001That's it. I'd like to call the regular meeting of the board of education to order at 5:00 pm. Mrs. Maine, can we please have the roll call? >> Frame >> here. >> Henchel >> here. >> Ly >> here. >> Maine here. Oliver >> present. >> Panel >> here. >> Motor >> here. Uh we have all seven of the board members here. So we have established a quorum. Uh we will be saying the pledge of allegiance. Uh prior to we'll take a moment of reflection. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisibley and justice for all. >> We're still looking for any students to come and lead this pledge because we know they're going to do it way better than I do. So,
002if you know of any student groups or clubs or um uh schools that would like to come, please uh talk to Mr. Steinbart about that. And we are up to our first set of let's see here. Yes, that's exactly where I'm going. [Music] So, following the regular meeting, the board will convene a workshop to discuss employee benefits. And now we are up for uh public comment. So 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 limit shall be interrupted as deemed necessary by the presiding officer. Members of the board administration will not respond or further discuss items from public comment at this meeting to remain in compliance with state statutes chapter 19th subchapter 5 open meetings of
003governmental 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. One. All statements shall be directed to the presiding officer. No persons may address or question board members individually. Letter G. The presiding officer will interrupt, warn, or terminate if the participant statement is too lengthy, personally directed, abusive, obscene, or irrelevant. The presiding officer will request an individual to leave the meeting when that person does not observe reasonable decorum. Number three, the presiding officer will request the assistance of law enforcement officers in the removal of a disorderly person when that person's conduct interferes with the orderly progress of the meeting. Number four, the presiding officer will call for a recess or an adjournment to
004another time when the lack of public decorum so interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting as to warrant such action. Uh taking uh public's um we had someone who asked if we could do the check-in a little bit differently. Those of you who attend on a regular basis know this. So if you come up and if you'd prefer, you do not want to state your address publicly, please fill out the white slip on the podium and pass it to the clerk, Mrs. Maine. So please come forward. Hi, my name is Nicole Hawkins and I live at 3416th Street in FondeLac and I am an art teacher as well as the student council adviser at the high school and I just wanted to take a second to talk about homecoming this year. Um, so we
005have homecoming on October 3rd is the um game and before that we're doing a tailgate. So, we used to do the parade downtown and this city has asked us to um do it at the high school, which we did last year, but we feel that a lot of our efforts would be better benefited to a tailgate. So, we're doing a tailgate this year from 5 to 7, and it's open to everybody in the community, all ages. We'll have bounce houses and blowups for the children. Um we'll have yard games. Um we're doing kind of like a reverse parade where people will still have floats and then they'll just be stationed and then people can walk through. We'll have booths set up um music, food trucks. So we would love it if everybody could come. Um
006and then also just a little plug for anybody who's listening or anybody in the community who would like to set up a booth at the tailgate. We're definitely looking for um things that are more geared toward um elementary middle school age students like you know coloring stations or temporary tattoos or you know something like that. So if your group is interested um you can reach out to anybody at the high school and they can get in contact with me. Thank you. >> Thank you. I come in peace. Wayne Wilson, N8264 Lake View Road, Fondelac, Wisconsin, 54937. Um, I've come I got a handful of things just to throw out there some ideas andor uh some comments and some questions. First, uh, I want to let you guys know and I want to congratulate the new
007members, the new president, the new superintendent. Um, I'm only hearing positives out there. People are telling me how refreshing the change has been, which is phenomenal. Um, so I just wanted to congrat and it seems like we're moving in the right direction. Um, here to uh also ask some hard questions. First thing is I'm looking for public notices for different find different committee meetings. We don't have it out there that I find it. I find it on other districts, but I don't find it out there. And I believe that that should be announced so the public can actually go to those meetings and be heard. Um, also I'd like to see a committee who's on those committees committees posted so that people can contact them if they have questions. Next thing, please turn on your
008mics when you're talking. And if you're using or uh what do I want to say? Zooming or whatever, can we get a mic put up to that because you couldn't even hear Tom last meeting even ask anything. It's a quick question. Couple things on the budget. Um first thing is hopefully um the board asked questions about these. Um the first one I saw there was a check written for $7,500 and it involves AVID. I know that's a program that was brought in here by Jeff Flag. uh high visibility when it was brought in due to the connection with a current actually administrator and past employment husbands Jeff flag but I questioned who actually approved that and what what that was for. Next one I would question is the last one. Uh B B B B
009B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B Mastercard for $31,000. What's that used for? let the public know what that is used for because it seems like it's multiple things but where do they get put after it's paid and who authorizes that and who looks through that. Next thing I wanted to discuss um overages that we're already over on budget. I was looking through the uh budget numbers and uh you know the budget is approved by the the board members but then when you look down through here um like example line 10E of I guess 314 legal fees we're already at a negative $121,000. Did that get approved by the board once you went past the 22,000 that was actually budgeted? workshops is the same thing, 2,300
010over. Um, another big one is uh leases for capital 10 10 E6 $80,000 over. But who approves or who looks at the overages? We're only into September and we've got big overages. There's one in here for $338,000 for consulting overage. So, those are big numbers that I would think the board would be looking at and asking questions. Next thing, uh, during the workshops, I would hope that you guys would open that up to the public, which it is, but open it up to the public to ask questions prior to and after. There's no no rules or no nothing in the board uh policies that said you can't and I know that can be waved by the president uh Mrs. Motor. But I think that it's you know I watched it last week. Why couldn't I
011ask some questions after just to get some clarification possibly? Next one. Um you guys know I'm all I'm a retired Air Force veteran. Um there's two policies that uh exist in the actual policies for veterans. one's um actually high school diplomas for veterans. I think that I would hope that maybe we could publicize that for veterans out in the community um that they can get their high school diploma if they meet all the criteria. And then the second one, this is important, volunteers in the classroom. There's actually a policy veterans as classroom volunteers. as a veteran. I mean, I spent 25 years volunteering in this district. Um, but open that up, publicize that. So, there's a lot of retired or uh former military that are just sitting around, you know, maybe doing nothing and or
012would love to volunteer. That's all I got. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Anyone else like to come forward? Hi everybody. Um Megan Stroop and I'll write down my address soon. Um I'm just coming as a really proud uh band parent tonight and wanting to congratulate the Fondi band on their first competition of the season. Uh on Saturday they Saturday they went to Franklin and competed and um and it was just a really awesome experience. I've been able to see this band of course uh last year and this year at at the football games. Um but I just really wanted to congratulate the band. I also wanted to as always thank Mr. Barnes and Mr. Operman and the other band directors. I know how much work and effort goes into these shows well before
013the school year even begins. And um it's a thrill to be able to see my child working alongside their bandmates to put on such an amazing show. To give you an idea, my freshman is an extremely shy, introverted individual and they just come out of their shell um with these opportunities. So, I'm really glad that we continue to have these opportunities in our school district. speaking as a former fine arts chorus uh person from high school as well. Um and they do a wonderful job. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Is there anyone else that would like to come forward? Yeah, Jim Hess uh Fonolac County. Thank you. For the last four years, I have been speaking at this podium, wishing the board and I could dialogue about many issues because we've all seen
014over the last few years how effective person-toperson communication is. Last Tuesday, I went to the University of Madison and talked to the college students one- on-one dialoguing about abortion, transgender ideology, and the need for Jesus in our lives for the time we are now living in. It's obvious that's how meaningful progress is made. But here at the schoolboard meeting, because of Robert's rules of order, sadly dialogue, speech is not allowed. And we are certainly living in a day where more communication with each other is needed, not less. There are a few who are willing to speak in this kind of venue but not at the risk of losing one's life because someone else disagrees. We are looking at securing our schools better. I believe now it's not just our schools. Superintendent Jill Underly on Thursday
015said she is proud because our schools across Wisconsin are strong. She particularly emphasized the need to invest more in education even after the latest legislative bill secured the largest special education investment in state history. And there's been a question as to whether state funding has kept pace with inflation the last 17 years. But the data shows inflation adjusted spending has doubled since the 1970s for public schools. then add to that a $325 annual increase per pupil that was intended to expire in two years. But Democratic Governor Tony Ivers struck the 20 and the hyphen changing the end date to 24 25. You can try to justify it but it still is reprehensible. That amounts to $650,000 for our high school alone each year for the next 400 years. I'm curious to know how that was
016spent. Most of you would probably disagree with that data that I just gave. That's why dialoguing is so important to get down to the truth. Several recent polls from Gallup, PDK poll and education choice saw American satisfaction with public K through2 education is at historic lows. Only 35% of Americans are satisfied, an 8 point drop from the previous year. 73% of Americans feel K through2 schools are headed in the wrong direction. The area that Jill Underly touched on the least was reading, writing, and math because she's been changing standards, making it impossible for parents to track their students and school performance year over year. These last bits of information are not that controversial, but there is a growing sentiment, especially among young folks, that political violence in certain situation is justified. It is time for
017all Americans with one voice and without exception to condemn political violence. Have you made that clear in your sphere of influence? Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else that's interested in coming forward? Okay. Seeing none, we will move forward uh with the approval of the consent agenda. Can I have a motion? >> I move that board of education approve the consent agenda as follows. September 8, 2025 regular meeting minutes. September 8, 2025 workshop minutes. September 15th, 2025 workshop minutes, personnel recommendations, retirement resignations, new hires, and bimonthly financial report. >> Second. >> Okay. We have a motion by Mr. Henchel and a second by Mr. Lyrence. Um just for the public, a number of um the board members have asked questions regarding um checks that have been out and are on that and you can
018feel free to reach out to board members after this meeting if you want any clarification on that. Um, so could we please have um the roll call? >> Frame? >> Yes. >> Henchel? >> Yes. >> Labyrinth? >> Yes. >> Maine? Yes. Oliver? >> Yes. >> Panel? >> Yes. >> Motor? >> Yes. Motion carries 70. So, we're going to move into um the uh board individually considered resolutions. I move that the board of education approve the suggested revisions to NEOLA policies in volume 34-2 as presented at the first reading. >> Second. >> A motion by Mr. Henchel, a second by Mr. Lyrence uh that the board of educ uh education approve the Neola policies. Is there um Mr. Steinbart, anything that you want to share with that? >> Again, I think more for the viewing audience.
