WSD Board Meeting, Regular, September 22, 2025

001I call the September 22nd, 2025 schoolboard meeting to order. It is 6:03 p.m. We are in the conference room C of the Fiser Administration Building at 12121 West North Avenue. Miss Summers, please call the role. >> Miss Pzinski, >> here. Mr. Bower, >> here. >> Miss Faul, >> here. >> Mr. Mr. Morris, excused. Miss Rolland >> here. >> Dr. Worley >> here. Mr. Wier excused. >> Okay. We'd like to start first with some celebration. >> Yeah. >> We are going to talk about our AP program awards. I just want to give a little background and then I'd like to invite up um any students who are here um to um receive um recognition for their um for their award. So, uh we have two areas um that we have awards for in the district. Um

002the AP Scholar Award, the um AP program recognizes high school students who've demonstrated outstanding college level achievement through their performance on multiple AP exams. So AP Scholar awards come in different levels and types, including AP Scholar, which is students who receive scores of three or higher on three or more AP exams. AP Scholar with Honor granted to students who receive an average score of at least 3.25 on all AP exams taken and scores of three or higher on four or more of these exams. An AP scholar with distinction grant to students who receive an average score of at least 3.5 on all AP exams taken and scores of three or higher on five or more of these exams. Uh so I just want to let you know that Wosa West High School um last academic

003year had a total of 143 students um who uh were noted for AP Scholar Awards. um for one of those three categories. That includes the students um from 10th through 12th grade. Um and 66 received the AP Scholar Award, 39 received the AP Scholar with Distinction and 38 the AP Scholar with Honor Award. And at Watossa East, um there were 151 students who received one of the AP Scholar Awards. 76 in from students from 10th through 12th grade earned the AP scholar award. 31 earned the scholar with distinction and 44 earned the AP scholar with honor award. We're very well represented by our students um throughout the whole district. We also have um something in the district called the AP Capstone and the AP Capstone recognizes students with the following awards for their academic achievement.

004The AP Seminar and Research Certificate is granted to students who earn scores of three or higher in both AP Seminar and AP Research. And the AP Capstone diploma is granted to students who earn scores of three or higher in AP Seminar, AP Research, and on four additional AP exams of their choosing. So for those academic achievements we had um 12 at west and 17 at east um who received one of the capstone or seminar um awards. So we were very excited to learn all of this. So we wanted to invite students to come this evening um so that we could uh celebrate them in public um and congratulate them and also give them a certificate. So, um we know of at least two students um who are here, but we'd like to invite up any

005students who are um are here uh to be recognized for one of the AP awards. Please come forward up towards the microphone. Um we'd like to read your names and do some clapping for you. Um give you a chance if you want to say anything. Um first of all, um from from Tossa East, Emily Cicero, AP Scholar with distinction. Congratulations. And from West Kira I um AP Scholar. Congratulations. >> We're so very proud of you and we sure we're sure your parents are as well. Um so I see some of them have come this evening. Would either of you like to say anything about tell us what your most favorite AP class was or something that um you got from all these AP classes that you will take with you? >> Um my favorite AP

006class that I took was probably AP psychology. Um it was just really interesting to like learn about the brain and like the basis of human behavior. >> Fabulous. Thank you so much for sharing that. >> My favorite was also AP psychology because we got to hold like a real brain. So that was >> wow. That's really exciting. So for all students out there who haven't yet decided what to take next year, you still have a chance. If you take AP psychology, it sounds like it's a winner. So thanks so much for coming this evening. We're very proud of you. >> And yeah, no, no, I was gonna say and of course we don't expect you to sit through the whole meeting. We're so glad you were here and we know you need to go home

007and study. >> Okay, that was fun. >> Wow, that's a lot of students. It's a lot of students. So, the the full list um was attached to the agenda. >> Yeah, it's very impressive. >> Some of them are graduates now from our school system. I know there's at least one representative of a family member who has child who's moved on to college that's in the audience as well. Um so a lot of our students who are either currently still with us or have graduated. We're proud of all our students. >> Right. Family members can pick up certificates on behalf if they want to see Miss Summers over there. >> So congratulations again. So we will move to the part of the agenda called public comment and um after I read um the public comment and

008forum meetings policy then we will see if there's public comment in the room and then we will see if there's public comment online and um I see Mr. Bower has the colored rectangles. Is there a board member who would do the 30 minute? Okay. Thank you, Liz. So, policy 0167.3 public comment at board meetings. Members of the board value the input of students, parents, staff members, and community members. The board's regularly scheduled meetings provide an opportunity for opinions and concerns to be expressed publicly. The board values all comments and will respectfully consider this input in decision-making. The board will take public comment on both non-aggenda items and agenda items at each regular board meeting and may take public comment during special board meetings. The public comment period will occur near the beginning of the meeting

009and shall not exceed 30 minutes in length unless extended by the presiding officer or a vote of the board. Individuals must limit their comments to three minutes. Participants must be recognized by the presiding officer and will be requested to preface their comments by an announcement of their name. Public comments submitted to the board email address by 10:00 a.m. on the day of the meeting of the board will be added to the online meeting documents to become part of public record. Emma public comments must include the name of the person submitting the comment. All public comments shall be directed to the presiding officer. No person may address or question board members or individually or direct statements, comments, or questions to staff or other meeting participants. Board members are obligated to follow the Wisconsin Open Meeting Law,

010which requires advanced notification to the community of the board's intent to discuss and or take action on an item. If a public comment concerns an item that is not on the current meeting agenda or members may not respond other than to thank and acknowledge the speaker for their input. The presiding officer may a limit the number of times a speaker may comment on the same topic. B interrupt, warn or terminate a public comment when the statement is too lengthy, directed to anyone other than the board presiding officer. Obscene or disorderly. C. Request any individual to leave the meeting when that person engages in conduct which is disorderly. D. Request the assistance of law enforcement officers and or security officials in the removal of a disorderly person when that person's conduct interferes with the orderly progress

