SCC School Board Meeting January 28, 2026

001All right. Call this meeting to order on Wednesday, January 28th. Um, first order Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Is Jeff been one of those others just for attendance? Um, >> all board members present the exception of Jeff. >> Okay. >> Um, was meeting properly notified? >> Yes, it was. And as a reminder, it's also being livereamed and recorded. Any comments? No. Okay. Then we'll jump into highlight on youth uh kids care. Eric Kirchoff. >> Hello. >> Hi. Thank you for having me today. Um >> I will also just give one second share it so folks at home can see it. So on this page right here was one of our

002field trips that we did. We kind of did a bigger picture on that one. You can go to the next slide please. So a little bit about me. Um, I currently live in Hammond, so I'm very local. I have two boys, Carson and Lucas, and then my spouse, Josh. Um, both the boys are in fifth grade and eighth grade, and they go to the middle school, attend Cy PC. Um, I've been with the school district now. I was hired in November of 2024. So, I've been there for a little bit over a year in the kids care director position. So, right now, our current staffing, um, we have two full-time teachers, two part-time teachers. I do have high school students, so they're my door attendants. So, they walk for students when they're picked up by

003their parents. Um, currently my Kidscare staff are completed or taking the PAR training course for SPED. Um, and then they also are active during the day as paras throughout the school. I also do something else I didn't add in there too is I'm very big on having meetings with my staff and getting to know my teacher. So, I do a monthly meetings as well. help me kind of go over the agenda kind of what's happening and I get their input as well kind of about how the Kickstarter program is going. Um, so this was last summer. So when I came into the position, I kind of really wanted to revamp a few things about the program and one of the things is I love summer and I want the kids to have fun and have

004a good summer as well. Um, so I really wanted to do field trips. I wanted to have a schedule, a daily schedule that the kids can also have a little bit of some craft curriculum time, some fun time, go outside. It's huge during the summer. We only get three months of it. And I wanted to make sure that, you know, we also did those internships. So I had 92 students enrolled this past summer. They do a various schedules. Um, so I make our schedule for our summer camp. Parents can pick two days of the week that they need care, three days of the week, you know, obstain time. Um, some also just stay for our care just through um, summer school. Some only came in July. So, it's very, very um, flexible for families. And

005I think that was also really important. Um, we went on 16 field trips this summer. Our most loved one was Sea Life. We did a behind the scenes tour there as well as the White Pine Berry Farm. And like I said, I really wanted to have fun and just enjoy summer with our kids. So, there's some pictures that we did about summer. We had a bike day on Fridays, so we kind of coned off the back of the parking lot. The kids got to bring in their bikes and their scooters. Something different, something fun. Um, I also had in-house field trips with Bruce the book guy. He bought some books into the cafeteria at the elementary school. Um, we had bubble fun as well. Um, yeah, we also went to the library, the Robert's library,

006and did some more community events with them twice. Um, we did that for twice this summer. And then I also split up my kids for field trips. Um, so kindergarten and first grade went together on field trips and then second, third, and fourth grade went on field trips together. Um, they didn't go at the same time. Tuesday was one day and then Wednesday was another field trip day. And then so this year we have 60 students enrolled. Uh, we offer AM and PM care. Some families choose both, some just do AM care, some do PM care. We also do full full day care for school professional development day. So then we're open from 6:00 to 5:45 on those days. And then we also have full daycare during breaks, too. That's something that I incorporate a

007little bit, knew. I tested it out during winter break. We had two days that we were open for that. And I'm also probably going to do most likely spring break as well and kind of keep a couple days open for parents to kind of have some care. And so far this year, we've done three field trips. I like to always do a field trip on those full days. Um, so I'm going to start doing registration soon for the summer. My big goal is to increase our enrollment. I really want to make it huge and fun and get as much students as I can and boost that up. So, I really want to promote it a little bit more specifically for this summer. Um, and I really want to do more field trips. So, I kind

008of do a survey with our teachers and our parents. Um, and they would like to do a couple more field trips that we normally right now we just did one a week. So, I really want to do that. Maybe some more different community ones as well. So I am always up for ideas. So for any field trips. Um so right now a couple things. I am in a director cohort in Oaklair. So I meet with other directors and just kind of know things with licensing. So we're also licensed for kids care to the state of Wisconsin. So I want to keep up to date with anything that changes in there. Um I'm also part of a local school directors and collaboration. So with River Falls, the Tiger Pack in Richmond, we kind of bounce ideas

009off of each other and kind of have a big community. Um, so that's really nice to have. And then I'm also now part of the Oaklair Chamber of Congress. Um, so they do rallies for legislation and I really want to put forefront of child care on legislation's mind and even as well as the school district with teachers and paras and just really be a voice for the school and for early education. Um, so I have my first rally in February 19th in Madison and I plan to send out a big email to our elementary staff of some feedback to take to legislation and just really be a voice for school districts. Um, so my future goals are of course increase our enrollment, do a little bit more community events as well and just have our

010staff there, me there. Um, and then just further collaboration with our community schools. Thank you guys for having me. You guys have any questions for me that I can answer? >> I have two. >> Sure. >> I think you said you'd like to get the word out a little bit more when you >> like Facebook or going to like um like more of these maybe attend here. Um I know there's like that big event. >> I don't think you're going to get a lot of clicks off of attending this meeting. I don't think a lot of people are paying attention. >> Um, so anything that I mean I'm kind of newer to the district as well. So if you guys have any feedback for me too, that'd be helpful for me to go and attended

011to show my face, promote, you know, kids there a little bit I think would be huge. I'm also not against taking neighboring schools. I did have a student from Baldwin that I had last summer because they only had 60 enrolled that they could take for kids. So even if we take other kids from different districts in two for our enrollment as well. >> Might want to get with somebody. >> Yeah, for sure. Definitely. That'd be really helpful. Thank you. >> Second question is if you go from 92 to 120, do you have to hire another full-time? >> I would. Yeah. So I would have to base it on enrollment. So that's why I like to do enrollment ahead of time and I usually like to have it done by April so then I can kind

012of see what I would need for staffing. And I do have a lot of paras that come for the summer um and work for me. Um as well as I know I have some teachers that are interested. that I put out a big email, you know, to all staff, anybody's interested in doing kids care, um, as well for staff and then my current staff, too. And then I also am in classrooms as well. >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. I got one quick one. The the cohorts that you're you're a part of, are there are there any ideas that you guys have talked about that >> you haven't implemented yet that you'd like to over the next year or two? >> Yeah. So, a big one is doing a huge field trip like promote

013basically AM and PM care for school aers through other districts. Um, so I went to a convention for field trips a couple weeks ago and they have like ninja courses and like just huge big things that they can do and just kind of also do a community event for directors. Um, but it's really expensive. So, I'd like to do other school districts that can help pay for that as well and kind of do something like that. Um yeah, I get so a lot a lot of my cohort too it's a lot of it's for just directly for child care. Um which is really good because I know we know we do 4K at the elementary school as well. So it's really good for me to kind of know a little bit more rules and regulations

014for that too as well, not just schoolers. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, you're welcome. >> Thank you you guys very much. >> Thank you for coming. >> Yeah, thank you. Right. Um the next one highlight on CTE. So uh Amy Stevens. >> Hello. >> Welcome to this too. Uh my name is Amy Stevens. This is my fourth year here at SEC. This is my 25th year teaching. I switched to the high school because I really wanted students to get them to their next level. What are we thinking after high school? Like coming to this position a little unique for CTE because I'm fine arts. I'm my license covers everything I teach, but I they added me to the CTE department because of my graphic design class. I'm in my classroom switch next thing.

015I'm in my classroom as a visual arts teacher. So when I in there I these are the things that I'm promoting community art frames student artwork displayed in about seven different businesses through Hammond and Roberts. So the fine arts like my students drawings um this was done for the uh historical drawings and Robert's for the suspentennial last year and we get involved in the community by putting those out in the um the businesses just showing this is an old I think this is Robert's downtown street uh the art shows color crossing we have one we have one at Robert's uh library and one at the high school auditorium at the end of the year. So, promoting just the fine arts, visuals, ceramics, painting. Um, I also did the mural at Sidetrack at the end of

016last year. I took a big bus of kids over to uh Sidetrack and we started repainting the mural that's outside. I finished it myself over the summer. outer. >> The only problem there was the children could only reach so high and it wasn't safe enough to put all these rafters, you know, like scaffolding outside. So, we I had to finish most of it on the the lift. But yeah, but the community art frames, going back to that one, the displays that we put in there, I rotate it at least during this school year three times. So, Miss Dean and I put uh I don't know how many frames total are out in the community, but the kids go to those places in the community establishments. Barn board, Raz's uh Sidetrack and um the name Bobtown,

017there's one carbon now, district office here. But the kids go in there and then they take pictures with their artwork and then, you know, they get to sit down and enjoy the establishment, too. um you know with their family. I just at the dentist family dentistry like they came in just to take a picture of them in their artwork and then the people there were like celebrating with them in their artwork. So it's always it was it was fun to see. I'm glad we brought it. It's a great connection for me to get out and just talk to people in the community too. Um next slide please. So this is the color crossing fall show that I do. So we the the pat Patty there she opens it up opens the front part which is

018usually her lunchroom and we use it as a museum and they bring foods in food in and we have a little reception. It's really well attended but we always do it the weekend also of the Main Street Christmas walk or whatever in Roberts that they have. So, Saturday is open and we had people come in just randomly saw our sign and we're looking and appreciate the kids artwork there too. So, that was that's always really good turnout. Next slide, please. And then this is our mouth, the sidetrack. I was able to get some kids there in the summertime too to help me finish it up and get them on ladders. Next slide, please. So then in terms of like the uniqueness of my position where now I'm with the CTE department and I teach graphic

019design and I was able to then and help with my co-workers uh start this business which is if you say and these are the things that I offer in my department uh graphic design we teach off of Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and Inesign and those programs are in a lab that's so unique because there's so many districts that can't afford and have those on the computers. So these the students that I have are getting way ahead if they're going to go in this field just by having Adobe. It's amazing what they can they just the next level up for them. What one of the Adobe illustrators they do is the laser cutting and engraving. So this is something done by one of my students. This is what they're going to start to even like sell and

