10/13/25 Budget Hearing, Board of Education Meeting, Workshop

001Hey, >> I'm sorry. >> Wonderful. There's one. your turn. Tom, we're gonna give you Uh, I'd like to welcome guests to the public uh budget hearing at 5:00 pm. Uh, members present, if we just start with Joan, please state your name and we'll go around. >> Joan Penau, >> Mark Henchell, Luke Frame, >> Katie Motor, Karen Maine. Thank you. Thank you, Tom. Tom Oliver is joining us virtually. So, the purpose of the public budget hearing is to provide access to the 202526 budget book and to allow the public an opportunity to share feedback and questions with the board related directly to the 2526 budget. The board will hear public input and comments on items directly related to the 2526 budget only at the discretion of the president. So, I'd like to start off with uh

002Mr. Gerla, chief of finance and operations to present the preliminary budget for 2526. >> Thank you, Mrs. Motor. Uh Mr. Steinbirth I if you unplug I think then we will get the presentation. Well thank you um I appreciate uh the opening and introduction and I appreciate uh the members of the public that have joined us uh this evening. Um as Mrs. Motor stated uh this is the budget hearing so it's a little different than our school board meeting because um it's it's there's no action taken. It's merely a lot of information about the district's finances, the state of the district's finances, um, past, present, future, but mostly present and future focused. And it really is an opportunity for us to to have for the board and and management to have feedback on the budget. And

003so that's really the I'm going to do a presentation. There is a budget book that's a public document that is a collab uh a a a large document of information that's kind of got a lot of different financial pieces on the district in it. I'm going to do a presentation. I certainly be willing to address anything that you may find in the public budget book. Uh the presentation's will be a public document. Um and uh and so I just want to make set that out first that I'm going through a presentation first. So really, why are we here? Uh, as Mrs. Motor addressed, there's a statutory requirement. State statute uh requires uh that all school districts allow for public input and opportunity. And as a unified school district, um we have a budget hearing. Uh

004there's different classifications of school districts. Common school districts have annual meetings. So for those of you that are listening or part of other districts, it's a little some differences, but the heart of the matter is still the same. where I quote from the statute, "The public hearing shall be held at a time and place stipulated at which any resident or taxpayer of the governmental unit, the school district, shall have an opportunity to be heard on the proposed budget." And I think that's important because it is still in a proposal stage. Uh, as uh the board has known, we are really getting to the final part of this. the end of October uh is at the at October 27th, the second board meeting of this month is where the board will adopt or be presented with

005an original budget to adopt. So, as hard as that may seem, the budget information you're going to seeing tonight is it's going to change at some level, some nuances, but not dramatically. And that's largely because uh we're still we still are always going back through the budget making sure we've accounted for um projected revenues and expenses appropriately, but mostly because the final state formula factors, state general equal equalization aid won't be known until the 15th, which is two days away. So, uh, to that end, sometimes school boards, we've had this conversation before, set their budget meetings later and later to get the most accurate information before the public. Um, we've had that conversation in the past, but as we sit here tonight, we still think the budget is very accurate. Uh, but there are still

006some things that can change throughout that. I just want to make make that known. And really, um, you know, Mr. Steinbart and I talked at length about this. We thought the presentation really might be something to say what is the financial state of the district. We talk a lot about you you talk a lot about the real work of the district which is student outcomes and achievement and the finances always from a person in my seat. That's what supports this. It's always in a subsecondary support role and I'm here to point paint the picture of where the district's finances are at. And so I'm calling it in quotes a state of the district. So what is the state of the district? U this is the most recent past um uh facing a projected $7.5 million

007um operational deficit for this current fiscal year that would beginning this past July 1st um following the failed operational referendum in April. Uh the board what happened in the past was this past spring this board made some very difficult expense reductions. We've always talked there's kind of two sides of the budget. There's a revenue side that lives in its in its own bucket and an expense side. And without that revenue side, there was really only the board only could look at expense side. Um, and we've we we're going to discuss that a little bit later. But what happened was um, you know, the fallen reductions and and I'd like maybe, you know, Mr. Steinbart to kind of interject their outline in the presentation, but I do think you can't talk about the state of the

008district without talking about impact of expense reductions. So, Mr. Steinbart. >> Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Gerlac. And if you listen to um Greg Stenland today too, we talked a lot about this and he just kind of said, "Where are you at? What happens? Um are you going for another referendum?" And I said, "We don't know that yet because we're going to put out the survey. We're going to find out what this community wants us to do." But again, I'd be remiss if I didn't say if you go into the middle schools or the high schools right now, you're going to walk into a classroom with 30 or more students in it. Um we talk about educational outcomes. could not be more proud as a superintendent for what our our staff are doing day in and

009day out as well as administration and everyone in the district. We've changed a lot of things that helped get us the results we're currently seeing though. Um that is the middle school schedule going from a block schedule to a more traditional five periods. Um, and that is also at the high school going from five of of seven teaching load to six of seven and also knowing what that does in the world of substitutes right now. We've heard that over the last, you know, five years, there's not enough substitutes. There's not enough substitutes. That's a real a real piece. So, as we've done a lot in the district in terms of collaboration among our teachers with the DDI meetings and all of those things that really are getting us the results we're currently seeing, we aren't

010doing that at the same level. I'm also not going to sit up here and say we're going to be okay with a reduction of the results we've been getting, but it is something that I do hope this community really does understand what we're operating and how our teachers are operating as well. Um, I've also had a couple emails from parents that are concerned that they're not able to get into a conference schedule at the middle school. And again, those teachers went from having about 80 to 90 students that they had throughout the day to now having about 160. So when you have a conference schedule of every five or even every 10 minutes and you have that many students, there are some parents that didn't get into the the schedule that they wanted. There had

011been conversation about doing an open parents can just come in. We've had a lot of people at our district office even that have gone through that. Parents don't want to sit for an hour waiting for a teacher to talk to them and then all of a sudden having that day run out of time as well. So that's where we're we're at currently and I know Mr. Gerac will will add some extra components in here as we move forward, but we have made some significant um changes at the district office alone. I know that was something that was charged from the school board as well about where do we make reductions. We're at seven um in terms of district office people as well. And every time a position comes up right now, we are truly making

012a decision on is this critical to be able to get the results that we want to get or do we need people like Hie here even who took on the communications job and people doing more and not it more with less and that's kind of what we're how we're operating and I don't want that ever to change the results we're getting because again never been more proud to be a employee of the Fond Life School District with what we're doing for kids day in and day out. That doesn't mean there's not issues from time to time, but we are and the staff are really knocking it out of the park in terms of what we're doing. And again, having the opportunity to grow and see over the last four or five years where we were

013and where we are now is is outstanding. >> So, um, we talked about there's two sides. Uh, that's the expense side. I mean, expense management is an ongoing thing as Matt's described. I mean, the other option is, as we discussed at length last year, is there the the only way PO public schools can increase their revenue is through uh taxpayer voter approval, through an operational referendum. And I'll I'll turn it back to to Mr. Steinbart to talk about where we're at in that process, that conversation. So, as we'll go further into the board meeting later with the survey that you all saw, um we believe we're ready to send that out and share that out. The results will hopefully it'll go out within a week and a half. The results will get back by November

01426th and we'll be able to really see where we're at. I also do and I know I shared this with the board and this will be the public will hear this though too for one of the first times. We do have some very big decisions that we're going to have to make at this table. um we unfortunately are down about 220 more students um this year compared to where we were in the past. So those decisions have to be made and I'll be honest, we're we're going to have to have some a lot of discussion at the next board meeting in the executive session where we're talking about how how do we potentially continue to make reductions in the district to meet the the money coming in. As Mike said, everything is based off of

015the students that we have coming in and we need to be able to make those decisions. >> And so I've I've put in quotations, you know, results require resources. Uh, you know, we're not I just from where it's more to communicate where we and the management see that. It's not something the the boards come up with, but from our vantage point, um, we're proud of the results. I think it's important to note here, you know, the district um with declining enrollment had been facing a fiscal cliff, a structural deficit um prior to the pandemic. And during the pandemic, all schools got significant amounts of federal stimulus funds. This sort of allowed us to make some really critical investments despite having declining enrollment in the funding formula. And I I think, you know, Matt and I

016were just talking about this this afternoon. you know, it really demonstrates, you know, results and resources, the correlation, the fact that additional resources and investments can, if done the right way, really produce high quality results. And I think that's something that the public should hear, that the board should hear. Um, I'm not a slogan maker. I'm just saying it's a reality when we talk about, well, are the budget expenditures that we've made and we look at them as investments, are they paying off or not? and and and you know, Matt, I mean, I'll turn it back to you. I think we have a lot to be proud of in the sense of that. So, >> right, and we can't go into our current report card that will be coming out in November. Um, but I'm

017anticipating again some unheard of results that we will be hopefully seeing and we'll be able to share with the public. But as Mike just said, we've brought things in. UVA has been something we've talked about a lot. And as I look at Nate and Kristen who have also been leading that, there's a reason they're sitting at the table that they are because they also get to help lead that work. Is there a time that we may have to make a decision of we have to start taking that on ourselves? Absolutely. That is something we're always thinking of, but again, that's one of many decisions that we're going to have to make. Are there other things that maybe we didn't see the impact that we had hoped we would get from something? Absolutely. And that's what

018you charge us with day in and day out. We're living in the schools. We're living with our administrators. Uh listening to teachers and everyone else. At the end of the day, again, I will say the impact we've made for students, which is that is our outcome. That in the business world, it might be widgets or anything else. Our outcome is what we are pushing out to the public for students. and living in this community for 50 years, the outcomes we get for students are going to impact us 30, 40, 50 years down the road. And again, we we're doing things at a level we've never done before in FondeLac. Um, constantly having people send an email like, "What are you doing differently? What what was the the major step?" And a big piece of that

019is the accountability part. We've said, "This is what we're going to do. Um, this is how we're going to be measuring ourselves as adults." And if we do that part right, this is what we'll see hopefully the outcomes for kids and we're doing it. And again, I would I know different things will be shown on report cards and growth. I mean, we have some great posters over there as well, but when we talk about all students in FondeLac, we're talking about students that come from different households. We have some that, you know, are coming from free and reduced households, some that are coming from extremely wealthy um fortunate households as well. And when we start looking at our results right now, we're not making results for one end or the other end. We're making the

020results for both ends. We are lifting up the growth from students that that need us most and giving them opportunities that they never would have saw had it not been for the Final School District. So, as we measure these things and as we work with within our community, as Mike will continue going through this budget piece, yes, there's always ways that people might say the money could have spent been spent differently. My wife and I will talk about that in our own household of how she maybe would spend money versus me, but for me, it's the results at the end of the day. What are we doing for students? and this community should be very proud because we're doing it at a level that's not seen anywhere else in the state or really the nation

021at the level we're doing it. >> So, I just highlighted a few of these. I picked these. As you know, the board has a strategic plan. It's linked there, but it's also on the district website to really outline kind of the values. Primary to that, primary to that was student achievement, as Matt's talked about. And I just picked this, this was in the public newsletter from last spring. I just sort of picked a few things out to just remind I mean part of this conversation was this isn't just a one-year thing. This is a multi-year change that has taken place and the investment the resources that went into that have been really really powerful. So, um, I just I'd encourage anyone listening, you know, that there is all this is still out there in the

022public that if you're wondering what the resources that were invested, what did they do and where did they go and what happened to that? As Matt said, it is an investment and this is the results. And so, we're we're we're feel really proud of that. As from a business side of the district, th this is what you feel good about. But you say you know what the decisions that and you don't operate in a vacuum. The decisions that colleagues made the hard work I watched that from the side that's where you say all right it seems like that investment is really working or not and how do we make that happen? And so I think that's really powerful. So okay the real question is why do why then why do you need more resources? As

023I alluded to earlier I didn't put a slide in here. the district had 14 million in federal stimulus funds that held off um the the the impact of declining enrollment in the state's uh public school funding formulas. So, this conversation would have been happening pre- pandemic and would have been in this road uh with declining enrollment and it kind of was pushed off and then it allowed uh even with some of those funds to make these targeted types investments because we had to. uh you had to spend it on evidence-based instructional practices, things like the University of Virginia school business improvement model. All of those were really really powerful investments that we had to use. But the reality is I put this slide here. This is how public schools are funded. There's really I when

024people ask geez it's a complicated formula. It's really confusing. There is depth behind it. Don't get me wrong, but at the heart, if you're in the public, there are two primary sources of funds. What the state puts in and then what is asked of local property taxpayers in the community. All public schools have the same formula. And see that middle class? Every school's different. In some schools, the state puts in more state aid and taxpayers don't have to pay as much. Others other school districts get almost no state aid and it's all on the local property taxpayer. So if you want to understand what's happening with taxes, you have to understand what is the state supporting and what happens in your local community. And so the state sets that rule. Local boards have no impact

025on that other than you can make your middle cup bigger by getting more revenue authority through an operational referendum. That's and that but that the board can't unilaterally make that decision. That has to be the public saying yes, you can have a bigger cup. >> And go ahead. >> I'm sorry. And before this funding changed though, 2009 >> when it was going with the rise of inflation, that's what he's going to show here as well. just to put out the number and I don't know if it was in your presentation or not, Mike, but I do know that as we've been going around to schools, that number for this year alone would have been $23.1 million had in 2009 the state not changed their funding mechanism to not go with the rise of inflation and