011of the meeting. E. Call for a recess or an adjournment to another time when disorderly conduct so interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting as to warrant such action. F. Wave these rules with the approval of the board when necessary for the protection of privacy or the administration of the board's business. Recording, filming, or photographing board meetings is permitted. The person operating the equipment should contact the superintendent prior to the board meeting to review possible placement of the equipment and must agree to abide by the following conditions. A no obstructions are created between the board and the audience. B. No interviews are conducted in the meeting room while the board is in session. C. No commentary, adjustment of equipment, or positioning of operators is made that would distract either the board me or members

012of the audience or otherwise disrupt the meeting while the board is in session. The board encourages all residents to be well informed about school affairs. Therefore, regular board meetings are livereamed and the recorded schoolboard meetings are available for viewing online on the district's website. Executive sessions and inservices for board members are not recorded. Okay. Thank you. I'm looking to see if there is public comment in the room. If you are here to offer a public comment, could you please come to the microphone? Okay. I'm not seeing any. So, I'm looking online. If anyone is online who was planning on making a public comment, please put your hand up. Okay, I'm seeing no public comment either in the room or online. So, we will close public comment for this evening and we will move on to

013our next agenda item. Thank you. So, our next agenda item um is the consent agenda item number four. Um before I ask the board about removal, I did want to make um one comment. We have several policies that are on um automatic consent tonight. Um and that's been happening a lot recently because we have a lot of policies that we're working through. Um we also have some questions from the public about um the content of some policies or items that might be felt to be missing or removed. So, I just wanted to quickly say and I'll try to continue as we go forward um and welcome the help of um the policy committee too to help people better understand our policy process um in the district. Um one note I want to make is that

014in many policies um where there's confusion, something that I would note is that um many of our policies are shaped by the fact that we um unlike most districts in Wisconsin, we are a unified school district. And so that has um certain aspects to it. Probably the one that comes up the most in policies is you'll see things not um people see things not included and wonder why we're not including them. And that's often related to being a unified school district where we don't have um the community holding an annual meeting. Um and so that's been many policies recently have had that. So I wanted to make sure give everyone a chance to really understand how we do policy um and that factor so that you understand this goes through the consent agenda um why

015it looks like it does. And the second thing about it going through consent agenda is I um want to make sure that everyone watching or listening knows um that before it comes to a board meeting um and goes on a consent agenda, it's first been um reviewed um by the appropriate administrators. It's also been um been agendized and discussed at a policy committee meeting um with opportunity for public comment. Um and then it comes um at least twice. Uh the first time it comes the policy comes to the full board. There is an opportunity for discussion. Then if um it doesn't uh have any edits that are asked um and no public comment is sent in or other things change between the time that we have that first consideration and the time we create the

016agenda um for the board meeting, then it goes on the consent agenda. Um and if there are items that get discussed that need to be reconsidered, it goes back also again to the policy committee. um just like the ones that go on consent that goes back to the policy committee but then those will come back for um not on the consent agenda but for discussion and then the final piece of it that gives plenty of opportunity for comments um and input is that what I'm going to ask now which is that I always ask board members um whether they have any items on the consent agenda that they want to remove. So, if a community member um had a concern running up to the board meeting about something on the consent agenda, they could reach

017out to a schoolboard member um and and send a comment. So, this just want to give you a sense and we'll continue to try to make it clear um how policy works. As a policy board, our policy work is absolutely core to who we are. Um so, I just wanted to share that um little couple tidbits tonight um because there have been some confusions. We've had quite a few questions in open in public comment and through emails. So, we want to make sure as we go into consent agenda that people understand why we're um putting it on the consent agenda. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Please do. >> Um so, I have seen some questions and received some questions um because last meeting we did go over a lot of policies. Um, and something I wanted

018to clarify too is a lot of the policies are templated by a company that we work with, NEOA, and that is a company that works with, I looked it up, 360 clients in Wisconsin, and they're with five different states. So, these are really policy experts. Yes. >> Um, so that is where we start. Um, and they come with recommendations uh taking into consideration Wisconsin state law, considering federal law. So when we see when the policy committee meet uh meets, they have that expertise leading them and going, you know, with them throughout the whole process. If there's specific questions for our district, it also can go to our um our attorneys who make sure that we're also aligning those with all of our policies with administrative guidelines. Our experts um here at Fiser also have a

019lot of opportunity to work. So, so there's a lot of work that goes into these policies that um that's kind of behind the scenes, but like Dr. Worley said, it does come to the community at least two times. I'm actually going to pull a policy off their conversation tonight because I did get an email uh this weekend. Um so, I encourage community members if they have questions um reach out to someone on the board, reach out to the administrators who will be working within those policies. um because there seems to be one or two people in the community who are showboating a lot in the last two weeks um and causing a lot of confusion um and they claim to be policy experts and governance experts and their elected officials um but I think there's

020a disservice in our community right now where um things are being discussed that are hearsay um one thing disappointing was that the board was questioned if we were um pass a policy that would put our students at risk by not needing to have um background checks for everyone who will work with our students. That is a strong policy. Everyone in this building, everyone in our schools are fully committed to the safety of every single student and staff member in our buildings. everyone who works with our kids, if it's a volunteer up to staffing, construction, you know, everybody who enters our buildings has a um background check on bio because their safety is the most important thing to us. So um I just encourage to reach out to the board, reach out to the experts in

021this building if you have specific questions about any of the policies that we're passing. >> Right. So to that point, let's look at the consent agenda. Um there's a few policies on there. There's other items that board members may wish to remove um for individual consideration. Um so uh I did hear I will I should read this. Are there any items that any board members would like removed? >> Um I would like to remove 7440.03 03 the small unmanned aircraft systems for drones. So and that's I would like to move that 7440.03. Is there any other polic policy or other consent agenda items that you would like to remove? >> No, I had that one marked also. Someone a community member reached out. So, thanks again for reaching out with your concerns. >> Okay. So,

