SCC School Board Meeting May 21, 2025

001All right, time is 7 o'clock. Call this school board meeting to order. First item of business is the pledge of allegiance. nation in two years. That was the best pledge. All right, roll call. Let the roll reflect. All members are present. Um, Eric and Nate Stor, they're attending the scholarship award. Yeah, they have a senior child, so they're attending the high school awards and scholarship night. Uh, I want to report that this meeting is properly noticed and is being uh livereamed and recorded per policy. Um, I kicked off the meeting. uh typically the board president does but uh this is the annual reorganizational meeting with the election of board officers. So at this time uh item number five um entertain uh nominations for officers. You can do it individually. Again, the four officers are president,

002vice president, clerk, and treasurer. Or uh in the past, sometimes the board is elected to go with a slate of officers for efficiency. Uh open up to uh the board. I would nominate the current officers, Erica, Lance, Dave, and myself, president, vice president, treasurer, and clerk. Second. All right, we have a motion by Jeff Redmond and second by Brad Wester for a slate of officers that include Erica Heric as president, Lance Rangstead, vice president, Dave Roose as treasurer, and Jeff Redmond as clerk. Any other discussion? Uh there's no other need to uh I guess um have other nominations if you do a slate. All right. So at this time we'll call for a voice call vote. All those in favor of that slate of officers indicate by saying I. I opposed. All right. Motion carried.

003Absence of Miss Herring as president to run the meeting. Lance wrong status VP then will uh run the rest of the meeting. Yours Lance. Um so first uh agenda item highlight on youth. So elementary and middle school battle of the books the advisors Abby Dilture and Christian I'm sorry you need I think we have slides to go with it as well. Can you pull up slides? All right, just a sec. Okay. Well, thank you guys for having us. I'm Abby Dilture, third grade teacher, Kirsten Mosener's, sixth grade reading, and we're just here to talk about Battle of the Books and what that looks like, what that is, um, and just really just to write about our kids. So, Can I click to the next slide? There we go. Okay. So, what is Battle of the

004Books? Uh, it's a statewide reading challenge really just to promote a love of reading. Um, there's three levels. There's elementary, middle school, and there is a high school um level. We don't currently have that. Um, but SEC, we opened it up to third graders as well, just because of the way the elementary is split. Um, that we'd only have fourth graders, so we open up to third and fourth this year. And since the middle school houses the fifth grade, we also offer the middle school book list to the fifth graders and really like the why behind it. Um just to like ignite a passion for reading among students. It's motivating to students. Um looking into a diverse range of books, um engaging with the plots, characters, settings, um and just a fun experience, but also

005encouraging students to just develop their reading habits trying new books. Um, it's sort of fun. Even some books that they maybe didn't love. Good, too. Um, so how it works, there's 20 pre-selected books to read and discuss. Um, students may work in teams of two, three, or four. Um, we had optional practices at the elementary schools, um, every after, sorry, in October um, every other Wednesday. And then once we got closer to the statewide competition, we had weekly practices. Um, so we had a gradewide competition on February 19th and then our winners of that gradewide competition moved on to our statewide battle which was the end of February. At the middle school it was a little bit different. We met every Wednesday and again optional. Um, and we would do different like a Google form

006and like different test questions that the hosts of Battle of the Books puts out there for you. And then we combined our team by selecting the top four scores on a couple of different tests on those. And then that competition format. So there are quiz cell rounds on book content. Um so the kids really had to know the title and then they had to know the author. And these are really in-depth questions. I mean they really had to know the books inside and out for these test questions. Um and then after that gradewide battle, how we did at the elementary school, the top team moved on to a statewide battle. So they were versing um hundreds of other uh elementary schools in the state of Wisconsin on their book content knowledge for middle school there.

007Um and then when when are the kids doing it? So read to self time during win time after school on Wednesdays, lunches. Um and I think the neatest thing was just hearing a lot of parents raving about it at home. Um, it gave them a reason to read together. Some of these books are really high levels, too. So, I think it gave families a reason to sit and read together, trying new books that maybe they wouldn't have otherwise. One of my favorite things at the middle school is that we when we would meet after school on Wednesdays, we would do part of our time would be like quizzing each other or like I would put up a game that we could play or the kids would play. Other times it would be like those tests

008that they would take on the questions that are modeled off the ones that are on the state challenge. Um, and then other times we would just read and we'd set a timer to read for like 20 minutes and everybody was sitting around reading. Um, and then after the timer was up, we would get to like talk about our books. It was an awesome little book club every Wednesday after school. Actually a big book club. There was like 30 of us. Yeah. Um, here's just like what the book list looked like. So, lots of different genres. Um, and these are all books recommended by teachers and librarians. So, they've already got the list out for next year for recommendations. Um, so it was a mix of chapter books and picture books. Um, some the kids loved,

009some they didn't. We had a couple of graphic novels at the middle school level. A lot of obviously like chapter books, some non-fiction. One of them was Nature's Best Hope, which was all about, you know, the whole overpopulation and saving the Earth. And then other ones about a Canadian family who was trying to go visit family in the United States. And there's some some heavy content even though that some of the books were um graphic novels in nature. A lot of them long chapter books for the middle school. Um something we did too just to remember like all of these books that the kids are reading because they started um end of September, early October. So it's hard to remember by the end of February too. So a way of just keeping track um kids

010either had a paper version of this or a Google Slides form with the author how they ranked the book. Um, so really they're summarizing the book too. So just putting in that work and then it was fun to look back of like, oh, what were our favorite books and which ones didn't you care for? Um, so doing a lot of work too, but making it fun and they're doing this in groups. So then they're really discussing the books and you know what how many stars did you give this book? So just a fun way to keep track. And then with that, if we go to the next slide, we had a fun little competition. So every time they would fill out one of those book summaries, they would finish a book. uh they got to

011put their sticker up next to their name with all the book titles. And then there was a competition going on of like, oh, who can fill out the most? It was fun to keep track of that. This was a big poster in the hallway, so kids would always walk by. Um these guys are always competing of like, oh, you're at 14 books now. So then they would quickly go home and they would try to finish one, too. So just another fun way to like keep track of what they're reading, make it a fun competition. Um how many books can they read? Yeah, there might have been a candy bar on the line for the top readers. So, yeah. Yeah. Um, some of the questions that were asked, do they need to read all of the

012books? And the answer was no. Um, because they're on a team, but we just said then, you know, the more books that you read, the stronger your team is going to be. Um, can you read your Battle of the Books books at home with your families? And it was, of course. And I think that again was one of my favorite parts of just those kids being able to sit at home and read with their families and and talk about them. Um, how do I keep track of the books I read? They had bookmarks so they could check them off. They had their sheets that they were writing summaries on. Um, and the kids said, "Will it be fun?" We said, "Of course, duh." So great. And then here's just some photos. Um, here was our

013top third grade team. Here was our top fourth grade team. Um, yeah. And then we brought some students to talk about their experience, too. So, come on up, you guys. So, I have Jada Lucky, I have Isaac Lure, and Shirley Davis. So, they're going to share um what they enjoyed about Battle of the Books and then their book recommendation for you guys. My favorite thing about battle is the books was I was able to read books I wouldn't have read on my own time and I also got to be a bit competitive with my friends. The reason I love Battle of the Books was all the reading because I love books and my book recommendation is the loud robots. I really loved um being here. I met Isaac. Um I got to compete with my

014best friend. Um and I really had fun with my team. My recommendation is all of them. Yes. And I have my middle school students. Why don't you guys introduce yourselves and then give your what you enjoyed about all the books and your book recommendation. I'm B Michael and my book recommendation is Simon sort of says. My name is Jackson Oscar Jesse. Do not spell that out. You will get an aneurism. It's for your own safety. Trust me. My favorite book was the insignificant events of life of cactus. It disappointed me in a really good way. I was expect pictures of cacti. That's all. But I was pleasantly surprised with a really good story. And do not read roller girl. It is the most vile thing I've ever read. It is awful. Go. My name is

015Miller and my book recommendation is City Spies. What is one thing you guys enjoyed about Middle School Battle of Books? I enjoy getting to read new books because I really like reading. Gave me an excuse to let Miss Bzour some more that I already do. Um, I like that Miss B made it learning but also fun. It was a really joyful thing to do. Like not work at all, just fun. Yeah, we consistently had anywhere between 30 and 40 kids showing up every other Wednesday just to sit and read books and talk about them and come for snacks and it was a lot of fun. Awesome. Thank you. Hey, you got to announce the Next one. LA Band Trip High School band director Sean Conway. Yeah, Mr. Conway. Hello stand. What would make you comfortable?

016That works. You're fine. All right. So, howdy everybody. Uh, my name is Sean Conway. I'm the high school band director and I'm here to give you a little bit of a summary of our spring break that we took with our students to Los Angeles over spring break. So, uh, planning for this started all the way back in fe February of 2023. Um, actually, if you want to switch to the input on here, I can click through stuff if unless that's not gonna I did update a couple things after I sent it. But there we go. Okay. So, planning started all the way back in February 2023. We're gone for 5 days and four nights to Los Angeles, California. Uh, we brought 77 total travelers with us. 55 of those being uh 9 through 12 band

017students, 15 of those were chaperones, which was awesome. Awesome turnout for that. We're super excited. And then Mr. Helmrich and myself. The planning process of this, we ended up going through group travel planners after reaching out to a number of companies to get bids to make sure we could find a very affordable option for our families to get things together. group travel planners came through and was a solid option. I put together a lot of the ideas of the things that we wanted to do and they were kind of the ones that reached out, ordered the tickets and helped make sure like the logistics of the day would work for us. We kind of gave them our wish wish list of things and they helped make that all work out. Um, one of the big

018things about this is I wanted as many kids to be able to go on this trip as possible. we would rotate going every three years so that you know current freshman you know they get the bonus option where they get to also have the eligibility their senior year. Uh but if you know if they're brand new to band their freshman year, maybe they're not sure about it, then you know they didn't miss their one and only chance to try and do something with their friends. And we find the community that gets built from everybody being on these trips is super important and really kind of enhances the the culture that we have within our program. And so in order to help offset some of that that very real cost for everybody is we have a

019number of things that run through the year. So like track concession sales like all of the meets we've had this year. Uh when we did it the year of the trip like we divided up the profits that we made on those things, chopped it up into the number of shifts that were working, divvied up the money. Like band didn't keep any of it. It just went straight back to the kid. Now that we're in kind of an off year, we're splitting that 5050 between the band as a fundraiser and people so that they can start kind of acrewing those for the next year. Um, Java Joe's coffee fundraiser, just kind of your straightforward selling things. Uh, we do we did garbage pickup last year for Robert's Good Neighbor Days, which was really great this last

