001Good evening. I'd like to call this regular school board meeting to order. Today is Wednesday, November 19th. First order of business is pledge of allegiance. Please stand. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. >> Let the role reflect that all members are present um with the exception of Lance Frankston. Was this meeting properly noticed? >> Yes, it was. And as a reminder, it is also being livereamed and recorded. Right. >> Welcome all of our visitors. >> Is there any public comment? No. Right. So, next up is a highlight on youth. We have got the high school marching band season recaps with high school band director Sean Conway. Welcome. Thank you for coming.
002>> Hello everybody. Uh, good to see you again. My name is Sean Conway. I'm the high school band director as you know. Uh just wanted to stop in and give a quick little recap of how all of our uh marching season went again this year. We did a lot of really cool excited to get a chance to share them with you. I brought a couple of our seniors, our drum major, Billy Shaman and our tuba berry saxs extraordinaire senior section leader Zinc Kemp to kind of share some of their experience with us. Um, if you guys want to sit, I'm gonna talk for a little while, so you don't answer if you want, but I know that's probably not. Um, so any just a little bit, our our show this year, we went with the
003title Sweet with Psycho, which featured a song of the same name by Ava Max. Uh, and we tried to mix up a couple little other things, like we have this little soundtrack snippet from Harry Potter 7, which worked in our show pretty nicely. And then, uh, Bloody Mary from Lady Gaga and then Live and Let Die from Wings for a cool little variety in terms of pacing. you know, fast, slow, fast, slow, and then very fast is if you know how other than that die goes. Um, the production was pretty cool. Like we still had some pop music and everything there for everybody, but it gave us an opportunity to kind of explore some like different characters with our performers. So this year, due to the way they shifted uh some performance schedules in the
004the state marching band circuit, we were able to add one more performance to our calendar. So we had our normal Hammond Heartland Days parade and Robert Good Neighbors Days parade. We had the homecoming performance. Uh previously we' always done the Balden Woodville show, but this year we were able to travel up north to Cumberland and participate in their festival as well, which was awesome. We got another performance on on a turf field in nice stadium and another more opportunity for feedback from judges for our students. Uh and then kind of continue to do the youth and uh the chip wall falls performance as well as the youth and music uh state marching band championships for for Minnesota over at US Bank Stadium. One of the highlights of that is um if you recall when John
005Hug passed, he had his memorials for for three things. for a donation to the band program for his church and then to help set up a scholarship with the youth and music organization to to give out a scholarship to um students that turn in an essay and you know speak to how music educa their music has impacted specifically the martial arts have impacted their life and the scholarship they earn is to be used towards either are continuing their their their role in music. So like whether that's going to music school or like participating in a drum and bugle core or some other musical expense beyond uh just their high school experience. And I I talked after the fact with Brent is just like is this just a a youth in like is just this just
006an SEC thing because John's name is tied to it and said no it's it's open to everybody in like our class and Lily Shean our drum major earned that John Hug scholarship this year and he Bren Turner the gentleman who runs Youth Music was like she was hands down far and away the best candidate for it was not like some give me hand out like she absolutely earned it like with a fantastic essay. So that was really really exciting to hear and we were really grateful and you know Amy was there to help hand out awards at the event which was which was fantastic. So we got to have she was there in her SEC retired sweatshirt as well but that was really really special. So that was quite a highlight for us this year.
007So, uh, competitively, like we mentioned, uh, as I've mentioned in previous years when we started doing this way back in 2019, we weren't getting numbers because, you know, we didn't want kids to get discouraged by it. Like, I knew I knew we were going to place low because it was very new for us and all of those things. Uh but as we've gotten better trained, as we have a better idea of what's we're being evaluated on the systems and everything, the how now that we have a better understanding of how we as an ensemble do well and as individual students, we are doing well. Uh we started getting feedback and numbers from the judges. They're scored on a rubric just like any test that they would take in school. And there's a different judge basically
008like a panel like you like you have music performance, visual performance, percussion, color guard. Everybody's got kind of their own category that they're watching and then they give us a number. Those numbers are tallied together. That's how we get our results. Much like dance, if you've ever had a kids competition at all. Uh so Bald and Woodville, we came out with a 47. As we added more to our show and had one week of practice, we increased six points. And then we had triple falls where we just had more added didn't have as much make it super refined and then we had an even another scoring. Now what's interesting is that different judges because it is subjective even though they try to make it as subjective as possible with the way the rubrics are made.
009Uh you know there are some categories where we made some great increase in advances and others where maybe we're just like dipped a little bit lower. Uh, but it was really cool to see the growth and like every step that we had, we got better. And then the youth and music performance, which this is a picture of our our seniors that we had this year just in the tunnel before we go on in the field, hence the awesome logo in the background. They can't seem to play four quarters of good football. Um we uh we we we had a great opportunity to um clean and have an excellent performance at that final show at Youth Music. We we don't get a score there. There's a whole scheduling reason I can get around around that, but
010they absolutely had their best performance at that last show. So there was no number. There was no performance. Uh there was no number for the performance, but it was it was it was top-notch. It was definitely their best. And we'll show you a little bit of that here in a minute. Um, so looking ahead to kind of the things you're doing, uh, this is just a drone video I got of our of our rehearsal. So you can kind of if you get bored with listening live voice, you can look at kind of a cool view of what they're doing here. But, um, you know, with this show, we tried to really increase the variety of production and things we ask for our students. Like you saw right at the ver you can even see right
011now like they're not doing your traditional stand up straight march to the spot like that's taking a more artistic approach kind of the next step to the design of the show that they need to take. Okay. Adding in choreographic elements like the lunges and the leaning and getting that all together. Like it's it's beginning to push the envelope for what these kids have have done before. And every time we do that, they step up and they're always ready and hungry for more. It's really exciting. Uh, and this year was kind of the first time, this doesn't seem like a big deal, first time we like faced back field for an extended period of time and we were able to have like, uh, Duncan Kristoff served as our backfield drum major. And so they had someone
012to help keep time so that everybody stayed together when they were facing backwards. It's, you know, something you don't necessarily think about, but like when we don't have the rock beat all the time going, like we need that other visual thing to keep the band together. And so like you'll see here in a second, they're about to turn around and there that that's not something we've done before. Okay? And it added a new effect for us. Um, and as we look forward in the years like we're trying we're trying to do more of that type of thing, okay? because the the the production that we create our shows with also helps increase our score. We're really very much evaluated on what we're doing and then how well we're doing that. So the more complicated your
013what the the higher the ceiling is for your how score if that makes sense. Um, so you know, we're we're looking at things. You know, I've talked to a couple folks about, you know, we don't have a color guard and that's a big place where we could make up some of those points to become more competitive with other folks in our area. We've explored I I I'm working with uh Miss Palmer to figure out if there's some opportunities for for summer school like if we as we have our band camp in the summer if we add a couple of summer rehearsals like if that creates some funds from the state that we could utilize to set a aside as a uh a a a like coach position that essentially becomes our color guard technician. Then
014because we would have some rehearsals outside of the school day that could also justify that person being there and having an opportunity to work with the students because otherwise everything you're seeing here we learned in this during the school day like nothing we don't have outside practices because kids are involved in so many other things it's hard to pull them from those and then we have some time on Saturday before our actual competition that we can do some more refining and cleaning. So it's pretty ridiculous what they can get done in just that amount of time. Um so then but yeah so then like trying to see are there extra rehearsals that we can add in the summer to kind of help justify that that person being there and you know having kids there to
015help that as well. We had the benefit this year as well of my student teacher Nick McCarthy was a percussionist. So he worked incredibly in depth with the the drum line and made them one of the best we've had, which is fantastic. U and you know, you think about like the the vision and mission of the district, you know, preparing kids for the world beyond here. Like if you look in the bottom left picture there, those are all SEC band alumni that are involved just at Oaklair in Oaklair's marching band. Carly Hetrick on the far left was his drum major. She just finished her second year. She was awarded the uh the marching bands like Brandon Atherton award, which is kind of like their you think MVP for the marching band. Like that's what they
016that's what she earned uh this last year. And Mikey Hansen, uh, who's standing next to me and Tyler Clap there, he he was awarded a Spirit of B&B award just because he's such becomes such a big personality out there. Um, and and just been an inspiration to a whole bunch of the folks there that that, you know, that he his peers felt they needed to recognize him with that award. So, we have our kids that are leaving here and are going and doing great things beyond just this. Um, and you know, also we had great success with the Madison Scouts this last summer. So to all of you that suffered drums from 9:00 a.m. to 900 p.m. Like thank you for your sacrifice. Uh, they had a blast. They loved it here. We were one
017of their favorite places that they stayed. >> Where did they sleep? They slept on the gym floor. >> Yeah. You'll have some kids that bring in air mattresses, CS or some psychopaths that just sleep flat on the ground. Um, but Yeah. And that's great. They love their favorite thing was that all the showerheads worked or that like that was like that seriously becomes like the highlight for some of that stuff. Um, and you know that the stadium was in walking distance, the grass there that they had a they had a fantastic time and I know we're kind of in the in the process of doing what we can to help work to have them back. But um, that was that was a fantastic thing. both both Lily and Zincs and a number we get 70
01870 or 80 students participate in the clinic that they did on that community performance day which was easily their highest number all summer and they did three of these clinics. Uh we had tremendous turnout from that. And then the band raised just from freewheel donations from people walking in. Like we just had my mom was there with a bucket and as people came in, we made $1,600 just from people walking in the door, which is going to get turned around immediately into improving that experience for the kids. And that's not even talking about the instruments that we received from them as like that kind of inkind contribution for for staying here as well. Like we have there's no picture of it, but we have a nice shiny melophone and a nice shiny bellfront bar veritone.
