001I'd like to call the regular meeting of the Board of Education to order at 5:00. Mrs. Main, can we please have the roll? Frame. Here. Godfrey. Here. Henschel. Here. Lawrence. Here. Main, here. Pennell. Here. Motor. Here. Uh all six members are present, so we have a step seven So all seven are present, so we have established a quorum. Uh next we will take a moment reflection preceded by the Pledge of Allegiance. >> [snorts] >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I'd like to announce that following the regular meeting, the board will convene in a workshop to discuss school consolidation planning and an executive session as provided in Wisconsin Statute 19.851
002A, F, and G to consider pupil expulsion expulsion and confer with legal counsel for the governmental body who is rendering oral or written advice concerning strategy to be adopted by the board with respect of litigation in which is it or likely to become involved which relates to public records law. And then we are up to our public comment. The public may approach the board to make a presentation no longer than 5 minutes per person, 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 at this meeting to remain in compliance with state statutes Chapter 19 Subchapter 5 Open Meetings of Governmental Bodies and the Public Notice Requirements. I'm referencing
003policy 0167.3 Public Comment at Board Meetings. I 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's statement is too lengthy, personally directed, abusive, obscene, or irrelevant. 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
004so interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting as to warrant such action. So at this time we'd like to welcome anyone who is interested to come up, state your name and address. If you prefer not to state your address, uh there are white slips of paper on the podium. Please mark your address on there and you can give it to our clerk, Mrs. Main. So I will welcome um people up at this time. Hello. Uh Jim Hess. Final Acton, E. Thank you. And uh these are my personal words and uh I don't represent anybody else. As of today, Wisconsin Assembly Bill 614, often referred to as the Teacher Bill of Rights, has passed both the state's assembly and state senate and is currently awaiting action from Governor Tony Evers. This bill empowers teachers to
005remove violent or persistently disruptive students from the classroom. Driving school bus just a couple hours each day gives me empathy for what teachers are forced to contend with all day long. The bill creates protection for teachers against retaliation when they act in good faith to remove a student and it requires a {quote} classroom reentry plan {unquote} before a removed student can return. It allows teachers who are victims of physical assault or violent crime by a student on school premises to terminate their employment contract without penalty. That should have always been in their contracts. Sadly, there is no evidence that future student mis- behaviors is on the decline. The governor is certainly reaching out for advice from WEAC and the American Civil Liberties Union before making any decisions. Wisconsin has some of the largest academic achievement
006gaps between black and white students in the nation. On the 2024 National Assessment of Education Progress, NAEP, Wisconsin posted the largest black-white gap in fourth grade nationwide. On Wisconsin's most recent forward exam, the gap between black and white proficiency is 43 percentage points. 18% proficiency rate for black students versus 61 for white students. DPI Underly Jill Underly and Governor Evers explains this huge gap as race-based. And the fix is expanding culturally responsive teaching and diversifying the educator workforce. In other words, affirmative action. But analysis suggests that 42% of the relationship between demographics and academic proficiency is linked to poverty. The income-based gap is proportionately affects blacks black students. In Wisconsin, black families are roughly three times as likely to live in poverty as white families. Other well-documented reasons for these differences are family structure, stability,
007and early reading to children, which is essential for later academic success. >> [snorts] >> Wisconsin has the lowest rate of married black adults in the country. A two-parent household typically benefits from greater parental time, stability, and cognitive stimulation. Race itself does not cause low academic achievement. What matters are the underlying factors that our education system too often ignores, poverty, family stability, and early literacy. >> [snorts] >> In our recent uh sent out brochure, >> [snorts] >> on on on the page four, it it talks about that our school district exceeds expectations for the 24-25 state report card results. >> [snorts] >> Um but what's disheartening is you know, that our high school is second from the bottom, you know, has not shown any improvement and you know, actually is at 59.5 from the year before
008which we were at 61.3. And that 59.5 is meets few expectations. Or >> [snorts] >> the high school our high school is at the 26% you know, out of 100% of the high schools in the state. Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to come forward? Seeing none. I please have a motion to accept uh the consent agenda. I move that the Board of Education approve the consent agenda as follows: March 2nd, 2026 regular meeting and workshop minutes, personnel recommendations, resignations, and bi-monthly financial reports. Second. Mr. Troy. All right, we have a motion by Mr. Henschel, a second by Mr. Godfrey. Uh and just a reminder for the audience, uh if you have any questions regarding the [clears throat] bi-monthly financial report, please feel free to reach out to any um uh board
009members as we do ask questions and get clarification on that. Moving into Roll call the roll. Yeah, we got a Uh thank you. The vote, please. Frame. Yes. Godfrey. Yes. [snorts] Henschel. Yes. Laverents. Yes. Main. Yes. Pennell. Yes. Motor. Yes. Motion approved 7-0. All right, and then Chief of Academic Officer individually considered resolutions. Move that the Board of Education approve the 2026 Summer Adventure Academy budget in the amount of $416,932 and the course catalog. Second. The motion by Mr. Henschel, a second by Mr. Laverents. And Superintendent Steinbart. Yes, we have Mr. Groves as well as some members of his team that will kind of take us through some of the questions and some of the things going on with our summer school this year. Yes, thank you, Mr. Steinbart. At this time, we'd like to
010welcome our curriculum coordinators to the podium. They will be presenting a brief overview of all of the programming that they've been working really hard to organize and put together for us. Um we just to give a quick introduction here, we have Jen Wolsius, our secondary math coordinator, Tom Triller, our secondary ELA coordinator, Lisa Neagle, our elementary ELA coordinator, and Melissa Bowman, our elementary math coordinator. Beyond that, I'd be happy to answer any questions at the conclusion of their brief presentation here that um would go along with any budgeting issues or questions that you may have. And those uh budgeting items categories could be found at the bottom of the executive summary. So, coordinators, take it away. Um how do we get it on there? It is plugged in. Yeah, well, we have it hooked up.
