FDL Board Meeting 6/8/2026

001like to call to order the regular meeting of the board of education at 5:00 pm. Mrs. Ming, can we please have the roll call? >> Frame >> here. >> Godfrey >> here. >> Henchel >> here. >> Labyrinth >> here. >> Maine here. Trannel >> here. >> Motor >> here. All seven members are present. So we have established a quorum. I'd like us now to take a moment of reflection followed by the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Following the regular meeting, we will convene in a workshop to hear the ACE Academy report and discussion presented by Bob Raric. And now it is time um to honor um it is to give the friend of education award. The front of education award

002is presented annually to individuals or organizations that have made significant contributions to students and staff of the Fondelac school district through volunteerism, philanthropy or exceptional advocacy and partnership. Since 2020, Mr. Juen has transformed Monday mornings into a mission of care. His routine begins at pick and save where he loads his vehicle before making his rounds to Py, Riverside, Chegwin, Parkside, and Evans Elementary School. What started as a personal donation to Chegwin Elementary six years ago has blossomed into something that brightens the morning for hundreds of elementary students. By the end of the school year, Mr. Jen estimates he will have delivered 15,600 pounds of bananas and 1,200 boxes of cereal. What began as a solo endeavor and remains primarily donationfunded has been driven by Mr. Juen's passion which has inspired a wave of local support.

003He now receives financial donations and coupons from the United Methodist Men's Group, his family, and various community members. The men's group has further expanded his mission by raising funds to purchase essential clothing items such as socks, underwear, and sweatpants or leggings to support students needs. Mr. Juen, can you please come forward? Miss Damorth, do you want to come up as well? >> And I think you have some information to share, don't you? >> Yes. Do you mind coming over here? Is this microphone on? >> Okay, great. As as as Katie had said, uh this year alone, by the end of the school year, I'll have delivered 15,600 pounds of bananas. Uh Dr. Jeff Strong is a member of our men's group. He says, "How many singles?" I figured it out. There's 39,000 single bananas. The

004cost for this school year alone was $6,552 at 42 cents a pound. Pick and save on Pioneer. They give me a good deal. Uh we did deliver 1,200 boxes of cereal. I I try to get whatever I can get on sale. That came from the United Methodist Men and three anonymous donors. This year um at Walmart I we spent from the United Methodist Men. And we spent $760 in socks and undies and sweats. And I estimate that we reach about a thousand kids every Monday morning. And I do this because I love kids. I love those. I love those little kids. You see their little faces. And this started in 20. Our pastor at that time said that there were kids at Chewin going home to nothing. Got me. So I started buying and getting

005an apple box from Pick and Save and fill it with Mac and Cheese Chef Boy Rard and took it to Chewin and pretty soon Chegin says they need some help at Parkside. Okay. And then Parkside said, "Well, they need some help at Riverside." Okay. And somebody at Riverside said they need some help at Py. Okay. And then two years ago for summer school I was taking it to Py and this gentleman approached me. I thought I thought maybe he was custodian there. Could you help our school? >> What school is your school? Evans. I that's a pretty affluent neighborhood. No, it's not. So I had somebody look me up some information. They're not. and uh our United Methodist Men's group, I was chair. I'm not chair anymore. Uh they didn't think we could have we

006could do five schools. I did that fifth school on my own. And uh this year we got uh a $1,500 grant from United Methodist Foundation. And uh I work it out. I talk to people and I get a donation here or there. Like like I said, there's one old couple at church. Every month they gave me their pick and save coupon. It may have only been 10 bucks that gave me 10 bucks so I could spend someplace else. >> And uh like I said, I just I like little kids. I have a hard time thinking about a little guy going home to nothing. Or or we had a lady at church who was a volunteer at Chewin. She had a case in the winter time. This little guy had no socks. Where are your socks?

007Well, today's Tuesday, so it's my brother's turn to wear the socks. Uh, like I said, last year was 760 bucks. And usually it gets about that. And three years ago, my sister and I at Walmart, we really blew the budget. The men gave me 860 bucks. And I distribute that between the four or five schools and I just like little kids. >> Thank you. >> I just like little kids. >> Thank you so much. And we have Mrs. Steinbart as well as Mrs. Hughes two of the principles from the schools. So, um, >> can I ask a question? >> Yeah, go ahead. >> If someone wants in the public wants to help and donate, how do they get a hold of you? >> Uh, I'd ra I don't I will not I don't like to

008handle any money. So, if you just want to send it to Covenant United Methodist Church, banana project. [laughter] >> Uh, >> but if if another church or if I can coordinate other people, can they contact the church and then they can coordinate through the church? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Mr. Make sure they put banana project on it, though. >> Yep. >> I I keep keep tight watch on that funds. It's all it goes for. Uh, >> and and Mrs. Steinbart, can you tell us uh what the kids how the kids respond on that? >> I have to tell you, I when I came back to Chewin, I heard about the banana man. Well, first of all, I wondered why there were so many bananas. And Mr. Groves was like, "Well, the banana

009man, he brings bananas." I'm like, "Who is the banana man?" And I never had ever put a face to the banana man. and we were running our evacuation drill and he happened to roll down his window and said, "Are you the principal at Cheg?" And I said, "Yeah." And I didn't know who he was. He said, "I'm the banana man." And everybody appreciates you. So you we talked a lot about just needing like basic needs met when we don't feed kids. I've been in this boardroom many times talking and celebrating growth and student achievement and what we do for kids and all the systems we have in place. But none of that happens when kids come to school hungry. And everything he said is true. Kids come to school um late early, leave late, leave

010early. Um and there's always a banana to be had. It's a quick snack. It's a healthy snack. Um and you wouldn't probably believe it, but kids choose um a banana over a bag of Cheetos or Fritos. So um also the cereal. Was that new this year? >> Oh no. I've done cereal for years. three years at least. >> So, let me tell you, our teachers upscaled their cereal dispensers and they all have like a hotel cereal dispenser in their room because it's quick for kids to take their bowl and underneath the cereal dispenser, twist the knob, and out comes enough Cheerios or um whatever the cereal is to fill their tummies and get back to work. So, um bananas are everywhere. Kids get excited about them. They very I I wish you could just see

011>> Oh, I'd like to see it. They they just they're everywhere. And if there ever is, which this doesn't happen very often, but if there's ever bananas left over on a weekend, our teachers scoop them up. They take them home, they make banana bread, and then Monday morning it's just a special snack for kids. So, you are sincerely appreciated by Chegwin, Riverside, and all of the schools that you service. So, I I appreciate it very much. >> Thank you, Mr. Jason. [applause] >> I love kids. I know you love kids. So, thank you very much. We appreciate all >> Thank you. >> And I wish I could do more. I wish I could do it five days a week. >> You're making a difference. Yep. Thank you so much. We appreciate you. >> Oh, I

012wish I could do it more. I wish I could do it every day. >> Thank you. [applause] [applause] >> I told Mr. juice and I brought a banana today for my snack [laughter] in his honor. All right. Um, moving forward to our first uh public comments section. The public may approach the board to make a presentation no longer than five minutes per person and 10 minutes per topic. Those persons exceeding these time limits shall be interrupted as deemed necessary by the presiding officer. Members of the board and administration will not respond or further discuss items from public comment on this meeting uh at this meeting to remain in compliance with state statutes chapter 19 sub chapter 5 open meetings of governmental bodies and the public notice requirements. I'm referencing policy 0167.3 public comment at board

013meetings and would want to remind participants that the presiding officer is guided by the following rules. Letter F, all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer. No person may address or question board members individually. Letter G, the presiding officer will interrupt, warn, or terminate if the participant statement is too lengthy, personally directed, abusive, obscene, or irrelevant. The number two, the presiding officer will request any individual to leave the meeting when that person does not observe reasonable decorum. Number three, the presiding officer will request the assistance of law enforcement officers in the removal of a disorderly person when that person's conduct interferes with the orderly progress of the meeting. Number four, the presiding officer will call for a recess or an adjournment to another time when the lack of public decorum so interferes with the

014orderly conduct of the meeting as to warrant such action. Uh, as you come forward, we ask you to please state your name and address publicly. If you choose not to share your address publicly, uh, please fill out the white slip on the podium and pass it to our clerk, Mrs. Maine. As you come forward, um, the board welcomes public input and values the opportunity to hear from our community. Please be advised that the thoughts and opinions expressed by speakers during public comment are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or values of the Fondlac School District or the Board of Education. We appreciate your cooperation in maintaining a respectful environment. Please come forward if you would like to share at this time. Seeing none, we will move forward to approve the consent

015agenda. >> I move that the board of education approve the consent agenda as follows. May 19th, 2026 public hearing, regular meeting and workshop minutes, personnel recommendations by monthly and financial report. >> Second. >> We have a motion by Mr. Henshel, a second by Mr. Godfrey. Uh again, we don't have comment on this portion. If anyone ever has questions regarding any of the fi the financial um specific areas, please feel free to reach out to any board member as we do ask clarification on all those that go forward. Uh, can we have the role please? Mrs. Maine. >> Frame. >> Yes. >> Godfrey, >> yes. >> Henchel, >> yes. >> Lyance, >> yes. >> Maine, yes. Trannel, >> yes. >> Motor, >> yes. Motion carries 70. >> Uh, moving moving forward. If I could have a

016motion. Uh, regarding the chief of finance and operations. I move that the board of education approve the 2026 27 employee and administrator handbooks. >> Second. >> We have a motion by Mr. Henshel, a second by Mr. Godfrey. Um the handbooks this year that we're bringing forward. Uh we had a workshop on them. Uh we had a lot of open sessions with staff. We received feedback from um the uh FEA as well as other um all members throughout uh the district. And so are there any new comments or questions regarding this handbook? >> Just one question. Um we did get a couple emails and just I assume all those were corrected in the uh what was brought forward, >> right? Yes. From a couple teachers that >> Yes. everything that was brought forward was addressed. >>

017Okay. Uh one of the things um uh that um Miss Lombardo put together was the questions and with the answers and then that was shared out um so that people could even if there were more questions they weren't sure about see and um again appreciate all the staff uh including our um pair of professionals our custodians that came in and gave us feedback on that. Any other questions? The only thing I got back is I did have a couple people ask about the use of the banked days versus the PTO days. I think there's some confusion related to that and I understand we're moving forward with that. I don't know if that's a further discussion down the road that can be had. I don't want to, you know, continue to beat a dead horse with

018it. But I do know people have some concerns about how that'll look. So if there's another way to like address that either with a publication or something just to kind of clarify some of those questions and address some of the concerns. I know you guys have done a great job of trying to get ahead of it, but it continues to be a question that's been asked. So just want to address that. >> Thank you. Anything further? Okay. Mrs. Mine, the role, please. >> Godfrey, >> yes. >> Henchel, >> yes. >> Ly, >> yes. >> Maine, yes. Trannel, >> yes. >> Frame, >> yes. >> Motor, >> yes. Motion carries 70. Could I have a motion uh to consider the approval of community education and wreck fees? I move that the board of education approve the

019202627 facility rental rates. >> Second. >> Threw me off there. Uhhuh. Me too. [laughter] Motion by Mr. Henshel. >> A second by Mr. Lyrence. Um again, we had a workshop on this. Um and so if anybody from the community uh is interested in the conversations that we had on that, you would be able to see that at um the workshop that we had was at our last meeting, I believe. Um any uh comments or new questions regarding um this. Okay. Can we please have the role? >> Henchel, >> yes. >> Ly, >> yes. >> Maine, yes. Trannel, >> yes. Frame. >> Yes. >> Godfrey, >> yes. >> Motor, >> yes. Motion carries 70. Can I please have a motion to consider the approval of the 2627 preliminary budget? >> I move the board of education