020make. So, like you can just do them cut and have a burn effect. You can have them painted and spray painted. Um, next month they're doing a Valentine shop where you say we have little hearts cut out like frames and things that they can add for like more of a shelf decoration and and spray painted. And then also uh the senior banners, the senior banners that I do are up in the gym. My students at the end of the year that are in graphic design too, design the backgrounds. When it comes to the sports and the year, I take pictures and then we'll place them on there. So, pretty nice high quality picture. >> Look at that, kid. Anybody know? >> You can have that. >> That was nice of you. >> You're welcome. Isn't

021that nice? You can put the singlet on. He says it's two sizes too big for you. Right. But I also had, sorry, I'll back up. I also had a community like I think it was last was last year, but um a library reach out and then asking to make banners for their upcoming open house and activity and I printed them. So I do have community reaching out to make banners as well. Um not so much of like signage or um nothing like stickers. I make stickers for businesses like Miss Hawkins and Miss Razer use my program to make the stickers to promote theirs products if it's like a sticker on a label or something and then we design them and the students use them as they do their things. But um those are the things

022I'm trying to push are more like the shadow boxes, the printing the stickers or the more of the signs. Um the posters print small or large. I've done a few like in-house more things like that. But our websites were just um published on our district web page so that now you can click on all seven eight of them, right? Eight of our businesses down below and it links them to the website. So now the students or community members should be able to start asking us for our services from our students. I think the biggest one there, do I have one more slide? I think do connected to my website. Yeah, this is like the senior banners and the one in the middle is a shadow box that's painted. It's only like 5 by five. And

023then t there, she actually did a topography uh shadow box. So it's actually reversed, but yes, she did that for Miss Wberg. That was last year or two years ago now, too. Yeah. And then the next slide, I think I had my So that panther designs, let's try to click on that for a second. So, one of the thing too that came out this last trimester is that if you scroll down just a little bit there, Ross Lair, if you know that was Colin Ross, but he wants to start his own business. So one of the students took his idea of and started to brand make his logo, make his business card and get him him you know up and running uh for so I also teach like what I do is Adobe Illustrator is

024a branding um a service as well too. So can I can I print car wraps? Yes. But do I know how to apply them? No. So there are some limits and definitely some learning curves still going on and like the stickers I'm still trying to figure out how to like price and put those out there as long and also the posters our printer only you know can print so wide and the material I've been trying to find different like quality versus you know like what's efficient of even getting here because like the banner material it's hard to get at the beginning of the year. I order so much and LA gets very little of it because so many people. So, it has been a major it is a learning curve um on materials stuff. So,

025yes, uh selling artwork and then um also hopefully bringing back uh empty bowls. So, I also do the graduation program uh displays the slides that are displayed on the school TVs. I have students running. I do the yearbook. I'm a drama set director and I'm also the BLT leader in my department. Any question? >> Izzy. >> Do >> I like >> the the website I just some of the stuff you threw up there. I just like I I don't know something like that. Anyone want to order for their kid or Christmas gifts for grandparents or whatever? Um, is it challenging to kind of put those up and create an order form on the website for any of those programs that you have made that are maybe a bit more repeatable? >> So, I think this

026is what you're asking me is like if I had a set template and then take pictures and put a pricing of the exact same thing over and over again. Is that what you're saying? >> Yes, I could I could do that. um students and then just have it. I do like the uniqueness that the kids can come up with it though too. They like the creativity part of it where like just today I gave all my students in graphic design a real life situation. I'm their client. They're my they're my professional graphic designer and I say I need this made for my business because I have a new product that needs to be displayed and sold for this much. How do I get it out? So now they have to use the program to uh

027do the in how a real life situation would be right. So yes um am I limited to some things then probably. So custom I guess is more what I would rather go towards but I could we have um like these made several of them or like the Valentine's ones. So maybe like certain occasions like graduation or holidays or something for sure. for sure. >> That box is awesome. Pretty cool. Yeah. Uh he's an independent student. Aiden Salt. Um Salty >> Sult. Thank you, Sult. Uh independent graphic designer student of mine right now. So he comes in, he's like, "What do you need?" And I said, "How about something like this?" And >> so I give him the idea, but he's this is his idea that he put together. Yeah. Yeah. >> So that's why I

028kind of like the whole of person coming to my students and saying, "I'm kind of thinking about this." >> Yeah. >> Right. >> Yeah. No, for sure. Are you seeing more kids getting interested in this class? Because >> now that they're seeing it out and about, yes. Um I would love to have more help and more buy into the senior banners in developing those. I think they're scared to know what the whole team wants or all the seniors want, you know. >> But yes. >> Yeah. I'm very excited. I love the program. I love it. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Um, next up, comment by board members and superintendent. So, uh, we did have Erica Herring to put her resignation in, uh, effective yesterday. So, just want to take a minute to thank

029her. She spent a lot of time, a lot of hours, a lot of effort for the district. So, she's listening. Thank you, Erica. Um, which leads us to our our our next item here is is filling the the vacancy. So, essentially how we'll do this, we'll fill it first. If that opens up uh a different one, we'll proceed to fill that one and etc. until all positions are full. >> Good. >> Yep. Yep. Is he on there yet by chance? >> Yep, he's on. >> Oh, he is. Y >> perfect. So, I guess I'll start it with uh the the presidency. Um, and I would like to to nominate Jeff. So, Jeff, I know you sent a communication. >> Yep. I'm happy to do it. Happy to do it. If someone else wants to, I'd

030happy to support them, but >> I'm happy to do it. I made motion. Second. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Who is up for reelection this spring again? >> Uh Derek and I two. Correct. So Jeff selection as as president that does open up his clerk role. >> Oh, I need a motion to fill that. >> I throw my name in the hat for that. >> Nominate you. >> I'll second >> discussion. All in favor? I >> opposed. Motion carries. Thank you both. Congratulations. >> So that was C. Let B process. >> What do you mean? >> Um the actual opening. >> Well, you know the process better than the rest of us. Why don't you explain? >> Yeah, please. >> Yeah. So, in in the past, um

031you know, had some experience with this. So, um Cali has uh the posting ready to go tomorrow. um can put that on our website. Uh anybody that's interested, there's a questionnaire to fill out fixish questions on there. Uh and then um that uh whoever's uh whoever fills out that application questions, whether it's one or 20 people, right? Uh then be submitted to the board before the next board meeting for your review the board packet. And then those people are invited into uh to the podium into the board meeting. That'll be an agenda item for them to just talk about themselves and elaborate on those questions. And then the board in open session then would appoint choose um one of those candidates to fill the position. That position then is filled um it's filled through the

032following April. Then uh it wouldn't be up this April 2026. That position would be in the regular rotation um to uh for election um the following April 2027. Yeah. >> So, is there a can we throw a link to that or anything on the website under this note in the >> Yeah. Where where is it going to be posted >> to find? >> It's on the job vacancies. Correct. District vacancies web page >> on the website. >> Yeah. I think >> we just put it on I think we put it on the board page. The boardage page. I feel like we did that. Yeah. We'll post it to our Facebook, too. We usually do that. >> We're on social media. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Um, last one then. So, February 18th board meeting. >>

033Yes. I have a conflict on Wednesday, February 18th. Wondering if the board, you know, would consider and if not, you know, I'll move it around um make it work uh if possible. But uh wondering if the board would consider Monday the 16th for the February board meeting. >> Is there a school that day as president? >> There is >> the 16th worked better for me. >> I'm good. >> It works works for me. >> You see a motion to move that then? Second. >> So, we'll moving the board meeting from February 18th to the 16th. Any other comments? All in favor? >> Opposed? >> All right. February 16th. >> All right. Um, next up, scheduled presentations by guests and staff members. So, the enrollment project report >> virtual Hazel is perfect. >> All right, I

034will pull up your presentation, Hazel. >> Okay, thank you very much. >> The PowerPoint, correct? >> The PowerPoint. Yes. Exhibit. Yep. All right. All right, we're ready whenever you are. >> Okay. Well, I I'm ready. Uh thank you so much for uh inviting me and trusting me to do this project for you. Uh I have been doing enrollment projections since 199192. I've done many, many, many, well over 200 school districts in, of course, Minnesota where I'm based, but in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, uh, South Dakota, um, Colorado. I have a number of clients in Colorado. So I uh have a lot of experience in the upper Midwest and uh and to the Mountain West. I've done a lot of work there. So with that said, if we could look at the next slide. Um uh looking

035a quick look back and the point I want to make is that trends are not shortterm. They occur over a longer period of time. Uh so it's important to look at a longer period of time. I've selected 10 years here. The past does matter. It contains uh clues about the present and um and the future. So, we want to take a careful look at it. And I want to stress that what we're talking about here is in-person enrollment. I'm not making any projections or assumptions about the virtual charter academy. So, next slide, please. Uh now the enrollment data for the virtual charter academy uh was reported separately for the first time in the school year 20189. So uh for some of these slides we'll see a seven-year history. For some of the others we'll see

036a a 10-year history. And then I'd just reiterate that all the data and analysis are for in-person enrollment. So next slide please. As we take a quick look at your case the past seven years uh the uh 4K12 enrollment decreased by 46 students or a minus 2.9%. Non-residents account for 10.1% and I remind you this is person uh 10.1%. Perhaps the most important thing here overarching is that the district's resident school age population decreased now only slightly but a theme that's going to continue by just shy of 3% in these seven years and enrollment resident enrollment uh decreased by 6.6% 6% or 98 students, which says that of course you uh lost a little share there. And then uh interestingly and importantly that the net gain loss from other public options meaning open enrollment or

037charter schools uh this past year was at zero uh which after years of net loss. So you've gained you're you're bringing in more non-residents uh than you were uh seven years ago in the in person. So that's that's something to to bear in mind. Um here we look at the enrollment and I I must confess I'm someone who likes to look at numbers but my audiences basically don't enjoy that so much. So I've tried to do more things graphically but I want to caution you that graphics can sometimes mislead you a little bit too. Uh but what we see here is decline that occurred in the pandemic year 202021 uh where you had a decline of about a 100 students and then it bounced back. It went up a little bit in 22 23 but

038now you can see there has been a downward uh drift and especially if you look at 22 23 and compare it with 2526 you can see the the downward uh drift of enrollment. Next slide. These are residents not attenu should have had a couple of caps there. Um St. Croy Central Schools um To your knowledge, there's no one enrolled in non-public. I you don't have data on homeschool, although I'm it's hard for me to believe there aren't a few kids in homeschool. And then we have the open enrollment. And this is open enrollment out. And you can see that it went from 115 to 156 in this period of time. U bouncing around a bit. So now key findings as we start to think about what we're seeing and what we're likely to see and