019We're not walking around like with one of the concert instruments. It's like an actual real life equipment. And we got 10 flag poles from them which are going to be able to help us with that color guard step. You know, we're we're we're planning things ahead here to to make everything great. So, we're we're really hoping to be able to get them back and have them have them here again. So, with all that blabbing, I'll show you the cool stuff. This is them with actual playing. This is from our performance at Ethan Music. We'll just watch the the middle movement here, the Bloody Mary thing from Lady Gaga, which was not a song I had heard before. Apparently, it's popular with Wednesday movie. Spend a lot of time listening to some fun pet band stuff.
020Some really good, some really not good. But this was this was a The kids really really enjoyed this one. So, here's here's them. That's as far as I can go with this. >> You see some of the dancing and stuff that they've add on top of So that set up Olivia Fern right there on the 50 to play a trumpet solo from the Little Die. So now I'll invite uh Lily and Z to talk a little bit about kind of their experience and um yeah I mean we're basically we're almost done. Um, I'm Zinx. Throughout the last four years, Throughout the last four years of marching band, I think we've improved a lot on all the different things that we do. We've changed a lot and grew a lot as a group. We've started incorporating
021a lot more visual stuff, which I thought was really fun to be able to do. And it's just been a great thing to be able to go more indepth on marching band as a whole because I would always see the big DCI groups do all their different things. And to be able to see our group grow and slowly start to get like bigger and possibly even have a color guard after I'm gone, I think it's been a great thing to see. >> Um, hi Millie. Um, and with that, as I've watched her, I've also watched her writing grow, obviously, but as I've watched it grow, you also see yourself grow with it. Um, thinking back to my freshman year, the first time I looked at drill, um, I cried. So, but now I'm out there
022conducting it, which is insane to me. I would never have pictured myself there four years ago. Um, it's also fun to let me see. It's fun to be a part of an ensemble like this because if you I've looked at the groups that are more sit down, there's not a lot of um, so >> opportunities to bond. Yeah, there's a lot of bonding opportunities compared to this where you're out every almost every Saturday together at these random shows which are like hours away. You're riding a bus for like an hour and you just sit and hang out with your friends the whole time. And that's what makes band probably the most fun thing I've ever done. >> It gives us a lot of opportunities to also interact across each grade. Like I feel like normally
023you're stuck with your one grade and each of your like core classes and stuff, but this gives you a really good opportunity to talk through everyone. Like when you're an underassman, you get to know your upper classman and you create that good bond and you create good friendships that even when they graduate, you can still talk to them. >> It's a really great experience to be able to have. >> Yeah. It's also fun to um like get leadership positions because then you have like a lot of people relying on you and it really pushes you to be a better person than you were before. >> So this what's coming up next for us. Our we just had our falling ensemble concert not too long ago. Our next concert with like everybody and their other stuff
024is in February. It's late because in a couple days here I'm gonna go on paternity leave after Thanksgiving break for a few weeks which is gonna be great hanging out with little Elanor who's uh four or five months right now. I think four. We'll say four. She's four months now. Uh and so >> she's your kid or [laughter] >> fine. So but I've been able to line up a some some pretty cool music subs to be able to come so that like the progress on music they don't have to sit in and do worksheets or other busy work. They can actually work on their concert stuff with somebody that knows what they're doing and it'll it'll be really exciting. So, I'm excited to to to take that next step and know that they'll be in
025in good hands and still have some time on my own to make sure everything's okay when I get back. So, that's why it's a little bit later than normal. But, um but yeah, that's that's basically it. That's it for us. That's our year. And if you've got any questions for either myself or the students, >> thank you. >> What happened to the uh plumes, the big heavy hats and the plumes when you sweat at 90 degrees outside? >> Uh luckily the plumes >> I'm being sarcastic. >> Okay. Well, who suffer from that for we didn't go with those just because of think about where the heck we would store all of those things because all of those hats come in like are big enough and then they come come in boxes that are about that
026size. So then you have to find a place to put and you have to plan for how many different sized heads you're going to have at any one year. So I have to have a place to put like 100 to 150 boxes that size in the room. So >> how many students are in the marching band? We had 40 this year. >> How many were in it when you two first started? >> Right after COVID. >> What was the year before us? What did you name the show? >> Uh there there are 36. It >> stay around that, maybe a little less. >> It stayed pretty consistently around that same number, but this year has ticked up just a little bit. We we find that actually a ton of kids will actually sign up for
027marching band and in the space that they have in their schedule will also sign up for the non marching band band class that we have that runs during the school day as well. So they're they're two of their five periods two of their six periods of the day are band which is great in my opinion. >> Are you guys going to pursue anything music afterwards? >> I am. >> You are? >> I'm going for music education at Oakclair. I just got accepted into the flute studio. >> Lily, what instrument did you play when you weren't drum major? >> Flute. >> Yeah, >> I was one of the two. >> My wife was a flute flopist and she was actually drum major of her band, which was about the same size as ours. And then I
028played the baritone horn and I was drum major. We had like 150 in our band. >> That'd be great. >> It was awesome. They sent me to a drum major camp. Big 10 drum major camp. >> That's where he met his wife. >> See if you can do this. I had to blindfold march from goal line to goal line and end up with my toe on the line. Blindfolded. >> What' you do? >> I did it. >> I was I took being drum major very seriously. I mean, you're up there in front of everybody, so you don't want to mess up. [laughter] And and these two both even play in the River Falls is community band. >> So they're they're actually they're probably both out of here and head to rehearsal after unless it's all
029done. But >> they're just in rehearsal to be here to >> I love hearing your thoughts about the performance, but how you've grown as a person. And >> you were here last year. >> We both were for LA. >> Yeah. That's right. You're more confident now. [laughter] >> Standing in front of an audience like that will do it for you. >> Thank you very much. >> Great job, Mr. Conway. >> Thank you. >> Uh we've got the highlight on CTE, metalworking projects and community business partnerships. We have high school teacher Brooke Riser and looks like she brought some >> Sam and Josh with us today. >> All right. Thanks for coming. >> Thank you so much for having us in. My name is Brook Razer and I have Sam and Josh. And we're just doing
030a highlight on CTE um on our metal projects that we're doing. piloting some uh business opportunities with our students in our school and then explaining our business partnerships that we have in our community. >> So, starting off, we're doing a piloting business. Uh we're starting off with custom ribbon hangers that the uh students have collected orders from and are putting it together to be designed. Um we have our cut 2D pro system that the kids learn programming and formatting those and then uh they are communicating with the customers making sure the work is up to quality and uh creating really nice products that they're really proud of and um happy to provide our community. So Sam here was kind of our lead on this endeavor. >> Yes. So, um, when we cut everything out, so