020year when everything got rained out, but we're anticipating a little bit more stuff to pick up this year. Uh there were not too many cans to find because no one was sticking around for stuff in the pouring rain. But uh we've also done the chicken stand a number of times. And then another thing that we do is this raiseight fundraiser which many of you I know some churches or other places use this. It's a gift card fundraiser where basically instead of going and buying something right from the store and getting some or getting something you don't need, you order gift cards through this app. You know, you're going to Walmart, you spend $20 on a Walmart gift card, you receive $20 at a Walmart gift card, but the company will give like a 1% or

021something rebate kickback that then goes to the school. So, our parents are raising money without losing without getting something they don't want. So, for instance, like the Hubard family earned $500 just by buying quick trip gas and reloading those as they went. And so, and what did that $500 cost them? like nothing additional. So, they just got 500 free dollars by buying the gas they were already buying. Um, and that's something that can run constantly and they can get other members of their family involved and to help offset this cost, which, you know, helps us get to the point where we have 55 uh students going and those additional chaperones as well. When we were there, you know, very early start to the school day. We got at the high school at 2 am. Uh

022got on our flight. Kids were excellent getting through security. Um thanks to our bus drivers for getting us there because they also had to be there very early. But we hit up the Grammy Museum. They had some interactive exhibits there. The Santa Monica Pier, so the kids got to touch the Pacific Ocean. And then to kind of because everyone was exhausted because there was also the three-hour time change. We had a pizza party and some pool time and relax at the hotel because the next day we had Disneyland and California Adventure. The kids had a uh park hopper passes. So on those two days, they could go back and forth at will with their chaperon, with their groups between the two parks. And on that Tuesday, we did a soundtrack clinic, which I'll I'll talk

023a little bit more about in a second. And then they also performed on stage in Disneyland or California Adventure, which I'll talk about again. Thursday, we went to Universal Studios Hollywood. And then that evening we went to the Griffith Observatory at night which they set up a whole bunch of other telescopes which were available for kids to look at. Griffith Observatory is the place that shows up in James Dean's Rebel Without a Cause or if you've seen La La Land, it's where they have that big dancing through stars scene. Um, so that was really cool and especially for kids to be able to see the skyline lit up at night was awesome. Uh Friday consisted of a couple more uh sightseeing things like Rodeo Drive. We got to walk past just very expensive stores and

024the Hollywood Walk of Fame. So kids got a lot of pictures of their favorite actors, actress or Bugs Bunny and those things. And then got back by 1:55 a.m. and the kids were airport security professionals by this point. Like the gate agent was not being helpful to us at all. kids had to all check out through the kiosks on these generic numbers and like we were already running a little bit late because of LA traffic and like we got through everything in an hour with those kids and it was unbelievable. Our our guide was blown away with everything that these kids were doing and like made a point to tell Mr. Helmark and myself multiple times like how impressed they were with our students. So, I was incredibly and and he also pointed out that

025he doesn't have to say this. He goes on a lot of trips. He's done a lot of things. Um, he does not say this to every group, but he made a point multiple times to Helmer and I that he was very proud of the group that we had and that we took on this trip. So, that was that was very special to hear and honestly the highlight of the trip for me. Um, so one of the experiences we had was this uh soundtrack session. So, Hollywood, you know, you're recording movie soundtracks and things. When they do this, they have the video clips set up with no with just sounds but no music behind it. And the studio musicians get together. They all have headphones that have a metronome in their head going giving them the

026pulse. And everybody's got to play through and most of those professionals are sight reading. So the kids got a lot of that same kind of experience. They got the headphones. They got a con guest conductor up there to take them through the music and they site readad four different video clips uh and got to add some additional sound effects for fun at the end of these. And so what you'll see is this is a video clip. It's like 30 seconds of them doing one of these things. And you'll see a little ribbon that goes across. It's exactly what happens in film so that they know when the the session starts. And yeah, so I'll just let it kind of speak for itself. So, so that was a really cool thing for them to get to

027do. And then again, we had the stage performance and well, we were going out to LA. We wanted to bring a little bit of Wisconsin flare. So, one of our songs that we played was roll out the barrel complete with lyrics and everything. So, that was great. Pretty good audience because it's right inside the park. So anybody can kind of walk up and sit down. And there were definitely a lot more than just our own family there, which was a lot of a lot of fun. This is a rare break in the rain that we had all that day. Well, actually, no, it was not. It was still very rainy. So So you all know how it goes. So, I've got a couple of our students here to kind of talk a bit about their

028experience and uh so I'll just invite them up here to introduce themselves, kind of name, grade what what instrument they played and just share a little bit about their experience. Yeah, feel free to adjust this. I'm Zinx Kemp. I'm a junior and I play the Berry Sachs. And I'm Lily Sheiman. I'm also a junior and I play the flute. Um I thought this trip was really well. it. My favorite part was like the fact that as a whole the band got a lot closer. Like we all like talked to each other more. We didn't just stay within our little instrument sections. Like we all were just having fun and seeing what all that LA brought to us. Um I know I for sure got really close with a lot of the seniors on this trip.

029Um, I thought it was super fun. It's something that I feel like I needed to see, even though I'm not sure if I'll go back. It's too big of a city for me. Um, I also really enjoyed Radiator Springs in California Adventure. I thought that was really cool. Go there at night. It's really fun. [Music] So that was one of the views that the kids got at Griffith Observatory and just wanted to make sure I got a chance to publicly thank some people who helped us with this. So like nurse Vicki uh put together all of the med requirements that we had for kids and Mr. Helmer was huge in putting together a system for making sure that we could get those medications to those kids as they needed them when we were there. uh

030and was really responsible for that. Just helped take one thing off of my plate. Uh Tanya Cran in the office and Heather like helped get Revrak and everything set up so payments could come in and I was just regularly bringing deposits down to Tanya for her to put in of like tens of thousands of dollars as we got towards payments. So, I really appreciate all of her help with that. Um, our SEC bus drivers got up early or late twice and then, uh, when we had a little bit of trouble getting all of our luggage and our instruments to the airport, uh, they called in audible and even though it wasn't on the request, like Bo made a special trip out with the van and a trailer so that we could just make sure our

031trip back was. So, I especially want to thank them for that. our uh high school admin, you know, for giving us this opportunity, letting us go through with this type of thing. Um, our chaperones were top-notch and were like really made this like I almost had to tell them to calm down because they were so eager and ready to help with things, but they were having a blast and like there were zero concerns with anything they did. And and again the students were to get recommendation to to get accommodation from the poor person there with us was very fantastic and I needed to share like how special they were and how great they were like we know how great they are but like to have somebody else also recognize that I think is um fantastic

032and you know the parents and their support to you know because this is a burden to take on to be able to allow these kids to do this. It is a it is a huge financial burden and I am sensitive to that and I try to give these kids as much ways to cover that as possible. Um and you know the sacrifices that they made so their kids kids could have this lifetime this unforgettable life-changing experience. I'm I'm very grateful for all that they have done there and made sure they knew that at our concert. So year's wrapping up for us kind of uh we we had our awards concert on Monday. We've got graduation band that we're playing here soon. will be in the parade. Um, and then also, you know, thanks to help

033from the district, we're hosting the Madison Scouts at St. Croy Central High School. Uh, they're putting together a clinic for our students and a number of students in the area, which has already gotten like 15 to 16 of our own students signed up and that's that's well out before they expect more rolling in. So, we're in a fantastic place with that. Uh, and then, you know, we're going to be advertising. They're giving a free community performance to everybody in the area that wants to show up at uh 7:30 on Tuesday, June 24th. They're going to do a run through of the production that they've been working on while they're here and and also the students that participate in that clinic are going to get a chance to show off everything they worked on as well.

034And then uh yeah, starting to plan for our next trip which is currently scheduled for 2028 and thinking about where we're going for that. So that's all that we've got unless you've got any questions for the kids up here about anything. But say what what surprised you about the trip? Are you nervous going into it about anything? [Music] I've never been to like any large amusement parks. So that was kind of like a eye opening experience. And then I don't fly too often. So there were a number of students who it was their first time flying was going to LA with How was the flight? Good. The way there it was on the way back there was a lot of turbulence. That is true. Yes. Isn't that traffic something else? Yes, that was also that's

035one thing. Yeah, there's a lot of attention paid to gas prices as we were going. A lot of everybody going like, "Oh, 500 $5 a gallon." Like that's great. Like or like the gas prices changed on if you pay with card or not, too. They like advertised that and I was it was kind of confusing. So, a lot of fun little cultural things, too. How long did you sleep for when you got back? two o'clock. I had to be in the St. Patrick's Day parade the next day. So be like, "Thanks, Dad." I did that to myself on Robert's royalty. So I slept till like 12. Yeah, my kids did not let me sleep. That's my own fault, but So thank you all very much. Yeah. All right. Next up, eighth grade ACP presentations. [Music]

036I'm going to connect to you if that's okay. All right. All right, good evening. We'll start with introductions. My name is Alyssa Friie. I am a school counselor at the middle school and um one of the co-cordinators for the ACP team at Sro Central. I'm Maria Pollson and I'm the eighth grade language arts teacher. And I'm Jenny Franklin, the district library media specialist. later. Later. All right. So, um just as a reminder of what ACP is and why we're here, um ACP stands for academic and career planning. Um and really what that is is something that we offer to students in grades 6 through 12. Uh DPI, the state of Wisconsin has mandated that. Um for good reason. It's really just about giving students an opportunity to think about what their future looks like, to

037learn more about themselves um with adult support along the way. And so you can see there all the things that we're trying to accomplish during that time frame. Um it's infused through instruction, advisory at the middle school. We've got a lot of crosscurricular collaboration, which we'll talk about here tonight, field trips, offerings. That's a high school. I could go on and on and on. We're doing a lot of great things with ACP and this is just one piece of that puzzle. Um, so I wanted to bring these awesome eighth graders here tonight um because we tried something kind of new this year that actually went very well with the support of of many. So um we've done an ACP project at the middle school for years. It started as a research paper about one career

038that was like five pages long and then we didn't feel like that was really hitting what we wanted and then we switched to a slideshow which was getting closer but then I felt like do these kids ever open this slideshow again. Um, and so this year in Maria's first year as as a teacher, I said, "Hey, um, I think I want the kids to make a website." And, um, thankfully she and Jenny um, took that on and they seriously rocked it. So, I was really just part of the step one with the explore. I spent a week with eighth graders doing a lot of like self assessments, research, like getting to know themselves more. not necessarily like nailing themselves down to a career as an eighth grader, but just starting to think about it. And