039that's really the key thing of what's happening to resident births. And between 2009 and 2024 the decline was almost 16% in the state of Wisconsin almost 10% in St. Croy County and almost 18% in the uh rural townships and small communities that are called the balance of St. Croy County. So what we're seeing here is a real decline in births and that's of course the result of declining fertility and the aging of the population. Resident births have a very uh particular meaning and that means on the birth certificate the mother has listed address that can be coded to Sro to Wisconsin to San Croy County and to specific places without regard to where the child is born. So, here I'm showing you St. Croy County and then the balance here. Um, and what's I think

040a I don't want to say unique, but a little little different is that the county has a sort of erratic pattern, but you see it even more so in the balance that it bounces around a lot. Now in the balance of the county one would expect that because these are small numbers we might expect a little more stability in the county but we just see uh annual variation and the point I want to make there is that I have uh tried to put in annual variation in the projections. Now I may not have the right year but it does benefit the size of the pool uh by putting in those annual variations. Okay. Now this is a ch a table here that uh as a demographer demographers like this a lot um because it tells

041us really what's driving a change in enrollment. So what you see here is year-over-year change in enrollment and the percent that was and then we have something we call natural increase decrease and net migration. And at the bottom I give you the definitions of that. Natural decrease is the incoming for kindergarten is smaller than the previous year's grade 12. That is you are graduating out more students than you're bringing in the next fall. And the net migration measures the number of students who move in or out of the district, make transfers between education options or drop out of school. Now not uh surprising in any way is between 2019 and 20 we saw a decline of 117 students. That is the effect of the pandemic. The following year you see you had a growth of

042116. You basically got them back. uh and some of them actually had transferred to the uh virtual academy but they were not in in person and then you can see uh following that uh you had a year a growth of 28 and a decline of 36 decline of three decline of 40 total seven years the total change was a minus 46 students which is the number we saw previously when we look at the natural increase we need to see natural increase decrease you can see with the exception of of the one year. They're all negative numbers and the number ne the size of the negative number has been growing since 20121 and that cost you 197 students and then the net migration has largely been positive. We see the large negative in the pandemic year

043that uh the recovery if you will and then we see a 62 a minus 3 42 21 and 151 is the total and the um natural increase decrease in net migration results then in the total change. So this is very important. it it already starts to tell us that we're seeing this trend of of natural decrease and the the numbers are getting larger which says that it's it's it appears to be accelerating. Next slide. Then of those 12 uh 151 net immigration students that we saw in the previous table, 100 were from the transition from 4K to K. That's 60 66% of all that net migration. The significance of that is that once you have students into the first grade, the students who flow in or out of your in-person enrollment are really quite small

044uh varies uh you know a little bit grade to grade but no large numbers. Everything is driven by that 4K to 8. Next slide please. So now let's take a look at the next two years 202627 to 203536. Um and what I'm projecting here is that ro enrollment decline continues and in fact most likely going to accelerate. Uh the base here was 1546 impatient in-person students and the projection is for 1359 to 1508 or a minus 38 or minus 187 students minus 2.5 or minus 12.1. I can tell you now that that highest projection uh it would I think it would be quite a stretch for you to reach that but um we'll talk about the assumptions later. I made four cohort uh projections. They have two different kindergarten assumptions and two different migration assumptions.

045There's 149 student between the lowest and highest. And in the components of that enrollment change, I'm looking now at how it compares with what we've seen recently. And the net migration projecting between 20 and 32 a year. And if you'll recall from that previous slide, we had a minus 342 and 21 in the past three years. Natural decrease in the projections averaging a minus 34 to minus 40 per year. That too is like the recent past. We had minus 3 33 minus 45 and a minus 61. So you can see it's sort of falling in the middle there. Not not at the extremes. Next slide please. Now, interestingly, most often if we look at the distribution of students by grade in our most recent year, which is 20256, uh we see that it has for

046some predictive value. And these numbers say to me already that we're likely to see enrollment decline because from 4K through 4 the elementary average 100 students per grade. This is the average. Middle school averages 120 and high school 117. So it tells us that unless kinder kindergarten or 4K and K become substantially larger than they were in the past couple of years, you will have enrollment decline. Next slide. Okay, here I'm showing you the uh lowest and highest uh of the projections. Uh and you'll see we're starting at on the left at 1548 and then the darker blue line is the lower projection and you can see that really after 202930 the gap starts to widen significantly between these two projections and that is a result of when the assumptions about 4K and K uh

047come into play in the middle school the high school. Incidentally, high school projections are not affected by the dis the assumptions on 4K because 4K students in 2025 26 will be in grade nine in 203536. So all of the high school students in those years are already in school. >> Okay, next slide here. If we are look at these projections the highest and the lowest compared to uh the enrollment of we can see either fairly substantial decline at the elementary to a very modest decline in the first five years. The um uh 5 to 8 we see some decline. uh 912 holds up, actually goes up, then you see what it is. And then in 10 years again, you see either substantial decline or flatness. Uh and then you see the decline which really takes

048hold at the middle school and at the high school grades. Okay. So now let's look at the the components of these projections to we want to see how how reasonable they are. Uh they're made via the cohort survival method and this is both a simple complex method. What it does is it ages each grade by moving it to the next higher grade in the following year. Mortality among school age children and children basically after the first month of life and the first year of life is very very low and in a population your size we could apply the mortality probabilities and it would we would not project any deaths because the the the numbers are so small. But to make these projections we do have to make assumptions regarding kindergarten. We're going to use resident

049birth as a proxy for that. and then net migration or survival rates uh for the gradetograde projections. Now the survival rates take into account uh both mortality and net migration and it is the percentage versus the raw number. So the first thing we'll look at is the pool for of the four kindergarten uh uh population and we look here at what we're seeing is 2015 to 25. The reason we can go back to 2015 is that the virtual academy didn't have any 4K or K students uh in it. And so we what we see here is an interesting pattern. Uh and in fact until rather recently you were hovering you see you know somewhere around 34 35%. And then in 23 24 it dropped and now the past two years it's 31% and 30%. Um

050the assumption I'm making here is that I I average the past five years which gets me a 31.97 capture rate and the past 11 years is 33.69. Uh I unless something pretty dramatic would happen, I can't imagine it's going to get up to 35 36% again. Um the difference between these two assumptions and this I have not stated very well but in 10 years the cumulative is 44 students. It's five students basically per year in this but it's 44 students cumulatively and then longer term because I through uh I have to make projections 203031 to 3536 and I'm going to base those projections on the balance of St. Croy County zero euros ma maya taken from the projections made by the Wisconsin department of health the balance of the county is about 25% of the

051bridge in St. Croy County that's been the case for the past five years and I just assume that that percentage will will hold. Next slide. So here what I'm showing you is size of that pool. The top line 2526 is this past year there were 238 uh um potential and your kindergarten was 72 students from that. Then in the com the years in bold under the kindergarten pool are years based on actual births and then the remaining years are the years I've projected. So as you can see I have while I didn't bring up anything as high as the 262 the numbers are all uh certainly within the range. So the point here is that I have not reduced the the pool in any sense. uh and that's based on the fact of of those

052projections from the state of Wisconsin and basically what we know is that that um because of the age distribution of of women of childbearing age that the real decline in pool size will occur after 2030. And then what we see in kindergarten projections is we're simply multiplying that 31.97% against the pool or the 33.69 69. So what we see here the low projection we had 72 students 4K this year and basically that low projection is running at at a higher average than uh this past year and then the higher projection is running u you know virtually 10 students more uh and I I think that may be a I I don't think reality is going to come out to that but but at least it gives us a range of u that's reasonable. Next slide.

053So why? Well, it's this lower for fertility which is the measure of the number of births per women. And we're looking here at what we call completed fertility. That is the number of children born to a woman at the end of her childbearing. And the replacement rate is 2.11. and Wisconsin was at 1.63 in 2023. The US is at 1.62. So we are at well below replacement uh in births and the number of births are decreasing in the US and in Wisconsin and uh um virtually everywhere except in these very high uh growth states. And fertility rates vary by race, ethnicity, and urban rural. Uh fertility rates for white non-hispanic women are the lowest. Urban rates are lower than rural rates. Um and why? Well, the population is aging. Women of prime childbearing age uh

054uh 25 to 34. that's the age of of women who have are the most likely to give birth in a year will decrease and we just projecting much much slower growth. Uh a part of this is that for example by 2030 uh nearly 23% of Wisconsin's population will be over the age of 65 and that percentage will just continue to to go up. And while St. Croy County's population is is projected to increase uh and be one of the faster growing counties in Wisconsin, it will increase more slowly than it has in the past. And again, that's a it's a function of the shifting age structure uh of of the population and the lower fertility. Okay. So we those are the the rationale and the numbers that we're going to see putting into 4K. Now

055we have to look at what's this survival rate or the net in migration and as we've noted it's been positive um except for two years but there are three patterns that are noteworthy. one I've already touched upon this large consistent net inflow between 4K and kindergarten and there is no net inflow at the beginning of middle school and there is no net at the beginning of high school. Uh the latter is true for many districts but it's just not true for you. So for you the the students you bring in at 4K is really the story of your future. Uh for the net migration I used a low which was the average of the past three years and I just put those numbers here to remind us what they were and then the high is

056the average of the past two years. Okay. Now point I've made I think five times already is that your enrollment is driven by the size of 4K kindergarten that there are no uh significant net inflows after kindergarten. Now what could make these projections too high? Well, the four garden uh would be too high that is that that the pool is too large or your capture rate decreases or another factor might be smaller percentage of non-residents enroll. What could make them too low? Well, the pool being too small. I don't think that's the case, but it's possibility or your capture rate increases. More non-residents choose to attend in person or you have a very rapid increase in single family detached hous. So now we pose the question here, what if became full day? because it it

057clearly looks in the numbers that uh there are children resident in the district who uh do not attend the district's 4K but they enroll in K kindergarten because we just can't have that many kids moving in at that age and not affecting any other ages. It's just not logical. So we saw that it has this largest and if if 4K were 4K that the net in migration between 4K and K would decrease. Okay. So let's take a look here at these numbers. Uh here's the inperson net migration of that K to four 4K to K. And you can see 2158 132. This is the 24 12 13 2313. Yeah. look say a couple of high years a little bit low maybe around 10 12 students a year um and then the next set is the

