001Okay, we >> I'll call the St. Croy Central School Board meeting to order. We have the best schools in America. >> And we'll start with the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Uh let the role reflect that everybody here is except Dave Ruse who has a church meeting tonight and he'll be a little late. So show his appearance when he arrives. The meeting been properly notified. Notification and >> yes meeting is properly noticed and also as a reminder it's being livereamed. uh and recorded. >> Perfect. Highlight on youth battle of books. Third grade teacher. >> Although we have a sixth grade teacher here, too.
002>> She was unable to make it. >> Maybe just Abby do. >> All right. So, I'm Abby Dil. I'm a third grade teacher at the elementary school and I am in the adviser for Battle of the Books. Um, so have a little side of just what is Battle of the Books and then more importantly you get to hear from the actual participants because they're way cuter and fun to listen to than I am. So I'll give a little spiel of what is Battle of the Books and then you can hear these guys. There we uh so what is Battle of the Books? It's a statewide reading challenge really just to promote a level of reading. Uh there is three levels. We have an elementary. Um the books are actually meant for fourth through sixth, but
003because of the way our elementary is designed, we open it up to third grade. So third and fourth um at the elementary and then we have a middle school team that creates some other runs. Um uh really like why why do we have the books? Um it's been so fun just to see like igniting a passion for reading, really motivating students to read a diverse um set of books that maybe they wouldn't pick up otherwise. There's a great selection of fiction and non-fiction. Um encourages students to really think deeply about characters, motivation, setting, plot. Um the questions that they have to answer are really challenging. Um they have to really infer meanings behind books. Um so it's not just surface level questions. Encouraging students to develop their reading habits. Um and it's really just to
004promote a love of reading for all kids. So, how it works, there's pre uh 20 pre-selected books um chosen by librarians, teachers all over the state of Wisconsin. Kids can work in teams up to four. Um we had optional practices starting in October on Wednesdays. Um and then we just had our gradewide competition um end of February, February 18th, and then our statewide battle uh was February 25th this year. So, here is the book list. You can see there's a variety of genres. Um there's a mix of chapter books, picture books. Um some of them are really challenging, too. So, just neat to see some of these kids picking up books that maybe otherwise they wouldn't have. Uh here was some pictures from our elementary battle. Um the top picture you can see that was
005all the third grade participants. That bottom picture is all the fourth grade participants. So, they had a gradewide battle. We brought all the kids into the library. They had teams head buzzers. Uh it was basically Jeopardy style questions um about all 20 of the books and they either had to know the author or the title or sorry the um the name of the book wherever it was coming from or the author. Um so kids buzzed in. We had golden microphones the whole works going. Uh it was such a blast. All the kids in there cheering and rooting them on. Um, so the left side is our picture of our fourth grade winners and the right side was our third grade Battle of the Books winners for this year. Uh, I forgot to say too, we
006had over 64 kids. Um, almost every week at one point we got so big that I literally couldn't fit all the kids in my classroom anymore. So, we had to move practices into library because all the kids wanted to stay and read books and maybe just come for snacks. I don't know. But regardless, if they want to stay after school to read and talk about books, I think it's a win. So, uh, we had 64 kids actually participate in the battle, which was so much fun. So, I'll stop talking. You guys get to hear from these guys. I have Jake Frederickson, I have Sophie, and I have Brillin. Um, all three of them are also in my class, so they love me, too. But, I coax them to come tonight, and I thought you guys
007really want to hear from them. Um, so I'm going to have them answer two questions. What did you guys most enjoy about being in Battle of the Books? And, uh, what was it what would be a book you'd recommend to these guys? So Brandon, I'll let you start. Go ahead. >> My favorite part was probably reading all the books or having a team with all my friends. >> What book would you suggest for them? >> Go ahead, J. >> Um, it's really fun to pick up new books that I probably wouldn't read normally. Like, um, Vlad I probably wouldn't read. And then I read it and I discovered that I really liked it. It was a really cool book. And then I would recommend The One and Only Me Family. >> My favorite part was
008that I had something to work forward to because usually I just read Dilly Dally and my favorite book was Out of My Mind. >> Very good. And you guys are just holding something in your hand. You want to tell them about that? >> Um, go ahead. We had we we got um as we completed out books, we got keychain. We got beads to put on our keychain for each book we completed. >> Nice. >> Awesome. >> Will you guys do it again next year? >> Definitely. >> Sophie was actually already asking. She's like, "I didn't see there was a high school team." I said, "Well, we actually don't have a high school team." She said, "You need to change that." So, right when we got here, so working on that for next year. We do
009high school team. >> Do you guys have any questions? So, I visited your um uh >> Wax museum. What characters were each of you? >> I was Michelle. >> Nice. >> I was Michael Jordan. I was Jackie Robinson. >> Awesome. Very cool. >> Awesome. It was It was amazing. The people that didn't go, they each had they sat on the cafeteria bench. They had a little poster of what character they would and then they had a red button and you pressed the button and they stood up and explained who they were and character and dressed the character. It was phenomenal. It was awesome. >> You should probably have your dad buy you a 42 Jackie Robinson Dodgers jersey. Great. Any other >> Nice job, guys. >> Thank you, guys. >> Stitch, right? >> Stitched. Yes,
010exactly. The old world. >> Uh, next is virtual school. >> All right, Steph. Uh, Steph's gonna introduce this. She's online and then I'll play the audio. Good. might want to give a quick second. Oh, hold on a second. Can you hear me? >> Yep. >> Thanks, Miss Dard. >> Thank you. >> This is Yeah, this is >> Bye, Justin. Thanks. >> Okay. Perfect. So, thanks for having us. I know this recording is a little bit different. obviously than having someone in person. But this recording is really special to us because this student not only was aging out this year, which means if he did not finish classes by the end of the school year, he no longer was eligible through the state of Wisconsin to get a diploma because he's currently 20 years old. Um,
011but the student never showed his face on camera in any of his meetings, but was so excited to be finished and that the support that he had received, he was so excited about that that he was willing to record something for us to specifically share. He knew that's exactly what was going to happen with it. So, um, we were really excited for him. Obviously, it doesn't always turn out like this when we take a chance on some of these kids that are older and nearing graduation and super credit deficient, but when they put their minds to it and are determined, we are so happy that we were able to give them a chance to get a diploma. So, this is William Olsen, a super senior. Um, ignore his pronunciation of St. Craig Virtual Academy so
012that you can hear the message. I just wanted to preface with that. Um, but really, really special that he was willing to do this for us. So, we'll take a listen. >> Hello. Um, I don't really know what to say. There's a there's a lot of things I want to say especially how my experience has been with staying coach virtual academy but I guess I'll start from the beginning um around 2020 I was in Greenfield High School and I was getting bullied and I wasn't really doing the best in class and a lot of stuff was going on and with co coming around and then implementing the whole virtual learning. It opened me to a new way of learning and it also opened me up to starting to go away from high school and actually
013start doing virtual. Um I went to a virtual school and it wasn't a fit for me. I think I stayed there for about two years in that virtual school and um my grades were slipping and I wasn't doing good. The way that they um were trying to teach me was not working as well and I was starting to become a lot more lazier and afterwards um we clearly knew me and my family knew that it wasn't a good fit for me. If I look for a different school, that's what St. Academy came up when we were looking for new school to go to. I've been in the school for not in school literally, but on the laptop that you guys gave me. But I a lot has changed kind of towards the beginning. I still
014wasn't doing homework, but I was doing a lot more. and uh you guys were very open with how I was wanting to learn and do my my stuff and um I really wanted to graduate. Um I definitely hit some road bumps here and there, but it didn't really matter because you guys were there no matter what, especially uh Carson and Carly. Um it was a real eye opener for me and Uh, I realized that even if I don't like homework, I I need to do it anyways. And you guys being open to how what helped me do my homework was really I don't think I couldn't have gotten it done without you guys. I mean, I never really realized how much easier it would have been for me doing it verbally like how I did
015and how much I knew and like how fun it was to do homework and go to the meetings because doing homework and writing it down, you don't really get your point across sometimes. and me being able to just speak my answer was so much better and a lot of other things that went on. I was moving and you guys were really open with it and it made me want to push myself even more to make sure that I graduated and I don't think another school could have done it better than St. folks virtual academy, especially the teachers and the staff that uh have helped me along the way and I really appreciate all your guys' time and effort that you guys put into me and I wanted to make sure that that time and effort
016was not wasted and I personally think that St. Virtual Academy is if not the best virtual experience that any kid, including myself, could ever have. And I want to say from the bottom of my heart, I thank you guys for putting up with me in my ups and downs. and it did got uh got pretty close to the uh end mark, but I'm glad that I finished and I'm glad that everyone was rooting for me the whole time. And it just showed how how a good support system is so beneficial to students. And um I I really hope that this helps to show that you're what what you guys are doing and putting in all this work is really paying off because students like me need people and people like you so that way we
017can graduate because man it was a definitely a hard time figuring out what would best for me how to learn. I put in the effort and you guys accepted how I would answer using my effort and how I took the information and spoke it out in my own way. And I really do appreciate it and thank you all. Je have anything else to say? >> Yeah. So, obviously really excited for him and I just want to give a huge shout out to all the staff that worked with him and were able to support him and he talked about those ways that they were able to differentiate some of the work and assignments and quizzes and tests and let him speak some of his answers and get across that knowledge in a in a different way
018that worked for him. We have amazing staff and I I want to make sure to give all of them a shout out because they've all been working with him for a very long time. So, just want to make sure to acknowledge all of them tonight as well. >> Awesome. >> Thank you, Steph. Thanks. It's awesome. >> Thank you so much. >> Um CTE, >> hold on one second. something. >> Usually I bring it down. >> All right. Um when I was trying to think of what to talk about tonight, um I realized five years ago I was here presenting on um an update on Panther Catering and then as I was putting all my dad together, I was like, it's the 10th year birthday, >> which is like my second child. So, so anyway, I'm
019Courtney Hawkins. If you don't know who I am, I'm a family consumer science teacher here at St. Chris Central High School. Um, proudly having this role and the program that we have at St. Chris Central High School. Um, I could talk all day about how awesome of a program we have. So, I decided I kind of wanted to give an update from where we've come um where we're at now, where we're going hopefully. Um, so I was hired in 2014. Um, when I was hired here, I left a very small school. Um, and I remember talking to the administration when I was in my interview. And after leaving that school, I held um with the NHS group and a few other student groups a huge fundraiser um that helped raise money for one of our