039then I'll let these guys talk about what step two and three look like, and I can jump back in on step four. Um, step two was the research piece. So, they had to come up with kind of a question of where they wanted to started and then we started kind of talking about um what their sources would be. So, they could find websites, we had some databases available, and then of course books too. Um, we talked a lot about credible sources online, what we're looking for to make sure that it's a legit source. So, that was day one of the research piece. And then the rest of the days were um kind of exploring the databases and then helping them paraphrase if need to find the source or the notes that they needed to. They

040needed 30 total different um facts. And so we spent a lot of time about a week trying to find those facts and getting the sources that they needed for that. Yeah. And actually kind of going back up to step one. So in the exploration process right before we went down to see Mrs. Franklin in the library um for about a week, Mrs. Richie had all the eighth graders um over a course of a several class periods I would say um exploring their learning personalities or sorry their learning styles, their personalities um different careers, different career options. They really dove into some of the um like multiple intelligences I think that was um so that students didn't just go I think I want to be a doctor. instead they were like, "Oh, well, all these things

041about my personality fit so that maybe I could check into looking into being a doctor, right?" Like, so it wasn't just pulling it out of thin air. Um, which I thought was really cool, the exploration part. Uh, and then into the research, uh, like Jenny was saying, and then the culmination of that was to create this website. And so each student got to create a website that was personal to themselves. They did have some requirements. They did have to have an about me page. Um, I wrote this down so I wouldn't forget. Um, they had to have an about me page. They had to have a careers of interest page, a road map, um, which you're going to get to see all three of those here in a second. Um, they had to do an

042interview. They had to have a resume page, and a sources page. So, it was pretty there was lots of requirements to it. Um, but it was very personal for them, which I think was powerful, especially as eighth graders. So, yeah. Yeah. and then the students had a chance to share them in the classroom. Um, and something else that we changed this year, Mr. Jardine and I used to have ACP meetings with a student and the parents and we would have like 80 of them and it would take it was well worth it. It was good time spent, but we thought like can we is there a different way we can do this now with these websites? So, we actually hosted we called it an ACP showcase. Um, and we had probably over 80 students and

043families show up. And then so the students were able to share their websites with their parents. And then Aaron Pop, the high school counselor, came over and gave a presentation on high school registration, which they were then able to do probably a week or so after that. So we felt like it went super well. We got great feedback. So, um, and then the next step after that, right, we want them to keep using these websites. And so, working with the high school, they've got some really great things planned, um, to continue that work, but other work as well. So, I'm going to let the real stars of the show come on up. You can just click on in there. Okay. All right. Uh, I'm Silus Underdoll. I had really fun like uh doing this project.

044I like the idea of doing like a Google website because it's we do a lot of like Google Docs and like Google Slides type stuff. So, this was cooler. So, yeah. Uh I'm just going to do my homepage and my about me. My name is Silus Underdall. I am a student at for St. Croy Central in Hammonds, Wisconsin. I am 13 years old. I have five people in my family. I have an older brother, Braden, a younger sister, Madison, and my parents, Bobby and Tanya. I'm interested in being a SWAT officer when I grow up. And then I also really like the Zello because like it's okay. You don't have to go past the basketball picture just cuz I'm here. Thought you were I have some about wrestling achievements. Um I won my weight class

045for wrestling and got a ribbon. uh did my first ever unified ski event in Got a Ribbon and then I also have earned my snowmobile gun and boat safety license interest um basketball skiing girls uh football and then just hanging out with friends. So again with that Zello um we took a test to see our learning styles and I was 90% tactile. So like I like working with my hands and that. Um 5% visual and 5% auditory. Multiple intelligences. Um I'm body self and interpersonal. Um personality styles. According to Zello, I am a helper, a persuader. A helper means that I enjoy teaching, coaching, counseling, and caring for people. A persuader is someone who likes to influence, lead, and managing people. Values, family, faith, and money. There you go. Did you Hold on. There's a

046question. Did you use chat GPT to help you with this? No, but actually something cool that we did for interviews. We did this school AI, which was like I could interview what it would be like to be like a SWAT officer. So technically I did um interview a SWAT officer. It was just school AI though. So it's kind of cool. Okay. So my name is Opel Johnson and I'm going to be focusing on more of what careers that I looked into. So I'm a really indecisive person. So, I um I looked at three or I looked at Yeah, I looked at three different careers. And so, the one that I'm going to focus on tonight is become a lawyer. Becoming a lawyer. Um, ever since I was little, I've always loved the idea of becoming

047a lawyer. So, this project just really helped me research that a little more and like work out the fine details of what that would look like. Um, I really like that we were able to like look at the education. So, I was able to look at schools with good programs, what college, what high school class I was going to have to take, which that really came in handy when we were signing up for classes just shortly after working on this. So, that was really nice. Um, I was also able to research into the different characteristics that a lawyer should have, which helped me figure out if I was really suited to be a lawyer or not. Um, I think that I am. I think at least I like Yeah, I like to think that I'm

048pretty good at public speaking. Um I like to debate and yeah um the paid for a lawyer um really just depends upon how um how much you would charge your clients and then obviously how good you are um what type of law you would go into. So I also learned that after looking at there are many many different types of law. So I just really have to work it out. Um, and my conclusion of this was that I think I would really like being a lawyer and I really appreciated this project. And the other thing I really liked is I had the chance to interviews or I had I had the chance to conduct a few interviews. So I interviewed two pediatricians and then a staff attorney and so I was able to get some

049really good information based off that. She's a great rule player. Hi, I'm Mason Manarek and I'm going to be focusing on my road map. And something that I thought was really cool about this project was it really helped me decide what I wanted my future to look like and like kind of like sort of like where I want to go for like college and stuff which obviously I don't have any of that figured out yet but it really got me thinking. So some of my goals I decided to focus on I would really like if possible to like continue acting for as long as I could because that's like a really important part of my life. Um, I really want to begin taking AP classes as soon as I can in high school. And what

050was really cool about this project was one of the careers I decided to look into was an oncologist. And um, what this project helped me discover was um, this program called Shei Virtual Medical Program. And it's a two-eek virtual program for high school students interested in the medical field, specifically for cancer research. And it's super cool. It's um um for all like women and stuff and um you're able to learn from actual um oncologists and just like kind of get that experience. So, I thought that was a really cool opportunity. I won't be able to apply for that until I'm actually in high school. So, hopefully that's something I can look forward to next year. And then another thing I um have been learning about a lot is there's a ton of like acting conservatory

051programs like seminars that I would be able to take over the summer and so I would really like to take one of those like sometime next summer hopefully. Um my college post-secary plans um the main careers I really thought would fit me well were an oncologist, a lawyer like Opal, and a actress. So, um, a lot of the colleges I were looking into were, um, the University of Chicago, um, the University of Wisconsin Law, and the University of Michigan. And to be honest, in a perfect world, I would definitely want to double major in performing arts and one of my other fields I mentioned, but I also understand how stressful that would be. So, I don't really know yet. Um, but I did put this in there to like kind of tell my parents like

052I could probably do this. Um um the US World News Report says that 20% of people graduate with double majors. So that gives me hope. But um I don't know. It kind of just depends on like where I want to go with my life. And then one of the things I really liked was uh Mrs. Pollson had us ask ourselves like how can our family and like how can our community support us? And when I kind of started to answer this question, I was kind of like oh I don't really know what to say. like I don't know like I don't I've always like been very independent and I want to do stuff my way and I don't really rely on other people but I thought that the most important thing that like my family

053and my community could do for me was remembering like reminding me who I was and what I can accomplish if I really put my mind to it. So that was kind of eye opening. Um, and yeah, then I just have my links to all of like some of my sources and the colleges I was considering and some of the programs. So, thank you. Anyone have any questions for awesome? Yeah. Did anyone research a field that caught you off guard that you didn't know about at all before? A race car. Yeah. Zello will match them with some interesting things where you're like, "Yeah, just look past that one for a second." Um yeah, if they like to be active, it's race car driver. Mine was uh yeah, an oncologist like um my grandpa, he was diagnosed

054with cancer a few years ago and he later ended up passing, but I um and that's always kind of been one of my passions to help people. But so that kind of helped me discover that. So very cool. Yeah, we definitely were careful to not squaltch any any thoughts anybody had. And I'm not saying it about oncologist like any when you asked were there any careers. There were lots of careers that I was like huh okay wow that surprised me about the kid actually more not like what is that career but more like I didn't I wouldn't have thought that. And so that was really cool to let them just open up and figure out where they want to go. Nice work. Yeah. Hi Chris. Silus come out for wrestling. I said just try it.

055Then I said here Hello. Good evening everyone. I stand before you today to talk about something incredibly important. The power of an inclusive youth. Before we get started, I'd like to introduce myself. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Cassie Evans and I'm a second grade teacher. I am currently finishing my sixth year in the classroom. Education is not only my job, but it is my whole heart. I am passionate about fostering inclusive environments where all young people can thrive, which is why I'm so honored to speak to you today on this important topic. Think about a time when you felt truly included. When your voice was heard and your ideas mattered. How did it make you feel? Empowered. Valued. Now imagine if every young person had that experience. Not just

056sometimes, but always. That's the power of inclusion. This is what happens each and every day at St. Chris Central Elementary School. Of course, inclusion happens in all of our buildings at SEC. However, for the purpose of tonight, I will be sharing about the elementary. Our youth is not just our future. They are our present. Right now, our students are brimming with energy, creativity, and passion to make a difference. But this potential can only be fully realized when we create spaces where everyone feels welcomed, respected, and has the opportunity to contribute. What does inclusion look like at St. Croy Central Elementary? In the classroom, every student, regardless of their background, ability, or identity, feels safe to express themselves. In a sports team aspect, it is where everyone gets a chance to play and is celebrated for

057their unique talents. It's a community where young people from all walks of earth come together to work towards a common goal. Inclusion at the elementary is important because it fosters innovation and builds empathy within our children and adults. When we bring together different perspectives, we spark new ideas and find creative solutions to many challenges. We also interact with people who are different from us. We learn to understand and appreciate their experiences and develop compassion. Growing up, I attended an elementary school that was this very segregated place between typical children and children with special needs. There was a rare occasion that classes of the two would mix. As I continued my knowledge of children that were different from myself, I began to see how truly amazing these children were. Inclusive communities are more vibrant and resilient.