011It's hooked up here. And then we'll when you're all done, we'll do that. Thank you, Holly. Thank you, Holly. Thank you, Holly. We're excited to be here tonight to share um everything summer school. So, we're excited for another year of summer school in the Final Act School District. Our goals will continue to um engage students socially, emotionally, and academically during the summer. Um we'll provide structured learning as well as enrichment opportunities for students K through 12. And um summer school will strengthen academic goals as well as keep students on track for graduation and career and college ready. I believe you have access to the course catalog, so um one thing to note that the course catalog will go live to families online um starting Friday, March 27th. And we will close online registration on May
0128th. So, they have about a little over a month to sign up for classes. Um we're thankful for our teachers who have once again signed on to teach this summer and extend their work um day into the summer as well. So, thank you to the teachers who have already signed on. What's new this year is that we have changed um elementary to offer summer school at one elementary building, which will be Riverside, versus two. We think that there will be more obviously cost-efficient as well as um it'll just maximize all of our resources in one location and provide many more offerings to students as well. Similar to last year, um students will be able to sign up for Boys and Girls Club. Um they'll also be able to sign up for playground, so none of
013that will change, and we will also offer busing from all of the elementary sites and the middle school sites to either the high school or to um Riverside, so that's excellent as well. Um free breakfast, free lunch for anyone in the community that's 18 and under. And summer school, there are four class periods, each 50 minutes long. So, there's lots of opportunity for a variety of classes for students. Um again, students can sign up for enrichment activities, um exploring lots of fun things like um intro to weaving or basketball fun and games or even um beginning ukulele. So, fun stuff offered this summer, as well as intervention for both literacy and math um for grades K through 3. So, just like last year, we offered an inter- intervention class for reading to kindergarten students as
014part of Act 20. Um just getting ready for what would this look like? How can we roll this out? And we had um good success, so we're offering it to grades K through 3, and we're also offering math intervention as well. So, um that is a little bit about elementary summer adventure, and I'll let Tom speak about middle school and high school. Yes, so our secondary uh Adventure Academy takes place at the high school. I would also echo Lisa's just word of thanks to the many teachers who have stepped up to um help us with that program. So, we uh we also offer enrichment. This is along the same lines as the elementary enrichment, same idea, same philosophy. There are um athletic performance classes, so there's one for students incoming grades 5 through 8, and
015then there's one for students incoming grades 9 through 12. And then there's an extensive range of band and orchestra courses. And then we have academic uh an academic growth course for our middle school students, so this is our middle school students who need to make up growth expectations in ELA or math. So, this is invite-only. The counselors work with the middle school teachers to identify students who are candidates for this course. And then they work with the students and their parents to get them enrolled. And then for our high school students, students who need to recover credits to stay on track for graduation, we offer credit recovery courses for them. And then for our incoming ninth grade students who may want to earn an initial credit in health, this is usually to free up some
016time in their ninth grade schedule to be able to take electives, they have that option. And then, as Lisa mentioned, we do offer the um the free uh food service at our different sites. So. Questions. All right, thank you. Questions or comments? We'll start on this side. Have anything? Uh looked like a cool listing of the stuff, especially at the elementary level. Looked like a lot of fun things for the kids to do. >> [clears throat] >> I'm I'm just excited to see that uh the elementary school will all be at at one building. So, most people I mean every the parents don't have to have to cart their kids around the the entire community and try to figure out which building. So, it'll be centralized in one location. So, I'm excited to see that
017go up. Mr. Godfrey, just to Sorry, just to add on to that, too. There will be transportation provided from each of the buildings to get kids to Riverside. So, none of that has changed. All students will still have access if they have the ability to get to their home schools and get on that transportation. So, just clarifying that point. Thanks for the clarification, Nate. Thanks. Um I have two questions. Um how is the food service paid for? Is that through a grant for breakfast and lunch? That's paid through the summer feeding program. That's a special funding That's paid through the summer feeding program through the Department of Public Instruction. It's a separate food service nutrition program. So, coming from DPI then? Is that what I heard you say? >> reimbursement program. And so, it's it's
018the same counting and claiming procedures, but we're not checking for free and reduced meal status. It's a specialized incentive. Um the department recognizes that summer there could be a food food service gap. And so, they want to incentivize that for students and families and actually for anyone 18 and under or under 18, pardon me. So, Okay. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Um and then um are you set with teachers for all the classes already? Wow, awesome. That's fantastic. That's great. >> That's great. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Mrs. Pennell? I had a question pertaining to something like drivers ed. Uh it was in the green cut list. So, um does I I'm asking for a guess for a beginning time because I wondered why it was there. Sure, that's a good question, actually.
019I got a couple phone calls on that already. Um we will not be offering drivers ed through the course catalog. So, that's not a new course offering. We're we're canceling that portion of it. Yet, we still have some students who have been enrolled in the class that need to get their behind the wheel time in and that'll take place and finish up over the summer. So, we'll still have to pay them through that summer school budget, but that program will no longer continue and will not be offered for additional people to sign up this summer. It's good question, though. Thank you. Yeah, I was paging through and found it on 36. It was swimming lessons. I'm like, "Hey, we're at Riverside. We should be doing swimming lessons." >> [laughter] >> I'm like, "Where's the swimming
020lessons?" And which makes sense. I'm glad we're offering that uh in addition to many, many other programs. So, um but yeah, [clears throat] being at Riverside, all the kids should have the opportunity to at least participate in that. And are we still doing over the summer? Would we um I know the kids are at the high school, but I know we do some free lifeguard training and stuff like that. Is that some kind of integration or something we could offer over the summer, too, or Yeah, I was trying to find it. Was it lifeguarding? Good. You don't have to As long as I know it's in there. So, thank you very much for um taking your summer to do that, by the way. And all the teachers that are taking their summers to do it.
