001Mosy on in. I wish I was mosying. I was disappointed. You know what? We need to have our board meetings on a Wednesday night when your school is open for dinner because I wanted to get dinner and you guys are closed the Mondays on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Oh, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Okay. Then we need to go back to Mondays. [Music] like you just did in my walking area. Don't have to And then you almost got it. Wait, did you start the recording? Yep. Oh, you did. Okay. What is this? Oh, I was like, what is this? like to call this meeting the server lake Salem joint one school district to order. Please stand for the pledge by our boy scouts. Go ahead. Yep. Boy scouts. Hi, my name is I need to listen. Okay, let's
002go. Good job. Good job. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Nice job. Thank you. Uh, roll call. Mrs. Gallich here. Mrs. Regar is absent. Mr. Hurst, present. Mr. Gentiel, here. I am present. Open compliance check. Yes. Are there any public comments? No one has signed up. Any public comments? Okay. Number six, approval of the consent agenda. Do we have anything? I would uh like to amend the the uh financial report to include fund 838 which has a balance of $43,417.91 which would make our total a cash balance 1,200,67753 and with that amendment I would like to approve u the treasures the financial part. All right. So, I have a motion. Do
003you have a motion for the approval of the monthly financials? I'll make a motion for approval of the monthly financials. Motion by Mr. Hurst. Is there a second? I second it. Second by Mrs. Gallich. Are those in favor? I I I. Motion carries. Is there a motion for the approval of the board minutes for February 4th and February 24th? So, should we do them individually? So, we'll do uh is there a motion for approval of the meet of the board minutes for February 4th? I will make a motion we approve the minutes for February 4th. Second. Mr. Gentil, Mr. Hurst. All those in favor? I I and I abstain. Is there a motion to approve the board minutes for February 24th? I'll make that motion. Gentiel. All those in favor? I I motion carries. All
004right. reports, music reports. Y um we have a full house tonight, so it's great. Um we have Miss Christie and um solo ensemble students to um talk to you a little bit about their solo ensemble and um how that turned out. So March is music in our schools month and so we thought what a great month to perform for you. A couple of the events that the band participates in March are um our Will Not Bandf Fest where all of the schools come together, all the theater schools come together and we have like 500 plus musicians that play um songs that we've been working on together. And then solo ensemble, which is what um this trio is here for today. Um they work on these solos, duets or trios um outside of like band time,
005usually in lessons, a little bit extra study halls and things like that. and then they perform for an expert on their um group of instruments at Wilmont High School and they give them feedback and a rating. And this year all of our students that participated earned a one or a two which are the two um highest ratings out of five. So that is really exciting for all of our Riverview students. And now they're going to tell you about their deal. Hello, my name is Canadian. I'm a student at River School in Silver Lake. Today we will be performing a ventri. Something we got better at about this piece is learning to balance and blend one part together or our parts together. At Solen Ensemble, a judge gave us feedback after our performance and suggested we
006change our seating position to more of an arc so that we can see and communicate while we perform. We're glad we had the opportunity to try the feedback for this additional performance. Here comes. [Music] Sing happy. [Music] [Applause] [Music] and they did receive a one. Great. Great. Congratulations. Yeah. Thanks for coming and performing. [Applause] Okay. Uh next up is uh Mr. B and some middle school students. They wanted to thank you. Um share a little bit about how they're use using PBL in the classroom and some of the things that they um have learned. So Mr. B and your and the middle school students I'll leave this off. Okay. All right. So, uh, for those of you who do know me, Mr. B. And for those of you who don't, I'm teach seventh and eighth
007grade social studies. Uh, and I just wanted to walk you guys through a little bit about what we do related to project based learning, something new that we're trying to implement this year. Uh, it's using hands-on tactics to both empower and embrace, but also educate our students. So just some insights from a teacher or my point of view. Um first thing engagement is up in our classrooms. The one thing we've noticed the most is that way more students have a compassionate like level of learning. Uh and ever since we've tried to implement the PBL, we've definitely all noticed that uh group work is in the biggest thing for us with group work is we've tried to kind of throw out that collaboration with everybody, not just your friends is super important. And we've absolutely seen
008that they're more willing to communicate with all the groups, not just their own and not just their friends on final products as well. And the quality of work is up. It's not just being half done and turned in. We've seen a lot more kids dedicate the time and the perseverance to actually making their projects look good and making them complete with all the details and more. So now what I'm going to do is I'm going to introduce the uh three seventh grade students who are with me today. They will take you guys through the rest of our presentation. Tell us your names first. Uh, my name's Veronica. My name is Alex. My name's Gold. Um, a project overview, the surface level learning. Students begin by uh understanding the basics of the unit. What is a
009constitution? What are amendments? and what sort of feats were involved? Um, deep level learning. As we move further, we begin to analyze what amendments are still relevant today. Are there any freedoms or rights that should be listed? Uh, transfer level learning. Once we've analyzed, it was time to apply. What can we how can we use what we learned in the constitution and amendments to create our own the public product. Students took that essential question and created their own constitutions using several drafts, pure vision, and community engagement. Empowered through project- based learning. We are empowered by the concept that we control our learning. Student voice and choice. Deciding for ourselves how to demonstrate understanding. Sustained inquiry going beyond surface level questions toa engage in a deeper level of thinking to end Mr. Biddinger's WW I World
010War I students had to create some sort of multi- media presentation to show what they had learned throughout. Some students made slide presentations. Some made newscast videos. But others, like the ones above, created propaganda posters that contain aspects of World War I in them. Uh, embrace. We embrace every difference using voice and choice. But there's also a rigorous pro process of reflecting, critiquing, and revising drafts. Reflection. Taking a step back to understand why and how we are learning different topics that can help us comprehend them as critique and revision. Quality results come through and embracing multiple viewpoints and con constructive feedback. Students in Mr. Baker's class created several drafts of their constitutions. Each one given feedback from teachers and peers. Students were able to take these suggestions and reflect on how to improve or modify
011their product to meet the needs of their target audience, the community. Educate. Our final public products not only serve as an demonstration of what we've been taught, but how we can educate our community. Authenticity. Ensuring our public products are tied to solving relevant issues. By beginning the PBLO process with a challenging problem or question, we can work to provide our community with solutions via a public product that addresses the community's needs. To wrap up Mr. Vineer's Constitution via amendments project, students presented their drafts to Senator Steve Nass of Wisconsin District 11, who was able to provide meaningful feedback to the students. Senator Ns also took notes of the idea brought of the ideas brought up by the students, taking ideas and viewpoints from the nation's future leaders. Thank you for your time. Questions for us?