058When everyone feels like they belong, they are more invested in the success of their whole community. When walking into an SEC elementary classroom, you may not hear silence, but rather languages other than English, students communicating using a device, and most importantly, children and adults working together. When making our differences the norm, children and adults embrace everyone and their uniquenesses. Inclusion gives our students the confidence to reach their full potential to become leaders and to make positive make a positive impact on the world. The past few years I have had the privilege of working closely with some of our highest need students. I give a huge shout out to Lori Gian as she has been an amazing leader, friend, colleague and supporter. Inclusive classrooms where students with and without disabilities learn together offer a multitude of

059advantages for students with special education needs. There are many academic, social, emotional, and life benefits to inclusion. Some academic benefits include access to the general curriculum and creating high higher expectations for our children. Inclusive settings provide students with disabilities access to the same curriculum as their peers with appropriate modifications and accommodations. This exposure to a wider range of subjects and learning experiences can lead to improved outcomes through AC academics. All students at SEC are in the general education setting for the main portion of the reading, writing, phonics, and math lessons. Students may receive individualized services such as speech and language, reading, writing, math, and English language outside the general education classroom. When students with disabilities are held to high expectations in inclusive classrooms, they are more likely to strive to meet the expectations. I always

060say, you adapt to the people and environment that you place yourself in. We use standard-based grading schoolwide. This allows for all students, no matter their differences or disabilities, to have opportunities of equitable learning experiences. There are also social benefits to an inclusive setting. For example, having increased social interactions, peer modeling, and feeling the sense of belonging. Inclusive classrooms provide opportunities for students with and without disabilities to interact, fostering friendships, and social skills. Students with disabilities can learn valuable lessons, communication, and behavior skills by observing and interacting with other peers. Inclusion promotes a sense of belonging and acceptance, which can boost self-esteem and reduce feeling of isolation. We have a week of inclusion at the elementary which is a schoolwide celebration celebrating all our differences. We celebrate by be reading books with characters that have different

061qualities, inviting specialty experts into our classroom and we even have a display wall filled with all students names including a small craft. When students with disabil disabilities are included and valued in the classroom, their self-confidence and self-esteem can improve. All in all, our goal is to prepare all of our children for the changing world. Inclusive classrooms mirror the diversity of the real world, helping students with differences develop the skills and social competence they will need to be successful to further their education, employment, and living within our community. Inclusive settings can encourage students with differences to develop greater independence and self advocacy skills. With support and differentiated instruction, students show success independently. Devices, sign language, extra time, and picture cards are all ways that students can be supported. At the elementary level, we provide students with

062win time standing for what I need. This is a set time of the day where all students receive differentiated instruction based on their level of needs. It's important to note that successful inclusion requires collaboration, individualized support, professional development opportunities, and of course, positive attitudes. Collaboration among the general education teachers, special education teachers, administrators, and parents. I have found that honesty with parents is the number one key to successful collaboration. This past year, I have been working with a family on a student's reading and math. The amount of home support this has created is amazing. The student has gone from the 10th percentile to the 26th percentile in math. Students with disabilities may require individualized support such as accommodations or modifications. They might use assistive technology to access curriculum and participate fully in the classroom. Teachers

063need ongoing professional development to learn how to effectively implement inclusive practices. The greatest professional development I have used is the experts in our very own building. Becca Pollson, Lorie Guy, and Jill Giraffes are just a few examples of people that are extremely knowledgeable. Another professional development piece is David Lindmire has started a podcast called Experts Down the Hall of People within our district who share knowledge in their area of expertise. So, how do we create and sustain an inclusive youth? We start by challenging our own biases because we all have them. Recognizing and addressing them is the first step toward creating a more inclusive environment. I truly believe that we have strengthened our own biases through enhancing our adult culture. As adults, we have focused on celebrating our differences and using them to our advantages.

064This has trickled down to our littles through modeling positive adult culture. We need to create spaces where our children and adults feel safe to speak up and know that their opinions matter. Lastly, bringing young people from different backgrounds together through activities, projects, and programs can help break down barriers and build bridges. A few ways that we bring our community together are during our family literacy night, English language night, the backpack program, the friendship games, and inviting community members into our school. Let us continue working together to build a world where the power of an inclusive youth is fully unleashed. A world where every young person can shine brightly and make their unique contribution to the world. Thank you. Thank you. Right. So, next up, public comment. Zack Pringle. Am I saying that correctly? Yep. Okay.

065All right. So, like you said, my name is Zach Pringled. I graduated from the school in 2018. Um, speak on behalf of of Colleen. She's losing her voice. Let's have some questions here. Um, sir, why would the board not take Barry Forb's advice on utilizing an appointed investigator designated by legal counsel um versus Erica and Jeff seeking to hire one with over a half a dozen connections to SEC and then call it unbiased? Um, why did we pay Lee Pritzell over 12 grand? Um, why did why did Tim Why did we give Tim a $35,000 bonus um summer of 2024? Let's stop there. This is public comment and it's just for you to say whatever you want. We're not here to answer. is not on the agenda, so we aren't going to comment on anything.

066We're here to listen. We'll keep reading them then. We got a lot of them. Why do we pay approximately $750 monthly for a coach mentor for Tim when he is over 50 years old? Why have we never requested public approval to lease Trinity property on DoubleTe? Why has the whistleblower sent on um February 18th of this year not been investigated in over three months? Barry Forbes uh verified this May 5th with a timestamped and date. How much has the district spent on legal fees in 2025? There's documentation supporting five lawyers are involved. Why was Tim forced out of Webster? I did call Webster. They wouldn't comment, but they said you had something to answer for there. We're not going to comment. So, you said whatever. Have the lawyer call them. Would you care to address

067that? Nope. We're not going to answer. I'm not asking you. Well, that's not it's not your meeting. It's our meeting and you we afford public comment which we're required to do and we do that. But we're here to listen, not you. So, just No, I'm I'm a board member. Keep going. It's not your meeting. That's it. No, we got Oh, we got this one. Yeah. Um, let's read that all. Mhm. The district and the board are willing to discuss an agreement to dismiss the restraining order petition. This is a email that sent out. Um, the district and board are willing to discuss an agreement to dismiss the restraining order petition. Elements of such an agreement might include the following. Mrs. Murtha and the district would wave any claims that they might have against each other

068and against district officers um and employees. The district will not restrict Miss Murtha or her husband's access to Skyward relating to Miss Murtha's child in the district. Employees other than Mr. Whitaker or Miss Clenchold um would be designated as contacts for matters relating to Miss Murtha's child and other concerns to the Murtha family may have with the district. A mutual non dis uh paragman clause. Um, the district will not retaliate against Miss Murtha as provided by board policy. Dismiss the restraining order petition with prejudice. Um, I am open to other suggestions, but I'm not thinking of anything that would be relevant to such an agreement. Let me know if you have interest in discussing this further. So why didn't you just offer her money like you did the first time, Tim, and to use a

069second grader and to use it against a parent to get what you want. I mean, we've had all these wonderful teachers speak. This is what Scc has always been. And what you're doing to it, this is not SEC. We've had lots of superintendent and this has never happened in the district. And why are you still sitting here? You have two suits against you. Anybody else in St. Curry Central would be gone. I was in this district for 27 years. I know. And it changed a lot since you've been in. We've got a lot more here if you want to hear it. Why are you obtaining five lawyers? It's cost probably this the district the taxpayers. This is all about the taxpayers. It's cost the taxpayers close to 100,000 by now. Stated by one of the

070lawyers. This is I mean I don't think people know what's going on in that district office. You've got people that their qualifications are worked at Subway nursing home. I mean she's an HR person but as far as I'm concerned HR goes to school to be HR. There's there's so many other things here. Why are you obtaining lawyers? You said this was an unbiased thing. You got counseledled, but you didn't take Barry's advice, but you did get lawyers which are affiliated with this school and him, his buddies and Erica's relative. Now, how unbiased is that for you guys to go in and do an investigation? You should have went with Barry's thing. And you would Why don't you follow your own lawyers things? You should know. And some of this, you know, these lawyers, too. We've

071checked. Don't worry. We've did a lot of digging and we've got more. And we're telling this to the people out in the public, not for you guys, but the public to hear where our taxpayer dollars are going. It's disgusting. Really disgusting. I would say more, but Erica's not here to defend herself. There's questions of why you and Erica were in the district office at 2:30 to 3:00 in the morning. Only two vehicles here, yours and Ericas. One of the one of the village workers spotted that taking trips to Florida for a meeting. Just the two of you. Oh, there's lots. We've got a lot. And the lawyer has it now. Thanks. Next, uh, Dwayne. Yeah, thanks. So, everyone back here. I don't have a slideshow or anything like that. Nothing fun. But, uh, I'm going

072to record my public comment if that's okay. I think that's all right. So, let me set that. It's recorded. Yep. I agree. I just I'd like my own recording of it as well. Yep. So, all right. Good evening. My name is Dwayne Jordans. I graduated from St. Central in 1990. And since 2004, I've lived in Roberts with my family. I've been in education for the past 30 years as a teacher, school counselor, and coach. From 2018 to 2022, I was a teacher at St. Croy Central High School. I taught ninth and tth grade honors English courses and I also offered multiple dual credit courses as an adjunct English professor through W Oshkosh. Currently half my career is still in education and the other half I own and operate a consulting company that helps assess and

073develop positive leadership and culture in education, business, and professional sports. In the spring of 2022, I resigned from SEC following a series of deeply concerning events stemming from the district's administrative team. My purpose tonight is to share a list of questions that community members should start asking our school board. I have 12. So, number one, why has there been such a high turnover rate among respected and experienced staff in recent years? Number two, in the winter of 2022, why was the high school principal abruptly removed? It was claimed that he no longer was a good fit for the district. Yet, this is a person who received the Herb Cole award for excellence in leadership, successfully transitioned the high school to standardsbased grading, and built a strong adult culture and student climate. Additionally, if he was

074so detrimental to the district, why did the high school staff do something that is rarely ever seen? Why did they write him a a collective letter of recommendation to help him in his job search? Lastly, why wasn't the board curious enough to ask why this highly effective principle was being removed? Why didn't they ask if the information they were being told by the superintendent was true? Number three, a little bit older. During the COVID closure, why was the strength and conditioning equipment allowed to be taken from the high school and used at a private residence outside the district for a select group of kids, not only from SEC, but from multiple other school districts? Why was this done even after the high school administration said no? Why was it even allowed? Why was it why

075was it allowed even though it was and is a violation of schoolboard policy 834.1 use of district equipment by third parties? Number four, is there a process for staff members to safely voice concerns without fear of retaliation or job loss? Where does a staff member go right now if they have a concern with an administrator? Where do they go right now if they have a concern with the superintendent? Number five, why have staff members been watched on security cameras and then interrogated by administration as to what they talked about when they entered another staff member's classroom? For example, has this ever happened the day after an administrator loudly shared dishonest information from this very room at a closed session board meeting? Number six, have relatives or close friends of administrators or board members received preferential

