents and I, we are always talking a budget. It's my most favorite time of the year. Um, not really because we're all trying to be very conscientious. So if we are adding staff in your district or any other district, we are very mindful of is it necessary? Is it, I think when
078board members said, is it what we need? And if it's what we need, then we do it. And so that will have impact. Um, plus our minus on your district's budget. Um, all of these services that we're talking about are not days. So in my next service where we talk about the impact of things that we provide you, I'm just gonna skip ahead to a a slide here. All of the things that we do for you, whether it is, um, behavioral consultant, occupational therapy, behavioral support, um, if it is directors, uh, support, whatever that is, all of the things that we provide to you are not based on the number of days. So I'll use an example. We've had some challenging, some challenging weeks. We've had some challenging years. So if Joy needs us to
079have a staff member to come and be here for a long period of time, we park that staff here. And there's no change. Um, you don't pay more for that service. You just get that service. If we need more supports in one of, in Maple Grove with Robin, we just bring those staff in for you. So all of the services that we provide are sort of that one fee. There's not an up or down. You just get it. Um, things that we provide not only for you that are value added are we do all of the indicators. Um, special education is graded. I don't know if you know this or, um, something that you talked about at your school board meetings, but there are 14 indicators. And so every year we get a determination in
080how we're doing in special education and doing well if they feel we're not doing well or if we have areas of growth, we manage all of these indicators for you. Um, on top of that, we do a whole host of professional development. Um, we also have students that don't take your forward assessment and they for whatever reason, are not able to take that, assess that assessment. We do all the training and the support to make sure that those students have access to the alternative assessment. Um, we also have a countywide medical advisor. It is at no cost to me or to you. We got it through a grant. And that individual supports our health aides and our school nurses. On top of all of that. We also have assistive technology. So if you have students
081and you do who need devices, so it's hardware, software, curriculum. We have a person that comes out to make sure that that is working as smoothly as is humanly possible. Um, and that there are additional curriculum and materials. Andrea's actually, um, served on some of our committees and we're talking about what are the needs of special education students, particularly kids who are dyslexic. What are the curriculum and materials that fit within your structure? How do we get those things to you? We then get those materials. We do provide the training and make sure that your staff have all of the things that they need to provide those services. And, um, we really, we really are your one stop shop for, um, special education. So that's a lot of information that I wish to do really
082quickly. So do burning questions, things that you're really wondering. I did so well. There's not So question Andrew, you think Kelly's Great? Wonderful. And if you do ever, you'll see Jason far more frequently than you'll see me. But, um, we are in your district every week, um, sometimes multiple times a week. And if you do have questions individually for Andrea, please don't hesitate to, uh, contact us and Jason and I stand ready to to do whatever we can for you. Thank you very much for your time. Appreciate That. Thank you. If you all notice of the presentation is in the packet, the I know I like page through the packet. So if you're, if you do it that way, the agreement, which is a item for action later in the agenda tonight is right before
083that presentation. It's the document before the presentation. So that's what will be on the agenda for action. It's 10 B. Anybody has any questions on that or discussion on anything that, that Kelly had mentioned? Hearing that move along? All right. The next item is the NEO a policy fund balance 6 2, 3 5. And this, um, as I mentioned earlier, this was a topic of our conversation in the facilities finance and operations committee this evening. Um, Debbie was able to give us, um, some information on the guidelines of DPI and how, um, DPI expects districts to set their fund balance. Um, Debbie, can I put you on the spot to tell us those three guidelines that DPI, while they don't have a set percentage that they are requiring school districts to have in Sun Balance,
084there are three guidelines. Do you mind sharing them? Yeah. And and they're, you want me get 'em? No, you're Good. Out on the DK website, they do have the exact wording solved, paraphrase. But one is to address on proceed leads. And the example we used in the, in the committee was a boiler that comes out, for instance. The second is to maintain a fund balance, um, so to have a positive bond rate leave. So if we do borrow and go through the rating process, the fund balance is viewed favorably. And then the third is amount so that you sufficient so that you don't need to cash those borrow. And that's the one that most districts use to help identify a percentage of a one policy. Thank you. Um, so we kind of, we, we talked