019We did go through each policy in the workshop two weeks ago, last week and last week. And so that is definitely viewable if you want to be able to hear that. Um but then I think we can go with the vote. >> Okay. There aren't any other questions on that or comments then we'll go ahead um with the vote. >> Henchel, >> yes. >> Ly, >> yes. >> Maine, yes. Oliver, >> yes. >> Panel, >> yes. frame. >> Yes. >> Motor. >> Yes. Motion carries 70. So, moving forward uh to the UVA partnership uh reports >> and I'll defer to Miss Boowers. >> Thank you very much. Two weeks ago, we were fortunate to have our three middle schools here to provide you with an update on their secondyear work with UVA PLE. And tonight
020we have two new schools, Riverside and Evans, and they will be sharing a little bit about their first iteration of their 90-day plans with their teams. I'd like to start by welcoming Mr. Schultus and the Evans team. Good afternoon everyone. Uh I'm thankful uh to be accompanied by uh Stacy Manuo. She is our uh TOSA, our teacher on special assignment at Evans. Uh and also um Kim Trent who is a kindergarten teacher at Evans Elementary School as well. Uh we have other leadership team members uh with us accompanying in the audience and then obviously representing everyone uh and staff uh of Evans too. So, um I'm going to get started. Uh good evening everyone. Uh we are excited to share with you our vision and focus for Evans Elementary School for the 2025 2026 school
021year. Uh we believe that in a world where you can be anything, the best choice is to be kind. That simple but powerful phrase guides everything that we do at Evans. Our community or our commitment is clear. We are building a collective capacity for uh capacity to work smarter, deeper, and with intention. Our goal is to create a culture of data-driven collaboration and consistent instructional monitoring so that every single student experiences clarity and high quality teaching and learning every single day. Through our meaningful feedback, our focused teamwork, our reflective practices, and our shared accountability, we drive continuous improvement and equitable outcomes. We want every student to soar. And that starts with highquality planning that supports universal instruction aligned to the grade level standards. As the Evans Eagles, we often use the word soar and utilize
022it as an acronym. We can summarize our focus with four words. The S stands for strategic. The O stands for outcomes. The A stands for accountable. And the R stands for responsive. You might have heard the phrase big rocks before. These are the priorities that shape everything that we do. At Evans, aligned with the FondeLeak School District, we have two major big rocks this year. Big rock number one, which I like to say in our talents, ensure high quality planning to support universal instruction of the grade level standards for every student. Big rock number two in our talents, increase our capacity for deeper data-driven collaboration and monitoring of instructional moves to ensure student learning. Our overarching goal is to improve academic achievement in both literacy and math and measured through I Ready and forward uh
023exam data. I'll turn it over to Stacy. >> So, how are we going to be tackling this? Let me walk you through some of the critical action steps that will help us achieve these big rocks. First, we are setting aside weekly common planning time, which is every Tuesday from 3:30 until 4:15. This is when teachers come together to plan backwards, meaning that we start with the end goals in mind and design lessons that ensure students meet those standards. As part of our ongoing commitment to improving student outcomes through data driven instruction or DDI, we will be using the DDI action plan template. This tool helps us create specific, intentional, and timebound teaching plans based on our data analysis during DDI meetings. In addition, each DDI meeting will feature video clips from the book Driven by
024Data 2.0. To deepen our understanding and application of DDI practices, we will take time to reflect in our journals, which every teacher received at the start of the school year. These reflections support our continued professional growth and allow us to recognize and celebrate the progress and impact of our work. As a school, we we will begin we will become more confident with this process. We will continue to provide training on backwards unit planning, defining what it is, why it accelerates learning, and giving teachers time to practice and eventually master this approach. Each month during leadership meetings, we will review our 90-day plan to monitor how the unit planning process is going and pivot when necessary. So, how will this be monitored? Observations will happen bi-weekly, guided by a universal planning, a universal unit planning guide
025that flows from our weekly DDI meetings. By the end of unit one in CQLA, which is our literacy curriculum, staff will begin implementing an AC academic monitoring tool to provide consistent data and increase student engagement. By unit two, this tool will be used consistently across the classrooms. Administration will observe teachers using the academic monitoring tools regularly to ensure fidelity and accountability. One of our key commitments is to use data regularly to identify our bottom cortile students. Those are our students who are striving the most academically. Teachers will set specific goals with these students, monitor their progress, and celebrate both academic and behavioral improvements. This personalized attention is cru crucial for equity and ensuring every child has the support that they need. What we expect to see and what does success look like? We would expect
026to see high quality instruction through effective backwards planning that supports universal access to grade level standards for all students. We would expect to see measurable increases in academic achievement on assessments like I Ready and the Forward Exam. We want to see students who are independent, goal orientated, and actively engaged in monitoring their own academic progress. our teams that routinely use datadriven instruction to identify learning gaps and plan targeted retaching toward mastery. And we have a staff culture that's rooted in consistent teamwork and shared goals to best support student success. To sum up, this year at Evans Elementary, it is all about intentional planning, collaborating, monitoring closely, and reflecting honestly, all with the goal of helping every student soar. We have a strong plan in place with clear priorities, action steps, and we're confident that with
027everyone's commitment, we will make meaningful gains in literacy and math achievement. Thank you for your dedication to our students and to the mission of Evans Elementary, and together we will soar. >> Thank you, Evans. Any uh comments or questions? I just I had the opportunity to watch a DDI DDI meeting last year and see how smooth it went and um really focusing on when you said um that bottom quartile and what do we do for those next steps. So um any questions or comments from the rest of the team? >> I was just going to say I love the SOAR acronym and putting it's easy to remember. It's inc you know in innovative it's uh people I love it. So great job guys. Um, one I have a question for you. Uh, the videos are
028they new? >> Have you did is this new this year to watching videos >> to us at Evans? Yes, the >> DD of your staff or is it of they're just videos >> through uh Bambick's work in the data driven 2.0. Um, the videos that go along with with some of the readings. >> So, good. Yeah. >> Some Thank you. Great. Thank you, Evan school. >> Awesome. Thank you very much for having us. Thank you. And at this time, I will invite Miss Jessica Hughes and her team from Riverside. Good evening. For those of you that don't know me, I'm Jessica Hughes. I am the proud principal of Riverside Elementary and I have the honor of being with Tara Repmester, our TOSAs at Riverside, and Jesse Petri, our fourth grade uh exceptional teacher at Riverside
029as well. So, thank you for having us tonight. Uh you're going to find a lot of commonalities between Riverside and Evans's plan. In my 24 years as an educator in the Fondelac school district, I have to say that attending UVA and looking forward to the next step um in the winter now is some of the best professional development I have ever had the opportunity to attend and then to bring back and share with my colleagues. So, thank you for that opportunity. I truly believe it's impacting children every single day and creating our scholars into strong community members as adults. So, thank you for that. you'll see that uh Riverside's mission is something we created and then have created uh or created and then have been evolving over the last few years is at the top
030of your document and I'm going to just read it to you because I feel like it is guiding us every single day. At Riverside Elementary, each and every team member will provide a welcoming, engaging, equitable, and inclusive learning environment rooted in high expectations. We will value and collaborate with each and every student and their families. We will provide exceptional rigorous grade level universal instruction and use data-driven collaboration and academic monitoring that each and every student deserves in order for them to be equipped with the skills and knowledge to pursue post-secary opportunities. We're going to use a variety of assessments, but our primary assessment for this goal is going to be achieving literacy and math success measured by our I Ready and our forward exam. And as Evans stated, we have two rocks that are guiding
031us. The first big rock is to ensure high quality planning to support universal instruction of the grade level standards for each and every student. The second big rock is to increase capacity for deeper data-driven collaboration and monitoring of instructional moves to ensure student learning. To begin with, we'd like to focus on the high quality planning to support universal instruction, big rock number one. >> Hi. So we have um as part of our action steps for our big rock number one is creating a schedule that all lots time for teachers for backwards planning. So Tuesday is our day every day after school 3:30 um to 4:15 every Tuesday we meet in the library um and that allows all teachers all staff to collaborate and work on that backwards planning. the first um Tuesday of the month
032we've dedicated for staff meetings for professional development for our staff. So on that Tuesday, the first Tuesday of the month, we have staff meeting before school to allot that time for backwards planning. Um we as um team leaders got training this summer at our data summit which was excellent. So, we had time to practice and learn together um the backwards model um the unit planning, excuse me. And then on October or I'm sorry, August 27th and 28th, we um then implemented that with our staff and gave staff ample time to get um units one and two complete before the school year for backwards planning. Um and then we will continue to provide that um that time and practice um as we get better with it. Um Jess Mrs. Hughes will be doing her observations during
033our Tuesday meetings um for that accountability piece. And then we have worked closely with our special education staff, our EL staff and interventionists to be there for our Tuesday planning and meet with um a particular grade level unit or grade level team. Um our team leaders will do monthly check-ins at our meetings on this 90-day plan and it's ongoing and we revisit it with staff frequently. >> I'll just interject. Um Katie, you referred to coming to a DDI meeting earlier and I would welcome all of you to join us on our unit planning. The things that I'll be looking for as uh the principal at Riverside is also me sitting alongside them and annotating their teachers manuals, talking about what the scaffolding will look like, breaking down the standards and unpacking them and then figuring
034out what does that instruction look like and that could be me modeling it, could be one of the teachers modeling it with each other and then looking at exemplars by student work and by teacher work. so that we know what they're going to experience as they go through their learning process. Next, we wanted to focus though on rock two. The rock two for Riverside is to increase capacity for deeper data-driven collaboration and monitoring of instructional moves to ensure student learning. And Jesse's going to tell you a little bit about it at Riverside. >> Good evening. So, one of the first ways that we want to uh work towards that big rock is by making small pivots in our classrooms um that every teacher finds manageable and we can start with wider way. The first one
035is commitment to doing laps around the room, moving away from teaching at the front of the room to being in with our students and monitoring what they're doing um continuously. We want to be using timers to keep up that sense of urgency in our teaching um keeping up that rigor for students and feeling it ourselves as much as we are asking them to do that as well. On October 7th, our staff meeting uh will be professional development. Uh will focus on active monitoring to allow us to grow our skills in that. The second piece of that, our second action step will be continuous improvement of our DDI process. Uh Jessica, Mrs. Hughes will be providing professional development for us based around uh data driven or driven by data 2.0 and uh get better faster by
036Paul Bamick. Um, we work really hard to ensure that our meetings are intentional and efficient. We get in there, we start right away, we come with the things that we need. Um, and we get right to work so that we can move forward for the students that need us the most. In February, a team from Riverside will be growing our skills at a training um, an opportunity that we are thankful to have through the UVI UVA um, partnership. Um, and that'll be based around the work of Paul Banick as well um, and get better faster. So, we're looking forward to that quite a bit. Um, our third action step is to focus on our student learning goals. Um, not only having them posted in our classroom, but making sure that they are impactful through our
037teaching practices. So making sure that we know what they are and we're im imbuing that into our daily practice with students and that we're bringing that back to them multiple times and making sure that the way we're teaching is reflecting those learning goals goals consistently throughout our teaching time. >> Thank you. Our um fourth action step for big rock number two um will be the observation of academic monitoring. So um we have a staff meeting coming up in October where we will provide professional development on that academic monitoring and then um administration can begin those observations of academic monitoring. Um another goal action step that we have is to do peer observations so we can learn from one another. So the goal will be to every teacher will videotape themselves teaching a lesson and then
038um on our next academic planning day in November, we will meet with teams and watch our videos and look for um I guess glows and grows for um opportunities. We thank you for having us here today and you can see that the high level that we hold our scholars to, we also hold our self to and we look forward to growing as the year goes on and we welcome you to join us at any time. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Riverside Elementary. Is there are any comments or questions? >> Yes. Um, thank you first off for your invitations and that that will be followed up on, I guarantee. and as well as uh thank you for your comment pertaining to UVA being the best professional development opportunity that you have had. Uh first of
039all, it's good to hear, but secondly, it's very important for the board to hear and understand. >> Very much so. It was some of the best personal growth that I've seen in my skills in leadership and a shift in my philosophy and some of my micro moves that really make a difference every single day. So >> yeah, well that's that is right. It's awesome and it's it's good to hear and I've heard it uh from many sources. So it's important that we keep that in mind. >> Thank you. Um, I also want to say kudos. Um, watching recording yourself and watching yourself to get better takes um, courage and it takes trust. So that just shows the um, uh, community you have within your school that you're being v vulnerable enough to do that. Um,
040so thank you for being um, brave leaders in in your school. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, that's what I was going to comment on. I I really like the peer observations. Um, and you're right, it you got to be brave to to do that. And um, but it's also good to to be able to watch somebody else because one teacher may be like, I'm not sure how to present this or whatever and might see a, you know, a good idea in somebody else's and it's a good way to share and then they can see it actually happening instead of just being told about it. >> Yeah. and watching it either in video format or when we teach each other in some of our sessions together. Those both take trust and bravery and it builds it
041builds a beautiful culture and allows us to grow even faster. So I think that >> thank you kudos. Thank you to both uh schools that came today. >> All right. Uh, next we have a budget update from Mr. Gerlac. >> Uh, thank you, Mrs. Motor. Uh, included in um the agenda is an executive summary as well as uh three other additional documents that uh support our update. And so, as we've discussed at previous meetings, uh we're in the the final stages of district budget development. Uh that's finalized at the last meeting in October. But there's some pretty important pieces that are in the process of of being updated. The next biggest uh piece is really the budget hearing, which as you'll see, state statute requires um that uh unified school districts hold a budget hearing
042and that the budget summary in the the format that it's presented uh be published at least 15 days ahead of that meeting. So that is going to go in on September 28th uh in the FondeLac reporter for publication and you as the board need to see that before that goes into the publication. And as you'll also see this required format always reflects three years of fiscal year activity 2023 2425 and then current year we're in is 2526. And so just to reiterate these are some things we've talked about before. 23 24 kind of two years ago that's audited finalized data uh 2425 last year that ended June 30th is unaudited at this time meaning it's still we work through the final pieces of the audit uh that's finalized by December of this upcoming year and
043then the current year we're living in starting July 1st 2526 so the public in public schools are always kind of in the midst of three years of financial activity And so we report on different parts of those. And so to summarize the I won't go through the budget publication. That's what you'll see in the in the that's what the public sees. That's the required format. But the the piece of it as you'll see is 2425 last fiscal year. We are projecting to have expenses exceed revenues to at at about 6.4 million at this time. And we're finalizing these yet with our auditors, but I don't think it's going to change dramatically off of that. And the board adopted last fall in October a $5.5 million deficit. And so, uh, that was by plan. Uh, that
044was that board at the time recognized that at an expected revenues to not be enough to cover expenses. And the obvious question as you sit here is, well, why are we over our plan on from last fiscal year? And really it amounts to um the reason every year uh the budget at the detail level there are overs and unders throughout it. The budget's our roadmap. It's our plan. We try our best to stick to that. Um but on $und00 million there at the detail level there are overs and unders on that. U but the primary reason for the budget overage uh from the deficit is related to the district's move to self-funded health insurance in January of 2025. And you may recall that was a budget management decision. We felt that was a really important
045way to from a financial stability point to the future for the board and for the district. But as part of that move, um we were required to record what is called an incurred but not recognized medical claims. So these are claims that incurred in the last fiscal year prior to June 30th. Uh cash has not left. we haven't paid those claims but from there's an accounting requirement that we must account for them in the fiscal year that they uh were uh incurred in that sense so it's an expense that has to get accounted for in the last fiscal year and and I didn't account for that that calculation and I included that so that you can see the exact amount of medical claims that really belonged in the 2425 year we didn't pay those claims
046yet but we're paying them out into as we move forward into a new fiscal year from a cash basis, but from an accounting basis, they have to account back. And so that was to put into the perspective, 1.3 million of that uh belong to our fund 10, our general fund. And so our over budget on our plan, our overage is around 900,000. Well, we would have our my plan our plan was to get under that and within the limit that the board had adopted at that time. Um but because of not under not fully accounting for the nerk, we're over budget because of that. And so um with self-funded health insurance, we do have to account for a reserve. So we could end the calendar year here in in December. I'm working with our auditors