026went with this. And I've heard Mike say this numerous times as we've been talking. It is doing exactly what they want us to do. It wants the community that we live in to decide how they want us to fund public schools. So whether we agree with it or not is not up to us. That's how it's done and we're we're operating that way. But when people say mismanagement of funds, mismanagement of funds, at the same time that that equation had changed drastically in 2009 and as a district, we really did a great job working with what we had and that we also with ESSER money were able to make a three or four year push through to where we are right now. But those are real dollars that if you would accumulate that from 2009

027until now, I it makes you really wonder where we would be as a district that way as well. >> I I really can't say too much more to that other than this chart. No, it's excellent. It's a it because we we discussed this at length. It's just we're trying to help people in the public understand well why now? Why a why referendums now? Don't you have enough money now? Um, and the reality is the formula sets limits. Boards, you know, this, you just have such little control over the amount of revenues you can raise. Um, because the state puts in that first piece and then the balance comes from the property taxpayer. And without an operational referendum, you can't ask or get more additional funds. And it used to be tied to inflation as Matt's

028alluding to. Um, we felt that that was from our perspective a good thing in that formula, but it's not there. And so now the reality is it's at every two-year budget bianium cycle. Uh they set a per pupil limit. We had some really uh you know it's $325 more per pupil this year. But as you can see if it had been tied to inflation it'd be nearly 2382. So it there's some pretty severe limits. And Fondelac is not alone. This is not a FondeLac school district problem. This is all 421 school districts in the state of Wisconsin operate under these same parameters. So even though we're talking about it locally and it's felt locally, this is something that is across all communities. I know as you talked to other schoolboard members, they've been dealing with

029this. In fact, many many schools since revenue limits came into place in 1993 have been living in a referendum cycle every two to three years. And so it's to some level we feel like it's a testament to the fiscal conservatism of the FondeLac school district over quite a bit of time to really only recently be having this conversation. Um and I'm not saying that in as any type of point of pride. I just think it's we have been doing our best with the resources that we have had available. So uh you've heard me say this before the board uh as well. Um money in general follows students. If you want to know what's really happening in a district financially, you have to understand what's happening with enrollment. Um there's a lot of factors that go

030into enrollment, the budget book has uh talks about open enrollment. This is a 25-year trend in headcount as you know, and I'm a little bit down into the weeds. Revenue limits guided by membership, which isn't a peer headcount. I'll step back from that conversation a little bit here. You This is enrollment. And really, where is the district headed with declining enrollment? Um, unfortunately, uh, we are down. This is an actual number, 6,219 for September here. Uh, we talked earlier in the summer. Um, Greg asked us this. Hey, is this a surprise? Well, it's a surprise and it's lower than I still was projecting and and our enrollment projection models through our financial consultants are typically pretty conservative and pretty accurate. about midsummer when I started comparing some of our headcount data with our pupil services

031department, it became pretty clear, as I told you before, we got to trend that number down and not even a little bit. Um, and so it's it's down 227 students year-over-year. Now, you'll get a declining enrollment exemption in the revenue limit formula for year one, but this will flow through the formula and the funding formulas for years to come. And it it's it's what Matt is alluding to. There's some tough conversations. This probably influences the amount of money if you decide to ask for an operational referendum. It'll have an impact on the amount like we're projecting well what is the sort of the amount to stabilize the district. We're going to test those dollar amounts through a survey. We are going to come back and address that once we have all of that data before

032you. Uh it's a surprise in that I didn't think it would be that low. Uh but I was predicting a decline and then we adjusted it further this summer. So we managed our budget expenditure-wise to be forward that but um to take that into account. So it's not devastating in the year one right now financially but I can tell you this is a significant warning issue for the district that has to be accounted for in the state of its finances. And so as I kind of talked about that again really I highlighted some of these um any expense reductions as you know will have to be difficult ones. They will have to be in the staffing and programming conversations. We're not here tonight to say we've got 25 things that we believe are next up

033if an operational referendum isn't successful. But we are talking about that. We are planning those ideas. It'd be inappropriate to say, "Well, we know exactly what those are because we need to know from the survey side." Tonight's not that night. You need to understand just what's happening with enrollment. That's a prudent question to ask, not only for the public, but for the board. We cannot tell you that in an era of declining enrollment, you will have more resources available to you to spend. You will not. And we need to know that. So then also where is a district in terms of its tax rate and in terms of its overall tax uh um trend. Uh so I show a levy rate history a mill rate history but mill rate and and overall levy. The district

034is historically continues to be under the state average. Uh the red line's state average tax rate is the blue for the district. Uh the district is more heavily aided. We get about 60 million in state aid. The remaining 30 to 35 or 34 to 35 million comes from uh the property taxpayer. Again, as I mentioned earlier, it's not that property taxes don't matter and that the property tax burden doesn't need to be understood. It absolutely does. That's what the survey is for. It just means that the majority of the funding in this district comes from the state aid formula, not local property taxpayers. It makes us in the scheme a relatively lower tax district, low spending. what is happening with the local property tax levy and the reason we have to talk and need to

035talk about property tax levy is that is important to the public they have to understand what the projected amounts look like and so I show actual levy from last year and then an estimated one for this year again that number that estimated column won't be finalized until um well I'll know it really what I'm going to recommend to you by the end of this week because we'll get that state aid piece and as you can see we're still predicting a a 2.61% 61% decline in the overall property tax levy. Um mill rate year-over-year last year was $5.97 a thousand. Please don't hold me to that 530 because that state aid number is going to change that $5.30 mill rate prediction. Um but it's going to be a mill rate decline. We've experienced this. We've talked

036at length how the school portion of the property tax levy has continued to decline. Um, that doesn't mean everyone's local taxes are declining because there's multiple portions. There's a technical school portion, a city portion, a county portion. If any of those increase, a local property taxpayer may experience an increase even though the school portion goes down. Again, you as a board can only have influence on the school portion. And even that is ultimately decided if it's a referendum at the by the property taxpayers. And so I just think it's important to look at that. Again, I want to make note because I'm going to reference it tonight. Um, we're including an additional defeasence, a prepayment of the long-term debt. Kind of think of like prepaying your loan. We're including that. That's found in that fund

03739 levy. You may recall the board voted to defease or prepay $2.5 million of debt last year. At this time, that saved taxpayers in a refinancing of that loan about $1.3 million. That's in interest avoidance. So that's a good thing for the property taxpayer. We're going to predict or project about a million dollar do it again to save. I don't have an interest savings at this time, but again I want to make note that's included in there. If you choose not to go ahead or charge us with doing a defeasence, that overall levy will go down by a million dollars. Overall, this is last year's mill rates. We're still one of the lowest mill rate school districts in the in the county. I say one of because I don't I I can't predict what this

038fall will be for all of those yet. Some of them have operational referendums that were successful like Wapon. Others that did not like Oakfield and North Fondelac and FondeLac. So the mill rates will change again but again below the state average as well as in the county. So the financial outlook and then I want to try to get to the end here for the so that there's a good portion for public comment. As you know 70 to 80% 75 to 80% of the district budget is really staffing. This is a people business. It is all about students and they need instructors and support staff all across the board. And so the board continues to make staffing reductions when possible. I mean every time there's a retirement or a resignation we have the conversation. And I

039can tell you is this do does not do we need to replace it. That's that's really the wrong way to say it. We want to replace it, but we're having that tough conversation on is there a way to ask people to do some more with less. That's a tough conversation. It's not taken lightly and we know what's going on. But those are ways where you're not having to go through any type of employment non-renewal process, things of those things that are very difficult. We have that conversation. It's a called attition, reduction by attrition. And we're really doing that um at every turn. Um we are presenting because of the tough decisions that the board this board made last fall or pardon me last spring. We're able to present a balanced budget and that's a good

040thing. That was your charge to us like no deficits, set the expenses to meet revenues and so in the operational funds for 2526. But I'm here to tell you that doesn't mean that we're stable long term. We're not with declining enrollment because as inflation goes up, as you try to attract and retain staff through wages and benefits and keep up with those districts that have referendums to be able to do that, it's going to be a challenge that we have to face. Those are the inflationary pressures are primarily wage benefit considerations and they're the two biggest things that go into a district budget. Um, and declining enrollment is going to be a pressure on the district. So, I'm saying our current outlook, if you ask me, well, what is it like? How are things going?

041It's stable for 2526, that wasn't easy to get to, but it's probably at some level unstable moving forward with that enrollment decline. That that that hurts. We're we're concerned about that, but we're doing the things we feel are necessary that you've charged us with to get a community survey to find out what could be supported and then we'll be able to build our budgets moving forward on that. And so you may say, gosh, you know, there's some bad news in what we've just talked about. I don't feel great about that, and I don't either. Well, where's the district at? Is it just financially in a bad state? No. I mean here's our operational budgets. A balanced budget's a good budget. That is our charge. These are a different funds overall all funds. Some of these

042are not. Some of these are trust funds. So they operate a little bit differently. That's why the exact bottom line number isn't quote balanced across. But if you look at fund 10, the overwhelming majority, we are presenting a balanced budget tonight. Fund balance. This gets talked about a lot. Where are the district's financial reserves? What are they? What they can be used for? what is the appropriate way to use them or not? That's a conversation at the board level, but ultimately fund balance reserves are a measure of district's health and they're expressed as a percentage. And so your board policy says anywhere from 15 to 20% is where we kind of want to be. So, we talked about this last fall that we felt the deficit budget would get us probably in that low low

04315 16% and you see the district has about 16.9 million in fund balance reserves and that's a good thing. The district's not financially bankrupt. I'm here to tell you, I don't have stats on this. I talked to many colleagues. They said they'll tell you I went to a district and um they're at 2% fund balance have been for 10 years. No financial reserves. Think of it like your home. No, no safety net. No ability to meet an unforeseen expense. No savings, no nothing in reserve to to manage that and give you financial stability. Savings and reserves give you stability. the district is stable, but without the ability to raise revenues through an operational referendum that you it's going to be unstable and you probably don't want to go back to fund balance reserves. I probably

044wouldn't I I wouldn't recommend it. You could charge us with it. I would probably say you got to pick target numbers. Can Could Will will the district's doors be open if you went lower and deeper? Absolutely. you would just have to borrow for short-term cash expenses. You might not be able to meet a major facility need, one-time expenses. Those are the types of things that become challenging when you have a low fund balance. You pay excess interest costs for short-term borrowing. We are going to, as a preview, it's not here 27th. I'm going to be working up a line of credit arrangement just because I think that's fiscally prudent to make sure we have enough cash on hand. We do. You'll see the amounts when we project that on the 27th pretty minimal, but it's

045important to make sure that we can meet all our expenses. And it goes into a national credit rating. Think of like your credit score. Those of you in your home budgets, hey, if I got good credit, I'm a good loan risk. It's defined as ability to pre repay your obligations. We're rated by Moody's. We're stable at it's way down in the left. It's real gray. I apologize. Double A3 in the budget book. You can see the whole gamut. kind of think A, B, C, D. Our credit rating is good yet? 16.9 million reserves is still very stable, still very good. That's good news financially for the district. But we we recognize that it's alone is not the only thing that's that's going on in the district. And so I want you to feel good about

046the district's finances and that you made tough decisions to reach a stable financial point. And then let's focus on moving forward. what what we really probably have to do to obtain more revenues and I think that's really the heart of what I would want the public to know today is if you like the results if you believed in that what do we have to do to get there and so here's this timeline that you've seen again some people say geez how come the budget changes I see differences in publication the numbers change I I don't know what that maybe always means what goes on is this process starts a year in advance we start a through fiscal books on July 1st and then we're continually adjusting it all the way through the end of October,

047which is why you see some of those changes in the numbers in towards what went into the Fond Life Reporter, what's in the budget book to some of the reports even tonight. And that's not intended to be misleading. I understand that people might say, gosh, that doesn't quite line up. But the point is, it's the process that drives that, which is why I alluded to earlier. If you we got a couple questions from the public on it, like, well, does that seem really right? There's some different numbers published. I would open it to the board at a budget hearing, which would be appropriate. Maybe when you get to a discussion, do you want to move your budget hearing to the end of October? So there's none of that. So the numbers are the numbers. You're

048going to know you're going to know what your levy. It's just past boards have said, well, we want as many meetings for the public to engage as possible. That was really important to that to the boards in the past and that's why we kept the budget hearing here in the middle of October. So anyway, with that, I'm going to probably turn it back to uh Mrs. Motor. It's a little there. You know, this is important. We have a good amount of time for the public to weigh in. So, I'll turn it to you, Mrs. Motor. >> Thank you, Mr. Gerlock and uh Mr. Steinbart, for preparing and sharing out. Um, and thank you for sharing that the resources are available. If people want to dig in deeper, they're welcome to do that. We're going to

049start off with comments and questions from those who have joined us here today. And then after we listen um to them and take notes, uh we won't engage in conversation with them, but then we'll be able to have a board discussion after that. And so um we're going to invite our community members to come forward. Uh similarly to when we um have people come and share in the beginning of meetings for public comment, we're going to ask that the public may approach the board to make a presentation no longer than five minutes. Now, um if if five minutes comes up in your middle of the sentence, of course, finish your sentence. We want to make sure that we get the the information in. And of course, we're not keeping it to 10 minutes per topic

050because the topic is the budget. So, um we're going to ask you to come forward and please share um your questions, your comments. We need to hear from you and appreciate that you're here today. Okay, seeing none, um, still bring forward, I know some of you have reached out to board members as well as Mr. Steinbart or Mr. Gerlock with questions or comments or things that you see. please continue to bring those forward so that we can clarify and make sure um that our public understands and if we um if you have suggestions it's it's good for us to hear. So that being said um let's go ahead and move to the board discussion. First of all are there any questions regarding anything that Mr. Gerlac brought forward today? >> So I know you had