022Miss Bach has requested item 7440.03 um is the um unmanned aircraft um policy item um be removed for separate discussion and action. and we I see uh the board con confirming that this seems like a good idea. Um I've not heard any objections. Um so what would be helpful is we could go ahead and um move on the other items as well. >> Sure. It is recommended that the school board approve the remainder of the consent agenda and I so move. >> Could I have a second? Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Um, Miss Summers, could you call the role, please? >> Miss Bzinski, >> yes. >> Mr. Bower, >> yes. >> Miss Bach, >> yes. >> Mr. Morris, >> excused. >> Miss Hammer Rolland, >> yes. >> Dr. Worley, >> yes. >> Mr. Wadier, >>

023excused. And the motion carries. Okay, so let's talk about um policy 744.03, small unmanned aircraft systems. Um, go ahead. um a community member reached out um concerning this policy um and he felt that we need more information in this policy so to learn how to obtain authorization to use drones for the district. >> Uh Miss Bark, this is Jamie Price, director of technology. Do you mind if I comment on that just briefly? >> Uh the policy itself merely states that um anybody any provider that provides a service uh uh utilizing drones abide by WIAA policies, any FAA requirements and regulations and any local government um requirements and regulations. the actual process of applying for it or or how do they contact the school. I don't think that that really is something that we should contain

024within a policy. Uh that's more of a guideline, right? The policy simply states that we are going to follow the law and we expect anybody to do so that that engages with us to be knowledgeable of those laws and to to comply themselves. Yeah, >> thank you. It um it does sound like and anyone else who wants to comment, please go ahead. Yeah, >> I think the difference between what's policy and what is the um administrative guideline that creates the process might be what's under discussion here. Unless you see some place in the policy that you'd like a little clarification. I do think that um something that is in that policy just down at the bottom it does refer to administrative guideline 7440.03 and I I couldn't find that. So um in so I think

025we we can reach out to um reach out to whichever administrator would be in charge of drafting that or creating that administrative guideline because the policy is just yet we would love to have people serving us with or like bringing their services to support our school district that um using drones appropriately. But we and we leave it to to your team to decide how that contact how that permission gets >> it'll be Mr. Price. >> Okay. So we can just email Mr. Price and say please help us out with it >> upon your if you approve the policy this evening. Mr. Price will then start drafting the guideline and that guideline I I think he's been included on the emails. He's he's well aware of the concerns as expressed by the community. >> Great. Anything

026else? Okay. Always a good discussion because we continue as a community to figure out this intersection between um administration and board. And this is a great example. Um and when a policy is being formulated for the first time or new to us as a district, there might not be um a administrative guideline yet. Um or if it's significantly revised, there might not be one, >> right? >> And I think another point of clarification that we keep coming back to as a team is the use of the word superintendent when it's in a policy. Um especially when superintendent has this uppercase S at the beginning. So toward the end of that in the first full paragraph it that it ends by saying um that you need to gain permission where was that >> is not authorized

027to do so by the superintendent. So >> yeah so you can't do that unless you're authorized to do so by the superintendent and that does not necessarily mean specifically in this case Dr. means needs to get be the one giving the permission, but our administrative guideline can give more more guidance about how you how that looks. It sounds like this person would probably just work with >> Mr. Mr. Price. Okay. Yeah, Mr. Price will put out the let us know how we can get that permission. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. So, um, any other comments? Hearing no other com, seeing no other comments or hearing no other comments, um, I would like someone to give us a motion that recommends that the school board approve um, that item and we can move ahead. Then >> it

028is recommended that the school board approve 74 >> item um just say policy 74 >> policy 7440.03 and I salute >> I have a second >> second. Thank you Liz. Um Miss Summers, could you call the role, please? >> Miss Bzinski, >> yes. >> Mr. Bower, >> yes. >> Miss Bach, >> yes. >> Mr. Morris >> excused. >> Miss Himemer Roland >> yes. >> Dr. Worley >> yes. >> Mr. Wier excused >> and the motion carries. So we can move on to our next agenda item which is number five strategic goal instruction and leadership. Thank you all for being here. I always get so excited to hear what's going on. [Music] As we're working through the technology, I'll I'll try to give a preview. Miss Bzinsk's excitement is is good. Um, it is stated that

029the true sign of a an effective school board is if you go back through your board minutes in board agendas and identify how many agenda items were focused on curriculum instruction and assessment. And I think over the last few meetings, you have focused a great deal on curriculum assessment and instruction. We're really excited to share with you the progress that we're making um with our our students. I our teachers deserve all the credit. Our parents deserve all the credit as partners with us and obviously our students are working hard. Um you hear educators referencing the COVID era and I firmly believe that children are coming out of it now. Um and it it took time um for our nation u but in particular I think history will will show that it was really an it

030had an impact on children. >> Yeah. >> Um and but I'm really I'm pleased on how our teachers have responded to the support we provide them from an instructional standpoint. I'm very pleased with our partnership with our families. And again, I' I've been so proud to go out into our schools the the few weeks that we've been back in session and our students are working hard. So, um I know Dr. Marvel and her team will give you a highlight um and overview, but we have a lot to be proud of and it's a lot of different people, teachers, families, students. Uh but I I would I'll turn it over and do the warm handoff. this team in front of you also deserve a lot of credit as well. Dr. Marble, >> thank you. Good evening

031everyone. Um, thank you for the opportunity to provide you with this update on our students growth and achievement from this last school year. I'm joined this evening by Jessica Eert, director of curriculum, uh, Jenny F Jennifer Foch, our director of strategy and continuous improvement, and Lindseay White, our director of data quality and analytics. And as a reminder to the board and community members viewing this presentation, a summary report um with a link to 389 pages of data is posted on the agenda for this evening's meeting. And the summary report outlines additional academic improvements, associated impactful practices likely yielding these improvements and opportunities for continued improvement and obstacles that are interfering with that continued improvement. I do want to take a few moments just to elevate a key uh some of the key successes that are