021So, thank you. Quick. Uh June 8th through the 12th. Um 8:00 to 3:30. Free lifeguard training. It's on page 35. No, that's lifeguard training. >> [laughter] >> Mr. Frame? Uh everybody stole all my questions. Um >> We'll start with you next. >> Yeah, no, it's all good. Um but I would just uh encourage if the board ever gets an opportunity to go visit summer school. I did last year and it was uh really cool seeing the class offerings and seeing the kids um being in a school setting and and having fun cuz they get more involved when it's something that they uh are passionate about. And uh you know, I witnessed a um a class where they had different instruments from all over the world and the kids were loving it. Um and I even
022got to participate in that as well. So, um it was it was a good time, but I would just highly recommend if if you find the time, get to uh uh visit summer school. Thank you. Uh yes, thank you to the teachers. Thank you for all your organization. This is big, right? And a lot of opportunities. Um as you were speaking and I heard um the K3 intervention and then I heard middle school intervention, it made me think about what about our fourth and fifth graders that aren't um meeting uh expectations to where we want them. But then I uh looked in here and you have like lit camp, adventures in reading and writing, math camp, adventures in math. So, there are opportunities. Can you talk about that just a little bit? Sure. So, in
023grades four and five, yes. Well, grades three I actually K through five has opportunity to go to math camp or lit camp. >> Okay. Um if literacy intervention and math intervention are invitation only, so we use the data that we have and we invite students to join us for some targeted instruction. But beyond that, if they aren't invited to intervention, then yes, they can attend um math camp, lit camp, and those are just opportunities for them to have um some experience with literacy, um reading, writing, and then in math, the same. It's just Yeah. Like like their regular classroom instruction. So, they'll still be doing academics. It's just not targeted intervention. So, >> Thank you. Appreciate that clarity. So, yes, thank you for your time and energy and I'm looking forward to checking it out.
024Yeah. Thanks. >> Excellent. We're looking forward to it. Thank you. Okay, now let's get in there. Looking at superintendent reports. Notification of technical corrections. What is voting today? Thank you. I get so interested in our conversations. Let's have the roll, please. Godfrey? Yes. Henschel? Yes. Laverentz? Yes. Maine, yes. Pennell? Yes. Frame? Yes. Motor? Yes. Motion carries 7-0. Thank you. Now, the superintendent reports. Mr. Steinbarth. Yes, so we have the Neola technical corrections to the policy. For the those members that have been on the board before, you know that these come in two parts. The technical corrections are really um they do not change the substance of the policy. It's it's just some updates that are Sorry, the updates are the ones that are the ones that we spend a significant amount of time going through.
025So, again, these modifications do not change the policy itself and it's just minor technical corrections. So, we don't have to go through it in detail, but then you can be prepared that come April or May, we'll go through any new policy updates that need to be discussed by the board and approved at that level. So, Thank you. All right. Um moving on then to uh Fond du Lac High School Adventure Academy. Yep, for this, we have some of our FDL teachers that are in charge of the the academy. They would like to go on a trip to Devil's Lake. They do this every year and they do some real functioning rock climbing where they'll they'll put in their holsters and do all the things they need to do that way. Um again, they are expecting
026at least 14 students, so they want a one to two ratio of people supervising that. It would be from May 13th to May 15th. Um and just to give you that information. >> [snorts] >> Thank you. Sounds exciting. And then our referendum update. Yeah, so we are in the the final weeks of our referendum updates. Um I will express again, we were at the senior center last week. We were at morning rotary last week. We were at the YMCA on Tuesday and Thursday talking to individuals coming in and out just to give them again the opportunity to discuss um things that they're hearing. Again, sometimes there's information that flows through that is not 100% factual and we want to make sure we're available to answer questions. Also, today I think I had three phone calls
027of people that got the flyer that some people have talked about. Um appreciative of the flyer. I know we have had some feedback as well when we're asking for money, why are we putting out a flyer? And I as I've said to other people, this flyer is something we do every year to make sure that the greater community has an understanding of what's going on in the public school system. So, we want to make sure we share that. And again, for the individuals that did take the time to call and ask questions, they were wonderful. They appreciated the feedback that they were able to get. So, overall, the the general consensus is they've been People have been very appreciative of people, Mike, myself, and other individuals taking the time to at least answer the questions
028that they have. Um for myself, I think it really stresses the point that as a district, we need to give other opportunities for people to talk to us. I know at board meetings, it really is flows one way and that's by practice. We have to do it that way, but I would also, even past this referendum season, I would like to get out in front of our senior center, our Rotary's, and some of those to make sure that they don't understand what's going on in the district, so it's not just one flyer that goes out once a year, but it's a little bit of feedback back and forth to make sure that we're representing their their taxpayer dollars to the best of our ability. >> [snorts] >> Thank you. Um moving forward to student and
029staff activities, we'll start Mr. Frame. Yeah, so uh trying to think. I went to uh Wonka this weekend um for the middle school. That was really good. Um yeah, I think I think it was combined all middle schools. Um so that was cool seeing uh kids uh ex- uh you know, not everybody plays sports, so it's just nice that those kids have a outlet to do different things on the stage and um just find their passion that way. Um and then I'm trying to think. I uh went out canvassing for the referendum. Uh talked to some community members. Um and I think I think that's about it. I might be forgetting something. If I forget something, I apologize. Sounds good. Uh mo- well, they even had a week off between uh sports, so uh but
030they did have a their first indoor track meet down at Whitewater this last Saturday, so that was uh fun to go to my alma mater and see something that they didn't have when I was there, so but it was good. It was uh good participation. Um they got another big one this coming weekend in Ripon, which we'll miss, but then the following weekend they're back at Whitewater for uh indoor track uh state, so. Um and then I did see this weekend is uh on the 11th is Band-o-rama, which is um I had multiple kids participate in that, and it's awesome. If anybody gets a chance to do that, so. Thank you. Mrs. Pinnow? Um very limited. I was out of state. Uh tried to get to the uh Monday meeting for the community, but it
031got snowed out. That's all I have. Thank you. Mrs. Main? Um last week I attended um two fine arts nights, one at Evans Elementary. Um so got to see lots of artwork and writing samples and some music stuff going on there, and then I went over to Lakeshore. Um and saw just uh some music there. I didn't realize it was a whole fine arts thing. My niece goes there, and I got a text like a 2 hours before saying, "Hey, do you want to come tonight to this? Your niece is singing." Okay. Um and um yeah, and oh, and then I helped out at Pi Day at Rosenow Elementary School, so that was very fun. We um it obviously March 14th is Pi Day, 314, so they did it on that Friday before, and they