031our first process is taking the orders in and then once we get the orders, we create a mockup and we send the mockup out to our customers and be like, "Do you like this? Is this good? Is there any changes? They they tell us what they would like changed or different or if they like it. We change it and then we put put it into the program and we cut it out. We paint it and then we proc or and we box it all up and send it out. It's a lot of fun and I really enjoy it. >> Is it online orders? >> Um yeah, the orders come in online and then so we email them >> and so it's all during your class time. >> Yes. >> We just did a like a
032a block opening. So we just pushed it out for a little bit and then closed the orders and then processing until uh the end of the truck. And your marketing is Facebook like Synchro Central page, right? >> On there. >> Um, >> you emailed it out. >> Yeah, we we did email and Facebook and then we're in the works of kind of collaborating and making it available um on our web page. >> Yeah. Fun things. So, >> these are really fun. >> Yeah. Different colors and different uh activities. So, kind of suits. We have everything from archery to uh >> sewing. Sewing. people come with selling work. >> We have horseback riding, all sorts of things. So you have your profit like your profit. >> um so right now these are just materials that we
033have had in the school. >> Okay. >> And it's bus you know that's [laughter] serves it purpose after it's left over. >> And so right now there is no upfront cost. >> I like it. >> How long does it take to make one of those? We have a processing of two weeks. So, but like actually it probably takes 30 minutes not including dry time for painting obviously. >> Got it. Well, >> very cool. >> So, um that um there is so this is like a good starting point. Um many new projects that we can put on our uh web page um and as we get familiarized with this process. Um, some other things that we are working on in the future coming up is community ed having an adult 101 crash course. So that will
034be coming out winter 26. >> And then it >> I could use that. >> Sounds good. Go on and rewind. >> I was the only iron worker that couldn't weld. [laughter] >> Um, so where do we look for that so we know where to sign up for? Um, it's in the works. We'll be in communication on I'm not sure if it's going to be on the um community education website. Okay. >> Or how that will be promoted if that's um but thanks to all these business partnerships that we have, we do have awesome supplies that are donated to us and partnered with and to make these projects possible uh for our students. And our big one is Guy Metals right in town. Um they donate high quality items, large sheets of stainless, um different stocks
035of all shapes and sizes to have a really nice inventory for these kids to be creative with and to have stuff for them to draw and make from. We have uh signs that they can cut and design. Um the one in the middle uh a student had a drag that went missing. So they were able to come in and draft it up right then and there without having to go shopping or the students have to buy the supplies themselves. Another business partnership that we have is Donaldson's and OEM. Both of those businesses donate coupons for us. Really nice thick um thin variety. we go and tour there and then we promote jobs and career opportunities um in their area to support. Um OEM also offers a lot of support when it comes to equipment and
036if you have questions um sometimes they've donated old equipment um but they also do in the spring a fire pit welding contest and last year we had our student Grace here that graduated and she is now going to welding school at Northwood Tech. Nice. >> Very cool. >> Another one is a St. Corey electric co-op and who donates the electric wheels for metals too. Good opportunities, countless of things that we can do with these. And then come springtime, it goes into the bus sponsorship. So, a lot of partnerships help out with fabrication, monetary donations, and servicing support. thankful to the community members that have reached out and donated um running lawnmowers, riding lawnmowers, chainsaws, even a car. So, really wonderful community members and community support. Others that work in the industry have reached out and
037have expressed interest on coming in to share their hands-on industry perspectives and skills and working with the kids that way, too. All right, Josh. Do you want to talk a little bit about welding in the new shop? >> It's definitely different than I thought it was going to be from what I saw just touring it before and all the new welders were great. It's better than what I've been told by seniors that graduated. [laughter] >> Thank you. We have a lot of fun and um really proud of the students that come in and show that excitement and drive to accomplish these really fun opportunities. >> Yeah, I will say as a senior it is really fun to use the new space and be able to actually bring things in and know that you can actually
038work on them and not just like bring them and be like maybe I can work on it but now I actually have a space for it and super fun to have projects. >> Yeah, a lot of projects. A lot of fun. um opportunities here and as um we're gaining experience in the new area um these business opportunities how do they meld and um go in with our scope and sequence of the class. So we're piloting these new things. There are some areas that still um have growth and that is the concerns just for the liability when it comes to autos and servicing how that goes. A lot of school districts do things differently. So that is something open for conversation and consideration in the future. Um but overall we are really excited to build and
039progress towards giving these students the best educational opportunities. And here all these pictures except for Grace's fire pit were taken this year so far. So it's just showcasing some of the work that they have done and you can see they are really proud of them. >> You know the kid in the top right. [clears throat] [laughter] >> That's awesome. >> You have any questions? [clears throat] >> Sam Josh, what are your plans after high school? Um, I'm gonna go to school and be uh or go to school for micro biology. >> I'm looking to enlist and pursue kind of what my dad did in the military. >> Which branch? >> Very cool. >> Thanks for being here. >> Thank you so much and highlight what we're doing here. >> Glad to hear you like the
040new space. >> Yeah. >> Pretty nice. >> Very cool. Thank you so much for having us tonight. >> Thank you. >> Comments by board members and superintendent fall regional meeting which was held October 28th in Oaklair and Dave and Jeff and Tim. >> Yeah, it was good. I mean the legislative updates are always good to know what's going on in the state and WSB fits in. Um nice networking the whole project u um that was beneficial. Jeff spoke up and talked uh actually um yeah one of the superintendents reached out to me last Friday. the board members there and appreciate your comments and say, "Well, tell me about your hiring practices and your philosophies." And so I shared our our hiring checklist, right? It's literally a checklist of things that we do to be systemic
041and make sure that we're following a process that, you know, helps us land the best candidates. One thing that kind of struck me is well I never trust that Madison's going to do what's good for education and often it's Democrats and Republicans at odd and what is icing now is that the House Republicans are feuding and have different priorities than the well the assembly versus the Senate. So even within the Republican parties like direct opposite directions. So, I don't know if there's going to be any resolution early funding. >> Good. All right. >> How was the coffee? [laughter] >> Drank them right out. >> Okay. Now, we need to look at the January board meeting date. It was listed as >> the 14th and we were thinking of moving it >> the 29th, right? >>
04228th. >> Is that a Wednesday? >> It is. >> That'd be better for me. I'm gone the 14th. That's for the budget purpose, right? >> Yeah. And open enrollment most specifically. um you know after we set the seats in the January meeting after we set that um you know often times we've we do have to we set limit the seats we have to close the enrollment uh which is not good for a virtual school obviously so to buy two extra weeks especially semester time when a lot of students are looking to transfer other opportunities we thought that'd be beneath [clears throat] I'm going to have for the convention. So that's why we're looking at that January 28th date. >> Everybody else can make it so uniform. >> Okay. >> So you still have January 14th.