047with we do need to record a reserve in a probably about that 1.6 6 million and so part of these this sits as a liability on last fiscal year and we could end to the positive but it's not going to belong to the 2425 year it's going to get recorded in the 25 26 year. So this is I know this is a little fast to explain probably this type of a concept but it's important that you understand why I mean that's really the reason uh the district's ending over last fiscal year on the adopted budget plan and I want to be transparent about that. Um I'm willing to take any conversations you may have. I know our auditors, we had a long conversation about IBNER this summer during our fieldwork. Um and and so in
048our audit report, I fully expect that to come out as be part of that that you'll see. And so that that's an important update. I not going to publish a budget that shows the numbers different and you need to see that before it goes to the public on mass. The year we're currently in, 2526, represents a balanced budget across the funds. You'll see that demonstrated. The operational funds of 10, 27,50, and 80. Uh we're still working through these critical funding formulas. Uh just past Friday the 19th was our third Friday student membership count. I don't have the final number on that. Um and property valuation comes in at October 1st. And then state general aid which is the largest piece into the tax levy or going into the determination of the all funds tax levy
049comes on October 15th which is after our budget hearing which is why the board will set the levy at the last meeting in October. Um so to demonstrate that in so that you see this as well this I include the revenue limit calculation. It's kind of the multicolored document that you'll see. Um, this is this is the funding formula effectively, which is the spendable funds in in as an amount of state aid and a combination of property taxes. Now, I'm not going line by line through this. At the budget hearing, I explain this a little more detailed. Really, what's unknown at this time or our projections and estimates that I fill out of our projection model are the pink cells. all other data. This is the way the state calculates what you as a board
050can levy as a tax on property taxpayers. This is you really don't have a lot of influence on this. It's a formula, but it is important for you to see and understand. So, the pink cells have estimations at this time. They will change as we go forward moving through to probably I'm going to update it ahead of the budget hearing and certainly the final levy on at the end of October. And so I I just think that's important to recognize that there's still quite a bit of movement left in this year's current budget, which is always one of the challenges. Uh we started this fiscal budget in July. You're not finalizing that till end of October and and then you move throughout the rest of the year and make other management decisions to do your
051best to manage to it. Um and so with that again I will say for the disclosure the total all funds tax levy is projected to decrease by 5.46% again that's largely as a result of decline in enrollment and you will see that uh a projected mill rate of 543 per thousand evaluation. You may recall at your last workshop you might have saw the community survey draft. That's why I was very sensitive about that being a draft at this time. That mill rate is going to change going through to the end of October. So, I'm saying 543 now as a projection. It won't it it'll if it's it'll be something different, but it's going to be in and around that range um is where I'm projecting it. And we do our best to do that. So,
052we project revenues and do our best to match expenses to those. So, um as the formula factors come forward, there's not many remaining. we will be happy to address those or we will bring those out and have their their financial impact on the district moving forward. So, uh, if you're wondering from a fiscal standpoint, if you I want to make a point to if you take a look back at that budget publication, and I know it's not broadcast on the screen, but just in terms of a report for you as the board, the very top line shows fund balance, and this is the the those lines moving across three years. And so, that shows the difference between revenues and expenses as it relates to district cash reserves. And so we're projected to end at about
05317.2 million in cash reserves. That's at June 30th of 2025. You know, that's still in that 16 to 70 17% of of of prior year expenditures and you know, you made very difficult calls to reduce expenditures this past spring. So, you know, the district is is still in a financially stable position with that type of fund balance number. Um, and I know that these are large numbers, but um, you again, we're we're not recommending adopting further deficit budgets to to manage expenses. We're we're recommending pursuing revenue, additional revenue through operational referendum and making continuing to make very difficult expense reductions and management decisions. But I guess if you get asked, well, gee, you know, what does a what does a operational overage do to district cash reserves, you can see it right there at that
054top line? Um, and I'm here to tell you, although certainly everyone would say you want cash reserves higher, but I mean, we go through multi-year and make management decisions through that, 17 million is still a financially stable number for the district. Um if we can we can say that that's still an important u measure of district financial health. We're not recommending it go further deep into that. Um otherwise the district will probably have to engage in some some much further dramatic action with expense reductions if if you as board want a further deficit budget. So with that that's my update. Um I'll turn it back to you Mrs. Mo Motor if you want to engage in questions or just report at this time. Were there uh any other further uh questions on this? I I
055did have one. I just want a clarification because I don't know. Um letter H and I WPCP and RPCP private school voucher aid deduction. Is that $4 million? And SNSP private school voucher aid deduction at 86,000. Is that correct? And then can you explain again a little bit what that is? and it's in red, which tells me you enter that number or the pink you enter it. Uh it's not entered by the state. Um so do you mind clarifying that for me because I I don't know what that means. >> Absolutely, Mrs. Motor. So where you're looking at is the colorful document that it's a two-page document that reads um um kind of top to bottom. It actually presents left to right, but it's easier to look at it this way. And if you go
056to the second page, right kind of in the middle, there's a block of pink cells. And yes, the DPI letters and numbers them because it's a formula calculation. So yes, all down the left side, you're going to see we look at 10 uh H and I and that is the private school voucher aid deduction. That's how it reads. As long as the special needs scholarship program, private school voucher aid deductions um for nearly or five million, 5.1 million or so. Um that's an estimated projected number. Uh what that is is the board has to increase their allowable revenue limit and tax for that amount. That money doesn't come to the final act school district. That money provides for the voucher program for students that live in the final school district to receive a voucher to
057go to a private school. So, as we've said before in the past at multiple budget meetings throughout the years, the final act school districts is sort of the taxing agent. These aren't spendable dollars. They show up as yes, they go into our tax levy, but they come off as an expense and they're a large expense. It's $5 million expense in the district's budget, but there's a revenue that in the low in the tax levy that supports that. So, it it's not we're just a taxing agency for that. Um, but it's a public tax that goes to the private school voucher program. And so it's an estimate at that this time. I'm looking at our financial forecast model. There's just never been a good way to forecast uh whether that's going to increase or decrease. To
058be honest with you, our model predicts an increase because FondeLac has had an increase every year. Uh, and so I it wouldn't be a good financial move to say that that is going to decrease from a levy standpoint. And so that that that's actually a really tricky number from a tax levy standpoint because it also isn't that number is finalized on October 15th as well. We won't know that there. We don't know the students. There's no way to get a hold on predictive who it's going to be. Um, so another reason I do need to point out why it increased is there were increases in the last in this bienium budget to that number, the reimbursement rate, the tax rate per student. So that also artificial. I don't want to misspeak that also increases the
059number overall as well. >> Thank you. I just wanted to clarify that because sometimes it might look like it's coming to the public school system and it's not and that is like you said a big chunk of change. >> Um, all right. Any other questions or comments otherwise? Um, >> I just have a quick one. >> Sure. >> Yeah. >> Just the the Einbr I'm just and I think we might be talking about this next week too, >> but um, >> uh, is that like a recurring thing that's going to have to happen every year? Now >> that great question, Mr. Lyren. Yes. Uh, and so we have to account for that expense. The goal with our self-funded health insurance is to maintain a reserve probably, and you're going to hear that later tonight in
060our workshop. You need to, you know, it's a $15 million expense, but we have millions of dollars of claims. So, we probably need to be keeping about a $2 million or use that $1.6 million reserve in order to pay a million dollars in claims at any given standpoint. And so yes is the short answer to your question that we will always need to account for an EBNR but it will change at the end of each fiscal year. I I don't have a good predictive amount um this year going into the first year. It's a large amount um and and I should have accounted for that uh better in our expense operational expense. I guess to be frank didn't fully understand that it had an operational expense side. I knew we needed to maintain a reserve.
061Again, those claims aren't cash paid out in last fiscal year, but we did need to expense them from the accounting standpoint in the fiscal budget, if that makes any kind of sense. I I hope that's the easiest way I can explain it. But we will account for that moving forward in this fiscal budget. >> Okay. Yeah. So, anything that rolls over potentially would reduce the the amount that comes in extra for next year is kind of my >> Well, what's going to what's going to happen is at C since we set up the self-funded health plan to run in the calendar year 2025, so it's mixing two fiscal years, accounting years, but from a claim standpoint, we're going to hope to end this calendar health insurance year with probably hoping 1.6 million in capital reserves.
062That would say we reserved enough funds to make our financial or our health self-funded health insurance financially stable. You could run it less, but that is a pretty grave risk financially because you need to be able to pay health insurance claims when they're incurred and and so that's really what it's trying to demonstrate in the accounting side of it. Um would we want to have a higher reserve? That's going to be up. We're going to talk to you in December about where it finally ends or January once we really know the final reserve number, but we're managing our plan hopefully to get to that point. You're going to hear a lot more about that tonight in the workshop from our our consultant Jay Scott with USI. Um, so yes is the short answer, but there
063is more depth behind that that management practice. >> Oh, it makes sense and we'll hear more later. >> Okay. Thank you. Um we will then move forward with uh student staff activities. Uh Joan, but I want to bring our attention to Wednesday night opportunity at the high school. Thank you. >> Uh was at a bunch of sporting events uh this last weekend, Hall of Fame banquet, golf outing. Um bunch just busy weekend last weekend. So, >> thank you, Mr. Frame. >> Uh went to multiple boys and girls volleyball games. Um, and then I was also able to get to the uh what crisis response >> committee meeting and it's just uh it was the first one I was able to attend this year. Um, it was really good and just uh hearing police officers just
064speak how we need cameras in the school and even it would there was an instance where he because it would have been caught on a camera that wasn't at a middle school. he would have had more time in the school, but instead he had to go investigate something that happened outside of school because we didn't have cameras there. So, um just trying to find a way to get those in as quick as possible. Um and just here in the community just come together and um solve problems with uh safety. So, I think that was great. Um still learn a lot and hope to contribute uh to those meetings going forward. >> Thank you, Mr. Mr. Labren. >> Uh, nothing really. >> Okay. Mr. Liver, >> sorry. I've been in and out of the hospital last
065two weeks. Um, but I plan on attending Wednesday's um seminar, this extortion seminar, and also I believe one of the almost one of the last home soccer games on Thursday is on my agenda. So, >> may I have a meeting with the boss? >> Thanks, Mr. Oliver. >> Mrs. Maine. Um yeah. Um couple weeks ago I helped out at Evans again in the morning um early childhood room and then um talked with a couple special ed teachers and also a fifth grade teacher there. Um and she was telling me about her um CKA CKLA rollout which was really interesting. Um so hopefully I can get in there to see it taking place. Um, and then I've been gone the last week and a half because I have a new granddaughter. So, yeah. >> And thanks,
066Mrs. May. >> Um, I had the opportunity to visit Robert's school and Mrs. Prozanski. Um, just I got to have a really great conversation uh with her and um, one of the themes that came up that their focus is this year, which I really appreciate, is called warm demanders of ourselves and of our students. So, um, demanding excellence in a warm way to continue to lift people up. Um, so that was a really powerful conversation in that. There was something else she shared that was new for me. Um, and I know we have our leadership teams and she talked about our leadership teams, but she also talked about a thoughtful leadership group of people and um, there are Mari, Heather, Katie, Rebecca, Maddie, Cararissa, Christy, Wendy, Gretch, and I'm probably missing people, but it's thoughtful
067leadership um, where she poses problems to and has them um, help her see different sides of it that she might not see as a principal. So, it's not just the leadership team, but it's also voices um who can help her make decisions in the building. Another thing she highlighted was um the observations that principles are taking already. So, they're going with each other to different schools to observe what it looks like to do observations and she said how um what what a great opportunity that was to learn with each other as well. So, um really great time. It was great to see uh the school. It's always humbling though when students were my students and now they're teachers. So that was exciting. Um but yeah, that was great to see. So thank you. It's now
068time for our second uh public comment in which we will follow the same um agreements that we spoke of at the first uh sharing. Is there anyone that would like to come forward? Good evening. Antonio Godfrey, 81 Fifth Street. Um, I just wanted to share with you guys the the wrap up from um, back to school Fondelac this year. Um, we served 2,492 students this year. Um, that is up from 63 I mean 63 more than what we had last year. There were a total of 43 supply drive sites, which we were we are so gratefully thankful for all of the people that that held supply drives that that that supported and gave gave back to our kids in our community. Um 249 total volunteers volunteered this year. Um that is a total of over
0691,012 volunteer hours. That's not I mean that's included from the from planning um the sorting, packing um just the entire event from start to finish. Um and we had a total ofund and 112 community um sponsors and donors. Um um the private sector businesses um they did an amazing job with donations and we had a bunch of um just citizens doing donating um that helped out um the Fleak School District were was very instrumental in getting helping with this as well with teachers in multiple buildings. So thank you thank you all. Um administr we had a few administrators that also um volunteered that day. um Marissa Lombardo. Um she was fantastic as as as one of our interpreters that that really made that transition to help out with our our our Spanish speaking families. That
070made that that day for them a lot easier. So, thank you to any and everybody who helped and volunteered to make this year's event a success. And thank you. >> Thank you. Good evening. Sorry, Troder. Um, that tailgate idea is wonderful. I really, really like it. I like trying new things, change, you know, the whole thing. So, I'm really excited about that. Um, I did want to mention, um, going back to listening to the two schools today, I'm always really also excited about how they're collaborating and doing all this hard work and how things are working for them differently and um, we all know change is hard um, anywhere in life. I we all know that. And I just wanted to reiterate once again that um the data um from a couple years ago, from
071at least the four years ago to where we're ch making changes and continually making improvements and changes now was 421 schools in the state of Wisconsin. I know we've said this before, but I feel like I need to say it again. We were 375. So if you line up 421 people in a line like we're all going to say hello Fondelike school district at at this microphone line up 421 people we would have been at the part of the presentation where everybody's like uh should I go to the bathroom the concession stand by the time they got to us Fondelac school district at 375. So, I just feel like we're doing so much change. And I've mentioned this before, too. When I went to Goodrich, I had Mr. Turtan, and one of the things he
072said is the person that sticks their head up in the crowd always gets the rotten tomato. And that's how I personally live my life. I I constantly get the rotten tomato and I don't care that I get the rotten tomato. And there were other things that needed to happen in our district where people had to stand up, make changes, and get the rotten tomato. And that's okay. But I just feel like I have to say that again that we're so moving forward. This is awesome. And we're just doing better and better. We're we're knowing better, doing better. And that's how I've raised my kids, too. And one um fun thing is Ebony Visions had a couple broth fries and we got to use our project grill and so people have been coming to you know
073like stopping it. We've been doing it in our parking lot on um off uh Western in Macy where our office is. And so we've been doing it during the farmers market where people can't drive down Main Street so they have to you know scoot around and stuff and they smell our our rib tips and stuff and we get to tell them about the grill. So, we're still talking about the grill and it's been, you know, over a year. So, we think that's super neat, too. And that's all I have today. >> Thank you. >> Is there anyone else? >> Okay. Moving forward, um, any other appropriate matters? I actually have, um, a couple. Again, I just wanted to highlight a homecoming. Oh, actually this is for us to discuss. Um is October 3rd we've been
074invited as a school board um if either singly or as a group um to have a station or a place um from 5 to 7 and I was just curious who is interested um I know some people are available some people aren't which is fine if we just get an idea of who wants to come and then we could how we can legally figure this out together. So, um, >> is that a Friday? >> Yes. >> All right. Yeah, I I think I'm available. >> Okay. >> Um, so I could be there. What do we What do we plan on doing? Just like >> That's what I mean. It depends, right? >> Since he's available. >> You know what I'm thinking? >> Cook up some food if we really wanted to, but I don't want
075to take away if other people are cooking food as well, too. But, um, >> so, um, >> I can bring in the trailer. >> Barbecue. barbecue. >> I know your wife hates me. >> Oh, yeah. My my my wife's back there, so she she's probably the one saying no. >> Yeah. >> Well, I know typically like we drew we drove the Jeep um or a vehicle through um seen people are going to have time to stop and talk. It might be a great time to share information regarding the referendum. Um if we want to at that time, um I don't know if we have giveaways, if we want to have games. Um, >> being my son's senior year, I don't I don't want to be tied down. Okay. Have other obligations. >> Okay, sounds good.