020students who had um cancer and we had helped pay for his treatments. And so that was kind of my inspiration when I came here to SEC and I was like, man, I think I could really start a studentled food business. And so that's kind of was my my overall arching goal when I came here. So, um, we have obviously changed to where we are now. When we when I first started in 2014, I was blessed to work with Sue here. Um, we had a twoperson department and then she was blessed to be retired. No. Um, so we did, you can see our courses have changed since we have become a oneperson department. Um, I keep pushing Mr. Johnson like someday Miss Hawkins would love a second teacher. Um, and you'll see why on my next
021slide. But, um, we do have a very strong heavy culinary program. And I am so proud of that that we can offer all the culinary courses that we have because cooking is a very important life skill. Um but there's other important life skills that family consumer science also covers that we don't cover at the moment. Um but we'll get there before I leave. We will get there. So um new this year is I have the two independent studies which I kind of want to talk a bit about because you know how much I get inspired by kids that have an end all goal when they leave here. So right now I have an independent study student who is like at my heart right now. she is going um for baking and pastries and she her
022overall goal is she either wants to go into business or she wants to run her own bakery which is also like my retirement dream cuz why would I stop working? Um so when she told me that I was like you are going to be in an independent study. So like the last two days she has a 10 unit outline for what she's going to do before her last day as a senior in order to help her decide where she wants to go after she walks out our doors. and I am so blessed to be able to be a part of that decision process for her. So, and I get to guide her and watch the cool things that she's going to make. Um, like including croissants. So, I'm so excited because we never get to
023do that in class because it takes like two weeks. So, I'm pumped for her to get to do that. So, anyway, I just wanted to show you this to kind of show you where we are right now. Um, with my hope that we can add some extra classes in the future. We do want to get the cafe open to the community, but we kind of need an entrepreneurial class to run that. It's really hard right now, trying to get through all of our standards and run the cafe. So, we do run the cafe after school during the winter sports and that has been really good and successful. It ties in perfectly with the middle school play kids, too. So, thank goodness for the middle school kids because they're my best customers. So, all right. Anyway,
024my next slide. Um, this slide is one that just brings me joy. Um, you can see our growth throughout all of my time here has been huge. Um, but the next school year when I got the numbers from Mrs. Dino, I almost fell out of my chair. Um, 400 kids signed up brings me to tears for our culinary program. And so that makes me very proud that I have 400 kids that want to be in my classroom and learn what I teach. >> Yeah. So, it makes me proud that, excuse me, we have so many kids that enjoy food, but they want to be there. They want to be a part of what we have at SEC within our culinary program. So, any All right. All right. Change of roles. Another hat that I get
025to wear, um, other than being a foods teacher and a sewing teacher, um, I also advise our FCCLA group. So, if you don't know what it is, we're kind of a smaller group. for a little quieter group. Um, but we are a career and technical student organization. So, in the CTE department, we have CTSOs. So, that's what that means. Um, so we do a lot of community-based activities. So, the ones I have listed there, um, buckle up for a cup was our new one. This year, my students went out to the parking lot and they check parents and students to see, are you wearing your seat belt? And if you're wearing your seat belts, you get a Quick Trip coupon, which is awesome because if you don't know, I love Quick Trip. So, and I
026love people going to Quick Trip. So, when we had the speaker at our last PD day, I was like, I want to drive so bad. But anyway, um we also do community events. We've done um trick-or- treat for the food shelf where before Halloween, we will go around and just trickor treat for canned goods that we would then donate to the local food shelf or our um food pantry that's in need. Um, dining day is a specific family consumer ed event. It's held on December 3rd. Not a lot of people today eat their dinner around a table conversing with one another. So, ding day was created um from Family Consumer Science to kind of force people to sit down without a screen and just enjoy a meal together talking because there's a lot of value
027in that. I won't get into all the data on that, but that's something else that we really push for. Um, trunk junk is probably one of my favorite things that we get to do because I get to give away all these really cool prizes to our high school kids. Um, but they are we do it kind of before the snow flies. But they are prepped to clean out their trunk and make sure they have all the appropriate winter gear in their car so that if they go in the ditch or if they happen to have their car break down, do you have all the stuff in your car that you need in the event that something happens? So, we also get to give away like gas cards and subway cards um that we get from
028the St. C or it's not St. Cincinnat's Hospital. We partner with them for these. Um next month is our new campaign with the Wisconsin Children's Hospital. I'm so excited. Of course, another quick surprise. Um it's called the Mind on the Drive campaign. So, students have to download an app and then every time they ride or drive in a vehicle, they have to report it on their app. The app actually takes account for everything they're doing and then they then check it at the end of the month and they will come find me and then they either get um a free Culver's concrete mixer, a medium one, so it's a good size or $25 gift card quick drink. So that's a pretty cool one that they're starting new. So and then the last big thing that
029FCCLA does is we hold a mock crash scene. The last one we did was 201617 school year. over we're overdue for another one. Um because we work with the local police department and then all the other agencies involved in the crash scene. So we try to want to do it every four plus years so that students don't repeat the crash scene so they kind of know what's going to happen. Um so we are working on that for next year. I've already met with the chief of police in preparation for that. So hopefully we get that going next year. but takes a lot of work because we have to make sure nobody else gets injured that day so they can all be at our school to pretend to save people. So anyway, so that's all about
030FCCLA, another organization that I run at the high school. >> Any questions on that? >> On the uh mind on the drive campaign, so they record all of this. Is there any post activities that you know how often are you on your phone? you know, are you doing the right thing? >> That might be something we kind of hit on within our bonus hours because the teachers, I've emailed them the link of the videos so they can learn how to use the app. Since this is the first go at it, I don't know how it's going to go, but that would definitely be something that we would tie into because SLA actually has even a competition where students can create a video, like an advertisement about not texting and driving. So, it would be a
031good tie in, but I'm going to see how this goes first. So yeah, because one of the other teachers asked me like, I have freshman, can they participate? And I was like, they're riders. You can type in that you're a passenger because a passenger can also distract a driver. >> So that can make an impact and it makes them think about being a responsible passenger as well. So >> So I'm a little disappointed in your enthusiasm. >> Sorry. Appear to even care about kids. >> It's just awesome. I have to remember when you came and you had four young gentlemen, >> three Oh, sorry. >> That's okay. But I don't have to cry. >> They had three three of the kids had talked to the parents had talked to the principal about dropping out of
032school >> and they got involved in statewide competition of creating a venue and then preparing it. And they actually won this whole state tournament and they all finished school. It was I still brag about it, you know. Has to be 10 years ago at least. >> It is. It is because they were the the founding four kids of Panther. It was it was really amazing and just to see these kids that you know they all say they don't like talking in public and then they're here and talking to us like they're talking to a best friend >> and just how proud they were to present their menu and they prepared it for us and it was it just I mean it just evidence of what SEC but you in particular do to get kids to
033make sure you capture their attention and >> keep them in It was I mean those kids were not going to finish school. I mean their parents had already talked to Glenn Webb I think at the time about not finishing what that looked like. >> And so it was awesome. >> Yes. >> I just wanted to share all three of my boys that went through your class. They that's all they talk about when they come home. And >> Cohen was trying to drop >> table right was trying to drop his Spanish class because there was none of his friends in the class. but he would had to remove foods and he's like, "No way." >> I just wanted to share that with you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Well, my second child is
034Panther Catering and I added on Cafe on here um because even though we're not open to the community, I have some news and updates for that um in regards to community partnerships that we have formed and I'm so excited for what that's going to be. All right. So, as Jeff already talked about, um the four kids that started this program, um it was really weird. These four kids were in an independent study and we were all sitting around one day and we're like, "Okay, what are you going to do? You can't just come in every day and cook whatever you want. You have to have a meaning behind this independent study." And um I went to my mailbox and I got the thing about the culinary thing and I was like, "Interesting. never thought that
035this would probably be a thing in SEC and then they picked it up and looked at it and Rainey he is on the in the championship picture he's on the far right there he was like we can win this and so Rainey is probably the one I talk about the most because I am in most contact with Rainey secondly would be Nick Jones who's on the opposite left side there but um Rainey is the only student I have ever had in my classroom if any of you are bakers I know you know your mom's a baker but in baking, you have to be so precise with your measuring because it's all about food chemistry and how everything works together. Rainey made a cake in my class without measuring anything and it came out perfectly. I
036could not believe it. I was like, Rainey, you need to go into culinary. And he was like, I'm going to be a nurse and nest. I'm like, you're going to go into culinary. So, and it's funny because he did end the point to be a nurse and nestist. and then he stopped and went into coloring and said, "I should have listened to you in the first place." So, and I went, "Yeah, I know." So, anyway, these guys were the beginning. Um, like Jeff had talked about with this competition, you don't know anything about this competition. It's not just like a make a cool dish and then you present it and then you win. Um, there's a lot that goes into it. We had to write the recipe. They had to make sure it met all
037of the DPI guidelines for a healthy school lunch. So, we had to use reduced sodium chicken broth. We had to make sure we used a Wisconsin cheese that was low in sodium. We had to use Wisconsin grown vegetables. We had to make sure there was low amounts of sugar. Couldn't hardly use any sliced seasonings, which we did at the competition because I was like, there's a chef eating this, so you are going to season it appropriately. So because they didn't say we couldn't. So um but we had to calculate all of the calories and then we had to meet with then it was Tammy our food service director and make sure she could approve and we had to have students taste test it and feedback. So it was a long like three-monthl long process to
038do what we did. And then when we finally got to Madison it was like smooth sailing we got this. So, um, and I remember even Rainey saying to me in Madison, like he was peeking around at all the other kitchens while they were cooking and he comes up to me and he goes, we're totally going to win this. And I just went, I'm just going to take pictures of all of this kitchen stuff because this place is so cool. So, this is what I want my room to be like. And now we have it. So, anyway, um, when the catering program, >> those kids, those kids used residential stove >> in my classroom, right? But then when we got to Madison, they got to have the cool kitchen and so I was just like, so
039it was really cool. Um, and they loved it, too. So, um, but that year we started, we had four catering events. So, that's where we started. Today, I think it's on my next slide. Is it mine? Oh, why we started it? Okay. I told you it was my goal when I came here. I wanted to have a studentrun business. I didn't know what it was going to look like when I started until I met the four kids that I had. But what I wanted to provide some way because I knew kids worked in fast food, but that's not really a true glimpse into the culinary industry. So I wanted to provide them a real life hands-on experience of what the culinary industry was like. Did I expect them to go into it after that? No.