051mentioned some boards do their meetings later in the month. Would it be beneficial to have two different hearings? Like people maybe haven't heard this information before, so they got to stew on it a little bit and then at the next meeting or would it be possible to push back a hearing later because something that I heard was 4:00 is an early time, you know. >> Well, Mr. Frame, that's completely at the discretion of the board. If you're asking me, is it possible to do those things? Absolutely. I I we will do what you feel is the best way to approach it other than statutoily I will just be clear the board has to take action on setting a levy by state statute hon or before November 1st. So if a in theory if a board

052couldn't come to an agreement on the levy you you need to have enough time. That's something that we'd have to advise you. So I I don't see that as a problem. I think that's at the discretion of the board. You can have as many budget meetings as you would like. Uh we are required as a unified district to have a budget an official budget hearing just like this where there's no action. But other than that, you could have as many meetings as you would like and when you would like as long as you set the levy before November 1st. Okay, >> Mr. Frame. Along with that, today's session is being recorded. Correct. And then if there are people that have questions and comments, um again appreciate the people who are able to come today and

053know that not everyone could um that they come to us with questions and um comments that we can bring forward. So they still have opportunities to share. >> Okay. >> Other questions or comments? >> I just I have observations. I know you sent some of the information on the comparative revenue and expenses and I I know it wasn't part of the presentation, but I didn't know if that was going to be out there. I thought it was valuable information because it really has our district on percent of property tax revenue, percent of federal revenue, state revenue, local tax revenue, but then it also does percentages and compares it to the state and has percentages of expense of expenses. I thought both of those were very telling. Number one, total revenue per member obviously is less

054than the state average, but also uh it does show everything we talked about as far as being a a heavier state um subsidized district versus property taxes. But I also want to point out on the expense side, we talked about our goal. I made me actually feel really good about where we're spending our money because when you look at instruction, we were higher than the state average this last year, which we invested money in instruction to help get our results and outcomes that we were looking to get. So, that took an investment from previously where we were at. As you can see, we're better than half of, you know, the the state average as far as outcomes in perception. The other piece I I also thought was interesting, uh, because in the public we are,

055oh, you're you're admin heavy in this and that. This shows us we are not above, you know, on the state average. Admin 6.5% of expense, say average is 7.3. We're a little bit below. We're on target. But I that's where I kept I I tell people when they say stuff like that, I said we're always asking that question. What's other districts like us? Are we staffed appropriately based on the number of students we have? Are we are our ratios of teacher to student? Are our ratios of, you know, uh admin to staffing? You know, those are questions that we're asking on a consistent basis. at least I am as a board member behind the scenes making sure that we're aligning ourselves and not out of um out of tilt on those different expenditures and those

056different areas because we have to keep the expense ratios in my opinion in alignment you know but yet we're balancing that to get the outcomes that we're looking for which I was okay with being 3% higher on instruction than what the state average was because I'm seeing results Now, if we're spending on uh 3% higher than the state average on instruction year after year and we're not seeing results, those are different conversations that I want to have, you know, but I I look at that saying that's a great investment. When we look at staff and and support and those things, we're a little bit higher. We're 1% higher than state average. Well, that in my opinion aligns really well with increased expenses on instruction. It takes extra staff. it takes better, you know, support. I,

057you know, I'm okay with spending a little bit more than the state average on our teachers and our support and that and spending it instruction because that's what our goal is is to get outcomes. So, I I thought that was a valuable piece, those two pieces. I don't know if we can put that out there somewhere. Um, >> that's on page 12 for those of you who are looking at the the book. >> Well, I didn't see it up. Yeah. So it is published the book was published publicly then. Yes. Then it would be ch uh page 11 and page 12 which I think are two pages that in my opinion being a finance guy was outstanding pieces of information and I dissected those probably that's where my eyes went mostly >> and started dissecting

058those. So >> again this is this is comparative revenue that the all public schools have to report the same data through uniform financial accounting requirements. And as a result, it lends itself to a really powerful analysis of data. This is all straight out of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instructions website. It's all public. It's all free. It's all out there. Um it's and I have in the past, Mr. Henchel. Um I done a little more on comparative revenues expense. Um you're right. I think it is a really useful tool to say, you know, to draw conclusions that are we above or below state average and we have. We've made a lot of investments in instruction. Um, probably the example one I would say is we're always going to be below the transportation number >> because

059there are many many rural districts in the state that just have very very significant transportation expenses and we do not. So, >> and and then when you start looking at the bigger budget, you see 124 and you see the breakdown of the different areas and we say, "Hey, we're, you know, we are at a deficit of, you know, 7 million or whatever, you know, and then understand, you know, there's certain areas they're like, oh, you should cut this, you should cut there." And it's like, all right, there's not enough money in that area to even cut to get to where we're we need to do as far as making a dent in it, you know? And that's the other piece of it is really understanding this is a nice summary of the bigger picture of

060when we come out if you know like we did this last year and said we have a deficit of 7.9 million that we have to fill. Now you look at it and and figure out okay what areas of that can we pull from? Where is there enough pool of money to start pulling from to make that happen? So this is a good summary in that area too. But now if you go to the state average, I really like that piece too for the expense and that. But please, for everybody that's out there, these two pages say a lot on what our goals are, where we're spending our money, what kind of results we're getting, and a lot of questions we're asking behind the scenes to make sure that we're being good stewards of the taxpayer

061money and where the money's coming from. So, I said that a lot and Thank you, Mr. Henshel. I appreciate you bringing that forward. I don't know if this is a good place to fill in the same question um or a similar question. However, per pupil, FondeLac receives, is it like 12,000? Uh what what do we receive per pupil? >> Well, the allowable uh revenue limit increase is 11,325 for for this year. And so there are districts across the state because of their spending levels and into the formula. This is a little bit where this can kind of get a little complex and kind of baffle some folks is um we're we're still considered a low revenue school district. This that's the base. There are districts that are upwards of 15 16,000 per pupil. >> What's

062the highest in the state? 33. >> I don't know that Mr. >> I know I heard 20ome for sure heard. So you know the formula itself if can create some inequities uh with it it you're low spending therefore you have low revenue therefore you have fewer resources all the time to be available we to you to spending the district's had some good support from local legislators as well as over the past number of years there's been a lot of conversation on low revenue limit increase in the formula those were good things for the district um because it used to be down below 9,000 and so this has significantly helped the district all that said it's still probably not enough to keep up with inflation. It's not tied to inflation. The per pupil limit used to

063be as we discussed and so um it was not addressed in the last um two-year bud budget cycle here. Uh and so >> thank you. >> That's where we're at. >> I appreciate that. >> Um other questions or comments? >> I do have one more. >> Um so we have a loss of approximately 200 students. We expected there to be a loss. I don't believe we expected it to be 200 students. Um Mr. Steinbart, Mr. Gerlock, have we started to do an analysis of where those students have come from and reasoning behind um where they've gone so that if there are changes we can make to bring students back because like you said, we are doing well. Our students are performing. Um and so just curious. >> Yeah. So, last week we did have Wendy

064um just run the overall numbers of where people are going to and it is a mix. It's moving out of state. It is some of our EL students that chose to go back to Mexico, Nicaragua, places like that. Um a little bit to our private schools as well. I got through about 50 of the 250 pages right now. But it's not a there's not a one-sizefits-all. It it it's really a wide range of different things. I agree, Miss Mo, that I think we're getting better results than we've ever seen. We're going to need to make sure we're getting that message out um to our students and to the broader Fondlac community about what we're doing for students and that we're meeting them at their needs and and hopefully get some students to come back that

065way as well. >> Thank you. >> I will make a point. It's is just a conversation. We're analyzing the why. I think that's the really important piece. But I'd be remiss if I didn't say that it is an era of school choice. >> Correct. >> And not just I can open enroll to a neighboring district physically. And I don't know Matt if you want to talk about that conversation about the era of school choice. Not and not just even parochial option. >> Correct. >> Right. Virtual is a big thing. So Mr. Groves this year already has really taken it upon himself to start researching is there something we could do within our own district now? And Nate, you'll be able to tell me. I think when you met with people they said there's 51 different

066opportunities for that though as well. So it's not like it's not being done. Would we pull some people or potentially keep our own? That's what we'd be looking for more than anything. But then as Mr. Gerlock said the other thing that we are also dealing with and this is just simple math is when we look at our sixth grade population right now. Sixth grade is lower than seventh grade. Fifth grade is lower than sixth grade. Fourth grade is lower than fifth grade. and it goes down all the way to 4K in terms of our lowest potential graduating class. Um, that's that's what it looks like. Now, we've also seen this trend 37 years ago, uh, a similar trend and then we started getting more students in a different area. That's where, you know, some of

067our community partnerships and with businesses trying to make sure that we have people moving into our community to hopefully bolster that a little bit and get us out of this current dip that we've been seeing. But Nate, go ahead. >> Yeah. No, I think Mr. Steinbart speaks to the number of options that students have these days. And so when we're having discussions about bringing students back, the bigger conversation is about how we serve all students. Students are different. You know, students have different needs. There's different priorities, different family dynamics. Um, we are in initial stages of having conversations about a virtual option, what that looks like and how can we do that to fit as many of the student needs that we have, especially for families that are looking beyond the brickandmortar style of education,

068which is a changing need. We do have a number of students that do choose virtual options in schooling. Um, so like I said, like Mr. Steinbark was saying that's just one of the conversations we're having with hopes of again with more input, more collaboration, and more work with our own staff of finding out what what these different models look like. We need to offer something that's unique um that's going to pull these students back because there are a lot of options that you could plug into today and and take classes. What's going to be the best option for our students and our community and how can we be of best service to those families through a virtual option is really what we're talking about. >> Thank you. Uh are there any other questions or comments?

069Otherwise, um I am going to uh bring us to a closure of our public hearing. Again, thank you for everyone who's attended today. Thank you for those who haven't attended. However, are watching this at a different time. We ask you please communicate with the board. Uh please reach out to Mr. Steinbart when with any questions or comments. I'll close the public hearing at 4:52 and we will be back at 5:00 for our regular meeting. Heat. [Music] Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] I like how they do the Happy birthday. I'd like to call the regular meeting of the board of education to order at 501. >> Mrs. Maine, can we please have the role? >> Frame >> here. >> Henchel >> here. >> Labyrinance Maine here. Oliver >> panel >> here. Motor here.

070Uh, six out of the seven of our team are here today. Therefore, we have a quorum. Um, we will be taking a moment of reflection followed by the pledge of allegiance which will be led by Sabish Middle School students followed by a brief presentation. So excited you're here. So, let's go ahead and take a moment of reflection. Sabish Middle School, please come forward and we'll stand. I pledge algiance 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. Good evening, members of the school board. My name is Lanc. >> My name is Caitlyn. >> And I'm Hannah. We're here tonight on behalf of the students and staff at Savish to invite you to a special event. >>

071On Monday, November 10th at 2:30 p.m., Savish Middle School will be proudly hosting our Veterans Day celebration. This celebration was a savage tradition for many years and we're excited to bring it back to honor those who have served our country. The event will be led by the Savish Honors Choir and will include special music, a flag folding ceremony, and a special recognition of veterans in attendance. After the program, light refreshments will be served to the veterans and their families. We are asking that veterans who would like to attend RSVP by calling Savish Middle School or filling or by filling out the form on the Savish Middle School Facebook page. >> We would be honored to have you join us for this meaningful celebration. Thank you for your time and we hope to see you on

072November 10th at 2:30 p.m. >> Thank you so much. Thank you for coming. And who are your teachers with you today? We have our choir teacher, Miss Williams, >> and Miss. >> Well, thank you. Thank you for coming today and thank you for your parents. We appreciate all you do and this looks like a great event and I love that you're bringing the community into our schools to see the great work that you're doing. Thank you. [Applause] Uh so following the regular meeting, the board will convene in a workshop to discuss employee health plan and options, health plan options. It's now time for public comment. 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

073interrupted as deemed necessary by the presiding officer. Members of the board of 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 policy 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 participants statement is too lengthy, personally directive, obscene, abusive, or irre 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

074presiding 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. The presiding officer will call for a recess or an adjournment to other time when the lack of public decorum so interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting as to warrant such action. Um, as you come up, please uh state your name. And if you choose to, you could um put your name uh either state your address or fill out a white slip on the podium and pass it to our clerk, Mrs. Maine. So, at this time, if anyone would like to come forward, we'd welcome you. Hello, Shter. >> I'll say my Antonio Godfrey, 81 Fifth Street, Fondelac. Um my first thing is um I just

075want to commend the staff and teachers or whoever idea was to put on the um homecoming tailgate festivities. It was it was it was great to see something different. And hopefully next year we would I I would make one small request that we'll probably get a lot more community partners if we put this out a little bit earlier. Um I really I really enjoyed myself um just being out there just interacting with other community partners and other schoolboard members, district administrators. And I I I heard something about that. My my ribs was a real big hit. So, um I know Nicole is sitting back there in the back. I know you had something to do with the planning. You guys hand my hat goes off to all of you who did that, who was a

076part of that putting that together because that was something different. And we know how certain people our community like don't like to take things differently. They don't. It's not well received, but hands down that was very well wellreceived from anybody that I've talked to. So, h my hats off to to you and whoever your team was. So, that's all I got. >> Thank you. >> And I'm up here to say thank you to allow Ebony Vision to have our booth there. We had a blast. Um, we got to obviously our whole goal was to actually keep it very affordable for everybody. So truly we didn't make that much of a profit, but that was not our goal this time at all with our booth. So um, we got a lot of people to ask us