076>> So, it's going to be I'm hoping to be there, >> but I don't want to I don't think I'll be >> commit to that. >> Sure. Makes sense. Makes sense. Joan, do you think you're going to be available? >> I'm still foggy as to what is going to be done. So it's it's it's almost from my understanding it's a reverse um >> the back of the school. >> So we'd have an area where we'd we'd sit or we'd be Yeah. And then um the the kids the community members walk around and visit each of the areas >> kind of like farmers market. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yes. At this point in time I am. But I'm also confused about you're saying the I don't know how public it will be or how finite it
077will be planned at that point in time when we're talking about not getting the even the final budget until October 15th. >> So um >> I'm not certain that's okay. >> Okay. So I'm hearing a barbecue. I'm hearing yes. I'm hearing possibly um 90%. >> no, I'll be >> Iris. Baby, >> I will be with baby Iris again. So, >> and >> yes, I I I hope to be available. You know, never can tell, right? Uh but yes, I will. >> Wonderful. And >> I might be able to be there for like half of it. >> Okay, great. Great. So, um maybe we could start doing some thinking. Does anybody like two or three people want to be in a planning because we can plan with two or three people and then whoever wants to
078participate. >> I plan on eating Luke's barbecue. >> We know Mr. >> Okay. Um I >> stop by for that. >> I think I think we have majority vote. >> Um I would love being a thinking partner with you on what we can make that space be. >> Okay. Are you're available that day too, >> did you say? Okay. Yeah. I forgot that part actually. No. Um and then um besides that I also wanted to share uh there was some discussion regarding communication and conversation. Um if anyone wants to make a meeting with uh myself and superintendent Mr. Steinbart, please just reach out. We've had people email us or call and say, "Hey, can you meet with us to to have a conversation?" And we would be happy to do that. So please do if
079you're interested. Um I also want to celebrate um one more thing. Wu um we had some community members come up and share um what some great organizations in our community did or have done Ebony Vision for as long as I can remember now as well as um all of those that participated in the backpacks and filling and all of that amazing work. Um, I also want to bring up the organization called Birds of a Feather who have been really working closely together to celebrate and bring positivity to our district and community and they are going to be giving away some micro grants and so this is out for any teachers that are interested. Um, the max is $250 but if they're they have some funds I don't know about it more than you can find
080out on Facebook and they're looking to give back to educators again. So, um, celebrating all the great organizations that really are helping to lift us up up and, um, kudos already to whoever is planning homecoming because that's a big job. All right. Any other, um, appropriate matters? Otherwise, uh, if we could have a motion for adjournment. >> I move to adjourn the work to the workshop to discuss employee benefits. >> Second. >> Right. We have a motion by Mr. Henshel, a second by Mr. Lance. uh to adjoin or adjourn to the workshop. Can we have the role please? >> Um Lyren, >> yes. >> Maine, yes. Oliver, >> yes. >> Panel, >> yes. >> Frame, >> yes. >> Henchel, >> yes. >> Motor, >> yes. Uh motion carries 70. The regular meeting uh will adjourn
081at 6:13 and we will come back at 6:25. All right. There we go. I'd like to call the workshop of the board of education to order at 6:34. Mrs. Maine, can we please have the roll call? Frame >> here. >> Uh Henchel >> here. >> Leverage >> here. >> Maine here. Oliver >> here. >> Panel here. Motor >> here. We are all present. So we will go ahead and move forward. Employee benefits. Mr. Steinbart >> and I'll defer to Mr. Gerlac. And >> yeah, thank you Mr. Steinberg, Mrs. Mo. Um so as you heard in the budget report and um as we've addressed throughout uh the budget process, you know, employee benefits are really our second largest budget item next to wages. I mean staffing is and employees are the single largest expense for the
082Fondlike school district and therefore moving those two levers on the expense side is really what makes a pretty big impact on the district's financial uh situation. And so last year, the district had moved to um had made the move to go from what was known as a fully insured um health insurance group with regards to employee health insurance, meaning we purchased insurance for health insurance for employees from a third party uh to effective January 1st, 2025, the middle of last fiscal year, uh the district became the insurance company effectively. uh we collect and keep the premiums and we pay the claims as you um know and so we are at the time of year because our plan year runs on the calendar year. So in January 1st, 2026 is our new plan year. We need
083to be prepared for uh where do we want to go and in terms of premiums, how the plan is running and do plan design changes need to be considered and um open enrollment for employees to enroll is is targeted for November 1. Um so there's a lot of things that have to get um we have to bring forward to you. And so tonight, uh, we have Jay Scott of USI. USI is the agency, um, that that represents the district in terms of managing our health insurance, and other employee benefits, things like dental insurance, life, long-term disability. You're going to hear about some of that program tonight, but I'd like to bring Jay and turn the presentation over to Jay uh, at the podium. And so, he's got there's a lot of information. Oop, it just
084timed out on me. A lot of information to get to. I'll get that back up there in a second, Jay. And um and then there'll be a chance to ask questions, uh as you go forward and through it. So, uh pretty big. This is this is really the second biggest budget item that we that you as a board really manage. And so, it's a really a pretty critical uh important workshop to that end. And so, um with that, sorry about that. There you go. >> Good evening. >> So, a couple housekeeping items. When I move this, I'm not moving yours, right? >> Okay. Because this doesn't move the big one, does it? This one's a large one, but they have the presentation on their own devices. >> All right. So, I should probably tell you
085where I am at any point in time then. >> Okay. >> All right. >> The other thing um tonight when we talk about finances and budget rates and claims, keep in mind that what I show you are gross numbers. So, there is no account, there's no accounting or deduction or netting effect of your employee contributions. Okay? So, what you're going to see tonight isn't necessarily a direct hit to the budget or budget impact because of those employee contributions still have to come off those larger numbers. So, tonight we're going to look at your year-to-ate financials through August of 2025. Um, I'm also going to talk about projections for the healthcare and dental budgets for 2026. Then also we're going to show you some due diligence that was done to market and shop your reinsurance or
086what's called stop-loss coverage. As Mike said, you are self-insured. Uh but you still buy reinsurance for catastrophic claims. And it's a good thing you did this year because you had seven people totaling about 1.8 million in claims already this year. And with that stop-loss coverage, you actually avoided about $600,000 of additional liability because of the reimbursements that were made to you. And then we'll talk about benefit planning for next year, go over an array of things, including the suggested projections, and then we'll just end with kind of a recap summary of all the 2026 renewal items for your employee benefits program that we handle for you. So, this dashboard, this is something we deliver to the district monthly. Um, it'll be more useful next year when we have year-over-year data to compare. So, you've only
087been self-funded for eight months. Uh, you weren't self-unded in 2024. So, right now on this dashboard, we're just looking at 2025. But I do want to point out two things to you. So, in the left hand side about the middle are the large claimments so far this year that I talked about. You've had seven for1,747,000. Four of those actually uh hit over the $200,000 level. So, and the district did get reimbursements of about 560, but your plan was still hit with about $1.2 2 million in claims, which unfortunately was a little bit of a surprise for your size group that we'd have that much activity that high uh so early this year. And it did impact uh us being able to create reserves in the first one to two months of this year. The other
088thing I want to point out, uh your prescription drug costs are trending very well. uh those are not problematic whatsoever for the school district. In fact, less than 20% of your total claims are related to prescription drugs and most employer plans that number is more like 25 26%. Any questions on this? So, if we look on a month-by-month basis, if you focus on the bottom right hand corner through August, you're running at about just about right at budget, a little bit under budget. Um, that's really worse than you wanted to be in your first year because in the first two to three months, you want to be able to accumulate reserves and have significant excess budget dollars. Um but again that didn't happen because of the claims that hit us so early in the year.