085about that. Um, we talked about how currently we don't have a policy, we don't have a percentage set and we, it would be pretty nice to have one. Um, and then I think Beth mentioned that there it is like it's a range, um, in different districts from like 15 to 30% that districts will set. Some districts have a policy, some don't. So it is really just up to the discretion of the board. Um, pat, Steve, others who were here. Did you wanna like talk a little bit more about like our main points? I think some of the concern, I mean you all can read this. Yeah. Uh, the questions that we had and we kind of what ran through were, um, how do we set a minimum that is responsible without making it so high
086that we like, you know, have to go back and change the policy if we have a bad year. Um, so how do we keep a high target without setting a minimum that would be, um, you know, way too low to actually be responsible or, you know, strike that balance. So that was our main conversation. I mean, we kind of settled on 15% is what we talked about with a 20 to 25% target. Mm-hmm. Um, but there's lots of room to talk about that a little bit more. And that was informed by the actual numbers on, um, our budget and that wasn't, didn't come out of nowhere. And where we historically have been at, we were at above 20% consistently pre Maple Grove, pre $1 million expenditure. Yeah. Um, and then when we looked at one
087other thing that just jogged my memory with the 20, if we were to look at about a 20% that in at least like the more recent years, that's about 2 million ish dollars in fund balance if we're looking at something like a 20%. So, um, at this time I think we just wanted to open up the discussion. We are not taking action tonight on setting the language of the fund balance policy because we don't really wanna rush forward with it and we wanna kind of get all the thoughts out there and questions. And if we do have more questions, that information can be brought back to the meeting next month. Um, and we can just continue talking about stuff. So I guess I'm gonna open it up to like questions, thoughts of the board on
088what the fund balance percentage could be set up potentially, or like questions that you have about it. My favorite one to always ask is what are similar districts doing? Yeah, that's my, That's a good question because I'm not one balance expert by any measure. So I think we asked, that's a question. Did you wanna read? Um, well I just pulled some policies from local districts, um, red Lake at Marathon WA law for sure. Uh, Abbotsford. And they were really all over the board. Um, one didn't call out a percentage. One says if it falls below 5% then it'll come to the board. One says it's 10%. Um, so there really is a wide range. Was there anybody like that had a fairly high, like 15, 20, 25? I think the high, so Medford was one
089that it looks like there between 15 and 25% was their goal. Okay. That was the highest one. And that's me interpreting their policy. So, Right. It's Good information even though it's all over the board. So I don't know. Informative it is, but It's good to know. Do we know what our current bond rating is? Um, good question. So you currently don't have one and that's only because you don't have debt, unlike our home finances where you always have a credit score, um, for municipalities of the credit rating that's assigned to that specific debt issue. And so because you carried that no longer, you would consider, I think I would guess you'd be about an eight plus would be my guess, but we'd have to have a rating. But an A plus is not the top
090in School, So What's Four? Not down. So AAA and then double A plus double A, double a minus a plus a, a A, a minuses above. Why do they serve three? A I? Yes, I know. And interestingly, letters not numbers. No. So A plus is still a very good rating. School districts in Wisconsin, solid credit rating and they're treated very favorably in the market. But I always used to think a plus is the highest I came through the school system. It's very clarifier. Mr. Debbie, Following that question and answer that you provided, thank you. How does that then continue to inform our conversation of this range? Should we then be considering a 20% or a higher? I mean, what then would be the connection when we are considering essentially a percentage of the fund balance?
091Is that something that you could Share? They, they will, like if you have a fund balance enough so that you don't have to cash flow model, that's really the, the second factor that they, they like that 25 to 30% if you have something lower and you don't have to catch the borrow. That's a good second step. Thank you. Which again, the reason for cashflow borrowing is obviously just timing, right? It's not like it's short term borrowing to get us through those things. The cashflow borrowing is just to kind of tie it over from the different timing of where we receive our income. Are there any, I guess like preliminary recommendations for what a policy might have in it? A percentage. Okay. Or do we need more information? No, I think we have enough. Seems good.