058percentage so this past year it was 16.3% net inflow the year with the 23 students is it was 31% you see I'd get get these percentages so we see the importance of this flow and this flow would would obviously disappear if 4K were folding. So let's take a look. Now I ran some projections here with these assumptions that the past kindergarten ro enrollment is what 4K enrollment would have been if 4K were full day. Then based on the past three years average the capture rate would be 38.52% of the pool. And then I just remind us what those capture rates were when uh with the uh half day 4K and then at kindergarten the net migration or survival rate for the 4K to K would be reduced and I took the average of the past

059three years of the K to grade one assuming that would be similar and that's 0.997 and then I looked at it and it made a difference of one student if it had been 1.0 0000 because the numbers are so small. So we're basically not taking anybody out. We're we're just uh uh moving that K cohort from from K uh um from 4K to K as it would have occurred from K to one. All right. Now I think we have the numbers next. Right. In 10 years with the adjusted migration assumption, full day 4K results in total in-person enrollment like half or with current 4K to key migration. So with the lowest kindergarten assumption, it's 1370 versus 1359 or 11 students higher. With the high migration assumption, it's 14 students lower. So it's and that now

060I have a table with numbers. Okay. So you can see here that the two yellows are the two corresponding and then the two greens. Um I think it also provides us a little insight as I've mentioned. I think that uh 1508 is probably not achievable, but um 4,452 something like that. In other words, I I really think you probably should anticipate that you'll have a 100 student decline in 10 years. Uh all things being equal, uh if you know, fertility doesn't uh plummet plummet any farther. Um, and then thank you. And any questions? I'd be happy to point and answer. >> I do have a couple questions. Um, did you take into account did you did you inspect with the either village of Hammond or village of Roberts or Warren Township, the township of Hammond

061on the developments that's currently happening? >> No, I didn't. But I have to tell you, you >> homes growing, >> 400 houses, single family takes an enormous number. >> Yep. Well, that's what's happening in Roberts. >> Yeah. Well, that um >> so that so this this is a skew then because when they're done within a year or two, these numbers wouldn't be accurate not knowing who's moving in from the Twin Cities. >> Am I wrong? >> Yeah, we don't. First of all, they need to be single family detached, not town homes, not apartments. >> So, twin homes don't count for the amount of kids you might have in there. >> Yeah. >> So, the numbers are not accurate. >> Uh, town homes, twin homes don't yield as many kids as single family detached. >> Okay.

062>> Yeah. She did not include a housing study in this. >> Housing study probably should have been included for this report, I would say. I mean, as a mail carrier, you need to deliver mail to 500 more houses in the next year or two. >> Yeah. But that doesn't mean you're going to get very many kids. >> Okay. >> That's that's the thing. Uh, I guess I'd be happy to look at it, but my experience has been, and I've done a lot of them now, is it's very very difficult to get enough housing to overcome this force of of lower fertility and natural decrease. >> Hey, Hazel, this is Lance, I have one for you, too. Um, and this is, I guess, maybe more experience-based, but >> just given where we're located on kind of

063the fringes of a major metropolitan area, >> do do you see that, having looked back at any of your projections or data as having an influence on the population versus like a >> Park Falls, Wisconsin that's kind of in the middle of nowhere? >> Yeah. No, you you you benefit from being in St. Croy County, but the fact of the matter is population is not growing very fast in Minnesota. >> Yeah. Uh so and then we're the the question is you know um the the question is whether the population moves from Minnesota to Wisconsin or whether it's movement from within Wisconsin as people look for jobs in the Twin Cities. You know that it's coming from east of you. >> Sure. uh moving in. Um and the um I'm not very bullish. I I live

064in Minnesota. I'm a native of Wisconsin. Um I'm not very bullish right now about Minnesota's population. >> Thank you. Uh Minnesota's population growth for the past 25 years has been really totally driven by uh foreign immigration. >> So thank you. >> Thanks. >> I mean it's Yeah, your situation is better than Park Falls. Thank you very much. >> Thanks. >> Any other questions? >> Don't think so. >> Okay. Well, I I can tell you these are more favorable results than I've seen in most of the districts I've projected in 2025 26. Um, >> awesome. Thank you. Thank you, Hazel. Appreciate it. >> Yeah. >> Okay. If you have any other questions, let the superintendent know and I'd be happy to answer them. >> We'll go do. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Bye >>

065Bye. Water. >> All right. Um, next we have a presentation by Barry Forbes. How you doing, sir? Well, one second. Tim's got you muted. >> Oh, he's got >> No, I had myself muted and um I've spent the last uh hour trying to or half an hour trying to change their name not available, but that out. And but I can say that I've been to Park Falls many times in >> I have a good friend from there. So once I just know the Schwaban forest is desolate. Okay. Um, I am here tonight to uh uh uh uh provide some board professional development. Uh uh the topic Tim and I landed on was conflict of interest. I can answer some questions about uh uh uh public records law. I thought they may uh uh come up.

066So I asked him to include that in the notice. But uh the PowerPoint that I have is all on conflict of interest and I'm imagining you do not want to hear me talk about it for uh uh 60 minutes which uh you know I easily can go beyond. So I will try to uh uh hit the highlights. Tim uh is it possible for me to share my screen? I see a share screen button. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, Microsoft Edge tab. Come on. I'm not seeing my PowerPoint come up. >> Do you have it opened on your browser? >> Yeah. Yeah, I have uh well I have the PowerPoint open in uh um uh um Microsoft PowerPoint and uh it's on my other screen and choose what to share with meet.google.com and I am not

067seeing >> I can just pull it up on my screen. >> Okay, why don't you put it up on your screen? I'll tell you when to move the um uh uh uh slides. That'll probably work better. >> Okay. And we're loading. And there we go. There we go. Okay. Yeah. Why don't uh Oh, we had it for a >> Yeah. There we go. >> There we go. Okay. I'm Barry Forbes. I'm staff counsel for Wisconsin Association of School Boards. I've uh uh uh worked with your district for a number of years and and uh um uh I have talked uh many times about conflict of interest. Why don't you go to the uh next slide? And uh as far as the overview goes, I think the most interesting and important parts of this are the

068criminal liability and code of ethics for local government officials. I'll spend more time on those. The other topics I can talk about a uh a little if you're interested but u uh um I think criminal liability and code ethics are the most important ones. So uh next slide uh uh and this is common law conflict interest and basically as local government officials uh uh um you're serving uh um the public interest and your obligation is that like a fiduciary like a uh a a lawyer or a finan financial advisor where your obligation is to make decisions that are in the interest of the public you serve. Which means that you should not be considering your personal interest in making uh uh uh decisions as schoolboard members. Uh next slide uh please. Uh there aren't a

069lot of court cases on the common law conflict of interest. The Hefron case is probably one of the most uh uh recent ones. It involved a Green Bay city alderman who worked for a contractor who bid on and received a contract to demolish and reconstruct a bridge in the city of Green Bay. And uh that potentially was a common law conflict of interest. The court said that no person can faithfully serve two masters at the same time uh representing diverse or inconsistent interests. In that case, they decided that there wasn't a conflict. But go to the next slide. when there is a common law conflict of interest. And this is also true when we talk about the criminal conflicts of interest and the code of ethics for local government officials. One of the consequences can

070be the invalidation of a vote and the voiding of whatever agreement was entered into. uh uh by that vote that was affected by the conflict interest. So that's all I'll say about uh uh common law. We're on to the criminal conflict of interest. The most interesting statute there is 946.13. Chapter 946 is a chapter of the criminal code that basically uh uh uh covers crimes against government or involving government. And prohibits local government officials and public employees from having a private interest in public contracts. So, if you benefit as a school board member or an employee privately in a contract that the school district enters into, there is potentially a criminal conflict of interest, although there are lots of exceptions, which we'll uh get to. The statute is a strict liability statute and that means

071that uh uh to prove that there was a crime, the state does not have to show that you uh uh uh uh intended to violate the law. There's no intent element. Uh it is a uh class I felony and the penalty for violating 94613 maximum penalty can be a fine of up to $10,000 or imprisonment up to three years. And next slide. Uh there are two types of violation of 94613. A board member can violate the statute in their public capacity as a board member or in their private capacity as a party entering into a contract with a school district. And we'll talk about public capacity first. And if someone has a private interest, let's take that hein case. you're an employee of a contractor and you're building uh a bridge for the city of

072uh uh uh Green Bay. If you're also on the city council and you vote in favor of entering into the contract that would benefit your employer that potentially is a violation of 946131B. That would be the public capacity. But it's possible to avoid that by the city council member or schoolboard member uh uh choosing to not vote, not discuss, not get involved in the making of that decision to abstain from participating in that decision. In that case, there would not be a violation of 946131B. The public capacity element. Go to the next slide. The private capacity element basically is a person who has authority to act on behalf of government. a school board member, a city council member who can vote to enter into a contract. If they act in their private capacity to enter

073into the contract and have authority to act in their public capacity to be a schoolboard member to vote to accept the contract, that can be a violation of 94613. And you take that hepherin example where the city council member is an employee of the contractor. He say I'm going to abstain in my capacity as a city council member from any participation in the decision as to who you hire to build that bridge. and instead I am going to act as my employer's agent and negotiate with you over the uh uh contract to build that bridge. That also would be a violation of 94613 1A. And the elements of that are uh uh you acted in your private capacity to negotiate or enter into the contract and you had authority in your public capacity whether you

074exercised it or not doesn't matter but you had authority to act in your public capacity to approve that contract. Next slide. Uh there are a number of significant exceptions. The most important exception is contracts that involve receipts and dispersements in the aggregate not exceeding $15,000 in a single year. So, and that $15,000 does not reference the benefit that a local government official might receive. It is the size of the contract. So, if you own a car dealership and sell a van to the school district for $40,000, that's that $40,000 figure that's significant, not the profit or the amount that the board member might receive in a commission. So, that's one exception. Contracts for public deposits. uh uh the statute doesn't apply if you own stock in a company unless you own a very significant amount