012What was your favorite part? Um, my favorite part was like collaborating with like the different people to get like different ideas and like working on like what to say and like what's the best thing to say to get everything across. Uh, I think my favorite part was being able to not have to do the whole project by yourself and having people to help you guide through it cuz it was a really hard project. My favorite part was being able to present to like a professional You guys did a great job. Yeah, great job. It's hard to come up here and um present your ideas. You did a very nice job and I was really excited that the senator came in. He had lots of good things to say about your class. Thank you. So, I'm
013excited that they um took the opportunity to come in. And I think it's a good um way to get the board and the community understanding what PBL is and the relevance of getting um the students to present. You can understand that engagement goes much higher when they know that there is someone that they're going to be presenting to. Um like the like um he said about um having a professional to present to. you want to you want to do your best and um so overall that's sort of what the teachers who have been implementing PBL have noticed is kids they're not tracking kids down for homework right because they're engaged in the work that they're doing which is part of our strategic planning process. So now is my favorite time of the um board meeting.
014I always say that we have our salute awards. So, we have many people here to salute to um this week or this month, we're um saluting our EAS who um come to us every day and are super super flexible. Um whether they're working in small groups, um having to do recess duty, crossing guard duty, fill in for somebody as a sub, um lunchroom duty, kind of whatever is called upon. And um we could not run our school without our teachers wouldn't be as successful. Our kids wouldn't be as successful without all of you coming every day to work with our little ones. So we have a little thank you from the people that probably matter the most. Sure. It's turned up. It is. I did test it. Okay. I was just um I was in
015here panicking because it wouldn't load. So, um this is probably the best thank you that can um be said, Miss Alan to me. I love Miss Her because she's my friend. She excellent helper. Like when Miss Clark shared her me when I need [Music] I did [Music] it. Miss, you are a genius. Thank you for feel. I love Molly because she helps me with my work. Like when you're and I need help. She'll help me so I can get a good grade on myself and very kind. Thank you, Mrs. Ro, for helping me listen, [Music] Miss Rob. You're very cool and you help us. You help us there. I love Miss is really good at teaching me basics. Thank you for the help. You're the best teacher in the whole world. [Music] I love she
016helps me with my work. I love her kiss me or hug me and I can able's always nice to me and everyone else helps me when I need it. Thank you, Mrs. Canbody Mrs. [Music] forever. Can we all show how much we love her? Miss Roach, cheer on a very nice to help us to count money. Thank you. All right. Thank you um to the EAS and to um thank you for coming every day for supporting our kids, cleaning up their noses, probably walking them to places, probably listening to the teacher be like, "Oh my gosh, all the things." So, we appreciate all that you do and we will we'll send you the video. Um, but also I'm going to give you each a certificate. So, you'll come up, get the certificate, and then take
017a picture with the board. Do you guys want to say anything before? Appreciate all of your work. Obviously, it's tremendously impactful for the students, and I don't know how we could do it without you guys. So, thank you very much for what you do. Would echo that and just say thank you guys. It's appreciated. as a special ed teacher and a teacher. I know you guys make the world go around at schools and you're very appreciated. I also would echo thank you um for a while when I retired from my normal job, I was a substitute uh aid and it is not easy, Mrs. Smith's call, but I appreciate everything that you do for the school. Thank you. And I would just say that um I've worked in a lot of schools and I think
018we have the best EAS that I've under you know as a principal as a superintendent. You guys really are um amazing. So with that, Tiffany Nelson, not all of them are here tonight either. Susan Ames, April Roach, Molly is not here tomorrow. Randy, she Melissa Vansel is not here. Elizabeth Clark [Applause] Sarah and Rhonda. If all of you could come up, I guess we'll try to maybe right here. I'll get you. I'll get a picture. Yeah. You're in trouble. Get out of the way. [Laughter] Okay, look over here. All right, there you go. Okay, great job. Thank you again. Thanks. Bye, guys. Thanks for coming. Thank you. Have a nice evening. Okay. Um then leave I owe an expert down to Liz because I forgot to pick Riley up from Girl Scout. All right. So
019celebrations we talked about the solo ensemble. So I have a picture up there. Um and another thing I wanted to highlight is we had our career day for sixth through eighth graders this um past week. The purpose of it was, you know, empowering them to learn more and um explore some uh potential career pathways. I think we had 13 come, so it was a great day. Um the kids really enjoyed it. Um West of the Eye is doing I had them come and they took pictures. They're going to do a little story on it. So that was great. our counselors um Becky and um Samantha sort of put it all together and there were some la last minute additions but it was fun and I think the kids really enjoyed it. A change of pace.