020approve the 2026 27 preliminary budget which reflects a total revenue budget of 135,314,224 for all funds and a total expenditure budget of $134,840,958 for all funds. Second. >> A motion by Mr. Henshel, a second by Mr. Godfrey. Again, we had a workshop on um this and this is just our very first look at the budget. Is there anything uh you wanted to share, Mr. Gerlock? Or any questions or comments, Mr. Henchel? >> I was just going to make a comment that based on the numbers, I know I rattled them off quickly. Balanced budget. That's the important part of it is that we're going to have a balanced budget and we're not going to have a deficit projected. >> Thank you, Mr. Henshel. >> It's a preliminary budget at this time and really the reason for

021acting on it in June is to give the board and the administration and the district statutory authority to to expend funds uh following our fiscal year at the end of June. So, that's really why districts uh by law adopt a preliminary budget. will change. The numbers do change as we move to the fall as we finalize all our our forecasts and final numbers. And so, yes, Mr. Ranchel's right. We're projecting an balanced budget here into the fall. >> Thank you. Because our our our new year starts July 1st. >> July 1st. That's correct. >> Great. Right. Any other questions, comments? >> Can I have the role, please? Mrs. Maine. >> Ly, >> yes. >> Maine, yes. Trannel, >> yes. >> Frame, >> yes. >> Godfrey, >> yes. >> Henchel, >> yes. motor. Yes. Motion carries

02270. Can I please have a motion uh to consider uh revisions to our 0167.3 public comment at board meetings? >> Move the board of education approve the revisions to 0167.3 public comment at board meetings at second reading. >> Second. >> We have a motion by Mr. Henshel, a second by Mr. Godfrey. Uh this was something that was brought up by board members. uh we had a workshop discussion on it. Um and then this is our second reading and what it is is that we're continuing to have uh five minutes uh if it's if a person comes up uh to do um to share and it's regarding a member or I'm sorry regarding uh something on the board agenda then it's five minutes. If it's different than the board agenda it would be 2.5 minutes. However,

023we also will be having a sign up. So, if um someone comes up and shares something uh for the two and a half minutes and they want further conversation with a board member, you'll be able to sign up your information and a board member will get back to you and and continue conversation on it. Um as we're not able to have conversation back and forth during that and then with the longest being up to 10 minutes. Any uh questions or comments on our second reading? Can I have the role, please? Maine, yes. Trannel, >> yes. >> Frame, >> yes. >> Godfrey, >> yes. >> Henchel, >> yes. >> Ly, >> yes. >> Motor, yes. Motion carries 70. Moving forward, chief academic officer reports. Superintendent Steinbart. >> Yes. And I'll pass this over to our chief

024academic officer, Mr. Groves. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Steinbart. This is the uh completion of our reports for our AGR schools. Each of our five schools completed their AGR goals this spring. Uh you also received copies of the initial goals in December. I believe the schools are Chegwin Evans, Parkside, Riverside, and Waters. It was really it was exciting to see a lot of the growth um between kindergarten and third grades. Those are all the grades that are measured throughout the AGR process. Um a lot of them focus on priority standards uh reaching I ready um stretch goals throughout the end of the year and there was quite a lot of progress if you uh can you can see that in those reports. Um many of the goals like I said were accomplished. So it was

025exciting for this year to take a look at those reports at the end of the year. But this is kind of the final stop before they go off to the DPI and we submit those. Any questions on the reports themselves, any of the data that was submitted so far? >> I just got to say for the re for the public listening, they hear our initials and AGR and all that stuff. You just I want to make sure people understand academic gap reduction. >> Sure. A >> yes, the achievement gap reduction program uh that again was established in 2015 16. Um it used to be considered or called SAGE. uh and they changed that name to move toward the achievement gap reduction AGR program. Um in order to qualify for this, we have to prove in

026these schools not only that we're setting goals that but we're also using one of three strategies while we're doing this. One being providing onetoone tutoring by a licensed teacher. Another option is instructional coaching for teachers provided by a licensed teacher or the third being maintaining an 18 to1 or 30 to2 classroom size. So that's where we have these conversations. these five schools about hopefully thinking about keeping these class sizes smaller. Each of the schools uh has access to a an instructional coach which we also use. Uh so there's a lot of onetoone tutoring if you take a look at the reports that they use throughout these five schools to uh move these students towards their goals. [clears throat] >> Is there um some funding associated to this? >> There is some funding. I would probably

027uh rely on Mr. Gerlock here to go into more specifics about how that piece works. But yes, >> because I got a followup to that once you answer. >> Yes, the state has a funding program. There's no new monies like in terms of the program. It's like $1.4 million district receives and the the goal is to fund the staffing for the staffing levels. And and the reason I say that is because we have to maintain certain ratios [snorts] >> within the classroom and as we have referendum changes that didn't pass and we have to change those teaching you know with staffing and that >> if we lose those ratios we lose funding. >> It's not necessarily one strategy. >> Yeah. You have to meet one of the three strategies. >> One of the three. So,

028if you're meeting one of the three strategies, it council when we talk about our interventionists with the one-on-one tutoring with a student that is struggling, those are where we can we can utilize those pieces. Many times those schools have more than one interventionist even. Um, but yes, that money that money is used very quickly to support our students. Um, and I was >> trying to make a point away from me. >> Sorry. [laughter] >> No, I would I would agree with you though, Mr. potential that we do continue to have conversations about keeping the class sizes down specifically at these schools that are AGR schools. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. I have a quick question. Um what for the students who don't reach the goal, what is done for those kiddos? >>

029The the beauty of these goals is a lot of these goals already align to other school goals goals that they have. So they're constantly tracking progress. Um I've never been in a space where a principal only speaks to AGR goals. These are usually goals that are either priority standards like in kindergarten where teachers are constantly teaching towards um counting, you know, fluently between one and 100 um or some of the I Ready goals that we do have intervention plans that teachers use when students do not reach the level of achievement or proficiency that we plan on them having. Um, so there's always interventions, there's small groups, there's onetoone tutoring. These students, I mean, all of these systems combined really make sure that these students don't slip through and no student slips through any cracks. So,

030yeah, there's a plan in place for each and every kid here. >> And so, some of those are were are also discussed in the DDI, the data driven instruction. >> Yeah, that's that's another layer that we've added this last few years of again, they're tracking the same standards. Now, they're in meeting weekly to discuss students and standards. So, I mean, there's a lot of layers of support for all of these students. >> And I think Mr. Hench, what you were getting at though is all of these systems that we currently have in place are great, but anytime the funding continues to be reduced, we have reduction of staff. Last year was 70. This year it's 30. At some point that hits a crossroad and we don't ever want to see our our achievement and our

031growth start going down. >> Well, I can speak to the DDI process as you mentioned that, Mrs. Maine. That has changed for this next year. We're having less time due to staffing and other other restraints and our scheduling that DDI has been cut down to 45 minutes this next year. So, still incredibly important, but doesn't have the same amount of time we've used in the past to see the great results we've had the last few years. So, still trying to make it work. >> Thank you so much. >> Right. Uh no other questions then we'll move forward to uh the reading drives achievement procedural compliance self assessment report and we have Mr. Gayan here to share that report with you. [snorts] Good evening. As we wait for the uh presentation to load, um I here

032I'm here tonight to talk about a continuous improvement process that we engage in in the world of special education. Um one of several uh officially as uh President Motor indicated called resultsdriven accountability procedural compliance self assessment. Uh PCSA as it's known is a one of several self uh improvement or monitoring activities that's led and expected by DPI. Um districts uh look for legal compliance. Districts look for continued academic growth and behavioral growth amongst the students. Um and they also have other things uh through our state performance plan called indicators. uh indicators seven, eight, um 11, 12, 14 or other indicators without going into details, but they also talk about timelines. They talk about parent communication. They talk about uh services uh within a certain amount of time. Um as you see uh in front of

033you at some point if it's going to load There were mountains a little while ago or clouds. A little side note while they're getting this set. Um the law calls for districts to have a small team that they share this information. Mr. Gayhan just shared with our CISA 6 state team that he brings it to the board level which many districts don't do or uh directors do and so a number of the directors within our CISA are now taking um his his um example by bringing this to the board which typically doesn't happen. So thank you so much for doing this because I've not seen it done before. >> Yeah, absolutely. And as you indicated, uh what would be typically would be an ad hoc committee >> uh consisting of some staff, some parents, uh

034some administrators uh and I thought what better way to to to fulfill our obligation of transparency and take it to everyone. >> Love it. >> All of our staff, all of our community uh members, our parents, and our administration. So, the goal for me this year as we go through this process is to come back several more times to provide ongoing updates as to where we are in the process. uh and then ultimately uh let you know what we're doing about the celebrations and the corrections that we need to make. Uh the PCSA is broken into four different stages. What we call what we do before it starts or preparation, what the assessment looks like, uh what we do to uh make revisions and then what we call closure. So we are in our preparation

035stage right now. Uh it officially opens on July 1st. Uh as far as the training and as I indicate on here, we have leading up to the last day of school selected 14 staff members uh who will be coming in on August 4th uh to review files in teams uh to assess our compliance. um that will allow us to take the next step in there. Uh between July 1st, which is when the training opens um and the time that we review records on August 4th, they will have to complete a up to three-hour training. Again, making sure that they're uh fluent, understand uh what the requirements are going into the training, and that on August 4th, we can go uh kind of hit the ground running in the morning. Uh next going into the assessment,

036these are the five areas that the state uh at on this five-year cycle ask us to review. Uh evaluations, annual IEPs, um implementation, uh that is actual going through and doing walkthroughs and verifying what we say we're going to do is actually seen and in motion. uh discipline uh calls for some compliance and questioning for students who we've uh suspended uh for over 10 days in the school year. And then the last one, which is probably the the newest one uh in recent years, and I think it's new to this current five-year cycle, is what they call a shortened school day. So, anytime a student uh is has their day reduced for a variety of reasons, it goes through and asks us some questions that we have to make sure that we document uh before

037we're allowed to do that. In a in a little bit, I'll dig in kind of briefly to each of these components. Uh reading drives achievement. I'm not sure if you've heard that uh used as a buzzword if you've seen it on DPI's website, but in Wisconsin, that's how they interpret our results driven accountability or RDA. So, if you're uh familiar with IEPs, if you're not familiar, if you read some things on the DPI website, uh and as I like to explain, pretty much every do ha everything we do has to do with reading, right? Or has to be linked back and we have to ask questions as to if a student's uh uh area of disability uh has anything to do with reading and then subsequently what are we doing about it. Again the emphasis

038is just like we do with I Ready when we report annual growth we also talk about annual and stretch growth because one year's growth in one year's time is not necessarily closing the achievement gap uh for us. Um now digging in with RDA um reading drives achievement as kind of the heart and soul of what we're looking at uh in terms of the IEPs and the evaluations that the teams are going to have to look at. uh we really focus in on the disability related needs driving what we're offering. Uh what are the goals look like? Are they directly connected to what we said the needs are? Are the goals measurable? Um what's the frequency of the goal? What's the duration? Uh what's the location of services? Those are the types of questions that we

039dive into. And as you recall from a a few slides back, you probably didn't add them up, but there's 35 different questions across all the domains that the teams are going to look at. Uh, next going into implementation, I had indicated uh we'll review the files on August 4th, but the school year will become up and running and likely the end of September, early October, we'll pick a two-eek window. We'll have a team of my leadership team that will go in to the selected number of students and we'll actually observe ask teachers questions uh just to verify that what is in writing is actually taking place. Discipline as I alluded to this is focusing in on a pool of students who have surpassed the 10 plus days or the plus days 11 or greater within