032were measuring the circumference and the diameter of bubbles. They were blowing. It was very It was very fun, and um another former teacher that I got to work worked with, she and I got to run it that day, so it was very fun. Very cool. Thank you. Mr. Godfrey? Uh Um what did I do? Multiple um referendum presentations, and Friday I got to hang out in Mrs. Mrs. Stroop's um class for a little while, and woof. Hm. I forgot how fun fourth graders are. >> [laughter] >> You know, but it was it was fun that the kid that those kids were just just sponges. To just watch them just get excited and just the way to watch Miss Mrs. Stroop in her class, and trust me, she don't pay anybody anybody any administrator, board member
033can walk in her classroom, and I promise you she you won't know she don't notice that you are in that classroom because she continues to stay in her element and teach her classroom, but her students always ask who that person is, but she'll before you leave the room, she will tell her students who that who you are, but she will she will not acknow- she won't she'll say hello, but she will not acknowledge you as a person until after you get ready to leave her classroom, so I just wanted to thank Mrs. Stroop for just being a being a great a great teacher and a great asset to our district. Thank you. Uh I was able to make it to the one referendum meeting, but other than that getting snowed in didn't help. >> [laughter]
034>> Thank you. Um I had the opportunity to go to Roberts School for donuts for grown-ups, uh which was wonderful, except for I had a blood draw, so I got no donuts or coffee. Um and but it was a really great great event that they had. Um I then had the opportunity, this is I think my third year uh reviewing applicants for the Fond du Lac High School scholarships. So we have a number of scholarships, and there were many students that had applied for them, and so I got the opportunity to read their applications, look through um uh pieces of evidence, and just we have some amazing students, and it um and in a lot of scholarships up out there, so it was great to participate in that again. And then um for Read Across
035America a couple weeks ago, I read at Riverside School to the fourth graders, and the book that I read is called Duke Storm, and it's all about perseverance and grit and um doing hard things. And so Mrs. Hughes invited me back, and today I got to read and teach a third and fifth graders all about the importance of resilience, perseverance, and grit, especially when it comes to state testing as we start that kicked off, so. Um that was really a great event that I got to do, so. And you are right, Mr. Godfrey. I mean, you have 45 I I was a teacher many years, and 45 students in one classroom with one book takes a lot of energy. I'll sleep well. So uh thank you, teachers. Can I just add one more? I was
036also at Read Across America. >> fine? I forgot that. I read to the EE classroom and the third and fifth graders. Thank you. That was Thank you. Good. Now we're up to our second uh public comment. If anyone would like to come forward, we'll follow the same uh information that I read earlier. Good evening. Sherry Trotter. Um I hope that everybody I know I'm up here a lot talking about race, but I'm going to continue to talk about that every time I'm up here. It's 2026. And I just want people to really be purposeful about noticing things in the district about with race. So I went to Willy Wonka. My kids were all theater kids in the district. All my kids were. And um me personally, every time I go to something any- anywhere in
037life, not just the district, but when I went to Willy Wonka, I look for black and brown kids in in in that event. There weren't many. But it's not a surprise, and it's like it's almost like all the time that's it's not a surprise about any anything when I sit down and look for black excellence in our school district. So I just wanted to I mean, it was great. The performance was great. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the black and brown kids who also could have helped with the decorations in the hallway and sold the concession stands out there and been in you know, on the stage crew and had a a lead role and um I just want people to be purposeful about that. And then it made me think
038Band-o-rama was announced up here, look for it there. And then the scholarships, my kids all did that you know, all these things are my personal story with my own children in this district. Look at that when those results come out. Who got the scholarships? It's It's seems to be a pattern where I feel like we're not noticing black excellence in our district in many different ways. Thank you. Thank you. Sir, anyone else that would like to come forward? Seeing none, are there any other appropriate matters? Just wanted uh bring up the um uh next Tuesday, right? At the pavilion, 5:30 to 7:30 referendum uh presentation sponsored by Envision Fond du Lac. I see a lot of people making a lot of comments online behind their keyboards, but don't know what they're talking about, so I
039can say that, right? So please come out and actually understand what it is, what it's about, what we're I'm not you know, I'm never going to engage a online battle behind a keyboard, so I would love to have conversations with people when the ones we have gone to that show up, uh they're enlightened. They have a much better understanding of how schools work and how things work. So, I beg people in the community show up, ask questions. We're we want to be up front. We want to be transparent about it, but you got to show up and ask the questions. We can't talk to everybody in every neighborhood. Thank you. That's tomorrow night, right? Yep. You said next week Tuesday. It's It's tomorrow night. Is that for real? already. Yes, that's right. Last week went
040fast. I [laughter] have it in my calendar. It is tomorrow night. I'm sorry. Tomorrow night, Tuesday. What's the date? 24th. Mhm. I do have it in my calendar. Tomorrow night, Tuesday, 24th, 5:30 to 7:30. Thank you. And um also a thank you to um uh the FEA and those uh teachers who are supporting and people who are canvassing and sharing information and asking questions. Um and I believe Mr. Steinbach, your turnaround is usually 24 to 48 hours. So, if someone emails or calls and doesn't get a response, sometimes that goes to spam. So, if you find that that happens, please reach out to a board member. That's happened a couple times and then we uh Mr. Steinbach was able to respond. So, just a side note with that. All right. I got a question. Are
041they live streaming it the envision final act like they did last year? I do not believe they're they're going to live stream it um just because there are some technical technical things that happen with that cuz it's not the greatest. Okay. Yeah. So, people really need to show up then. Yep. We'd love people to show up. Thank you. And then can I have a a motion to an adjournment to a workshop? I move to adjourn to a workshop to discuss school consolidation planning. Second. We have a motion by Mr. Godfrey, a second by Mr. Laverents. Can we have the roll, please, Mrs. Main? Henschel. Yes. Laverents. Yes. Main, yes. Pennell. Yes. Frame. Yes. Godfrey. Yes. Motor. Yes. Motion carries 7-0. Uh so, we are going to adjourn the regular meeting at 5:40 and return at
0425:45 sound okay? Or do we need 10 minutes? Five? Five. 5:45. >> I'd like to call the workshop to order at 5:50. If we can have the roll, please. Frame? Here. Godfrey? Here. Henschel? Here. Laverents? Here. Main? Here. Pennell? Here. Motor? Here. Um all seven are present. So, we will move forward uh with the discussion regarding school consolidation planning. Thank you, Ms. Motor, and I know that there isn't anything in the board docs for this. It'll be a lot of conversation more than anything as we're still working through some of these these components of this. Um obviously, as you know, the referendum has consumed a lot of time, but I do want to give you some updates on some of the things we're at, especially when we talk about our elementary and middle schools and