032actually also available on this one pager linked into our board docs. Um one of the data points that we wanted to start digging into is around um how are we comparing by different different demographic groups um in some of our benchmark districts. So we were taking a look at in particular Sussex, Hamilton, Elbrook, Piwaki, New Burlin, Cedarberg, Meccoan, Germantown, Greenfield, Monomin Falls, and West Alice and West Milwaukee, including the state average. I am pleased to share that Wawaossa ranks in the following. Our white students in Wawaossa ranked third highest in reading achievement, second to only Cedarberg and Sussex Hamilton. Our black and African-American students here in Wawaossa rank third highest in reading achievement only uh third only to Elbrook and Meccoan on forward. Sorry. Sorry. Thank you, Lindsay. Um our students with disabilities in Wabatossa

033ranked the second highest in rating achievement on forward only behind Cedarberg. Our white students in Wabatossa ranked third highest on the ACT composite only behind Cedarberg and Meccoin. students with disabilities in the Wawaossa School District ranked second highest on the uh ACT composite only behind Meccoan and white students in Wawaossa ranked third highest on the ACT in English and reading only behind Cedarberg and PWA. So again, I just want to highlight that uh there's a lot of talk at times around how Wawaossa is not producing the same outcomes as it used to and if we disagregate some of our data um we are exceeding some of the school districts that are typically um compared to Wawaossa. Couple of other key highlights. The percentage of students who met or exceeded their targeted reading growth from fall

0342024 to spring 2025 was the highest in three years as measured by STAR. The following schools saw an increase in student math proficiency on the forward exam um from uh the 20 spring of 2024 to 2025. Lincoln, Longfellow, Underwood, W Stem, and the Wabatossa Virtual Academy. The following schools saw an increase in ELA proficiency from 2024 to 2025 on the forward exam. Eisenhower, Lincoln, Washington, and Longfellow. So again, uh kudos to our administrators and our teachers and our support staff in each and every one of those buildings to continue to celebrate some of our AP uh advanced placement data from that we heard earlier this evening with the students that we recognized. Uh the number of students taking an AP exam or excuse me an AP course is the highest it has been since precoid.

035Um so that's pretty remarkable. The percentage of students passing an AP exam with a score of three or higher was the highest pass rate in the last six years. So not only are more students taking the exam but more or taking AP courses, but they're also um performing well as well. Um, since we're constantly looking at our disproportionality, I just wanted to highlight that the following demographic group saw the highest pass rate on an advanced placement exam the last six years. our students that identify as um American Indian, Native or Alaskan Native, white, Hispanic, Latino, African-American or black, female, male, students without disabilities, students who receive free and reduced lunch, free or reduced lunch, and students who do not receive free or reduced lunch. We also saw an increase in the number of students taking

036dual enrollment courses. In 2324, we only had 34 students access this opportunity largely because we was not offered on campus. And in the 2425 school year, 191 students accessed dual enrollment courses because we had access to that on our high school campuses. And 99% of those 191 earned college credit. We are incredibly proud of our educators and our students. Yet, there's much work to be done. Students of color are two times more likely not to meet our ACT benchmarks. Students of color are over two times more likely to be at risk of not being proficient readers. Students that receive free or reduced lunch are five times more likely to be at risk of not being proficient readers. Students of color are five times um at the middle school level and three times at the high

037school level more likely to receive more than one F. And students that receive free or reduced lunch are almost seven times more likely at the middle school and four times more likely at the high school to receive uh more than one F. So at the district level, we remain focused and disciplined in operationalizing our strategic plan. While at the building level, our schools must remain vigilant in operationalizing their school growth plans. We are very proud of the work that has happened and the achievements and growth that our students have seen and there's much more work to do. At this time, we welcome your questions or any comments that you might have. >> Okay, board members. Someone likes to start us off. Comments, questions. >> All right, Mr. Barry, you think you're ready? >> Yeah, I

038can I can start us off. Um, so I have three kind of arcs of questions. Um, the first is you identified six school districts that we compared ourselves to, right? um how were they chosen? Was it uh how were they chosen? We'll start with that. >> Um so part of it is uh looking at uh benchmark districts that we are looking to see what are their achievements been and how can we continue to use them to push us forward. Uh part of it is also looking at conference uh athletic conferences and how we compare academically to them. um also alongside how we compared to them um from an ac or from an athletic standpoint. So, uh those were some of the main reasons as to how we utilize these school districts. >> Awesome. Thank you.

039Um the second arc gets into the data, the 390 some pages. Um the vast majority of it, it shows clear growth in many of the different things. Uh but that is typically in um star range web that sort of thing right. So uh but I noticed two trends. So the first trend is kind of a almost a bifurcating of grades, right? Either kids did the students did very well and they got A's and B's or they did not do very well, they got D's and how is that one is that an accurate representation or understanding? And two, how does that kind of play out throughout your planning through planning at the school level? What are we doing to address that? So I want to make sure I paraphrase the question. >> So you are asking

040about the grade data in particular >> and how that um plays into our planning moving forward. Is that >> a bell? >> Yeah. Right. Because it's a bell curve, right? Or it should be a bell curve, but it's not. >> Actually, it should not be a bell curve. >> It should not be a bell curve. um really if we are doing our job well we would have um all of our or we would have 80% of our students or more um above that C level. >> Um so our aim is to push to have all of our students passing um with developing mastery with a C or better. Um so when we think about and I believe this was in the summary as well when we when school districts are doing their job really well

041we have 80% of our students um meeting proficiency. So um we don't want to we don't want to look at a bell curve. So when we think about how do we address our students that are receiving D's and Fs, it's really about what is happening at the school level and how can we wrap around and support them. Um, and we think about different entry points into teaching and learning and that's always constantly part of the work that that we do and really happens at the classroom level. >> Do you happen to have examples of some of the things that we might be trying this year that may be new or things that we have been trying that we have seen success in? >> I can I can add on to that. Um so one of

042the things that when we think about um what does it take to get students towards that level of proficiency in a classroom um explain a couple different avenues. One, we need to maintain rigor within the the um classrooms. So what we mean by rigor is that there's universal access to grade level standards that there's scaffolds built into that access of universal grade level standards. We cannot expect proficiency on a Ford exam for a student if they don't receive day in and day out instruction at their grade level standards or beyond. So that is like the driving force of the work. Um and so our coaches, our coordinators, writing assessments or ensuring that every single content area has really strong assessments that teachers utilize to see what is the core um understandings within this unit that