077questions about Eony Vision and just know that we do brought fries but have ribs at our br fries other times. So people know that now. So, in the big picture, that's better for us. Um, we had a blast. We, um, have some video of a senior citizen making up a Fondi cheer, so we could always share that. I'm sure she would just love for us to share that. Um, also, thank you, Nicole, for a kind of a last minute thing. Um, Antonio and I can uh usually do things um by the seat of our pants with planning. So, that was not a problem for us to do all that. Um, hats off to um Piggly Wiggly for um literally suiting up in his butcher outfit, the owner, um and giving me 90 pounds of ribs

078on the fly, literally. Um, that was wonderful, too. Um, we had a blast. We honestly had a blast. We got to stay till the end of the game. We were still selling stuff. The weather was wonderful, too. So, that helped. And yeah, that's And guess what? We got to use our Project Grill again. So, everybody got to, you know, ask questions about Project Grill as they were coming up to Antonio. So, we just wanted to say thank you for everything. >> Thank you so much. And yes, the ribs were great. Is there anyone else that would like to come forward? Seeing none, we will move forward. If I could have a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> I move that board of education approve the consent agenda as follows. uh September 22nd, 2025 regular

079meeting and workshop minutes, personnel recommendations, retirement and new hire and bimonthly financial report. >> Second. >> Joe's not here, so I figured somebody's got to take >> I believe it was a motion by Henel and we'll give the second to Mrs. uh Mrs. Panau. And if uh we could have the role, please. >> Frame. >> Yes. >> Henchel. Yes. >> Lyance Maine. >> Yes. Oliver. >> Yes. >> Canal. >> Yes. >> Motor. >> Yes. Motion carries. 6. >> Next. If I can have a motion to consider the approval of the resolution um authorizing the withdrawal from group life insurance program. I move that the board of education approve the resolution pursuant to the provisions of Wisconsin statute 40.704 uh to withdraw from Wisconsin public employers group life insurance program effected on the first of the

080month after 90 days following receipt in the office of the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds. >> Second >> motion by Mr. Henchel a second by Mr. Frank. Uh is there any questions or conversations regarding this uh item? I'd maybe make a comment that uh you know that motion sounds intimidating that we're withdrawing something. The next motion will tell you why. Um there is a better price point for life insurance. So save money. >> Thank you Mr. Henshel. >> Plus it's uh already a provider for um the other insurance component. Okay, great. Thank you. Can we have the roll call, please? >> Henchel, >> yes. >> Maine, yes. Oliver, >> yes. >> Panel, >> yes. >> Frame, >> yes. >> Motor, >> yes. Motion carries 6. Uh, next, if we could have a motion to

081consider an approval. I move that board of education approve National Insurance Services as the employee life insurance benefit provider effective January 1, 2026. >> Second. >> We have a motion by Mr. Henshel, a second by Mr. Frame. Uh conversations or questions regarding this? >> If I may, Mrs. Motor, I just I echo the exact summary. I appreciate Mr. Henchel, Mrs. Panau speaking to that. um we're expecting to potentially save, you know, $63,000 and on a multi-million dollar budget. I know that's that is still a smaller amount, but at the same time, I do think in light of the budget hearing, um when you're having conversations, the this is the work the board the board continually evaluates programs. Um how you manage the budget with benefits, as you know, tonight is a big deal. Um and

082so uh we believe we can offer and present employee life insurance. It's a completely district-paid benefit. Employees do not have a premium share. So provide a a term life insurance policy up to one times their wage at at a reduced rate saving the district um in the expense budget side. So that's why we're recommending that and we've had good experience with National Insurance Services. So we feel confident about this move. And then uh just another question, what is the plan regarding um uh informing communicating with staff members and so they become knowledgeable on the um new opportunity? >> Yes. Um where all staff members will see this is during annual open enrollment that is still set uh tentatively yet for November 1st uh through the 16th. Um it's a active open enrollment. We'll talk more

083about this in the workshop later, but uh this is where they will have to opt in and accept a district paid benefit of life insurance with this carrier if they want it. They don't have to accept it, but um it's a district paid benefit and 100 I would say 100% of district employees do accept it. And so um that's where they're going to find out the most information. The plan isn't the the benefit design for the public is not changing. Um the district offers one times annual salary. So, if you make $20,000 for the district, you have a term policy for the time that you're employed actively, not retired, not not afterwards, it doesn't follow you. It's just during your current employment, you have a one times your salary life insurance benefit. Heaven forbid you

084don't pass away, that that would be a benefit paid. Uh, but that's what this the district offers to employees as a benefit of working in the FondeLac school district. And so, >> thank you. Right. Anything else? If not, can we have a roll call, please? >> Maine, yes. Oliver, >> yes. >> Panel, >> yes. >> Frame, >> yes. >> Henchel, >> yes. >> Motor, >> yes. Motion carries 6. And now, could we have a motion to consider the approval of Neola policy updates? >> I move that board of education approve the suggested revisions to Neola policies in volume 34-2 is presented at second reading. >> Second. We have a motion by Mr. Henchel, a second by Mr. Frame. Um, and we have had the reading prior to we've had a workshop on this. So, um,

085if if people in the audience are interested in learning more, you can go back to those sessions and watch them. Are there any other questions or comments? Then let's go ahead with the role, please. Mrs. Maine. >> Oliver, >> yes. >> Panel, >> yes. >> Frame, >> yes. >> Henchel, >> yes. Maine. Yes. Motor. >> Yes. Motion carries 6. Thank you. Uh, next we have a report. >> Yeah. Thank you, Mrs. Motor. I I sort of alluded to this in the budget hearing for those that were tuning in or present. Um, you'll see my executive summary says this is just a report only, no action tonight. And, um, what we're discussing is the defeasence or prepayment of long-term debt. Uh, and the district's only long-term debt outstanding loan is um related to the capital referendum

086from 2019. You may recall um those were on the board a year ago, we did the same thing uh where we sought opportunities to save taxpayers interest and expense in a way of interest avoiding interest expense by prepaying the loan. Now, we had a good conversation last year about that with our financial consultants at RWB Bar. You may recall Kevin Mullen that came. He's our consultant. Kevin again reached out to me this fall and said, you know, I think the board, the district has another opportunity to defeze or prepay debt, saving taxpayers interest expense. Um, we're as he his estimate and my estimate now are at about $1 million. You may recall last year we we did 2.4 million. So if the the goal would be not to prepay more so that it raises the

087overall levy. Um you may recall from the levy slide that's why I spent some time there. Um last year's overall tax levy was a little over 35 million. It's projected even with a defeasence right now to be about uh 34 million and so or under 35 million. That would be our guide. And so what we're really looking for you is some conversation. Uh there's no action here. I don't have the exact number. We would say it would probably be I'm looking for would you be willing to allow us to present a fund 39 tax levy on October 27th where you would take action on that debt service levy of an amount to defease debt but not to exceed the overall levy from last fiscal year. So effectively, you wouldn't be raising taxes to prepay debt.

088You could, by the way, that's legal, but we're not recommending that, but to stay within those limits. And we the reason we don't know the exact number tonight for everyone is we don't know what the state is going to put in. Um, we thought it'd be closer to two million, but some of our preliminary estimates from the state general aid pool, we're always analyzing this data. I'm talking to to financial consultants about it might be less aid that's not impact the budget spendable dollars. It only imp impacts the levy. So more might be required of the local levy versus that shift. And we'll know that by the end of the week. So really I'll summarize this. Um you know it's going to be an estimated 16 cents on the mill rate. So if you say

089no folks I'm not comfortable with any prepayment. You only levy for we'd only levy for the required principal and interest payments. That that 530 mil rate I was projecting in that budget hearing probably decreases about 15 to 16 cents. That's where the number comes in lower. So I I kind of bounced around a little bit on that. I want to answer any questions you may have on defeasance. I don't have an estimated interest payment savings. Like again you just avoid future interest costs. That's why you prepay debts because then you don't have to pay interest in the future and that's the point of it. You are required to make those payments and so you're saving taxpayers 20 years from now those interest payments. That's always a tough thing to talk about when you're here and

090now looking at real spendable dollars. This isn't causing any impact to our budget now. You are saving the community money down the line. And so that's the point of doing this. So, I guess I'll I I'll answer questions. I hope I was clear. I'm looking for some board consensus tonight about a defeasance amount on October 27th not to exceed last year's all funds tax levy. And here's the other side. You won't actually vote on the defeasance until May like you did prior. You may recall last year's board set a defeasence amount, but the new board actually took they vote on it when you actually executed the documents. So, >> I guess for me, I'm I'm gonna need some time to digest this and look at it a little bit more >> and then um might

091need some more information on it >> certainly I and that's the point of tonight's discussion Mr. frame is what it is really important. We want to understand we didn't do a workshop on this. I could share with you if you want like some more background like last year's workshop that the the with Kevin from Baird and or I could have a virtual meeting that way. Although I I actually I better pause. I can't offer that all up. This is a full board decision. I would like to know what you need to know to be able to make an informed decision. So, >> one of the questions I have is um if we are looking at a deficit budget, right, and we're looking at hard decisions, um and can you explain why this would be a

092good decision to make um when we're looking at, oh, we're going to have to be really smart with our funds, we lost students, why why would this make sense for the board? Yeah, it's there's very very few tools that the board has when it comes to raising additional revenues in your general fund for to pay for what is the work of the school district. Staffing, wages, benefits, supplies, utilities, you have to use fund 10. So, you can only have an operational referendum approved by the voters to do that. In the debt services fund, we have a separate account and a separate tax levy that you levy for that can only those funds can only be used to prepay or to pay debt principal and interest payments. You can't take six7 million for you can't borrow

093from it. Has to be set aside. And that's a good thing folks. That's why school districts are good credit risks typically because you have the ability to tax to prepay that debt. It's a municipal debt obligation. And so because of that, you can state statute allows you to levy any amount you want to pay back the loan. So kind of think of it this way. You get to the point in your loan, maybe on your car, where you say, "Well, I'm ready to pay the whole thing off now." You could do that as a district. We have over $60 million in outstanding obligations. We can't levy 60 million in one year to do that. But you can chip away at that. So that's a tool within and and Matt and I talked about it's a

094tool within your tool belt to say, "Well, I can't use that additional million to pay anybody's wages or benefits." Yep. Staffing it has no impact on on their experience. It does nothing to them. What it does is it saves your community that kind of money. Um, and we're simply doing that to also smooth out that tax levy because most communities and taxpayers don't like wild ups and downs in their levy and it feels like you're always either raising the taxes and that's the thing that is always talked about and remembered and then when that levy goes down in that school portion there isn't a lot of conversation about it's like well that's good but then if you have to go back up it's like you really caused dramatic impacts in your community. So, this is

095a levy smoothing. I know Mr. Henchel, you'd like to discuss a point. >> Yeah, I mean, this is a great strategy to levelize the fluctuations on your property taxes as we, you know, anticipate a possible referendum. Then you're not going to see a as big of a jump because then this would be now you don't do this next year and then it you're offsetting it. >> Got it. So, it's really a strategy long term to stabilize and not go like that because I'll tell you, >> I always tell people, look at your tax bill. None of them ever say, "Oh, yeah. I I noticed it went down the last three years." >> And I'm like, "Guys, got short memories, you know, look at your tax bill the last few years, you know, and look at

096the details within it because ours continues, you know, like we're going to see it again this year. We're going to see a reduction. This is a way going instead of going from here to here, let's go from here to there. help our future. >> It's it is frugally, you know, >> uh financially frugal to do that because it will only help our future financial stake, but it doesn't have any impact on our budget. That's the thing. Our budget at all. >> That was really helpful to know because if I if you didn't explain this and I was a person in the community, I it wouldn't make sense. And so, thank you for clarifying. >> This this has nothing to do with operations and budget. None. It does have no impact on budget. So, >> thank

097you. Other questions, comments? Mrs. Mine, you have one. >> I just want to clarify. So, we have this um debt fund and we would take it from there and put it into the fund 39. Is that what I'm understanding? >> Uh yes, the district has fund accounting. We levy your six seven million to make the principal and interest. So, the levy is a revenue in fund 39. It exists separately. So when the tax levy receipts come in in January and February, we take six million right away and that goes to our debt service payment fund that is held at our bank because we make the debt payments twice a year, October 1st and April 1st. We're making those payments to levy out and make a debt schedule. We have an amortization schedule that we pay

098principal and interest. And so that money goes in as a revenue and then it is expensed out as a principal and interest payment. And so it's not a it's all comes into the district, but we have to separate it out. Think of it like a sub account at your local bank. You have your the account you pay all your regular bills out of and then you have your the account that you to are paying your debt payments out of your car payments. And so that's how that kind of works. It's not a separate not held at a separate bank. It's not anywhere else, but it is a part of the tax levy that the board is the only authority to set on the community. So, you're effectively saying, I'm going to take more money than

099the formula necessarily calculates out I'm but I can to make that prepayment. And the rationale to Mr. Henchel is it smooths out the overall levy and saves taxpayers long-term in interest. Again, you save taxpayers about 1.3 in interest expense avoidance. You didn't have to do that. It has no impact on your operations. It's just long-term you will look back and say that saved the district millions of dollars. Those boards that made those decisions. Hard to quantify and explain to somebody that said, "How is interest savings in the future a good thing for me today?" You just have to understand the idea of avoiding exponential interest costs and and as you get through that, that is a good thing. >> Thank you. But if you need more information, Mrs. M, I I sense I know this