040But they got a good passion and idea for it and also learn some life skills that they'll use when they walk out our doors. Um, we also utilize Panther Catering in order to fund raise for our classroom because kitchen stuff isn't really cheap. maintaining it is not cheap. Bowls break all the time. Um except now on our nice soft floor, it doesn't, which is great. So, um but we needed some way to fund raise for some of the things that we needed in our room. And then lastly, we decided that it was a good community thing. It was nice to have um a catering program in house so that we can provide that service for a lot of the groups that we already serve within the school. So that was our why. This year we
041created a mission statement that is on the outside um of Panther Cafe. So um for me when I think about what I wanted coming out of our cafe, I wanted wholesome products, not prepackaged stuff, full of things that we don't know. I wanted it made by my kids um so that they had some value into it and that other people could be like, "Wow, where did you get this?" Came from Panther Cafe or Panther Catering. So, that's kind of our driving point behind it and why we put freshest, highest quality, homemade cuisine behind it because anything you get out of catering or our cafe was made with not only love, but made by our kids. So, that's where that came from. Well, these are just pictures of our past kids. I've been really bad about
042taking current pictures because I'm usually the one running around washing all the dishes and our cool equipment so the kids don't have to. So, these are some of our older kids in my old room and then what their service table looks like. So, all right. The other cool thing that Panther Catering has is obviously we're growing. Um, you can see year one, we started really super teeny tiny. COVID kind of killed us because not a lot of things happened postcoid. So that's why that year five was kind of our hard year. Um I believe most of the events we did that year were graduation parties. Not a lot of people we didn't have a lot of banquetss during that school year. So um when we look to year 10 as of yesterday when I counted
043everything that I already have in my calendar through June we're up to 40 events. That does not include um any graduation stuff that I have even don't have booked yet. So, I only have a wedding booked for an alumni kiddo this summer that I couldn't say no to. So, um the co-pazes because I've catered their daughter's wedding and I got Austin's wedding. So, um I had to say yes, I will do that. So, um there I expect that number to grow. So, our highest amount has been almost 250 per year. So, it just all depends on what the need is. So, but we're continuing to grow. So these are just some of the events that we cater. If you know me pretty well, I have a hard time saying no. Um so I find any
044opportunity that comes to me an opportunity for my kids and an in turn an opportunity for our program to grow and even develop. So um a lot of people are like, "Oh, you're really cheap." Yeah, we don't really we don't we when I talk about panic creating, we we never started this to be a huge money maker. It was never like in my head like, man, I make a million dollars by doing this. That's not my goal. It was always to teach kids about food service and appropriate um how do I say it? Safe serving of food. And so, and having that pride because that's why usually I tend to disappear during events when they're announcing like thank you to Panther Catering and I hide in the background because it's all about the kids. I've
045I'm not the kids aren't there and I always say don't tell me thank you. You go to the kids and you say thank you to them. They are the ones that do the work. I just put it in my calendar and go buy the groceries and provide the recipes. They are prepping it all. They're serving it all. They're cleaning it all except the dishes. I do that for them. So anyway, um this year we had awesome events in the cafe. We did um Mrs. Roseboom and I gave up our Valentine's Day because we just love the cafe in school. And so we spent Valentine's Day in the cafe. She did bouques with the panther floral and then I did cake pop bouques because over um Christmas break I got really addicted into watching cake pop
046reels and was like I think we could add this into our our cafe. Um so I did so much research on how to make cake pops. Like it was a little crazy. So my kid is probably like why do you watch so much cake pop videos? There's a lot of science behind making cake pops. So there's a lot of things involved to it. So, we made these little mini bouques and then we had like a six um cake pop arrangement that we put in like a floral sleeve and people could actually carry it out like flowers. So, that was really cool. We tied it in with one of the CDA events. So, we got a lot of people outside of SEC to come see our cafe. Um they didn't even know a lot about it.
047So, Mrs. Rose and I are able to talk about even the CTE businesses and teach people about what we're doing here at SEC. and they were like, "That's really cool." Um, so we also sold, which is what you're getting tonight, our um fourpack of our homemade muffins. So, we sold those as well. And then, of course, the other picture is our after school cafe. So, we usually sell homemade soft pretzels made that day. Um, Tuesdays and Thursdays during basketball season, we sell um homemade pizzas. So, J usually comes and eats. Um, we have nachos. That's the only thing I don't make homemade. Um, we have homemade cookies, the cake pops, and then we have our beverages as well. So, that's what we sell for our after school cafety stuff. All right, where does the money
048go? Goes back into the program to the kids. Um, we need more uniforms. We use that to get that. Like I said before, we use it to purchase equipment. Um, we've used it to purchase a lot of the stuff for the cafe like the, um, ash drawer, the scale we had when we ran the salad bar, um, any of those extra little things. So, um, we also knew I always when we started Panther Catering and Cafe, I wanted to always be able to give back to the community. Um, especially now that we got the new space, I was my goal that I wanted to always be able to give back. So, I um, chatted with Mr. Richie, every year Panther Cafe and Catering will sponsor an eighth grader to go on the Washington DC trip.
049We will fully fund their trip. Um, so that's an every year thing that I have worked out with Mr. Frriie. Um, I've contacted the police department to see what they may need um for like that family night that we had in August. I'm going to work with the library. So, we just want to keep giving back. So, that's my big goal. Again, we're not about making money. It's the giving back part. So, um, okay, this is the big thing. So excited about this. So, my partnerships with our community. Um, I met this last summer with a dietitionian professor from W. Stout and she was like, "We got to come up with a way to help you out. You have a great program here. We hear about it all the time at Stout about your culinary
050kitchen." Um, so she has a college student that is working on a community survey right now. Um, they've developed, they've worked with me and sent me emails about which questions I want in order to help successfully run our cafe. What does the community within our district need in order for us to open and effectively run this cafe? They have a whole list of every business from Robert's Hammond following area that they're going to go around and ask these questions to and send me the data which will then help us to really pinpoint what does this community want out of our cafe so that we're meeting the community needs but also meeting our needs for what our kids need to gain from running this cafe with a real world experience of a food industry. So that's
051the exciting thing. they would have been here to present, but they don't have the um market research done yet. So, it's coming. So, I'm super excited about that. Um our other partnership, the St. Cry Electric Company, we cater their annual meeting. We serve them breakfast every year. So, that's a great partnership that we have with them. The kids come in on the morning of their prom to serve them breakfast. So, that's really cool that the kids are willing to do that. Granted, they have to do a catered event, but there are kids that choose to come in on that morning of their prom. So, um, we have a great partnership with the Baldwin EMS. I cater their quarterly meetings for like the last two or three years, I believe. So, because he um, one of
052the paramedics, they came into my classroom and they would do CPR training and then they were like, "Do you do a catering business?" So, we have had that partnership for a few years now. So, um I am hoping to build up our community education within the culinary program, trying to find people that would want to host culinary classes. Um or potentially me in the future once I kind of get more off my plate, no pun intended. Um but I did reach out because I have such a great partnership with them, the Baloney EMS. They are happy to do stuff for our community ed whether it's teach the babysitting course, they are willing to do whatever we have for a need. So, and I even told them they can use my cafe. It's such a great
053spot. So, um, and then we have our usual partnership with any SEC group that we do for catering inhouse. So, we have a lot of lot of people that we reach out to for and feed. So, all right. So, what I want to do in the future, this is my my end all goal. Hopefully, we get there before I retire. We'll see. Got to keep the energy going, right? Um, so we want to continue to collaborate with our IDS kids. They currently are running the coffee shop side of it. We want to collaborate so we can open the cafe for the community and serve food. Um, one being the muffins that you're going to get tonight. Um, that's why we're going to utilize the baking and pastry arts class because they kind of more focus
054on those quick breads and yeast breads. Uh, versus like when we open the cafe for lunch, that would be more of our advanced foods kids because they will work the flat top grill, the deep fryers, those types of things. So, we may have deep fryers for donuts, but we'll see what the community needs after we get our market research. Um, the second one out there, I want to encourage students to enter more competitions because I am a competitive person, especially when it comes to food, because I think it just kids like to compete, but when they can compete with food, it just the creativity comes out. Like, it's just amazing what kids can talk about when they've made their own dish. I've really changed even in my classroom a lot of my assessments to create
055something with these ingredients and talk to the teachers about it and listening the kids talk about how they created this dish and where their create like mind went. It's just fascinating to me as a teacher. So um my big goal before I retire I would like to host a middle border conference culinary competition. However, no other family teachers want to do it. They say you're crazy and that's too much work, but I say no, we're going to do it. So, um, years ago, I reached out to some some chefs in Hudson area and they were like, yeah, that's cool. We'll do it. But then I went to my conference for getting some teachers and they were all like, no, that sounds crazy. And I was like, it's not. I think it's cool. Okay, so someday
056it's coming. It's coming. I'm not going to give up on it. So, um, I'm pushing some more kids to try to do FCCLA STAR events so that we can get more kids in the competition. They're just terrified to do anything and present, but I'm like, it's not that bad. So, um, or we can do Skills USA, which is a whole CTE, another competition kind of group, but it's specific to career areas. So, it's not only just panor, it's Tekken, there's egg in there as well. So, and then, of course, we want to keep Panther Catering going. We want to keep providing our food service to the community and most importantly I want to keep giving back to this amazing community that has embraced what I do so and supported us. >> Any questions catering event?
057How small how big events >> oh >> have you done or can you do >> I think our biggest event was 1500. >> Oh wow. >> That was a big one. My classroom was full of food, like boxes of chips piled high to the ceiling. But yeah, that was probably our biggest one. I think the second largest would have probably been 800. >> And how small? >> So 50, maybe even less depending on how many people show. So, and this year I did kind of change my pricing um because of economy stuff, but also the way that we do um like our meal service. So if we have groups that are over 50, we charge per plate. In the past, I charge just for how much we made, but it gets to be a lot
058when you have like 800 people. So it's just easier to charge per plate. So, and I usually charge per plate based off of our cost because again, we're not really aiming for massive profit. So just to cover our cost and a little bit extra. >> I only upcharge 30%. >> You need to change that and make money off of it. Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing for donations. >> People are saying, "Why is it so cheap? >> Doesn't need to be. You can still be competitive, but >> yes, but I don't have the employees to pay like every other catering business, too. So, I don't have the overhead, but I know I hear it from my boyfriend all the time. He's a business guy. I charge way more." And I'm like, "I just
059I'm a cheap person." And >> we'll just cut your budget. Suddenly, >> you got religion. >> Do you want to hand out? Okay. So, we made our muffin packs for you. They have four muffins. It's double chocolate. Um lemon poppy seed, blueberry, and then um white chocolate raspberry is in there for you to enjoy. So, thank you very much for letting us >> do. Thank you. >> Oh, and we now have um cool stickers that were printed by uh Mrs. Steven's class. So, >> they come on our cool little boxes. Now, That was wonderful. >> Thank you. >> I'll leave it. >> All right. Thanks again. Am I the only one that's whatever? Anybody >> sign up for public comment? >> No public comment. Perfect. comments from board members and superintendent. >> We get to
060congratulate Ron for his appointment and do the oath of office. Callie, you >> so he has the oath already. You can just stand, raise your right hand and then read that paragraph there. >> You're on the right. I Ron Stave have been elected or appointed to the office of St. Croy Central School Board of the State of Wisconsin. Swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Wisconsin and will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of set office to the best of my ability. So help me God. >> Congratulations. >> Congrats. >> Thanks for stepping forward. >> Uh pack. So, you should still have the information. Cali just needs to know uh who would like to go and commit so um she can get you signed
061up because that's uh just a couple weeks away. >> Not the one. >> No, this is Inter Lake. >> Oh, >> this is the guy that on AI. I've heard really good things, very good presenter. Very good information. >> We've had some good speakers. >> I will go. >> You say you're going Dave? >> Sure. >> So, so far I have Dave, Tim, and Jeff. You said you could go, right? >> I think I should be able to >> I'm available as well. >> What time it starts? >> It's 6. >> So if we leave it included, >> Dinner is at 6. >> Registration is at 6. Dinner's at 6:30. >> Okay. >> 5:30 from here. >> It's Yeah. 45 minutes. Give ourselves an hour. >> That should be around 5ish. >> You'll drive. >>
062Yep. Yeah, get school. >> When you got to know by >> I think Monday is the deadline for registration. So >> as soon as you can >> multiple >> then there's another um event that Eric and I have gone to in the past. I I can't happen not to be able to go to this one, but it's a schoolboard summit put on by the was Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty. It's really good. Lots of interaction, small um group things. Um pretty much have to stay overnight because it starts at 7:30 in the morning. So you to get to Madison area. But if I'd encourage anybody that want to go to that to sign up and the school will pay for it. >> I'm definitely out on that one. >> I can't go I cannot
063go. >> That's a Friday. >> Friday. >> Do that on a Friday. >> Okay. >> And then I think last meeting we talked about possibility of moving our regular meetings to Monday instead of Wednesday. Anybody that >> All in favor say I. Just kidding. >> Anybody that couldn't do Mondays. >> So Monday permanently mean it there's some conflict with baseball and then I don't know. I mean I'm not 100% opposed to it. I just it's going to cause a little conflict. >> Couple of months you would in those months we could either >> change it or >> Right. It's I'm just saying like it's I'm sure Lance is thinking the same thing, but Tuesday through Thursday is generally when we travel to have to shut down. >> I mean 25 years we met on Monday.