043we want students to know and be able to do and then to be able to backwards map and plan instruction to reach those outcomes. Because if we know those assessments mirror that learning then you know we're marching towards um kind of those benchmark assessments or strengthening those benchmark assessments like STAR Ames forward and that data is so incredibly important as Nicole said at the site level because if students are getting D's and Fs on them that means there's some unfinished learning and so working with our educators again our coaches helping to support within the classrooms or as grade level teams look at that data to today, what might we try? What might we do um in order to respond to the students that received a DNF on this count assessment? Um that's the work of

044PACE. I know we've talked a lot about PACE, but there there are core components of what it takes to do high quality planning, what it takes to respond to in instruction. So that's kind of rigor at its finest. The next is um we think about differentiation. We think about what is it with our planning and the work of pace that we ensure that we're monitoring what each and every one of our students needs and responding to them with higher level questioning um you know additional practice or attempts maybe some online tools that support some skill gaps. So kind of looking at ways that we can differentiate when it's in the classroom. And then like the third area is what we kind we call layers of support and that is in service of our multi-layered system

045of support MLSS. Um and that is so important for a school district to have in place because what it says is that we're going to do really strong core universal instruction. Then we're going to layer on support. We're going to go to kind of the tier 2 level a layer support for students who are showing that that's a need. And then our students that have really intensive needs, Jenny can speak to this more um in more is where our academic specialists serve and support. So data drives all of those decisions around tier one, tier 2, tier three. Something that we are trying at our middle school is responding in that well across actually our K8 schools responding to tier 2 has been a gap in Watossa. So we're getting really trying to get really strong.

046>> Yeah. >> At tier one. We've been attending to tier three, but our tier two or our targeted layer, it's we call it different things um targeted layer of support has been really missing. And in a system, um we need to be thinking about if students aren't understanding and it's not happening through differentiation, what's the layer of support? So, in our middle school um classrooms, both in ELA and math, that is something that we're really working on with our educators, especially in our preparation for math changes that are happening. Um and then again in BOA. So I said a lot there, but that is those are some examples. That's how we really think about that data to move and deliver um really targeted support and instruction for students. Does that give you some sense of

047clarity or did I say too much? >> Um it'll take some time for me to go through all of that. I'm sure I'll rewatch this part. Um, but no, I think that makes a lot of sense and it does lead into and it's probably redundant with my third arc which is while Ames Webb and STAR is very clear that we're growing across the board almost um in almost every category the the forward exam is much more murky um and I would imagine it's very similar kind of concept of how are we helping students do well in the forward exam making sure that we're not necessarily teaching to the test, but we're supporting them so that they're looking at a grade level. So, I don't know if you have additional things that you're doing. >> I

048would just reinforce like the biggest the the biggest anchor that we have brought forward in terms of helping students be prepared for the forward exam is making sure that they have access every single day to grade level content. Um, that's the biggest we we've noticed before when we um >> standardbased. >> Standardsbased. Yes, we noticed before that before we had some of these things in place, especially at the elementary level, we could not guarantee that all students had access to grade level standards every single day. Now we can. >> So, Dr. Marble, in 45 seconds or less, can you explain what you presented last board meeting and why that work is so critical to answering Mr. of our question around how can we get better at Wisconsin forward and tie it to standardsbased grade level

049instruction. >> Yeah, it's really staying focused on the curriculum implementation and um it's that's it. >> So our prior system was not grounded in teaching standardsbased grade level instruction. And so when you have a system where every teacher was asked to develop their own curriculum, some teachers were really good at it and some teachers were not um because that's not their job. Um the the district failed those teachers by not having a standardsbased curriculum that they could uh implement and also had support in implementing. We provide the support through having curriculum coordinators and having instructional coaches. So when I hear people say, "How are we supporting teachers?" We're supporting teachers by ensuring that there is a curriculum that is standardsbased and appropriate for the grade level. We have a curriculum coordinator that can answer questions

050for those teachers. And we have building based instructional coaches that are supporting those individuals. But what what Miss Eert didn't say, I'll try to say it in in a more direct way. At the core, when we hear what else can we do, it is ultimately at the classroom level between the teacher and the student. And and so when she talks about tier 2, that is a teacher identifying the fact to say, well, Liz is struggling with my universal instruction. What am I going to do to help Liz? What am I going to do to help Liz? not what will an academic specialist do. Not saying I think Liz may need special ed services. Tier two at the core is getting into those PACE meetings that we talk about and identifying having the teacher say what

051am I going to do because we can't provide those tier three services unless we have exhausted the tier two. That that's what you were saying correct >> those layers of support. So >> yes. >> Yeah. And then is that also part of those the conversations that happen during that those PACE meetings? Um like collaborating around what can we do when our tier one isn't isn't meeting everyone's needs. Help help me with some ideas. What's working for you? Here's what I've tried. >> Exactly. And that's why it's so important for us to have fidelity to our curriculum because those collaboration meetings, those pace type meetings in the past, if I'm teaching a this, if I'm teaching this and Jessica's teaching this, but we're both actually teaching third grade, we can't actually learn from and with one

052another to better support students. So, >> but as a community, I think this is a really important point. We don't help students if the message is I know the teachers are trying their best. I'm not sure I'm I'm trying to paraphrase here. I'm not quite sure if tier 2 happened or not, but the district should intervene at this point now because we know teachers really work hard. They we have to have teachers have that productive struggle at the tier 2 level to identify to say I taught all the students. that I taught all 25 of my students. Of the 25, seven truly need me to drill down and do something else. I, the teacher, have to do something else because we are, and this this this is not only academic. This is also from a

053behavioral standpoint. Mr. Pinion would say the same thing. We're unable to qualify someone for special education or give them more services unless we can say we've exhausted tier 2. We tried everything we can do at the tier 2 level, at the classroom level, but we don't help students if the messaging in the community is, but we we love our teachers and they're working hard. Now, you the district need to deploy more services. It it actually makes the situation worse. the the systems that we are comparing ourselves to, they have strong tier one and tier two systems in place to ensure if a student does near tier three that those are the special services, special ed, 504, so on that we've exhausted all of our our our our services. I think that's new for us in