100is the first time that some of you have been through this piece on the board. We want you don't have to do anything. And um something I say in our business office when helping new employees is don't do things that you financially that you don't understand because you're not hurting anything by not doing this. Although we are missing an opportunity to smooth out the levy and and you could experience the impact of that levy up and down and that could have an impact when you're talking to members to say, "Well, why is it going up or why is it gone down?" And so that would be the opportunity to avoid it. But if you're uncomfortable with it, we're not going to push to do it. You're under no obligation to do it. We will only

101levy for the amount of required principal and interest payments. >> Okay. Um, thank you. And if there are schoolboard members that want some further information, please connect with Mr. Gerlac. Thank you. >> If I may, Mrs. Motor, >> just just so you know, I mean, we're going to present >> unless you tell us otherwise, we're going to present a defeasence as we talk tonight on October 27th. Bless you, Mr. Anel. would be it would be better to know ahead of time if you just get your questions answered or you could have robust a conversation about it that evening. Just know I I then we'll have the number like if you decide it's not you want to wait till the 27th, you're not comfortable with that number, we can get a secondary resolution to have just

102the required principal and interest payments. It just would be better for you to to feel confident. Otherwise, if you don't, you can't table the levy vote on October 27th because then you're going to have to turn around and have a special meeting before November 1st, just so you know what you if you don't take action on the levy on the 27th. >> So, Mike, I think what would help is a couple things. One is um once you have the actual number, right? >> Yes. >> And then what I would ask that you would, you know, like we showed the graph, all right, this last year, Sure. >> this was our mill rate, right? >> Sure. With that built in, this is what our mill rate will be and it it should be less than what

103it was last year. So, it's really just stabilizing. >> That way, people can really visualize, all right, well, did that mean it went up? Did it go down? Where did it go? So, yeah, look at this year's current and then once you have that figured out, say this is my recommendation and this is what it's going to take it to. >> We'll do, >> you know, and it should be less than what it is this year. So otherwise we won't be doing it, you know, >> and I like that that it doesn't impact our budget and that it doesn't have anything to do with the operations. That helps. That was, you know, >> I wish it did. I wish we could pull that. >> Well, you know, actually I I I think the I wish

104I could, you know, >> if we could, right, then >> we may not have >> it helps long it helps our long term. >> Long term. >> Thank you for the conversation. Uh and thank you Mr. Gerck for putting that together. And now we have uh Mr. Steinbart sharing um more about our community survey. >> So this was shared with you at a couple board meetings ago. Um we are on version 9 or 10 right now as we've been continuing to make little adjustments as we find out more. I almost it reminds me of the budget right now that we find out more and we change it a little bit. The biggest changes though again according to what the board members had had talked about you'll see on the first page in bold um where

105we wanted we talked about possibly having the numbers exactly uh the people at school perceptions thought this statement was the best statement to use the in fact for the first time in over a decade. All of our schools met or exceeded expectations according to the 2324 state report card. We wanted to include the 23 24 specifically because the new one may come out and they might be like, "Wait a second, what about this or that?" So, we wanted to make sure we were being very clear. We don't want community members to say we're misleading them. Um, and then the other piece was the the base ask. We did go with the 7.5 million versus the six and then the 1.5 separated. So, again, this is just a survey. This is to get input from the

106community, but if we were going to be asking for something, we wanted to say both of those were together. So, we did say 7.5 over the the span of four years. And I think those were the biggest components that we had said we wanted some adjustments on. >> I think the state average line, was that new? >> Oh, that was new, too. Thank you. Yes, that was new. And I I forgot who asked for that. But to be able to show that even with a potential referendum question that would pass, we would still be below the state average for our mill rate. >> I think with this version two, we took out the optional security question. >> It's that was the part that was just put in. >> So it was built in. So instead

107of the six, the 1.5 and the two all as three separate uh viewpoints, we said the 1.5 just went into the six. Why? Which is why it says 7.5 now. >> Okay. >> So uh we moved it to be part of that first. >> The big base part. >> Yeah. That was something you felt strongly about. >> Just for the purpose of learning more what our community would want, >> right? Would would that be beneficial to keep it that way that it was before? >> Well, and I think >> because I mean this isn't going to be on the referendum. I I know a lot with the last people asked for security and the operations separate. So just for the purpose of getting what the community wants, why not give them the option to ask

108that question or answer that question? >> Do we have that question embedded? So if under would you support the operational uh above and yeah if you choose probably no or definitely no why and then is there an opportunity to market down there? Yep. Do not support improving school security. >> Security piece. >> Oh >> so they could if that was some way if that was something someone felt strongly about they could take it off there. >> Oh. >> All right. And that's throughout the throughout the survey. It really does ask >> if you don't like this, why? So, it will say, I mean, each piece on there, whether it's existing programs, cap, building maintenance, what part are they struggling with? So, we'll be able to get that data and really farm it out a little

109bit more. >> Okay. Now, I know we said we just tied that number from security in with the big number. Now, is that separate somewhere on here that I'm missing? >> Nope. >> As well? No, >> it was 6. >> It was six >> and now it's at 75.5 for the two separate ones. So now it just is at 7.5. >> But also having the spot on there that if they don't want the safety, if that's something they don't feel we need, they can mark that down and would be able to take the the numbers and look at that separately then too. So that information would tell us what we needed to revise in the actual question when we put it out. >> Right. >> Okay. >> And that's the biggest thing and I as

110I've been speaking with every school. I think I only have waters left right now. Um that's the big thing that I've been saying is this is really thatformational gathering point. This is not this is not saying we're even going to referendum yet. It really isn't. So, if people are not comfortable with us potentially looking at that, I'm hoping that they really give us the information on the survey to know how we we would potentially adjust that then. >> Yep. >> Uh, one comment on the um graph uh basically on page three. >> Yep. which is uh highlighting and projecting out to 2930 uh and projecting um referendum tax impact state average of 7.09 is too small. You need to make it a larger we need to make it more of a highlighted item so that

111it doesn't get missed in that where we are at uh five 5.43 we need to be it need I just think it needs to be highlighted 7.09 9. >> Yeah. Larger font, >> right? >> We can talk to them then. >> And I'm I'm glad that it was added on because before it was hard for me to notice it. >> Uhhuh. >> Correct. >> Right. Um I just have a question. So then on the next page, page four, the operational referendum, additional projects. Okay. that has if we do an additional $2 million each year in order to reduce those class sizes with what we found have just found out though is that going to >> that's that's the that's our question as well it doesn't get us where we wanted to be correct necessarily but

112I will say if we if we don't have that then that we'll also know that the decisions we have to make here at the board table will be even greater as well right >> so it's really that's still a want >> so we leave the question as is we wouldn't raise that. >> I I don't think >> I don't think we can from what our discussion had been at that point if we are saying we're going to ask for less than we did last year that it failed that we're going to >> potentially and again it's it's >> it's to gather the input back what what they value. Now, if we'd say have a ton of people saying yes, we want those class sizes reduced, which would be great. >> Um, then it can lead

113to some other discussions that we would have as well about how do we how do we make that happen? And I've already talked with some of the middle schools and high schools on different ways to be thinking about scheduling and everything else that might be able to help with that, too. Um, but you're 100% correct with the new knowledge of having 220 fewer students. Um, we have to make some decisions regarding that number then as well that we weren't necessarily anticipating. >> I also appreciate though, Mr. Steinbart, that you're not you're talking about it now with teachers and with staff on how to do it differently, that it's not this is not best for kids. And so I appreciate not waiting and making sure that you're um involving those who it impacts the most. So,

114thank you for doing that. >> Absolutely. And with that, as I said, at the next board meeting, that's going to be a huge topic of conversation that I just want everyone here prepared for because I for myself and our leadership team, I'd like be a to be able to know the direction we may be going and again to get that out. Um especially if we do go to referendum, I want to make sure people know beforehand what our status is and the things that we're we're thinking about. And again, knowing that we have that opportunity at an executive session next week, I really just want you to come prepared on the thoughts that you've had as well and the conversations you've had about decisions that we may have to make. >> Thank you. Uh we

115are now up to student staff activities. So, um uh Mrs. Maine, staff activities. I'm not on uh I was able to view a couple soccer games via live stream and I attended one last week um in person, but then I also um virtually attended the CIS6 board of controls Zoom meeting this morning. Um it was originally supposed to be tomorrow night and then all a sudden I got an email on Friday saying it's Monday morning at 9ine. I'm like okay. So um so that was very interesting. um just to sit in on that and learn some things that are going on at the state level um and that kind of stuff. So I one thing that I and there's a lot to talk about so I won't say it all but one thing I did

116find out was they talked about they have lunches for new superintendents and I didn't realize that and um so I thought that that was really good that they're you know helping and even veteran superintendents they said can come and and get you know talk to other superintendents. That's that's really nice. I think that that's a great thing. And did they also discuss how there is a breakfast with um I believe it's with superintendent and with um uh area politicians. >> Do you know about that yet? >> No. >> All right. We'll share a little bit more. I got to uh be a part of that once and it's uh great chance for um >> um for those serving within schools to talk to those who are making decisions about schools. So, Mrs. Panau, >> um

117I I attended Riverside's academic uh parent teacher teams and this is the third year I've done so because I'm a big fan and I think it's uh a terrific program. uh you as you know the uh parents are invited to the classroom and as a group of parents they come in and they uh learn exactly what the what their students or what their children are working on in school. It also provides the opportunity for parents to meet parents and create some familial relationships that I don't think could happen as as efficiently as as it does there. Um and the format used for all of the apt is basically introduction icebreaker uh explanation of what is going on goals that are set and looking at uh each child's individually parents looking at their own child's uh

118folders which have the IR tests and the lessons that they're pathways that they're working on and as a result they have a good idea as to where they are at the uh just using Mrs. uh third grade class Mrs. is uh Motorerson's class. Her icebreaker when she brought every when everybody came in was a good question. She asked each parent to think about and share in a group of two or three uh why they chose the child's name, how they chose the child's name that they did and why did they do so. So that produced immediate buzz buzz buzz buzz because people were very enthusiastic and it was fun for them and uh they willingly several of them willingly shared to the the total group. Um the goals that they're working on currently as she

119explained are language arts goals and math will be next se next semester. The goals included for language arts phonics, high frequency words, vocabulary, comprehension in fiction, and comprehension in educational text. Um, another big benny of this program is that she the teacher also shares um options options and ways of reinforcing what is being learned in the home and it's um applicable at that point in time specifically as to what they are working on. And so uh Mrs. Mrs. Motorerson's uh suggestions were first of all in language arts to read 20 minutes a day discuss what you're reading uh deal with fiction and non-fiction and ask the children to differentiate the two and her point about uh parents and these are her words parents words matter is extremely important um then she said to stress education

120to stress the importance of hard work and encourage kids in reading and writing and talk. There are many talking opportunities i.e. going to the grocery store. You can develop vocabulary when you show them a kumquat and ask them to identify other other things. Uh discuss family value values and then something I think is very important she says to se celebrate any and all successes and that that is is helpful. Uh the beginning of this presentation each year is in the multimedia room where Mrs. Hughes is going over um logistics uh and um drop off and pickup procedures etc. But I learned something in that part of it that I had never learned before. And and you may all know this, but there's a clothes closet in in Riverside. show you all now. Okay. Well, I

121went in and I was st it's a staggering amount of clothing and it's free to the public and it's free the first Thursday of every month between 10:15 and 12 and 3:15 and 4:15. But it's parkas, boots, hats, shirts, pants, raincoats, etc. And they're clean and neat and organized and the uh Church of Our Savior does all the work, which is terrific. So, this year. >> Just I'll put a plug as we get in the winter months. Um, most of the schools have them. If you want to donate, I know I took Tupperware bins full of clothes that didn't fit my kids anymore, like the Parkside, Woodworth has them. So, a lot of the schools have that. And if you get instead of taking them to Goodwill, I'd rather take them, you know, to a

122school where kids in our community are going to have access to them. So, yeah, it's a great program that all of our schools work on. So, um, on I was at a multiple different sporting events, a couple different schools. I do want two shout outs to throw out there. Um, yeah, the ribs were outstanding and Antonio left. I was going to say I wanted to thank Ebony Vision for uh, and Darvon uh, had a cookout yesterday uh, for the seniors for the football team and volunteered his time. had uh you know the grill from Ebony Vision Grill was so it's becoming a community grill you know and uh did an outstanding job with some wings and you know some chicken and stuff like that but just trying to have that community amongst the seniors so

123they don't lose that contact after they graduate and stuff like that. Um, so it was an outstanding event. Uh, all volunteers, a lot of the, you know, I offered to purchase a bunch of stuff and he's like, it's been donated. So, we had, they did an outstanding job. So, thank you Ebony Vision for for doing that. Thank you, Dervon, for being the chef. You did an outstanding job. So, um, yeah, that's it. Um, I went to multiple boys and girls volleyball games. Um, I thought it was I went to both of the senior nights and I thought uh it was really cool at the girls volleyball senior night. They gave uh flowers to the opposing team senior as well. So, uh I thought that that was uh pretty cool. Um I thought that was classy.