020Um I wanted to highlight a couple of things on our um website. The website is coming along quite nicely. Um the um Jenny um Javiar has spent a lot of time sort of getting the look of it to look different and organized. So um I just wanted to share with you this is our safety page um that's up there about Alice and all what it means some frequently asked questions and then over here you can click on um the parent letter and other things that will support student um students and parents. So, we're building out the pages page by page, sort of. On the other page that was built out, Julie did a really nice job of building out the library of media services by putting um some additional um resources on there and the,
021you know, the CA card catalog. So, it just looks a lot more professional put together. I think it's easier to sort of navigate. Some things are still changing on it, but it's coming together quite nicely. And then I wanted to highlight hopefully it'll play. One other thing is that we've started that's connected to our strategic plan is um we're trying to tell the story of things that are happening inside the school daytoday. And so Julie came up with a a clever little tale. It's called Comet Tales. And the teachers have really done a great job. So they submit videos. They either narrate the videos or we put some verbiage in it. And the idea is to talk about how are we living out our strategic plan. So, how are we living out the values and
022how are we um including more hands-on learning. So, I just wanted to share um a quick one. It's the it's it's the first graders today. They um or yesterday it was um St. Patrick's Day, so they did this [Music] This year, instead of creating traps for the leprechauns, we had a different idea. We thought that perhaps the leprechauns trashed our rooms in kindergarten because we tried to trick them, trap them, lure them with fate and promises of other things that just weren't there. So this year we decided what if we treated them kindly and gave them nice relaxing places with friends can modern conveniences bedrooms for resting fireplaces bookshelves outdoor equipment slides a little leprechaun heaven that might let them want to come relax in our room stay for a while hopefully stay long enough
023that we can catch them and they won't trash our room but they'll be so appreciative of our efforts that they will leave us some bold as a thank you. Will our plan work? We have no idea. But there is only one way to find out. Put these lovely leprechaun houses all over our classroom and right before St. Patrick's Day and wait and see what happens. Okay. And there is a follow-up video then that goes with it. So there's um videos on here that talk about the bricks that we've done. Um there's a video on here that talks about um how we are using the announcements to empower kids. So just trying to really help our parents, families, and the community understand some of the things that are happening daytoday. Um I think Andrea and Angie,
024you want to share a couple of things? Yep. I just wanted to celebrate. We had 4K birthday party. Um it's a way for us to get um our future 4Kers to come in um see the school, get to know us, the teachers, get to know um the kids. So this year we our first session we had 19 families and the second session we had nine. That's like twice as much as we have had. It was super exciting. Um and the kids were so amazing. Like I was like, "All right, yay. Are you ready to go to class?" And they literally lined up in a row and we all looked at each other and were like, "Oh my gosh, really?" They were so excit just gotten and ready to go. Um the all of the teachers
025they um do different groups with the kids just to kind of you know get to know them how are they doing just you know identify if there's you know any concerns and then they get to have cupcakes and the kids were just amazing. I mean the parents I think were probably a little more Larry about the kids leaving than the kids were. Um and I got to take the parents on tour. Obviously some of our parents are returning parents. Um, but they also said like they have never they don't have junior high kids, so they didn't really know much about junior high. Um, so it's always fun and it's fun to walk around the building because the kids are always like, "Holy cow, you're these are all new kids." And um, so I just it
026was just really exciting and super to see that we have so many parents who are, you know, coming and get involved, even brand new parents who have never been in the building before. So also very exciting because numerous open enroll families that want to come. So I just wanted to share. Yeah. And then for me uh we had hoops and hot dogs last Friday. So for me it's always a fun event. Um you know I always say we don't have a community center here but our school kind of serves that function. And to me, Hoops and Hot Dogs is that like whole community event. So, we had probably one of our busiest years, I would say. Um, just based on the fundraising PTO was able to do and we had, you know, board members helping
027out. We had a ton of staff stay and help, which I don't think you're going to find at all schools that staff are going to stay till 8 8:30 on a Friday night um and volunteer just to be here for the community. Julie puts on a cheer clinic which brings in a ton of kids and families and it's just always that event that's fun that everybody's kind of smiling, enjoying. So, it's a real feel-good event for us. So, I appreciate everyone's help with that event. PTO appreciates it as well and uh the kids look forward to it every I mean all the kids can't wait till they till it's their turn to play. Mr. Bittener got in there. He he played some hoops with the kids. So yeah, it was a good time. I hear
028that it was so well attended that we ran out of hot dogs at like 5:30. Uh it wasn't quite 5. It was getting close though and someone's like, "Do we have any more?" And I said, "We've never gone through this many hot dogs at Hoops and Hot Dogs." So, they said, you know, sell the pretzels and nachos. We're going to, you know, by the time we go to the store and get back, the game starts. But, uh, yeah, it was good. And I didn't hear a single complaint online or from any community member about parking. I know. I was kind of waiting for that. And, uh, because it was busy. It was packed. It was busy. So, yeah, it was great. I said double up on hot dogs. Yeah. Did you get any flack from
029your students? Or are you still getting flack from your students? I should say, of course, but I think I got more flack from my muscles. Last night, I bought three things of spring mix for salad, except for Very good. Okay. Um, so thanks for for sharing those things. Um, just a quick update on our referendum. Last weekend, a group of people I know um some board members Vicki and Amy and Brian went as well. They went canvasing around the community. Um I followed up with a couple of community members that had questions. I left messages for them, so I'll continue to reach out. Um as Angie said, we also hosted Hoops and Hot Dogs and talked about the referendum there. Um the YES group has been very um active and um trying to really support
030our um referendum in the community. Um we have our finalformational meeting tomorrow night and I'll be at Skullies from 1 to 2 as well. I did have some people say that they were coming to Skullies tomorrow. So that's great. Um all the staff are going to be making um phone calls either the week, you know, right before or that um the night before. We also have the talent show the night before. So, I'll be making an announcement about making sure people get out to vote on April 1st as well. Uh we've been posting things weekly uh between the videos that we've created and our weekly posts. Um uh also posting some things to help people see where the question is on the ballot because it can be really confusing. So, doing some of those things.