076treatment in hiring or promotions? Again, that's halfway there. Great questions for the community to start asking school board. Okay. Number seven. Why have key administrative positions been filled without a transparent or competitive hiring process? For example, a former administrator was best friends with an applicant who ultimately got the position. This administrator did not disclose his relationship to the hiring committee and unfairly influenced the hiring process in a number of ways, including being on the interview committee, which is unethical. Was Mr. Whitaker aware of the relationship throughout the process? If so, why would he allow that? If not, why didn't he stop it when he found out? Number eight, is the school board regularly reviewing and publicly disclosing bids for contracted services as required by law? Number nine, and this was brought up earlier, but I'm

077going to read my list. In the past year, why was there a bonus awarded to the superintendent that is nearly equivalent to the starting salary of a new teacher? Number 10. How has the board handled whistleblower complaints? Have they kept them confidential as the law demands? Number 11. Have the current investigations truly been unbiased as the board has board has claimed in their public statements. The district lawyer Barry Forbes found no wrongdoing by Michaela Murtha after extensive investigation. If the board was unhappy with this investigation, Mr. Mr. Forbes offered to appoint an unbiased investigator to also look into things. Why did the board and administration reject the offer of Mr. Forbes to appoint this unbiased investigator? Why did they choose an investigator, Mr. Irvin, who is personally connected, excuse me, connected to multiple board members

078and administrators? Number 12. Where's the investigation report into the allegations brought forth about Tim Whitaker? Why hasn't that investigation been made a priority? Again, as of May 5th, the board hasn't decided what to do about the whistleblower complaints. It's concerning that so much energy and taxpayer dollars are being spent on an aggressive investigation into the former human resources director who has an active restraining order against Tim Whitaker when there are valid and fact-based complaints that were filed against him to this very board over three months ago, including financial impropriy, student safety, and well-being. Again, these are just a few of the questions community members may want to start asking. So, in closing, I'm extremely extremely surprised that Mr. Whitaker has not been placed on administrative leave during any part of the events that have transpired

079this spring. It seems strange. It almost feels like the members of the board have taken some kind of oath, like an oath to support Mr. Whitaker no matter what. I'll say that again. It's like feels like you've taken an oath to support Mr. Whitaker, no matter what. I hope that's not the case because schoolboard members are elected officials who serve as public trustees. Their duty is not to the superintendent personally, but instead to the students, the taxpayers, the community, the district as a whole. They must operate with integrity, independence, and transparency. The Wisconsin Association of School Boards and Wisconsin State Law outline the expected duties. Pledging a loyalty oath to an individual or group of administrators would be unethical. If anyone has ever asked any of you to take such an oath to support someone

080no matter what, as a highly respected superintendent in the Twin Cities said, that would be insane. It's the exact opposite of what a school board is supposed to do. Schoolboard members are not subordinates to the superintendent or the administration. If they pledge to support the superintendent no matter what, that would violate Wisconsin state statute 19.59, code of ethics for public officials and employees. It would be a breach of trustee duty to act in the public's best interest. It would undermine accountability and oversight. It would open the door to nepotism, misconduct, and abuse of power. The actual oath taken in Wisconsin is this. I insert your name, having been elected to the office of schoolboard member, swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Wisconsin, and

081will faithfully discharge the duties of said office to the best of my ability. So, help me God. There's no mention of the superintendent or the administration in that oath. The focus is on lawful, constitutional, and ethical service. I raise these questions not to create division, but to help our school district, the district both my wife and I thought we would retire from at the end of our careers. I raise these questions to help our district live up to the values it claims to stand for. Because if we want to build a place where students and staff thrive, it starts with transparency, accountability, and the courage to ask the difficult questions. Thank you. Oh, Emily Kelzer. Good evening, members of the board and everyone who's watching uh from the community. My name is Emily Kelzer and

082I appreciate the opportunity to speak with everyone tonight. Um, I am going to be recording the public comment um as well because I don't trust that it Look at that. No signal. So, let me just get this pulled up. And it did cut out the audio a little bit last board meeting, so that's why I'm recording. Okay. Um, I have a copy of the documentation. Oh, sorry. Um, I I'm here to share concerns that uh need to be public knowledge. Specifically, I'll be addressing two clear violations of district policy outlined in the employee handbook committed by members of the administration team. And I have copies of the documentation or board members to follow along. I think some of you might have gotten more than one. All right. Um, if you're new to the board or

083you perhaps don't uh remember me, I spoke at the board meeting on April 20th, 2022. looking at the document uh documentation. If you flip to the second page on April 8th, sorry, on April 7th, I received this email from Leah Vulker. I'd like you to look at that subject line. It's a question mark. I received this email from Leah Vulker and then on April 8th, she met with me just minutes before I had to teach at the middle school. That would be the Google Meet invite on the third page. It was then she told me she was reducing my position to 0.55. And then I just had to act real cool about it and teach for several hours. During my lunch period, I then talked to Chance Langness and Peter Newsbomb. I had to travel

084to the high school to go teach my classes, so I had to call Chance on the phone to do that. Peter Newsbomb was told by Leo Vulkar to remove the 1.0 full-time employment intent to renew contract from my high school staff mailbox. I taught at the middle school in the morning, so I was just hours away from having a full-time employee contract for the following school year. If for whatever reason I needed to go to the high school before the middle school, I could have grabbed it. So, I'd like to address two specific violations of our district's reduction enforce policy. That's the front page there outlined in section 6.02 and 6.03. First, under section 6.02, notice of reduction, the district is required to provide a notice of non-renewal in accordance with the timeline set forth

085in Wisconsin statute 118.22. And while a letter was dated within that window, the deadline would be May 15th. There are several issues with this. First, you can see, let's go. I think it would be the third or it's like the second to last page. Third to last page. First, you can see that it's dated April 12th, but if you flip um prior to that, you can see that it's actually April 14th when she actually met with me. And to give you context of this, the following, so this April 14th is a Thursday. The following day was Good Friday and there was no school. So she wanted to meet with me at the very end of the day because it was a PD day, 2:45 to 3:15. And then I had to reschedu it to earlier

086in the day so that it would at least have someone to talk to. I thought it was a very purposefully isolating intent to do it at the end of the day. Go home for a three-day weekend. Good luck to you. Right. Second, the con the the letter she wrote failed to inform me that my full-time 1.0 contract split as 0.5 ESL and 0.5 Spanish was being non-renewed. The law requires this to be clearly stated. No such letter was provided and that's in violation of both district policy and Wisconsin statute. This violation was made by Leah Vulker, Peter Newsbomb, Chance Langness, Brian Johnson and approved by Tim Whitaker and the school board. some of who can't ever give eye contact. Second, under section 6.03, step three, selection for reduction 2 point or for reduction 2A, the

087district is required to document how it determine which staff would be subject to non-renewal or reduction in hours. The policy mandates that decisions be based on the educational needs of the district and that this reasoning be clearly identified and explained. That means that this letter from Leah needed to directly state word for word reason 2A and if that was her true reasoning for the reduction in hours of my contract. The letter from her does not provide this direct reasoning. In fact, as stated in 2A, the needs of the district are to be identified and determined by the school board. This letter provided no such justification, no explanation of how or why I was selected for reduction, and no reference to the order of criteria the district claims to follow. These oversightes due to the incompetence

088of Leo Vulker chancell Peter Newsbomb not only stripped me of a position I dedicated myself to, but also show blatant disregard for the roles designed to protect both staff and students from arbitrary decisions. What I bring forward tonight is not about personal grievances. It's about patterns. Patterns other current and former staff members are afraid to make public in fear of retaliation by members of this handpicked administrative team. Patterns of behavior that raise serious questions about adherence to district policy, professional standards, and in some cases, state law. These concerns deserve to be acknowledged and disciplinary action should have been considered as stated in the board policy on page 86 which uh I think is the last page I printed. Section two job responsibilities 2.01 01 professional level of competence. Administrators shall perform at a professional level

089of competence the services, duties, and obligations required by the laws of the state of Wisconsin and the rules, regulations, and policies of the board which now exist or which may be here and after enacted by the board for the sake of transparency, accountability, and most importantly, the well-being of our students and staff. So I ask, when laws or policies are broken by multiple administrators, why was no disciplinary action taken? It seems staff are held accountable for policy violations. Are St. Croy Central's administrators not held to the same standard? Just today, Writestown um school district put their superintendent on ad administrative leave. I think there's been a lot of bad things going on and I don't even know if that's been considered. In addition, I would like to make the public aware of the nepotism within

090SEC's admin team and staff members currently employed here. Anyone who has any ties to wrestling seems to have gained a well-paying position or received a preferential teaching position. A former retired administrator has such a close relationship to a current administrator that the current administrator is the godfather of the former ones firstborn child and they were part of that interview process. This former admin had a middle school teacher help draft and proofread his emails and newsletters. You can see evidence of this on a Facebook post in August 2022. Go look at what the Google doc is titled. They didn't even remember to change that. It's back to school newsletter for somebody's name. And I already took screenshots in case that post gets removed. A current administrator has a few cousins that are employees here or became

091employees here since they are an administrator and one whose husband now has become an administrator. Again, someone with ties to wrestling. A board member. This is more uh for the public at this point. A board member was hired as a middle school head wrestling coach in December 2021, serving since 2023 on the board. I wonder who encouraged him to run. Another board member uh co-owns a a bar in Roberts where staff went for a district paid drink after a professional development day a few years ago. Um, interesting. He's also so close to a current administrator that he was a pawbearer for a relative of said current administrator that I was talking about earlier. And I wonder who encouraged him to run for the board. A board member owns a business that receives money from the

092district and the district didn't go out to bid for these services. And then taken straight from a podcast where the superintendent was a guest on a podcast episode June 7th, 2024. Feel free to Google it. Transforming schools through intentional leadership and culture taken straight from a podcast where the you know he was the guest admin. He said, "Admin had organic conversations with staff members that fit the culture and what they want to continue here at SEC and encourage them to go back to school to get their admin license." Meanwhile, they also, he said in this podcast, facilitate the departure of those don't that don't fit. Interesting. Yet, I believe that episode was talking about how SEC has such great interview questions that are based on skills, not qualifications. If these interview questions work so well,