124Um I went to a Waters PTO meeting just as I learn um more about the PTO there and I think it's kind of cool. They do something different. Um they have PTO meetings outside of the school buildings like at local like this one was at Bob's on the Avenue. Um so I thought that was really cool to get uh more people involved, you know, maybe they want to socialize outside of the school or or whatever, you know. So um yeah, everybody was real good and it was another big turnout. I I don't know if it was quite 19, but it's probably right around there again. Um, and then some of their fundraising um, ideas are very interesting as well. And I I I think uh, very smart. Um, they're looking at doing uh, Cringles from

125Uncle Mike's, which I think is a great idea because, you know, seems like every PTO does pizzas, you know, so I think it's kind of nice to get those different ideas out there. Um, and then I also went to a DDI meeting at Evans. Um, really informative. um learned a lot. And what I like uh with uh principal Schultus, he uh kind of thought of ideas for me to think how they think going into a DDI meeting. So I had to do um I forget what grade it was, but I actually did some worksheets on their um CK CKLA um you know, and he's like this is what we do and then we bring the information that we learn from doing it ourselves into the DDI meeting. uh the whole um backwards planning or reverse

126planning or whatever. So, I thought that was pretty cool. Um and then I also did go to a DDI meeting at Waters. I was not able to stay the whole time. Um, but learned a lot there and just how they break everything down and just find areas where more help is needed or more more um emphasis is put into teaching kids, you know, to get them where they where they want to go, you know. So, I thought that that was uh very informative. >> Um, Mr. Oliver, is there anything you'd like to share at this point? Okay. No. Yep. Thank you. We're just We're glad you're here. Thank you for um being here with us this evening. Um homecoming was phenomenal. Uh we brought this up earlier, but uh Nola Hawkins as well as I

127I believe Kevin Poet Poquette are the two that really brought that forward. And >> Peter >> and Peter her. Uh it was amazing. Um I know we had community members talk about that. Um, uh, thank you to Ebony Vision as well as I know, I believe birds of a feather were there. I'm not sure if there were other, uh, community members because I was busy handing out hundreds of free hot dogs with, uh, Mr. Frame on the grill. Um, and that was actually something, um, I talked to Mr. ML Cavage about and he partnered with um oh gosh festival which gave um them a ginormous discount as well as one of our goals as a district has to do specifically with family engagement and there are some funds that need to be used specifically for

128that goal because I said if we're looking for funding how are we able to give away free food and that was how because it's specifically for it and in my opinion seeing element all these elementary schools and middle schools and high schools and everyone just melding together and supporting each other and it was so emotional when like the band came through, the football team came through and everyone was just cheering. It just gave me thrills. It was amazing. Um, so kudos to everyone who helped out and helped plan. Um, and you and we won. I was like surprised you didn't say that. Okay. All right. we happened to win as well as the band did a phenomenal job in the cheerleaders and um it was just it was an amazing event. So um kudos. Uh

129I also had the opportunity to go to Riverside to a um one of their planning meetings. The um after they had shared here at our last meeting, I was able to go and observe that after. And then I did not get to see this this weekend. Um but I did see a post regarding our FondeLac uh marching Cardinals took first place in an AAA and second overall with a score of 77.413. Um as well as for the first time of this person's knowledge, our percuss percussion section took home the award for the best percussion. So um yeah. [Applause] So, uh, kudos for, um, all the students, their parents, um, and I know there's a huge support team of parents that help support. So, um, phenomenal congratulations to the directors. And, um, that is, I think,

130all I have for family or for um, sta student and staff. Uh, it we're now up to our Can I add something? Sure. Go ahead. >> Just quickly, um, I just wanted to do a shout out and this is for all sports. I don't know if people knew this. Um, so Jeff Cornelli with Cornell on the AB and Bob's Pizza, if you go to any of the soccer, football, any of the events, and you'll see them throughout the year, all the senior banners, uh, they they supported and donated to pay for all those. Um, that's a big expense. I know we sat down as a wrestling board to decide we got to fund this, all this stuff, and they like, "Nope, it's taken care of." and uh support Cornellis and and Bob's. Um so they

131they paid for all the sports for all of them all week or for the entire year. So uh I want to say thanks to Jeff Cornelli for that and and his staff and his organization. So >> thank you. >> Yeah, if you if you were at the football game, the whole fence is >> so great. >> So he Hoppers does them and sends them to Bill. And so the wrestling, the soccer, the volleyball, you know, if you're there, they're going to have all the banners, those and those kids get those banners at the end of the season >> that they get to keep and stuff like that. So it's a it's and they're very well done. >> They're very well done. And what's nice about it, well, first of all, that's a huge expense. And

132usually the boosters are the ones and sometimes some of the boosters can't always afford it. Um, and this way too, they're all done the same >> the same. So all the senior posters will look the same from each which is good. You know it it's making all the athletics more cohesive >> uniformed. Yeah. >> Right. >> Yeah. And so it's going to be for the whole year as you see you'll see them popping up in every sport. So >> I hear the theme of community tonight and community uh support. Um any other public comment at this time? Seeing none, we're going to move to other appropriate matters. Um, and I have uh someone reach out to me in the community and I just want to um re review and let know those in the community

133that um we do have our board meeting notice information up. You can find that online. Meeting notices and agendas are on the board of education web page every Friday before the Monday meetings. um physical locations. There's hard copies posted at the main and board entrances of our administration center, the city clerk's office, the county executive's office, the FondeLac public library, Spectrum Communications. Um in addition to the public postings, there's meeting notices are sent via email to board members, um the local media, KFIZ, Final Reporter, WFDL, district staff. Um, if you have any questions about public notice or meeting agenda, um, please contact Hi Sachka in the superintendent's office. Um, and earlier, uh, when we recently started this school board year or after, um, at the end of April, I talked about, um, how our board

134members were involved in um, how we make decisions. And, um, the board uses two main structures to conduct its business. One is the board lead system. We've been using that a lot this year. We launched it in May 2025. Um at my position right now, I just see just a really interactive board. And so um in the beginning, we had talked about um different board members being representative um to different locations and I'll talk about that or different um district areas. But really, we've done a lot of this in our workshop because just so many of the board members had questions and wanted to be involved. Um, that works out really nice as well because those are recorded. So, um, the system connects board members with different district departments. We talked about that. Um, the

135goal is to increase and improve engagement to between the board and district staff. Board leads are also expected to engage with the community on their content areas. Um in our committee as a whole, the board primarily operates as a committee of the whole where the full board holds workshops to discuss topics before making final decisions. Uh we do have our finance committee. Uh they meet periodically to review financial information before it goes to our full board. Um that's why tonight you would have you seen I know um some of our board members on the side of the table were able to give us some feedback regarding insurance and so forth because they have attended those meetings. This committee meeting uh these committee meetings are open to the public and announced according to the open meeting

136law. Um and again our board leads so if you have questions regarding specific areas curriculum instruction is Joan Panau uh who works directly with Nate Groves our chief academic officer finance and budget which includes meet and confer uh Mark Kentel and Luke Frame uh who work closely with Mike Kerlock chief of finance and operations Marissa Lombardo director of human resources facilities and infrastructure including our safety team is Luke Frame um Mike Bleowski director of facil ilities and safety. Um, and Mrs. Maine and myself are working closely with our legislative and advocacy group, which is Mr. Steinbart. Uh, Terrence Loftton is human relations coordinator. Jason Gaya and director of pupil services, Jill Irving, health program supervisor, technology, as Joel um, Lyrence, and he's working with Paul Hermas, our director of technical services and assessment. And then

137community engagement and communications. Mr. Oliver and myself have been working um with that team which again is Terrence Loftton, Marissa Lombardo, uh Jason Gayhan, Holly Sachka. Um so if you have questions, you want to know more about any of those areas, reach out to us. And the majority of um our learning is right here at this board in workshop where everyone can see and um view later if they choose to. So just wanted to bring that up. Any other appropriate matters? I want I saw an email today that one of our very own Aaron Seoff is going to be the keynote speaker at our state convention in January. Oh, >> that's awesome. >> So, that was announced today. So, look forward to seeing Aaron speak at our uh state convention as a uh keynote speaker.

138So, just throw that out there. >> Thank you. Anything else? Okay, then if I can have a motion to uh uh adjourn to workshop. I move to adjourn to workshop, discuss employee health plan options. >> Second. >> We have a motion by Mr. Henshel, a second by Mr. Frame. And if we could please have the roll call. >> Uh, let me see where I am. Uh, Panel, >> yes. >> Frame, >> yes. >> Henchel, >> yes. >> Maine, yes. Oliver, >> yes. >> Motor, >> yes. Motion carries 6. The regular meeting will be adjourned at 6:00 and we will be back at 6:15. [Music] here. I'd like to call the workshop of the board of education to order at 6:21. Can we please have the roll call? Mrs. Maine >> Frame >> here. >> Henchel

139>> here. Labyrinth is not Maine here. Oliver has signed off. Panel >> here. >> Motor here. Uh we have uh five board members. So we have a quorum and we're here to discuss employee health options. >> Uh thank you Mrs. Motor. I will uh kind of do our introduction. Uh at our last meeting in workshop uh we discussed the the district's employee health insurance benefit. Uh as you may are you're well aware the district is self-funded for that. Jay Scott of USI he's our agent on this on employee benefits and talked about the way the district uh with the claims when you're self-funded you keep the premiums but you have to pay the claims. The claims are running at nearly 100%. We've not been in a position to to make adequate financial reserves. U this

140is a $15 million expenditure in the district's budget. It's probably I always say it's our second largest budget item. So the decisions and conversations you have with this with employee wage and benefit are the biggest budget management decisions that the board makes. They have the biggest impact, the biggest influence um for not just financial reasons, but they impact members as well. And so we had a good conversation about that with the idea that you charged Jay and us with going back to um coming up with a proposal uh really to with the two goals really. We need to stabilize the health insurance plan by creating the opportunity to to hopefully set aside financial reserves but also um hopefully, you know, not not completely take away a high value plan. And so that's always a difficult

141um task to accomplish. And so Jay and his team um have set about with a summary. I'd like I'm going to turn it to him shortly to to um to go over the changes. Uh we I want to say this publicly as well. I understand that this isn't you know no one is probably excited about the fact that you know for costing things more whether that's passing costs along to members etc. Those are tough tough decisions. But we do believe what we can present is still of a a very good value employee benefit plan that stays competitive but also sets the stage for the district to be financially sustainable. Uh we we don't do employees or the district any justice or favors by simply not addressing this. This has to be actively managed as as

142as in a self-funded environment. So that's what you're doing tonight and that's why we're here. So, with that, I guess I'd like to turn it to Jay to talk about what what we're recommending tonight. >> So, um we'll try to keep this brief tonight because I know you Dodger fans wouldn't want to get to the game, right? >> So, it's my understanding you all received a copy of the current plan compared to what I would call a more contemporary plan. that would be uh a preliminary recommendation for change and then we compared that to an overall Wisconsin benchmark. And if you did look at that, I guess I'll start off and ask if there are any questions that are top of mind from your initial review of the document. in the concept of uh in

143the contact of a school. >> So this would be insurance plan. >> This would be all employers in Wisconsin that participate in the survey, >> school districts, private sector employers, municipalities, counties, etc. >> Was that 500 plus >> an organization has 500 more employees? >> Yeah, 500 more employees, too. Okay. >> So, >> can I make note I to start I'm sorry. Uh I recognize that before you in here and forgive me Jay this isn't on you just just to level set this is the first time you're seeing this as board members. You didn't see this over the weekend when you would have. So I just want to be honest with you about that. That's on me. I failed to get that to you. So uh point being this let's let's take some time to

144really maybe go back and really have a conversation. We're not expecting you to have a litany of questions right out of the gate since this is the ve the first time you're seeing these options. Sorry for that, Jay. I know you were under the impression they'd gotten that. Um, but I just we want to answer your questions. It isn't that complicated, but it is important. So, >> why don't you let me run through this then? So, just starting at the top today, you have a deductible. It's a $1,000 single, $2,000 family. We'd recommend keeping that the same at 1,002,000. And then just focusing on in in network benefits because you have very little if any out of network usage. Um the out-of pocket maximum today is 3,500 single 7,000 family. That'd be a deductible and

145then any cost shares or co-ayments under the plan. And we'd be recommending to increase that to 4500 single 9,000 family. But then if you look at the last line in that first grid, you have a separate out-of- pocket maximum for prescription drug costs of $2,350 single, $4,700 family. And under the recommended plan, we would include those prescription drug costs in the medical out of pocket. So theoretically today, if we add 3500 and 2350, you actually have a $5,850 single out of pocket between medical cost shares and prescription drug cost shares. And in the new plan, that would be 459,000 with an integrated out-of-pocket max combining uh medical and prescription drug cost shares. Okay. So, I just want to process this. If you So, out of pocket is actually work out of pocket prescription is actually

146working towards your out of pocket maximum which then would correct. >> Okay. So um it was for example individual 2350 but now it's actually going to be working towards that 4500. So >> Yep. Over Okay, that's what I thought. So overall it's it's actually >> down considerably. >> Yep. Okay. Thank you for walking through that with me. >> Yep. And you can see the right the benchmark for the median program in the state of Wisconsin for employers as large as yourself or larger is 2,000 single 4,000 family with out-of pocket expenses of 5,000 and 10,000. And wherever I have NA in the benchmark, that doesn't mean not applicable. It means not available. There's only so many details you can benchmark with medical plans. Um, and then the co- insurance today you have 100% coverage after

147deductible. We'd be recommending it goes to 90%. So 90% paid by the plan, 10% paid by the participant. Your wellness and preventative care would continue to be covered at 100%. And instead of having co-pays for primary care visits, specialist care visits, urgent care, um those would be subject to your deductible and co insurance. And then for emergency room care today you have a $250 co-pay 100% thereafter we it would be $250 under the new plan and then subject to deductible and co insurance for any expenses beyond $250. And outpatient lab and x-rays the same as it is today. Um your complex imaging like MRIs, cat scan, PET scans, etc. Uh those have a $100 co-pay. Tomorrow they'd be subject to deductible on co insurance and then outpatient surgical facility and inpatient hospital facility are deductible