031So, um you've probably noticed the yard signs. We have yard signs out on our property, but also there's yard signs um throughout the community that people took as well. Um just a quick update about summer school because it's just around the corner. Uh this year it's going to be four weeks in July. It's only going to be three hours um in three and a half for teachers, but three for kids. Um the length of the day decreased um mostly because we were having classes that had one or two kids in it. So, we're trying to condense it so we have a a more robust class size and not have one or two kids with each teacher. Um, Jenny is doing a lot of work around that right now and and um she is trying to
032prepare and pilot some things that are um in our future for act 20 requirements that have to go in place for the following um summer. So, we're doing a little bit of that. She's going to present in April some more details and some final aspects to what summer school looks like and some of the classes. Um, we will not have a health room there this year because we have three admin on site. We also have Crystal that's generally in the office as well and Jenny is there. Um, Niola DA approved policies. I don't know if there was any questions. Those are the technical policies that we just moved through. um and do technical updates, pronouns, you know, changing of u minor words. Uh the more robust changes are later in the board meeting. Did anybody
033have any questions on those NEO policies? I didn't. Okay, great. Uh just wanted to update you also on the SRO. I know last um meeting the board asked me to look into or start to look into it. Um I've done a little bit of digging. Uh I uh talked to Randall and their superintendent um and looked into whether or not an SRO can be funded through fund 80. So I have some information on that. Brian is setting up a meeting with uh Mr. Hopkins and himself to discuss some possibilities as well. Um we may have some updates and the sheriff's department and the sheriff's department. Thank you. Um we may have some updates in April. Um, but it's going to be an ongoing process and discussion around how we want to proceed and um, bring
034that to the board. Did you have anything else you want to add, Brian? Okay. Uh, last I wanted to give um just a just a few updates on the budget. Uh, we'll be talking a little bit more about this in April and May. Um, this is the bar forecast model. You're very familiar with this model. I've shown it multiple times. You'll notice that in this year the deficit is looks a little different than it was than it was approved for. That's because the model is like we update Skyward. There's changes in Skyward. This doesn't always mirror that, but it's within $20,000. So, it's it's pretty accurate. Um in this budget model you can see that um in 26 27 that's when we kind of fall below that 25% but remember in policy it says about
03525% for our fund balance. So we're still pretty good there. Uh this model also takes into account that um we should be getting a $325 per pupil increase every year. Um there is some debate about whether that's really going to happen or not. Um based on some of the things that I'm hearing in the legis from WASDA about where legislators are and um maybe some political moves because they're not so happy that the governor veto line vetoed that. I don't know where that's going to come from. The other thing to take into account is that we've had some savings because we have some retirements coming. that's not also projected in this right now and we don't know what the bianual budget is going to do. Um if you've been following that um information the governor
036is asking for 60% special education reimbursement which would give us an additional $400,000 $300,000 to add to our budget. So you can see if that happens which is very unlikely um to happen um that would wipe out our deficit for next year. So, it there's just so many things up in the air. The more likely um percentage that they'll go to is probably 40%, maybe 45, which would give us another $150,000. So, um if nothing changes, this is sort of the what where what we have now, what we know now, the look for the future. We are um projecting a 20 to $30,000 um decrease in revenue um because of the declining exemption being less declining enrollment exemption. Um last year our exemption was $150,000. This year it's 58,000 or next year it's going to
037be projected to be $58,000 because our enrollment is stabilizing. Um, what's the enrollment stabilizing? I think I do touch that thing. Is that what happens? Enrollment stabilizing is good. Just needs to see you like sense that someone is good if we are losing FTES, but we're not able to reduce FTEES because our enrollment isn't low enough that we would start laying off teachers or staff members. Um, but there's a lot of factors that, you know, affect budgets. The third Friday count is a big one. Open enrollment in and out. We are losing 16 eighth graders this year that are open enrolled in. Um, and four will be dropping off our open enrollment out. Um, so hopefully we continue to um increase our open enrollment. The bianial budget plays into it. Um, of course there's the
038questions around will will f federal grants continue. We probably have about $180,000 would you say probably Sue in federal grants between IDA and the title grants. So um all those things come into play. So I just wanted to give the board uh a peak at where we are early in um our budget cycle and the development of a budget cycle. Did you guys have any questions about this? Yeah, I had lots, but we already talked about. So, I saw you said there was a cost savings in special ed um for categorical aid for the EAS, right? So, our EAS were not all um claimed in fund 27. They are now all in fund 27. So, we will get 30% back. Well, 29 to 30% back depending on how what the pot of money is and
039all the claims. That's something we weren't receiving before. Correct. Yep. We were not receiving that before. The other thing that we've captured is high cost claims. Y So, um Angie just submitted that today and it's preliminarily looking like $11,000. Um, so and we were getting we were not getting that $41,000. Thank you. Yeah. And she worked really closely with Tim Stalmacher and um and really dug into the numbers to try to find, you know, all the places. Um I should say at this time too it's a small amount but um it came I am applying for something called um unusual hazard transportation um reimbursement. So because we have a railroad track in our community and we then have to bus kids that are within two miles of the um school there's an additional $15 per
040child that we can um use to offset that. We have 132 kids that are bust because of that. So, it'll we'll get about $2,000 back. But to me, it's 2,000 more than we had. So, I'm trying to find ways that we can shave things where we need to and increase revenue, you know, is always the goal. Thank you guys. Yep. Um, quick update on our strategic plan goals. I know we've we talked about this a little bit, but not too much. We've been working together as an um three admin uh specialist teacher, Mrs. Golgar, counselor, and three teachers looking at here's our strategic plan. What are the priorities? And um how can we set metrics that I can bring to the board on an annual basis to do some check-ins? So, we've been working the
041whole year to sort of collaborate around the goals. Write them. You can see the key objectives are around academic success, retention, engagement and security um well community engagement which were the priorities that came out of the strategic plan. So what we did was we we set our key objectives and then under our key objectives we have two goals for each of the objectives that are um measurable that we are going to continue to build out when we go to sale June 9th and 10th. sale is the school administrators institute for transformational leadership. So at that workshop the team the whole team will spend some time looking at these goals. You'll see some of them don't have like by the for um staff retention by the end of 2728 staff engagement surveys will show x percentage
042percentage increase in staff engagement. We don't have the staff survey yet, so it's hard to we don't have the baseline because um we're going to be doing the Gallup. So, we'll set those some of those specific metrics um after we have some more data. We have to collect some baseline data to get that. Um and then what the the um workshop does is help the team come together to build out 90-day plans around the goals for the next three years. Um and then in August we will come back and talk to the staff about where our goals are, our schoolwide goals in academics and um staff retention support, community engagement and um the facilities which is generally falls more on us um and start moving forward with um specific things that we're putting in place