089>> Jay, I just want to add so um we went through earlier about the accounting and the IBNR and what it did to the budget. That's why we had large claims early in the year where normally we're able to reserve the first three months because it takes a couple months for claims to start coming in usually. So that that was the big impact of what Mike was explaining earlier. And this is a listing of your seven highest cost claimments or the claimants that are over $100,000. And Mark likes to refer to this as a heat map. If you go to the far right, I think that's just a cool phrase he uses in his business or something. That's kind of a joke. But if you look to the far right, three of the claimants seem
090to be cooling down from a cost standpoint as far as what was paid out on them in August. Unfortunately, the other four um still had significant amounts in August. And you had another brand new high-cost claimant for over $100,000 that appeared in August of this year. And this just gives you a little better or different view of the high-cost claimants when their claims hit. and the progression of their claims throughout this year. And the conditions are serious where um we're predicting that four of them will continue to some level between now and the end of the year. Hopefully um things will be resolved by the end of the year. Any questions on that? You can stop me at any time. Please keep this conversational. So, um I know the reason why we're overbudget is because
091a lot of claims are coming in fast. What if they never slow down? What if they just keep coming in at a steady pace like this? >> So, is your glass half full or half empty? >> I I Yeah. Yeah. I just I'm wondering worst case scenario. >> Yeah. >> What does that look like? That's a good segue because um right now we can do what's called predictive modeling. Now I can't say a surprise isn't going to happen. All right, but what I'm showing you here is based on diagnosis and claims that have been paid, primarily diagnosis for the smaller claims in your data set. Um you don't have anything lurking that's going to turn into a transplant or potential highcost cancer. All right. >> So, this is telling me that things will turn around
092to get better, but obviously I can't guarantee that. >> Okay. >> Um, >> also to your point though, I mean, we'll talk about this a little bit. We have to take some corrective action to make sure that we do make the future better from a fiscal standpoint. >> Okay. And then so this could be um some of our staff, it could be their spouses, could be their children, and it could also be we still have a few people who are retired, correct? That are part of our insurance. >> Yeah, I could tell you it's none of your retirees. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Uh quick question. I don't understand. Uh you said that four of them will uh probably are lingering but probably will be done by the end of the year. What year are
093we speaking of? >> 2025. >> Pardon? 25. >> Yeah. >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah. I'm just looking I'm just looking at the claims uh that started to hit in March of this year and how they >> progressed throughout the year and where they ended up in August. And again, we'll look at this next month and hopefully these numbers will be down from the existing ones. But again, I can't promise some surprisal pop up. >> Yeah. that we can't foresee because of the predictive claim modeling we did with your data. >> And the reason Mike blacked out relationships, we didn't want that information. >> And you don't have really many retirees covered under your plan anymore. >> From a dental standpoint, your dental's running a little hot this year, too. So through August, that's about 10%
094over budget. Um, however, I do want to remind the board if we look at history in 2024, that was the first full calendar year that you went from being insured to being self-funded for your dental insurance. And you did run about 12% under budget. So that move did save initially about $100,000. And um, again, it's running a little hot this year, but it it is dental. you're not talking about the same dollars that you're talking with medical. Uh again, it's running 10% over budget and that can go back and forth very easily. And just to share some due diligence with you, I won't go through all the details, but when we talk about that reinsurance, we shop that every year for our self-funded clients, and we literally went to 13 companies. All 13 companies responded
095with a quote except for one. And I'm not going to ask you to try to read this. You can enlarge it on your own computers. Uh but of all these companies, everyone quoted a double-digit rate increase except for three. Three of the companies did give us a preliminary quote. It still has to be finalized with additional claims information that is less than 5%. >> So just I'm going to say this just to make sure it makes sense to me. So >> we had one that wouldn't who declined. We had three, but they they wanted to everybody wanted to increase because of who we are regarding the amount that we're >> Yeah, I would say it's it's it's not only who you are, what you have going on in your claims information, but the stop-loss markets
096for 2026 are extremely tight. >> Okay? >> It's just the uh it's not a good year for that industry. >> Okay? >> And so we're seeing rather significant increases no matter who you are, what industry you're in. >> Um, and I think that has a lot of factors. I mean, there's more cancers today than there ever has been before. >> I have never seen so many sepsis cases. >> Yes. >> As I've seen in the last two years, which to me is ridiculous. With today's medical technology, you think it'd be a little cleaner in the hospitals and less infection rates. Um the other thing you have going on is um the gene therapies. So, I don't have the exact stats with me tonight, but the FDA so far has approved, I think, either a dozen
097to two dozen uh gene therapies, drugs that can cure blindness in some people, depending what their blindness comes from. The average cost of those therapies is $2.5 million. And so obviously in your situation, we could actually forecast if you have anybody like that uh that would be eligible for potential gene therapy um or genetic therapy. And it's it's a very low incident rate right now, but if you look at these stop-loss carriers and their massive pools, they're starting to get hit with those claims as well. And so they have just at least to date have taken the strategy that they're just going to build them into their risk pool and just make rate adjustments across the whole landscape. >> Okay. Thank you for clarifying that. >> Y so on a preliminary basis and I'll explain
098that comment in a minute. Um, we did market your life insurance that you currently have with the state plan with the local governmental ATF program and we could move that to NIS, which is also the carrier for your long-term disability insurance to the school district and save almost $64,000 when making that move. Um secondly, there has been service dissatisfaction with DBS who administers your flexible spending account for your employees. And so we marketed that as well. And the recommendation is to move to EBC. And besides getting better service, we can also save a little money, $2,500 approximately. Um, so preliminarily speaking, um, I think you put in your budget 5% because two or three weeks ago that's what things are looking like, but now we've looked at later data. And I did meet with the
099finance committee, uh, this afternoon, and at a minimum, we're recommending a 7% budget rate increase with no adjustment for reserves. Or if we build in at least some adjustment for reserves, it' be 11%. And then I'll just skip down to uh number six real quick. So initially we were thinking of just doing a rate action to the budget and then start exploring benefit modifications next year for 2027. This a this afternoon's discussion changed a little bit where we really should start exploring those benefit modifications for 2026. um your medical plan and I have shared benchmarking data uh with the district in the past but you have a very non-traditional very very rich medical plan and to your point what's going to happen in the future if you keep that plan of benefits at its same
100state it's it's not going to help getting things better and getting things on the right trend line and I'll stop there if anybody has any questions Um, so just to recap on the medical side, a minimum rate increase of 7 to 11% depending upon what how you feel about the reserve situation. And then secondly, that we look at taking a bit of the band-aid off and making some benefit modifications in 2026. that would absolutely have to happen uh sooner or later because that is driving the richness of your benefit program is a big driver in your health in your health care costs. This is a clarification question and um do we typically have um staff members like is there a committee or whatever that gives us feedback on I'm asking Mark as having been president
101prior to um do we ever have a committee like do we get because I'm thinking we can probably do this in a number of different ways if we need to do it. Do we get feedback from those who will be >> most affected? >> Tim timing. >> Yep. >> We don't We got to turn this around like within the next month. Uh decision- making. >> Okay. >> For one one uh we had a committee, a wellness committee when I first started, >> right? That's why I asked that >> it was it it got we didn't have it anymore because there's there's it was just talking about water competing compet. there was nothing that was deep into the conversation with it. So, it was just one of those things that, you know, if they wanted to
102still get together, but it was kind of like disbanded or not disbanded. There's just like nobody's getting anything out of it because it had nothing with substance in it. Yeah, I'm just thinking about if we have to make changes and there's been we're asking staff to do more than ever, right? With less than ever, how and and they have this rich benefit, which many districts don't have. >> So, >> but how do we get their voice? >> If you really want a voice, in my opinion, a committee is not the way to do it because you're only going to get a voice of a handful. And the people that volunteer for it are the ones that are using it, which are the ones going to be impacted the most if they make plan design. And
103then you're only gonna 20% of your people are spending 80% of your dollars. >> That's, you know, pretty straight across all boards and all healthcare. 20% of your people are spending 80% of your dollars. So you got two levers to pull. One is premium, which then is impacts everybody. Or you can pull levers on your plan design which impacts people that are actually creating the issue you know and spend more money in that sense. So those are the two levers usually have the poll. So if you really want impact you you know surve it's a open can but you talk about surveys to the community it'd be a survey to the whole you know uh population but I don't think we have time to do something in that kind of turnaround uh to do that.
104So >> okay thank you for your feedback. Keep in mind, Katie, we will we did spend a lot of time looking at benchmarks. And so, the goal isn't to to modify the plan significantly financially hurting somebody. The goal is to modify the plan and still keep it better than benchmark. >> Got it. Perfect. >> Okay. I mean, >> because you have a lot of room to do that. You >> And I'll show you a very busy spreadsheet where we're showing >> your benefits compared to those benchmarks. Um, but the issue is, um, I don't know if any of you are old enough to remember the 80 or the HMO era era. >> I mean, so when the government mandated that HMOs be offered back in the early 80s, those benefits were like 100% benefits, very
105little out-of- pocket expenses, just crazy rich. Um, now a lot of that's gone away, but you still have what I would call a significant number of benefits that go back to that era. >> Okay, >> which there's a lot of reasons for that. >> So, when you get to that point, you know, jump way ahead, it'll be like slide 22. The biggest piece is we have to retain and attract good employees, right? I mean, that that's extremely important, especially in the environment we live in. So, it's a balance. How can we compete with salaries? How can we compete with benefits with our competition around us? And with that comes your um uh employee contributions, right? What's coming out of their paychecks. So, when we look at our salary benchmarking, which we've done in the past,
106we look at benefit benchmarking. um our benefits have always been really rich which we lose a lot of people because they want to go somewhere closer to where they live or something like that and it's like uh I've heard some people say yeah but then all of a sudden you know I get their a lot the young people that's where we're losing >> sure yeah because they are under their parents >> they're under their parents or they don't value because they're not using the >> what's the number one value of the younger generation >> money and their paycheck right that's all they care about you know so so that's you know, we start looking at our demographics of our population. >> What's most important to them? You know, uh is it benefits? Is it weight?
107You know, and that could be depends who we ask, right? You know, and that's that balance that we got to figure out as a board on how do we stay competitive in every one of those areas because all of a sudden we're really competitive here, but we're not in salary. The people that this is less important to, you're not going to attract them, you know, versus the other way around, you know. So it it's it's a balancing act, you know, across the board, but number one goal is attract and retain good employees, right? You know, and we got to figure that out through our whole packages, >> right? Thank you and thanks for clarifying. >> I appreciate it. >> I mean, our objective is to create a win-win >> that you have a a very
108good benefit plan that's fiscally stable, fiscally responsible, uh, and still can compete with no matter what sector you compete with for employees. Thank you. >> And to go back to number three, I just wanted to point out that 2026 when when I said the stop-loss markets are extremely tight, it's actually going to be the worst average national cost increase in employee benefit programs in probably close to 10 years. So for for many years, we were at a six to a six and a half% annual national increase. And for 2026, the The Wall Street Journal ran an article a few weeks ago. It's going to be 9 to 9 and a half%. And that's before making any changes for before an employer would make any changes. And for the dental, um, and again, there's significant projections
109and calculations behind these numbers I'm showing you that were shared with the finance committee, but the dental, we're recommending a 2% increase in those budget rates. So even though it's running a little hot, uh we look at the last two years, we just don't look at the current year. >> And I don't think we've changed rates on that in three years, four years, maybe even longer. It's been >> quite some time. It's probably been five, six years. >> Okay. and also a couple programs that we want to put in place in your medical plan that are actually um employee benefits as well as helping to contain costs in a positive manner. One is a company called Kaya which provides virt virtual physical therapy. So your your people can literally have access to a physical therapist
110any time of day. um right away. No, you know, because right now physical therapy is almost getting as hard to get into as a behavioral health care provider. Also, most physical therapy is being caught up today with rehab because of muscularkeeletal surgeries. And what KA does, it tries to prevent the msk surgery or the muscular skeletal surgery from happening. So, it gives people something to try before they go all the way to the endgame. And your muscularkeeletal spend in the last 12 months has been about $800,000 under your plan. And it's predicted to be one of your top two or three cost drivers in the future. So, now's the time to do something about that, trying to thwart that and redirect it um to something more preventative. The second thing is um prescription drugs in
111your medical plan. So some drugs are covered by your prescription drug benefit, but there's a lot of drugs, especially uh expensive infusion therapies that are actually covered under your medical plan. And we're going to put a program in place with UMR called Medical RX Advisor. And it does not um take away any benefits. But all it does is look for ways to reduce the cost of those medications that are occurring in your medical plan. Has anybody ever heard of white begging? White begging. So that's where a payer will basically buy the prescription from a different party than buying it from the facility. And that can save as much as 50 60 70% of the cost of the medication. Has anybody seen seen those 340B commercials on TV? where there's a big tall guy and this
112woman asks another guy, "Who's that?" and they go, "That's Mark. Mark marks up our drugs." All right. So 340B is tied to some veterans healthcare legislation of 1982. What that did, it allowed certain types of medical institutions um that are 340B qualified at certain hospital classifications, tribal groups, community clinics, etc. to buy drugs about let's say 5% 3 to 5% above cost. But guess what they do? They turn them around and mark them up,000 2,000 3,000%. Even if you're even the nonprofit hospitals do that. So it's just a way to try to attack some of that. And you have threequarters of a million dollars of spend in your plan just on those types of medications. And neither of these programs are going to require any investment on the school district's part. Uh Kaya is like
113adding another provider to your network. So anybody they serve, anybody that incurs any expense with them, it's build to your medical plan. And uh there is no administrative fee for the UMR program. That's based on savings found. So uh the shared savings on that is 30%. And then the last thing is to do even a better job promoting that clinic but then using the clinic as a cornerstone to your employee communication and education because when they have a patient in the clinic they have a captive audience. So, it's a matter for us to give them agendas, give them information maybe on a monthly basis on what we want to communicate and what we want to have them try to to uh ram home with their patients. Programs like KA, you have a program that we
114put in place January 1 of this year for your diabetic population to try and help them improve their situation, maybe even not be a diabetic anymore. And year to date, we only have two people participating. Two. So, uh, we got to do a better job communication, communicating and educating. And one way to do that is to first start with that clinic and hopefully drive more people to the clinic because any benefit changes we contemplate and put in place will not impact that clinic. The clinic would still be free to all the employees and their family members. >> It's such a great resource, the clinic. And I I know there's we just had a recent change in um uh the nurse practitioner. Um I just like that's I wonder what the barrier is. Or maybe it's
115people already have relationships with whoever their um primary physician is, but like what an option of free. Sorry, I get >> I used it for like many years with my family and it was quite the deal. Yeah, I think there was some uh dissatisfaction with the practitioner. I you know, you know, not everybody's going to be loved by everybody, but I think that went a little further than that. But I know the new practitioner, in fact, uh my daughter-in-law, who's one of your speech therapists, told me um a few weeks ago that her and all the kids went there and she was great. And I don't think and I think that might have been the first time my daughter-in-law took the kids to the clinic. So I I think she'll come back. >> I wonder
116how we can highlight stories like that so that we can get more >> have a new nurse practitioner come to inservice. >> No, we haven't. She didn't have like a specific inservice time and you know we've done some things over the years. Um new employee physicals you know all the new staff that we have have gone through our employee clinic. Again, they're not paying office visits. There's some plan design things baked into that. Labs like if they have to have blood draws also no cost. Those don't run through our insurance piece. The district's picked those up. So, um >> I just wondered if we can internally market that a little bit more. A >> absolutely. You we always can do a better job communicating and getting people to understand. I think we all in this
117room can agree consuming health care is challenging. um at any level and you can be highly educated even highly experienced in healthcare and you can still have some challenges navigating and consuming by consuming I mean going to the doctor and understanding what's actually happening and going to happen and so you know as part of our open enrollment process um you know we're we're also going to be looking at probably in addition to getting an annual primary care exam requiring ing uh through the open enrollment process members to go through an education whether it's a short video meaning you can't finish your open enrollment till you've watched like 25 things that are available to you on your health plan I mean we're still working with this with USI it's in the development stage but that's the
118kind of thing we got to get into people's minds because when you hear these things you'd say gosh I probably should have done something with that or taken more advantage of that like you said Mrs. promoter. So, those are the types of things that we're going to try to strategies. They're all strategies. Whether they really ultimately produce results, you know, it can be a challenge, but those are the types of things we're going to try to incorporate as an education requirement as part of going through open enrollment. Um, and you know, sometimes requirements are resistant. I mean, our department gets gets that the most. Can't believe you're making me do this. This is ridiculous. this type of stuff and those are the minority. I want to be really honest. Um, healthc care is a sensitive
119issue. It's a private issue in a lot of ways and this is hard for people to say, you know, you're making me do something that I maybe disagree with. And, you know, ultimately we're trying to help people, but also provide a great benefit program, too. And we do believe whether you like it or not, knowing what is out there if you're going to be on our health plan is important. And that's the why. going to a primary care exam, that was a big that was a big shift. Many members didn't want that. Um, but going to see a primary care exam once in a calendar year so that you can earn the insurance premium incentive. And I'll be honest, just not that this is great news, we had the worst participation last year. We had
120we used to be at out of 600 lives covered on the plan. I could count on less than one hand the members that did not actually complete it. We were in double digits last year of members that just didn't do it. Not going, couldn't schedule in time, waited to the end, didn't want to go to the clinic, couldn't go. And I'm not making this isn't about feeling bad. This is about you have to get engaged in your health care. And that's what we want in the FondeLac school district. So, >> so a lot of employers have actually um you know for many many many years employers had biometric health plans where they based incentives premium contributions on having a uh blood screening completing an H questionnaire that's becoming pass A now because it ran its
121course and people I think realized the plan members went through those motions but they never did anything with the information. they never did anything about it. And so now we have a lot of employers probably I would say in our benchmark studies probably 40% of our clients actually have changed from that type of wellness program to have a primary care provider and sent them program because it all starts with the primary care provider. Whether it's a nurse practitioner, family practice, internal medicine, they're you're going to ask them where to go and what to do and they're going to tell you. And so they just don't walk in and see a specialist, right? It all starts with that primary care provider. That's so important um not only to pre not only for prevention but early detection
122because I um I always use this story. She doesn't know anybody in the room so she won't get mad at me but my wife uh back in 2018 was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer. Guess what she had not done yet in her life? >> Correct. Now, when I say that, she gets mad at me because that's no guarantee that they would have found anything. Well, I don't know about that, but maybe they would have found stage two or stage one. Now, she had a 14% survival rate. She made it. She's clean now. As clean as you can be because cancer, I think, always exists in your body, even though um you're still not seeing any progression or you're you're what they call clean. So, she got lucky. But, you know, had she had she
123done or the you know, had had that OB been on her to have that colonoscopy, it'd be a whole different ball game. It's and it's not only what she had to go through from a lifestyle standpoint, but also the money that could have been saved. >> Thank you. >> Y and I'm not going to go through this in detail. Just shows you and you have it uh already. It just shows you the due diligence we did in marketing the life insurance and the employee voluntary life insurance. And this just gives you a fee comparison between EBC and DBS. They have no annual enrollment fee. They're 70 cents less per participant per month on the flexible spending account. They include debit cards and they also have EDI fees that can be used for your Bentech system.