040the school year. Uh again making sure that certain components uh about real time compensatory type services are in place and have been discussed uh specifically before day 11 11 of suspension and then the shortened school day. Uh these are the three compliance indicators that teams have to ask and we will ask as we were reviewing files in these areas. So was it absolutely necessary? What other options were considered and rejected? And then what is our plan on returning to a full day at some point? In front of you, um I'd mentioned there's 35 compliance statements overall. This is one example of one compliance statement. So you can see there's specificity and what is asking that we're looking into the file for. There's directions as to where to find it in some cases and what types

041of wording uh would meet the threshold. And then on the right hand side if there is uh an error what the correction needs to look like and there is something ex identical to this for all 35 of them. And going back to that and again part of the reason for the presentation tonight not only for those uh in the audience but those who are watching or will come back and watch at some point. Uh if anyone has any questions about the nature of this um any specifics at all, timelines, please please please give me a call or send me an email and I'll do my best to get back to you in a timely manner. Um so timelines, I mentioned August 4th. I mentioned end of September, early October for implementation. All corrections or I'm

042sorry, all records will need to be reviewed and uploaded with the results to our DPI portal by November 1st. At that point between November 1st and January 15th, we need to make all the corrections that we've identified. Those corrections again will be verified and from January 15th at that point um until uh April 15th uh will be another monitoring period where DPI will then come back to us, ask us very similar questions. They want to make sure that the corrections we made, the professional development and steps taken that we've taken to remedy that moving forward have in fact been in place and remain in place um before we move forward. And certainly with over a thousand actually over 1100 IEPs uh as of last week in the district, there's bound to be mistakes, right? That's

043why we call this our continuing continuous improvement process. But the key is is for us to identify them, take steps to remediate them, and then do better moving forward. Um, ultimately, uh, meeting those timelines, October 1st of 2027 is when DPI would officially close us out if we meet, uh, all requirements, uh, that they review. And again, it is a continuous improvement process for us. So on professional development days, uh the ones that we can steal in the middle of the school year, certainly every year for the last three years and this coming August will not be an exception, we utilize the time we have when staff come back to dig into what we are doing to talk about best practice, to talk about compliance, to norm our practices, and that's what we will do

044again based off of the results of the self assessment this year. and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have at this point. >> Thank you, Mr. Cahan. Are there any questions or comments? >> Yeah, I just have a question. Um, you mentioned that there's 14 staff. I don't need to know names, but like who like what positions are the staff that are sit on this committee then to do this? >> Yeah. So, right now we have uh special education building reps, one rep in all of our buildings. >> Uh we first offered that to them if as a leadership role in their buildings. People services staff as well. So, school psychologist will also be sitting on there. Several PSTs and I will also so there hopefully will be 15. I will also pull

045an administrator on for that as well. >> Okay. And then you said there's,00 IEPs >> 1134 as last week. >> Okay. [laughter] >> They don't all get pulled though just >> but how do you how do you determine which ones get pulled? >> Yeah, great question. So DPI has kind of a formula that they've laid out. So depending on the number of IEPs you have in the district. There's kind of like a little chart that you go to. I believe we will have 64 uh annual IEPs drawn of those and some of those that also have evaluations will also be pulled in. and then a much lower number uh of uh approximately 13 to 15 students that will go in and verify their implementation on and then the pool for shortened school day and discipline

046is relatively small overall. So my assumption will be that all students who meet those criteria that to fall into that we will review their IEPs as well. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. It's it's um every five years and it's pretty intensive work. And so I appreciate that you're bringing it forward to the board and the community to learn more about us and keep us updated. And like you said, it's really about learning what are we doing well and where do we need to do better and the the state is expecting errors so that we and and then we do better. So >> absolutely. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> [snorts] >> Uh, moving forward, uh, board member, oh, I'm sorry, uh, superintendent's report. >> Yes. Thank you, President Motor. Um, before I even get

047into this, I just want to remind the audience here as well as the listening audience. Um, the reason we're at this spot right now is after two failed referendums. The first we reduced by about 70 staff. this last year again we have another 30 staff that we had to reduce with that and the budget reductions that are needed um we are in the spot right now where we're looking at not looking at we are giving a recommendation of the schools that are going to be closing so again and I don't want this to sound like an indictment on either of these schools both these schools are doing tremendous work right now for our students but this is where we're at so after re reviewing enrollment trends and facility considerations across the STEM and Roberts Elementary

048School are being recommended for closure and consolidation. The following factors support this determination. We believe we can cons excuse me. We believe we can consolidate the functions of STEM and Woodworth into one facility, allowing both schools to continue operating and focusing while sharing the Woodworth facility. STEM high school students specifically will also be able to access Marion University as well as MPTC. geographical location and safe crossing patterns. I know as a board we talked a lot about this and the way FondeLac is is laid out, there's going to be some some tricky spots no matter what we would do on this. Um, so with that, some of the data points that we dug into largest enrollment decline in the district. Since 2005, Roberts has experienced the steepest enrollment loss of any elementary school in the

049district, declining by 190 students. This decline exceeds that of the next most affected schools. Py had a loss of 175 students and Lakeshore had a loss of 152 students. Currently, Roberts also has the lowest current enrollment with 261 students. The smallest enrollment of any elementary school in the district. The next lowest enrollment is Riverside at 283 students. Sustained net out migration. Roberts and Parkside currently are the only two elementary schools in the district where more students transfer out than transfer in from the FondeLac community. Roberts has the highest net out migration rate at 21% followed by Parkside at 19%. I will also say however Parkside right now is above capacity for what they can hold within their building. So we're kind of fortunate that we do have some out migration with the Parkside community. Every

050other elementary school in the district has recorded a net enrollment increase, indicating that decline at Roberts reflects a sustained and distinct trend rather than a district-wide pattern. Uh, also viable repurposing opportunity. An outside agency has expressed interest in leasing the Roberts facility. It's a singlestory accessible layout makes that building well suited for alternative use offering the district an opportunity to offset costs and return the property to prod to productive use following consolidation. And then in summary, taking together these factors, the district's largest enrollment decline, its lowest current enrollment, a continuing pattern of net out migration, and the potential for repurposing opportunities currently make STEM and Roberts the most appropriate choices for closure and consolidation. >> Uh, thank you, Superintendent Steinbart. Um, the board had the opportunity, a lot of information came forward, including how many

051spaces were available. um heat maps on where students are currently going to school, what it would look like um as we looked at every school um and what it would look like for the students to go to other schools. So, we looked at all of that information. Um and then just for the viewing audience as well, um uh Superintendent Steinbar, some of his staff, uh uh Mr. Frame and myself went to visit these schools earlier today. Um, so they have all they already learned this information. This is hard. Um, this affects families, it affects staff, it affects our community. And our community survey also said, this is what the community wanted us to do. So, um, beyond the information, uh, Mr. Steinbart just shared, that's other information. Mr. Henchel, >> yeah, make a couple comments.

052Um, you know, people heard we're closing. We're not closing STEM. I want to make that you know we're moving it to a different location that is going to be actually in my opinion better to grow STEM and better to have opportunity to bring more students of that you know learning environment uh to the table. We're at capacity where we're at now. We can't grow it anymore. I would love to see it grow at at Woodworth and we have the room to [snorts] grow it there. So that because when you said we're closing that's all I guarantee a lot of people out there didn't hear anything after that right so I want to be very specific we are not closing STEM we are moving them to a different physical location so we can grow the program

053okay that was number one that I wanted to say um I had something else and I can't remember what it was [laughter] there was two points I wanted to make really >> come back to that Mr. channel. Was there anything? >> Yeah, I just I want to say this is not an easy decision as the community talks about it. I do want to give credit to the district that they've done the research on it. There has been a lot of work put into it. I want to give credit where credit is due with that. Um, nobody wants to see their neighborhood school closed. We talked about that as a board. It's not an easy thing. Um, I'm very invested in this community, which is why I want to see it succeed. So, as we move

054forward with these difficult decisions, we want to be able to be available. I certainly as a school board member want to be available to anybody who has questions or concerns that you can come talk to me through it. I don't want anybody to think that there's a disclosure like oh once this is done there's no conversation can be had regarding it. We want to talk to people through it. We want people to understand the goal is to continue to see the district survive and thrive and move forward. So this is being done with the idea of future growth versus trying to be a punitive thing against anybody individually. >> Thanks Mr. Chanel. Okay >> one last comment. Um, the other piece I also don't want the public because I hear a lot of people that

055we were using this as a way with the referendum. This was going to happen either if it passed or didn't pass. >> That was we had to consolidate. We are down 1300 students as a district from the middle teens when my daughter graduated in 2016 to now the last 10 years we're down almost like 1300 students. So, this wasn't a, you know, um, what I want to say penalty for the community that we didn't pass a referendum. This was happening either way. This was not because of that. Um, you know, it's just I wanted to make that comment, too, because I know that's going to be criticized that we're doing this as a penalty because of it didn't pass. No, this was happening either way. >> Thank you. And I Yeah, and we've stated that

056numerous times before, too. So, thank you, Mr. Frame. Uh yeah, I just wanted to say um kind of what they were saying too. Feel free to reach out to the board. Um this is heavy stuff. Um you know, I it's not anything that we wanted to do. It's what we had to do with the position that we're in. Um you know, and and sometimes being in a leadership role, you have to make these tough decisions and this was a very tough decision. Um but yeah, reach out to board members, to other people in the district. um just please do that. We appreciate everything the staff has done at those locations and like you said, we're not closing STEM. Um and that will be, you know, still difficult moving um and figuring [snorts] that out and

057the new flow um that they need to figure out. Um but yes, um we appreciate each and every one of you. Um but yeah, please reach out with anything. >> Thank you, Mr. Labyrin. Anything further? Okay, Mr. Godfrey. Okay, Mrs. Maid. Okay. >> Yeah, they they've pretty much said everything already, but I do want to thank the Mr. Simbart and his staff for the many hours of research that you put in to help make this decision. And um and like Luke Frame said, it it is a tough decision. Um and just to reiterate, this is for the 2728 school year. >> Um not this fall. It's for the 2728 school year >> which um I had the chance to talk to uh the president of the governance board of STEM today as well earlier today

058and we talked about now we have a year to plan well so that we can keep the essence of STEM even though its location will be different and then also yes go ahead >> and I just wanted to say as you said planning well is also um with those with that potential closure especially at Roberts that does mean that our our boundaries will change significantly. So, we'll begin the communication once it's voted upon that this is what we are going to be doing. We'll begin the communication with families that students will return to their home school to start and then we will start accepting the open enrollment opportunities again trying to get every family to be able to be at the school that they believe their their child will thrive at. But we are getting

059ready as well if this passes through that we will get out that that information so that families have the opportunity to open enroll to the school that they think it will give their child the best opportunity. >> Um something else I wanted to share that you shared when we went to uh Rob Robert school because STEM school the staff will be moving with students to the new location. Um but Robert's school too you had shared like our goal is to find positions for every staff member um through um and listening to them on what their interests are um the schools they would be interested in teaching at um and doing the best we can. >> Correct. And with that as uh Mr. Mr. Groves had mentioned with AGR even on top of that we're at

060the capacity that at least right for myself and the board we're comfortable with at the elementary level for the the grade levels. So just by closing the school doesn't mean those those staff members are going to be eliminated of a position. It's just those students are going to move to a different building and so that staff will move to a building to be able to continue the the instruction that needs to take place because without that then our ele elementaryaries would be above probably 35 and we do not want that either. >> I got one. This is going to be the first question that anybody asked because everybody in the community was predicting Woodworth was going to close. Can you talk I know we've talked about it as a board and everything on the >>