043are, you know, what we're betting on will continue to help us grow academically. um and in retaining high quality staff, keeping our facilities up to date and safe and um finding authentic ways to engage the community. Sort of like what you saw tonight with the PBL, right? Bringing in community members to be a part of the learning environment, but also doing presentations for the community to help um bridge that delta. Are you going to uh share this on the website as well? We will when it's finished. Yep. Um, we I put a little bit of uh a a halt to it a little bit only because we're going to sail and we're going to spend two days on it. And right now I'm working on building the capacity of our leadership team around how do
044we um build collective efficacy within the school to be able to move forward questions? Okay. Um, all right, Miss Zachary. Yep. I just wanted to just update you. We did our second um Alice drill on March 4th. Um, again, I had sent a letter out a week before to parents just letting them know that we would be having the drill, what the drill was about. Um, pretty similar to last time just so that they had time to go over with their children. Um the teachers also went over Alice procedures with the students before the fourth. Um did some practice like what would it look like if we evacuated, what would it look like if we barricade and kind of walked kids through that again. Um on the fourth we decided to do our scenario with
045very little um communication. The last time we kind of were like intruders in sixth grade hallway. So we decided this time they were really going to have to do a lot of thinking not knowing anything besides that the intercom put you that an intruder had entered and we are going in lockdown procedure. That was the only communication we gave. Um we walk around the hallways just to see what everybody was doing. Um the junior high is my area and it's amazing to me how fast those kids can barricade and how well they can barricade because um at the end of the drill we have ingrained in everybody you do not get from whatever you are doing if you hear an intercom say oh we're done with lockdown you can release now a knock on the
046door um that you have to wait till somebody keys open the door you see that person and they did a really great job with that. It's it's kind of nerve-wracking for us um to do that, but many many um classrooms barricaded because of not knowing where somebody was, what was going on, and some rooms we couldn't get in. And I literally was like, "Okay, I'm not I'm this really is me. I just can't get in the room for you to see me." Um, but the kids did a great job that they did not make any sound even when I was keying in the door until I was completely in and they saw me. So, I know I'm not sure you know if you guys had the same. So, it's a really it's a great thing
047to see that our kids are really taking it seriously and the most serious thing is we always say follow an adult and stay quiet so that we can hear and listen. So um and then we always reconvene after and we always ask for feedback from the teachers just of anything that they're a little bit leerary of. Um, for instance, in the art room, we had she had said, "I just feel safer if we went into like the kiln room, but that's separate from another room." And and we kind of talked about you're not going to want to separate kids if it's a kindergarten class, but obviously if it's seventh grade class, it would be safer for them to go in those two different rooms locked down. So, it's great to have that talk back and
048forth with everybody going through that. Um, we have a we share a drill. um like running a like record of when do we do fire drills, when do we do tornado, when do we do lockdown. We write little scenarios so that for sure we're not always doing the same scenario. For instance, today we had a fire drill and nobody besides us knew about that. Um wow was I impressed. Like I don't know if it was because they weren't sure if it was fake or not, but it was the fastest we have ever gotten out of this building and the most quiet like those kids. And I again was kind of standing in the junior high area and that fire alarm went off and they were like bam like it was like the teachers there were
049some teacher like just we just we tried to do like the hold and look and um but like those kids were out the door and it was quiet and so we're really trying to like surprise people. So um and I think today was just another example of the fact that we are practicing and we are talking about it that it is just becoming so ingrained for the kids to follow those procedures. We're also looking into um some educational curriculum potentially around like um the drills and Alice that teachers can use because now we've you know we've used our script that we received quite a few years ago when Alice started they gave us a script. So just looking into just anything updated that we can have for teachers because we are constantly you know talking
050about it reviewing. So even if it's something that we can even work in during the advisory time um so we'll keep you updated on that. Any questions about awesome news? Yeah, I just wanted to update you too. The digital mapping is almost ready to go. Julie's working on just tagging the assets and then I'll be sending it to the SRO's and the sheriff's department so it'll be in their systems. Um, so remember we received a grant for that. So, um, that is almost complete. Yeah. And I would maybe reach out to Deputy Bishoff about the Alice stuff. I know that the sheriff's department gives my classroom curriculum from Alice for like different cognitive levels that really breaks it down and they they kind of can scaffold really well. So, okay, those are some of the
051resources we're looking at. Um, there's a book that uh like a picture book that goes along with things. So, we're going to work on that um over the break. Um Andrea and myself and Angie are meeting to talk about um curriculum stipens over the summer and we're going to be looking at um pulling that stuff together. There's some other um websites that we looked at as well from other schools that have curriculums. So there's really good like unique curriculum and news to you stuff. Yeah, that has been super helpful. Okay, Angie. No, you don't have anything, Angie. No, I don't have anything. Yeah. Um any board celebrations? So, I'm gonna sound like I'm repeating, but um I would like to thank all of the staff for the Hoops and Hot Dogs event. Um it is
052truly remarkable when you see that many staff members here. Um so, I would absolutely echo what Angie said. Um when you've got folks who are here from 7:30 till 8:00 with smiles on their faces and um you know, just embracing the community. It's one of the things that I'm proud of to be a part of this school um and and this community. So, thank you to them and all of you guys who put the effort into it. Um would like to thank the yes committee. Um saw them motoring around as I was getting ready to head down to Chicago land. So um you know good to see them out. Sounds like you guys had quite the turnout. Um so certainly good to see them out wandering the neighborhoods and um being as aggressive as they
053have been. Um was kind of neat to see the shirts and the tables and other things that they did at the Hoops and Hot Dogs event. Um would like to thank Mrs. for making Brian and I look competent in that video that she made of us. Um, that was no small feat. Um, it about a minute video that took a lot longer than a minute for us to get through. So, it's a good video about 30 minutes to get through. Yeah, she added out all the naughty words that were said, too. So, that was quite impressive. It's really like a lot of pressure when you got a camera, a script. Um, and then the other couple things that I would like to, you know, shout out is a couple of alumni doing big things. Obviously,