124So, should be an all-around win-win for the HR staff and also your people. And this is just more information on Kaya and it backs up with some stats. I said before how important virtual PT is becoming right now in the world. A lot of employers are offering it. And I don't care which employer it is. Every employer I see their number one or two expense is tied to muscularkeeletal care including osteoarthritis. And this gives you some more details about medical plan advisor. But again, that's looking for cost cutting measures with infusion therapy and other expensive administered in a facility drugs. Okay. This is the benefits comparison. Go ahead. I'm sorry. >> No, I just >> Oh, okay. So, Flock County's plans column number one and then we have three different benchmarks to the right. Wisconsin
125public schools employers with 500 or more employees and then all Wisconsin employers on average and just in that first part. So, you have a thousand deductible single 2,000 family. Uh it's less than the school district norm for family. It's less than the single for family. Um, less than family for 500 employees, less than single and family for average of all Wisconsin employees. But the big thing is you have 100% coverage thereafter and almost every other employer out there on average has a 20% co insurance payment after deductible has been met. So even though you have a plan out of pocket expense the next line of 3500 single 7,000 family the only thing going toward that out of pocket is a few things and I do want to emphasize few things that the deductible applies to
126but it's just co-ayments. I mean, I could probably look and pull the data, but I'd be shocked if you had anybody even meeting their out-of- pocket expense today. So, for example, if we look at physician co-ayments for primary care, it's it's $30 and that's it. Nothing goes toward the deductible. And I'm talking about a non-preventative doctor's visit because preventative doctor visits are covered at 100% by healthcare reform no matter what. And specialists, it does say a $50 co-ayment after the deductible. All right. Um, however, there's still there's no co- insurance where most plans that have a co-ayment, they would still have a deductible and co- insurance apply afterwards. And some other rich ones I'll point out. You have a 100% benefits for X-rays and lab tests, which is virtually unheard of. You have a $100
127co-pay for expensive imaging, like MRIs, CAT scans, >> and and that's per day, not per scan, right? if you had multiple if you had a CAP scan. >> I think that's kind of like really old language because >> yeah. All right. >> You know, you're gonna you're gonna have you're not gonna have an MRA three days in a row or MRA, excuse me. >> So, I don't know why that's per day. It's seems kind of silly to me. Uh urgent care. So, they can walk in Aurora Urgent Care. They can walk on Main Street into SSM Urgent Care and pay $50 and they're done. No deductible, no co insurance. And you know, why not go to the school district's clinic instead of going to those urgent care facilities? Urgent care is expensive. It's not cheap.
128It's not as expensive as ER, but it's expensive. I remember I cut myself in my for above one of my eyes or Yeah. above one of my eyes. I'm not going to tell you how because it's so stupid. And I went to Aurora Urgent Care and not only did they charge me for the visit and for putting three stitches in my head. They also charged me establish uh a new patient establishment fee which was as expensive as the other two things. Now what I did later, my uh sister-in-law's mother is an NP, so I went over to her house, put my head in her kitchen table, and she took my stitches out. It's free. All right. Uh some other things that I like your inpatient 100% coverage after deductible emergency room people pay $250 and
129there's no deductible or co insurance after that. Um inpatient mental health is 100% after deductible 100% for hospitalization after $1,000. whether it's mental health or a regular hospitalization. So, I think you're getting the gist here. And we would, you know, we'll clean this up a bit and keep it real simple and um as far as old and we're going to look at a couple different options. Your current, here's option one to consider that makes sense and still below benchmark. And here's option three. And again, whatever we put together, we'll focus on comparing it to the benchmarks we have, which are very good. and keeping your benefit program very competitive. >> These options that you're going to um provide us with, these won't take effect until the till January. Correct. Just want to make sure. Okay.
130>> Thank you. >> And Mrs. Motor, if I may. Um, so obviously these are tough calls, but I I will reiterate what I've always said. These are big budget movers. The decisions you make on these really do I mean you've seen those numbers and I know every budget expense matters, but this these this workshop is really these are tough. So I want to acknowledge that. Um, you know, and there isn't a great answer on this. And so really when you step back, we talked at the finance committee um and and we've had this the last several meetings through the finance committee. I know Mr. Henchel can speak to this too. You know, we do need to keep a financially stable and solvent insurance program. All right. And that's part of the aim here is to
131stabilize that and continue that. And I want to make a good point is the board that moved when the board moved to self insurance that was a major financial uh move on behalf of the the district. Um had we stayed fully insured and I know this is an industry you both work professionally in. Um we could have very very we are still below on the the premium rates that we would have been with our former fully insured carrier. So, I know I know that memory can be short. It's hard to keep that perspective. It's hard for employees because everything's a real cost to employees in real time all the time. And we get that. But from a stability standpoint, that was a big move. And now we're here today and we will continue to be
132coming back to say we recommend this on premium and these possible plan design changes. Um, and you don't have to do them all, but the ones we're going to recommend are to ensure financial stability and they're not to make it difficult for members or pass any number of costs to any specific member. I just want to say that publicly because what we have to do is say what are we going to do with these financial resources to provide a benefit program that we still believe is competitive of value to members maybe on the whole and and really ensure that this continues forward to the future because when we talk about $15 million that's a big that's a incredibly influential budget item. It is the second most influential budget item that you decide on next to
133staffing and wages. So, Mr. Oliver, yeah, I'll turn it to you, Mrs. Voter. >> I'm just um you'll have to forgive me because I wasn't on the board that voted for the change. Obviously, it was for financial reasons. What is What have we realized in terms of savings by doing that? If I may >> Well, Mike alluded to it. So uh our renewal with courts for January 1st was I think 7% number one. >> Yeah. What we realized at the time it would have gone 5.9 but we we took a it would have been near the at least six to 7% had we stayed fully insured. I think a 5.9 was a renewal we sort of resulted in for a six month renewal months. >> So I Right. >> Okay. Right. >> But but the
134short answer is even with claims running the way they are, you're paying less year to date by about six or seven% than you would have paid with courts. >> Okay. Great. And also when we did the analysis, when we talk about reinsurance, I was explaining you have reinsurance that's um takes care of anything above any two $200,000 a claimant has. You also have what's called aggregate reinsurance. So think of that as blanket. So you have a big umbrella over your entire claim plan that your claims expense cannot exceed X otherwise it goes to insurance. Okay? And the guaranteed costs to be self-funded for 2025 were less than courts's current rates before the renewal. >> All right, >> got it. Thank you. >> Yep. >> That was a great clarification. >> Yes, >> very much so.
135Because >> the other thing that we accomplished by doing what we did the benefits and they some people probably don't realize this, some people probably forgot it. Um but number one, we didn't increase contributions for 20 25 employee contributions. Number two, um they had a little bit of a limited network. They now have a broad network so far as where they can go. Uh, number three, we put a specialty drug program in place that anybody that's on a specialty medication, as long as they work with the program, have no money out of their pocket. Okay? And there's still net savings to the plan that we did that. So, there was some really nice things that were put in place to enhance things as well. And and if I may, you know, one of the big
136cost drivers, we talked a lot about this, perhaps single most, I know Jay, you've talked about it at length tonight with um at the time going into self- insurance, this stop-loss. So, the 20% of people that drive 80% of the claims, that's not a blame, but we had to take a number and a projection, and we were projecting seven stop-loss claims above that. And as in a calendar year and we're eight months in and we're at at five or four. It's so we ran just really quite a bit hotter than we thought we were going to and that's the projection of it. Um had we not and no and no one is to blame for that. That's not predictive. Those aren't things that we could have avoided and that's frankly why insurance exists. So I
137think that's really important to remember. But the nature of this is we cannot continue to run that way and we need to add a level of financial stability to it because it's that important to all members. It's very important to a minority of people that are in that stop-loss piece, but it's also really important to anyone. I mean, any one of us could be in a a wreck or something and have a stop-loss claim. So that's not the personal level, but we owe it as and this is where I work with Jay and I said this to Mark at the committee, you know, we owe it as Matt and I as administrators to recommend to you a program that maintains stability to the district and the the benefit program. That's our job. You have to
138evaluate that and decide at what level you want to take that. And so that's what we're going to be bringing to you in in um as soon as we work it up with USI. It's got to be decided frankly no later than the second meeting in October unless you want to have a special meeting. Um but we could as soon as we're ready we could bring it to you at the O first October meeting reality because again we need to run open enrollment in November and then the new year's upon us. So this is the timetable. I just wanted to take a moment to spell that out. And so we also want to understand what more information you feel you would need to be able to make a decision on recommendations we bring. >> I
139just gonna add to it. Maybe this will help with the I did punch some numbers in. Um so Mike had it, you know, we don't know what this looks like because it's January, right? It's off cycle. Mike's got to do a budget from July through June. He did a 5% based on what we knew at that time, right? And then all of a sudden we got stuff that popping up. So we got a 5% increase that he now starting in January. We're running we're saying, you know, we have to adjust that a little bit on on what we budget, which could impact other budgets. Right? If we're at 5% and the one of those recommendations was 7% that's on a $15 million spend that's 1 million50. So that's a $300,000 basically shortfall or differential. If
140we go 8% that's $450,000 differential. It went as high as 11 which is $900,000. So we talk about, you know, under underfunding from budgets or running over stuff like that. Those are the things we got to think about and hopefully it still runs us time where we can still level off and come out ahead at the end of the day. But we got to start thinking, you know, if we budget at this, you know, and this is what I'm thinking is all right, we do a little bit on that premium adjust or uh budget adjustment, but we also see what that gets us if we make a few tweaks on the benefit. I in my opinion I think a combination of the two um is it would be a good compromise and you know where
141we could have minimum impacts on both sides of the equation but have the total impact that we need financially you know that's that's where my head is going. I know we went back and forth in the meeting a little bit and I'm like yeah we we can't continue at 5%. >> We're going to be in the hole on our health on our benefit side and that's not where we want to be at the end of the day. We actually want to build some reserves up and someday when that reserves is built up really good, we have more control then you know where we can say hey let's not increase anything this year. Let's do this. Let's invest it back in our employees in a way. There's a lot of things you can have flexibility wise.