043>> No change. >> We'll reschedu. >> Okay. >> Yeah. The only January meeting would be the 28th if you guys approve. Okay, we've got the 2026 school board election. >> Yeah. So, we have Derek and Lance set up for election this year. So, I put the forms at your at your spot. I don't know if you saw them, but if you are interested in running again, um there's the two forms on the top that you have to fill out. If you're not interested, there's just one form on the back, the notice of non-candidacy. Um either way, you will have to file those by December 26th. Um the deadline for anybody else to file is January 6th and if we get five or more candidates, we'll have to do a primary which is on February 17th
044and then the election is April 7th. >> And when is the when can non incumbents file? >> Non-incumbents. That's the January 6th deadline. >> What's the >> When? What's the >> December 1st. >> Yeah. >> Thanks. >> And the scheduled presentations by guests and staff members. We have state report card director of teaching and learning diesel. Welcome. >> Hello everyone. >> Hello. >> [clears throat] >> for the book. >> There is one for Lance, not for you, Tim. But if you want to use Lance's while since he's gone. [clears throat] gonna make a joke with Lance. The last time I saw him was last Monday night at Lando. We ran into each other. >> Maybe he never made it home. [laughter] >> I made it home that night at about two in the morning. >>
045Not as good as >> Yeah, it was not a super exciting even. Did you push something? >> What's that? >> You push something. >> Oh, >> I think All right. Um, this is the third time I presented this to this board since I've been here. And, um, I love the opportunity to come and share all the great things that are happening report report cardwise at SEC. Um, I've had the privilege to go into all of the elementary PLC's and middle school PLC's separately, which has been kind of nice. Um, normally I do it at a staff meeting, but when these came out and were finalized, we they haven't had a staff meeting. So, I got in with smaller groups and then this morning I presented to the high school staff at their staff meeting. And
046it's been really wonderful because um there have been a lot of really great questions from the educators across the district in not only just their report cards but other report cards and again wondering how this is is presented to you all as well. So, it's been wonderful to get into them. And again, we send that message that because these are public now and we're presenting to you tonight, we think it's very important that our educators in our district get to hear this first because they're the ones that are walking down those hallways doing this great work. So, um please stop me at any time if you have questions. So, what's in a report card? Um, all of these things have been in the report cards for several years other than the second to the last
047bullet. That act 20 reading readiness data that was part of the act 20 that >> Yeah, I don't know why it's not it's not going to video, but that's okay. [clears throat] that was part of the act 20 um law now having um been in place since spring of 2023. We have to have the percent of students that are reading a grade level at third grade as part of act 20. So on the elementary report card, it'll have the state percentage and then it will have SEC's percentage of students on there. And I think this last time it was 54%. Um, and that means they're scoring at proficient or advanced on the forward exam in the spring of each year. So that will be published then every year. The average the state average is 50.
048So we are above that. Again, those students that don't make that have a personal reading plan and they continue on with with items associated with that 20. But that is something that's on the report card this year. What's not in the report card? all of these things that make FCC special. Um, from our student connectedness data to our student support services and everything in between. And I think it's really great that our district has spent time creating the key performance indicators to highlight not only the achievement and growth which are on the report card, but also all of these things that are not reported on the report card, but really say a lot about who our teachers are, who our administrators are, and who our students are. changes from the 23 24 report card. Big
049change is that because of the standard settings um on the preac, ACT and forward uh they only have two years of data that are consistent with the same cut scores. So instead of using three >> I think that was the wrong button. >> I'm trying different things. Sorry. >> That's okay. Um you're trying to test me out there. [laughter] How's it going? >> Um um lost train of thought because the cut score changes. Um now they have two years of data this year. Normally uh when they've had a change like this they've done what's called a zcore and they put everything on the scale score and and norm it that way. This year they just said you know what we're just going to use two years of data. And so that's what they've done. because
050of that it created some volatility in the scores and so assessments have to be normed every couple of years. So this year instead of norming it to achievement they normed it to growth. I always um I've deferred in all my meetings to school sites on that. That is what they live and breathe as norming assessments and all that but I can just tell you that the growth is a much more steady rate across the state. So that's why they did that. [clears throat] Priority areas have not changed for a couple of years now. And I'll go through each of these when I go through the district data. Um, achievement is pointsbased proficiency. So that's based on whether a student meets grade level or gets that proficient score. Growth is going to be a value added
051or a value lost measurement with an average of 3.0. The target group um is a measurement or a mini report card for the students scoring in the bottom quartile the previous year. So they get their own mini report card. And the intent of that measurement is to make sure that districts aren't just achieving and supporting and growing their top 75% as far as achievement student wise, but they're making sure all students are growing and achieving. And it was also a way to create schools that had very small populations from not having a closing the gap score, which was done prior to 2122. um if they had a certain amount of students, small districts would just not get a score in that category and it could really create havoc in their consistency of scores. And so
052this every district whether they have 50 students or they have 500 [clears throat] students or 50,000 students, they're going to have students that are scoring in that bottom 25th percentile. So everybody gets a score in that area. And the last one is on track to graduation. Depending on which entity you're in, you are scored on different criteria. So an elementary school is going to be scored on third grade ELA chronic absenteeism and attendance. Middle school is 8th grade math chronic absenteeism and attendance. And then high school is um uh chronic absenteeism and graduation. Um so our district has several of those things in them, four of them in fact on the district report card. Um, oftentimes they'll get the question of why third grade ELA and why why eighth grade math. Third grade ELA, you'll
053notice correlation to ACT 20. Research shows that if students are not a proficient reading and grade level reading by the time they get to third grade, less likelihood of ever catching up being proficient, less likelihood of graduation, less likelihood of being able to read real world life skills reading once they do graduate. eighth grade math. We know that eighth grade math is the foundation for all of high school math. We know that students who do not reach eighth grade math proficiency tend to struggle in high school courses and post-secary co courses and also post secondary real life math. So that's where those two numbers come from. Chronic absenteeism is a measurement of the percentage of students who miss more than 10% of school days. So that's an individual um measurement. Absenteeism or excuse me attendance
054is how many days of school we have, how many students we total have and how many missed total days there are. So it is not in by individual. It is a total school calculation. So this is the front page of our district report chart. So all of the images that you'll see in the next few slides are actually from the district report card that you have in front of us. Um just to give you a a quick scan of the front page. Nothing on the front page has changed from previous years. Couple of things to note though. Our overall school score or district score, excuse me, has gone up 2.7 points from last year. Our achievement went up 5.7. Our target group outcomes uh three. Our growth score uh down 3.8 from last year and
055our on track to graduation up 2.1. Something to take in note here is the piraphph that you see on the front. Those two top colors that make up 50% looks like a dark dark blue or purple and then the royal blue I guess those two equal 50%. [snorts] Those pie pieces change depending on the percent of economically disadvantaged students you have in your district or school or building and that is determined by free and reduced lunch on this particular report. So we here at SEC um are roughly 20% um district is 20.1% each building is slightly different because again it depends on the number of free and reduced lunch applications in each building. Um we are one of the lowest in CSA 11 which I don't think comes as a shock. Um last time I
056checked it was us Hudson and Prescott that kind of exchanged places in one two and three over the past few years. Um there are districts in CIS 11 that are near 70 or above. Many are between 35 and 55. So when we look at that, we are scored more heavily on achievement compared to those that have a higher economic disadvantage percentage. They're scored more heavily on growth. So achievement 75.1. Again, when I kind of take you take a quick scan at this, couple of things to just look at when you're scanning through are where is our school compared comparing in context. So, how is our ELA compared to our math proficiency? Um, and then I look at where are we compared to the state, right? We always want to be above the state average. Um
057so when you take a look at those two you can see that um we have increased in both of them and we are above the state in both. This is a little bit more detailed into how the performance based the the points based proficiency is scored. If you get a per p a student who is at proficient they're given one point. If they are given advanced they get 1.5 points. below proficiency is 0.5 and zero and then it's multiplied by by um weighted factors the current year being weighted the most. I think it's really important and that's why I leave this in here not to go so much into the details but to understand that none of the scores on this report card are for one year and that's often misunderstood. People will say it's