0752% or more of all the stock in that company. There are other exceptions. Uh next slide. One place you run into this is in the case of a school board member thinking about applying for a job with school district and an application for a job is negotiating to enter into an agreement with the school district. So, if a school board member wanted to apply for a job, the proper way to do it to avoid a problem with 94613 would be to resign from the school board prior to putting in your application uh uh for uh uh the uh uh position with the school district. And that's the one court case that we know of, the Benma decision. Uh it involved a uh a township board member applying for employment with the township and that was

076a violation of the statute. I can tell you I have worked at the Wisconsin Association of School Boards since 1983. To my knowledge, no school board member has ever violated this statute. Next slide. Uh I'm not going to spend uh any particular time on on the misconduct uh uh in uh uh uh office uh uh statute. It does not come up very often. Probably the most common situation it gets talked about is if a board member intentionally leaks information from a closed session. And some have suggested that would violate 94612. And uh um uh I think it's possible, but to my knowledge, no school board member or other local government official has ever been charged for uh uh under 94612 for that purpose. So that's criminal conflicts of interest. If if people have questions uh

077uh and you want me to stop uh uh um Tim, why don't you let me know? Otherwise, I'll just keep going. I can't see people raise their hands or anything. So, uh um question. >> No, everybody's saying proceed. >> Okay. Uh uh go to the next slide. Uh uh we're on to the code of ethics for uh uh local government officials, employees and candidates. That's 19.59 of the statutes and that also prohibits certain conflicts interest by local public officials. Um it is not that old of a statute. it uh was adopted in the late 1980s. I think in part because the uh criminal conflict interest statute by its nature and by the fact that it's a criminal statute uh um basically did not cover a lot of situations where uh u there should be some

078law addressing the conflict interest. But uh uh the criminal penalties involved are perhaps too harsh. >> So we have 19.59 and uh uh it prohibits certain conflicts of interest by local public officials and local public officials includes all schoolboard members and high level administration. That would be any central office administrators like your district administrator or business manager. It would also include building principles and it potentially could include uh some other employees but that is pretty much the scope. And uh uh one difference between the code of ethics and the criminal statute is the code of ethics only regulates board member conduct in their public capacity and there's no private capacity element uh uh uh uh to it. So, uh, um, if you were, uh, uh, talking about that alderman negotiating, uh, uh, a contract, uh,

079in Green Bay on behalf of, uh, uh, his employer, the, uh, building contractor, if the contract was less than $15,000, it would not be a violation of the criminal statute, and the code of ethics would not apply. But if that uh uh alderman voted on accepting his employer's bid for building the bridge, the code of ethics might apply. It only applies in the public capacity. So next slide. Uh uh the there are uh penalties in the form of uh uh uh forfeertures and potential uh uh criminal penalties. I have not seen any of these penalties imposed. Probably more significant would be if there is a violation of 1959 and a contract is involved, that contract could uh be voided. And uh uh although off top of my head, I'm not thinking any examples of of

080that. Uh also go on to the next slide. There are four types of prohibited conflicts under 19.5 n. You may not use your position to obtain anything of substantial uh value for yourself or for a family member or organization you're associated with. No one may give you and you may not accept as schoolboard members anything of value if it could be reasonably uh expected to influence your vote or uh um judgment. You may not uh uh act or offer to act or refrain from acting in exchange for a campaign contribution. And no board member may take official action or use their office in a manner that uh provides substantial financial benefit to himself or herself, a family member or an organization with which they're uh associated. So go to the next slide and we'll start

081to uh uh uh unpack uh uh uh some of those terms. First uh um the uh uh 1A uh uh um subsection use of position for financial gain. No local public official may use their public position to obtain anything of substantial value for himself or herself or immediate family or an organization they're associated with that has a bunch of terms that need some additional uh uh um uh definition. And go to the next slide. The term anything of value means pretty much uh you know certainly uh uh uh um any money any property favors service payments forbearance loan promises in the future uh anything of value can be fairly simple as we'll see in the uh uh upcoming slides. Next slide. substantial value and uh uh um you know if I was controlling slides I

082you know I I would jump back two or three slides and point out 1A uses the term anything of substantial value. Uh u go back one more slide. Uh you see 1A uses the term anything of substantial value. One B uses anything of value. Now go back uh to the slide we were on. No the uh what yeah substantial value slide. That one the phrase anything of substantial value is not very valuable. It's anything more than nominal token or inconsequential value. We talk about this a lot before the WB convention because we know that school boards are meeting with contractors and other vendors that want to do business with the school district. Correct. And those contractors or vendors offering to buy meals or drinks. those meals or drinks would be something of substantial value. Uh

083uh um according uh uh to the Government Accountability Board which was a predecessor board to the uh uh uh ethics commission who now has uh uh authority to regulate uh um uh uh make decisions under 19.59. Uh, and the Government Accountability Board way back in 1982 said that vendor buying a bottle of beer for a local government official would be something of substantial value. Next slide. I mediate family is uh uh uh pretty limited is limited to uh uh an individual spouse or another family member who basically you are supporting or that person is supporting you. So the definition of immediate family, a way to think about it is uh you know immediate family is your spouse and anyone you might claim as a um uh um uh deduction on your uh um or a

084dependent on your uh income tax or they might claim you as a dependent on their income tax. immediate family is limited to that group. And we run into questions uh like this when uh uh a board member is faced with the situation that their adult child is applying for a job with the school district. And that comes up from time to time. And that isn't a violation of 19.59 in most in instances because your adult children are financially independent of you and you're not pla claiming them as dependent on your income tax. So you don't meet that definition. Uh next slide associated and this is uh uh um uh related to uh uh how connected to a business do you need to be for uh the business benefiting from a government contract say to be

085reflected back uh on you and The definition in the statute uh uh uh limits it to uh u uh um an individual or member of the immediate family being a director officer trustee or someone who owns more than 10% of the business. So, we run into uh um there are a few schoolboard members in Wisconsin who work for private contractors who provide bus service to the school district. And uh uh in those instances, the board member being a bus driver would not meet this definition of being associated with the company that provides the bus services. You have to basically be on the board of directors or an executive director or a significant owner of of the business. Okay, next slide. Okay, this gets to the second uh uh uh uh code of ethics potential violation.

086Uh um no person may offer or give a local public official and no local public official may solicit or accept anything of value if it could be reasonably expected to influence their judgment. And uh the one thing that strikes me about this is uh uh it does not use the word substantial. So basically anything at all could uh uh uh you know that is uh valuable if somebody is offering you something in exchange for your acting in your capacity as a board member and it has any value, it potentially could violate uh uh 1B and uh Um although uh you know you're not prohibited from uh engaging uh uh in outside employment, but that isn't connected back to your role uh uh as a a schoolboard member. Well, if if it was potentially or it

087could be a a violation. Political contributions. This is probably the most obvious one that uh um um you can't uh uh um offer to do anything or refrain from doing anything in exchange for a campaign contribution. And uh um um in the earlier slide that that addressed penalties, the biggest potential penalty was in uh intentional violation of this subsection. And we don't see much uh uh uh concern about this in large part because most school board members don't receive political contributions. is, you know, you run for office uh uh um with uh you know, out spend uh without spending much in the way of uh uh campaign money. Uh next slide. Okay. Subc uh um Oh, we don't let's let's go on to the next slide. We don't need to get into that level of

088detail. is possible to get advisory opinions uh uh from uh um either the Wisconsin Ethics Board or uh uh if a uh a board member wanted an advisory uh opinion, you can get that from uh uh the Government Legal Council, which I suppose potentially could be me or it could be one of the other attorneys that uh uh works with the school district. I've done a couple of those over the years. It does not come up very often. Next slide. Okay, that's on uh uh more detail on on advisory. Uh and that's the uh Wisconsin Ethics Commission giving opinions. I can tell you if you ask for one, they will be slow. that uh um um you know I don't imagine that uh you know the way the ethics commission is is is uh uh

089um set up uh uh uh right now it does not quickly. So, okay. And, uh, you know, we can we can skip over that stuff. That was just talking about some WSB uh uh uh code code code of ethics uh uh issues. Okay. Well, we're a half hour in. Tim, do you want me to talk about some of these other issues or have I used up my time? >> I think Yeah. Has the board want any of those other parts that he showed in his overview or um No, I think it's time maybe for potential questions. >> Okay, back to the um just the first he had a whole bunch of overview. It >> had all the Yeah, just see what it was at the end. >> I I was more interested in the first

090couple. So, okay. >> Any questions for Barry? Uh just FYI, Barry has, you know, offered to do this professional development gratus. So we thank you Barry for that. Um appreciate that very much. >> Oh, and I, you know, I appreciate working with your district and u uh uh it's been a a great relationship. I'm going to retire one of these days and you guys will be one of my last clients. So >> So there you go. We will uh uh uh talk again sometime and I will sign off. >> Thank you, Barry. Oh, I have a question. Oh, >> um I'm just curious what is bringing this up to have a full discussion in regards to what's going on with the board. Um is it a reason that Erica chose to leave? Um or is

091there anything we should be concerned about? Because this seems to kind of out of the blue um having the attorney come speak about board member stuff. Um and then also is coaching involved in regards to the employment >> appointment of what? I'm sorry. >> Is coaching involved regarding >> regarding the rules and regulations? They said teaching is coaching involved in that also. I just want to make sure we are all clear on the same page. I just we normally do stuff like this in u our quarterly board development meetings and I think we've we've had quite a few requests to do I guess more inopen settings like this that are recorded. So >> that's just us for learning what what we can do and what we can't do. We've done Yeah, we've been working with

092Lee Pritzell primarily with board development quarterly and um the last few meetings have been um cancelled because of conflicts. Barry in working with him uh said, "Hey, I've got a great presentation on this. You know what or that and what would you be interested in?" And um said he'd be willing to do this for free. So yeah, it's done in open session this time and we normally have board development posted separately quarterly, but because we haven't done that since I think August, >> this is why now. >> So nothing nothing with Eric. >> Nothing to read into. It's this board development >> just out of curiosity things for the last year. So I didn't know what was going to be presented and so I guess regards to it being board member stuff kind of caught

093me off guard. So I was kind of curious and appreciate the openness >> like he said begin with too he put records law open records you know in case there are any questions because you know there have been a lot of them lately and he's and we work with barely Barry primarily with that. So he said I'll just put that on there in case the board members have any questions about it but they don't. >> Okay. Okay. And anything with the coaching position stuff, does that count towards teaching or is that a different entity or is it you don't make enough to get that 15,000? I was just trying to understand all the numbers >> with the laws about >> Oh, enter into a contract, >> right? He said something in regards to if you're