064>> Yep. I mean next next week um month we're meeting at Monday April 13th already. Um, one thing I thought of too, we discussed as an admin team, um, is there generally music, band, and choir concerts are Mondays, but we could be intentional about they're already out, so avoiding them, and we could even do our best to baseballs on Mondays. >> You know, we're talking really probably April, May, and June. >> Yeah. >> Right. So, we could finagle that and try to stay away from that. And then my question would be we're already meeting in April and then our reorganizational meeting in May um is when you set the board meeting dates for the year and we present. Um do you want to move May's currently or wait till that Wednesday um May 20th meeting
065to do that >> for the May 18th. >> Yeah, before the 20th. Currently it's the 20th. Monday's just in general work better. >> Yep. May 18th open as well. So >> May 17th is the pancake breakfast for victory. So >> keep that on your calendar. >> Let's do it. Let's move that >> May 18th and then we'll we'll um >> put together the proposal for the year like we do in May and send that out ahead of time. conflicts if we have to change. >> Correct. >> And also be mindful of financial if we can have reports done in the year where we need that one back. >> So for um June too, >> we'll set it through May and then May we'll set for the next year and then we'll So it'll be June
066the Monday in June. >> We've already set June. That's right. This >> for this year. So when we set the next year, it starts in July. >> What's the June date? 17th. >> 17th. Wednesday the 15th. I guess >> the 15th works better for me, but the 17th I'll be in Fargo. >> And I'm out of town the 7th. That week, that whole week with family thing in South Dakota. >> Looks like from now on you guys end up working better. Yeah, because all all like the events on whatever will be for the next year so we're not >> right. >> Yeah, we'll work with RG and Chance. >> So with the music and athletics >> without objection, we'll just do that take care of it. >> Good. >> Then we'll confirm at the reord
067meeting. >> Yep. Okay. Okay. Now we have special guests to talk about the SEC mental health. >> Sure. >> Thanks for your patience. >> Good evening. I'm Sue Frank. Um Johnson, >> long time member of the community and a past employee of the district. And I love the community. I love the children in this community. And that's one of the reasons why we're here is to talk about the mental health fundraiser that we do and we've been doing for years because we want to get those kids and help them as much as we can. And what we we're doing tonight is mostly the PRs to tell you when the event is. And these are our posters. Um please share the information with everybody and get the word out there. the format will be similar to
068what it was last year and that we went to Barnboard and we coordinated with them so that they proceeds from that evening go back to our program and it's 30% and it's um it's anything if you come in and you order a drink at the bar or if you place an order at home and go in and take it out it goes from the time that the event starts at 4 and it will go through until 8:30 and at lunch she She would run until 9. >> She would run till 9. >> And last year it wasn't real busy. She even let the bar cap rope till 10. >> And it is on April 22nd. >> Please mark that down. Um from 4 till 8:30. So if you get there at 3:30, anything that goes
069through the register after 4:00 is counted. So, if you order pizza to go, be sure that it's >> picked up and paid for after 4. We need everything we can get. >> Yeah. >> Um, >> and we have raffles. We'll have baskets of flowers. If you were there last year, we have things to raffle off. We have It's just a really good event for the community to get out and and and support the kids in our district. So, we en encourage everyone to come and at least acknowledge it. Um, we give the money back to the district and then it's used for anything related to the mental health of our kids. And it's just I've been here and experienced the hurt of losing some of the kids that we've had and that it's just I
070can't imagine as a parent and as a grandparent now that what it would be like to have that happen. So, >> I don't think it's too mess mentioned, but this is sponsored by Trinity Lutheran Church in Hammond, >> in case you're not aware. Um, I think we've done this 10 to 13 years or something like that. Started off with waffle feeds >> and then we've had spaghetti dinners >> and as we are getting older, at least I am, it's much easier to have them do the cooking. >> I don't. and they will have a special menu. I think there's about eight items on there that you can pick from. So, Lisa Iverson, who's a manager over there and a graduate of SEC, she is so excited to do all of this and she's been wonderful
071to help us out and work with us. She made sure that these information got to Kip and we got these posters and Sue picked them up and um so anyway, it um it's been a lot of fun. It's it's work, a lot of behind thes scenes work that people don't see. Uh like this sort of thing and they get in the paper and um of course then we get to go shopping at Gurtens for the flowers. This is also sponsored by Thrivant in case any of you know what Thrivven is? Anybody not know what Thrivven is? Okay. So, uh I apply for the card and we get $250 free money. So that helps us buy our flowers and if there's any other expense. So um >> everything goes back >> to the program. >> You
072know some of us we donate to things like you donate this and I'll help out with the bulletin bulletin and so there's a lot of things that we try and donate as part of it because we want every penny that is there come back to SEC mental health awareness. >> Thank you. Thank you guys. >> Thank you. Can we see you there? >> Just put it on the calendar. That's my night to cook. >> Just one thing. Um, I don't know who's in charge of the Facebook page for SEC. Are you? >> Okay. So, when she gets it out there, I'm challenging all of you to share, share, share, share. I put it on mine and I just keep telling people to share and keep pulling it up every week and towards the last you
073can pull it up every day. That's the best promotions we can get. >> Cool. >> So, okay. >> Thank you very much. >> 22nd of April. >> Yes. >> Clifton Larson Allen, >> you're up. I'm probably not as entertaining as everybody else tonight with third graders. I didn't need two of them. >> Okay. Sarah in the audit board audit. First, I just want to thank you guys for all your support over the years. Jen, I didn't miss you. So, um the staff is always great to work with. They make the audit process go really well. So, we're in and out. We do. So, anyway, just wanted to thank you. Um, I think I sent out a handout that Jen Ford did to you guys >> um yesterday. >> Should be right on top of the
074financial statements. >> So, we're going to use that as a little summary instead of going page by page and the financial statements. So, just kind of a summary of the audit results. Um, the first item we're going to cover is the audit opinion. um you get an un unmodified opinion in the financial statements which is the best one that you can get your bonding agencies DPI they all like to see that so that's great um this year we'll say that we had to do an implementation of the SSB 101 which has to do with compensated assences um in prior to this we would take a look at your your like vacation and sick leave and if you didn't weren't you don't pay out when they terminated or retired um you didn't liability ility. But with
075Gatsby 101, they changed it and they're like anything that is um has basically hasn't been used and we had to do a calculation. We now had to record the li or report the liability for that. So that's going to be a change that you'll see that you've seen in um if you looked in the financials and the debt section and and there's some extra disclosures related to that, but um so we had to implement that this year. Um then we're going to talk about the management letter. Um the management letter we do um report any findings that we have for the district. Um our reoccurring one is lack of segregation of duties which is normal. Um pretty basic. You just don't have the resources available to properly segregate the duties. Um this year we had
076to do one for material audit adjustments. Um and it was just because of SPS um forward health revenue was reported in fund 27 and it was a max settlement payment and that had to be reported in fund 10. So we had to move that out of there and then we had to adjust that transfer from fund 10 and fund 27. Otherwise we didn't have any other um adjustments that we had to make. It was just that one and it became material based on our materiality. So we had to report um but one it was two entries I made up but it was related to the same thing and um I'll take that compared to some others that we see. Um next we have our compliance. Um we have to do compliance on state and various
077state programs and federal programs. Um, we did not find any non-complaints on the state side, but this year we did have one. We tested food service and we had to report a finding on that um during for the child nutrition cluster. Your internal control process, you have um your determining official that reviews the application. They make the they do the calculation, they do the determination, and then they sign the back of that application saying that they did. Then they had um your confirming official that essentially reviews it, make sure that the determination is correct and signs back it. And they noticed that there was not signatures on the applications for one of the officials. So we talked about it during the audit. Um Jen immediately went into action, got it taken care of. Um so
078hoping now that in with the change in staff and everything that this is being done. Um if you if the district needs a single audit next year, we will have to test that program just to report that it is good. But I'm assuming the way that things happened like during the fieldwork and it was immediately taken care of and um I'm confident that it will be. Um, speaking of single audits, um, the OMB had changed in the past. Um, if your federal funding was 750,000 or more, you had to have a single audit. Um, well, for the 2526 school year, it's now changed to a million. So, we'll see some districts falling off and not needing that single audit, which is huge. So, we just have to kind of see as we go, you know,
079what kind of funding that you've gotten. You're not getting that the ESO programs done. Um, you had a major one with the WI or the CBTC workforce development. You're getting a lot of money from that. So, might be pretty close to not needing one, but we'll have to see from there. Um, also related to those changes that the OM did, um, they're changing the threat the capitalization threshold for, um, assets that were purchased with, um, federal funds to 10,000. Um, so we just kind of talked about that about maybe changing the district's policy to be, um, the same as that. Right now, your your capitalization policy is 5,000. So when we come in and we do the audit or during the year, Jen and stuff, they track that and anything over 5,000 um that fits
080into the capital asset gets capitalized in your assets. Um so by changing that you we would now capitalize things that 10,000 or more. >> Yeah. And we actually did bring that to the board in the fall. So >> Okay. Yeah, >> that's taken care of. I just I couldn't remember. I didn't know. >> Yep. >> So just thought I'd mention that. So you can ignore that comment now. >> No, you're fine. >> But um again that um that million dollar threshold is changed um for the 25 2640. Um just a couple other things that we help with. We have the examination report that we do for the aid certification. Um the district has to do their aid certification and auditors have to do one and make sure that that matches. So then they can keep
081moving forward with their annual report. So we assist in doing that in in those submissions. Um as part of the single audit process um you have to file a data collection form. So we get that all prepared. Um get all the data entered and essentially let the client know that it's ready. They just review it. they submit it or they certify it and then we do the final one to the bureau of census as well and then we also as mentioned we do the compilation of the fixed asset reports. So we work through and come up with report for additions removals during the fiscal year and we run a report for that. Oh the next one we were going to be talking about the funds of the district. The first one we're going to be
082talking about is the general fund. That's the main operating fund of the district. Um it accounts for all the financial resources not required to be um reported in another fund. Um just to note that in your um in this data in the front part of your report fund um the general fund fund 10 and fund 27 are combined together. So when we look at this general fund we're talking about the two together. um there wasn't really any significant changes um compared from 24 to 25. um do from other governments. Um you'll see that that did go down, but again that has to do with the use of the ESR funds not having that receivable at the end of the year because those funds are now done. And then um a majority of the um CBTC
083funds were spent the prior year, so there wasn't as much. Um that will also those items also come into play with a little bit of the decrease in revenues that you have. that that was the major reason why um looking at the fund balance um the nonspendable fund balance that has to do with your prepaid assets that you have. So it's essentially their expenses that were paid prior to the year end and um we set up that asset and then we record the expense later but you know they may want their money by um the end of the year so you just pay that. Um the last couple prior years we had a restricted fund balance that had to do with common school funds but during 2425 those were all spent. So that restriction is
084removed and then you have your unassigned unassigned fund balance which can be used for any other financial resources that you need within the district. Um they already kind of mentioned the revenues those had decreased but the reasons were they didn't have all that esser funding or the CBT funding and then we also had in the prior year had um emergency connectivity funds which you didn't have very much of that this year. Um and then the expenditures were pretty consistent with the prior year. Um so you do your fund balance um you decrease your fund balance by 130,000 um >> but because of the total budget going down without the er fund our percentage actually went up. >> Yes. Yep. Yep. >> Um that yeah we have that calculation there for the percentage of un unassigned
085fund balance to your general fund expenditures. Um quite a few years ago the district have adopted a fund balance policy and your policy states that your unassigned fund balance should be about 17 to 19%. And as you can see from that calculation you're at 17%. You've been pretty consistent over you know in these like last four years here where it was um kind of recommend doing 25% but no need to. I mean, you guys are financially you're okay. You can find about you you want to look at it as doing like three to four months worth um being able to have your fund balance there to cover like three four months worth of expenses in the event that something happened. But um okay, second page. Um here we just record on your fund balance level.