061conversation because if you would asked four months ago that probably you know that's where kind of things we're at but why that didn't happen and the you know conversation around yeah we still needed three middle schools and this is why and you know >> absolutely and I think as my team and I kind of wrestled with this for a while since I started in May of last year and we started talking about knowing that this was probably going to be what would happen. Um the original conversation was well Woodworth is the newest middle school to open so that would be the one that would close and consolidate. And as we even started talking about it and with my history in the Fondelac school district um STEM is actually newer than Woodworth. Riverside is also newer

062than Woodworth in terms of schools that opened more recently. Um so that was one factor. And then as we began looking at some of our achievement and what we're doing, we also realized that trying to consolidate 460 kids into two other schools, so 200 and some in each each of the two other middle schools was going to cause a lot more disruption than potentially being able to move STEM over to Woodworth, which at the time was our lowest population um middle school at the time. And then with our great partnership with Marian University as well as MPTC, it gave us more opportunities. So as we started thinking about that and trying to do what's best for our families and our community and the learning that needs to continue taking place, we felt that if we

063can have STEM move over to Woodworth and have their own like they have their they'll have their own principle, they'll have their own >> operating right operating procedures for that that component. Um, we believe that that was a a better use of space. And then again, as a board had asked us, we had started reaching out to different organizations, would they be interested in space that we currently would have open? That opened other doors of what we're looking at. Um, and really why we we are ultimately recommending this for the board to approve later. >> Thank you. Today was a tough day and um, thank you to the staff. um for being as respectful. This is difficult. And uh thank you again, Superintendent Steinbart and and the team. Um so moving forward, we are now

064to our uh student and staff activities. And so um let's start over with Mrs. Maine this time. Uh activities. >> All right. Um uh I went to the STEM spring student showcase um and that was very very cool. Um three of the um students presented their capstones. Um I missed the first one. um but got the second and the third and um just and then I walked around to see what everybody's doing and it's just it it it's really cool and I I don't know a whole lot about STEM even though I you know working in the district it so the more I learn about it the um the more I I definitely agree we need to keep the program. So um and then I was at the Woodworth 8th grade recognition um along with

065Mr. Godfrey and we handed out bags with the Cardinal logo on it and um one of the young men there is in a wheelchair where he has to lay flat and he was a student of mine and I was his first teacher so I got to go up on stage and give him his bag and that was very um very special to me. Um and then June 3 I was at I just went over to the Parkside June Jubilee real quick. um they were they had stations in the um gym and they had lots of volunteers and they were just celebrating the end of the year. Um and I was also at the STEM graduation um along with Mrs. Motor and also the um Fondi High graduation >> the fourth. >> Thanks Mrs. Maine. Yep.

066Mr. Godfrey, >> excuse [clears throat] me. Um I was able to attend the um Camelot um 4K uh promotion. It is. I don't know how those how those teachers get those little bit little kids to to to just stand in front of a bunch of adults, but it it is just such a miracle that what they do over there. Um, I want to thank Mrs. Mrs. Bone for the uh amazing uh thank you that she she she gave me and and sent for my um donation for the grant. So, I I graciously appreciate that. Um, I also attended Sabish's eighth grade celebration. It's seeing some of those kids that I've I mean, I've known for years. I've know their parents. And to watch them transition into high school makes me feel kind of old, but

067it's it's great to see them transitioning to the next level of their um career, school careers. Then, like Mrs. Maine said, we also were um were able to attend the Woodworth um celebration as well. It was nice to to hand out they included us to hand out um the bags for the kids. And Friday night, oh boy, I thought I was going to just fall over at the graduation because that was the first night I I was able to use my cane instead of the walker. But it was great to see a lot of those a lot of those adult kids that I've also known for for a year. Um and lastly, um as most of you all know that our Ebony Vision's men vision program is a male mentoring program that services kids in

068the Fondelac school district and this year we ventured into the North Fondelac school district. I will not read this entire report that Mr. Loftton actually was so graciously to put together because I am no longer with the organization. Menovision's mentor men ebony vision's minivision mentoring program this year was has has grown not only in growth with with the students they grown we've grown into the from the fondelac community into the north fondelac community the growth of the brotherhood of growth respect and responsibility and core lessons that they mastered it is a it is quite a long list but I just want to thank the the founder Boys and Girls Club, the YMCA, um our mentors, Tyrone Wisdom, Corey Drummond, our volunteer Tracy, and all the other Ebony Vision staff, Ebony Vision board members and community

069members that gave and and poured into these young men this year. So that's it. >> Thank you. >> Oh, and if anybody wants a copy of this, I will send it to you because I didn't go into more detail because it's a big document. >> Thank you. Um so uh Mr. Frame >> uh yeah so during the STEM graduation there was a FondiF fest going on at uh the high school. So I was invited to cook uh hot dogs and burgers. So uh I got to uh sweat in front of a grill for a couple of hours. But no, it was really enjoyable. I enjoyed doing that stuff. Although I did say to a couple people this summer, I'm going to if if I'm going to be the uh designated griller for things like that,

070I'm going to clean up that grill cuz that grill is a mess. Um and then uh I went to the STEM open house. Um that was really cool. Um seeing all the things that they have going on there. Uh, and I was able to talk to a teacher there and they had a special project where um they were dropping a marble down a construction or a thing that they made out of cardboard. So I asked I was like, "Hey, I have off the next day. Can I come and watch that during class?" So he uh it was Mr. Hutner. He uh he let me come and witness that. And I got to talk to some of the students, you know, what they liked about the project, what were some obstacles they overcame while they were

071doing this project. And it is is it was pretty cool. They even had one where the marble had to jump where there was no track, but it it everybody passed. None of them broke the uh egg with that marble. So, uh that was really cool. Um and then yeah, the Fondelac uh graduation always a good ceremony. It's nice seeing all those uh young adults go on to uh the next chapter in their life. >> Thank you, Mr. Henel. >> Um couple year end stuff. It's all over the district obviously. Um and then the other uh big one I got to go to the uh state track meet. Um we had four qualify and Tai Pete, shout out to him, took second in the shot put an outstanding job. Um going into it he was like

072fifth seed and came out really really good on top and he's always fun to watch anyways because he's got a big smile on his face all the time. So um the other three unfortunately did not make it to finals but had a good good experience at at state track. So, um, and then graduation for me was special. It's my last, uh, one with, uh, you know, four kids, uh, and I coached a large number of those kids in one sport or another. So, my last, uh, opportunity as far as, uh, u, being at a graduation with a bunch of kids that I coached over the years. So, that was exciting and rewarding for me. So, >> thank you, Mr. Trano. >> Um, yeah, it's been a lot going on since our last meeting. I went

073to the Brena Strong soccer night. Thank you to everybody to that who showed up for that. That was an incredible night. Um if you don't know, Brena is dealing with cancer and the the cancer that she has, the color that is associated with it is purple. And so they did a purple rain theme. It was incredible. It was awesome to see the community support. It was just a wonderful moment. Um again, another community event at Hammer Track Meet. Got to DJ for that. It was awesome to see some teams come out and support. If you know Mr. Hammer, he's coached everything. I don't know him, but I've heard stories about the legend that is Ed Hammer, which is awesome. So, I got to call out all the stuff he did um over the mic, which

074was spectacular. Joined the rest of some of the board members at the STEM night. Got to learn incredible things that STEM is doing. And again, shout out to the STEM staff for what you do. It's it's awesome. Um we got to participate at the Robert's end of the year party. Got invited uh to DJ for those guys. Had a great time with that. Kids had a blast running around. They had a lot of things going on. The Robert staff did a great job of engaging. We're already talking about, you know, what we can continue to do over the course of the next year. Um the high school, uh as Mr. the frame. I there was two Lukes that got pulled over there. So, he was grilling. I was up running the music for the day.

075It's fun to watch kids come out of the high school. They're energized. They're having a great time ending their year. We could help participate with that. And then, you know, the graduation. Yeah. My uh our middle son Oliver uh graduated. So, it's cool to be able to see all these kids you've known for for years and some of these kids I've known since kindergarten through friendships and whatever. So, it's just incredible night. So, great end of the year. >> Awesome. Thank you. Uh I as well uh was able to uh attend the STEM uh showcase which was amazing and uh their graduation. [snorts] And um I am also uh the board representative on the water school counseling um meeting that they have in the beginning of the year. They share goals for the school counseling

076program and then um we meet back together at the end of the year. Uh Heather Norer Ratsky, I always struggle on that, Heather. I'm sorry. Uh is the school counselor there that leads that work. [snorts] And um graduation, which again was special for me as um when I was a principal, now my students are graduating. And so when I hear their names and I'm like, "Oh my goodness." I'm like, "Do you remember me?" And of course they do. Uh probably because I won't say. Okay. Anyway, uh so that was lovely. Also wonderful. uh the music and the the whole ceremony at both uh STEM graduation and Fondi High graduation was outstanding. So, thank you for all of that. All right, we are now up to our second uh public comment. Uh we'll follow the same

077procedures as before. If anyone would like to come forward Good evening, Shie Troder. Um, first of all, I would also like to congratulate Taipei. Um, I watched I didn't go this year. Um, my dad and I usually go to the state track meet even though my kids are all graduated now. We didn't get there this year, but I watched it all online live results. And you are right. he was not seated at all to get on the podium and he ended up at second place. We got a Fondi Cardinal that got second place on the podium at the state track meet. That's exciting. Um, another thing is, as you know, my youngest daughter went to STEM when it first opened. It was second through 8th grade at that time. And it's project- based learning and

078I'm really really for it. I also am really for including um students in um helping make decisions and you know um brainstorming and things. So, I don't mean this to be funny, but I know I'm getting older, but and I know I've said it multiple times, but the microphone situation in here is still you can't I can't hear sitting back there almost every meeting still. And I know I've mentioned it many times. So, I was thinking maybe STEM students, even if we got to wait till the fall because it's summer now, could be involved with maybe brainstorming because this is up some of their alleys about their project based learning about how we can make this microphone stuff better possibly. Um, my third thing is I'm wearing my Ebony Vision t-shirt and I'm inviting the

079board to our Junth, which is Saturday, June 20th this year at Buttermill Creek Park. And I've been inviting the community um from 11 to 4 p.m. the Fondelac School District for years, including this, which I didn't know what it was until they just gave it to me. Um, they give a monetary donation to Ebony Vision to help us run this program every year with their community funding. They also give us things like these two family pool passes for our raffle baskets so we can raise money and give back to the community. They usually give us a little fondi basket of maybe some a t-shirt and coffee cup and water bottle, things like that. People like fondi gear. And we als they also give um have a table every year as one of the vendors. So

080I just wanted to read what um the school district said I could read today at the microphone. We're excited to have this opportunity to connect with families to work on connecting them to our community apps parent squareward and securely. We're going to focus on digital health and safety along with communication with our families. So that is what the Fondelac School District's booth is going to be at our Junth. We're all about education and celebration. So I do want to thank out loud Gina Marianda and Alvin Kerry that are staff at the FondeLac School District. They are volunteering their entire day to sit at the Fond School District table and help community members get more um in tune with the things that the school district offers with the community. >> Thank you. Is there anyone else

081that would like to come forward? >> Okay, seeing none, are there any other appropriate matters? Um, I just wanted to bring up I did watch the board meeting from last time and um I know Luke brought up recess and he said something about wishing I had been here. So, unfortunately I was stuck in Chicago. But anyway, yeah, I the recess um I I do agree. I wish we could have more recess. I understand the academics and we've done so many good things, but research does show that the more kids move and can get out those wiggles, they can focus better. And there was a study done in Texas some just a few years ago, might have been five to seven um where they had gone down to one recess during the day also. And some

082people wanted to go move that back to two recesses or three, I don't remember which. No, but some of the teachers said, "Well, how are we going to get everything done? We can't fit it all in." and they did it and they found out they were able to get stuff done because the kids went out for recess, came back and were focused and their scores actually went up. So, and it's just something I would like us to still kind of look at and maybe talk about in the future. >> Yep. Thank you. And I just want to clarify because I double checked this. Teachers can take their kids out for an extra recept. Okay, good. If they choose to. >> Okay. Thank you. Any other appropriate matters? >> I just want to circle back around

083to Mr. Juice and and I know that he is gone, but I do want to say thank you. Like that kind of community commitment from himself, from the men's group he works with is incredible and it's one of the things about Final Act that I love and it's one of the things that drives what we're trying to do as a community and as a board. So, I just want to shout him out again and say like just that kind of dedication is incredible and it goes a long way. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Trano. Right. Can I have a motion for adjournment? I move to adjourn the regular meeting. >> Second. >> Um, can someone make a motion uh regarding uh then moving into the workshop to hear Ace Academy? >> Oh, they

084don't have that in here. >> Okay. Someone want to use my form? >> Yeah, they don't. >> There we go. >> How about uh you got it? >> The languages is that I can I can say I move the adjourn to regular meeting and move to a workshop to hear a report. >> Oh, you got it. >> You got it. All right, you can do it. Uh motion to adjurnn to workshop to hear uh ACE Academy report and discuss with ACE board >> and then >> second. >> So we have a motion by frame. We have a second by Godfrey and we miss. [laughter] Uh and then can we have the role please? Trum >> yes. >> Frame >> yes. >> Godfrey >> yes. >> Henchel >> yes. >> Ly >> yes. Maine. Yes. Motor.