094employed and being board members. >> Yeah. There are no board members that are uh >> have a contract as coach. board members do have volunteered in the past and currently, but no contracts. >> Tim, if I could uh uh jump in, that is one of the slides we did not get to, and I'm not suggesting you throw the PowerPoint back up, >> but there is a statute 120.20 20 that directly addresses schoolboard members volunteering to be uh uh uh coaches in athletic activities. It allows it and it describes some circumstances like uh uh uh board members >> nobody else wants to do it. >> Yeah. No, that board members may be coaches. They are not paid. Uh um there are criminal background checks. That struck me kind of in as interesting. You don't need a

095criminal background check to be a board member. But then if you volunteer to be the assistant baseball coach, you need a background check for that. But that's what statute provides. >> Thanks, Barry. Thanks, Barry. >> Okay. Well, if there's nothing else for me, I'm going to sign off. >> All right. Have a good night. >> Thank you. >> I think we're going to attach that, too. >> Yeah, we can attach that to the minutes the presentation part. >> Okay. Um, next up, bid and talented. >> Hello everyone. Um this will be a pretty brief just informational session on the identification process update. So per policy 342.3 um any significant changes to our gifted and talented program have to be um presented and um approved by Tim. So we've gone through this uh yesterday actually just

096to make sure that everything was in here. Um so you can go ahead for her GT staff. These are any teachers at the elementary or middle school level that are providing specific GT either instruction to students or supports for teachers. Um I'm the GT coordinator for the district, but Kina Fernandz, Carrie Demand, Christy Schmidt provide instruction at the middle school and Dan Rud is providing some instruction at the elementary school. So these folks specifically Tina, Christy, and Dan were able to attend our planning meetings. Carrie um has has class during that time, but she was consulted. Um so they were a part of the decisions that we're going to um I guess inform you on today. So what areas do we currently identify students as gifted and or talented? So academic in grades four through

097eight and that would be in English language arts andor mathematics, visual or performing arts, creativity and leadership and those are in grades five through eight and that was something that was added last year. So there are actually a couple other areas um which we do not offer at this time because the criteria to get in the staffing to service all of those things make it a little bit more difficult. Uh you can see at the bottom parent or teacher recommendation in grades K through three that in my time here in the past two and a half years I think I've had two parents contact me at those grade levels or by teachers um and it has not um come to fruition based on the data that we have about those students. But parents are always

098welcome to ask and and we can go through the data that way. At the high school level, any student who's GT um is allowed to take courses at varying levels, honors, AP, CAP courses, all those things depending on um their interest. The current process for identification up to uh next week for academics, I go through and I mine the data after universal screeners. So those AS web tests and fastbridge tests that your children if you have them right now would do three times a year. Um currently they need two scores above the 95th percentile on that universal screener. And the big piece in that is they're not time bound. So once they t start taking those assessments in second grade, there could be one in second grade and then there might not be one till

099fifth grade. And currently they would qualify as GT. Um they would also need in addition to that one score above 95th percentile not just an advanced scoring but a 95th percentile above on a state required forward exam that doesn't start until third grade and we get those scores at the end third grade. All remaining areas that are not academic um which we started last year in February are based on a teacher recommendation forum. We um had proposed doing it at the beginning in the middle of the year and then um staff members uh were presented with the attributes and the criteria and kind of those characteristics that students would possess or showcase um in those other areas. And then it was really a recommendation and then a team conversation about those students. And this was

100really a way to get more diverse students that maybe weren't great test takers, but really showed a strength in leadership and gathering students and collaborating to um make decisions or um we had actually a coach who saw a student who shown super strong leadership capabilities on the basketball team and so they were nominated. And then again, it's not just one person, it's a team talking about all of those things. And are you seeing this in social studies? are you seeing this in PE? Are you seeing it out in the community? So it really became um a conversation and so we're taking it a little bit further. So next slide please. So this is our total current number of students fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade um segregated by content area and again it may

101be duplicative as we do have some students who are in maybe visual arts and also math or ELA and math. That last category, GI, is general intelligence. So, just a little bit of information on that. If a student scores um at the 95th percentile or above um three times within two years in math and ELA, I give them an online test called the KOAT. And it's three tests that uh basically your um general intelligence IQ tests. If they score a 95th percentile or above on that as a whole, they would get the label of general intelligence. The kids that have done this really think it's just an honor to be asked. Um, we kind of pump them up and, you know, whether they get a 95 or they get a 92. The lowest that I've

102done, I think I've done six or seven. The lowest has been an 89. Um, the highest has been a 99. Um, they just think it's pretty cool to even get. So, we always talk about it's okay if you don't make it. This is an honor just to get to take that. Um, currently our fourth grade um GP students, we have three, it's 2.3% of the fourth grade population. Fifth through 8th grade students identified are 12.9% of the fifth through eighth grade population. The reason I have that in there is because of the next bullet. The average national percentage of students of public schools is 6%. The National Association of Gifted and Talented along with the Wisconsin Association of Gifted and Talented recommend between two to five on the lower end, four to six or four

103to seven on the high end. Now, just like with anything, you can go Google and you'll find places that say, "Well, we take everybody or we take 15%." When you do things like that, your quality programming goes down significantly because of staffing. You'll notice that the teachers that I have on there, none of them are GT teacher alone. They all have other duties. And so our conversation started about a year ago in how do we create more specific timebound cutoff that really truly identifies more accurately and consistently our students who are truly gifted or talented and um provide better programming for them. So next slide which I just said. There we go. We can go to the next one. Um so the new process for identification for academics you can see highlighted in yellow and

104this will be updated on our website um either Friday or Monday in our handbook. Um for academics now instead of two scores above the 95th percentile on the universal it's three scores above the 95th percentile on the universal. And those must be within a two-year time span. So every time they take it, that time span extends. So really, they have six opportunities to show 50% of the time they're scoring at that that high level, which gives us again a much more consistent, accurate identification um of students. And then one score that remains the same on the forward because they only take that one time a year. Um just to give you an idea on the a couple slides back, I showed you the students who have actually qualified. One of the other data pieces that

105I keep track of is those students that are on watch. So those students that have one score above 95th um two scores above 95th and then the forward score and we currently have 82 students on watch. So as you can see if all of them were to get in that is not an accurate representation of truly gifted and talented means we have super smart kids but not necessarily gifted and talented. So all of the other remaining areas that's going to slightly change to and this was based on again the recommendations from the National and Wisconsin Associations of Gifted and Talented. Continuing with the teacher recommendation form, but instead of doing it at the beginning of the year when our students might not know their students that they're getting new for that year, we're waiting till

106the middle of the year. So this will actually take place in the next couple of weeks. and students that are recommended. Instead of just having a conversation about them at that time, we're going to create a digital portfolio for all of the teachers that know that student to add things to it and a collecting evidence protocol so that when we meet in May, we would be able to go through all of those things and truly get a good picture and almost like a portfolio of what that students strengths are for leadership, for creativity, for visual and performing arts because they're not all the same. One student could be gifted in leadership doesn't mean that they're the same as the other person. Right? So, this gives the teachers the following year a better idea of extensions,

107ideas, projects, performance-based learning that would be specific to that student. So, and then their program would begin the best the following fall. So, it does put a pause to when students would be in, but we truly feel like it's what's actually best for kids so that they can get the program that's best for them. Our programming philosophy switched this year because of staffing, but again, partly because of this best practice and what those two associations are pushing for. Um, it used to be pull out GT sessions. You're in math GT, you come to me for 30 minutes twice a week or once a week or whatever um your schedule allows for. And not that that's a bad thing, but it's separate. and GT identification and GT GT um teaching and extensions really are meant to

108be part of the classroom least restrict least restrictive and so you'll see that emphasis on teacher coaching and so that's what um specifically Tina Dunzer and Christy Schmidt for the most part have been working with teachers on pushing in and being in that classroom with students and the cool part is then other students can see what these kids are doing and hearing and so they can kind of take part in those things as Well, so I think that's the last one. >> Any questions? >> The uh like the the portfolio development for some of those other ones. Do those carry kind of with the kids on watch through second, third, up through seventh, eighth grade and kind of monitor progress. >> Yeah. So if they're nominated in the next couple of weeks and we get

109to the end of the year maybe and that candidate maybe doesn't qualify I yes that would go on to the next year because they were obviously identified for a reason. So continuing to watch them um we go through quite in detail about what the attributes are of those students and so we really you know encourage people um when we started this people thought well I have to have somebody I have to put somebody on the form don't it's okay right it's okay not to nominate somebody um so in most chances if they're nominated and a teacher or a group of teachers truly believes and can show evidence the likelihood of them being identified and being in the program is pretty high because it's only going to help them. So yeah. >> So math is obviously

110easy tracked like what do you do with leadership? How do you how do you further that >> is as far as identification or >> well you identify it but then what do you do after you identify it? >> Yeah. So it could be um leadership positions in their classroom. It could be project manager type things. It could be a teacher knowing that this student um I'm trying to think of somebody that we had at the middle school that did their their presentation for wanting the day after Halloween off, right? Like that's something that this student went outside the box, came up with a presentation, presented it to the PR, right? Those are things that kids might have those ideas, but to actually make it come to fruition. So really, it's more of a teacher being

111aware that this student has this intrinsic drive and this this passion to go beyond what your rubric says, right? >> Yeah. >> Thank you, >> Steve. Thanks, Dave. Thank you. >> All right, Mr. Treasure. All right. Financial reports as of uh December 31st, 2025 balance in our citizens day bank checking account were $1,385,97420. Money market balance was $12,295.74. 146 is at 6191. Suicide prevention $5,482.32. Debt service is $935.34. Referendum balance is $61,73322 for a total of $1,466,482.73. >> Before we motion to approve, don't we have to spend that 61,000 in the referendum balance? >> Yes. or the >> or the referendum, right? >> And when does that have to be spend? >> I believe it's by the end of this fiscal year. Oh, >> okay. >> And it's Yeah, it's already earmarked for some like