093why has there been such an exodus of highly qualified staff these past few years? These patterns of favoritism and nepotism raise serious ethical concerns involving relationships between certain board members and administrators that compromise the transparency and trust this community expects from its leadership. What I share tonight has documentation and this is about accountability and it's time the public hears what has been going on behind closed doors because yes the highlight on youth looks good at each month but this has been going on for years. Each board member I ask you to reflect tonight. Why did you want to become a board member? Did someone on the admin team encourage you? Because you know, typically we go to vote and we see some names and we go, "Sure, sure." And you get voted in. Nobody else

094really puts their name in the hat. Interesting. I ask you to reflect. What difference did you want to make? Are you loyal to certain members on the admin team? Are you willing to have community members learn how your business benefits with your connections to the district or learn how you're friends with members of the admin team or how your kids are friend with the admin's kids? Um, so you're just super loyal to them because your reputation will be cast in the same light as whatever continues to come out of this. Is your commitment to individual administrators or to the integrity and transparency of this district and ultimately students? If any board members want further details, I am willing to share it another time. I encourage former staff members to be brave and current ones. Share

095your story either now at the next board meeting on social media or with the local newspapers. Do not let the good old boys club continue to win. Next on the agenda, comments by board member, superintendent conference. I'll start. Yeah. The uh Erica plans for most of the meeting met with all of the different staff groups, not teaching staff, um kind of one-on-one with each group. and we met with Tim and Jen. We shared the uh expected compensation package that we'll talk about tonight as part of the budget. And so got that information and then really was an open air to raise any questions or they had of us. Um concerns that they have and different groups had specific concerns about their area. Um those were all received and will be discussed with the board and

096administration. them are really admin related issues and it's a it's a good process. We're not required to do it. Um but we've done it we did it with staff long before you you know they weren't when we had the teachers union we did meet and confer with them and we also met with these staff groups back in that process and always had a good try to have a good open dialogue with all of the different staff groups. Yeah, that was a good summary. Yeah. Wait. And the teachers met with teachers. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think the big topic for that was just, you know, looking at uh vacation versus sick and PTO. Just some of the things that we're doing, some of the other uh school districts around us, what they're doing,

097what benefits, how do we attract um teachers? Um, so it was just, you know, good conversation between us and some of the teachers and some ideas. So again, just like Jeff said, there'll be further discussion as we go down, find out, you know, what works and and uh kind of benefits everybody. So good. Um, next up, scheduled presentations. So committee is separate. They mean they were mean. We met today. You guys met tonight. You could Yeah, that's what Brad was kind of summarizing. I think that was actually our second one. Yeah, we're just covering it and then we'll we'll again meet in June and have further discussions. And that's see where the budget lies and see what we can do and go from there. And the process is wage and benefit. We'll make a recommendation

098to the board and the board will consider it. It's good to have that back next month. Yeah, hopefully next month. I mean, if we're looking to do any changes for next year, we got got to have it in by July, but um you know, we'll make a decision next month where how it proceeds for the year. Okay. Go forward. Sorry. Can I just comment on wage and benefit? So after act 10 when we dropped the union you know we recognized that our pay was act was about 90% of the areawide averages and it wage and benefit we tried to different policies to get young teachers up to higher pay. if you just do a percentage then senior teachers get a bigger number, same percentage and younger teachers just kind of get stuck. And so we

099adjusted pay systems and then ultimately um we were able to pass a referendum and through that process we came up with pay systems that are um kind of staggered. You're in a paid lane for two or three years and then you get a bigger jump. And uh when we try to match that with every position in the district against not the 39 CISA school districts, but we've identified and I couldn't name them now, but 12 districts that we feel are our competitive districts. It would include Hudson and River Falls and New Richmond, but it doesn't include a pepin that isn't really who we compete with. And so that wage and benefit committee has tried to make our pay and benefits competitive. We often get well so- and so does this. Yeah, but you look at

100the total package, you know, it's not a allocart menu, you know, okay, you take that, but then you don't get this. And so it's and so and people point to those things and we try to be competitive across the full thing. what is um beneficial to the team that will encourage us to have the best possible staff we can. And we've that really took place after act 10 when there wasn't a union to advocate. Um a lot of districts don't meet with teachers, you know, they just said we don't have to. But we've always had a good relationship and now rather than meeting with a union committee of a few basically opening up to all teachers and in the early days we maybe had 40 people 40 teachers come and I remember the meeting where

101the high school teacher um said Jeff and I kind of led the wage and benefit committee for a long time. Jeff, you expect us to be excellent teachers, but you pay us below average. And it was like a smack across the head that, hey, that's right. And so that's when we, you know, our budget did not allow us to be competitive and we were able to go to referendum and get excess funding that specifically was tied to teacher compensation. So, I think that has been really helpful and I appreciate the board being so responsive to our employees and making them priority. Thanks. All right, third try. Scheduled presentations. the uh OCP overview ACP um I don't necessarily have a presentation for this part but if you have access to the doc um that looks like

102this I'm not sure if you want to reference it you can um last year around this time Tracy Cwley from the high school came and presented to you guys it was our first try at getting this board approved. And so I don't have anything super new. Um, but some exciting stuff coming up. So I first want to acknowledge the team that's on the first page. It's myself, Tracy, Sammy Gibson, Aaron Pop, um, Carly Istad from the virtual school, and then D is our like our admin um, represent representative. um hoping to, if you look down below, add some more people into the mix as we continue to grow um our plan. Um current progress and future goals for implementation. We highlighted a couple things um but really excited about. Tracy was able to organize staff

103tours to a ton of area businesses for teachers on a PD day, which was very wellreceived. So, we're looking at repeating that possibly every other year. um but devoting more time for teachers to like really dig in now and how do you implement ACP within your own classrooms. Um some future goals that we're really excited about continuing to increase those partnerships, have more family involvement um at all levels. And then the high school is working on some really great stuff with their late start Wednesdays. I don't know if they've approached that yet. So maybe, you know, I won't spoil anything, but they they have really Yeah, they've got some really really great stuff to just naturally kind of build it in. Um, and then looking at the junior parent night, using the eighth grade transition

104day, just a lot of things we want to keep doing and expanding on and then continuing that professional development for staff so that they feel more confident that in that. Um, yeah. I guess I can answer any questions possibly that you might have, but just hoping that we can get your support to pass this updated one. A lot of it's just updated information as far as like the high school courses. So, what's been the biggest hurdle so far? Um, honestly, so I would say three years ago, um, I went to CISA by myself as as the ACP team. And, um, I came back and I was like, this is too much for one person. And so, being able to have that time with this team has been so valuable. And so I just really appreciate

105the admin support on that because we were able to go from nothing to to this in a year when we knew there was already a lot of great things happening. Um and getting in on PD days like the admin is fully supportive of anything we kind of throw at them. So that was the biggest hurdle I would say just the time to like collaborate and come together. So yeah, that's great. Good. Have a great night. We have to make a motion. Yeah, we need a motion to approve the plan. Motion to approve the ACP plan. Second, Eric and Dave, comments, questions, all in favor? I against Okay. All right, Sandy. All right, here your time to talk about scones. So, just a quick hello to you all. Um, and give you a little bit of

106an update as to where we're at for meals. So, uh, I brought my counterpart. Hello, Donado. My area director or manager now, right? Okay. I'm the director. So, next slide, please. I think that just gives our names. Yep. The next slide. So, the next slide. Boy, I really dragged this out. Okay. So, last year, so January was our only month that really had a full 30 days without testing and um days off. So, as you can see, my breakfast meals are just, you know, I'm struggling with breakfast. Um I've tried some new entre. I've tried to, you know, smile and, you know, come on, come on down and get breakfast. Um, I've even reached out to free and reduced kids that have benefits for breakfast just to say, you know, that you get that it's

107not just lunch. Now, it's worked at the high school for me. And we got maybe an extra 15 kids a day off and on depends on what's on the menu. But at the middle school and the elementary school, well I I I I I will stop saying at the elementary school, we are going buses at the elementary school. We served 188 kids breakfast which is like unreal. It's usually cinnamon cinnamon roll day, you know, and now I've intro I've introduced um a croissant sandwich. Um so it's a little pricey, but I can do it one day a week. So, breakfast is a little concerning for me. Now, lunch, it looks like we're doing pretty good. Um, I think that I've had some really innovative types of meals that we've had. The staff is just really

108great with the students. They um really encourage them and and they're nice to them, you know, they're not so crabby, you know. I always tell them, "These are our customers. You be nice and you smile." Um, so and then our adult sales. We're struggling with adult sales. As much as I love Courtney's new cafe and it's beautiful and it's wonderful for the kids to teach, it is affecting the food service program just a little bit. I mean, it bumps up, you know, she'll have like an old bulletin, you know, come on down, I've got this, which is great, but it is affecting the food service a little bit. And if you go to the next slide. So we celebrated national breakfast uh uh week. Um but on Wednesday we had our all free oatmeal breakfast

109at the elementary school for any adult or child to come down. We served about 250 kids. And this year's um uh theme was uh the um magnifying glass to uh find God I'm struggling with words. But so I had dress up kids. I had detective kind of things for them to all to dress up. But then of course you can see I had the beach theme from last year and I spent money on it. So I brought that out because I knew I'd have to. So I had the Discovery kids having photo booths on both sides that they could all dress up and use um all the stuff. They had a blast. I even had kids that like this oatmeal is good. I'm like yes it is. Next slide please. So, just a few things

110from the middle school and high school. I just wanted to let you know what my fruit, my extra extra bar looks like almost every day, if I can coordinate the colors. Um, and we had the middle, we had some butternut squash that we did, we roasted up. And that is a newer pizza that I'm serving now, which is the uh works that has olives and and ham and pepperoni and sausage. And then the sausage and pepperoni, which has become a new favorite. And I think that's about it. Oh, summer feeding. So, we have a closed session um restricted open free breakfast at the elementary school for all the kids that go to the the summer school and kids care. So, it is going to run the 9th through the 27th. Um, I also be doing

111Friday service, bagged, um, lunch, um, or breakfast, uh, muffin fun lunch on Friday mornings for the kids care just to continue that service. Um, and I hope to probably serve about a hundred kids a day. I got two cooks that are volunteering to work on June. The rest of them are either taking care of ba, you know, their grandkids or have other jobs and so on. But, um, I'm happy to be able to do that. Next slide, please. There we go. We're all good. So, any questions? No, thank you. I don't have I know, but I did promise Derek that I'd bring scones next time. Next time. So, please put her on the agenda for next month. Put it in the agenda. You have to do it. I have to do it. Thank you so