054best of luck to Jaden and the Clemson Tigers and congratulations to Mr. Hopkins on being named the head football coach at Wilmont High School. So, good to see former alums doing big things. And to that point, uh Willie Duchan won his second state championship, another alumni, a sophomore. So, awesome. I also want to thank the S committee um specifically Anna, I don't know her last name, and uh Miss Brown, um Mrs. Raggner, Mrs. Gallow, all the people that have showed up to help plan some of those things. It was awesome to see everybody come out on Saturday and and knock doors. Um and then also the administrative team and Kim. Everything you guys doing behind the scenes for the referendum I think is um truly remarkable and um you know it's you saw Central's referendum
055passed a few years ago and the work that that that admin team did to get it passed and I think we're doing a remarkable job here to get that done. So, thank you. Thank you guys. I also have a couple thank yous. Um I um too bad Mrs. Frisky left, but I would like to thank her and uh all of the students that participated in the Bandfest. If you've never been to the Bandfest, it is phenomenal. There's 500 plus students from the theater schools that are there. They from the fifth graders in some schools they play numbers, sixth graders play numbers, seventh and eighth graders play numbers and then the high school and then they have a collaboration of all the musicians playing. It is phenomenal to watch. It really is. It's an hour and
056he keeps it pretty close to an hour. It's an hour well worth it. Getting out of the parking lot is another situation. But I just want to say a thank you to her as well as for the solo ensemble. Um, what they learn here and continue on in high school is phenomenal. I have a personal contact with a musician and when you stand there and their scores are posted, it is like winning a state championship. There is screaming, there is clapping, there is hugging amongst the things and an excitement that will continue on in their lifetime. So I would just like to thank her and for allowing students to participate in that because it's not an easy thing to sit in front of a judge and there you are being judged and there's a little
057critiquing going on and then you have to wait to see what your score is. So, it's it's a really it's a a great opportunity to to if you ever have students that go, it's it's fun to watch. I also would like to thank Mrs. Taylor for her efforts on putting out factual information regarding the referendum, which has uh the YES committee and the uh volunteer parents that have continued to uh distribute that information and um to the volunteers on Saturday that went around knocking on doors and it's not just parents, it was students also. I was in a group with Mrs. Johnson and uh Mrs. Gogger and Mrs. Johnson had her three boys there and I was very impressed with those three young men. They um I had one that walked with me on one
058side, Miss Goggger had one that walked with her on the other side. never a complaint, but always positive um attitudes. And we we ran across some people that answered their doors and thank you for the information that that shared and uh I think that we turned some people on one to vote and two maybe to vote yes for the referendums. And along with that, I would also like to thank Mr. Gendrin who showed up at the village board meeting and um he had a take on the referendum that I think if people actually watched uh the video or the YouTube channel his explanation of it I think helped our school as well as maybe Wilmont school but I would like for you to thank Mr. Gendron for us also because I think it helped. So
059I've also shared that with a lot of people because it really is a a layman's terms of why schools are in the need of our firms they are. So it was very helpful and I know that those meetings are very tend to be very conservative and I think it was a great some people had question marks and positive responses after that explanation. So yeah, I thanked um John at um our DA meeting as well. Um because I don't think all the DA saw it, but it really did a lot for helping people understand that um you know because people might be saying why isn't going but Wilmont has to go. So he really did a nice job of framing it for people and um um being a ambassador for all the area schools as well
060as West OSA. It's very nice. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Okay, Mike. Uh, sorry, Joe. You good? 8A monthly financial format. So, Vicki, I thought it might just be nice for you to explain. Um, I know last time we were at the board meeting, you talked about um having a little bit of a change to the format and you came in and met with Sue. So, I thought it might um be good to just discuss that and share what you talked about and why the format changed and if anybody has any questions. Y um for my first uh meeting, it was hard for me to follow the financial report as it was. Um, and I know that Sue puts a lot of work into this and so uh Sue reached out to
061um a fellow um person at another school I think is that's since retired and came up with to me it's an easier format where she's putting what the beginning cash is and then the receipts that you don't see the outstanding receipts so that you get it to the she has the March 14th date on the top of this report. So, the receipts that come in in between all of the bank statements that she's provided us, she lists them on here and it's it's an easy format to read as well as the dispersements. you can tie them all together with the bank statements. And um I appreciate her work in this um because I I just like to see that things are taken care of and I find that uh being fiscally responsible is one of
062our major goals being on the board as well as um I just want to give her a compliment on the check summaries that you have. when you look at uh the invoice description, she has so much detail in here, it's hard to not know what things are. And so, it's really it's appreciative so that you can just read through these at your leisure and see uh what things are for. But I I think um hopefully that this is easier for people to read. And uh you know, it was it was nice though. Definitely. Thank you for your questions on that and thank you Sue for putting it together. Thank you Sue. Sue is very meticulous in how she handles um everything and I am never always in awe. Like Sue, can you find this? Yeah,
063it's in the second drawer on this. Okay. And then goes right to the file. So, um if there's ever a mistake, it's always on me. It's never on her. All right. Nice to know. Yeah, nice to know. AP athletics and the fun 180. So um one of our goals when in working with Tim Stalmarker but also um financially is again to find more places to bring revenue in. Um, as I started to look into how to do how to start fund 80 and um, you know, I met with a few business managers as well as talking with Tim. Um, we are looking at um, possibly at the annual meeting having the board approve um, having a fun date. A step in that process is to have the board approve allowing us to open our athletics
064programs and extracurriculars to any age appropriate students that reside in the district. So, homeschool students or if we had students that were going to private schools. If we do that through posting on it, it's a simple process of posting in the newspaper. Um, we can then start a fund 80 and use uh fund 80 to fund our stipens, our special service agreements. Um, not all of them, right? Like your book would not be something that's funded through, right? Because they're not coming in to help with that. um pay for co coaches, athletic director, referees, custodial work that's done separate from, you know, not not the custodial work that's done every night here, but if we had an event like on the weekends, that custodial work, the people who keep the books and scorekeepers. Um, also
065what's nice about this is some other school districts use this as a way to like let's say we have a some people call it iceless hockey or like like field or u roller hockey roller hockey but tennis shoes and they have clubs and there's not many around this area. So, let's say we had like a a league that could do that, opening up to other schools, money in, then you make yourself at some point hopefully a nice um slush fund, if you will, and now the basketball court needs to be refinished or a hoop needs to be replaced. You have money outside of our general fund to kind of fund some of those things. So, the only question I have on this, and I know we've discussed this before, but I just can't recall, fund