142It's just it's our first year doing it where if you're fully insured, you're paying the premium. It doesn't matter. It's out the door, right? So we're trying to get ahead of it. So at the end of the day, we have more control on what we can use that money for to invest back into the employees. You know, >> it's pretty standard to go by calendar year. Correct. For the >> Yeah, because that's when your deductible is, you know, so even if you're >> uh July, everybody hasn't. So the nice thing is here, if we would change the deductible from a,000 to,500, right? >> If we did it in July, now all of a sudden you got to it it doesn't coordinate with your calendar year. So, it makes things easier. >> Yeah. Thank you. >>
143Previously, you had a little bit of a mess because >> yeah, >> your uh insurance renewal tied out with your fiscal year, but your benefit year was still calendar year. >> So, if the school district made a change July 1, let's say they increased the deductible, somebody that satisfied the deductible earlier, all of a sudden got hit again. >> Yeah. So, we we aligned everything to help with those type of impacts. And that's where we did a shortyear re renewal so we could bring it into alignment to make life easier. Now one of my questions to Mike was that's not on the fiscal year is are you know that's a different budgeting challenge that Mike's got to do some predictive model you know with Jay's help some modeling and prediction. Um but it also gives
144us you know we still have to make an if we need to make adjustments we can. Yeah, there's I mean there's quite a few school especially the bigger school districts in Wisconsin they might be on a July or September fiscal year but their benefits are January. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. January for bigger districts. I mean any bigger company it's usually January is when it is. But that those are I just wanted to throw that out there. Recommendation was seven. It was there's a $300,000. So all a sudden we tweak a couple of those benefits and we're like oh we just made up you know uh 100,000 there. in my and I know what was being recommended is if we did 7% right so then you're making up a little bit there. Um but it's like
145all right how do we make up the difference then in benefit design. So that's why I I was looking at going I really want to see what those tweaks on benefits to align it because these are some of these are actually crazy benefits. You know they're from the old WA trust uh benefits from 30 some years ago. >> I was going to say it's better than my Medicare some of this stuff. I mean, >> I mean, I I remember I remember and this was $0 deductible or even a $100 deductible, 100%. I mean, there was >> there's no out of pockets. And so, some of these internal benefit designs are still from those policies from 30 40 years ago, you know. Um, so >> yeah. And and just to align it, I just I know
146some of the other districts um you know, that were you know, old clients of mine. I know like Nenah's a $3,000 deductible. They got a high deductible plan 3,000 100%. You know, so there's other ones in within the Fi Fox Valley that are, you know, Katie could talk what hers is at C6. I know what it was because I used to do theirs, too. It was like $3,000 deductible, you know. So there there we are very in a very good position to still be offer good benefit, be competitive. I'm not saying we're going to 3,000. That's not what I'm implying. But, you know, maybe we can tweak some of the internal stuff because right now that 3500 like Jay when I didn't realize that none of that nothing but a couple co-pays go toward the
147out of pockets. >> You got to have $2500 worth of co-pays to actually hit your out of pocket. That's a lot of co-pays, you know, to hit that, especially if they're using the on-site clinic that's free, you know. So, >> I just um I want to thank you for the way you put this together as someone who does not have expertise in the area of insurance. Um I think this layout for me was really helpful especially the comparisons um were very helpful as well as I am you know thinking about the um effect on our staff members and really how there's just some little tweaks that actually could help make a big difference for us. So um I personally appreciate the way that you um explained or went through this with us. Thank you. Does
148any one of the questions I heard you say is or heard you say Mike or Mr. Gerlock is what do you need from us then when you come forward so we can make our decision like for me this was a lot of great um that first step of knowledge and so what else do we need to see when they come back to us for us to make help to make uh educated decisions. Well, I what will be presented is really, if you don't mind hitting the cursor one last time, Jay, uh, my computer time's off. Whoo. Um, what will end up happening I'll go up here is what you're going to see is something real similar to this. We're going to show premium and the impact, the financial impact of a premium and what the
149new rates would be. It's going to look very similar to this chart. And then we're going to say existing plan which is what you see kind of on the lefth hand side fondelike school district and then working with USI Jay and his team there's a team there's a big team behind Jay as well uh that will put together okay if you move deduct increase deductible if you go to a co insurance model estimated savings to the health plan we're the district's the insurance company right now. So um and so then we'll kind of get to an overall rate. So, we're going to model probably I mean, the reality is is we can't really model like 25 options for you. It's going to come down to three, maybe four sort of designs. And I don't know
150exactly what that'll look like yet, but probably we're going to keep it pretty simple to get you to, as Jay recommended in the presentation, if you really want to ensure a financially stable program, we need to realize an 11% savings. Not savings, but changes to the plan andor premium that realize that. All right? And that can be a combination of premium or plan design changes. >> And and that dollar amounts about 900,000. >> It goes back to what Luke said. What happens >> 11% 15 million is >> continues. >> Well, if we don't do anything, it will continue. >> Yeah. I'm sorry. 11% of 15 million is 1.65 million, but we budgeted five. >> So, it's 900,000 gap. Yeah. Yeah, we got about a $900,000 gap to to close is what we got to do
151if that makes sense. >> And the point is certainly you could say, well, no, don't do it, right? Not comfortable. And that's your charge. I mean, you're the board. This is why you're dwelling on this this long. Um, we're going to do praise it as a recommendation. Um, I'm going to be really honest. I don't expect any any stakeholder to be really thrilled about this. Okay? And I'd be shocked if you didn't get some feedback to that end. Um, and so it's not going to be a it never has been and never will be. And I'm looking at a number of, you know, it never has been. Mrs. Maine, you sat on that find that wellness committee at one point. It is never a popular decision. Um, and so I think the that's why I'm
152saying the message again. We're we're recommending this to ensure financial stability for the the program and that's the why. It's not about individuals and but healthc care is personal and it is going to come to you in feedback that's personalized. So you got to be ready for that. And my point is is we're going to recommend that. We're going to ask for action on that. So we really need to know what you you know the hard part with this tight window is we can't kind of come to a meeting and then ah I don't have the information that I feel comfortable to take decisions on. That's so important and I really want you to reach out to me, Matt, >> and Mike. >> Uh, Mr. Gerlock, we're gonna have that those those before the meeting.
153>> Absolutely. >> As we always do, so we'll have time to reflect and ask questions. So when you get those options, that's when we need to send them right away to Mr. Gerlock so he can come up with um answers to those questions. >> I'll also work with Mr. Gerlac for the individual meetings that people are coming into as well that if you want to ask him some questions that way that he'll be available for that too. >> Absolutely. >> So when are we going to get this again? >> Well, it really kind of depends. Um we certainly can't act any later than what is the last November or October meeting? >> 22nd. >> So So this is all timing wise. If you think about what we were told earlier on when we get the
154counts, when we get the state aid, I mean, this is all lining up with all of that >> to see really where we're at on total financial situation, you know, um, on what's there and what's a I know this is one separate item, but I think that all kind of ties into >> and Mark, but to your point, remember, and this is where I was going with this earlier, >> by the time you take action on it, you are already you know, one, two, three, four months into I mean, this is the second half. Nothing's changing till January of 2026, which is then that level for the second half of that fiscal year. So, from a fiscal year standpoint, we can if if the board says, listen, no 5% is not good enough. We got
155to go to 7%. We will be able to work that out in this year's fiscal budget on premium. Okay, I can tell you that we will be able to make the budget adjustments and and do that. Um, this these are long-term decisions because rarely do you change back plan design and enrich it is really where this goes. And so we're trying to set a course to build up an adequate reserve into the long term so that next year at this time maybe you don't have to be faced with premium increase. Maybe you don't have to look at plan design change. Maybe you can say for calendar year 27 we could offer a status quo. So in terms of the mechanics of it, the second meeting in October is what date? >> October 27th. >> Thank
156you so much. We really need an a vote up or down on it by October 27th. Should you do nothing, it stays as the same as is. But we are here tonight to tell you that's not financially advisable. So, >> um I'm trying to wrap my brain around self-funded insurance and the premium. Who's paying the premium? >> The district. >> And the district. And do the staff does the staff have part of that still? >> They pay a 13 if they do the wellness incentive go to the primary care exam, they earn a 13% um premium share. So, the district pays 87% of those premiums. So, instead of collecting all those premiums and budget >> budget rates, yeah, we budget for it. That's an expense we budget for. And then we hold that premium money
157to pay insurance claims. So when you're self-funded, you're paying the claims as they come in. When you're fully insured, you send that premium out to a third-party insurance company and they pay those claims. And so that's how that works. So the district became the insurance company. >> So Karen, I always fully insured like renting insurance. Selfunded's buying it. We own it now and we own all the parts and all the pieces. The good thing is is when it's a good year, we win, right? >> You know, where if it's the insurance on a good year, they win, you know, and they get, you know, so I don't know if Jay wants to add to that and that's just my simplicity. >> How much do the staff members pay for their premium? >> 13%. Okay. >>
158If they do the incentive screening, if they do not, they pay 25 >> 25%. Okay. And that >> go ahead. >> Would that be and that would be similar if they if we went into >> No, >> that won't change. >> Yeah, that didn't change like that's what they paid when >> when we went through an insurance company. It's the same amount. So, that part didn't change. Okay. >> So, effectively a premium increase would they would be paying 13% of a higher five or 7% rate. And what we'll do is we will always show you those monthly premium amounts, what it costs the employee per month. Um, and they do that through their payroll deduction. >> Is it I'm sorry. Is it is it a one-sizefitit all program? Because I'm I'm just not familiar with
159or is it like an allocart when when >> one size fits all? >> It's a one size. >> What happens when I personally I have clients that offer more than one option, but I'll tell you I'm not a fan of them because What happens? You end up creating something that is referred to as adverse selection. And think of it this way. Um, your lowcost option, the people that don't use their insurance need a low cost option. >> Well, then you're not budgeting enough, you know, you're losing money into your budget. You're losing contributions and you're not covering the claims expense in total from this other group over here. Right now, we're spreading the risk >> by having one plan. And your people still have choice and and and the way they have choice is you
160have a flexible spending account here. So they can put money into that flexible spending account and enrich their plan if they want. All they have to do is make a pre-tax payroll contribution. That's their choice. >> Thank you. >> Right. Any other questions? And I was going to say they have the choice if they want to participate to reduce their premiums by participating in our HA health risk assessment going in and get your physical when people that's free money. I mean when people when you told me the percentage of people that didn't participate in that I was shocked. I'm like that's just free money. That's money on the table. So >> I mean that's something else we didn't talk about this year but we can do it to help that situation is um so you
161have tele medicine services through TED talk which by the way doesn't cost your people a dime and that won't change so they can have a free behavioral health visit. So let's say there's a problem in the family or somebody's going through issues if they call your EAP guess when they're going to get the privacy of provider probably three weeks four weeks maybe they can call a doc and see a a therapist or a psychologist within 72 hours even less sometimes and that is absolutely free to them. But the other thing we could do we could add to Teddoc is um companies like TEDoc also have primary care virtual medicine now. So you can literally have a PCP relationship with the same doctor virtually. And so a person could have their well visit, their routine physical
162virtually with a primary care provider through TEDoc if we put that option in which might be no I mean now might be the time to do it because you've had a decrease in people earning that incentive. The the biggest thing behind all of that is educating everybody that it's there and how to access it and it's available. And that's what we talked about is uh tying maybe the incentive also to not just getting a primary care visit, but you have to sit through. We did, you know, meetings a couple years ago. We have 612 people on the plan. Had it at the PAC volunteer. Whoever wants to come learn about your plan know how many people showed up. Tom, you got to guess this one. >> Six. >> Five. >> Out of 621. Five. I
163mean, we Yeah, we we need people to learn how to purchase their healthcare. That will go a long long way, you know. So, anyways, but yeah. >> So, education is going to be education huge >> and internal marketing. what do we have that you can use to make your life easier? Because I also think, oh, what was the barrier? Um, could another option have been a virtual meeting? But whatever. I'm just saying, you know, like how we we can do this, right? We've got a lot of options. We're going to make some changes, but we're still going to have a lot of opportunities for our staff. Yep. So, how do we help them access? >> And it's repetition, right? Because has anybody ever heard of Nemac over in Shboen? >> Nmac. >> What's that? >>
164Nmac. So they're a client of mine and they have locations in Kentucky, Alabama, and Tennessee as well. But in Shbboan, they have a union. And so every year I meet with the union committee and over the years actually develop trust with them. But it just amazes me. Two weeks ago I met the union committee and I and I went over all this stuff and even though we've gone over it before, there was like a aha moment. They didn't realize they had it. And I even went through ways that uh employees could save money or family members could save money with health care for them to spread the word because I mean there's 25 people in this committee. You know they can do a lot of spreading of the word on the shop floor. >> Yeah.