058one report card, it's one test, one day and that is not true. It's multiple at least two usually three years of data that are creating these scores. So it really does give us a lot of information especially when you start digging down into the more diagnostic subgroups and student groups. So that's what we tend to focus on. So growth when you look at growth um this is an area in um a couple of the buildings uh that we have noticed went down and therefore start looking at again those student groups. Which student groups? Um is it students with IEPs? Is it students that were proficient last year but didn't grow this grow this year? is that our advanced students that aren't growing as much because every student is is expected to grow. Not all at
059the same rate. The more advanced you score, the smaller the percentages that you're expected to grow to get high growth, but everybody is expected to grow. And you can still get advanced high growth student groups. We actually get a um file, a CSV file from DPI every year that tells us where every student scores, which of the four categories they score in, and then what type of growth they had. So, we first look at those students who are in the low growth and the lowest category because those are our red flags. We want to make sure that we are providing those students with supports, whether it be a tier three intervention, an IEP, further testing, whatever that needs to be, but we want to make sure that those kids are are being serviced. We want
060to look at anybody who's in the low growth category, though. Why are they not growing? Is it just a a I didn't want to take the test that day, which can very well be the the symptom maybe for some high schoolers, right? It's a little bit harder to get them excited sometimes to take these assessments, but we really want to look into that. So, this is how growth is measured. A student takes an assessment in third grade, they'll take their forward. That's the first time they take the forward. That dark green triangle represents that student's first score based on all of their demographics, their gender, their grade level, their um um race or ethnicity, their e status, their economic disadvantage status, and also their IEP status. They're put into a kind of a blender with
061all the other students across the state that have those same same demographics. The value added research center in Madison will give them a predicted score range which would be that teal triangle. If a student then in fourth grade goes above and gets a better score than that, the dark triangle above, they would get a value added score. So when you look at page four um of the district report card, page five of the district report card, you're going to see um a line that looks like this. And students who have that value added or that dark triangle above the teal, they're going to give the district a score that's above three. Students who score below what their predicted range is, which would be the second diagram with the the dark green, they're going to equate
062to a score that is below 3.0. So when we look at this, this is where I say these scores right here, digging into these will tell us a lot. we're going to be able to see which content areas um are showing the least amount of growth. All students, which is the very top number, and this is districtwide again, remember. So, it's really helpful to look at the by school one, but you'll see this kind of trends with our buildings more so than not with the ELA being slightly lower growth than the math. Um, and then it also goes into each of those subcategories where we have 20 or more students. you have to have 20 students to be displayed on this because otherwise you can pretty easily identify um who is who based on their
063their subgroup status, right? And we don't want to identify students individually with that. So when you look at this, you can see for ELA district-wide, our students with disabilities grew more better than predicted than our students without disabilities for ELA. You can see that the math for the math the same thing happened. You can see that for math, our economically disadvantaged compared to our note economically disadvantaged grew the same. That's awesome. That's the goal. The goal is so that they're all growing at the same rate or higher, right? So, when we have those below, I will tell you now though, looking at that, um when you see those numbers, none of those are red flags. None of those are, oh my gosh, they're so low. And in fact um there have been um either small
064increases or big increases across the district. So >> so D with respect to the with or without disabilities >> that 3.3 could actually be low a lower score reading or math proficiency than the three because their growth. [clears throat] >> It could be but you have to remember some of our students with IEPs aren't learning disabilities. They could be speech, they could be OT, they could be things like that. So, yeah. >> Yep. You mean a smaller percentage of growth in order to to show the growth? >> Well, just Yeah. >> Yeah. Yep. Because this isn't achievement, this is growth. So, yeah, absolutely. >> Why do they care about race so much in here? Um, it doesn't so much have implications here in our region, but Wisconsin is actually the number one state across the
065country with racial disparity in terms of achievement of students, black versus white. Number one, >> mostly in the eastern part of the state, >> right? But because that's a very large population. Um, and I think it's just a it's an interesting way to look. We being a predominantly white school don't see those types of things like other districts do. Yeah. But there's also northern if you're on um I'm trying to think of some uh like near lud um you might see discrepancies between your Native American population versus your white population. It's interesting when you dig into all those things and then it ties right into chronic absenteeism and lots of different things. engagement of families and all of those things. So yeah, and anything like I said, you can see that there are numbers up
066there that we don't even have a score because it's such a small population. So target groups again um this is when you see the next few slides, all of the other comparisons compare to the state. This is comparing to our own kids. So the green bar that you see is our own students scores. The gray bar that's going to be underneath it is compared to their peers that scored in the top 25th percentile for that group. Okay? So when you look at this, this is districtwide again. When you look at this, you would expect achievement the green bar to be smaller than the gray bar because those students scored achievement wise in the bottom 25%. So that would make sense. Um the other bars, chronic absenteeism, graduation, and growth, the goal is that it's the
067same if not bigger than those gray bars because we know coming to school is important, right? And so oftentimes, like you'll see, our chronic absenteeism is much lower, 10 points lower than our group that's coming to school. That very may very well be an indicator or a reason why their scores are lower, right? They're missing school a significant amount more than those students that are that are in the non-target group on track to graduation. Um these are the scores for that. You can see the statewide. >> Does that measure um virtual versus in seat? >> Great question. I'm glad you said that because I forgot to mention at the very beginning. So the virtual school could be included in our district report card if they had less than 90% open enroll or less than 50%
068open enrollment. They have 86% open enrollment. So they do not count in our district report card. I actually just met with the elementary team today and the high school team is tomorrow. They still get their own report card. They dig into it just like the other buildings do. The one caveat is that I think when I looked yesterday for enrollment, there were 316 students at our virtual school and I wanted to know how many were at elementary, how many were at middle school, how many were 9 through 11, and how many were 12th grade because 12th graders, remember, they don't take assessments. So, they're on there for absenteeism and graduation, but they're not on there for an assessment. When you look at that number, 316, last year, there were 49 students that actually counted for
069their achievement and growth report card scores, 49. Because you have to be full academic year, meaning you have to be there third Friday of September, and you have to stay till the close of the assessment window, which is the end of April. 49 students in grades 3 through 11 were there from mid end September, end of September through mid April. That's how many students and when you think about it they have they have currently 116 seniors. So when you start the school around 200 I think it's like 200 225 that many are seniors at the beginning. >> Yeah. Or start at the beginning and then leave or graduate early. Like I think I talked to Steph today she has 20 that are graduating early. 20 that are open for early graduation right now. So, >>
070and how do they calculate absenteeism? Virtual students. >> They can't right now. However, it is something that I believe last spring came out of DPI and Steph came from one of her virtual network meetings and she brought to the table and said they now have to have a way of being able to score it or take attendance and it's difficult like they don't have sitting they're not asynchronous, right? So, or they're not synchronous. It's going to be a challenge to figure that out. But yeah, that's a that's a plus for them because they have 100% attendance right now. >> No [laughter] doubt, >> for sure. >> But um this is just a big picture look at each of the schools, their accountability ratings and their overall score. All of them increased this year. As you
071can see, other than the virtual academy went down a half a percent. Half a point, excuse me, not a percent. And when you look at that and you look at the volatility of the population in their assessment, that is nothing to be ashamed of. Um, they also have fewer than 85% of their students that are eligible to test, which is why there's 49 students and not what actually is represented. Some of their students just say, "Nope, we're not going to take the test." Um, last year the DPI changed the scores for what the categories were for the meets expectations exceeds. If they would have left the categories the way they were last year, their current score would have actually been meets expectations. So, they changed that. So, that was disheartening and I understand why they