092What does the board think about that? Um, potential language of a minimum of 15% with a a target of 25%, 15% was high compared to the rest of the districts around us. Right. According to their policies that they have documented 15. I think we originally came up with it just because it is in line with our, like where Athens has been and we have, I guess the question that I asked when no one else is here, just like since we're a little district and we have a little money having more money, like, you know, 15% of a little money is a lot less than like DC risk having 15% or something like that. Um, even though we were comparing to like Rib Lake or whatever, that's, they're not much bigger than us in terms of
093revenue, but I think that was our feeling. But I get that, that people have a, I think it's important that we have a, a good, a good cushion. Definitely. And my thought process that I don't wanna, I don't wanna put too much in there because of the fact that we can really use those funds for our day-to-day stuff. Absolutely. Um, so I don't wanna, I don't wanna skew that, but mm-hmm. I feel like Amy, the recommendation that you brought ahead, you must have at the 15 because I wanna make sure we have, you know, see if there's a reason we didn't have a balance at one point because we didn't have the policy prior to. So I don't wanna ever get us in that situation again. Um, but I also don't wanna tie up too
094much for the purpose of exactly what I just said, right? Mm-hmm. You tie up too much Then you live In trouble. I think the other thing we talked about, this is me advocating for a high amount, but is, uh, was that we don't have an, we don't have an operation or a infrastructural referendum. So like, it, like we do have these hanging deferred maintenance things that could cause like it wouldn't, I think the example we're using, like it's not impossible that we would have to replace three roofs with no money in hand in a single year because we have this like pretty unstable the structural situation. And so that's the, like that was the other like question that was more informing the 25% because that would be around that 2 million or a million. A
095million at least. Um, I mean I think we could make the, the, the bottom lower, but I would then try to make the language stronger for being at the 25%. Like whatever way we edit those. Yeah. It would be different if we didn't have the pile of different agreements that needs to happen. I can see what you're saying, right? For sure. Just 2%. 25 is the goal. That's what needs to be to make things work. So we're gonna bring this and If it, I'm sorry. Oh no, Steve, go Ahead. And if, if it does that, it's a policy, we are policy makers if we need to, we lower it. I mean that is, that was my question that I asked actually was like, what happens if we don't pass an operational referend? Right? Yeah. Then
096we would have to, we would have a month to change the policy in the school board meeting. Basically we'd have to change it under certain like structural, but the goal is to never be there. Right, right, right. That's why you're here to make, keep us from making bad decisions And you, you said that, or whatever they'd like to see 20 to uh, 30%. Right. And so we're to 30. Yeah. Right. So that's another reason right? Is be there at this, at this time. So how would I just toss this out there? So we go between the 15 and the 20. We say our base is 18, but we target 27. You know, I'm just trying to obviously talk because I I you're exactly what you're saying, but um, I agree. We can write it however
097you want. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. That's, that's solid. Yeah. Definitely keeps everybody's feet To the fire to make sure that that's There and For both Spending isn't happening, but yet Being Responsible and demonstrating financial Stability. Mm-hmm. Um, I think about how that it's also much easier to not draw off that fund. Like given our budget has been conservative and like keeping into account things and if we have a, any sort of structural rep to take care of things than we will not be dipping into it. I don't think we're gonna buy another school anytime soon. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay. So this will be back on the agenda next month and then, um, it seems as though we feel comfortable being able to take action next month. Is that, am I hearing that correctly? Those recommendations
098of the, the minimum being 18% and the target being 27%. Okay. Keep going. Thank you. Um, next discussion is the personal communication devices, ola, policy 5 1 3 6, I introduce, Oh, and there's a bunch of OLA policies after that too. I'll introduce to 1 36 and then I'm going to ask, uh, Julian some of the principles to speak to the suggested changes in language. So this was, um, coming forward, uh, personal communication devices, cell phones synonymous with that device. So in conversations that we've been having over the last several months, um, Julie actually brought to our attention a need to revisit this policy and in particular what the expectations would be at the middle and high school that then, um, also offered an opportunity for, uh, joy and Robin to join that conversation and
099talk about what their expectations might be at the elementary. So I'm gonna turn it over now on one of the three principles to give kind of your background and rationale. And then the suggested language changes. So this comes off the heels of just watching, um, primarily our middle school fellow come in, um, and the access that they have to, um, their own personal devices. So the policy had read that they were able to have them before school, after school between classes at lunch. Our high school kids can handle that, but by what I have witnessed and observed over the last couple years that our middle schoolers cannot, it is just, it's too much for them. We already give them this device, which sometimes in and of itself can be a lot. So having their phones
100on them, we're just finding to be a very big struggle. So I'm not asking that they don't bring them to school, although of course I, I would encourage parents too, like we have ways to communicate with your kids throughout the day. Of course, in case of emergencies, the front office functions just as it did when all of us were in school. Parents can still call the front office. We still expect parents to call the front office. We expect children to report illness or other feelings that they may have either to the health office or to the school counselor or to the front office. So all of those kinds of things can still be dealt with as they always have been. Um, but we have had an influx of kids gaming and then decreased socializations and
101then cyber bullying and all of the other things that more with it. And I'm not saying it stops at a high school level, but at a high school level, we've built some capacity for that responsibility to kick in a little bit more. Um, so I, tonight we're asking for a change in language where for middle school students and down, um, that they not have access to the phones during the school day that before perhaps and then after. And you know, I've talked to families prior, you know, sporting events and things of that nature. Then life changes a little bit before and after their school day. But during the school day, we're gonna have to not have them on there. We, and a change in policy is important because when parents interpret that policy then and
102they come here and they have a device, I don't have a lot of leverage then if a child is on them all day long, especially lunch and passing time and so on. So where that comes from. So I appreciate, um, the consideration. We don't have a significant, um, number of kids bringing cell phones. We do have a few and, um, some of the things that we've run into and the reason why they bring them is if there's a, they have split households if they are having to go to practices or something afterwards. So just um, that reason. Um, so we did ask my, our, I think I'm speaking for both of us. Um, we aligned our cell phones. So cell phones and other personal communication devices are strongly encouraged not to be brought to school.