112much for your support. No, you do a great job. Thanks so much. Thank you. You're up. Oh, financial reports. He's like, "Why are you staring at me?" Right. Well, as of April 30th, 2025, our balance in Citizen State Bank checking is $3,426,83.93. Citizen State Bank money market account is $12,289.99. Fund46 is $60.14. Suicide prevention fund is $5,325.38. Debt service account is $490.95. Um referendum account is $442,641.74. Second debt service account is $444.39 for a total of 3,887,33652 cents. Motion to approve. Second. All in favor. Opposed. Motion carries. Right. Uh next up, consideration of consent agenda. So, approval of the minutes for wage and benefits. Um, uh, SEC school board meeting on April 16th. Uh, approval of by monthly bills and then approval of curricular modification requests for students. Um, so we have two part-time, zero

113full-time for a total of two. Move approval of consent agenda as presented. Second. Favor. Opposed. Motion carries. Uh, administrative reports. Student enrollment update. All right. Uh, at the time of this report in May, there are 1571 students in seats. Uh, down one student from last month. Uh down in the bottom right hand corner you can see um in our virtual charter school there are 321 students enrolled in our in district uh virtual school students 41 full-time 73 part-time pre-introduced uh lunch rate uh is at 24.91% districtwide. And lastly, um, our open enrollment in versus out, 462 in, 129 out for a net of 333 students, uh, open enroll. Um, so want to thank again the ladies in uh, each building and in our district office for putting together this monthly report. Thank you. Um, next

114up, key words of the school board. Uh, we would Yep. We would like to recognize Brooklyn Pizzy, Halley Guestler, Veriah Sorenson, Matthew Mohauser, Laura Rust, Lily Shean, Carson Clark, Lydia Hubard, Sam Simmer, Ella Jansky, Aurora Peterson, Joe Radkkey, Grace Dley, sorry I messed that one up, Dolski, uh Josh Lenu, Emma Greenfield, Logan Deal, Matt K, Logan Feedy, Eric Roden, called and Tracy Cwley. Thank you, sir. Moving on then to core agenda items. So, first one here, consideration of approval of adding orphan ensemble position. Is gonna speak for just a couple of minutes on what that is. Thank you. It is way past my bedtime, so I'm going to try to keep this. Um, I made lots of these copies so everybody gets one. This is my proposal for the addition of an SEC ORF ensemble

115including the purpose, the who, the what, the [Music] when, along with the um, student code of conduct that was given out to students when we started this at the beginning of March. And at the very end, you're going to see a couple of performance pictures from the couple of performances we've already had this year. So, the purpose of the SEC Orph Ensemble is to provide elementary students with the opportunity to pursue a music making endeavor in a community setting through the use of singing, dancing, moving, using speech and poems, and playing instruments. Um, students would be engaging with the ensem with ensemble repertoire including pre-omposed and teacher composed music as well as student composed music and movement. The emphasis would be placed on using music as a performing art with the goal of sharing our

116work with the school and the greater community. Um, this could happen through in-person performances or through video. For example, during spring showcases, band choir concerts, the alive dinner, the fourth grade promotion, lunchroom concerts, and other community events. So far this year, um, we have done, um, an art show performance, which also was during the spring showcases, and we've also done a lunchroom concert for kindergarten and some second grade students. Uh, we looked into possibly doing an event during the Alive dinner, but that is something that if this does get approved, we would uh, look into doing for next year. Um, the St. Croy Central Orphle would be open to all fourth and fifth grade students um, per instructor approval. Uh the current instrument availability that we have would allow our member limit to go up

117anywhere from 25 to 35 with the lowest number lowest number me limit would be six. Um I would be the instructor and we would meet on a weekly basis on Mondays after school so that way the parents do not have to worry about having to bring their students to the rehearsal and then parents would pick up at 4:30 with a snack provided. Um this year we did we started on March 5th and we will be actually ending on June. Uh so we're going to have 13 rehearsals this year um with a virtual concert at the end of our last rehearsal in June. And then um for next year I had two options for different running times for a season because we've never done this before. Uh November 3rd through June 1st would allow for 24

118rehearsals. this longer season would open up quite a few other um performance opportunities because over that winter season there's quite a few different times that we could interact with the community along with other concerts that are at the high school um and other events. However, um if the January through June 1st, that could also provide lots of opportunities for performances in the spring season. Um the November 3rd through 1st option would be ideal for having a second wave of registrance. So when we do performances in the winter season, opening up registration again halfway through to allow students that were unsure and now that they know what it is to join at the midway point. Um I did put together a student code of conduct um that is kind of rehashed during the second page and

119then the two performances on the back that are pictured are an art show performance and a lunchroom concert. And then we will also be sharing out our virtual concert on our final rehearsal where I'm going to get pied in the face. So um that is everything that I've got. Are there any questions? Coordination with the school music and art programs. Say that one. Any coordination with what the kids might be doing in music and art? Yes. And so I have talked with the art teacher a few times and we have coordinated on several of the different songs that we've composed. So there is a lot of crosscurricular collaboration going on with that. Any other questions? I'd just like to formally thank Carara because since March she has been meeting every Sunday until 4:30 with this

120group of how many students was it? Um I believe I have 17. 17 students um as a voluntary position just to see how it's running, if kids are interested um and and asking them what they wanted and and how to improve that. So yeah, thank you on behalf of all of us. Caras, you're welcome. Yes. And it's been a lot of fun. It's been an absolute joy to get to work with these students every Monday. Um they're a lot of fun to work with. They have a lot of really cool ideas and they come in excited and ready to work. So it's an absolute pleasure. Right. Any other questions? Wonderful. Thank you very much. So, just as a reminder, each May we ask um activities directors or principles to bring forth proposals of any new

121um positions um that would be added to the activities and athletics um uh coaches schedule. So, this is one the next two this one and the next one um are those asks that would require board approval. There are a few exceptions where you have 50 kids come out for volleyball or something. You might need to add a C team coach. That has to happen more real time, but otherwise we try to plan ahead for the year and propose these in May. So Jen can include that in the budget for the fiscal year starting July one. And I'm presuming since they're on the agenda, you and Jen comfortable that we can fit this in the budget. Yeah, that one is an addition. Um the unified coach is actually in replacement of cheerleading so the cost is

122pretty minimal for both of them. Okay. Um we recommend approval. Okay. Um so I guess look for a motion then on core agenda item A consideration of approval of adding the orphano position. Second Dave and Jeff. Any questions, discussion? All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Do we have any presentation for the unified coach? I think Tim has the So R.J. couldn't be here tonight. So, he drafted um his proposal for the unified coach and like I mentioned, we talked through it and he said that this year we only had two students um that had gone out for cheerleading. So, he felt like we could um replace the cheerleading coaches with these unified coach positions. Basically this is your mouth your ID but also just move across all these [Music] events second Dave Derek Second. All

123in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Uh court done item C, consideration of recommended student fees for 2526. So for student fees, we had a few changes. Um, advanced foods, foods one, foods two have all increased to $30. Um, we added a fee for autos and floral design. So, autos is going to be $25 and basic floral design 50. Last year or this fiscal year, sewing was $100. um we're changing that to have the students pick up their own items. So, they will just go out and purchase those. So, that will vary. And then under the dual credit class fees, the only one we've heard back from so far, so there could be changes to this. Um and we have that in there. So, if the motion can approve any future changes, uh, history 1307 from

124the University of Minnesota, the online textbook is changing from 90 to $120. So, those are the differences in all of the student fees. Any questions? Those I say th those fees that we're still waiting on though those just those are from the universities not anything that we're applying to the classes. Right. Right. So it's whatever the university is charging us and their fees usually increase each year and if you remember the last couple years we've had to bring it back because we got late notification and so we're just kind of trying to be upfront that these are subject to change. So whatever information we get back from the colleges usually May and into June we will apply those changes. This was last year um I feel like it was about it was dependent on the

125credits like 10 or $15 a credit I want to say. So some of these classes are more credits than others. I think the University of Minnesota ones have stayed the same though. I feel like I did not look back. Jen, if there's a student that signs up for auto and we know can't afford the 50 bucks, is there how do we deal with that? I think they do apply that Brian. Is it a free free reduced lunch type of qualification? Yes, there's a form that is that the same form, Jen, that catch all. Yeah, maybe that would cover sports fees. Yes. Class fees. Y lunch is obviously I just didn't want kids that have economic advantage not to be able to participate in things they want to do. Right. Right. Yeah, definitely. We apply that.

126So, if they are unfree or reduced, that fee has changed. So I guess so the mot need a motion that uh for student fees moved also to include any changes changes to the university credit class moved item Jeff and Dave all in favor I oppose carries. Next one, consideration of recommended lunch prices for 2526. So, as with everything and um labor costs increasing, you know, we had the 4.12% CPI last year. We're looking at, you know, close to 3% this year if we can make that happen for staff. Um so, we need to increase prices a little bit more than maybe what we have in the past. So, we're looking at 15 cents for breakfast and 25 cents for lunch. It's just a cover. And of course, food costs have gone up a little bit

127as well. So, the program this year is running pretty much spoton like they're not really going to make a profit. Might have slight loss, you know, depending on the month that we're looking at it. It's it's pretty close. Um, I anticipate even with these additions that it'll probably run the same next year, but our goal isn't to make a profit, right? So, and we do have a little bit of a fund balance there if that does happen that we can use. So, that is our recommendation for to add 15 cents for breakfast and 25 cents for lunch. Equipment needs of the kitchen basically come out of the same fund. So we budget some and right and their equipment is pretty up todate because if you remember prior to this year we had a fund balance

128that we needed to spend down because of all of the COVID relief money that we've received for food service. Um so we did upgrade a large portion of the equipment. So they're in pretty good shape as far as that goes, but you're still going to have your maintenance and stuff like that. So, okay. Move approval. Second. All in favor? Opposed? Carries. Uh, agenda item F or letter F designated state citizen state Baker Roberts. First timers. All right. consideration of recommended building usage and auditorium fees. So, the only change to the building usage fees would be for the custodial and kitchen staff um when it's outside of regular business hours. So, right there in the center center of the page there, you can see those changes. Everything else is remaining the same for both the building

129and auditory. Second discussion. All in favor? Opposed? carries. Now letter F. Designate citizen state bank of Roberts as the official for St. Curry Central School District. No change. Right. Same move. Second discussion. Just so the board knows, we far exceed the FDIC limit, insured limit, and for school districts, they actually pledge assets to our account that if there'd be a bank failure, we would be covered as, you know, there's an FDIC limit that would apply to us, but for the fact that we're a government agency, they have pledged assets to cover, you know, we have millions in there sometimes. Right. Right. And they actually do update that every six months. So if it is running a little bit short, they'll pledge additional securities. And so they try to keep that up to date for us.