06680 is funded through that renting out the facility essentially. No, fund 80 is money that you can levy above what we already levy for. So it would appear on the taxes depending on how much and I'm estimating between 30 and $40,000 probably closer to $40,000 that goes above and beyond. So, we have, you know, the the typical levy and then the non-referendum levy that we have for the um nexus project and then this would be an additional levy. You mentioned like private school kids. If a student open enrolls to Salem but lives in Silver Lake, are they eligible to come back and play here? I'm just But typically they would not. Yes, they are because they're residents here. Yeah. They're typically talking about like on our basketball team. Yes. Yeah. This this isn't that this
067is more like think like uh I think like the Kosha Raptors like the think like the basketball league at Bristol that we had growing up. Ka. Yes. Ka. Think more of that of like it's not affiliated with Riverview, but there could be a club ran inside of Riverview. Got it. Yeah. So like they wouldn't be competing on our Riverview comments team, but it could be KAA on the weekends. Understood. No, they would be they could be competing on our teams. It's not an extra club. It is the coaching stipens. So, um So, we're to cover the stipens the way I was understanding. Yes. So, if they if a student wants to compete on our team that doesn't go to Riverview but resides in the community, that's what you're opening it up to. So they would
068be able to they come and practice with us, you know, like that not if they're open enrolled. I actually I I feel like they can, but they I don't think that happens because they go to school at Salem. There's a reason mom and dad are taking them, right? And so it's that's the more common practice is going to be and yeah, other Wheatland does does this and they have maybe one or two. Um, we don't have a private school, so there's not kids that are really going to the private school within Silver Lake, but we do have some homeschool kids that could take advantage of this. But are we talking like going does Syances have teams? Because they I mean, we have people that take their kids, I think they still have school at St.
069Alonsus that they buzz them there or they take them to Burlington to the If they're a resident and they're school age, they could come here. Right. Okay. the the harder thing for bigger districts to to use this fund um is because if you have multiple private schools or even one in your district, you have to practice and have games that outside of what the private school offers. So for us, it's a little easier because we don't have a private school to compete with. But if you like if I lived in Rine and you have all those private schools and you can't hold practice there, it's harder to capture these funds through fund 80. So we are not I'm not asking for uh approval of fund 80 tonight. What I'm asking for is approval to be
070able to open it up to appropriate school age children so that we can post that in the Kosha news which is a prerequisite of funding. Yes. And it has to be in the minutes that it's been approved and fund 80 would come at the annual meeting then at the annual meeting. Um, and fun 80, you're looking at it from an athletic perspective, but it's also kind of the community fund, too, right? And is that what they use at Walmart for the class? Yes, it is, right? Right. Okay. Yeah. So, we would use it for anything drama. Yeah. We would use it for what's Well, we could coding clubs. So, not because you said just athletics, but it's not it's the extracurriculars. Yeah. Outside of the day. So, not National Honor Society. Got it. Got it.
071Those are separate. Understood. Okay. Um, go ahead. I was just going to ask anybody to have any more questions. Looking for a motion. I'll make a motion to approve extending our curricular activities to age appropriate students residing in Silver Lake School District that may not attend. I'll second that motion. Motion by Mr. Hurst, second by Mr. Jentiel. All those in favor? I I motion opposed. Motion carries. Next. So, um, one of the goals I had this year or even since I've come in is to look at the employee handbook and make sure that the handbook is aligned to our policies. It's confusing to me and I think to some staff members as well as like where do you look? Um, and so and also shortening it. I mean, Sue and I are constantly like what
072page, which part of this, all of those things. So um I am asking I'm recommending to the board that we have two board members and myself review the changes. Nothing has substantially changed. It's aligned to the NEOLA policies. Um and if there are going to be board approved which there may be changes to it based on some of the committee work we're going to do that's going to be outside of this. So it's almost like looking at it through the lens of technical changes because most of the changes are now this is linked to this policy and the narrative is removed. But I do think that um it would be helpful if the board and myself could sit down and look at it. When you look at it, you'll see um it it's um the
073copy is what we've had and you'll see the strikethroughs or the additions. So it's very easy to see where the changes have been made. It's not going to be a huge process or the other option is to go through it in an entire, you know, in its entirety as an entire board. So I'm going to I guess I'll just speak up. My initial thought is we obviously have Brian and myself who already work on the policy committee together with you. Um, and since most of this sounds like it's going to be clean up, tying policies, I would recommend that we go the route of Brian and myself continuing to work with you to do this. Uh, my fear is is we get five people in a room. It could take us forever to work through
074what should be. Um, and just like we do with policies, when we have specific things that we want to bring to the rest of the board's attention, we pull those out and highlight those. My recommendation or my suggestion would be we go with Brian and I continuing to move forward and treat this like policy committee. I support that. I have one question maybe addition being that it's an employee handbook um committee work. Can we look at maybe adding uh a staff member or representation from that group so that we could I I mean I think it helps that like I'm an education but say that I'm not here at some point. I think it's important to have a an educator also on these committees. There's I know you probably don't believe me but or maybe
075you do but there's really no nothing of change. I think that the the subst and it's fine. I mean I I don't disagree with you but um the substantial change is going to come if we want to change anything moving forward with compensation or benefits like that thing has changed. we have not changed any language in it and I don't that that's not what I think the purpose of this is. The purpose of this is to make sure that we're not um missing anything and then when the board decides along the way to make changes that we're aligning it to the NEOLA policies. So, um having a a staff member or um I could go to the union and ask um that's fine too. I would support Brian's recommendation um one just to build confidence
076and um and transparency with your employees that we have here and given that it is the employee handbook. I think that someone should represent them to come in and and at least listen to what the reviews are so that they can go back and report and say it really is all that it is instead of feeling like they're doing something behind their back. So, I think it's an important part to include them. That's fair. And I wonder if you just have, you know, I'm not sure who if it's an intimidating setting if you have two staff members, two board members, and yourself. of the board representation, staff representation and district representation. Sure. So what is what is the overall uh intention of the employee handbook just lays out so it aligns to Neola policies but
077there are things specific that are not in policy that are specific to Riverview. for example, how many sick days we pay out. That's not in policy. That is only in the handbook or like show, you know, what time you show up for work, what time you're able to leave, things like that. Yeah. Um the the So it it lays out all of the sort of rules and regulations and things that the board has decided that are both within and outside of policy through NEOLA. right now. I think there there was some conflict conflicting things with Niola and also it has the links in there so that when you because another thing that happens is you change nola policy but then you don't change it in the handbook. So it links it to the Nola policy.