086So um the first ones we're going to talk about are your special revenue funds and these u have specific purposes um that these funds can be used for um education and trust is your fund 21 that's for your scholarships and your student activity funds. Then you have your food service fund and then your community services. Um little bit of change between the food service and the community service. Um when I looked your expenses for both those have went down but um your revenues also went down. So there's a decrease in like food service um federal aid. >> So didn't we have a large food service program that kind of what ended last year? >> It was kind of the year before when they had all that that all the kids could eat >> free lunch
087program. >> You were getting a lot more money back then than what you are now. And so now that's kind of went away. And then um >> so what's our community services fund? What does that go for? >> Like the athletic teams and >> the daycare a large portion of >> mental health fund their funds go into that. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So that's just what your fund balances for at the end of the year. Um the next one is the debt service fund. Um this fund here you have fun 38 and fun 39. And that's used to account for your principal and interest payments and other um debt related expenditures that you had during the year. Um this is supported by you levying to these funds to help pay for those principal and interest
088payments. Um during the year you did have a debt defense um of about 3.4 4 million that you did that was um principal and it was applied to the July 13 2022 GL refunding bond. So you did this defasence. Um there's money that goes into escrow that helps pay for this not later on but you had 2.4 million extra principal that you paid because of this defeasence. Um so in total your principal payments were about 4.7 million and your interest was about 1.3 that went through this um that surface fund. Then the next ones are your capital project funds. Um the district has two. You have your fund 49 which has been used to support your high school, middle school, elementary school projects and stuff and and part of the CBT project. Um that fund
089balance obviously direct uh reduced drastically. You're almost done. Um that work is still construction work in progresses in their capital assets or in your that part of the note disclosure because it wasn't all the way done yet. So in 2526 it'll all be done. It's fun will be closed out unless you're doing more projects that we need to keep it open for. Um but then we'll be capitalizing the project. And then you have a fund 46. This was um created back in 2015. Your initial um investment into that was $50. So you're just earning interest, but essentially it was funds that the district had set aside. You had to hold on to that those funds for like five years and then you could start using them. you have a capital improvements plan and stuff that
090you look at and you review every year, but just the way everything else has worked, you just haven't been able to put >> I don't think we got to talk about that one anymore. >> We're good. That funny >> still out there. >> That one is that the dollar has to remain in there for five years or we had to put dollars in there to keep the account open for five years. >> I think the account had to be open for five years. I don't >> It's not It's not a dollar has to sit there forever. >> You would put in like if you put in a hundred,000 every year. You wouldn't have the 100,000. You just had to wait five years from the time that you haven't sent anything. Just gaining some interest. >>
091You're teaching me. So I'm sure >> um >> what's the fund number for the capital project fund? >> 49. >> Yep. Yep. And then um the next area is just the long-term obligations. Um so we have a summary here of um what your outstanding balances were for your your general obligation bonds, your anticip anticipation notes. I guess you didn't have any of that this year, but and your promisary notes. Um we did have um a finance purchase during the year um for the purchase of two um passenger buses and so that was amounted to $283,746. Um so we added that to that project. Now last year you didn't have any principal or interest payments that you did on the finance purchase because last year you prepaid a bunch of those. you couldn't pay them off,
092but it just meant that you wouldn't have the principal and interest payments coming through. So, um but you do have that new purchase agreement that is reported as other financing s sources um in the general fund for that. Um then we have uh done a calculation of your debt limit. So they take your equalized value and 10% of that is how much debt the district can um borrow up to and you're at 29.4. So you have lots of capacity for debt if you do but then you have to pay that off. So >> So what what would be that number? About a 100 million would be our total capacity. >> Um let's see 39 short of that. Yeah. because it would be your that amount and then you take off the bonds and the promisary
093notes. So just short of that if >> do that. >> So um that was all I had just a brief little summary. You didn't have I mean still had a lot going on but not a lot of changes. Everything was pretty much consistent and um work with the budget that you had and stuff. >> Percentage of debt limitation. What do you what's your recommendation there when you're not in a referendum period? We're at 29.4. Obviously, it's gone down drastically over that. >> Just because you've been paying your principal and then you have that big um you've been giving things. So >> So does I mean is there a recommendation or is it just like hey you're going to you should be going down every year that you're not in major project. Okay. But I mean
094if you went into um let's say you probably did that with something and you went in I mean right would look at and like that's probably pretty reasonable. You're only at 29.4% of your actual capacity. I guess I don't know really if there is, you know, like an 80% >> when you're going to buy a house or a rental property and you need 80%. You know, uh I don't know. I'm just thinking like if we had to leverage money, we would be in good shape. >> Yeah. Yeah. you would probably be in good shape all and however they >> that's just for capital stuff. >> Yeah. >> So this is only for capital improvements. >> Yeah. >> Oh >> any operational referendum right at the tax levy. >> Yeah. >> That doesn't show up on
095>> Derek point. You know I mean you work with a lot of school districts. Is this >> I have some that don't have any debt at all. >> You know um >> ones that are falling apart. Yeah, but they're smaller, right? >> Um it all depends upon the projects that >> you have going on, the improvements that you made. Some of them made um years ago. Um >> and you don't get to borrow money without the voter approval. So >> yeah. >> Yep. Yeah. So >> So I'm kind of an audit committee wonk. I've been on national audit committees and a bunch of audit committees and can fly species with the best of them. School audit finances maybe a little less complicated than hospitals hospital board too. Um, but this is incredibly detailed and Jen,
096I've been here all the time. Jen has been here, but the the fact that we don't have adjustments. I mean, we had a little hiccup this time, but the fact that we don't have adjustments is just amazing. And it's a credit to Jen and her work over the years. And I was on one audit committee. We had 18 material witnesses or witnesses material weaknesses and the next year they still had 18 material weaknesses. They didn't do anything about it where we get it noted and a week later it's already corrected before you were even gone. >> So that's really a credit to Jen and her team. In the past, I think our other ones have been related to that because um like how DPI tells you you net your premium and your and your expenses
097>> and we can't do that. So um when we found that one she was talk about it and she was on it and she'll send me something like did I do this right now before the audit even comes. So >> it's always warming to me that people >> like >> care that >> it's being done right. To me it's huge. It's like you know because I I have some a Sarah will fix it >> or they try to fix it and then it's all over the place and you got to follow through. It's just what you do and it is what it is. But I always appreciated that she, you know, they care. If you go to them, you talk to them about something and they're like, "Oh, let me do that. We're letting you
098figure that out. So, I have a feeling it's gonna continue. >> Yeah, >> we just have a really good team. >> Jen's last board meeting and she has really set the bar successor. >> We really appreciate all this hard work. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> And they all do a great job while we're here. So, we appreciate it. >> Yeah. >> One of my It's my second one that I start out with. So, >> well, and you weren't there probably, but it was Tracy something when that assumed Clifton Larson Allen. >> So, Tracy and Tol I was um I was like their office manager >> and so >> they did it for years before Clifton Tom was that and they merged with Lars now and it was kind of like a lot of my
099duties had now been taken away because they're corporate or whatever. So Tom was like, "Nope, you're going to serve it out in the field." And and um so now here I am years later. >> He was not as interesting as you were. >> I tell you, we always tried to do what we could to get him to laugh. We would do our stage or something just to get him to laugh. But >> it's not a hard. >> Any other questions? Just curiosity. you want how how long does the an audit take when you go into a school? >> Well, >> some field work here is um well, you know, we do have stuff that we have them upload sometimes so we can get stuff ready. My thing is like fine, we'll get our testing set
100up and do that so we don't have to drive here and do that, but it's like all set up. So, we come here, we send it ahead of time, here's what we're going to test. And so, we did that to them. And I'll have Kyle sitting here for us. And you know, depending on what's going on, if there's like a lot of projects going on, a lot of debt being issued, I might be here like a date longer. Usually, um, I have it scheduled for the week, but sometimes I get stuff done. And >> how many people come for a week? >> Um, I usually have two others that will come. um >> you know, then we >> you there's always stuff that we're waiting for or whatever. Um some of the delays with um
101actually issuing the financial statements um has to do with the WR that we have. We have to wait for these reports to come from the state. So even if I have everything done up until then, I can't I can't without having that WRS. So, um this past year, um it was really really close because of um the um single audit requirements. They didn't finalize all of the compliance supplements, so we had to wait and wait and wait. So even though we had to wait on use our old testing templates depending what they decided to change um we couldn't issue any reports until they finalized it and they did not finalize that until I want to say this >> November I mean it was really like you have all these then everybody's sending theirs in to
102review they're putting all that some of the testing changed the requirements so then you'd have to go back through and do that. But usually in a good year, if we're just waiting for WRS, um your guys is just one of the first to go through. I have you guys and one other one like they're they're in around the same time because I have everything done. I've reviewed the work of others. Um, so it's usually issued pretty quickly in that terms as soon as WRS is released, but we can't do anything until >> usually on site like three days, right? Pardon? >> Three days here. >> Yep. Usually on site three days. Yep. Um I usually um I might not send other people back, but I just come to work on things to make sure everybody's
103happy, taking care of whatever. So >> cool. >> Yeah. Right. >> Thank you. >> What will we feel from this gasb 101 compensated absences really? >> Um it's just it's more of a we do a conversion. So you have your final statements and then in your financial statements there are two um like a statement and not provision. They're just conversion like you look at it and I wouldn't make any financial decisions off of what is in those first two. But we have to take that liability and spread it out and then it gets converted into those and then reported on there. But you're not going to see the liability uh in your general fund or in your other funds. It's more of a thing. So you can change your li I mean if if you