072did it with the increase in cut scores and all of that. But, so really good numbers. Um, high school, this is the first time we chatted this morning. I think it's the first time it went up. We talked like five years and we knew ACT went up first time in five years. So there are really good things happening across the district. So this is just kind of a snapshot of all those pieces that I went through for the district in one page for the elementary school. >> So that change it's not one year. So it's a three-year weighted. So it's not >> Yes. It's Yeah. >> So it's not going to change. It's not going to like oh we did a lot better this year and it's jumped. know it's still going to be weighted
073by the two previous years. >> It is weighted. However, we do know our ACT's >> Yeah. >> scores went up for the first time in five years. >> My point is it's hard to move that harder to move that needle one year. >> And I would say ours is moving smaller in smaller pieces, but it's moving in the right direction. And you think about all the things that were implemented just at the high school, for example, if we're just chatting about high school. um trimesters, disciplinary literacy last year, interventions at the end of last year, bringing in how many kids do you think were serviced? 25 last year at the beginning at the end of the year with those math interventions. 25 to 30 kids that they knew were struggling with math and in order
074to get them prepared not only for taking the pre-ACT and the ACT, but knowing they were part of the target group the year before, looking into what specific skills um R.J. and some of the math teachers and Brian were working to get these kids pulled in in an intervention group so that they were prepared and ready to go. So, and that took some some major jigsaw puzzling to get them pulled. And when do you pull them without missing core classes and so now they're doing that again with um Mackenzie Madison being the math math and reading intervention at the high school and and pulling kids. So, it's a good thing. Um elementary you can see huge jump 7.8 You can see um achievement went up in both areas, ELA and math growth. Those are significant
075growth numbers. Significant growth numbers when you look at that. Um reminder that because our elementary school is 4K through 4, our growth is that third to fourth grade score. only have one grade level that shows growth and those fourth graders knocked it out of the park last year which means our teachers all the way down knocked it out of the park because they all know and they have that philosophy that this just isn't fourth grade this is everybody working together to make sure our kids are prepared. So um that was huge and um very celebratory in all the PLC's that we've been in. um target group. Again, you look at that group, those students that scored in the bottom 25%. Their achievement went up, their growth significantly went up. Chronic absenteeism and attendance, you can
076see those are the only two that went down this in this school. Um that is consistent with all three buildings. That is consistent with the state. If you got ideas, let us know because it's something that everybody struggles with and how to make sure kids are at school as much as they can be. >> Um, I did put EL is 32. That's [clears throat] the highest our EL population has a small number. >> It's not chronic across. >> There's like 10% of the kids that represent most of that absenteeism. >> Um, I would say it's more than 10%. I'm trying to think of we because we have an actual database a grid that shows it. It gives us actually kids that have missed kids that are in um kids that are um >> in danger
077of being chronic. And it's a significant amount and I I I it just an SEC issue. I mean, when I was an elementary principal, it was there was a lot of letters going out to families and just reminding, right? Like important to be at school and, you know, nobody wants to go through truency. That's not a fun process for anybody. It's just a reminder saying if they're well, if they're here, please send them to school, have them here on time, those kinds of things. So, >> yeah. >> No, all good. This is the middle school. Middle School, I would say, is the most um consistent school that I've seen since being here. Um but you can see their growth took a hit this year. And when we dig into that, we actually we looked into
078the data, we know that it's between the sixth and seventh grade year for ELA that that's where we start to see it it goes up and then it comes down. And when you dig into those scores, um and so that's something that they're having conversations about already and this has only been out a month. um that team and it's not a fingerpointing, right? It's not a oh, it's this teacher. That is not what it is at all. It could be the for the vertical alignment all the way through the building. Um so making sure that they're really digging into are there gaps in the in the curriculum, things like that. Um target group uh achievement 5.9 went up. That's amazing. So again, those students that were in the bottom 25th percentile, 5.9 up in terms
079of achievement, high school up 2.3. Again, a lot of green there. You look at that target group, that's the work that's being done with those students. Um, specifically targeting the areas that they knew that they were struggling in. Um, I just pulled today some data for Mr. Johnson on um, absenteeism around the area so that we can dig into some um, possible skyward issues and talk to other people. What are you doing? How are you getting kids to come to school? That's one of the things we do. All of these are public, right? All of these report cards are public. When you start to look at what schools maybe are the top five in our region, we reach out to those schools and we ask them questions. Tell us what you're doing with your EMLSS
080system. Tell us what you're using for your resource. Do you have instructional coaches? Do you have this? Do you have that? We sat down with five elementary school um teams last year and did that. Um and honestly, a lot of times we go, okay, we're doing a lot of really things, really good things here. Um and you'll glean an idea and you'll go, let's do that. Last year, our big celebration for third and fourth graders for the forward. Um, who's got third and fourth graders? You've got you have one. D, you got anybody in that grade? Maybe take >> We did a glow celebration last year. We had a big glow dance party before the before the state testing. Got them all wound up and then said, "All right, now we have to test that
081glow sticks and all of that, right?" Like all those things that we can try to do. the high school running an ice cream truck for kids after they had um score jumpers on the ACT. And we had not only the kids that were scoring 25 and above up on that stage getting recognized, we had kids um that were maybe earned a 12 the first time they took it in the fall at the practice and got jumped to a 16. We're celebrating you because that's a four-point jump. You took this test more seriously or you learned something throughout the year. Get up there. We're celebrating. We're giving you a round of applause. And that was awesome that they did that. So, um, all these things to try and get kids to know we appreciate your effort,
082your teachers appreciate your effort, and we want you to do well. So, here's the virtual academy again, uh, presented to the elementary school today and the high school, middle school team tomorrow. Awesome to see that achievement growth. They knew before um math was an issue and we were looking at other virtual schools and comparing all of the other virtual schools we looked at. It was ELA that was the problem and our ELA scale scores were not the issue. It was our math and our math went up this year. So and that EL population is not currently correct at the virtual school. We actually have six students there right now. Um, this is comparison not to be compared, right? We can't compare apples to apples, but this is just if if you were looking to see
083where we are in in comparison to other districts near to us because when you see the score of like the high school 65, I had letter grades as a high school kid, right? That's a D. That's not a D. It's not what it represents. They do not represent or can can be compared to grades. When you look at CES 11, the highest high school score in Ces 11 high school is 79. We're at a 65. The high school the highest elementary score in Cast 11 is 95. Big difference between 79 and 95. So you can't compare building scores either. Okay. Our elementary score was an 86. So much more um relatable. Um so as districts eth out of 39, second out of the middle border, fifth out of the 13 benchmark which are most of
084the St. Croy schools and then um other ones that are listed there, 93 out of 380 in Wisconsin, 10th out of 45 for school districts with similar size and demographics with the enrollment listed below. So questions. That's it. >> That's an amazing data report. >> All right, >> that's awesome. Thank you, >> D. With all this data, have we figured out how to use AI to scrub it? >> That's how she created all of that. I [laughter] >> um think how to use the AI for what? >> To scrub and analyze and categorize and try to figure out because you're and I'm I presume you're doing it almost manually. No, I download Well, this this is pretty I go from these reports, but I get a CSV file from DPI and I download every school
085and district in the state and then I use Google filter >> and I take out the ones I don't need or don't care to see, right? Because I don't care what everybody's doing. I want to know what CS1's doing. I want to know how SEC can improve. So that's where I want to know where other people are at. There's a lot of stuff in there that um was done prior to me coming here. So I continue to do some of those things, but yeah, I don't the CSV file put all of the actual data. There's a whole another data chart that I have that have district. It probably takes me maybe an hour. >> And D is a huge D is a huge huge resource for our district. like I've learned more about the data
086and the and the report cards and how we actually can affect changes in our buildings to help our district look better. Um, and that's a big strength of these. And so like already today when she presented at the high school asked for some support and figuring out what other conference schools are doing in terms of attendance and he's already pulled the data and has them sitting and waiting for me. So um, huge asset. Thanks. Thanks D. Okay, [snorts] financial reports Dave balances as of 1031 2025 state bank checking is at $1,934,9185. Money market account is $12,294.31. Fund 46 is at $6147. Suicide prevention fund is $5,44316. Debt service is at $935.34. Referendum account is $61,341.86 for a total balance of $2,14,994.99. >> Thank you. So we have a motion. >> So move. Second, any more?