054Waltosa and that's new for us because as we've talked about in our last meeting, the fact that we just now have a curricular infrastructure is new and and so obviously the next layer is to make sure that we're implementing tier 2 with Fidelity. >> I'll just add that um and you know as district leaders we provide the resources and set the conditions, right? So part of that condition setting has been in our KA environments making sure that our schedules reflect an opportunity for students to engage in um a learning called like what I need time so that our teachers have a space outside of the universal learning block to attend to those specific needs. Um because then what ends up happening is if it creeps into the universal time that's where we start to dip

055below grade level standards. So we're saying universal instruction in ELA and math has to be maintained around grade level standards with strong differentiation with strong scaffolds to support students. Then we have what I need time and that has not been something we've had in our middle school. So, we're putting that on the ends of our core times to say, "Here's your space. Here's the condition setting. Here are the resources. Here's how, you know, we can grow and really develop a really robust tier 2 system, our K8 classrooms." So, that is something that's happening, especially with the math shifts and changes. That is something we know that needs to be in place and be strong in our schools. So when you referenced uh change at that middle school level, that's that's more specifically what you're talking

056about is this time that's dedicated to ensure that our middle schoolers get additional support to prepare them to be successful at that grade. So then they're going into the next course >> with the skilled thinking with not such gaps. Right. >> Right. and and we're exploring like as Dr. said like we have a very um >> we have some new systems in Watossa. So we also know we have to embrace >> change. >> Yeah. >> Um with an urgent rate but also where we're supporting our teachers because he named even using new resources and teaching with new resources is is new. Even teaching grade level standards and not deciding what to teach on your own is new. So taking that at a rate and a pace of exploration but also building that infrastructure and system

057to go those possibilities are really exciting to hear about. Yeah. >> Um I have a question about um you talk about the disproportionality um and there's the numbers looks wonderful but there's still work to do. Um and in your report you talked about um a pilot study being conducted at Eisenhower, Mat and Wilson to look at um students being on task and having active attendance and could you talk about that a little more? Yeah. So I have I have this theory that um our way out of a lot of our gaps in student learning is if we are addressing it at the teacher and student level each and every day. So by by raising consciousness of our classroom educators, are they able to be more attuned to students being um on task? I'll give a

058really quick example. So, one of the things that I've noticed with great frequency in being in our buildings is students having the permission to be out of our classrooms, especially during the universal instruction that Jessica was talking about. And that that if that h is happening day over day, that has an impact on whether or not our students are learning to the depth that we need them to learn. And what I've also noticed in being in our schools over the last few years is that the students that are finding their way to be out of the classroom are students that need to be in the classroom the most. So, um I am I reached out to three of our elementary principles, Mr. Stein, Dr. Miner, and Mrs. Geredo, um to see if they would engage

059in this study with me. It is five days old in terms of us launching the study. Uh but already uh the um already the consciousness of the classroom teacher is heightened um and being able to be really aware of what the students are are not doing. And then we we have strategically done this at the um very low elementary level because we have more readily available data to be monitoring to see if it's having an impact. So stay tuned. >> Thank you. >> May I also just use this a little different topic, but I can use this opportunity to stay to our secondary school families. Please get your child to school on time. We we are monitoring first hour attendance and in some of our secondary schools we have up to 9% of the students

060are tardy for first hour. So to go along with Dr. Marvel's statement, it's hard to set the right academic tone in a building if you have students coming in and out and getting settled throughout first hour. uh it just it does not set that tone. We Dr. Worley has appropriately asked, "So when are we going to then have the larger conversation of starting school later?" We we are prepared to have that conversation that that's coming down the road at some point, but in until further notice, please >> the time stay the same. >> The time right now is the same and we need students to come to school on time. We're we're trying to work I've asked Mr. opinion to start working with our secondary principles to create incentives. If our PTAs and PTOs at

061the the secondary school level can work with their high high school and middle school principles to create incentives, but this is it's a challenge. So, thank you for giving me that intrigue. >> Of course, Tamar, did you have something? Yeah, I just something that wasn't um in the in the one pager that you shared um was information about the um act 20 the early literacy um I have talked to a lot of the staff who have been um helping implement and monitor the reading plans um and they have just had really positive feedback to share with me from the support that they've received from the district um administration uh all admitted that it was a lot of paperwork work um and a lot of extra work from what um was expected of them the year

062prior. And I also want to appreciate that it was unfunded by the state. So we really had to pull together resources that we already had. And so that means that those staff members who've been implementing this and monitoring it really um stepped up for the district and for those students. Last year um it looked like about 20 I don't know 27% of our students uh who started out of out improvement plan moved out of it. Um what I know and it was first year so what would uh your I 100%'s ideal obviously what is your goal for like the next two to three years as we learn more about and get better at implementing um interventions for those kiddos. >> One of the benefits of act 20 um really forced us to develop a tier

0632 system in the classroom in January. Um, so we went from not having a a fully developed particularly at our primary grades because when we're talking ACT 20, we're talking senior kindergarten to grade three for personal reading plans. Um, it really brought attention to the fact that we could in fact have a tier 2 system to address students gaps in their literacy learning and our teachers then had the ability to monitor it through a platform. Um uh so for example, an oral reading fluency probe could be administered every week and a teacher could see week over week the improvement that was being made with a student from the work that they were doing. Prior to that, those practices had been really relegated to tier three with an academic specialist. And I to add on to

064the conversation from before, when a student is w working in tier three with an academic specialist, our classroom teachers also still need to layer on because the goal of tier three is not grade level proficiency, is to get you to the place so you can go back a layer of support and re-enter without needing those intensive services. So sometimes there's a misconception that working with an academic specialist means I'm going to work with you until I am completely grade level proficient. And that's not how the layers of support necessarily work. >> But Miss Fch, can you um the percentage that we're looking at for exit? >> Our exit rate of tier three intervention hovered around 23 to 34% depending on the cycle and the subject. So we've set the goal this year for all cycles