148and any co insurance payments today that' be the same tomorrow. But keep in mind we are changing the co insurance or the plan coverage from 100% to 90%. So, for example, um, for our staff right now, it would be $30 co-pay for a primary care office visit. Does I don't have an idea what an actual office visit cost is. >> So, just think of the average being about, let's just probably around $100. >> So, now they would be paying $100 for a primary. >> And remember, they still have the clinic for free. Of course, >> you know, I mean, that's critical. >> Yeah. No, thank you for sharing that. Um, but it would be a $100 and it would work towards their deductible. Once the deductible is paid, they pay 90% of >> They would

149pay 10%. >> 10%. Sorry. Thank you. 10%. Okay. I just wanted to process that. >> And you're right, because I was like, okay, well, okay. And then for prescription drugs, you do have a preventative drug list that we put in place where you have uh a lot of generic, primarily generic prescriptions that are covered at 100% that coverage stay the same. And then for any generic medications that are not on that drug list for uh a 90 for a retail 30-day supply, 90day supply or mail order are $10, $30 or $30 today, they would still be $10, $30, or $30. And also your co-ayments for brand medications, regardless if it's at retail, 90day retail, for maintenance medications or mail, those co-ayments will stay the same. So the big changes that I see for our um

150staff would be the primary care office, specialist office, walk-in urgent care, and are all would be at a bigger cost than they're used to. >> But keep in mind like Mr. Henchel said, >> yep, >> you have your employee clinic, but you also have >> teleaalth benefits for general medicine and behavioral health and those are also covered at 100%. >> There's no cost share out of a person's pocket for those. >> And I would and I would say it depends on when and how they're using it. So use the first example. You don't have any of those co-ays going toward the deductible, right? So they're just using coay. They're not co-pays don't go towards the deductible. >> Not on the first one. So all a sudden you're accumulating to 1,500 of co-pays where the first

151one if you went in and had an impatient or something like that and then you you know you're just co insurance. So that $100 now was only costing them 10 bucks, you know, not 30. Sure. >> So it depends when they're accessing it. And the second one that my quick review and calculation, you need over $35,000 of total expenses to hit your maximum out of pocket. So you got your $1,000 deductible and then 10% you're paying up to for the remainder 3500. Well, 10% is $35,000 worth of expenses, you know, uh that you're going to be paying. So it it Yeah. I mean, for someone to max that out, they're going to have $36,000 worth of expenses. Are you following me on that or did I confuse you? >> So, yes, but they're not actually

152paying that. They're just paying the 3500. >> They're 4500. I was just saying as a single person for me to hit that $4,500, I need about 36,000 of total expenses, right, >> for me to hit that number, >> right? >> You know, which, you know, most people aren't doing that. So, it's $36,000. You take off $1,000 deductible, that leaves 35,000. And then 10% of $35,000 would be $3,500. >> Yeah. >> Now, I was just trying to put it in I was trying to put in perspective as a as a consumer. >> How many expenses do I need to really hit my out of pocket maximum, you know? >> Right. So, we do have quite a few people who have some significant medical issues and so they're probably going to meet their deductible pretty quick, right?

153But they will still have that 10% co insurance. Always. Okay. >> Not always. >> It's up to a maximum. >> Okay. >> Once they hit the out of pocket, right? Gotcha. Okay. >> Yeah. >> The good thing I guess my question I saw 6 and6% savings on the plan design when we talk budget Mike you said you budgeted five so we would do the five plus the 6.6 to get >> what we were talking about last time was doing seven plus the benefit changes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. from >> I'm just like thinking budget wise >> why don't you flip there's another tab in addition so that we will go back and forth but okay so just this isn't uh we'll put this back up Jay's leading with the plan design these are consumerism things

154these are direct things that when you know members go in terms of co- insurance and deductible we are also recommending an increase now remember we're the district's the insurance company so we set the premiums we don't pay those to someone else these but we have to collect enough premiums to pay claim claims. And so we're proposing a 7% increase to the rates. And the key is if you look down in the bottom right, you might want to get right to it, which is well, what's the difference per check? We have 24 pays. So you can see for a single person, a 7% rate increase would be $4.69 coming out off of their check. And a family would be 1034, just under $250 annually. This is an increase over what they're paying now. And that's what

155that's their 13% employee share. All right. Remember, the district is also going to have to budget for more. To your point, Mr. Ranchel, I was budgeting five. I'm going to have to up that. This is example of something that's going to have to change before the 27th as we bake this through if if you can support this. And so, I know there's a lot on here, but if you look at the bottom right, that's really what it looks like for the member. And this yes I know this is I know Mrs. more you asked earlier. Well, the education, how do members engage? We already have a frequently asked questions document prepared, drafted. Um, we would be doing this primarily through the open enrollment process because it's active. Every member would have to gain in. They'd

156actually see these numbers. Again, um, you we have to collect more premium to be honest with you because of the way claims have been running. You heard that last time. I um if you didn't like any plan design, let's say you didn't like what Jay had talked about with those, you said, "No, I just not comfortable with any of that." We'd have to recommend a 12 11 12 maybe higher percent premium increase. And we're not recommending that because it doesn't really change some of it. It has to be a two-pronged approach. We have to collect more premium, but we also have to prudently probably change plan design so that members have some of those costs that are consuming it at a higher level. Now, we're not saying that everyone that's consuming in it the most

157has to pay the most, but we have to introduce some consumerism into it. Um, but if you're not com comfortable with that, then everybody's got to probably pay more than than they're paying right now on premium to stay solvent. Remember, this isn't what we want to do, folks, but we owe it to stay financially sustainable because it doesn't it doesn't serve the district or employees to be financially unsustainable. >> So, when you look at the bottom right, $469 plus that's going to be pre-tax. So, >> pre-tax, >> the effect of it will be, you know, >> $3 and some. >> Yeah. $3 and some is what the effect of it on the single actual paycheck will be. it it that's ne negligible I would call it you know say that word twice huh >> um

158>> yeah so I mean that's a minimum impact I I mean I thought the number was going to be bigger so that makes me feel better about that >> one thing you have to understand and I don't know um like finac I would say in Wisconsin right now and we'll just take county as an example so with their wellness credit they're at a 15% cost share so I would say You're probably one of the remaining entities that are below 15%. Even if you look at the public sector and in fact the average probably for Wisconsin is somewhere between 25 and 30%. >> And this is a little busy because you see this without wellness exam with wellness exam. If you what we ask members to do in order to earn the 13% premium share, the

159lower amount rather than 25%, you get one annual primary care wellness exam provider of your choosing. We've got a wide network. We don't know. We don't that that is what you do to qualify to earn that. And the reason for that is we believe engagement with a primary care, having a relationship, having a doctor that you go to once a year to talk to about a litany of anything in your health from mental health to blood levels to blood sugar to uh physical issues to family issues has and USI has the data has reduced long care trends and it's as simple as early screening is the obvious. getting your age appropriate and gender screenings, but it also is talking to you about things that you may or may not know are going on or you

160think you're fine. And we incentivize that. There are members that don't do that and they pay more. They pay the 25% on premium. Um, and I it's unfortunate because we believe in it for their health, but we probably had in over 30 members simply not do it. And I know I know Mrs. you were part of that pro uh conversation years ago. That is a little shocking that members did and I'm not saying this is a broad stroke. I'm not saying members aren't engaged, but you have set a pattern to say you get engaged with your health. We are incentivizing that. Do your best. And so there's money behind that. So we would encourage that already. They have to get it once in a calendar year between January 1st and December 31st. We are continuing.

161We will push the reminders. Um but it's not something we can do for them and there is a no exception policy. So >> it is the sub the employee and their adult spouse that is on the plan. Not adult children, not children. If you, for example, I am on the health plan, myself and my wife have to get one annual primary care exam in a calendar year 2025 in order to earn the 13% premium share for the following year. That's how it works, >> which you can do free at >> the employee district employee clinic at Aurora on the east side. That's correct. New employees that they get an annual uh you know, they're new to us, they get their pre-employment physical, that counts. We don't make them go back and double it up. Um

162members, they simply bec they it tracks better because we can see it's coded. Most of our issues are in the medical system, frankly, where well, it gets coded a little differently or they interpret it differently. Maybe I went in for an annual exam and I talked about my ankle that needs rehab and it somehow got ced corded as a PT or something. I'm making that up. I don't exactly know. So, the point is we think this is important. So you already have this baked in that you have to get engaged with your health. You incentivize it. This is the cost. If you want to flip back to the plan design changes, where I believe members really are going to feel the change is the reality is now if you look in that middle section, we

163will probably if these go through, you know, while I'm used to paying $30, there must be something wrong. I now owe my full deductible. It's first dollar, right, Jay? Deductible. first dollar then co- insurance. So the simplest way to do is you're going to pay that $1,000 first but we have an embedded deductible. Can you explain Jay what the embedded the advantage of the embedded? >> So no one person in a family would have to satisfy more than a single deductible. >> So as an example I'll use myself again and we're going to have some you know we talked about we need some like real examples like narrative examples. So my me, my spouse, and my children are on the plan. If one of us is has a high number of medical claims, they have

164an individual deductible of $1,000. Even though we have a family plan, so it's $2,000. If none of us ever go to the doctor, never consume health, our only cost is that $1,000 except now when you get out into that co insurance. All right. And so then there again, can you explain how the embedded non-mbbedded with the max amount out of pocket would work. >> So it's the same thing. Nobody in the family would have to satisfy more than $4,500. >> So in that example, you might say, gosh, I'm worried. I have a family. I'm know 9,000 a year. No. With the embedded deductible level, that one family member hits their thousand, but they could have co- insurance up to that 4,500 depending on their health health claims. So yes, there is that it's a bigger

165liability than now because we have the thousand deductible, but no one family member can can ultimately on the family side take you further. So that's a real advantage on the family plan design is what we're trying to point out. So >> I will say tenatively yes, Mrs. Panel. Yeah, we have more family subscribers. I could pull the exact number, but yes, it's it there's it's probably a percentage ratio, but I have not analyze the trend between are we at more singles or families. >> So, okay, I'm going back to this and I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this now. So, the one person uses, let's say one of the people, let's say Mike, you use the $4,500, right? Mhm. >> But now your wife has to go to the doctor. >> Mhm.

166>> Is it up to the 9,000 now or >> Well, remember we have a $2,000 family deductible. So yes, even though I hit my thousand and I'm hitting to the m my own individual max, >> she's got a deductible, too, >> right? >> That goes up to the family max deductible. It goes in the pocket. >> Okay. That's what I thought. But the way you said it, >> great question. But keep if you have a family of four and two people hit the family maximum, >> right? >> Then the rest of the family has free healthcare for the year. >> Yeah. Got it. Okay. >> But those are the important things that members are going to start to see and and and that's just important. It's a change. It's a change. We have not made

167changes on the the the co-pay model for a number of years. Um, and it was again, these would be effective January 1st, so it's not a retroactive thing. Um, when you look at the uh cop having a primary care and a specialist co-pay the same is just crazy in in the insurance world. That doesn't happen anymore. Usually, we're a lot higher. Um, I mean the cost of a specialist if you go in, you know, it's they're they go to two specialist visits, they're going to hit their out of pocket or they're not their out of pocket, but their deductible probably, you know, depends what kind of specialist, but then it goes to 10%. You know, now it'll be in that range again after that, you know. So that's probably where you're going to see the

168most pain is probably people, you know, at the beginning, but then it'll after the deductible amendment, it'll kind of 10% of that number then now comes back down to, you know, in that range. >> I think a visual would be really helpful as I'm thinking like this. the examples you gave were just very helpful and almost if like you have um uh the employee and spouse and two children what it might look like in different situations or whatever because um >> yeah just like because this is very confusing >> I mean I'm getting more and more right but I'm just like >> I think what and again we're gonna we do have a FAQ already put together um I totally agree with you, Mrs. Motor. The reality is is, you know, everyone's health conditions and

169services and their providers and the bills that go with it are very are unique to them. So, in concept, we always are going to try to say things like, okay, it's deductible first, then co- insurance. Focus on these simplistic pieces. We'd be happy to help a member on an individual level. um open enrollment. We we do recognize that there we're going to force through required education. I know that's maybe not the right way to say that, but in order to sign up for health insurance, they're going to have to view what these benefits mean. And that's not asking for two hours of their life. That's asking for depending how fast you can view it, you know, an hour maybe as they go through. And so, um, we're happy to help answer questions. Um, our business

170office team, we have two specialists that can deal with that, pay and benefit specialists. And so, I agree with you. I just want to guard against if there's a member out there saying, "Well, I need to I need to know now how my exact health claims are all going to play out." You could start to look at your previous health claims and see, gosh, what are my costs and what might I owe in a co- insurance? That's really about it. you'd have to kind of look back on your claims for the year and say, "Well, if I had $10,000 in total claims, even though I didn't pay that, I might owe$10,000 more on that." And so, what does that mean financially is really what it gets down to. So, for members listening and wanting to

171understand, they got to get in. You got to make sure you're in your account with UMR. Go look at all your EOBS and see what was build versus paid and then start doing the calc like how did I use the health insurance. What this does is how are you really using the health insurance? It's going to build that engagement which is important if we're going to stabilize it. >> So even though you're self-funded, right? Or I forget that. >> That's correct. You still go through. Explain that to me again. >> Well, there are third party administrators. So, we have access to a network as Jay says at the top. We have access to the United Healthcare uh choice plus network. So, provider systems, you hear about this in the news, get arrangements with these networks

172and so we can see do those are our in network doctors. All right? So, they can go through that. But we don't manage the claims down here. We hire UMR to administer their and read the claims on a health plan that we have designed. And so they basically see the claims coming out of the network, read our plan and say this is how that is covered. So yes, in order to get that explanation of benefits, UMR has a third party processor. You you get a you get an account >> and so just like you had with a previous fully insured model, a health account. >> It's just a difference in funding arrangements. >> Yeah. It's really that. Yes. >> So, UMR is acting like any other insurance company would act on your behalf, >> right?