165And when we were in that committee in the past that wellness committee I do you know I remember saying hey we should mandate some because other districts require their employees to sign in and sit through an employee meeting and understand medical uh health insurance. and they would have sign in. I said, "Oh, we should mandate, you know, and the response I I got push back." They said, "Well, mandate. That's a that's a strong word, you know, mandate." And I was like, "All right, then tie it to the incentive then then you it's your choice if you want to come or not." >> And that's why I was wondering how we could get um and and I think we've talked about this, so we don't have to talk about it anymore, but as we move forward
166with whatever we move forward, how do we ensure we have voice of those that are we're serving? Right. So um they can help us market it like they you know those who are living it. >> so two things I'll say before I say good night. Um one is when we look at benchmarks I have to caution you that um let's take a school district. So average deductible is $1,300 and the average co-ayment for primary care is 25. Those aren't necessarily related within the benchmark study. What it's saying is of employers that have co-ayments, what's the average? Is that am I making sense? And because I'll tell you, an awful lot of school districts in the state of Wisconsin have high deductible HSA plans and those plans don't have co-ayments. So, I just want to when
167we go over the benchmark data, especially with changes, I want you to keep that in mind that this isn't saying that all the employers in the benchmark had an average co-pay of 25. It's saying of those that have a co-ayment that average is 25. >> But that's a separate question than what my deductible is. >> Okay. And the last thing I think with everything that's talked about communication education tonight, Mike saying be a lot of unhappy campers with any change. We have to remind them of all this good stuff they have in their plan that they probably don't realize. But more importantly, the number one problem in America today, what's what's happened over time? Sure, it's poor habits, bad health, eating the wrong stuff. But the number one problem is the average employee has evolved
168to thinking insurance is a a right and not a privilege. And that's the problem. That's why they don't engage. So, >> thank you and have a nice evening. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. >> So, just for next steps with the board, um we're going to bring this forward. We're hoping to to do this on the the 13th. you know, 13th, as I mentioned earlier in the evening, that's budget hearing. That's earlier, 4:30. I know Hie sent that information out. Um, and that's not where we're going to do the health insurance recommendation if we have it at that time. Um, we'll work, Mr. Steinbar, Mrs. Motor, will work together just to gauge how we go moving forward. You'll have chance to look at that. If you think it's got to be another workshop on the 13th
169with just a review of the options, we could do that and then take action on the 27th. >> We're going to try I'm not promise, >> right? >> But our goal is to wrap this up next. >> So that's the earliest >> but if you if you feel like well I I need more the end end of October is really the the piece of it. So >> So if you get it wrapped up next week and you get it to us before the board meeting sooner the better. So if we have questions we can ask questions. We'll determine if we really need a workshop or if we're ready to go >> the board meets at 13. >> That's correct. Correct. >> Which gives plenty of time to have clarification that I don't know that we
170need another workshop. We need to go >> because Yeah, because we don't usually get our materials until Thursday before meeting soon. Thank you. >> And go ahead, Mrs. Motor. Yeah, I'm fine with that. We'll we'll work to your demands here. >> Thanks. Okay. >> So, um can I just clarify what you said, Mr. Gerac? That um which date is the date? That is the the 4:30. >> The budget hearing is on October 13th. And the budget hearing is again the >> it is the it's by state statute. You must provide the public there's a public forum piece of it, but it can only be about the budget. It can't be about any other issue. It is their chance to stand at the podium and say, um I want to know about the budget. or make
171a statement. You don't have to engage with them. It's just a they you have to allow for that. And then I present high level information on really much of what you just have been hearing the formula factors that have influenced this budget. Um I won't be addressing health insurance specific at that budget hearing. There's too many other formula factors that are important to acknowledge there. And so then later that meeting at the regular meeting follows the budget hearing. I will say sometimes we don't start exactly at five because the budget hearing kind of creeps into it but we try I really try to keep it concise and so we will look at that meeting to have this this hopefully before you. So >> thank you. >> Are we getting word out about the budget hearing
172meeting like the community stuff? >> Uh it is published uh the public notice goes out. it will be in the reporter um the budget on the 15th or no 15 days prior to the 13th which is state required and so that's uh September 28th they usually put the Sunday edition in terms of publicizing it um we do through our normal posting uh it's it's really a information session on the budget there is no action um there's no it's just this is what our projected numbers again a lot of what you heard tonight in terms of extra publicity We have not engaged in extra publicity beyond our normal postings in the past. Um, I'll turn to Mrs. Motor, I guess, if you feel like that's something on the Facebook page or something like that to promote
173it. >> Um, >> tell me I I I would like that. >> I'll agree with Luke on that. I think we should publicize it as much as possible. >> Sure, we can publicize it more. I >> I mean we had the reason I because we had people asking about that and this is the time to ask questions and >> and share comments. So it could be on our typically what our website and and >> Facebook page. >> Okay. >> And I know this is I I'm first of all and I think you've heard me say this well enough. I'd be the first one to welcome a budget conversation. It it it is all transparent. It is all out there. >> It's challenging. I mean, this this is complicated what you heard tonight. I'm not taking
174that away from anybody. Um, and so the detail can be complex and it takes a fair amount of budget cycles to get your mind around the formula factors. And so what I'm getting at, I guess, Mr. Frame or others, is it will be a challenge to discuss the Fondelac school district's budget in its entire complexity in a 30 minute or 40 minute session ahead of time. So if you're engaging with members of the public, I would welcome them to come and and really see and hear how schools are funded. That's what I focus on is this is how the district gets funded and why we have such limits on it. >> But in terms of it is not a meeting where we go through every line item of the budget. >> There's not enough time
175to do that. That would that would be multiple multiple >> So when I first got on the board, I sat down with Mike for over three hours and my background is accounting and finance. It took and I still didn't, you know, three hours to digest it. We went through the um audit and all the pages and I went through everything and I learned a lot, you know, but it was a half hour. There's no way. I mean even a half hour to understand the damn formula. You know that formula is >> if you have members of the public that are concerned I I mean this sincerely I I will make appointments with members individuals and >> if they are saying you know I just really am concerned about this aspect of the budget or but
176you at the board it starts with the funding formula that's at these high levels and so the budget hearing is it's not going to be a detailed event. It is, those of you who have been through it, it is very high level. I put together a book of historical and current information that says this is the financial picture of the district and I kind of previewed it with the fund balance conversation tonight. We're going to talk fund balance history and why that's important. We're going to talk enrollment, why that's important. We're going to talk existing budget, but you already know that we're presenting a balanced budget. That's not anything different. So the detail if you got somebody that's like gosh I just really want to know what the supply account at Evans Elementary is and
177why it's over budget or underbudget that's not going to be discussed on the 13th. I just want to be candid, >> right? And I understand all this can't be done in a half hour. But I I I just get a lot of feedback like, oh, we didn't know this was happening. We didn't see this was going on. So, I don't want to give anybody a reason to be like, "Hey, this wasn't we didn't go above and beyond what we could to make it notice that was this or that it was here." And even though we can't do it in a half hour, you said if it runs a little late, >> just clarify at the end. Hey, make appointments, send out emails, you know, >> I mean, even though we know most people won't, we
178have to go above and beyond and just extend that invitation almost. I agree with you for that stuff. >> We can stretch it out. we can make it an hour. It does not require although it they they would like it to be but does not require a quorum of the board for a public forum. So I'm willing to come in at 3:00 >> and let people talk if they have to if that's what it's going to take. >> You don't have to respond. It's a public forum. It's their chance to tell us, not the other way around. I I don't care. >> Well, the state I certainly appreciate, Mr. Oliver and this is appropriate if you believe you want a longer public forum you certainly could start the meeting earlier I would I have to
179say you I work with Mr. Steinber Mrs. voter on that um because but again there's no action. >> There isn't and there is no quorum of the board to be required. It's it's just the statute does require you set the time of when you're going to start and so we've always set 4:30. There's a report we president typically says there's a point in the agenda that says this will be the time for any members of the public to comment specifically on the budget. Once that's done, it's turned back and there's usually an adjournment. >> So, um I'm curious um because I think I ag I I I agree with you that I think there's pro there there's a many people invested in listening and so forth. And I think there's a small percent um that
180have some more in-depth questions. And I agree. I wonder if that's conversation we could set up ahead of time. and they do have the opportunity to share their thinking. So, I appreciate that. Um, I'm curious. Um, so some it it sounds like some people might have a feeling that there are people that want to come forward. If we know it's a going to be a larger amount, do we set it at 4:00 instead of 4:30? I wouldn't do 3:00, but I would do 4:00. >> Why don't we set it at 4:00? >> Sure. And then if we get done, we can have some barbecue in between. >> Not I I would say not a single person has reached out to me about this budget here. Well, one person has. Um so I don't know if
181there I just want to go I don't want to leave room for hey I didn't hear about it or you guys didn't put it out enough. That that's what I'm getting. It's it's it's been the same time the same time every and you know I I appreciate you know you're trying to accommodate everybody at some point though the public's got to engage in finding this stuff out on their own. I mean I get a lot of times I look at you know I had people respond on certain things on the referendum. I'm like where you guys been? You know I'm going to get a little frustrated here because sometimes it's like if you really want to know it's easy to find out and you always can call the school. You always can ask and say,
182"Hey, when's the budget hearing?" Pick up the phone, call, email one of us, ask us, you know, we respond, you know, and stuff like that. So, I putting it out there is fine. I It just to what extent do we go, you know, to make sure that we spoon feed it to every single person out in the community. >> Too much to just put something on the Facebook. >> No, I said it's fine. >> So, let's do four o'clock. We'll add it on to the website and the Facebook page. If you know of someone that has um a a deeper conversation um have them connect with us and we'll connect them with Mr. Steinbart and Mr. Gerlock. I know we have someone who's asked to have a meeting with us and I think that's just
183fine. So I think we'll just move on from there and if it gets done in a half hour and that's what that is then we have a break in between >> and again I certainly appreciate just to be clear if you're engaging with members of the public or anyone's listening >> I I mean I prepare a presentation I'll work off that presentation I try to keep it at a high level >> if somebody comes to the forum just much like it is here in our regular meetings you heard very specific questions we don't we don't really engage in that it's like a listening of okay we hear that so if somebody says again I want to know the individuals this account at this particular building in this amount in this level at the budget hearing
184we do not typically >> respond it's the same as what we just took we took questions tonight we took them we'll move forward with them but not at that meeting so >> because I we respond to you as board members but that's you know the public, you know, in those public forums is really listening to get that feedback and wanting to know why >> or helping to educate on the high level pieces. So, I guess I just don't want there to be a misunderstanding of, well, I thought I was coming to get this and this you weren't this. >> So, um, that being said, it might be helpful if we just have and maybe this is something I read prior to this. This is meant for we do. Awesome. Good. Then we don't have to
185worry about it. We'll use that, Joe. >> Yeah. Um, in conjunction with this, first off, Mike, how many people ever have shown up? >> Oh, looking around. Uh, >> you remember info? >> Well, I've been I've been to these and there's hardly anybody there. >> Number one. Number two, um you talk when you say a high level, what you mean is you're looking at it from a 64,000 >> mile height. So you're giving just the overview. And if you if people have specific questions um to get that balance in the beginning of just what it is is going to per chance formulate questions. But also if you were to say in the beginning of a meeting um this is going to be the uh 34,000 or the 64,000 height overview. Um, if you want more
186or you have a specific question, make an appointment. Now, how you want that structured, if it mean it's through somebody in your office or if it's directly through you or if it's directly through hyo um then you could uh handle it that way. And I think >> and I one more thing is we are complaining about the fact that people don't take care of their own health and their own health insurance. Why should we spoon feed them to come and take a budget hearing more than a half an hour that they are not going to understand onetenth of it anyway but they're going to get a good foundation even though it's up here a good foundation and then get go from there. I mean as Mark said people have to take responsibility for their own
187actions. We can't keep spoon feeding the nation. >> So why don't we So we have it coming. >> Yep. >> It's going to be at four o'clock. >> We have an overview of what it is. If there's any specifics, they're going to contact you or us or Hely and have that meeting. Otherwise, it's high leverage. Take notes and moving forward. >> In addition, not all board members need to be present because we're not going to be voting. So it's it's a listening session. >> Thank you. Y >> true. >> Thank you. All right. Is there anything else on that? Otherwise, I'm going to ask for a motion. >> I I move the board of education adjourn the workshop. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> All right. >> A motion by Mr. Lyren, a second by
188Mr. Henel. >> If we can please have the role. Mrs. Maine frame. >> Yes. >> Henchel. Yes. >> Lying. >> Yes. >> Maine. Yes. Oliver. >> Yes. >> Panel. >> Yes. >> Motor. >> Yes. Motion carries 70. The workshop is adjourned at 802. >> And I see all your