065of intervention, literacy or math to be 30% or higher as a team. That's our that's our goal for the year. and we're really getting um really getting into it this year in terms of assessments and how do we know and how do we really make sure we've identified the correct skill a student needs to work on and then matching that intervention appropriately. So that's the that's a big focus for our team this year. >> The last thing I would add is I also know teachers in other districts who don't have a strong support and have the strong system that TOSA does. So we hear a lot about um heavy bur you know all the administrators we have um districts who don't have that definitely did not see a quarter of their students move out of

066the reading plans in six a half of a school year. Um so just kudos to the hard work and the all the data that they have readily available so that in real time they can see where the students are. um as an early childhood teacher, I was just really impressed and um excited to see that work in a really short amount of time. >> Yeah, our coordinators, coaches, and the data team were really integral in pulling all of this off. So, we'd be remiss if we didn't call attention to those folks and their hard work. >> Okay, I just have a couple of questions. First of all, thank you for the report. Um very exciting. Um hard work is really showing to be paying off. Um, and I think you've also got a couple new

067things going this year with more contact with parents, which is very exciting, too, because that's part of the partnership. Um, and career advising. Uh, I noticed the big jump in the number of students um in the um in the college um dual credit courses, which is great. So, I was wondering um what what do we need? What will it take to continue? I see there's one being proposed, but expanding that so that we have a a diversity so students in different areas of interest to have that. Something I learned um this fall uh was that it's easier for a student, for example, with special education supports in a dual um credit course because they don't have the same restrictions that some AP classes have. And so that made me really excited to think about how

068we could continue to expand those options so that our students who are um in a number of different categories uh could see that college credit especially since we don't see some groups taking AP classes still that you know where we what kind of resources what can the board do um to help support that that process. So, the biggest uh barrier to being able to continue to spread out more um dual credit classes is really comes down to uh our teachers credentials. So, um our teachers have to have a master's in their content area or some other portfolio to demonstrate that they have um a really sound proficiency of the content area. And so depending upon what content it is, the university is able to work with us. So um we've been trying to take in

069opportunities where we see it um based upon the credentials that our educators have. Um so for this next year we um next month we'll be bringing forward an opportunity to look at how do we have um college credit awarded to Latin which is the only world language that doesn't currently have that option. Um, so that's really where that is stemming from is which educators can we tap on? >> So going back to one of the early meetings in this cycle um the questions that were had about um why would we be helping teachers um with the cost of education. This would be one of those really clear places where um students benefit greatly um by having some investment. Yeah. >> Uh, prior to I know prior to um Act 10, uh there were school districts

070that um would help educators pay for a master's degree. Uh and I that is not something that's currently in place, but in a perfect world, we would because our students would be able to benefit from that with the dual credit classes. >> Right. Thank you. Um on a different uh topic a couple of years ago we you know we were talking about um and I think this was Dr. Mean's idea of having um you know a whole district of light not individual islands. And so I'm wondering looking at this because you've disagregated into groups so that we kind of back up and look at the district as a whole. um are we making progress when we see the different schools um and and how they show up in this report? Um and what else what

071else do we need to do to move towards that um away from the islands and towards the whole school whole district having um all these really really good numbers and scores? >> So are you asking for the how are we continuing to monitor the benchmark districts? >> Yes. Well, this is the whole idea of making sure that we are continuing to try to move all schools forward. And I'm not saying we're not. I'm just saying is as you look at the data, are we making progress with that goal? >> Yeah, we we absolutely are. Um and and every school is um at a little bit of a different spot in terms of um in terms of moving forward. Sounds like Dr. Means would like to chime in on this. you're the chief academic officer. >>

072Um the public data does come live later this week. So we'll be looking at how did we um do in comparison to other school districts um this last year. Um yeah, it's clearly we have more opportunities in front of us to continue to grow students. um and we have deployed different resource allocations to different schools based upon where um where our students are currently achieving. >> So Dr. Marble maybe what Dr. Worley I'm going to try to paraphrase Dr. Worley's question differently. >> Okay. >> I'm going to paraphrase it from the perspective of asking you a question. So, can you please unpack why we use the the the language in the one pager of how white students perform compared to a high achieving school districts versus students of color? Why did why did we pick

073that language to frame how the school system is functioning? um because we had a hypothesis that our certain student groups were actually outperforming some of our neighboring districts and so we wanted to test that hypothesis and so we went in and disagregated um achievement data from other schools to see where were we um where were we hitting the mark in terms of different um student groups. >> So I I I'm going to try to paraphrase what Dr. Worley was saying which is so if the vision is is to have not islands of excellence but an excellent school system. If you look at the data we know that certain student groups are thriving. >> They're having an excellent they're not having a good experience. They're having an excellent experience. So much so that if it was

074just a school system of that student group if that was the school system then it would be among the top in the state of Wisconsin. But that's not our reality. >> Correct. >> Mr. Ecker shared that during uh our budget hearing in July. U we've heard that from Mr. Pinion in August. >> You're sharing it now. >> So I again my paraphrase I may be off, but my paraphrase of Dr. Worley's statement is so great data. What are we doing to ensure that all of our students have a rising tide? Not not and we don't want to prevent the students who are achieving well. We want to make sure that those students continue to achieve well, but what are we doing systemically to bring all of our students along? And >> I was also thinking

075about the balance between different schools, right? So that that ongoing not what what are we doing but how are you feeling about what we're doing because you have several initiatives in your systems work >> um that are aimed like we talked about the win and we talked about um you know getting the resources into schools but when you look at it when you see this data maybe it's just still too soon to know a lot are we making you know are you seeing are we in that heading in that direction of seeing that much more dispersion of success would be another way to think about it. Is it more dispersed across the district rather than concentrated in certain spaces? >> So, I'll jump in and like give you a couple more seconds of think time.