173And then um our uh staff would still So, they probably since we started this um started setting up whoever they're working with for their physicians that that's not going to change. So, because sometimes that's really hard. >> Yeah, >> it doesn't Mrs. Motor, but there is volatility. Um well, I know Jay, we've been in active communication. There's big this is a public story. There's the Ascension providers and and United Healthcare and there is >> well that so >> there there are times where the the health markets >> so either this morning or yesterday they came to an agreement >> and it's going to be retro to 101. So I don't know what Ascension was thinking but I think they finally got their head down straight >> but that has nothing to do with that's I

174mean >> you could have some people going to Ash. So Ascensions and Ashkosh, >> right? I just mean meant that's not something we control with our insurance. That is uh Yeah. No, I remember seeing that. >> Yep. We we don't decide that, but we that was one of the changes when we left courts was to widen the network for members to be engaged. We had a lot of feedback that people valued that >> um you know this is always you get pro and con. I will be real honest with you that people some people are always you know it it it does cause disruption. I do not expect anybody to be really excited about these changes. Um, but that's why I keep going back to the purpose. We are trying to sustain the health plan

175for all employees and the district and be competitive as well. But it's about financial stability. As Jay said, with our where our stop-loss claimments were running, we are not able to build the reserves to sustain this plan yet. And that's we owe it to put that forward to you so that you hear that so that you don't think it's great when we need to take steps to be financially sustainable. >> Okay. So another just clarification question and their premium that they pay comes out of every paycheck. >> Correct. >> And and yours is too. So where does that go? Does that go tor? >> No, we keep the money, Mrs. Maine. uh the district sweeps up all those premiums. It's a funding mechanism. That $13 million stays with the district and then >> it's in

176a claims. >> It's at National Exchange Bank, our bank. >> We get a million dollars in claims. Every Monday, Monday morning is a claims feed that comes through. Sometimes it's 200,000, sometimes it's 800,000, sometimes it can be over a million. So that's the why. Those are dis the district is paying the claims. We're not deciding which claims to pay. We're paying the bill. Um the district is and so that's where we we basically it's a funding mechanism. Before we take those claims and we would get a bill from courts that we'd have to send that same money out every month to courts as a private insurance company and they paid the claims. Can I um just clarify and I think you shared this earlier um FondeLac was offering a pretty great opportunity. I mean where

177we were is um unheard un unheard of regarding other districts and in what they offer. I just so as I'm thinking right uh I'm an employee things change and I'm like is this do I want to look elsewhere? looking elsewhere, they might find that the insurance still, although ours has changed a bit, is still really a pretty good package. >> It is. We have a lot of school districts in Wisconsin that have gone to high deductible HSA plans. >> Okay. >> So, and for 2026, the minimum deductible for those plans to be eligible for a health savings account is $1,700 single, $3,400 family. and and so uh you're seeing a lot of different things in the school district space than you used to see. So I would say all in all your plan is still

178market leading >> okay >> in a relative basis. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And would we Mrs. Motor I want to add when we talk to members Marissa Lombardo's here tonight you know we ask that question all the time. Do members find this valuable? Now you can find a member on the individual level that'll say I don't like this. It's not valuable to me. I'm upset. But on the whole, you know, we try to offer a offering that meets I mean, we have 850 employees. I mean, this is we're never going to make an individual totally satisfied, but we still think it's a valuable plan and we're trying to do our best to to do that. Um, when we have members leave, we don't get feedback on, well, do they think their benefits are better?

179I don't know, Marissa, if you have any feedback on what members say. um we sometimes believe I don't have proof that maybe they don't really know what they're leaving either and that's tough which is why we're trying to push a more active required open enrollment to say and the only way to know that folks and for anyone listening is to understand your health claims and how they're being paid. You have to dig into that to say is this really saving me money or not? because you could leave and go to a high deductible HSA plan, but if your claims are are high, is that really going to help you? >> Yeah. I I think you're seeing a generational change in our workforce at every level where, you know, you look at, you know, I look

180at my kids going into the workforce, benefits isn't a big question. It's how much do I get paid, right? you know, and I I think even in the school districts as you're seeing that generational switch, they want to know how much they're going to make. And this is a secondary thought, which it, you know, for all those of us at our age bracket, you know, it's like, no, this is important stuff. But I think it's becoming less and less uh of that priority until they go somewhere else and something happens and they go, "Oh, I didn't realize that." It's the afterthought in in my opinion. And I that's just my interpretation on being in the world where this is less of a situation. So >> So are there any other questions for um for Mr.

181Gerlock? Can I I just want to make a comment that I I appreciate Jay that you put this together because it it it's that balance right between pay and benefits and align the benefits so we're still competitive to you know attract and retain employees but yet hit that number with the budgeting and things like that for us to be good stewards of our taxpayers. So I appreciate if >> I could just close with level setting. I mean what the decision that's before you is either increase your budget by let's say 12%. Or increase it by 7% and make these benefit changes because what we're doing then we're correcting two issues. Health care costs are going up no matter what next year and we have to start uh building reserves for your balance sheet. >> Thank

182you. And if I may make one final statement, I understand again I'm forgive me that you're seeing this here tonight. If you have questions, I mean, we're going to put this out publicly. We can share this out, but we're going to we're not asking for approval tonight, but we're going to ask for approval on the 27th. Now, our open enrollment runs um is scheduled for November 1st to the 16th. Now for for some reason you just just deeply uncomfortable with making a decision need new information want to totally change I mean that's why Jay closed we really our other option is say you don't want to do any of this and it's got to be premium and it's got to be a lot higher and I might push Jay and ask I'm not saying I

183mean he's saying 11 or 12 we might have to say what is how I have to ensure we have to ensure the financial sustainability and that's where I'm going with this. Um, we would push back open enrollment, but that's going to cut it close because our plan year goes starts over on January 1st. And we owe it to members. We think this is good that they get this educated and decided before the holiday season. As well as some of the some of them have spouses or private insurance with the private employees. We've already gotten questions like, "Hey, my employer is running open enrollment November 1st." Ours is, right? >> They need they need to make a decision. So, I I would where I'm going with this is if you have questions, you please have to

184get those to us. Um because we need to give you the information that you feel you need to be able to make a vote decision on this. I I I know I say that a lot, but this is important because our timing is we need to we need to be able we can't table this. I mean, I mean, you could table it on the 27th, but then >> I think we're right. Like, you've given us a lot of information. We've had a workshop. We can still ask more questions. I think our team would be um ready to make a decision. So, I think we're good. >> And I recognize we have two members not in the room here with us this evening. We know I'm going to we're going to reach out to them directly

185>> because they equal members. They need to understand so they can feel comfortable um taking action. >> No, we have a quorum. Go for it. Thanks, Jay. Um, how are you mentioned before that there was going to be a video. How are you going to roll this out to staff? >> Well, what it works, Mrs. Maine, is we go through an active open enrollment process that we started last year through we utilize a software um company called Bentech, Ben NK. We've had some really great success with that. We had 100% participation. It it summarizes all the benefits. It's in a It's in a I'm losing the right word. It's kind of like a software. It's like a wizard. You You don't move to the next step till you've viewed and read and made a selection.

186And it gives you pop-up warnings. Are you sure you want to decline coverage? And then you go through and select yes, no, yes, what you want. Here's the costs. We can it's it's robust enough that we could bake in a section where you got to view this video before you can move on. And if you stop and don't finish, you have not enrolled in district benefits. And if you don't enroll by the deadline, you do not have district benefits. And we held to that in and it was tough. There are members that just want to click click click click click. I have to get it done because I'm busy. And it's it's just really hard when you say engagement and then you don't honor the fact that there are members that that are engaging. So

187it forces you through. So, that's how we're going to do it. We're going to bake it into our Bentech online open enrollment system and members, they're going to have to watch through the video to to get through it. >> So, that'll explain all these >> Well, it'll explain the heart of it. I'm not sure it'll explain every member's question because it's can be tough, but we're going to try to make it digestible for members to say what's really happening. >> We'll be putting together a brain shark presentation, too. >> A brain shark. It's a voice over PowerPoint, >> okay? Yeah. >> So people can actually listen to a presentation at their leisure. >> Okay. >> Yeah, we might. That's might be what's going to be in there. >> Yeah, we'll go through more. I mean,

188it'll walk through. >> Okay. >> Your benefits and like the things we walk through. >> So Karen, in the past, I mean, what we challenge was we do an we do a meeting at the PAC and people would show up out of 800, you know, and it then they really didn't know what they're, you know, what they had, right? And that's where this um I the online enrollment. I'm a terrible tech person, but I I actually can do stuff like this, you know. >> And I like that we now can insert >> the educational piece so everybody has to >> digest it or at least maybe bring up questions and oh, I saw this. What's this mean? you know, really educating the the, you know, the employees on their benefits because once they're educated on

189it, they'll use it better, too. Yeah. And they'll understand that they'll value it. >> Right. And the reason I ask because you're going to have a fact sheet, you said, right? Correct. And then, but I remember back in the day, many, many years ago, um, they used to go to each school and explain it like during a staff meeting or something like that. So, I and and you know, you said, and I know that's a lot of work. I'm not suggesting that that's and then you said recently it was held as a large thing at >> Yeah. I mean we had an open enrollment meeting and five people show up and >> what I'll do Mrs. M. I I completely understand that. Um it's not the work frankly that that is I'm not averse to

190that at all. What ends up happening sometimes is in an in-person session is because health insurance is so personal people >> and I mean we I make like I start describing my toe injury and people are uncomfortable with that. They're like I don't want to know about your personal I mean really and and I'll be honest we're kind of chuckling but sometimes it's it's really really serious and it's very emotional and then they're emotional. Now, that's not the norm, but because of that, we feel online in your own home with your family members, with your spouse, around the dinner table because sometimes the employee is just the explainer. There's a decision maker in their family. It's like, I I need to explain this what's happening. We work with spouses. We will have an in-person session

191for open enrollment support. We had it down here last year. There are people that are still not comfortable with the technology. Gives them anxiety. We help them. It was really It was really well wellreceived. We think >> um and I want to pay note that and I don't want to belabor this longer. There are other options if members are concerned about rising costs. We have a flex we offer the IRS flexible spending account limits. I can't recall you just got the limits >> $3,400 for extra. >> So if a member says, gosh, you know, I I'm worried. I know I have high health claims that deductible. I know I'm going to hit 2,000 in a family. I know I'm going to get to that max out of pocket. If you actually know that, and back

192to what I said earlier, if you understand that, you have the opportunity to flex that 3,400. It comes off of your check pre-tax and it's there. It's budgeted for already through your paycheck. You have access to it access to it day one instead of waiting for a high claim like gosh, you know, it's right before Christmas. I had to go to the ER because I was feeling terrible. Now I got a co insurance and now I got a 10% high bill on that. That's that's a cash flow thing at the wrong time of the year. flex consider participating even if you don't do the max even if you start I think you will find it budges for health expenses at any age young families even if you think you're a superhuman there is no you

193can use it at year end there's carryover amounts to say you know what for for qualified medical expenses we're moving to EBC as a flex provider we think members are going to value that experience um we're also going to implement virtual physical therapy. Jay, you want to talk about Ka our program with that? >> Did we last time? >> We did. >> Okay. I'm sorry. I'm excited because here's the thing. We're trying it. It's the worst when a member says, "You just really stuck this to me and that hurts because I know they're dealing with some difficult medical stuff. >> But they're gonna be they're going to be getting PT for free if they want to. They're going to still have their clinic for free. They're going to still have tele medicine for behavioral health,

194general health for free. Your specialty drug users don't have any expense today. You put that benefit in place this year. So, we don't um encourage non-adherence. >> Yep. >> I mean, they have to they still have a lot of good benefits. >> Yeah. >> Jay's getting at is Yes. Uh so my point is and listen I'm not I will take any member call what whatever level but the point is we want to do as many things to help them engage with the clinic virtual care at no cost. Um and it's just really a matter of I don't I never tell a member well if you'd only been more engaged it wouldn't have cost you that much. But what I do tell them I listen to them and try to help them through and try to

195help them realize that the more engaged you can be you can mitigate your financial risk. So, with that, I know I'm passionate about it because I just know how important it is to members. Um, I also know how important it is to the district finances and and it's it's really, I'll be honest, one of the two biggest two to three biggest decisions you as a board will make this in in the finances year. When you get talk about how you're managing the budget, this is the night, this conversation right now. These decisions are big. They're they're in the hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars in the end. So, >> and all of your people have access to a cost estimator tool, too. So, if they know if somebody orders an MRI, they can go out

196on UMR's website and find out how much it is at different providers based on their benefit plan that they have just as long as they register on UMR. >> All right. Um, >> Thank you. Appreciate it. >> You better get going. You missed the game. >> Uh would someone make a motion to adjurnn? >> I move the board of education adjourn the workshop. >> Second. >> Uh motion by Henchel, a second by Panau. Can we have the role, please? Uh Frame, >> yes. >> Henchel, >> yes. >> Maine, yes. Panel, >> yes. >> Mo motor, >> yes. Motion carries. Uh five two uh five out of seven. I don't know how that one goes. And >> Tom has been off. Yes. Um and the workshop is adjourned at 7:08.