085>> Yes. Motion carries 70. It's uh the regular meeting will be adjourned at 610 and we'll come back at 6:15 for the workshop. Thank you. >> [music] >> Mirror. material. The main thrust of the meeting was try to get textbooks instruction. We left that meeting as a group building. 2015 is when the program got up the ground. We have 35 students. We were in a classroom at the back of the wood shop and Bob to have a dream and a vision which is now new building. Smith and Bob reached out to a number of local. They saw the need for a better learning space. The new AC Academy building needed to be able to support work. HBAC work all the materials. classroom. I'd like to call to order the workshop of the board of education

086at 6:20. Mrs. Ming, can we please have the roll call? >> Frame >> here. >> Godfrey >> here. >> Henchel >> here. Labyrinth >> here, >> Maine here, Trannel >> here, >> motor >> here. All seven of our members are here and welcome um those ACE supporters. Hello, welcome. >> Thank you very much for this opportunity. So, I'm Jeff Roach with Associated General Contractors of Wisconsin. We're a trade association representing uh commercial construction across um the state of Wisconsin. Um, one of our highest strategic priorities is workforce development. So, as a part of that, we work with uh 12 different high schools across the state and growing. Um, and one of those schools is is FondeLac High School and the ACE Academy program. Um, we've been involved since the very incept inception and and Bob

087Rorig. Um, we'll give you a little more history on that. um dating back to 2013 is when conversations really started to ramp up. But um the the Fondelac Ace Academy is really the flagship and kind of the gold star for all the different high schools that we talk to and that we partner with and support. Um it's an incredible um incredible program building great uh pathways for great careers. I've shared some information about um career compensation and um career path uh roadmap as well. Um it's a a great industry. It's a um industry where it's constantly growing as you probably are well aware tremendous labor shortage. Um, agency of America did a recent survey and I think 96% of our members indicated across the country that they are having a hard time filling skilled craft

088worker position. So, um, it's something that's in high need. Um I what makes the ACE Academy model so we we partner with uh and support high schools across the state and um by bring helping bring industry into the classroom help them support um the classroom needs whether it's resources whether it's equipment whether it's hands-on learning side by side job shadowing opportunities um classroom speakers and so on um and the industry support here is truly unique in FondeLac. It It's really special. Um it's something that I can I can guarantee there's no other school in the state and possibly no other school in the nation that has industry support like what is done here at Fondelac. So you should be really proud of of that and know of this program. It's a great program. So because

089I know we are and I know um all the other the folks in the room here. So, I think the the goal here is that um to give a little update on kind of what's going on and the growth and things like that and then um start discussing, you know, how we can kind of take it to the next level, right? Um so, I have a a short little video here to show you which uh which we're proud of. Uh just gives you again a little bit of history and kind of a brief snapshot of uh where we've been and and where we're going. >> [music] >> May 13th, 2013 was the first meeting that we had at Fondelac High School. That meeting was called to order by the instructor at the time, Nate Leman,

090and the principal of Fondelac High School, John Wils. He invited six companies, CD Smith, JF [music] Ahern, Capelli Brothers, and Dedricch, Michael's Corp, Ahern Gross, and County Materials, who I represented at the meeting, [music] and then AGC. The main thrust of the meeting was to try to get industry to support the program [music] that was working out of a single classroom that was carpeted, had no storage, had no lab, no tools or equipment, [music] limited textbooks, and limited construction industry support. At that particular time, we left that meeting as a group and outside the building decided that we needed to really step forward [music] in supporting this program um because we're the we're the employers that need good prospects and Fond High School is a large school. >> 2015 is when the program really got

091up and off the ground. We had 35 students. We were in a classroom at the back of the wood shop. It took Pat Smith and Bob Rorig to have a dream and a vision which is now here. uh new building, 6,000 square feet. >> Patrick Smith and Bob Rarig reached out to a number of local [music] businesses looking for donations to support the growth of the ACE Academy. They saw the need for a better learning space for the students. The students needed somewhere where they could have a more hands-on approach [music] to the skills that they were learning. And a single classroom was not big enough for that purpose. The new ACE Academy building needed to be able to support electrical work, plumbing work, HVAC work, framing work, concrete, [music] masonry, steel erection, and it

092needed to have the ability to store all of the materials and equipment that is needed to accomplish those tasks. >> In the classroom at FondeLac High School, having 26 contractors that are experts at what they do [music] was huge for our student body. It gave them exposure to all 12 trades and in a 4-year period gave some of them the ability to make good friendships with the companies that were in the classroom on a regular basis. >> It's all about the students. Providing the students with career path opportunities in the construction [music] industry. What we found also is that there are a lot of students in the high schools that are very smart, but [music] they can't relate to what they're getting taught. So when you take students, put them in a cohort of other

093students that learn the way they do and have the same interests, then they thrive [music] and they succeed. >> One of the things that's benefiting not only our company but other companies is [music] that these kids are learning exactly what they want to do. >> Industry support for the academy is critical [music] and what we found in FondeLac is great industry support between CDSmith, JFA Hearn, Sha Electric's another one. There's [music] just been a lot of firms that have provided in kind contributions at their own expense to show students the different pathways that they can take in our industry and also the support of the school administration [music] has been really critical and the ACE Academy would not be successful without the administrative support. Also, we've been in this building for like 6 years and

094we cover the 16 different skill trades with 58 different uh contractors [music] that are partners uh with us in this endeavor. Today, we're looking at 235 students. Uh there's 8 hours in a day and we have uh 10 hours of students. So, there's a little bit of overlap uh with the increase in students. goes without saying, all of the contractors with their time, with their money, uh with the skill that they bring to the table, we couldn't do it without them. So, students get first class hands-on state-of-the-art uh training. A while back, I had some siding blow up the side of my house. [music] I called this individual up. They came over and it was a person that was about 23 years old. He says, "Let me go back and get some material. I'll be

095right back here and I'll start fixing it [music] up." So he went up there and he cleaned it all up and it looked like it never happened. And when he came back down, I I just kind of mentioned to him, I said, "You know, this is a story that would be good for you to maybe share with the ACE program." And when I was talking to him about the ACE program [music] over at the high school, he said, "I'm a graduate of that program." The career path opportunities in the [music] construction industry involve a lot of different pathways. Whether it's through technical college or [music] four-year college or apprenticeship programs, all of those areas have demand within our [music] industry. >> In the state of Wisconsin, the construction economy has been very strong and it

096continues to grow. [music] Construction employment in Wisconsin has actually grown faster than manufacturing, healthc care, and education over the last 5 years. So our ability to draw crafts people, new apprentices, build our trades people will be important as that economy continues to grow. And the ACE Academy presents a really almost perfect opportunity to give exposure to young people to that skill and those trades and that career. >> As business owners, I think it's very important for all of us to get involved with this. Whether we're involved with donating money, which is always helpful, or whether it's going in and helping these students learn about the trade that you know so much about, because the teacher himself can't know everything. And so when we as individuals help that teacher learn about specific things and teach those

097specific things to the students, it's so much better for all of us because they're getting hands-on knowledge of what it's really like to work with different materials that we deal with. It's important as a community and a construction industry to support this effort because we need to grow the next generation of workers who are going to be able to carry on uh the traditions of craftsmanship and integrity and hard work that we all rely on to do our jobs. >> All right. So, Um, one common theme with the the number of high schools that we work with, kind of the I guess the secret sauce that makes the ones elevate themselves amongst the others are um, you know, having great support from school administration and then support from industry and then champions of the program.

098So, um, I'm going to turn it over to Whitmer who is truly a champion of of this program. Um he's a special individual. We've seen tremendous growth uh with both um student participation and um industry involvement as well um with burn and then following burner. We'll talk a little bit about um the history and he's the other true champion of of this program too. So um very fortunate that uh you have these individuals in your community. Thank you. >> My name is uh Vern Whitmer, the lead instructor here at the ACE Academy. In 2009, Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense, oversaw the urgent procurement program for 10,000 MATV vehicles at OSCOS Corporation. It was the miner resistant ambush protected all-terrain vehicles that had a contract of $3.2 billion that needed to be accomplished within a one-year

099span. My assignment at the time was to supervise second shift, overseeing 25 technicians completing the trucks for shipment. As a department, we were responsible for shipping $75 million worth of trucks per week. It was all about planning, execution, and achieving a goal. Robert Gates came to the facility, toured the toured the production line, drove the vehicle at the test site, and then he spoke to the team, and here's what he said. one of his comments, "The rapid buildup of a new class of military vehicles designed for the war in Afghanistan is one of the most dramatic efforts in the defense history since World War II. It was my privilege to be able to be part of that team and to be able to be around that type of environment from top down when it comes

100to, you know, working on those things." Um, three three takeaways. Planning and execution were critical. No was never an option. It was a matter of how do we achieve our goals. And then thirdly, teamwork was critical. Everyone played a vital part. Those things helped me. I spent 20 years at Oshkosh Corporation. I've spent 27 years now in education. I stand in a unique position simply from the standpoint that I understand industry. I understand the framework. I understand, you know, the need for being able to get things done in a timely fashion, but now being 27 years in education, I understand, you know, the students and bringing them along and the partnerships and those type of things. So a few of the lessons that I've learned, speed is totally different when it comes to industry. It's

101rapid. It's quick. You need to make a decision. You need to move. When it comes to the budget, there's constraints. So I see both sides. That's my point. So as we talk about the ACE Academy, I guess the takeaway and the reason for the example is the fact that we need to partner together and continue to partner together. What we have today, the uh video that you've seen, you know, the going from 35 students to 235 students. That's a testament to all of us. That's not just a matter of what I do or what business and industry does. It's what the school district does with all of us. So we can all be, you know, uh, glad and appreciate the fact of we've come a long ways here in 11 years, you know, to where

102we are. But here's an analogy that I'll give. Picture a junior high dance. And picture the girls are on one side, the boys are on the other side. They both want to get together. But how does that happen? What I see from my perspective, what's happened for too long in education is the fact that business and industry is over here wanting to help, wanting to, you know, be part of the process and education is over here saying, well, I'm not quite sure how we're going to do that. Now, we bridged that gap back in 2013. So, enter the picture. Bob Rog and Pat Smith as what's already been you know mentioned and there's their vision you know their dream was to have the ace academy we have that now so the difficult you know decisions