043some of the conversations that are are being had. So, I'm going to go through some numbers. I will make sure I get this to all of you though, so you don't have to write it down at least, but um as we go through some schools, and I'm just going to go one at a time alphabetical order in case anyone's wondering why I'm choosing the order that we're choosing. It's completely alphabetical. Um but we're kind of going through the the process. So, right now at Chegwin, we have if you went with resident enrollment, which means if you looked at the students that are enrolled in the Fond du Lac School District, this isn't all students, so the students that go parochial or anything else, this does not include that, but students that right now are Fond
044du Lac School District students, there would be 293 resident students enrolled at Chegwin if they all went to Chegwin. Right now, that number's at 280. So, we have approximately 13 students that choose to go elsewhere or there's there's a little bit of a give and take with that as well, but just so you have that number. At Chegwin specifically, there are 40 rooms, um three that are currently open right now. So, as we talk about consolidation, we have to have a place for these students to go to as well, especially and I think the biggest thing that we're seeing right now is because of some of our consolidation in terms of of numbers of students in a classroom, this next consolidation phase is going to be even harder because teachers have to be able to
045move some place as well because we do believe that in order to keep the numbers at where they are, which I think is important, those teachers will have to go somewhere. Evans, right now the resident enrollment would be 223. Their actual enrollment is 273. Um they have 34 total rooms, one which is open, and again, this is as we're looking at non-renewals and things coming up in the next month, some of those numbers will will change as well, but this is by walking through the school as of right now as it is. So, not taking into account any non-renewals in the future. Lakeshore, resident enrollment is 274. The actual enrollment is 335. 36 total rooms. There are four that are currently open. At Parkside, the resident enrollment would be 413. Actual enrollment is 333. There
046are 30 total rooms, and anyone that has been to Parkside would know that there's not a whole lot of space in that place right now. So, it's Parkside 413. That's resident enrollment if they yep, if they all chose to go to Parkside. And they have 333. 30, and none of them right now are currently open. >> It's a full house. Yep. And some of this also involves early childhood, 4K, things like that that can be maneuvered and moved if we have to. So, we do know that there's some of those things will be in place. We're just not there yet. Um Peyer, 262 is resident. 265 is actual. There are 33 total rooms, and right now two are open. Riverside, the resident enrollment is 182. There are currently 281 students that go to Riverside. They
047have 43 rooms with three current openings. Roberts is at 323 for residential. 256 students choose to go to Roberts. There are 35 total rooms with five open right now. Rosenau, 247 students are there currently. Sorry, 247 is the residential that could be there. 328 is how many choose to go there. There are 37 total rooms with three open. Waters, 278 residential. 376 actual enrollment currently. 376. 39 total rooms with three open. Um for Sabish, it is 547 that would be in the residents. 414 choose to go there. There are 56 classrooms, and this is pretty similar for I'll read the other ones for the other middle schools, but 56 classrooms, and for each middle school, it's about between eight and 12 classrooms are open. Doesn't matter which middle school that is. Tyson is 396. There's
048actually 422 that choose to go there. And then Woodworth is 421 with 426 that choose to go there. And then the last one with our middle schools, middle school high school, is STEM. Um there isn't a residential one because all of that is open enrollment or considered open enrollment. We have right now 169 students that choose to go there um with 24 classrooms. Are all the middle schools about the same size in Sabish, Woodworth, and Tyson as far as rooms go? >> 56, 57, and 52 rooms. So, Sabish is 56 rooms, Tyson is 57, Woodworth is 52, and again, there's some there's some maneuvering that can be done depending on which room that is. Um and we haven't gone into detail there, but I wanted to share that with you as well as the the
049viewing public just so people know some of the things we're discussing, and I will say outright, this is going to be the hardest thing that I think I'll have to do in the district because there are not right answers to where we would potentially consolidate and move kids to. Um and again, I'm going to go through some different components, but if if we considered Chegwin, again, in alphabetical order, just so people know, all schools have been or will continue to be considered. Um if you choose Chegwin, you'd be dispersing those students to Rosenau, Roberts, Riverside, Evans, Parkside, and Waters based off of the schools they touch. Um with that though, we have to be able to consider students crossing Park, Main, and Johnson. Um that's as I talked to on the radio with Greg Stensland
050today about about this, that's the part that puts a pit in my stomach right now more than anything is elementary students potentially crossing some of these roads, and even if we have safety guards or crossing guards, I know students at times will choose to cross where they they see fit. Um and way back when I taught at Woodworth, I was a track coach that one of our students over at Rosenau uh chose to go take his bike between some cars, got hit and killed, and I think that resonates in my mind always with these decisions. Um Mr. Steinbarth, quick question. Part of Chegwin's students currently live across they have to cross Main. Currently, they we have some that >> it's We have some that cross Main, especially with some of our new new buildings that
051have gone up. We have a portion that does cross Main. Yes. Yep. >> Um Evans, if if you were going to split up Evans, the two schools that really it could split two would be Riverside and Parkside neither one which is real close and so geography plays a huge role in in Evans right now. Lakeshore again you could split it to Rose Hill potentially. I don't know if there's really anywhere else you would go. You could maybe look at Roberts but again geography is a big component of that. Parkside is another one. Parkside is in an area of town where they could utilize Evans as well as possibly a little bit of Riverside and Chegwin. Again you're talking about a lot of street crossings and intersections that way and again geography plays a a huge
052component of that. Pire again potential geography it is everyone here knows where Pire is located. So the student disbursement would most likely be with Waters which is also right now though our largest school with out a lot of without a lot of room extra right now. Riverside disbursement disbursement of students is possible but again that would be you'd have Pire you would have Chegwin you would have Roberts and Waters that they could be dispersed to potentially. Again talking about intersections would be the big piece there. Roberts again disbursement of students would the closest proximity is Waters it would be a little bit longer of a hike to get to Rose Hill you would also have Chegwin possibly there but knowing Waters is so close and doesn't have space currently has been one of our conversations.