103If a student brings a device, it must remain turned off and stored in the student's backpack during school hours, unless specifically directed by staff for educational purposes. And we did leave that in. Um, an example would be, um, using the device for interpretation, um, for Google or something like that. Um, and so, so we did leave that, that leverage in, um, if a student is found using a device during the school day without permission, it may be compensated, the device will be secured in the office and returned at the end of the day to the student and or parent guardian. Repeated violations may result in the loss of privilege to bring a device to school. Parents are advised that the best way to get in touch with their child during the school day is by
104calling the school office. And um, then we refer to the board policy for any extra information. Do I just clarify, You're reading that language out of Your student parent handbook, correct? Yeah. Sounds good. Yeah. Can I bring up the two things? 'cause I had this like fight with my own children initially. I mean they have two households. There's a bunch of things, but Athens has the weird thing of no lock lockers and I feel like that not for elementary school, elementary school, it's its own thing. But at the middle school and high school level, I feel like this is the fight with my kids, which is like, that should be in your own locker. There's no locks. This is like a really extensive thing. Like you wouldn't let me bring an iPad from the house
105and leave it in my locker. 'cause you'd be concerned about how much it is. And I do think there is that in Athens as a parent, this is one thing that is the only tension around this policy because I feel like if there's locked lockers you can just be like, it lives in there, but because we have a weird locked locker situation, there's no alternative or there's not like a, like middle schoolers all drop. Not that you wanna be responsible at like the front office, but like middle schoolers all drop their phones off in like one location or something. 'cause I feel like that is one of, I mean I think you can still pass this policy, but I think in the long term in terms of resolving it, having this idea of a secure
106thing is real, um, like that is like an actual concern expressed by my children around phones. Um, so that is, I mean I think we should still pass this policy no matter what. And I think middle schoolers obviously can't make good choices generally. So like, but like, you know, they're, they're already strapped. But I think that is a, a tension at the school specifically because of the lack of locks. So putting that out there. Yeah. And we do have access back to the very same combination locks that did live on lockers once upon a time and those had come off because kids are not using them and they middle school kids struggled to open them. But those certainly could be put back on. I mean I think if maybe that's a discussion that like you,
107no cell phones, they have to be in your locker and you are allowed to use a lock. Sorry, I'm making more work for your entire crew's and be cutting. Well, Yes and no, but that also helps to um, to drive that point home a little bit more with our kids. And we've offered that we have installed locks back on lockers by request, um, for those that are wanting that. Absolutely. So I just wanna reassure that would be great. Those locks are gone and disappeared. They're just currently not being put back on the lockers, but absolutely can be. Should the families request that? Okay. That's Like good messaging. Yeah, and that's absolutely something I don't have a problem communicating. Yeah. Um, I'm looking to get, which is great timing. Um, I'm working with Mrs. Young to
108get our, um, kind of back to slow newsletter out. So any and all of these types of things and those types of communications, I have no problem putting back in there just for reassurance purposes. So that to cover that point Kat, which is great, we can, we can make sure that they can lock them. Mm-hmm. That's great. Any other questions on this policy? Okay, thank you. And the next is a bunch of neural policies clumped together compliance officer revisions. So I'll address these policies. Um, we did them all together because, um, the content has not changed any of these policies. However, each year we revisit, um, our compliance officers and we did have a change. Um, so Julie Gar Peter is one compliance officer and then Alexis Medford will be our second. Um, as a
109seated superintendent, I am typically the person who makes the decision at the end of an investigation. So I should not serve in that investigatory, um, process. So that's why we identified two other leaders in the district. So in all of these policies, we will be asking the board, uh, for approval so that we can update and make sure that we have the accurate people listed. Should we ever have a student, a staff member or employee who would file a complaint, they would know the process that they needed to follow. I am good. All right. The next one is the school district emergency plan for 25 26. Yes. This is the time of the year, um, where the board is asked to approve the updated school district safety plan. Um, this year the content has not,
110uh, been modified or changed. However, we have updated the individuals who are listed in the plan. Um, the board does have access to his plan to review and then tonight to take approval. It is however, not a document that we share out in the public, um, available on the state for certain reasons. So, um, again, the changes that we made in the plan for this year are specific to contact information when we have new staff, either internally or at our private school partners or within our organization or our village here. Okay. Questions, but we have a re-approved once we have a school counselor or that we just, oh, good Question, Wendy. We do have, right now it says TBD For That person. I can bring you that whether informal or formal change. Um, And absolutely.