103have been made the challenging conversations started the process back in 2013 so now fast forward to 2026 and what we have done together is evidenced by the video okay just kind of a snapshot that just for your information, in the last year and a half, we've had uh six different school districts come and visit as well as, you know, call from a Zoom standpoint asking the very questions that we asked back in 2013. How do we start this process? How do we get education and business and industry on the same page? And we've successfully done that. And that's all of our credit. Now, we want to take it to the next level and just kind of expand on that and as a little maybe rabbit tail, why can't we do this for business? Why can't

104we do this for healthcare? Why can't we do this and other things? But the model is here and you know that's just something to uh you know keep in mind. So, a few uh pictures here just to uh go through this. I've already you know pointed to the fact you know 35 students uh back in 2016uh 17 if you look at the graphics here they're in 2019 where the arrow is that's where there was a dramatic difference with the number of students taking the class >> reason being >> Vern I got a question are are the numbers we're going to go through any of does this include the automotive program too or this is completely >> this is just strictly the ACE Academy for construction production. Correct. Auto is >> Separate. Doing a great job,

105but they're separate. >> Awesome. All right. I just wanted to make sure. Thank you. >> Nope. Good question. >> So, if you'll just recognize the fact that once the building was built, now the students have they're not as much in their seats. They're out here working with business and industry and they're interacting and it is it's a game changer. Okay. On many levels be being able just to you know to talk uh you know with each other. the growth in the industry partners 2019 uh was minimal and you know right now we're well over 60 to 70 uh partners that are part of the ACE program and so from a school district standpoint I would just encourage all of us just to say how do we keep this momentum going how do we build off

106of it and how do we expand off of it for other areas of the school district the contributions as we uh you look at them contractor hours. Um if you'll notice there in 2022 23 there was like 1,200 um hours and that's these individuals coming into the classroom talking to the students having some type of a hands-on activity and saying this is what we do at our respective companies and this is the careers and the opportunities are there. Now, what they're seeing is only a limited amount of um types of jobs, if you will, because there's the estimators and the project managers and the supervisors and the HR and there's so many other things other than just what they're seeing at the time. But what I will tell you from my perspective is the fact

107that now the students get a comfort level. Now they know something about the companies. Now it's like, hey, I kind of like what I've seen. I don't like this, this, or this. And that's okay. That's part of learning. they can still be respectful but it just uh changes the dynamic you know for them when it comes to their career uh choices. So the ACE outcomes you know we have 128 ACE students that graduated between 2019 and 2026 and all of these uh you know students have gone on to skilled trades, registered apprenticeships, college degrees that we can point to you know in the last several years. We had the ACE signing day um just this uh last month and you can read you know what's there. It was a tremendous day and just being able

108to see the number of students that are going on to respective you know positions and just real quickly Steuart landscaping been phenomenal for us. We had the new building we had a pile of dirt between the science wing and the um ACE building. Stuarts came and says, "Hey, how about if we partner together and how about if we take the lead?" It became our training area with the students over a period of three and a half years. And the reason we did it three and a half years was so there was a training area semester by semester. and to the tune of $55 to $60,000 all donated. John Wilkins uh tremendously uh with a lot of patience worked with us to be able to get to this finished product uh there by the ASA building

109operating engineers. Um Matt, I'll give you credit. It was a matter of uh letting the students get on some pieces of equipment and obviously was monitored, you know, closely, but that was a game changer. You don't do all of that. There's the liability and if somebody gets hurt both from a business standpoint and the school, we all get that. But I will tell you that for the students to be able to operate a skid steer and be able to do a tractor and dump a load into the back of a truck and do other, you know, various things. Another game changer because maybe you and I grew up doing that on a farm, relatives, they haven't. So, fire suppression, JF Aern coming in, blueprint reading, being able to put together uh the various aspects of

110that. Um, hands-on was tremendous from energy, just being able to do the gas, do the electric. Michael's corporation again super supportive uh with that as well as Alliant Energy Marine Park. Uh the ACE garage couldn't have done it without all our partners listed right here. This was back in 2019. Uh Mike Gerlock, I still remember you standing up in the meeting saying the district has got this covered. It was like $60,000 project. We were at about 5050 when all was said and done. Um but it was again the school district stepping up. We needed a place to store things. Otherwise the 6,000 foot facilities would be cluttered. Now it can be out into a storage garage. It becomes a project for the students and it becomes a place for the contractors to work alongside the

111students. So here's a few facts. Sha electric um Dan stepped up and said we got it covered. Uh $17,000 worth of donated material time. And just so you understand, we had to go from the inside of the building and be able to trench all the way to the new uh storage garage. So there was, you know, quite a bit of expense and time, you know, doing that. The ice shanny, um, I still remember CD or CJ Smith giving me a call eight years ago and says, "Hey Vern, what do you think of this project?" And it took me five seconds to say, "We're absolutely in." We have the contractors, many of them here, part of this, working alongside the students. The shanty gets raffled off. They help donate the materials and the labor and we

112end up each year getting $6,000 at a minimal when it comes over eight years. So we have about $52,000 into the fund through the years uh just to be able to help out with that. Carpentry week, electrical week, iron workers come in, they get a taste of that, getting a chance to put together I beams. Uh Adam's fees donates an entire week, you know, comes in and students learn everything from drywall to epoxy floors to um painting, texture, safety, all of those type of things. Joe Belel, you know, comes in with the the stone and um just to be able to have a pile of stone, their expertise, students get a chance to cut it, get to assemble it, get to put it on, it's second to none. HVAC week, uh Jim Price as well

113as Aurora Steel, they donated to the uh program, uh $25,000 worth of brand new furnaces. They're now gassed up and we had our first training session last um last month. And so it was a 4-hour training session of here's what HVAC is all about. project management. CD Smith for an entire week comes in with their estimators, comes in with their project management, you know, comes in super super supportive, not only with project management, but masonry and everything else uh that they've done, you know, for us. We go through fall protection, scaffold training. AGC's been supportive. Commercial roofing with MW Thai, residential roofing with Lopez roofing. Fondelac fire department comes in. Let's talk about construction safety, fire extinguishers, you know, those type of things. Sheet metal week JFarn comes in and uh you know works with

114the students different material bending materials different careers opportunities the pipe trades um just being able to go through threading a material soldering joining pipe together local 400 JForn ahorn gross putting together a fireplace one semester this has been a game changer the half bath project. Drexel Building Supply donated much of the material initially. Now we do like 10 units. Students get a chance to be out of their seats getting a chance to do um a half bath from the foundation up to the roof and technically typically it's a um putting in a toilet as well as putting in the uh the plumbing electrical. Here's the HVAC. And so again, we're thankful for all of the contractors and everything they've uh done for us. So, thank you for your time. >> Thank you so much. Um

115and I I don't know well if you remember, but my son went through the program, >> Jacob. Yeah. And he's now um a welder and is going for his journeyman and did a youth apprenticeship. And so, um, as a parent, uh, having a child go through the program and how he's a successful adult, um, he bought a house before he turned 21 because of being able to get into a trade and find his match. So, thank you. >> Wonderful. Thank you for that feedback. >> I I have a quick question. What are they building right now out there? >> Pardon me. What are they building right now next to the garage? >> What we have is a a second storage garage. >> Okay. >> And so the reason for that is the first storage garage

116is filled with all the lumber, 2x4s, 2x6, OSB, concrete equipment, shakes. So we're separating the two. And so um again with industry's uh partnership, that's the reason we're able to do it the second time around is now it's a project for the students. One area is going to be for the equipment, ladders, scaffold, shovels, rakes, all of that. The other one's going to strictly be for the supplies. And then the great part with that is we'll build it. Contractors will help us put the trusses on, all those type of things. And then um CD Smith is going to help us put brick all the way around it so it matches the decor. So again, it's a training area. Um, but again, it's uh >> So, I walked by, I saw the landscaping out there, which

117was outstanding. Um, what are you guys going to do when you run out of space to landscape? >> I guess, you know, I was looking around. I'm like, what are they going to do next semester, the next year or whatever? Is there How does that work? You know, do they they don't tear that all up, do they? >> I hope >> they don't. That will stay. It's It's beautiful. We're going to enjoy it. And again with Stuart's uh you know help we're now up in the front courtyard outside the offices and counselors and that's our project for the next two years. So >> so as I build a house if I need help on if you need other future projects [laughter] >> I've got a back here >> I got a lot of I got

118a lot of work to get done. So [clears throat] >> I'd like to thank the board for our opportunity to do this workshop because the program has really grown. Thanks to the school board and construction industry. I'd like to take a second to have there's eight companies out there that are critical and have spent a lot of time and effort in the classroom. So, if we could start at this end and say your name and what you do. >> He's part owner. That's the star of the landscaping projects that you're seeing. He is their head project manager and he dedicated his time to um to teaching the students. And every one of these people that you see here are actually in the classroom working with the students. And in a lot of cases, when we

119first started this effort, we thought we were going to be getting some of the younger people within a company because everybody's busy. And how often can you afford to have the owner or a project manager or key people in the classroom, which has been a real benefit to our students in their career development. So, thank you very much because as a board um when Gary and I or Pat and I met in 2014 here the first time. It it was a challenge and a kind of a hard cell, but um it's been a great journey. Um one of the reasons for the workshop is we know that there's cut budget cuts. We as an industry want to do what we can to save those 262 students that are signed up for next year to to

120to take this program because we plan on improving this program. Um the three areas we'd like to have you consider is the architectural area, the metal area, and the woods area. Dissolve the present status of those three areas and put them under the ACE umbrella. and we will bring architects and engineers into that classroom. So we bring that program up to the current level of what architects and engineers are doing. Uh we think that's very very important. The same with metals. We have Musa, we have CD Smith, we have Bolt. Um they're all up to current code. They're teaching the best of the best. and we have the best of the best companies that are probably in the state of Wisconsin. If you were to analyze what they do in the territories they cover. So,

121as an industry, we would like to take over those three areas. If we can get one middle school teacher with Vern and Bill, we can help that grow and we will mentor the new teacher to become the architect and engineering instructor at at no cost to the school district, but we'll have engineers and architects in the schedule of the program that will help mentor that young student to take Rivet or the new programs for developing architecture up to the current standard, which we're way behind. at same with the metals area. Um, we need to improve that so it's up to the current standards. Yuza does a fantastic job with new buildings and roofs and and um sidewall structures. None of that is exposed to most high schools. And we're very fortunate to have them and

122and CD Smith and companies that can bring that those three areas up to where they need to be. And that's our proposal. and we'll be able to furnish some of the equipment that's required to make those changes as far as the architectural area. That was my job was working with architects and engineers and I know all the architects and engineers in the valley and getting Excel engineering in our front door uh would be huge because they are large and if we can get their engineering staff and their architects in along with some of the smaller firms like John um Jonathan Brinkley who has a new firm in the fire station on the north side of Main Street. bringing in all the architects so students can kind kind of get a flavor of a lot of

123firms that we can bring to the table. We presently have 62 companies that are part of the partnership that we started with six in 2013. We can add CNC operating companies in the woodworking area to help build. We would have them come in and actually help train the students on CNC operations because that's very popular now in the construction industry. We have eight firms that have CNC machines within within their structure and they have volunteered to be a part of that effort in the woodworking area and Bill's a great teacher to take that program and expand on it if we get the go-ahad to have those companies come into the classroom. But we can we can grow the 62 to at least 70 firms. Um and and the nice thing about adding firms to our