053Rose Hill again there's a the potential for too many students to be dispersed between Chegwin, Lakeshore, Roberts and especially when you talk about Park and Johnson Street crossing. Waters is currently our largest elementary school by population so it would be the biggest disruption for student disbursement. If it was what we ended up going with though that would be they'd be dispersed between Pire, Roberts, Riverside and Chegwin. And then we have our middle schools and honestly is the crazy thing is when you look at the current population of all of our middle schools are all between 414 and 426 um right now Tyson has the most the most rooms but it also has the least amount that is currently being utilized or that that could be utilized so that's that's a component as well that we
054are going to have to to battle with um again Tyson Sabish Tyson Woodward it's a triangle so if you close one it's it's not a perfect switch. I do know that I got a lot of questions on why do people in St. Peter not travel to Woodward instead? That is something that probably could save on transportation costs as a district as well but then we'd be looking at rezoning some other things that way depending on what schools we would want to close. So there are different possibilities there and we're going to keep playing through kind of all of them but I'd really enjoy hearing some of your questions and things that maybe you've heard from the public that will help us make this easier even though it's not going to be easy at all. So
055we'll start at this row and yep go ahead and Okay um crazy idea. Um it's my understanding that the three middle schools have significantly larger capacities than the resident numbers. Am I not correct? >> I I think the problem we're running into right now >> Yep let me finish. But Woodward is let's assume that's correct. Okay. How crazy would it be to use one to to combine two middle schools and make the third one a grade school a large grade school? And that may bode well for the future down the road is to having larger grade school in the in specific areas or quadrants almost. Definitely something we have considered. Oh good. One of my one of one of our issues right now is we've had a large donation for playgrounds and if you close
056elementary schools those playgrounds aren't used and you move over to a middle school. Again if we could have done this five years ago that could have been a and I'm not saying it's not a possibility because it is something that we've we've talked about and again so I love that you brought that up Miss Pinnow because I want people to know all the different components but that is something we know it would be a a huge detraction for possibly doing that but yes. Now you could think four five Which middle school well all three of them have quite a big geographic area in order to create a playground? Yeah all three of them do. And my only issue is then we're going to have to contribute a significant amount of money to create another playground
057and I Well take the money you're being volunteer is being volunteered to put in to the It's already created. >> Yeah it's already done they're all done. Oh they're all done. >> Yeah they were done within that first year. Oh. Yep they did a great job of installing all of them. Oh well. I've seen schools turned into parks sort of like where it used to be a school the building was torn down and the the area has the playground area has been kind of a uh park. And I think the other important thing cuz this is part of the plan as well that's actually for next month but it's something we've already done. We actually have three different organizations now interested in leasing space so that's that's an option that's out there. It's not like
058our components are going to be just left vacant there's some leasing opportunities. I do know one of the other components though that just so people do know it talks about replacements or upkeep and things and Mike you might know more of this than I do. We do know that Woodward has a roof over the gymnasium that will need to be fixed. Yes I do envision as as the board moves along we will be bringing to you the all of the maintenance considerations once you I mean that's as Matt's mentioned is we're we're presenting to you all these different considerations and yes although our roofs are in excellent shape I mean there are still sections you keep a roof rotation and the the saw tooth roofs at Sabish and Woodward both are I mean they're they
059both will eventually need some replacement work and done and so those are all maintenance considerations no building's perfect so we'll be bringing all of that but by and large all of our district facilities are in very excellent shape from that standpoint which is hence why we really do believe it's important to discuss the repurposing of these buildings and so but that's not tonight's point but yes there is maintenance considerations that the board would want to consider. Mr. [clears throat] Hinshaw. I I had one question from the previous conversation we got resident actual I would one more column I guess I would put on there is ideal capacity. You know if we could at each location say you know here's capacity but here's really the ideal capacity at each location you know we may have some
060that are already at capacity right and we may have some that you know like the middle schools I believe have quite you know a lot of room to grow and um so that's just I know that's extra work Yeah no that's the stuff we want to definitely do and I I think as you look at we're using we're using people that have made decisions before us and I I know we have Mr. Groves here who has kids that go to Nina and they they consolidated all their middle schools into two one. I think the best idea because of capacity and the things that come up with that but those are things that we need to think about the maximum capacity but also the maximum capacity and still making sure that we can maintain a great
061educational environment as well. >> That's kind of that ideal target maybe we call it target capacity versus you [snorts] know maximum capacity. Am I wrong that I think that I was at sometime had heard that Tyson had something like a 900 person capacity? Back early sorry late 80s early 90s I believe that's when when Woodward wasn't open that that's what Tyson had at that time um I would assume they chose to go to three probably because of the size as well but I'd have to find out who to even talk to about that. Again I have I was around as a student but I don't know what the decision making process >> And obviously that wasn't ideal capacity. Correct. So that's that's why I was asking the question you know and that's probably like you
062said I think right after that when you showed us that one diagram that's when Woodward was open you know and stuff like that. So that's why I was asking that you know I'm relying on you guys to what is our ideal You know, we don't want to be over capacity, you know, over capacity at any given location where we can't deliver a good education. >> Mhm. You know, so what what is hey, we don't this is kind of our cap that we want to stay underneath because we believe we can deliver the best education for these kids at that level. If we go higher than that, we're going to hurt, you know, the results and stuff. So, that's kind of what I was thinking. Mr. Freeman, anything right now? And this is first first look.