104wanted to know what people's balances were what you had like if everybody was going to leave this year, you you weren't paying them out. But >> no, >> motion to accept the audit report. >> Do we? >> Yeah, I think we usually do. >> Motion to accept the audit report. >> Second. >> Move and second. All in favor say I. >> Both. Motion carried. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> Okay. Treasury report. >> Great. record reflect that they've snuck in late. >> I don't have as much detail as she does, but as of 227 2026, our balances include Citizen State Bank checking 2,39,492.92. Citizen State Bank money market $12,29721.46 is $62.33. Suicide prevention account is at $5,519.16. Death service account is $935.34. Referendum account is at $62,94 even for a total
105balance of $2,390,400.96. >> I know I asked this last time, but I forgot. When do you have to have the referendum money spent by? Uh >> there is no like hard and fast rule, but we're going to have it closed out here within the next couple weeks. I think there's like >> before the end of the fiscal year. >> Yeah, there's about $1,1200 to spend yet. And Brian Johnson is looking into purchasing a cooler for the floral department. So, >> have a motion to accept the credit report. Motion to accept the treasures report. >> Second. >> Move and second. All in favor say I. >> Oppos. >> Motion carried. >> Consideration of consent agenda. We have approval of minutes for the February 16th meeting. Approval of weekly bills for February 2026 and approval of curricular
106modification requests for students to enroll in full and part-time virtual courses. We have 44 part-time modifications and four full-time for a total of 48 modifications. A motion to approve the consent agenda. So move. >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. I. >> Oppos. Motion carry. >> Student enrollment. All right. Uh it's been a good year in terms of in seats. Uh it's a little anomaly. You can see last year, September 24, we started the year 1592 and ended at 1572. It's kind of typical to lose around 10ish kids. It was 20 last year a lot, but we started at 154 and we're um we're up to a high 1559 last month. That's still holding steady at 1557. Again, those are number of students in seats. And then it breaks it down the size
107of our um schools there. um you know roughly 5 500ish each school. Obviously elementary is our biggest 4K uh as of yesterday own actual applications and paperwork done signed sealed and delivered kids were at 72. Uh so it's trending really well already for next fall even more than we thought. Right. >> Well yeah um it is already too. So we've it's you know only mid-March. So what do we we were guessing 60 something next year, right? >> That's what the census show would have thought was >> 68 or 72 maybe it was but yeah um and we know there's there's more in cost. So that's trending trending well >> with our capacity >> uh I believe it was 18 for thing so I thought it was 90 93ish we were >> kind of in our
108cab capacity. >> Yeah. Is that that's facility capacity >> class size? We'd like a class size of 18. Yeah, we could always take a few more pair or paras. Yeah. >> Um and then I always like to look at the virtual school grid. Um our virtual charter school 310 again it's been trending positively over last year's benchmark all year. 36 of our district students are full-time in our virtual uh school. 102 are taking part-time courses. Just to prove some more, >> 48 48 just this month. >> When we call that part-time, is that just a student in class who may be taking class? >> They're attending. >> They're still in school, not >> correct. Taking extra or something in there. >> And I presume we just get state aid for a butt in seat. We
109don't get virtual ed credit. >> Correct. They're an FTE. They're one FTE. They're >> taking one person. >> We get less for a virtual student than we get for the >> We get less for a open enrolled student. So these are district kids. So 36 there we get the full 12,138 >> I think 88ish 88. for the open enroll. >> There's more now. >> More than that. Why can't I not spy it on my stuff here? Um 10,102. >> Oh, yeah. >> So, yeah, you take that times, you know, uh 310 kids. It's a nice number. So, we have, it's a long story, but a young woman, there's a 16-year-old daughter that may end up living in our house because she had a place to live. So, they live in Ellsworth now. So, if she
110is here, can she go to regular ed or do we enroll her in virtual ed? How do you do that? >> She can be in person or virtually. Just has to do the open enrollment. >> Can't compete in sports. It has to be a full family move. Oh. She lucky >> lucky to get her in school. So >> we'll figure that out. We haven't ar >> and again we've always done well with our virtual school with our difference of open enroll students in >> but she would be living in the district. >> So how do you >> she would be considered a resident. >> Yeah. So she would >> y >> and so she would be in res for enrolling in our school. >> Again, athletic eligibility totally different course. >> I don't think she's
111moving here for athletic. >> All right. And again uh thank you to all the ladies and each of the schools u office for putting this together. I mean it's a lot of kids to keep track of and know exactly what that status is, you know, and each year there has to be a little bit of an adjustment, right? because I mean we don't know everything about everything and and um sometimes the families don't tell us you know whatever where they're living or where they moved or um but it's amazing how many people change on the last day. >> Oh really? >> Oh yeah >> the last day of school year >> the count you know. >> Oh that Friday >> we have to approve this or accept >> it. It's just the monthly report. Yep.
112>> Okay. Any questions on that? E work of the school board. Anything you have recognitions >> we do. Uh Katrina Gooding and Taylor Browning. Uh congratulations on your accomplishments at the FBLA regional meet and on advancing to state. We're incredibly proud of your hard work and dedication. Uh an absolute fantastic achievement for you both. Uh Tracy Crowley and Sammy Gibson. Uh thank you both for your support of our students in FBA. Your guidance and encouragement and commitment plays a huge role in their success. Um I know we appreciate your time, your energy that you invest in helping them grow and achieve their goals. Uh Evan Weatherly, thank you for sharing your performance with the uh choosing to recite your great great great uncle's I think I great great great uncles >> poem was was very
113special and you performed them wonderfully. So thank you very much for that. Um Maria Pollson, Mandy Langman and Kirsten Bosniler, thank you for your hard work and support of the students in the middle school competitive speech. uh your dedication uh and guidance of these students to help them find their voices, develop their talents and shine in every speech and performance. >> Thank you guys. >> Okay, thank you. >> More agenda items. Consideration of approval of shared service contract with CISA. You >> want me to take it or >> Yeah, the sum. You do the summary. I can take the other one if you want take the summary. They're kind of the same thing. >> Yeah, I did the cost summary. So, we do have some items like the administration piece for CISA that's increasing about
1147 and a half%. Um, but overall, we're sitting at about a 2.65% when you compare the costs from this year to next year. And the one thing that we are no longer going to subscribe to is the CTE library. So that's saving about $1,000 from the prior year. >> What's the explanation of it going up? Their cost going up so much? >> I'm sure it's mostly staffing costs that CISA so they figure out what their >> overhead overhead cost >> spread out amongst the 39 39 districts >> 80 staff. And then and then the actual contract just so you know that's >> I didn't see it's not here. So if you have the seis contract I didn't see it. >> All right. Do I have that calendar or you have that? >> I can just
115print a different one. >> Okay. >> Yeah. We just got to get that to them by the end of the month. >> It was like 22,000 that we pay to them. No, it'll be $61,584 toward the bottom there. >> We paid Oh jeez. >> So all the different sections add up to about $61,500. >> So when you feel like this comprehensive consulting and network services is worth 7,500 a year. Yeah, that's um these are things that we use like every year we've trimmed a few things, but you gota it's like you pay the member fee or some years we're like uh we're not and then you got to try to guess and you go one time and you've paid that or exceeded it, you know. So it's kind of like a membership almost model that
116they run. Is that fair to describe how they do that? So yeah, we've we each make sure we go back to our staff and like for instance the CTE one said nope, we absolutely don't have to have that. You know, we know we're doing budget cuts. We can live without that library. So, you know, like D worked for CISA as a curriculum coordinator in districts that couldn't afford a full-time, you know, got her level of quality on, you know, the 0.5 that they used her. So, our services that we use are ones that we would otherwise have to hire a full-time person or wouldn't be able to afford at all. And CISA shares those services and they negotiate. >> You you know, you might have clicked this contract already, but yeah, this is what we
117literally fill out. I mean, these are non-negotiable. You have to part of CISA, you have to get those three. And then these are the ones. >> That's the CISA admin cooperative bidding purchase and delivery service. >> Yep. Um and then this is like I said the the CT library. We decided not to but yeah the CCNS um you know that's that's um part of is well you see the green ISPD. Um so that's where like all of our networking the meetings Chad goes to the meetings that I go to the meetings that D goes to um the meeting that the counselors go to like all the networking and then all the special workshops and things that they put on. you know, they they'll charge you $30 if you're part of this network. Otherwise, it's like
118$400 per person. You know, that's kind of the model that they use. And I understand why they do that. They got to hire their staff based on this. That's why they want it now. So then they say, "Oh, we got a lot of things, you know, years ago, we used to be part of the ITV network, right? That this kind of went by the wayside with virtual learning. That was a big cost." But then they obviously staff um based on these contracts. That's why they want them by the end of March to make their hiring decision. >> You know, I'm on the CISA board. And so if we don't have enough demand for a Spanish teacher, then they drop it. I mean, they if they don't have enough to pay for that full-time Spanish teacher
119or whatever it is, then the school that only wants halftime can't get it. So, this is how it's really a shared services. >> What do you get out of the comprehensive consulting and network services? That's and guess I could have brought the catalog. That's the one I was talking about those those networking meetings with IT counseling district assessment coordinator with D um superintendent principal networking meetings and then on top of that they have special workshop like on standardsbased grading that Brian or D will you know in the past brought five six or seven school staff to what we've always advocated for is can you do some of these at 3:30 or 4 you know because the sub shortage you know And it's pretty much impossible for them because they're run into the same boat because
120we can only send so many so many. We try to send just a few. They go, they get their information, they bring it back and share with their staff. Um the uh district level consulting, we used to purchase two to three days in the past. You can see how much it is per day. Um again, we've got pretty creative and frugal with how we do that. We've got a lot of in-house experts now. you know, maybe have got the training once and now we just train the trainers and we do our own PD mostly in house for that and special ed too. There used to be times where we need some special ed um consulting uh folks come in for the day and and teach our staff. We I mean, as you can see, don't
121get any of those anymore. And then some are just part of that you have to um with like title one, um title two, all those things. they help administrate that and it's a percentage of our allocation. Um Carl Perkins funds, things like that they help with. And then Chad really loves you started using um that's the technology services ton of administrative work, right, that they can do that's well worth the money rather than Chad with his expertise not spending time doing all this administrative tasks. So yeah, we've we've trimmed the fat and we go through this every year. Fine tooth comb and um keep it as minimal as possible. >> Motion. >> Second. >> I can't make the motion. You're making the motion. >> I'll make the motion. Second. >> Moved and seconded. All any