078So when that changes it automatically changes in the handbook and the Neola policies in the employee handbook are essentially set in place to protect the district and the employees I would say. um from you know knowing what their PTO is, knowing um what their off days are, how many teacher contracted days there are. I'm trying to think of what else do I constantly in it. So the only reason I bring this up is and and I come from the private sector so it's a little bit different scenario and I appreciate the perspective of the transparency with the staff but where I come from the the leaders of the organization set the priority set the set the guide book set the handbook and set the policy. um wouldn't be common practice for me in either of
079my businesses to include employees in determining what was um acceptable for the district. Is there the difference is is in the private sector your the owner owns it. he can set or she can set whatever rules that they deem appropriate for the employees in um public positions. It's uh there's there's a collaboration that goes on so that um it's like negotiating a contract more or less and the handbook is just a guideline so that the employees know what they have and maybe what's expected of them and it's just it's the difference between public and private. Well, no, I I don't think there's a difference there. I think the employee handbook is there to let the employees know what's expected of them. The difference is that in the private sector, we don't let the employees dictate
080what's expected of them. That's comes from the top down. Well, I don't think giving them a voice though is dictating, right? I think Brian's perspective was let them be involved in the process, not dictate what's in the book, right? I mean, the changes are already made. It's reviewing the changes and making sure there's transparency with what those changes are. And I apologize if I cut you off because I No, I just Is there a lot of committee work in the private sector? Well, yeah, we were do committee work all the time and they like just for example in the construction industry, I rely on the input from from multiple people, but they don't dictate policy as to how we operate and what's the expectation of of the contractor even though we take input on how
081to achieve an end when it comes to expectation of of of work. That's yeah, that policy comes from the top down. And again, I I this is just a question. I'm not saying that necessarily ought to be that way. I'm just saying for me it's a unique situation. Um, and then I appreciate the concept of the transparency, but it's it's a new concept for me to have the employees be informing on some of those policies. But again, I I I'm not saying that that's that's right or wrong. I I I don't know how you know. I will make a motion to approve the formation of a committee consisting of two board members, two professional staff members, the district administrator to review the proposed changes to the employee handbook that ensures alignment with Neola policies. This
082committee will provide recommendations to the full board for consideration. I'll second that. Motion by Hopkins, second by Gallich. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. the other policies. Um when we do this, we can just say as presented because it's a lot. Yeah. Um so in your board packet, you have all the policies. Um we were going to call out 8120, but um we do not need to call that policy out as all the board members already have background checks. I checked with Sue. So that it's just something you didn't remember doing. Um, okay. And so I don't know if there's any questions around there or if Brian or Mike wanted to um call out anything else. No, and this was my mine and Mike's mistake. We should both notice last time we put
083the names of the policies, not the numbers just to make it easier and we missed it. So, um, yeah, we talked about it at the start of the meeting that we screwed up. So, that's on us. We just remember that we did that in the fall, didn't we? Yes. I looked back too and I don't know why I didn't use it. Um, yeah, I think obviously 8120 is good. That was the only one we did discuss. Um, I think otherwise everything else was I don't want to say boiler plate, but it was pretty cut and dry. Um, glad to hear that uh Sue conned us into background checks without us knowing um many years ago. Also good to know that I was I was fully aware. Congratulations. Hey Brian, congratulations on passing yours. Fingerprinted too.
084Well, that's good though because we had talked about as a group that, you know, we're all here for different events, walking around, even as Santa and different things that we should adhere to the same policies we're expecting others to do. So, all right, we're good. Is there a motion? I will make a motion we approve the Neola policies as presented. Motion by Mr. Gentiel, second by Mr. Hurst. All those in favor? I I motion opposed. Motion carries. Our next future meeting is April 22nd, 2025. Hopefully discussing a past referendum, if I can say that. I don't know. Sorry. Um, executive session adjourn to close session pursuant to Wisconsin State Statute 1985 F. I made just you can do that, but I tried to make a motion at the bottom so that you didn't have to
085read it all, but you can do what you want. Nope. That's great. I was like, how am I going to not have to have that off? to move into executive session discuss to discuss the items listed above in accordance with Wisconsin state statutes. I will second Brian's motion. Second a motion by Hopkins, second by Jent Teal. All those in favor? I I motion carries. Uh we are journeying into exe. Thanks for coming.