130Thank you. All right. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Uh G. Designate official newspaper for the St. Corey Central School District. So quite a few years ago, the Central St. Craig News located in Roberts, Wisconsin was our local paper, but it folded as you know. And since then, we've went uh kind of back and forth between the Hudson Star Observer and the Baldin Bulletin um this past year or two. We most recently are with the Baldin Bulletin. Um uh had Kelly run uh prices for you know, we have we have to publish our type or class two notices for board meetings and other things. in there. Um, so, uh, she ran some price comparisons and the Hudson Star Observer was much cheaper for that. Um, and then, uh, a second reason I would recommend Hudson

131Star Observer just, um, we, uh, appreciate, you know, uh, them their coverage, uh, of our our our news and good things that are happening in our district. And, um, appreciate their unbiased and, um, discretion and what they cover. Um, I think they're they make good choices in that regard, too. Um, understand they have an obligation to report these and all that, but um, I would I would give them the, uh, the nod in favor based on price and, um, the u prices. Motion to approve. Hudson observer. Second discussion. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. All right. And then now we're on to consideration proposed board meetings. I sent a note to Jim, Erica, and Calie that the I can't remember June and September dates maybe or was it September and October? Was it September

132and October? I wouldn't change anything. It's just that I'm out those on vacation both of those weeks. Let me, you know, note in orange when it's something a little different than the typical third Wednesday of the month. um you know reasons again December it's such a short month between Thanksgiving and Christmas and try to avoid some music concerts that's why it's the second Wednesday in December uh in January it's the um annual state education conference in in Milwaukee so try to avoid that and then the annual meeting I just want to follow or point out um you know Stacy and looking through the minutes from last year's annual meeting when you designated the time and the board kind of talked about trying to incorporate um the two board meetings in July into one date. Um

133you know um so this is what the board had decided last year that the special meeting was first because Jen um likes to run by the budget with you guys for any potential input before it's presented at the annual meeting. So that's at 5:30 that budget meeting you know she estimated about a half an hour. We'd start the annual meeting at 6, which again starts out with the budget meeting, then the annual resolutions, followed by then the regular July uh board meeting just to follow the annual meeting. Can't know an exact time on it. So kind of three three for one minute. It's a long day. Don't see the problem on it. Opposed board meeting dates second. Any discussion? All in favor? Opposed? Carries. I resolution author authorizing the defeasence of a portion of St.

134Corey Central School District uh 19,925 uh 19,925,000 general obligation refunding bonds. So if you remember, we did this well we've done this past few years um to keep our mill rate stable at that $920. um the only real authority we have is to levy extra for debt service and then make those prepayments. So this all happens in fund 39 which is our debt service fund. You can see on the bar summary I think is the easiest document to look at. What we're targeting is that 2042 issue right at the bottom that's highlighted in blue that is currently 2,635,000. We would prepay approximately 2.4 million of that leaving about $230,000 left that of that bond in the middle. If you scroll down just slightly more, you can see kind of in the center of the page

135there where we have the amount needed for the escrow. So these this money will go into an escrow account so that when those bonds become callable, it will be paid off immediately at that point in time. It'll cost just over $15,000 to have all the legal paperwork and everything drawn up, but there is a savings of over 1.6 million by doing this prepayment. So, basically, we're paying 2.4 million today to save the taxpayers 1.66 million down the road. We would have had to pay the 200 two million anyway. Yeah, this s this savings we aren't spending two million to we're actually we would have owed the two million but we're saving 1.6 million of future right correct yes yep so any questions makes sense and you work with Brian and beard to Yes. Yep. Brian

136drew up all the paperwork for us and of course we've worked with Tom Griggs too for many years. So that's all the legal documents that we'll have signed and get back to them. Okay. I'll move approval of resolution authorizing the defeasence of a portion of the SEC district 19.925 million general obligation refunding. Second that discussion. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carries. Next up, discussion on the preliminary budget. All right. So, you should have a packet in front of you that says um administration assumptions. So, um, we had a late start on this this year, as you probably are well aware, because we usually do it before the May meeting. Um, once I started going through everything, realizing that we have some additional work to do on this budget. So, I'm going to present what

137we have tonight. Um the plan is to have a discussion with the administrative team I think this coming Tuesday and then of course any input that that you have as a board um along the way we will you know certainly that will play into that. So our three-year rolling average as it has been the past couple years has been decreasing. So, we're assuming flat enrollment, but our three-year rolling average will still decrease from6006 down to 1586. So, we get a one-year exemption for that. It's in the second year that it falls off. We'll kind of go through that in a little bit. So, basically, we're not going to see any additional money because of because our three-year rolling average is decreasing or for many years it was increasing. we will see um by current state

138law $325 um per student increase on our 1586 FTE if our student enrollment in September comes in at flat. Um so that'll give us about an extra $515,000. Um, our per pupil adjustment aid will decrease slightly. Again, it's based on that three-year rolling average. So, that will go down just slightly, about $15,000. We are in year four out of 10 years for our operational referendum. So, we're adding 375,000 to our revenue limit for that purpose. But then we have our declining enrollment exemption that we received last year or this fiscal year um for 245,000 almost 246,000 that will come off. So we're losing that money. I'm estimating usually DPI has their estimated open enroll by now but they did not have that out for us yet. So, I'm estimating a 3% increase in just the

139open enrollment amount. So, based on the number of kids we have today, that's about an extra $123,000 for next year. I talked with Steph and she felt comfortable in adding an additional 10 open enrolled students for next year, but she also has some staffing needs. So, that is kind of offsetting those staffing. E once we get into our local revenues, I usually assume, you know, like for gate entry fees and those types of things, just a very small increase, but our investment earnings have been going down. So, I took off about 40,000 for that. So, we're net shy on that one as well. Um to keep our mill rate stable at $9.20 if we choose to do that again. um and levy that 2.22 million in fund 39. That doesn't affect anything in fund 10.

140That's simply in fund 39. So that's kind of what we're looking at for our revenues at this point in time. So where's that 2.2 million come from then? So we levy that on the taxpayers so that we can prepay property tax. Yes. Those are pretty cheap right now. So like this year we we levied 2.4 million to keep that mill rate at $9.20 just to put it into perspective. Any other questions on the revenues? And doing that is what allowed us to do a $30 million bond and the excess levy basically without raising taxes, right? Because we had prepaid debt and we had mill rate capacity. Well, we raised taxes. We raised property taxes. Not much. Not the mill rate. We the mill rate actually has decreased by a dollar sees what we're doing. Yeah.

141Yeah. Yeah. There's no getting around if their property value increases. Correct. You're renting. We're the largest portion of property tax coming from the school district. So, moving on to expenditure changes. Um, for staffing changes, we're looking at needing a point4 FTE sped teacher. So, that is a teacher that currently is on staff that would be increased from a 6 to a 1.0. And the cost associated with that um with changes in the district office, we plan to reduce um one FTE bookkeeping position. And then you can see that one FTE. I have high school social studies, but it's kind of a combination of high school and virtual school for that social studies position. Where we start getting into more money then is the 2.95% salary increase for staff. So, of course, our operational referendum model

142built in a 2% increase for salaries each year. And what's kind of happening that we'll go through in just a minute is that we're levying that additional 375,000 for the operational referendum, but then we're losing part of it because of our declining enrollment and we're seeing higher CPI increases. So, it's kind of created this effect of a budget shortfall. Um, we do have a 12% cap on our health partners' premium increase for 2026. Um, usually we're able to negotiate that lower. The amount that's included in this is the full 12%. So, there is some room for some wiggle room there. I entered a 2% dental insurance increase, which is fairly minimal. And then of course your disability and life insuranceances, your FICA, the 403b, all of those WRS, those all increase with the um salary

143increases. So those are those amounts there off on the side. And then we have four administrators that are enrolling in the superintendent lensure program. and the cost for that. We go down into our other objects. There you see that 2.22 million again for fund 39 debt service. Um last year when we were balancing the budget, we did remove $76,000 from the IT budget and $27,000 from the curriculum budget. So we need to reinstate those budgets back to where they were. We also were able to prepay bus leases and lighting leases and it does not look like we will be able to do that this year. The budget is extremely tight. Um so those will come on for next year as well. There is I have nothing set aside in here to add to our fund

144balance. And then of course the same way with the open enrollment coming in, our kids that are going out to other districts, there's an increased cost for that each year. So th that totals about $3.6 million. So we're about $600,000 shy at this point for next year. So, if you continue on to the back page, I kind of did a summary of what we've been seeing with our declining enrollment. And so, you can see in 2324, our declining enrollment was $156,74. We didn't lose that money until this year. So, it's always like a year lagging, but by the time we're done with next year, we will have lost almost $650,000. At the same time, we have increased our operational referendum because we had that big lump sum in the first year, that 1.3 million by

145about 2.5 million. So, you can see the difference. then down below once you take those out the net's about an increase of 1.8 8 million. But again, at the same time as we're seeing higher CPI increases as well. So, it's never good news, is it? I feel like it's always there's always something. And then the beard, I plugged everything into the beard budget model. So that just kind of shows um you know our current year budget year and then modeled scenario going out with like a 2% salary increase and 5% um equalized value increase and such. Anything you wanted to add, Tim? I'm trying to think if there was anything else we talked about. I think that covers it. So, we have some work to do over the next month here to bring back a

146plan that's doable. But that's kind of wanted just to let you know this is where we're at right now. Thank you. All right. Um, moving on to agendum items of second reading of board policies. So A through B for a motion too. Any changes to these from the first read? No. No. Move approval of A through B. That's posted. Second. All in favor? Opposed? Carries. And just note W through E. Uh just first readings review be on next month. All right. Uh possible future agenda items. Anything to add? No. Okay. Uh upcoming important dates, uh May 29th, graduation ceremony at 7 p.m. on June 16th, uh our next board meeting here at the district office. Anything to add to that? That whole thing have to be It does. All right. In close session, uh, section

147A, per Wisconsin statute 19.851 851 F considering financial, medical, social or personal histories or disciplinary data of specific persons. Preliminary consideration of specific personnel problems or the investigation of charges against specific persons except parly applies which if discussed in public would be like to have substantial adverse effect on the reputation of any person referred to in such histories or data or involved in such problems or investigations. One, student assessment exception request. two open enrollment applications. Bwanes statute 19 85 1 C considering employment promotion compensation or performance evaluation data of any other of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility one consideration of approval of wages and benefits for 2526 approval of resignations retirements and terminations. Approval of appointments and contract modifications. Quarterly superintendent goals review. Discuss complaint against employee.

148Second.