112a CTE auto program. Yeah. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. All in >> favor. Okay. Thank you. Right. Consent agenda items. So, um minutes, bills, and then uh the curricular modification requests. Uh we did have 58 part-time, six full-time for a total of 64. I get a motion to approve the consent agenda items. >> Motion to approve consent. Second. >> All in favor? >> I opposed. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Fed report for student enrollment update. >> Uh number of students in seats as of the count this month is 1553. Um, and you can see we started the year at 1,554 and it's fluctuated very little. 51, 52, 54. So, uh, to Hazel's point, our net uh, in migration and our migration uh, is very minimal, pretty pretty steady this year. Uh, another number to

113point out is our free introduced lunch rate at 21.94. State average again is 3 37.5. Um, then again, um, you can see class sizes and and groups. One thing I want to point out again, our open enrollment um uh is outstanding uh for our in January we have 308 difference in that's largely attributed to our 310 students obviously uh in our virtual charter program. Uh I want to point out we're at an all-time high with that. Kudos to Steph and her staff. 310 is uh opposed or compared to this time last year of 277. And again, those are non-resident students enrolled in our virtual charter school. You add in the 110 here of our resident students, which you just saw 64 of them just approved this month at semester time. 110 are taking full part-time

114courses to our virtual school as well. And their resident students 3 resident students are enrolled in our charter school. Um and there so that's a total of 453 students. Our virtual charter school is is um servicing actually at the time of this count. That was two weeks ago. We probably had about 20 to 30 more just the last two weeks. It's that time of year um and continues to um to trend in a very positive direction. Questions on that? Hello. >> I'm going to talk about 4K full day. Hazel kind of gave me a softball there. So, um, Grayson. All right. Um, so first I just want to um thank the board and our community really um for supporting the 4K program. In the nine years I've been in this position of a 4K director

115has really evolved. When I came, our district, we um our 4K sites were offsite and we didn't employ the employees. We just sent our kids to those spots at different daycarees. Um, a couple years after that, they became our employees, which was great. And then we moved to just Trinity and the elementary. And then obviously the referendum, thank you to our community, has been such a positive impact. So, I just thought I needed to start with thanking the board for supporting that and our community. Um, we've already saw have seen a very positive impact with our kids. Um, and we think this is an opportunity now to even better that. Um so just going through a couple of the impacts that we would see or have seen. So a daily impact going to full day

1164K. Um is obviously the time the day um our staff are with kids two two sessions a day at three and a half hours. Um having a little bit more time we can continue with the purpose so play. We think at an early learning a lot of our learning happens to play. Um the teachers a lot of more time for intentional deeper learning. um we can expose our kids to specials. Right now, they don't attend art or music or fine other things like that. Um so that's something we can do. And just the rest and refuel. What I mean by that is not as much transitions in a four-year-old stay from school to daycare to home. Um the first thing is the social emotional impact. Um having them all day, we'll be able to provide

117more consistent routines. Um, so what they would see in kindergarten, the full day, helping build their stamina and really that emotional regulation. So what that means is being able to transition to one thing to another, going outside and playing, coming back into learning. Um, that takes a lot for little kids, sometimes adults, it takes a lot more. So having them all day will help build that. Um, their social skills. Having them all day will allow more for that collaborative play with their peers. learning to negotiate, share, um having empathy for each other, losing um and just the conflict resolution we see in a lot of kids as they get older. They don't know how to solve their own problems, but we think if we can have them longer and help foster that, that will help

118with them. And then just building relationships and connections with kids, um having them for a full day, the teachers can spend more time with each kid um to meet their needs. Um the academic impact obviously our teachers are amazing already and they're doing great things now. Um but with three and a half hours versus a full day they can do even more um that deeper learning um deeper understanding of skills. They can meet more with them. Um and the biggest thing is this language acquisition um increased talk time and really what that means is when kids understand they can can communicate better with each other and in turn helps them learn more effectively across the grades. Um so it'll promote that growth which will help them throughout all their academics. Um another piece is supporting

119our families. um consistent learning environment is really we will have them all day, right? We can we can control and control at school and provide that for them which in turn will be less transition. So some of our kids, right, are at six o'clock going to a daycare, then at 7:30 they're getting on a bus coming to the elementary learning, get back on a bus, go back to daycare for several hours, go back home. That's just a lot for little kids. Um so that this would hopefully take that out. um a potential cost for for child care for families obviously the full day versus half day and we've worked with um Carrie for kids care and she would be able to get a license for wraparound care so that also take another transition away for

120kids um and then just being more integrated in the school community. Um, and what that what I mean by that is as a 4K parent, if that's the oldest child, right? If they're there for three and a half hours a day, you're just naturally not as integrated, but being there full day, they they just feel more part of the school. So really the impact on us as a district um why now is a question that we've we've gotten um we've talked to all of our stakeholders, talked to our 4K teachers, our kindergarten teachers, um transportation, special education, we've reached out to districts um there's none around us that are full day right now, but some of the other ones up north um and just things like that. And we're in a spot. I mean, obviously

121Hazel was talking about it and you saw the numbers Tim just put up. You know, we have lower numbers, declining enrollment. Um, so our our numbers in K and one are lower. So we could restructure right now, right? We could move a teacher to a 4K have five sections each. So we're not having to hire a teacher and we're not having to find new space. So that's kind of why now we've always thought it's been a good thing. Tim and our team has talked about full day 4K for a couple years and just didn't have the money and space for it then. So that's kind of why we think now um we are able to reduce our bus routes during the midday. So that would be somewhat of a cost savings to our district. Um

122obviously the no additional teachers or space and then you know for us potential to retain students. Um a lot of times in 4K we lose anywhere between 10 to 20 students out that live in our district due to daycare and wraparound care. Um so hopefully to retain those and attract new students. There's that offers this right now. Um so we hope that that would be also an opportunity for us. So in a nutshell um obviously we think very strongly and the reason for it is we feel it's best for kids um and what we could provide for them um and hopefully help our district as well. Any questions? >> Will they get mats to sleep on >> because we had mats in kindergarten half No. And that was half day. Very much. >> Just wondering.

123>> Yeah. I mean, they will have that will be part of their day. Obviously, for a four-year-old, we're not going to have them all day. Not have a rest. Yes, they probably will. Just check. >> Great question. Are you going to join them? >> No. No. You want to hit me up? >> Has there been any studies done with these kids like that are going to full-time 4K? I mean, school used to be 12 and a half years. Now we're going to 14 full years. Seems like a lot. >> I can't speak to any studies I've seen um or heard of, but you know, a lot of what a 4K day would be, and I get what you're saying, but like a lot of our our 4K is through play, right? It's not like when

124we went to school, you sat in a row, you sat and listened, right? Like, and it's very just approp developmentally appropriate. >> Sit and listen, but kids did. Sorry listen right now. I'm sure. >> Um, so I can't say I've seen or heard them, but >> we have to make that introduction into kindergarten a lot lot easier. >> And I have to I speak to that even since we've been we've had the kids in our building. We've seen such a difference in just having them in the building and knowing more people as they enter kindergarten. Right? kindergarten if they've never been to school or our school. Those first couple weeks are really hard for those kindergarten kids. Now, like we very rarely, and Shel and I even said it this year, it was crazy how

125many less anxious kids and even parents brought their kindergarters. They just walked in because they been there, they know the people. So, that's a benefit also that we've had having them at the building and prepared. Great. Okay. So hopefully um that would be our recommendation to vote to 4K starting next school year. You guys approve it. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Consideration of approval for the full day. I'd rather not vote on this just quite yet after a seven minute presentation. I'd also like to get Jeff's input with him being 32 years on the school board. I' I'd rather I know that's is probably not great timing. >> I agree with you, D. >> I just I would like to get a I'd like to pull some of the people that I

126care about their opinion and I'd like to hear from them and see what their thoughts are. I it wouldn't have worked great for for you know a lot of my kids. A little more anxious, a little more rambunctious. >> So, you know, I yeah, I can't speak for Jeff, but I know he's talked about the he knows understands the importance of early childhood education. YMCA and lots of people he knows have talked about that. Um um they talked about the transition. some of the kids like 70ish, right, are in 4K and come to kindergarten, but another 20 or 30 aren't and they see the difference there. Um, and uh I understand you wanting to wait. The only thing I say is if we were to proceed with this um we we start 4K registration in

127February, right? >> So, just know that a delay would significantly delay that. And I could say the other thing is it's it's not required, right? If some parents it doesn't work for them, they don't want it, they still um don't have to. >> They still have the option to enroll in it. >> Correct. >> So the happy day option is still available. >> It is. We're not necessarily um going to broadcast that, but if a parent comes says this doesn't work for my kid, we're going to work with them. And that's we've learned that from other districts. Yeah, it's not required. And a half day option would be an option. >> I don't see very many negatives out of it. I mean >> is 4K still entirely voluntary like period >> correct is there's yeah

128compulsory >> mandatory >> and no matter what uh you know our funding is the same whether it's half day or full day it's still 6 that's the current legislation so it doesn't affect funding that regard yeah we might get more students in so if you elect to do a half a day then do you have to figure out >> transportation midday Correct. Right. And which half and programming we of course think the whole day is important, >> but we have to pick >> which it's going to have to be probably >> again a lot of plans yet, but morning like morning right where most of the academics take place. >> Y >> and more of the specials and lunch and nap time or something afternoon. Um otherwise, you know, another option, um you know, is

129to have a special board meeting like we can schedule another board meeting just basically for this next week or the week after rather than wait until February um 18th. >> Can I add one thing? Sorry. I did p um send a survey out to I think it was in November to our families that opened and rolled out but we're district residents and just asked like why did you choose to open and roll out um ma mainly was transportation and um daycare and a question in there was you know what would really attract you to come back and a lot of people put both >> just because of the less transitions like I was talking about to daycarees and stuff like that back and forth. So, just wanted to add that we did get some feedback

130from community members. >> So, question. >> Yeah. >> Are you doing four days or five days? >> Five days. Four days. >> Yeah. I had the same question you did about whether there was still the option. It's one thing to open it up full time. It's another to force it. That's your only option. >> Well, they wanted half time or half days and they have the ability right now to take the bus to their daycare. That's no longer going to be available. >> Well, that's the thing. It would have to be then if figured that's what the family wants in the best interest of their family and and but again >> it's not the kids they're missing half a day >> Lizzy said well it's going to avoid bus routes during the middle of the

131day well if some parents want them to go back to daycare we're still running buses >> yeah that >> and employees we currently run three buses so but yeah let's say it's a half a dozen people we could do a van >> um you know or one bus just to say this, there's still going to be a midday route for early childhood. So, we still bring in the early childhood kids. So, it doesn't eliminate all of our because we have early childhood, not 4K, but the early childhood kids who do. So, there would be a route in there that is still going to exist. >> So, if there's a few or just provide more options, I get I just want to make sure it wasn't totally eliminated if they happily have to get to their