087Is there any discussion about it? >> Motion carries. Next up is consideration of consent agenda. We had um approval of mods. We've got 13 part-time and one full-time virtual courses for 25.6. I just need a motion for that consent agenda. Dave made the motion. >> Second. >> Red second. Any discussion? All in favor? >> Next up is administrative reports. Uh Tim, student enrollment update. >> All right. Uh this month the total number of students in seats is 1552. Um uh one thing to note, our free and reduced lunch rate dropped by about four points. Um it's at 20.91% now. Um and you see the grid with our class sizes here. And then uh like I always like to point out, our open enrollment numbers are uh unique and that they're very positive. um obviously attributed
088largely to our virtual uh academy but uh 431 students open enrolled in 155 out for and that's 276 and then the bottom right hand corner you can see we are up trending uh as compared to last year November of 24 the charter schools at 259 they're currently uh at the time of this report 279 and then lastly this uh box here our in district kids 30 full-time students are attending a virtual school uh and then 68 part time and then uh of course just uh looking we have a running uh third Friday count there which are um our uh mostly our budget is is dependent upon that third Friday count um you can see we hit uh the highest year year of attendance was of 1677 and 2122 you know 1669 1614 um dropped quite
089a bit last year and then this year 3 um as you know uh like uh 80% of the schools in the state uh declining enrollment and um thus you know our proactive work with our budget brainstorming committee. phone. Um, any questions after the enrollment report? [clears throat] >> All right. Thank you. >> Thanks. Okay. Legal feed and public records request report. >> All right. So uh this report uh as as the title suggests deals with our uh or le recent legal fees and uh records requests uh as well. I know the board wanted information on that. So starting in February of uh this past calendar year to present. So time frame spanning nine months uh is what this report is about. And we'll talk about legal fees, record requests, and who pays and why. Our
090legal team uh has expanded this this current year based on need. Uh WSB uh has been our primary uh legal counsel for most things in in the past 12 13 years. Uh Barry Forbes is now semi-retired. Um and uh Ben Richtor's helped out with records request at some point and now Cara Connley uh is uh assisting uh Barry as well as is new to WSB. Um with that and I'll discuss kind of what we use uh WSB and these three attorneys for uh Tim O'Brien uh with Baky Norman uh he uh assisted us in the uh restraining order petitions and and is an excellent litigator. Uh Rick Rashsteagen out of Boardman Clark large law firm in Madison. uh Rick came highly recommended and uh again uh plea very pleased with all of our our legal
091team but uh Rick has assisted us with records requests as well and Lori Leinsky uh was um uh provided to us through EMC assurance insurance uh she's with Axley Renison and I'll I'll go into a little more detail of um what they've assisted us with and then independent council the board hired actually three different independent investigations. Uh Michael Irvin with Squires Waltsburgger and Mace. So uh Sarah uh let me see in bookkeeping uh has uh produced this the spreadsheet uh has kept a running total of uh our legal fees and then and she you know the invoice number and the monthly amount that we pay to each one of these. Um and then uh I would like to point out you know well first of all again se February 28th the first uh payment and
092invoice through uh November 12 was the last invoice re we received for a total of 185,000 626 and fees uh that were paid. Uh and then um I will point out even later in the presentation it does not we do not get an invoice um from from Lori Leinsky. Uh so that is not included. Those legal services are not in this total because they weren't paid. Um that was just paid straight through EMC insurance. They provided her services and never sent an invoice. However, for uh other services and I'll go into detail uh later. Um EMC insurance uh will has discussed you know the defense and and specifically Baky Norman and and Tim O'Brien um with there and it's it's a little wonky with with the math but you can see this first uh a
093line five invoice 6253 a little better maybe um for example there's it's a $5,000 deductible right for any of our insurance claims and each incident is considered a separate claim so you see the easy math there. 5,000 right off the top. Well, you add um let's line 22nd 1637 and then um on 624 Maki Norman equal 5,305. And that's why we reversed 305 then right to get there was that $5,000 deductible there. But uh anyway, with all the math there, you can see 38,591 we were reimbursed for insurance. The rest we obviously have not. And I'll get into these in a little bit here. So, uh like I mentioned, 185,625 in legal fees February through October. We are that's nine months. We still have one fiscal quarter uh remaining uh in that. Uh and again
094for context, we had a total of 56,289 in legal fees the previous 13 years combined 2012 through 2024. Um and and I just use that time frame because I've been here 13 years. And again, that's an average of 4330 annually. you know, we have the annual amounts here and they really don't show up on the graph uh because this last $185,000 skews the graph, but just con uh context again average 4330 and this year we're at 185 in counting. So WSB uh uh uh assisted us and provided legal services for the initial employment matter back in February which uh was the initial part right um and it was it was kind of short it didn't last through you know didn't last six months uh WSB was with the initial employment matters and then they've uh
095continued to assist us in records requests uh and again this is their billing uh April through October on those three attorneys Boardman Clark again Rick for Stagan. He's helped out uh at one point the records request got to be too much for the WSB staff, which was just Barry and Ben at the time. They said, "We're, you know, we recommend uh other people help out." So, uh that's where Rick Magan has come in. Uh and in that time frame, um uh we've uh paid attorneys fees of 27,630. Uh, Baky Norman, Tim O'Brien with the restraining order petitions defense. Uh, again, 49,123. Again, that was covered with insurance minus the two $5,000 deductibles. Uh, Squires Squires, Wallsburgger, or Mace, and Michael Irvin specifically did the three independent investigations. Employment matter, you can see the cost there,
096the whistleblower complaint, and then lastly, the student harassment complaint. Actually, Bren Brennan again, uh, Lori Leinsky, uh, we don't see an invoice for that. Uh, but obviously the district has a $5,000 deductible. These are for the ERD, um, which is, um, Equal Rights Division, which is the state of Wisconsin through Department of Workforce uh, Development. And then EEOC is the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission. That's federal. So, it's state and federal that those complaints by uh the first and the second employee and again um those were $5,000 deductibles but otherwise cost of those legal services are provided by EMC insurance. Uh public records requests are a part of that. Right. So, uh I think it's notable that there have been 164 public records requests uh April through uh today. um actually 165 now um as of
097recently. Um legal fees from those requests total 74,196 to date. Um and that's that's just legal fees. Obviously staff time uh there are about five of us that uh spent a lot of time on that uh in this office and in the district uh that's not included in this report. And we did hire a part-time staffer this summer to assist with some requests. um um you know uh that person to come in and and and luckily that was minimal. Uh at the time when it was there was just a number of requests coming in at the same time that helped with with some um um administrative assistant type duties with letters and running copies etc. Paid that person $218. And then uh obviously WSB like I mentioned before and Boardman Clark uh has at some
098point four attorneys currently three attorneys uh assisting us in those requests. Now you know you might ask why, you know, um but just a little context uh I've learned a lot about Wisconsin public records law and compliance, but uh the Department of Justice um you know published this report on compliance. You can see it's 101 pages, right? Um it's complex and uh we alo want to make sure that we're doing it right. So that's why we uh use attorneys um a lot of times there's notice involved uh who's a public official or not, who's an employee or not. Um letters to give folks notice knowing that you know there's records regarding them that have been requested give them chance you know to you know at least be aware of it and potentially augment things. Um
099and then uh I think most helpful is redaction, right? Uh in these public records, there are some things uh that are personal and confidential that the lawyers help us determine what needs to be redacted and what does not. [clears throat] And then uh kind of wanted to do a slide on who pays and why. Um again, employment matters. The district, you know, pays for those. Um always have, right? But usually $4,000 $5,000 is a typical year. um just uh you know this year that one was 20,503 board you know um um for various reasons uh you know made decisions to hire independent investigator those you can see the costs there uh equal rights division and equal point uh equal um employment opportunity claims EMR EMC insurance paid that minus the the the two $5,000 deductibles
100the restraining order petition s which there were two of um again Tim O'Brien and and and his fees were mostly reimbursed minus the $10,000 and then open records request the district um pays that fee. So, one might ask, and I think uh we did have a a question regarding this uh from um a local newspaper, you know, uh why is the district paying for fees uh regarding um you know um the restraining order petitions that named me personally. And again, um just a reminder by law, state statute 895.461A, 461A. Uh, school districts and other local governments are required to pay attorney fees for employees and board members who are subject to legal proceedings because of their actions taken by the employee or board member in their official capacities which as you're well aware of that
101was the case here. >> We'll just end with any um questions that you may have or comments. What do that $74,000 can be recovered from the I mean >> we charge people who request records a certain amount don't we? >> Yeah. But we can't uh charge for legal fees >> just location costs and in certain cases and reproduction >> again um I you know becoming more aware of how this works now. Um I am certainly uh going to advocate with legislators. I think um you know the open records laws were passed when there were literally physical records and long before electronic communications and all the things. It's really it's really changed right and it uh it um as you're well aware can really uh impact the job that we're trying to do on a daily