122further questions? All those in favor say I. post car preliminary budget. >> All right. So, we as some of you were involved in the process, but we started meeting I believe it was early October last year um to discuss preliminary budget for next year knowing that we most likely were going to need to make some cuts. And so we've probably met at least a half a dozen times, >> eight, >> even more. Yeah. Um between October and now to come up with the the presentation for tonight. So we're looking at overall we ended up having to cut about right around $700,000 worth of expenditures out of our budget to make all of the ends meet. Um, and we're still we're really close to our goal. I think the bearded budget model still says we have
123about $12,000 in the hole. So, we have a little bit more work to do on it, but this is just like our our main plan at this point in time with a couple minor things still up in the air. So, we'll start with the revenue piece. So, the first thing that's happening for next year as we've been experiencing the last few years is declining enrollment. So, I assumed the same summer school FTE and a flat September enrollment, which brings our three-year rolling average from 1578 down to 1566. So, with that, we also get that one-year declining enrollment. exemption. Now, if we do end up with more, say, 4K kids than what we are anticipating, it probably still isn't going to be enough to bring it up enough to make it so we'll gain students. You
124know, it'll still >> Yeah, it'll still be decline in the declining mode. So, so I didn't worry too much about what we were plugging in for those students and all of that kind of stuff. And we'll see it more on the expenditure side where we don't have those kids that we're paying now to go out to another district. So, it does help us in that way. Um, we're including in the model the $325 per student increase for those $1,566 FTE. So, our revenue limit for next year will increase um to just shy of $13,000 per student. So, if you remember from past years, we've talked about how that operating referendum each year we levy the 375,000 and the following year gets baked into our per student amount. So, it's going up by that 375 as
125well as the $325 per student because this year I think we're at like 12,350 or something and we'll go to 12,930. And that 325, just FYI, that's what you hear about in fighting between Republicans and Democrats per pupil cost, right? >> Yeah. So they're like that was his 400year veto, you know, but I mean that's that was just to cover inflation, right? So without that, right, we'd be looking at another half a million. >> So I mean that really has been a good thing. and then they use it as a political thing, but um yeah, he at least guaranteed schools are going to keep up with inflation depending on what your budget is. For us, that is basically right at inflation. Um so, >> so we do still have our per pupil adjustment aid and
126that is remaining at $742 per student. Um, however, our FTE decreasing slightly, so that's also bringing the total amount down a little bit. We will be on year five out of 10 for our operational revenue limit increase. So, we're adding that 375,000 in again for staff salaries um so that we can follow follow our new salary matrixes the way we have them. And then we are losing our declining enrollment exemption from this school year. So we had $345,000 that we received this year because of declining enrollment that we will not receive next year. So we're taking that out. Our open enrollment in you can see that the estimate for DPI is already out. They're estimating it'll increase from 10,102 per student this year to 11,030 for next year. So that was quite an increase um
127that we're using mostly to fund some additional virtual school positions that are needed. So we'll see down those down below. We're assuming just a slight modest increase in our other local revenues of 1% but our earnings on our investments as interest rates have kind of started ticking back a little bit. We're not earning as much money on the money that we have sitting at the bank. So we need about probably about $50,000 reduction in our earnings for interest from the bank. So, also down below, we'll talk a little bit more about moving our middle school athletic programs over to Fund 80. They've always been a community-based program, and we looked into it a little bit more, and that was one of the options that we had to take those activities and athletics and move them
128into the fund 80 community service. But along with that, we will also not if we can still collect middle school athletic fees if we choose, but those fees will have to also go into fund 80 at that point. So take those out of fund 10 >> middle school coaches out of fund 80. >> Yeah. >> No. And we're confident that there'll be enough money to cover that various and things that we've seen. >> We would increase the levy >> for fund A. >> So you're moving 12,000 from general to the >> we're actually moving. >> This is just like fees. >> That's just the fees that we >> Yeah. charge the kids. So >> the other costs are split into two different lines. >> So we have the um like the coaching fees and stuff
129that's about 140,000 and then they also have like their supply budgets which is another 21,000. So the plan is is to move that cost about 160,000 over to fund 80 >> is supply like >> revenue will also go over there. No, it's more like volleyballs for volleyball or baseballs or bats or all those different types of things. >> Wrestling >> I go with middle school coaches. This where the boards benefit >> fund 80 we can increase we it doesn't subject to the revenue limits >> right >> so we can increase that by a vote at the annual meeting. >> Yes. >> So we fund the YMCA and a couple of other things out of that. >> And so this >> we just can basically move it. We can still get the money from the taxpayers,
130but >> right >> included in the >> out of the general fund that's under that revenue limit. >> Yeah. >> So, so that's the plan there. >> Tim part of the middle school athletic program. >> I know we had some other thoughts too and I'm like I don't know if that's gonna fly as much as we could. We just had a really good audit session. >> So with this scenario also as we have been doing the last few years and prepaying debt to in order to keep the mill rate at $9.20 uh with this scenario we would be able to prepay about another $3.5 million worth of debt. >> So is there any possibility that we could put that into the Greg Green building fund, the $53 all fund 46. We can't put any of
131that because it's all it's from the levy dedicated to debt service. >> We can only levy it because we owe this money for debt service. Yeah. >> Yep. Unfortunately, that's that's not an option. So, those are the revenue changes. Then for expenditures for next year, I've kind of separated them into two different areas. We have all the like the staffing changes and then the other like more general things. So for position changes for 2627, like I mentioned earlier, we are looking at adding some staffing in the virtual ed program. So they are in need of a social studies teacher and also a special education teacher and that will be a half time for sped and a full-time for social studies. Um we also have a high school interim special ed teacher. She's like an intern
132this year um that will be a fully accredited teacher next year. So that is another one of our staffing changes. Not a new position, but just a difference in the amount that she's getting. >> 2.5 now and gonna go to one full-time. >> No, she is full-time, but as an intern, it's just a stipen that they receive. So, for the fall semester this year, she received a very small stipen to do that work. And then in the spring now, we've we're paying her as a substitute. So, next year she will be a full-blown teacher on the teacher salary schedule. >> $5,000 she gets for the fall semester. >> Yeah, it's not much. I think it's even like four. >> Yeah. >> So, that was one thing. Um we're still trying to wrap our head around.
133We're we're looking at about another 2.75 FTE staff reduction. Um, we've been working on exactly what that is going to look like districtwide and we're not I don't think we're quite at the point where we're ready to to pinpoint exactly what those will be, but I think we're pretty close on that. Um, and then to to what we talked about with fund 80, transferring those middle school athletic coaches. This is the salary portion over to fund 80. We've also talked about reducing overloads districtwide. We have several staff members, probably five or six that have overloads because they're teaching during their prep or something like that. So, we're reducing that down. And then we also have a reduction in some IT summer hours. So those are like the staffing changes with that. The CPI for starting
134contracts starting July 1st is 2.63% and we were able to get the full 2.63% into the budget. We considered a 2% increase for substitute rates. Actually, I think that was 2.63. We just forgot to change the um thing there, but which is about 15,000. We're just guesstimating. Of course, our health insurance premiums are always a lot of money. Um and we're looking into self-funding starting in January of 2027. But because we're under a multi-year contract with Health Partners, we would still have to go through Health Partners um for that self-funding model. >> You can find a way out of that, can't you, Jeff? >> what we're hearing is it's still going to be a 12% increase from what we're currently paying to be able to fund that in the first few years. those premiums will
135have to remain high and of course long-term or just the funding is a long-term strategy for you know getting those costs down but it takes time so I think we can you know we're working toward it >> rather than the insurance company reserving we keep the reserve >> right >> you may still have to pay it out but >> you know those reserves can sometimes be millions Right. >> And and the insurance company just sits on them and makes profits. >> It's going to be a big decision discussion and board level. Um that's not the next big I think decision the board would have to make and we're we're gathering as much information as we can. It's just it's a >> so many different ways you can do. >> How do you start with that
136reserve? Like where does the the startup money come from? or do you hope that you don't have to pay anything out? And >> by stop loss. So you if somebody's >> claims exceeded 50,000 then they cover that and then you have a total >> $2 million $150,000 >> catastrophic or somebody for to do that part >> stop gap. So you budget instead of us pay $2.3 million in premiums of health insurance over the year. We're just keeping that and that's our >> right. >> Then you got to keep it on special account makes a little profit on it as she's investing in >> and then you hire a third party administrator to review the claims and pay them because otherwise >> you can be a part of a co-op if you're self-insured because I know
137like that's how we do it is our company >> just curious something they're doing now. I don't know what that is. >> Yep. >> Some school districts do do that. >> Okay. I'm just curious do it. This is district sometimes just area businesses. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So regardless of how that plays out, we're still looking at a 12% increase is kind of what I'm gathering from our conversations with JA counter. So >> it's more of a long-term play than any immediate. >> Yeah. So, one of the things in order to be able to get the full CPI increase at that 2.63% for staff, we have in our plan to reduce HSA contributions by $250 for a single policy holder or $500 for a family policy holder. So, we kind of felt like
138we would like to, you know, honor that full CPI for them and the reduction in the HSA might not hit some people like right away if they have a balance built up in their account. >> So, we thought it was a good like happy medium kind of thing. >> Yeah, it was pretty back and forth discussion on that one. >> Yeah. Yeah, it was >> perspective. The the HSA contribution for the year is 40 4,000 like for almost 4500. >> So I mean kind of zero perspective to reduce it to 5500. >> Um and and you know I did the math you know the difference between two >> what's the deductible on this gold plan >> it's 30 the big one is 3500 single 7,000 >> family but you know 2.63 versus 2.0 know, right?