063We're going to have lots of looks. Yeah, lots of looks. I think the thing that weighs on me the heaviest is um the parts you talked about um crossing certain streets. Um cuz student safety needs to be first and foremost. Um you know, that's part of the referendum and um learning is is important, but it means nothing if we're not keeping them safe and not getting to school safely and getting home safely. Um so, those are the two or that's the part that would weigh the most for me at this current stage. Mhm. Thank you. Mrs. Maine, anything right now? Um I look at accessibility. Um I know Waters and Chegwin are two [clears throat] floors, but they have elevators. Does Prior have an elevator? Cuz I know the basement is okay. I just don't
064remember where that is. Mhm. And I know STEM has an Yes. I just can't vision where Prior's elevator is. So, I wanted to make sure. Oh, okay. Mhm. There used to be a fifth grade classroom down there. I don't know what classroom's down there now. There's 4K down there. Oh, is it? Okay. Mr. Godfrey, anything coming up for you right now? Mrs. Maine, just white mind, but you know, so I don't want to echo echo the same questions, but it no, I don't have one right now. So, Mrs. Maine just just stole mine. So, you're fine. You answered it already. So, no no. Mr. Lawrence, anything new? Um so, spacing is you know, we we had talked about like ideal size and stuff like that. At least on the middle school side, it seems like
065one can be split into two. It feels like the space is there to do that. That shouldn't be it's just a matter of picking. But elementary I I'm you know, just hearing that a lot of the other elementary's have what? Two, three, four rooms available and you're trying to distribute 300 kids between only a few schools. It's going to be really hard to get that. I think that we have to do more readers, you know, a lot more distribution and We're going to have to spread that out more than We most likely will have to and I think the other part with this is that we've talked about is choosing a school that can be distributed as best as possible. Again, not good, but as best as possible. Also looking at doing some rezoning and
066you know, potentially as I've talked to other superintendents stating that you're going to be going to your residential school for the time and you can do the open enrollment again. I know that's going to cause a lot of uneasiness, but I think again, as we've looked at the maps you if we could separate it the way it could be separated, it'd be great, but it doesn't matter which elementary school you go to. You have kids going from probably about 5 miles away that choose to go to that school as a school choice as well where we we'd really have gotten away from almost for a lot of our families that homeschool because they they choose to go somewhere else which you want especially in in the climate we're currently in, you want to give some
067choice, but at the same time it's really hard to staff if you open it up and let people choose wherever they want to go as well. And with that I I will say in the past it might have been something where I would have said different schools maybe were operating at a different level. The nice thing that we have going for us right now as a school district is every one of our elementary schools and middle schools is exceeding expectations. They are meeting students where they're at. They are accelerating them. As I talked to different schools about students that are in accelerated math and things like that, it is being dispersed more and more equally all the time which is exciting. So again, just to be very proud of some of the things we're doing
068and that our staff are doing in every one of our schools. Well, so the recent No, I was just going to say I think the um when we saw the mapping with the dots the most consolidate or concentrated I would call it is probably Chegwin, you know, as far as people not not coming in from all over. >> Chegwin and Waters, yeah. Yeah, they're probably pretty tight ones. Yeah, they're pretty tight. So, That's where I brought up Chegwin though because some of the way that the current lines are, they're like it's they're so close to like Evans or other places. I remember as a principal visiting homes and what they needed to cross was not safe. So, have you talked or considered with the rezoning any possible transportation or bussing? I believe our first um
069right now it's if the schools are within a mile and that there is it's 2 miles and there's okay. And they're used and they're safe there also has to be safe routes where there's sidewalks and so forth. Otherwise, they receive transportation. That's correct. Okay. I thought it was 1.5. >> therefore that's that's kind of where we talk about a Lakeshore is a very unique school because that is a heavily bussed school and they can't get there without pretty much a bus or transportation because they don't have the safe and safe sidewalks. Um but other than that, yes, in town if you're choosing any of our centrally located schools, elementary schools for the most part, they can get to any school that they would be going to. I think the furthest would be like 1.4 miles
070away from one school to the next one if we would look at that. Um so, I that won't come into play. It shouldn't be a transportation issue per se that really decides it for us. Okay. Thank you. And I also just want to be aware as we go down these roads of strat being strategic on if we close one what what kind of behavior where where and I'll just throw this out there. You look at a Parkside, right? You're really close to North Fine Lake. Now you're going to start losing kids to a North Fine Lake. We're going to lose them out of our district which has even more of a financial impact on us down the road and stuff like that. You know, so as we go and look at that, let's ask that
071next question, you know, all right, if we do this, then what would make sense for the people in that geographic area, you know, if you lived there, where would you go? You know, like I said, if you're at I'm just going to throw out there Parkside and you live in those apartment buildings there right there, you're really close to North Fine Lake. Correct. And that would be an easy switch then to go to North Fine Lake then versus going across town. >> And that's what we said with Parkside, geography is a a huge component of that that we we thought about. Yeah. So, I just want the rest of the board, you know, that's where I start going, all right, what if? You know, are we going to start losing them, you know, like so,
072as we look at each of these, um yeah, we don't want to lose them to other districts. >> No. So then so this was as we look at our year and a half, how we're looking what our next so the board will be getting a copy of this and then what is our next step? Yeah, I see you have it on your computer, but what is our next step then? Because we know this is going to take many steps to best understand and be strategic and for us to think and ask questions in between. So, for April right now, it would be again determining potential use of closed sites which we are already well ahead of. I I believe we'll have a number of places that will want to lease our our space. I don't
073think that's even an issue and I think there could be even other things that come up once it's it's official. So, I think it we're in a good spot with that. Really determining our pre preliminary recommendation of the sites for closure and going over some of those conversations. So, if you as a board you want us to make some pivots and come up with something different, that would be something we would do and then it would be the next thing come May would be our preliminary formal recommendation that you would then vote on specifically. So, really end of April we should be coming to you and saying this is what we think is the best possible solutions. We may come with three different scenarios just because it gives you a little bit more time to
074talk about what ifs and possibilities. But if there is something that you really want myself and the team to be considering um that you've heard, I guess I'd want that now so that we can make those decisions and I'll be 100% honest with this. I have an idea and where I think this is the way to go and all of a sudden I sleep on it and I wake up the next morning going, oh my gosh, I didn't think of this, this, this, and this. Um which makes it really really interesting that there's there's not there's just not going to be a a great answer to this. And then I as we're thinking about this and we talked a little bit about STEM and we talked to the STEM governance board the importance of keeping