102basis and uh you know I understand the reason transparency and I'm all for that. You know uh transparency is a good thing but um at what cost? So, I just did a little math. About 75,000 in public records and legal fees. 165 requests over is 450 bucks a piece that each one of those requests cost us >> in legal fees. >> Well, that that doesn't account for any of our time, which we basically don't get reimbursed because if it it's too big, then they just say, "No, I don't want to do it." They don't pay for it. Good report. Thank you. >> You're welcome. Excellent. Appreciate it. [clears throat] >> Moving on. Key work of our school board. We have student, staff, and community recognition. >> All right. So, we've got some kids that were
103uh named all conference kind of all over the board. First one, two, three, four that I'll read were all volleyball. Elena Corny, Megan Felberg, Caitlyn Pisig, and Maddie Sadelo all were uh voted all conference in volleyball. Uh moving down to football, Noah Broberg, Cohen Wester, and Gio Stor. Couple of couple of proud dads sitting here. >> All conference boys in football, Edwin Tani, and Lucas. Oh, I was hoping plow was going to help me. Garva, Garva, >> how do you say that? >> Soccer. [laughter] Uh, cross country. Um, we've got Emma Lamers, Brooke Nally, Tegan Swanson, and Jack Shower, Dane Gfordson, and Jackson Nally. All all conference members also. >> Fantastic. >> Let's move to our core agenda items. consideration of preliminary pre preliminary approval of the 2627 school calendar. >> All right. Uh for
104various reasons um we wanted to get a start uh a quicker head start on uh building next year's calendar uh to avoid conflicts again for from athletics to personal calendars to spouses etc. Um so typically we we draft this and present it in December annually. um we're we're a month ahead of time. So um this calendar is very much like this year um the October uh day off after conferences was very well received. So we're replicating that. Um otherwise you know Christmas falls um on a Friday uh next year a little different. So uh this year we're not in school at all the week of Christmas because of the way it felt. But next year we will be for a couple days and and and break is shorter. We keep the November break or Thanksgiving
105break aka deer season uh Christmas uh holiday break and then spring break and we still are out uh the first week of June and uh meeting our our hours or minutes of of instruction that are required and you see on the right hand column we are by contract teachers required to work 190 days and students have 172 days and so yeah we we like it um we just usually give it a month to simmer and we would bring it back um in December uh giving you time to look at it and um and suggest any any changes or ask questions regarding it. >> How much of a buffer do we usually have for snow days or fog days or whatever? >> Yeah, it's it's usually about three days. Um what what has really helped is
106the high school extended I mean you would think five minutes a day because it was the high school um that typically run into issues because they have the most required um minutes of instruction but um that that uh maybe even built in about another buffer day with that five extra minutes. So, we always have a flexibility if we run into summit weather in the spring to extend the the school days, you know, another five or 10 minutes or replace uh a day off or PD with an instructional day because it's kind of it's it's important to us to be out the first week so we can get three full weeks of summer school before the Fourth of July weekend. We we like we intentionally build this calendar, right, with with families and staff and the
107balance of school and holidays. And to D's point, you know, with dependence and truency and you build the the best calendar that works for the majority of people, but families still may choose to take their spring break a week before spring break. You know, I those are things try to build a family [laughter] around PD on weekends and and holidays. I'm sure you can see right in Good Friday with our professional development days intentionally spread out, you know, a little heavy up front in August and then try to do about one a month because PD is always ongoing. But no, we like it and it's something we we enjoy building as a team. >> You want to make mention graduation? >> Go ahead. >> So, the graduation has been >> tricky. Um, >> you want
108to come up to the >> No, I know you don't want to, but probably best. Sorry. >> Um, not scheduled, but um, so graduation has been a little bit tricky. I was up here last year, the year before, talking about why we would like to slide graduation off of the Friday before Memorial Day. Um, to give families and our staff quite honestly, uh, a full Memorial Day weekend because our staff attends graduation. And so we we slid it to a Thursday. But what we're finding as the calendar shifts um just the conflicts with our activities, our athletics, and also community events. Um Good Neighbor Days is a huge thing and we're well aware that Good Neighbor Days is a huge thing. Last year we conflicted with the community dinner. Um made it work, work for
109the Lions Club, and they're very gracious and understanding about it. But it's it's just an issue with and especially next year if we kept it on a Thursday, we'd run into playoff baseball and we'd run into sectional track which you don't want your seniors making a choice between playoff games and sectional track events. So brought it to our building leadership team and talked about pros and cons of moving it to the 21st, which is kind of a traditional date that we have had way back. uh those of you that graduated from here, that's when we graduated. It was uh that timeline that avoids the playoff games. Um it avoids the conflicts with the neighbor days. It avoids the Memorial Day weekend. And what we've decided to do is change a little bit as far as
110when we will do our checkout and when we'll do our gradalk. And so we're not losing as many instructional days of those seniors. And so we will we will flow right up to um that 21st. and do a check out day on the 20th, do a grad walk day on uh on the 21st and practice on the 21st and uh have them graduate and then they'll get their two weeks they'll get their two weeks off. Um so that's the that's the best compromise that we can that we could arrive on to kind of satisfy all the different all the different conflicts and the things that we try to take into account that are important to our community and our school. Is there any constituency that wants it the Friday before Memorial Day >> that would
111like it there? >> Yeah. >> Uh I don't know that anybody is super happy they're just kind of traditional. >> I know it's just always been horrible. It's like why in the world? >> But I think it's the easiest because there's zero activities planned and I think that that's just there's no sporting activity then I think that's probably >> where it lied, right? like >> yeah the WI and their calendars if you look at their their they have future calendars the Friday before Memorial Day they purposely don't have they don't have events >> I think last year wasn't weren't they had missed out of nearly three weeks of school if we would have done that Friday like just of how the calendar lie if you would have put it on that 22nd it just seemed
112like there they would have been missing a lot >> yeah I'd have to concern we have like moving it up right It's still it's still only two weeks last year. >> It was only >> because we're like, oh, they're going to miss out on potentially four instructional days and and I get it like not a lot of re impactful learning might happen your last four days of your career, you know, but um and then also like what are those teachers what are those teachers doing then? But like Brian reminded me, >> uh there are no senior only classes that teachers teach. They >> mix just just to be fair because we're being recorded. Um, [laughter] there are no intentional classes that are set up for seniors only. We have no we have no such thing
113in our course catalog as this is only a senior class. There might be a section of the class that coincidentally only has seniors in it, but we have no classes by design that are only for seniors. Um, that's >> that's great. >> All right. >> Thank you for >> this is just revisiting it and just going through. Yeah, >> we use them for subs. Yeah, >> I like that. [laughter] >> Spring break has moved. >> Oh, yeah. It used to be after daylight savings time and it's a little bit later in March now. >> And daylight savings time is moved back one one week compared to this year too. I think it was the 7th this year 8th and it's the 14th next year. That saved us a teacher day and an instructional day. >>
114Yeah. Oh, because of because of Easter and Good Friday falling, we would have we would have uh so we just made the Good Friday Easter week and spring break all one, right? Otherwise, yeah, we would have lost an instructional day and a teacher day if we did spring break before then come back and do Good Friday, >> come back for Yeah, >> we're like, h kids that are tired and we'll leave for a week knowing that spring break's right around the corner. >> Yeah, perfect. Thanks for looking at that. And >> and it works better to the labor of the point, the later spring break works a little bit better for our testing window at the high school because we get our preACT testing and our ACT testing done prior to spring break. Um in
115other years, we will have a spring break and then come back the following week and I take the ACT the pattern you're trying to establish for those kids to do their best. You can see there's a lot of thought put into building a calendar [clears throat] >> and the 4K calendar is on there as well. Free review and summer school. [clears throat] >> So got that and we'll visit that next month. >> Okay. And then we've got consideration of approval of the second reading of board policy 683 asset management. >> Again nothing nothing changed since the first reading approval. >> Second the motion Brad second. Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> I motion carries. Uh, next is possible future agenda items. >> Anybody have anything? >> Okay. Um, important upcoming dates. December 10th, we've
116got the school board meeting at 7 o'clock here at the district office. And now it's January 28th. Um then following for the schoolboard meeting here at some of the comments at the district office. >> So we need a motion to convene to close session for the two different items. >> Let me read that whole group. >> Okay. Per Wisconsin statute 19.851C considering employment promotion compensation and performance evaluation data of any public employee over which governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility. Approval of resignations, retirements, and terminations. Approval of appointments and contract modifications. B. Per Wisconsin statute 19.851F. Considering financial, medical, social or personal histories or disciplinary data of specific persons, preliminary consideration of specific personal problems of the investigation of charges against specific persons against where RB applies which is which if discussed in public
117would likely have substantial adverse effect upon the reputation of any person referred to in such histories or data or involved in such problems or investigations. I consider complaint against school board member. >> Second. So Derek made the motion. Jeff second call. >> Time is 8:42.