139And and in order to make break even for the 500 bucks, if your family, you know, it's you're about 75,000, if you make 75,000 or less, you're getting um >> lesser increase than the decrease in >> but that money is guaranteed to show up your paycheck. Whereas HSA, you may or may not use it and hopefully have a a health savings account balance, you know. >> Well, the CBI is a long-term play, too. You know, if you reduce it now, then you reduce it forever a certain percentage. >> That was annual numbers, the HSA. >> Yes. >> Correct. >> Yes, that would be for the full fiscal year. >> Um, so moving down from there, we have just a few minor things. I did estimate a 2% increase. I shouldn't say me. Me and Sarah
140worked on this together. So, it was really fun >> to um you know see her thinking and stuff as we started working on this too. So, so we estimated a 2% increase in dental insurance. So, that's in the model. Um we didn't in assume any increase in disability, vision or life rates. Those remain pretty stable. Um the Wisconsin retirement we also estimated at no increase. It has been increasing just slightly each year. Um so it wouldn't impact it too much if it did go up by 05 or something. Um and then of course we always have that additional cost as salaries go up for that 2% 403b contribution. So those were kind of the different staffing and benefit things that we were looking at. If we get into the other object series we've got again
141with the revenue and levying for fund 39 for a debt prepayment. We added that in as well on the expenditure side to show that money going out. Um, we do have some, as Sarah had mentioned earlier about our bus leases that we had prepaid and two years ago, we have some more of those payments that are coming back on for next year. So, that was about $74,000 that are coming back on. Most of those, I think there was only one that it wasn't the final payment. So, most of this will come back off. have to start turning that fleet over again. >> Yeah, >> we still have a lot of buses that are over and Yeah, >> especially the wheelchair lift bus. >> Yeah. So, again, we have a couple of things for the virtual
142school. Um, for this fiscal year, we reduced all of the building budgets by that 10% including the virtual school. That's been very hard for them with all the technology needs that they have and different things. So, we're reinstating that back to what it was. And then with just the expected growth of the program as well, um we added a little bit more in for those curriculum and technology needs. And the same thing with the advertising. So we've been advertising in the Milwaukee market and that's been we're so we're spending a little bit more on advertising than what we have been. >> You have any sense of how many students we've that advertising contributed to? And I would say kind of out of market enroles. I mean there three kids and we've paid. >> Right. Right.
143I haven't asked for specifics on that, but I have talked to Steph and it sounds like they're getting quite a few >> just the continual growth that we've seen in the numbers. >> Exactly. And then even the Fox Valley area we never used to be able to touch and we're getting them from there too. >> Yeah. Good. >> Yeah. So I think it's been beneficial. Um, we are adding another $50,000 for legal fees in this budget. Um, we have a little bit of at the elementary school with the phone, they increased their fees. The state of Wisconsin revamped their contract with AT&T, which is our only option over in Roberts at this point. So, that's going up about $4,000 on a year-over-year basis. >> They are getting rid of the analog lines. I believe it's
144a July 1 of 27 date. >> And so, I know Chad has been working with them on other options, what we can do over there. interrupt real quick. >> The the additional 50 for legal fees, is that paying invoices due or >> No, we're just anticipating >> We're anticipating legal >> fees budget. We've never have had much of a legal fee budget. What was it? >> It's sitting at like 25,000 this year. >> So, just an update. We got the one this morning again. Um, so back back in November did, you know, we were through three quarters of the year. it was like 193,000 >> and there've been another 57,000 since then. Um so we're at 243,000 in um just under a year. It was it was end of April started. >> So and what
145part of that is covered by insurance? >> Broke that out. >> No, >> it would have been the TTRO >> and then Lori Leitzki as well >> and Lori Leinsky, but that's not included in the 200,000 because EMC paying her directly >> and I can do oneear followup if you want. It' be good for future agenda items. >> Okay. >> But yeah, that's 50,000 probably. Is it? >> We haven't heard from the one gentleman. Yeah. believe >> we wanted to add a 100,000 but obviously that was >> not gonna happen. So yeah. >> So moving moving down, we have um Chromebook cases for all the district Chromebooks. We're getting rid of that cost and then we're also reducing the Chromebook budget. I know Chad has a new plan, but that was um 80 an $88,000
146reduction in his budget for the 7500 cases. >> Right now, we're not that's about what we'd order each year to replace the fifth grade and the ninth grade, get them in a cycle. Um but um eventually going to have to order them. But uh moving away from Chromebooks one to one at the lower levels um just uh kind of a philosophy thing and also financial thing philosophically you know kids spend enough time uh on screen so moving away from that fully supported by educators um and I would assume families once this gets rolled out and then uh yeah obviously saving 88,000 uh per year moving forward is a good thing. So going more to carts in in the um lower grades, you know, use them as needed for projects and especially the lower elementary. I
147think it was was it one to one of seventh and eighth or just eighth? Can't remember where kids are bringing them home still high schools. It still would be one to one. >> I was waiting to bring this up at an appropriate time, but just on the topic like I've started to see studies around retention and like oh moving away from technology And I it's probably a D question, but curious to pick her brain on that at some point. >> Like retention regarding learning. >> Yeah. Just seeing seeing better results from district or from classrooms or whatever that don't have Chromebooks and actually are back to textbooks and handwriting. And >> I just I don't know if there's any if there's any, you know, truth to that. if it's a one-off article you see on
148the news that just gets blown up or if it's actually >> I think there's research. Tom >> Tom Tom got a grant from Microsoft to test >> iPads in elementary school and his report was that it didn't contribute one thing. Yeah. It just made his work >> more difficult and the kids struggled with the technology and >> and they're distracted. So I think there is basis for that. Anyway, wrong time, but something that would be interesting to >> if she sees, you know, if she finds stuff that's interesting, it would be worth talking about. It'd be fun to hear about it just given how much we spend on stuff like that. >> Well, and maybe just explain the different in philosophy at the elementary school and what went into supporting that decision would just be
149a useful thing. >> You really think we're going to be able to drop the mill rate in 2728? No. >> Well, there was a way we had it figured out. >> We didn't put anything in for prepayment of debt moving past this year. So, that's why it kind of drops off. >> Got it. Can't we could just not prepay as much debt. >> You're right. >> That was a thought that we back off on that to reduce it. So, some of the other highlights here are using the grounds budget. Um, this year, some of you may have heard we had our our snowplow bill came in just for the early part of winter at $60,000, which is quite a bit more than what we spent the last few years. Um, later on to find out
150that our snowfall has been pretty much average this year. So, we're like, we need to get some more money in their budget to cover those additional costs. So, that was one of the bigger increases. You can see also that we added assuming that we have 10 of those 4K kids that are now not open and rolling out. So, reducing that expenditure by about $60,000. And then of course with the increase in that open enrollment amount our resident students going out to other districts that cost will also >> increase. I think we can just stay at target 17%. We don't need to in this budget short you don't need to be delivering more than that. >> Yeah. Right now there's there's nothing in there for for fund balance. Um, as if our revenues continue to grow
151though, we're going to have to start putting more in again to then maintain that 17%. But the third page of your packet is kind of just the effects of our declining enrollment. So, I presented this for the first time last year just to kind of show I've updated now for and what that one-year declining enrollment exemption is. So, after next year, if that holds true, we will have lost about a million dollars to declining enrollment, just over 900,000. Um and then at the same time you can see what our operational referendum has added there in the center section about 2.8 million. So if you net those together we've really seen about 2 million of the 2.8 that we've levied additional because of the declining enrollment situation. And then on the last page of your packet
152that's the bar budget model. So you can see for the budget year 2627, we still are showing a slight deficit of about $12,000. And that was the difference between our original model that we presented to the administration team here a couple weeks ago. We had it at a 2% salary increase and then no HSA reduction. when we flipped those, it caused it to be go to the negative just a little bit. >> So, we still have a little more work to do on it, but I think we're we're pretty close. And some of these other decisions, you know, still need to be made. So, any questions? >> I don't have a question, but yeah, just kudos to you and the admin team for the process of going through that. That's not fun. It was pretty
153cool to sit through it and learn and there's a lot of work involved. So, nice work. >> Thank you. >> I appreciate we started early and not doing it in May and June, >> which we've done for years and years. >> Very thoughtful. Thank you. >> Um, you won't have to make a motion or do anything with that. >> No. In the interest of finishing the meeting the same day it starts, we'll consider um core agenda items C, D, E, and anything that we need to know between the first reading and the second reading. >> No changes, first and second, >> unless somebody wants to peel one out or ask questions. >> I will make a motion then to approve coren items C through F. >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. Motion
154to carry. >> All right. So, that handles that first reading management of student meal accounts. Again, just um a policy much like the policy for rule 458, you know, just in in in policy 458 come out of the food service audit. Just some things that needed to be updated or changed for the DPI audit. So that's why that's kind of a one-off, which will always be the case. Um can always back sometimes it just comes our extension of a new policy update. And so that's what that is uh about just um yeah any of the uh um audit, you know, how our fund balance has been going down at food service, etc. times. Um, you know, the issue with uh families and having negative lunch balances, you know, remains the same. It's something she really
155tries to and and we have donations, Maryland mittens for Maryland, stuff like that, even once in a while the mental wellness thing that can help out with students in need. Um but regardless, you know, chart was hous budget the balance and um so yeah, that's kind of the impetus for the update to policy 76. >> And there wasn't so the actual policy is staying the same because he came back and said we didn't need to add anything as far as you know how we're going to handle it if they have an unpaid >> you know balance. But what we needed to add was all of that non-discrimination language. So that's the majority. >> So what are the other ones? >> Yeah. >> What's a typical liability that school carries with that as seen to >>
156I don't know. Yeah. Is it like 10 grand or >> I I want to say it's somewhere in that realm, >> but she could provide us with a report that shows what those negative balances are. >> Just curious what >> So, I think for the next for the consideration of second reading, that would be good information to >> just what kind of deficit it generates and is it a $2,000 issue or a $20,000 issue? >> Yeah. I think it's some >> just curious like with the state, you know, >> whether they decide to fund a lunch program or not. Does that have to be like is that how a school notify that? Like how would you get notification? Is that like Minnesota right now they're they're food programs funded through the state >> legislation? Yeah.
157So it's it's just during that that >> Yep. that would probably never come back to Wiscon's been rumble about it. That's why I just, you know, if you go through all the work in the budget and that changes, how how does that affect us? >> So, future possible agenda items, we heard something about >> Yeah. So, I'll make a note. Um, another one would be JA counter coming and and talking about self-funding and they've done really nice high level presentations that would be a good place to start legal fees and then uh D on you know studies or learning going away from Chromebooks and digital and more retention through face toface interaction >> and you know I work with all and on the agenda and I'm gonna be more mindful of kind of the highlight
158lights that we we had almost an hour of that today and I'll be more mindful of not doubling ups and then we'll try to keep them more short into I mean all good information I mean >> we say try to go 15 20 minutes max but when you're that passionate >> no none of them none of them but we didn't need all three of them in one night >> so we'll be mindful of that too important dates are all listed April 1 is the pack meeting a bunch of us are going to at the April 13th board meeting. April 24th is that will thing. I don't think anybody's going to that. 26th um Sunday is the board development meeting at 5:00 pm here at the district office. >> Um so we're trying to get something
159set up for next week with Lee. >> Okay. >> Um so when we we we've ordered out, we've catered in. Is it competition between our food service catering and Panther? >> I don't think she wants to do it on Sundays though. >> No, I get that. But I just think when do events >> competing because the Panther Cadence probably cheaper. >> Yeah, >> because they use slave labor. >> Yeah. >> Volunteer is volunteered. Sorry. Sorry. >> But we should try to support that. Yeah. All right. 17 A. Per Wisconsin statute 19.851- C considering considering employment promotion compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which governmental body has jurisdiction or exercise responsibility. One employee ABP in lie of insurance request. Two approval of resignations, retirements and terminations. Three, approval of appointments and contract
160modifications. >> Have a motion and second to go into close session. Roll call. Nate. >> I. Hi, >> I >> we're going to take a photo.