124program is in the beginning our first committee one of the things we thought was very important to add English and math English so that they can learn resume building resumes and interviewing well that's eliminated when you have these contractors in that building looking for the best students that are in that classroom and developing a relationship as they're freshman working up. There is no interview. there is there is no uh resume required. They're grabbing these good students in a hurry. And the other thing that we try to impress in that program and burn is good at it is when a contractor asks you to do something, you do something more because that's the way you get a raise. That's the way you get a promotion. And every one of these guys in here that will run

125projects, if he has a guy that he tells to do a project and they're actually doing extra, I mean, that's a shining star. So, um, so we're asking the committee to consider giving us the opportunity to take over those three areas with three instructors is all we need and we'll take a young one to mentor in the architect and engineering area because we'll give him the support that he needs to run that program. Um, what have I missed? Um, >> we got the who's who in the audience here. >> Comments. Oh yes, just make I'll make one more comment and then uh Dan brought a graduate of our program, Dan Shea from Shea Electric and Oshkosh. Uh and we're going to have him talk to you. But I want to first thank Matt Steinbart who's

126been great to work with from our perspective, Dave Miklavich, who's been a great principal for us to work with. and Mike and I had a pretty good relationship at breakfast some mornings. Haven't done that in a while, but uh thank you. >> So I have a follow-up question. So this is um new learning for most of us. I I mean I knew a lot some however um so what you're coming with us now uh we'll have to like learn more about. Um, so you've brought the video, you've brought some materials for us from what you're bringing forward. You I I heard a couple things. I heard one middle school >> teacher, but then I also heard someone to teach three classes. >> Okay. So, Bill is a very good instructor. And um >> I guess

127I'm just curious is there >> Woods would be kind of a cohesive. Do you have like a one pager of exactly what you're thinking or looking for? Or could that be something? I just um >> No, just in general, like in general because I've heard a lot of things, but it's like process time and what questions do I want to ask? So, I'm just curious. Um you've shared Thank you. Thank you all of you. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your talent. again like my son is successful because of because of the some of the work he's done through the ACE Academy. I'm just curious, can you um do you have like a one pager of this is what we're hoping for so that >> we can absolutely do that. >> What was

128that? >> We can absolutely >> Yeah, that would be awesome just for all of us to see it and then start doing some thinking, talking to administration. What other questions do we have? That would be really helpful for me to keep thinking. >> Does that make sense? Can we get that accomplished? >> That one page and Jeff. >> Okay. Um I don't know if you'll remember and then I'll get Dan up here because he's he's a big force in what we're doing, but I don't know if you'll remember when we first started in 2014 with the board meeting here and getting the approval to actually build the building. Um there was a lot of emphasis on how you going to cover the curriculums and that sort of thing. And I always told Vern, we're going

129to walk before we run. You're going to have the experts behind you. So, we built a curriculum chart for Vern >> that had every key person in every trade with the email address and the phone number. So, if it was painting, it was electric. If it was masonry, it was myself. If it was concrete, it was CD Smith. Um, the whole list went down. And John was in the landscaping area. Um, so that Vern had a cheat sheet to call a minute the minute he ran into a problem with a curriculum question or a skills checklist um, option. We still haven't completed all that based on, you know, four years, but that's the sort of thing with the new things we're recommending. the change will be walking before you run, but I'll guarantee you in

130three years they'll walk out of there with an education that no other high school can do in those three areas in addition to what they they're getting now. Good evening. I'm Dan Sheay with Shay Electric and Communications. Um I'm happy to be here tonight. I'm a I'm really jazzed up. Uh to be honest with you, uh I'm a huge advocate for youth apprentichip. Um I'm very proud to be surrounded by my friends and colleagues in the industry. Um first and foremost, I'd like to thank you, thank each of you for taking all the bullets and arrows in our community for our area youth. Um I know it's not easy with the referendum not passing. Um, I know it's hard. Um, hard is subjective, but we understand uh as because we run businesses, so we understand

131budget constraints. Um, and I think that, you know, I'm going to skip around a little bit, but um we where we have failed uh to some degree is uh we have to be storytellers and we have not done a great job through the ACE Academy. We this is the silent majority but we have not done a great job of getting in front of you and telling you about all the wins that we've done and I would like to create talk about some of those tonight. Um I have 40 years in the trade this year and 20 years in business. Uh I am an electrician by trade. Did not go to college so I am um uh you know school of hard knocks if you will. um we're all tasked with um with um getting everybody

132career ready or college ready once they leave the school. So again, everything I talk about tonight is collaboration. Uh there's and it should be taken as collaboration because we're looking for the same thing you are. Um I've been involved in many schools, school districts in youth apprentichip since the 2010 2011 school year. Um, I struggled with getting a youth apprentice. Uh, honestly, I did not, um, it wasn't until I got past the guidance counselors, respectfully, the guidance counselors were not my friend. Um, until I got to a a couple of teachers, um, that's when I really, when I got to the teched teachers, industrial arts, when I was a kid, but the teched teachers is when it really started to grasp. I took my first youth apprentice in the 2014 2015 school year from Oshkosh

133West. Andrew Bogart was uh was slotted to uh become an auto mechanic. Um he was a president of FFNA FFA um rockstar young man and um um I was in Mark Bashell was a teacher introduced me to him and um after a couple conversations he decided to take a youth apprenticeship with us. Um just fast forwarding 201 uh 14-15 school year um took an adult apprentichip became a journeyman very successful foreman and as of December of 2024 he's in our office as a project manager so makes over $100,000 a year on his check plus full weight uh benefit package amazing at 28 almost 29 um all because of youth apprenticeship and and organizations like the ACE Academy and and our peers. Um, I'm excited to be involved in the high school ACE program since its

134inception. Um, I'd like to thank again Pat Smith and Bob and Vern and the many other people that are in the room uh and the AGC for spearheading that. Again, all in silence. I know that half the money for the ACE Academy came from industry and the other half came from the school district. But we have where we have failed is because we have not been front and center. Um I'm going to skip to the back for a second. One of the things that I do when I get when I do something for one of our customers, um when I do something for one of my customers and I'm not going to charge them, I send them a bill for $0 and then I say value. I'll write down the description. I'll write a value

135because if we do something for you and we don't tell you, then there's no perceived value. There's a reason why there's so many owners and project managers here tonight is because we need to own this and we understand the constraints, but we really need to work with you to um to grow this program. Um I commit I personally commit to meeting with uh area young people once a once a year. So I call on four different high schools. Um I'm in there for seven periods. burn gets me all lined up and I get one lunch period. Um, I decided I personally decided that I don't want to uh hire people that are 25, 27, 28, 30. And it's not age discrimination, but you know what? I I start with why. Simon Synynic. Start with why,

136right? [clears throat] Cause a purpose of belief. People at that age have already tried their hand at their why. It could have been rock band. It could have been culinary. but now they're 28, 30, what have you, and they have a dog, a house, a wife, a cat, a car payment, a house payment, and they're looking for what? Money, and that's great, right? But I'm looking for people that want a career, and that's why I call on the ACE Academy. Um, so we have to go younger, and that's why I I get involved. Um, I sh I'll just a brief overview of my career again, uh, 40 years in the trade. Uh when I do call on the young people, I talk about the trade in itself. I share the life uh the day in

137the life of a trades person. I do talk about all the trades and after I'm done talking about all the trades. Then I skip into the SHA electric part and I start talking about voice data, video, fiber optics, card access, camera, sound music, paging, fire alarm, DS. We're surrounded by what we do. We're a very technologydriven company. Uh I also talk about talk about that we're at unprecedented times where um and in fact you you'll get to meet Noah later. I've been laid off. There's many all the people that are my age here have all been laid off. We're at the first time in our life where my apprentices and my journeyman will never be laid off again. it just won't happen with attrition and with all the all the constraints in industry. They'll never

138be laid off. How cool is that? Um, but I do tell them I do when I do call on them, I tell them, don't settle. When the employer is interviewing you, you're interviewing them. I again, this is we're all doing this. This is a group effort. Uh we talk about a what um we talk about how in our trade you earn while you learn. So you're not you're not just you're not going to college and paying for it and then putting it on the cuff back in the old days putting it on the cuff and paying it for it later. You're actually going to school every day, going to work every day and you get to you get paid to go to day school. How cool is that? And you gradu when you graduate, when

139you top out and become a journeyman or journey person, um you don't have the debt. That's what we need in this country. We need more of that. Um in my opinion, I'm a micro guy. Um we talk about starting with the end in mind, which we already talked about. We talk about one of the things that I I swear to God that that you'd think I punched the kids in the face when I say start with the end in mind. Start with retirement and I bring out the Dave Ramsey calculator and I'll talk about that in a couple minutes about starting with the end in mind earlier compounding interest. I I pack a lot in a 50 minutes. I got to tell you the kids get it's like they get hit with a 4 inch

1404 inch uh uh water hose, fire hose. Um I've taken a lot of people out of this program. You're going to hear from Noah tonight, Noah Clippert tonight. Um, and he is a he just finished his third year. He's going to start his fourth year in September. And, um, I'm proud to say most likely by September he'll be able to write the test because he'll have enough hours and he will have a journeyman's card. Unlike other contractors, I ask people to do more. I'll pay him journeyman scale. He'll be he'll be in his apprenticeship program. Every one of our apprentices has gotten their license early. They're paid journeyman scale and they're still going to school. Okay. I also want to share that uh uh Tobaya Braun is uh a graduating senior and he's going to

141be working his first full day for Sha Electric on July 6th. So, he accepted it. This isn't a oneand done. This is a labor of love for everybody in this room, all of us. Um let's see. I'd like to emphasize the continued collaboration with the contractors. I I'll speak for I I don't speak for other people, so I'll speak for Sha Electric. Um we work handinand glove with our ACE one, two, and three. Um exploratory it sounds like might go away next year. So that's one of the reasons why we want to talk about you know the the labor needs. Um, we've wire we've wired up every single shanty uh material in labor and it cost us anywhere from 14 to $1,600 a year and we pay we pay it forward so that that money

142that's raised goes right back to the school district. Um, again, you already heard last year we came out of a panel, had to run out, run a feeder out to the uh to the first storage shed uh storage building, and then we actually sized the feeder big enough to run to the second one next door, but that was a $17,000 investment. We paid for it. The cool thing is the school district, that's part of your real property now. We just increased your value as did Stewart's by doing all that work. We're increasing the value of the properties and it's not costing the school district anything or next to nothing. Um, I was just one of the trades involved in that. I just want to throw this out there. I don't believe that there's any other

143program, this is my belief, I don't think there's any other program in the Fondac school district that has this kind of collaboration that has this many people donating money and having this many contact hours. Again, we could we'll provide all this to you. I mean, this is a lot of money. If you average 90 to $110 an hour per person, there's a tremendous amount of contact hours that have been placed in in these in these years by all these contractors. Uh, I'd like to hand out information if I may, um, on wages and benefits. I need your So when Noah started with us in June of 22, he was starting at $18 an hour. And as you'll see in the yellow document, June 1st of this year, he's now making $39.97 on his check. That's

144on his check. So, he's going to make $80,000 this year. On top of that, he has health and welfare. Again, this is all the stuff we talk to our young people about. We have Cadillac insurance, $500 deductible, $1,500 a family, dental, vision, prescription. Those are great wages and great benefits. We also talk a lot at an agnosium about um paying it forward and talking about uh defined contributions. So you're going to see you're going to see a piece of paper there from Dave Ramsey. The the the amount of money that goes into the pension plan is not static. It's tied to the wages. When the wages go up, then the money goes for retirement goes up. I took the money from for Noah's wages and I entered it into the Dave Ramsey calculator for you