132daycare. >> Yeah, good question. question. Yeah. Still feel strongly about I would like a week to gather some details, get some opinions, I guess. I mean, I don't necessarily want to come in for the 11,000th board meeting in the last two years, but >> it's your decision. You can make a motion to approve or not approve or if you want more time to schedule another board meeting. Uh and then ideally next week >> agreed with you if it was the hard line of there was no midday >> that is a that change I mean that makes a lot of sense. It just it seems I don't know. I just think it's a kind of a big-ish decision to make on a seven minute presentation that we would, you know, I don't know. Also, it only

133changed our enrollment by 11 students. I didn't see it. I mean, it and that's a projection from 10 years. That could be completely wrong because of where we live and the proximity we are to the cities and the influx and >> well that was just an estimate. I I think enrollment would be much larger. But >> yeah, if it is much larger, we we would have to cap it based on staffing, >> right? >> We would have to >> Yeah, because we only have so many classrooms and and and teachers, but it is the right time, like Lindsay said, because of the declining enrollment, >> right? >> Um um >> utilize staff, >> just better shuffling staff. >> Yeah. What what are we staffed to hold for prek? >> Right now we have three and

134a half teachers at the seven section seven half day sections. >> So what what's that quantum the number of students >> total students in 4K right now is 73. So they vote 10 to 11 >> and so >> we go to five sections um and hoping to get some back 12 13 right now if we have the same numbers. >> We talked about limiting class sizes to 18 or less correct and then we also have a plan for paraprofessional um as well would be needed. Do we already employ the PAR? >> Would it be positions? >> Yeah, >> I'll put a motion to approve. And >> you guys can decide. >> Somebody's got a second motion to approve. >> I'll second it. I Vote for discussion since there was a motion in a second. This

135is not going to cause the public to be in a stir about where is this put our budget at. >> Yeah, there's no additional staffing. >> Correct. >> That is absolutely uh Yeah, it's not an option adding staff. We're actually >> looking at budget reductions. >> Yeah, it's just the timing's right. >> Timing's right. But as I ankled there like 500 things going on in Roberts those twin homes and stuff and Hazel has her projection but that doesn't mean that families are not going to move in there even though she said families don't technically move into twin homes and I can't count that. >> So you just have to remember that. >> Understand that. >> So I I think she's incorrect there. that you're saying if we get an influx of students specifically >> well

136they're building all the way out to the J right >> well I'm just saying >> yeah that's what I'm like so if we go down that road we get influx like and it really it's it's >> 4K in this discussion even K or one right which we have a capacity to six sections and and you see our our class sizes were we're not busting at the seams by any means um >> well we're not the only district that's been down Right. Correct. >> But then so following your the housing and an influx of students, what's the concern of 4K specifically? And >> well, this just was brought up with Hazel after Hazel's >> still talking about Hazel's presentation, which was great, Hazel, if you're still listening. But >> are you nervous that with these people

137moving into >> Well, how can you project what type of children they have? Are you nervous that they're they're going to have an influ we'll have an influx of so we don't have to do this to try more numbers back? >> Well, then we'd have to just add more as all. >> Yeah, that's it. Yeah, >> we're prepared. >> Well, with her 10 year thing for 2035, it's like I'm not buying that. >> That's how how are the families going to know that they have the half a day option >> when it's enrollment time? uh that discussion then when they asked the question then that discussion happens with Lindsay and during the enrollment process I said we weren't going to necessarily advertise it you can because again talking to other districts um you know some

138some of those transportation issues and such but even the ones that do offer it I think was very very >> small percentages that >> so the only I talked to six schools and one of them advertised it was Rice Lake and They had K three kids at the beginning of the year start half day and by the third week they were full-time. So that none of the schools I talked to they all have that option right if they call and need to work something out none of them come half day by parent choice. So that's kind of where it came with like we're not going to advertise it but obviously there's situations we work with families >> and again a four-year-old's most likely is there's going to be somewhere right in school half a day

139and home half a day in school half a daycare half a day either way it's a full day and we believe that we are in the best position to teach those early literacy and early childhood development things and it's consistent and I think that's a good thing. Yeah, it's a long day. So that's why the naps are built in. Lunch specials, lots of play. I think it's 20 21 of the 39 CESUS school districts have some sort of um or have full day 4K. I was really surprised by that number because like you said there none immediately around us that do that. >> So any of the other admin back there, do you guys have any input on this? I mean, just as far as your thoughts and your background in education, is there any

140concerns on your end? >> I can tell you that when I was principal in another district, we had full day option two days a week and half day option. The only people that chose the half day um were parents who stayed home. So, they still wanted their child with them. If parents were sending their child to daycare, they wanted they would rather have their child in school with um certified teachers doing that versus it. And quite honestly, I live 35 minutes from here and if we go to full day 4K, I'm considering bringing my child here for 4K in two years. The kid will turn five September 20th and he will have to set a whole another year in daycare versus being with the amazing teachers that we have. So, I have to convince my

141husband. But there is not a doubt in my mind that I would have rather have him at full day for him. >> And for me as a special ed teacher, I think it's a it's a great opportunity for us to intervene earlier with those kids. We we do get the birth of three referrals, but there's many of them that gets get missed. And so when we get them into the building and we get to know those students and the longer we have them throughout the day, we can start to identify those ones that maybe need some of that extra help and that support can intervene faster and go through the referral process because not every parent goes through the the early childhood county and comes to us as a three-year-old. So there it is that

142for us to be able to intervene earlier I think is great. Are you guys okay? I don't want to. >> Well, there was a motion in a second. >> Yep. So, >> any discuss more discussion? >> Good, good, good. All right. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. All right. Uh core agenda items one at a time. Determine number of spaces available for special ed staff and committee recognition. >> I missed one. >> Yeah, just just >> I'm sorry reading it. >> Got it. >> Sorry. >> The recipient of the staff recognition this round is there's one. >> Hara Dez. Congratulations on being selected to serve at state academic standards writing committee for music. Thank you for your outstanding contributions to our SEC music program and the impact of your work beyond our school community. >>

143Thanks, sir. All right. Core agenda items. Now, Ron, determine number of spaces available for special education students for open enrollment purposes. So you guys um I I don't know if you want to read it out, but it's pretty hard to see the little I think you all have copy of my my recommendation for the spaces. >> Um I just I'm not going to go through the whole thing, but just how we determine and come up with these numbers kind of for you. There's two ways for me to determine if I need to keep us a section or grade level or a building open. Um, we start by looking at the actual physical number of students we have, but then they all go through a matrix based on the needs that they have. So, they get

144a they get a rating of a 1 to4 based on the services they get through special ed. Um, and so I would I can either we would either cap it at the number the number of actual physical students or a matrix number um based on need. Um, and at this point um our numbers aren't going down. special ed numbers are going the other way and um quite rapidly and the needs that we're getting are increasing significantly. Um so my recommendation would be um that we close the brick and mortar schools. Um but as Steph and I talked to, we are we are pretty much at capacity for our special ed at the virtual programming and we are are turning kids away um towards the end here. So, we we've agreed to kind of increase um

145that by another by an halftime position, adding a another halftime special ed position in our virtual program. That would allow us to open 23 seats of special ed for next year. >> What's the funding for each special ed student? >> 14,000 14,4ome. >> So, it's like a $40,000 positive. for an open enroll student to meet first or res. >> So yeah, >> 154,000 off of $100,000 overall package, right? Roughly 50,000 bucks. >> Yeah. So to be able to be able to take some more of those in our virtual program, um we we've increased the staffing there by a little bit. We don't want to go too fast because it does it does have impact on other areas of our special ed and and our federal funding packets and all of those kinds of things, but

146this is something we feel confident we we can fill those positions. Um, but also kind of remain in in within the borders of where we need to be with without getting too disproportionality too many special ed students in a building or somewhere. The only exception to our numbers when you're looking through those brickandmortar numbers would be our program, our high needs program at the middle school that that will not be at full capacity for next year. But with the movement for the following year, we would be over capacity again. So we have to take that into consideration as we have quite a few of those high needs kids. And that that same thing happened with us at the high school this year too. um the actual needs of the students in that room for the

147staffing I have right there will be full. So if we get another one, we'd have to hire additional pair of professional staffing to cover it. So that was the reason for the closure when I don't actually have the physical number of students or the matrix for it would require us to hire additional staff to take somebody else's program. So my recommendation would be to close the brick and mortar schools again, which is what we did this year, and then to open 23 seats or virtual. >> Oh, so okay. So you'd have you'd have 23 more >> at virtual. They would those seats would be only in our virtual program. >> Virtual. >> We have 23 open because what these projections do is they they take the movement, right? So I have to take my graduates

148out. the students who are going to graduate from the virtual school and those things or anybody we have in referral who may qualify now. Um those kinds of things. So that's where we will have we'll return some of the ones we have but we would be able to take an additional 23. We would have more than 23 students >> but no more brick and mortar. Not any other questions. Okay. >> So, we need a motion for that to approve. >> So, the motion's to close brick and mortar would approve the addition of 23 special >> special ed with the virtual motion to approve. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? >> Opposed? Carries. 23. >> Then 14B is just the same thing except it's regular uh education students and our recommendation is not to limit any

149classes, any seats at any wide open. >> Need a motion. Motion to approve. >> No limit on spaces. >> 2026 2027. >> Second. >> Discussion. All in favor? >> I opposed carries. Uh any potential future agenda items from the crew here? >> I have nothing. >> So upcoming dates. So February 15th, uh schoolboard development meeting 5:00 district officeled. >> We did. >> Yeah, we did. >> Thank you. >> Cancelled. >> Huh? Thought that's why we did bury tonight. >> Yeah, that's the first I've heard of that. >> 16A cancel. Did you make that cancellation? >> No, I did not get >> so then uh the next school board meeting we did move to February 16th, 7 o'clock here at the D district office and then March 18th is the one following that. >> All right.

15017A per Wisconsin statute 19.851- C considering employment promotion compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility one approval of resignations retirements and terminations to approval of appointments and contract modifications. Sign up. >> Convene to close session. >> Hi everybody. >> Thank you.