075STEM and um however, it STEM doesn't need to be located in that building. STEM needs to have the opportunities. And so, I wonder what that might look like as well. Absolutely. STEM did not want to go in the high school. Right, but if we're looking at consolidating some of the middle schools or even an elementary school, I'm just looking at even like the um uh just access within the current STEM building. Like there is access and it's not ideal. Yeah. The other thing I just quickly did was take Johnson Street as a dividing line. And you've got four schools on four five schools on the south of it and four schools on the north of it. I'm sure you've done that. >> Mhm. But >> [laughter] >> We've We've done that. We've done We've done
076Main Street in the east and west. We've done Yes. Park Street east and west that changes a little bit at least but not a whole lot so So I'm wondering board as uh Superintendent Steinbarth and his team goes back at it. Um are there is there other information you want to know and or if you don't have it now right cuz we just started emailing um Mr. Steinbarth so we can get them to start to look at those. Um and then is part of I don't remember if part of the plan was meeting with local like um meeting with any community members on this? >> What I'm hoping and I I'm hoping people are watching the board meetings especially with some of the referendum things we've been doing. Um I know usually it's about 400
077people that watch it at one time or another. Probably about 18 that watch it live. Um but I'm I'm hoping this this conversation also gets people started to to sharing questions, concerns, giving us comments that we need to be thinking about that maybe we didn't think about as well. That's really where I really wanted this first um informal conversation to really lead to more formal conversations that way. I would say for me the number one is that target capacity. Mhm. And then you know uh I you've been in the district long enough Matt that I know the transportation the safety things in the forefront [snorts] of your mind and you've been at different schools and that so um you probably know that better than I am being you know being in this actual schools and
078talking to your principals and talking to your teachers on who's moving where and all that so you know I'm going to lean heavily on your advice or direction on that because um I'm not an expert on that part of it. Um so um yeah I'm very open or can want to know what your opinions are in that cuz I know that that's keeping you up at night and I guess that I trust that that's probably going to come out better than if it is keeping you up at night. Yeah off of that I'm really curious to see have you looked at lines and again I know Chegwin best just cuz I spent so much time there. Well in the same as with Roseau like what have you drawn out lines like if this is currently
079Chegwin's right if we redid it what would it look like? We have started looking at what some of those could look like depending on this and that depends on the school that you'd want to close to start with. Um but yes we've we've looked at some of those components and then again our goal is also to have the least amount of disruption possible and as soon as you start rezoning the lines you're going to have more people that are affected by this and it may just happen and have to happen that way. Um but then I guess I'd want the board prepared that we probably would have to have a statement of everybody's returning to their home school and we may be doing that over at um the Goodrich Little Theater then because I'm sure
080that place is going to be packed. So next steps you know your next steps what do you need from us as a board to help you? Just again if you're hearing things from community members and if they feel more comfortable contacting you than myself or anyone on the team that you're sharing that that information directly with us. Um I would also urge people as Mr. Henschel said I I know there's a lot of different comments that are out there. Um regarding you know reductions and why are we reducing 70? We already reduced 70. We're reducing an additional 30. Um I know there was a comment on specifically that I had made a statement that at it's going to at some point affect our educational outcomes and it was kind of mentioned well why didn't the
081100 then affect those outcomes yet? We don't know. Right now sitting as we sit we don't know what the 70 reduce staff reductions have done yet. We haven't gotten those data points yet. Um and I I'm just going to keep saying it. I I know we cannot cut our way to excellence. Um that's not going to happen. We [clears throat] can't We can't expect that to happen. We are putting more and more on our staff to be responsive to more and more students and if we want the best opportunity for kids as Mark as you had said there is still that that sweet zone that we need to be able to find and I just Yeah. I want I wish I could make some community members realize that we truly I mean 100 staff in
0822 years um most most organizations would say that's not possible and we've done it because we've had to do it. But again we want to give the best output that we can and I'm extremely extremely proud of the staff throughout the district in what we're doing right now and I don't want to come back in front of all of you and say we're slipping now because of reductions we had to make. That's not Yeah. Well and I'll piggyback on that. Um we're not going to get those results until December-ish of next year for this school year. >> Forward exam? And and I and I think that first year you know may maybe we don't see a slippage cuz we had our middle schools talk about what they did to adjust their reading and math and
083and things um adjustments were made to make sure that that didn't happen. But like you said all of a sudden you start doing more and more and there's left less levers to pull to have impact on on the successes. Um and and I just want to throw it you look at other districts that have had multiple multiple failed referendums and look at what's happened with them. One of them that's real close to us up to the north here they're slipping academically now. You know it does have impact. I mean that's just common sense. You know it has impact over time. The other piece is again from the community survey attract and retain attract and retain high quality staff. If staff feel like we are constantly in a volatile district of it might be their name
084next um that that doesn't give comfort to people to want to wait and see. They're going to go to a district that maybe is growing um and again the work we are doing in the Fond du Lac School District and honestly I would say I don't care what any community member says with this we're doing amazing things and it's cuz of our staff and we need to keep that staff here because the students that they are teaching are going to become community members and I want this community be to be the best community it can possibly be. >> [snorts] >> All right. And in conjunction with that um we're doing a lot of talking about safety and security so that takes me back to the referendum and the importance of uh safety and security component
085that is on the referendum. And uh in terms of being mentally comfortable as well as physically safe. >> Mhm. All right. Thank you. Uh if there aren't any other questions can I have a motion to adjourn? I move the Board of Education adjourn to an executive session to consider pupil expulsion and confer with legal counsel as provided by Wisconsin Statutes 19.851 A F and G A deliberating concerning a case which was the subject of any judicial or quasi-judicial trial or hearing before that governmental body F considering financial, medical, social or personal histories or disciplinary data of specific persons, preliminary consideration of specific personnel problems or the investigation of charges against specific persons except where paragraph B applies which if discussed in public would be likely to have a substantial adverse effect upon the reputation of
086any person referred to in such histories or data or involved in such problems or investigations, G conferring with legal counsel for the governmental body who is rendering oral or written advice concerning strategy to be adopted by the body with respect to litigation in which it is or is likely to become involved. Second. We have a motion by Mr. Henschel a second by Mr. Godfrey. Can we please have the roll Frame? Yes. Godfrey? Yes. Henschel? >> Yes. Laverenz? >> Yes. Main yes, Pennel? Yes. Motor? Yes. Motion carries 7-0. Uh we will adjourn the workshop at 6:27 and come back in about 5 minutes uh for our uh executive session. >> Can we do the expulsion first?