145and I applied it. I said at age 20 and he started at age 18, but at age 20 and if they were to retire at 62, you're talking at today's wages, not including increasing wages, you're talking about just under $6 million, $5.8 million. If you had to live on 4% of that, okay, because again, you want to you want to assume that you live on 4% so that the it takes care of the rest of it takes care of inflation. That's $235,000 a year when you're 65. When you're 60, your house is paid off, your car's paid off. If you can't live on $235,000 for the love of God, okay, on top of that, if you were to take the real numbers, okay, if you were to compound it, because I've done it, I just

146can't show it to you to you today, it's 11 million with if you figure a two and a half to 3% raise every year, you're talking about anywhere from 9 to 11 million. We're like Mike Rose said, this is where the next batch of millionaires are going to come from. We need your assistance. Everybody in this audience needs your assistance. It's not about the money. You heard me say that we want careers, not jobs, right? God bless. We need people to do everything, but we're looking for people to be our future leaders and we train them. So, uh, under your own website, um, and again, you guys can look, but on on the landing page for the FondeLac high school, halfway down the page, there's an article about the ACE Academy Healthcare. Again, we need

147to grow this program because we took it from 35 to 200 plus. We need not just, and we're willing to work with you and for you, but we need your help. We need to grow the program, not decrease the hours and not to decrease the uh teachers. Um we're going the wrong way. Uh you've heard from other speakers about the investments made. Uh I want to stress that this is a labor of love for all of us, but also it's our lifeblood. This is our lifeblood because again with the attrition, everybody's familiar. You guys are all familiar, ladies and gentlemen. You're all familiar with attrition rates. We need these people to come in and be our future. And there's not one person in this room that doesn't want them to win better than what we

148had. Uh we are unprecedented times in the trades with attrition rates. Um I could talk forever, but I won't. I'd like to thank the contractors again. Some of the things that we didn't talk about is two years ago the AGC awarded the FondeLac Ace Academy with an award for the whole state of Wisconsin. You guys smoked this burn and his st burn and the teachers and the students smoked all the other school districts and we were awarded that that award. It was amazing. I was there during that presentation. I also want to talk about that we created a foundation which we didn't talk about tonight. How much money do we have in it? We have 95,000. I personally have donated $5,000 a year. So there's another five grand going in this year, but we've donated

149$95,000 to pay it forward. That's in a fund through the AGC. We've also because of all these great contractors here, we have created a massive relationship with Milwaukee Tool. How many tools have they donated, Vern? >> Thousands of dollars. 140,000 >> $140,000 in donated tools. And when we when I see the kids using them, the not kids, when I see the young people's using them, I take pictures, I'm sending them to the VPs and all the senior staff at Milwaukee Tool and blowing up the Fondelac Ace Academy. My hope here today is is all about the long term. I believe we as business owners need to put a business plan together. You're at a restraint. you're at some constraints. Um, there needs to be a business plan put together for the ACE Academy. I'd be

150happy to sit with you and as would anybody here. We have to get farther out. I know that you guys release contracts for your for for uh school teachers and stuff on a yearly basis. I'm going to ask you if you can look at doing a two or three year because there's not many teched teachers out there. And if you want to tie them up, you're going to have to Vern's committed to doing and he didn't I didn't hear him say this. He's committed to doing one more year. Where's the continuity, right? Process, procedure, process, procedure. When you're in business, that's what you do. We need more teachers so that he we actually could use two more teachers full-time because he needs to be able to coach the ones that are going to be going

151because he's going to retire and and that's what our concern is. And again, we have failed. I want to own it. I failed myself to come forward and and have that conversation with you. So, I'll leave I'll I'll end with that. Um this is a Mike Row moment and Carp, let's seize the day together. So, thank you. Happy to answer any questions you might have. >> Yeah, go ahead. >> Um, great presentation. Um, you know, I'm a big, uh, supporter of the trades. I've, uh, loosely been tied to them for a while. Um, [clears throat] so, just a couple of feedback points and, um, I guess questions that I have. Um, you know, like I said, great presentation, but um, what is it? the uh keep it simple, you know, like what exactly are you

152guys asking for? What do you guys want? You know, um like like what they were talking about getting the the one page, you know, this is what we want. This is how we help each other going forward, you know, as far as uh um I guess that's that's mainly what I'm asking. >> Rifle, not shotgun is what I'm hearing. You want a rifle, not a shotgun. >> Yeah. Yeah. But this is a good broad overview and I think it's good for the viewing public too. But we also need to like you said get get down to specifics. This is what we want. This is what we're asking for. This is how we grow together going forward. You know um you know I I guess that's just my feedback from this presentation. >> And I think

153just along with that and someone else mentioned it before too all the pressure I think it was you right. So, we closed we're closing two schools. We cut a hundred staff members. We have to continue to grow and do better. And we have to have all that information as we decide next steps because adding teachers when 30 people just lost their jobs, right? So, how do we I think we just need more information and digging and understanding. So, thank you. And yeah, all your time and energy and money to do better by our students is incredible. So, we have to keep doing the good work and we have to do it smart. >> And and and I I'll be and I I don't disagree. I agree 100% what you said. And how big is Michael's?

154How big is CD Smith? There's two people in that in that house that are voters. Those are those are people that pay a lot of money in taxes. I pay money in taxes. happy to pay it, right? I I I I would have voted for the referendum. I'm not in the school district, right? But I would vote for it. You don't You vote for children, right? That's period the end. That's the answer. But if you talk to Brian Davis, he'll tell you that I I'm I'm locked in with with the trades. So locked in with the schools. >> I'm going to take a maybe a little different approach to it. Um first of all, I agree with you on the business plan and a secession plan. I'm big on secession planning. Sure. >> Um I

155would love to be part of that if you want to include me. I'm I can get you my number. I would love that. I look at it as I understand we eliminate positions. Good thing is most of them we hired back because of attrition, you know, so we didn't lose people. Um but I look at it as you what are you going to lose if you don't invest it, >> right? >> Bigger picture, right? Not just this year, not just next year. Like you said, all a sudden Vernon leaves. Now we got we're back down to 50 people, you know, in the program. And there's a need. And >> how about institutional knowledge? >> In Yeah. Institutional knowledge. You look at um all the businesses in town that that write checks, you know, to help

156when we need a new stadium or when, you know, different things within the organization. the investment they make in this program as a community. I don't think we're doing our community justice unless we seriously look at and say, "How do we make it work and how do we work together to make it happen?" My biggest thing when we did the stadium was, you know, built for FondeLac by FondeLac, right? For our people, by our people. They're all paying uh taxes to it. And if we can help a value and bring that to the kids uh that are going through that program, I know a number of them when we were doing our refer uh the original referendum with the capital improvements, we were going through the hallways running in the kids all the time saying,

157"Yeah, I was through the ACE Academy, now I'm working for JFern putting in putting installing things up here. Yep. I worked through the ACE cabin. Now I'm working at CD Smith." Um so yeah, I 100% look at it. We got to figure it out is what we got to do as a as a community, as a district, and as business owners. And um yeah, [clears throat] let me know if you want someone. I would I I love the vision. I love the uh opportunity. So, >> priv private public partnerships. You couldn't ask for better partners than the people in this room and the other ones that are not in this room. That's what I would tell you. And so, we do have to figure it out. and >> and I appreciate you guys, you know,

158being business owners and that taking the time out of your evening to come to a board meeting to present this. And you know, uh, on a fun note, I also want to take a little bit of, uh, credit for Noah because I did coach him in football and middle school. So, >> boom. >> You know, he was my center. He was my center for men year, you know, for a couple years in there. So, you know, >> with that said, I'd love to get him up here because, uh, again, he started with us in June of 22. Uh, Noah, if you could come on up and then he'll show he'll tell you a little bit about his journey. I only bring up the if anybody knows me, the last thing I talk about is money

159because I don't want the kids to come for the money. I want them to come for the career. And this is one guy that's on fire. >> No problem. And I didn't recognize him back there with all that hat and facial hair. >> Starting to look like my dad. >> Good afternoon. My name is Noah Clippert. I graduated class of 2022 from the Fondite High School. Uh I spent three years in the ACE Academy. I started out like most high schoolers not knowing what I wanted to do in life. Ace Academy led me to where I am today by exposing me to lines of work that are not typically advertised to high school students. With Ace Academy, it allows students to experience different lines of work without being committed to one profession if they're not

160going to like it. Uh during my three years at ACE Academy, it exposed me to employers such as Sha Electric when Dan Shay would come in and talk about his experience as an electrician and provide us with hands-on experiences. Currently, I'm a fourth year apprentice with Sha Electric on my way to earning my journeyman's license. The ACE Academy did not provide the same hands-on quality of experience due to lack of funding. It would be a disservice and negatively impact students who are like me who want to pursue a career in the trades. I want to thank you for your time and for listening to my experience with Ace Academy. I hope this helps you understand how beneficial it was for me and will be to future students. Thank you so much. No problem. I >>

161I'd like to ask the community um you know the contractors and that out there. You made a Dan, you made a huge comment. Finding teched teachers is almost impossible right now. And I don't know if you guys I mean that would be my biggest ask. Help us find that person. um we can't we've been struggling to find them. On top of that, um you know, like Vern was in the industry for many years and then converted to education. Uh are there people out there that are in that position where they're like, "Hey, I'm almost at the end of my career. I want to share my knowledge and go into education of people that you work with on a day-to-day basis." would love to get opportunities to talk to those people because it is tough for

162us to find educators in those positions and that's our that's our biggest struggle you know so help us help you and >> and I haven't run this by Jeff for burn or Bob so [laughter] so I would tell you that all we need is a piss and vinegar young person that's a teacher because you have all these industry experts that we're gonna that coming into the classroom. They can learn organically from us. They don't need to be electricians, masons, carpenters. They don't need to do any of that. We can bring we can be the catalyst for this. You just got to find the the young person. And respectfully, you got to tie them up. We tie up our we tie up our leaders. If we if we spend three years teaching somebody and then they

163pull the pin and go somewhere else, I mean, that that's that's devastating. We you you guys mentioned continuity business plan. We're We're in I don't know anybody that wouldn't invest in this, but we've got to find a young person, not a seasoned person because you you're trying to rob somebody. That's why we went younger. We're going younger. Let's go grab a young person that's coming out of school that has a tenacity for this and then we'll teach them and then we'll partner with them. We'll set the hook into them. You take care of the contracts, get two and threeear contracts for for them. I know that that's not going to go well with some people, but I personally don't care. respectfully, we've got to tie people up. It's a business thing. This is a business

164thing. Otherwise, you're going to get poached and that's not what you need. That's just the truth. >> So, I didn't mean to speak for everybody, but thank you for your time. Thank you for your passion. Thank you for uh your support and your funding. Um, I would love to see like a one-pager exactly what you're thinking. Um, and um, you already have some interest from the board regarding what does this look like? And then, um, that would be a next step for me is to like see that, think about it, and then start generating like what are all the questions? What are we wondering? What do we need? Um, and I'm sure you have the answers. I don't know what to ask. But um thank you for your time this evening. Really appreciate it. Um

165again, as a mom with a son who bought a house by age 21, like it's it's it makes a difference in a person's life. Um so appreciate your time, appreciate your energy and what you've given to the Fondelac School District and our students. Thank you truly. Um, with that being said, I think we will move to an adjournment. Can I have someone make a motion? >> I move that the board adjourn the workshop. >> Second. >> We have a motion by Henchel, a second by Godfrey. Can we have the role, please? >> Frame. >> Yes. >> Godfrey. >> Yes. >> Henchel. >> Yes. >> Ly, >> yes. >> Maine, yes. Trann, >> yes. motor. Yes. Uh motion carries and we will adjourn at 7:27. Thank you.