111That's a good question. Yeah, thank you. Move along. Um, the next are the parent and student handbooks for each of the schools. So we'll start with a elementary, um, principles. If you wanna highlight if there are any significant changes to your handbook, um, or answer any questions that the burden might have, would be great. Sure. So, um, I can talk about our also. Okay. We can split up. 'cause we, um, Robin and I are very similar. Um, and Julie has the same updated health and safety, so wanna somebody also take that one. Um, on our handbook, we updated our contact information and just, um, reviewing that we are still a net free school at, at elementary. So, and then, um, we also have the same health and safety update. So yeah, health and safety speaking
112with our, um, nurse and health aide. Um, just making sure that that was universal across all of our handbooks and everyone's hearing the same message. Um, so that same message is under health and safety and all of our handbooks. Um, just stating that, um, a hundred 0.4 is the fever limit, um, for sending home and making sure that, um, you are home for 24 hours after the, um, fever reducing medications given or if you have diarrhea or vomiting. Um, that's a 24 hour window. So, um, there's also a link on there that takes you, right, the DPI site that says that's safe, that's safe information. So, um, it's just universal across the board. So Julie section was about the bones. Yeah, so the bones policy part will be updated, um, both mill and high school.
113Um, again, with, with ramifications. I know Joy mentioned that too for, for middle school students it's really, it's a one and done. Like that phone is coming to the office and the parent's gonna be notified that day and we're gonna work together to make sure that that doesn't continue to be an issue. Um, similarly that happens already at the high school and, and in, in serious cases, I mean bones are turned in at the beginning of the day even for high school kids if we've had some serious issues with that where they have to check it in and then they can pick it up at the end of the day. So, um, those things will continue. Um, other things to know we are changing, like this is pretty, it's like a moving target, but our
114flex time, so like our um, time score, um, some of our, um, assemblies schoolwide, um, and going back to between third and fourth periods, I did update. I was able to get that changed in infinite campus. So that half hour time span will be 10 23 to 10 53. Um, we just found out that having it right before our middle school lunch situation was not working so well for us. So we're gonna move that back between third and fourth period. Um, so you'll see that it, it was highlighted in both the middle and the high school, um, daily class schedule. So aside from that and then of course the updated information, the contacts, um, for myself and the school counselor. Um, and then our, just with our cell phone calls. So those would be the
115biggest updates for That. Thank you. Any questions for the principals? Okay. Okay. Any human resources report and addendum? So we'll start with the Human Resources Staffing report. Um, I'll start at the talk book our way down. Um, we did receive a resignation, uh, from McKay al. Um, and on the addendum you'll see that we have replaced that with a new hire. Um, we did get a request, um, from our varsity volleyball coach to hire a varsity assistant coach. Um, that person is Emma Summer. Um, then our varsity volleyball coach also requested, um, a varsity assistant volleyball coach as a volunteer. And that's uh, Kathy. Um, we had a resignation, um, in the administrative assistant position at Maple Grove. A team of individuals led, uh, by Robin Hanson as well as representation from the governance board
116and interviews. And the recommendation is to extend, um, an employment letter to um, we did interview, uh, for our library media specialist and we're recommending Harley Chi. We are hiring this year an el multilingual teacher who will be supporting our and EL students at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. That's Maya Becker. We did receive a resignation from Crystal Frankie Bki, um, our art teacher and you'll hear an enrollment that we're looking recommendation for a new teacher. Um, each year, um, once we receive our title one allocations, part of the title one allocation requirement is to provide engagement opportunities for our parents. Um, to be able to do that and do that well. We extend, um, to our reading specialist, Laurie Jacoby, a title one parental engagement coordinator, additional, uh, letter employment. Um, Lori
117will then organize and oversee monthly engagement opportunities, uh, with our parents. Typically held at a s but sometimes we do, um, have that opportunity at Maple Grove as well. Um, and then uh, we received a request, uh, from Alexis Medford who is our high school social worker. She would like to volunteer and oversee um, an activity fellowship of Christian Pathways. The formal HR report. If it's okay, I'll go into the addendum. Mm-hmm. Um, the reason for the addendum is um, we have continued to run interview processes during the last several weeks and as of today I have confirmation from multiple additional people that I extended offers to. So appreciate the board. Um, recognizing our addendum. Um, there was a team that was brought together to interview for the, uh, vacancy of the nutrition services lead
118cook position here at the Maryland High School. The team is recommending Lisa Redmond for that position. Um, um, we understand that our uh, varsity volleyball members of student athletes has continued to increase. Um, so coach had uh, worked with our athletic director, Julie and myself and is requesting another volunteer assistant coach that will be Chris Chuck. Um, a new art teacher, um, who will replace um, our previous art teacher who resigned and Juan Homeless. And then we have recognized a need in working closely with Julie. Um, our number of students at our middle school has continued to increase as the board is aware. Um, our sixth grade incoming class will actually have what we call two sections in a B, same with the seventh grade and a b and the eighth grade with those additional
119instructional needs. Um, I'm also requesting that we revisit as a board of probably Chihuahua to actually be a full-time library media specialist. She'll then have responsibilities at the middle school level, which originally in the 0.5 position, she did not. We were focusing in on the requirement of teaching classes at the elementary. So I spoke with her today. She's very excited. She brings experiences at the middle school level. So she'll be combining, um, like ELA reading as well as research and then library skills And In combination class specifically properly for our seventh and potential eighth graders as well. Julian are looking through some of those details. Yes. So that's why you see her listed on both per contract then with the Quite a bit of things. Any questions? Mm-hmm. Alright, move on. So we're moving action
120items now. First item on the list of action is approval of payments and cash receipts. Any discussion or any, uh, questions for Beth on that? And if none, I would be looking for a motion to approve the payments and cash receipts. I'll make a motion. Okay. Cam has the motion. And just second. Um, and then we need to do a voice vote. Would you mind calling me? Yeah. Steve. Yes. Jessica? Yes. Tom? Yes. Angie? Yes. Tucker? Yes. Kat? Yes. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Okay. Next is approval of revenue and expense reports. Do you have any? Nope. We're trending. Very similar to Last Year with first month the fiscal year. Okay. Commission. I'll second. Okay. And then please call the roll. Steve? Yes. Jessica? Yes. Tom? Yes. Angie? Yes. Tucker? Yes. Ka? Yes. And cam?
121Yes. Okay. Next on the action is the Marathon County Children with Disabilities Education Board Annual service Agreement In the packet, Is There a motion on that? Approve. I'll offer a motion to approve. Okay, I'll second. Alright, roll call please. Steve? Yes. Jessica? Yes. Tom? Yes. Angie? Yes. Tucker? Yes. Ka? Yes. Cam? Yes. Call. Okay. I was just trying to clarify what the next two, if it's a voice or a rule call, we're just gonna play it safe and do roll call. Um, the next item is the, um, policy on personal communication devices. Make motion to approve. I'll second Steve. Alright, roll please. Steve? Yes. Jessica? Yes. Tom? Yes. Angie? Yes. Tucker? Yes. Kat? Yes. Cam? Yes. Thank you. And then the group of neo policies with the compliance officer. Revisions. I'll make promotion. Okay, I'll
122second. Okay. You And roll please. Steve? Yes. Jessica? Yep. Tom? Yep. Angie? Yes. Tucker? Yes. Kat? Yes. Cam? Yes. Um, next item is the 25 26 school district of a e Emergency plan. I make a motion. I'll second can Do voice Vote on that. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed. Nay. Okay. All right. Do We need to do the parent student, can we do the student handbooks together? Someone can make a motion. Accept Yes. Slate of handbook. Would anybody like to make a motion? Just accept all four handbooks. I'll make that motion. Okay, chairman. Second. All right. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Nay. Alright, all approved. Um, and then we have the human resources report. We're gonna do these two items separate. So we're gonna do the report first.
123Make a motion that it. Now second that. And then all in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed Nay. Okay. And then the human Resources report addendum a motion to accept that. I'll make a motion. Okay. Second. Thank you. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Nay. Okay, we are looking for a motion to adjourn. Make motion. I'll second. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? All right. We are adjourned at 6 51.