076I think one thing systemically that I'm really proud of is that we have grown to a place of being okay and identifying schools who have needs and and marshalling the resources there. Um, I think we've done it with a number of schools, Underwood, Madison, and and Eisenhower in particular. I think Whitman would also fall into that category. And I remember vividly my first year when I pointed out the dispar the disparaging uh data in those schools. My vision was always let's get our system now in a place where we're comfortable ensuring that the schools who have the greatest area of need we provide those resources to them and I think we've made a good transition um in that space. Um so Dr. Marggo I'll turn it over to you as Dr. Worley has given us

077a really juicy question to respond to. Yeah, and I would say that some of um the data that actually doesn't show up in this current report because it's that fresh is we have a number of schools that are um starting ahead of where they were from last fall. And so that's a good sign that uh especially with when we think about the summer slide, so to speak, uh we are not seeing um in some of our schools that that significant dip. So that's really promising too that we're starting a little bit higher proficiency um >> than the year before. >> Yeah, that's great. >> Thank you. So the way I kind of heard your question is like so we started off with all these islands and some were big islands that most students so are

078we moving into like one big island like are we moving closer to at least having a big island versus big big islands and smaller islands >> random randomly chose those students would they fall across the I'm not looking at it from a student outcomes perspective. I'm looking at it from a perspective of what is what are we providing in terms of teaching and learning to uh yield those outcomes. And so when I think about coherence, there is a much greater sense of coherence amongst all of our um traditional elementary schools, both of our middle schools and both of our high schools. um where you can bring the teachers from um all of the third grade teachers, for example, or all of the biology teachers together and they're all able to talk about the same thing.

079That did not happen a number of years ago. >> That's a great example, you know, and I think we know that there's multiple factors that pull at the student ultimate individual student success. So um you know certain uh maybe like free and reduced lunch might have a impact more in one school than the other um attendance. So we were talking about that but my sense was just like we it sounds like we're headed in that direction of being able to think of ourselves as a um as a progressively successful school district not a district with one or two successful schools. So that's another way to think think about or phrase it. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> I don't have anything else. >> All right. Thanks so much for your time and

080for all the great data. >> Thank you so much for all your work to get us here. >> Thanks. So we move to um strategic goal and item number six strategic goal systems and structures. Letter A financial report. It's Hold on. You're going to share it. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, Oh, good. All right. So, uh our first topic is August 2025 financials. So, um we are in September. We closed out August about a week and a half ago. Um we're just two months into the school year. So it's a little bit like a a skipping record at this point because we don't really have much activity uh through August. Um we did have one teacher payroll in August. So you'll see a little bit of expenses there for that. Uh but again, our first

081real benchmark uh for financials in any given fiscal year is after the first quarter uh which would be after we close September. So at our October meeting, I would uh anticipate um having at least a little more interesting information to share. Uh I had my first meeting with CISA 5 last week uh to get them up and running uh for the year to validate uh our projections. So um they're also going to be using our first fiscal quarter as their benchmark and they anticipate having a report ready for the board in November. So, as I was saying, very little has happened thus far. Um, revenues received through two months is under 1%. Um, expenses through two months is only about 8%. Here you can see graphically how little uh has happened. This is our revenues

082which we would expect almost nothing and we've gotten almost nothing. In fact, on this graph, you can see um our current year to date, which would be the orange bar is given the scale, it is so small, we don't even see it. So, we've received minuscule amount of revenue, which is to be expected. We don't receive state aid uh until the winter. We don't receive property taxes until the winter, and those are our largest sources of revenue. Here, the scales different. So you can see we have received some revenue again you know very little amounts but you can see our current versus our projection on the expense side. Uh since we do have expenses every month um you can see we we have more activity here. Um you know again only about you know under

0838% of total expenses. Uh we're trending a little high on um things outside of SARS and benefits, mostly our purchase services. Um much like we were last year, I expect that'll revert to the mean as we keep our eye on it. Sour and benefits are right where we'd expect them to be. And again, just a reminder, what are we looking for on these graphs? Um when we're looking at uh this graph, we see the budget in blue. So that's, you know, obviously we haven't spent much yet. uh our projection is gray and where we currently are is orange. And ideally what we want is for the gray and the orange to be close for our projection and our actual to be um you know a tight variance there. On the left hand side of uh

084this chart is last year. On the right hand side of the chart is this year. So again, you can see we're we're very um similar to where we were last year at this point just in terms of total uh revenue received and total expenses paid. And each month I give a projection of where we're going to end the financial uh in the fiscal year. I didn't want to exclude this because I give it every month, but again this is, you know, we're right on track, but I wouldn't expect anything different at this point in the year. Any questions on the August financials? >> Seeing none, please proceed. >> Thank you. >> So, our next topic is a wrapup of um our year-end financials from uh last year. So, I've got two. So, I pulled up

085a chart that's included in the um board minutes. Uh, and what I'm showing here is our actual for 2324 on the far left. We had an original budget that would have been uh in October of 2025. The original budget was passed in February of 20 I'm sorry, October of 2024 or for the 2025 fiscal year. The budget was passed in February of 2025. The board updated the budget and you can see our unawited financials. Uh to not bury the lead here. Um we have we ended the year better than budget. it slightly better than the um even original budget from back in the fall. So significantly better than the uh revised budget that's primarily due uh our our expenses were right on where we expected. Uh we had some welcome um good news with revenues

086uh in particular with um some some revenue we got from um there was a special state grant regarding social workers and I um I want to give Emily credit for work she did with Jess on applying for this essentially social worker grant uh to give us additional revenue and we also uh received more revenue than anticipated this year for our juvenile detention facility at Del Phillips. So that is um the bulk of the reason for the positive variance there. The only thing I'll add is this will be um good news. The ne you know we have borrowed 15 million of our total $60 million for referendum in calendar year 2026. We'll be borrowing the remaining $45 million. Um this will be very helpful for our ratings with Moody's. uh this combined with our planned uh

087surplus going into fund balance for 2020 we very favorably looked upon you any questions or comments I'll just say um thank you for bringing in the um structure to be able to make the pivot in February so we saw specifically where um we were overspending and we were able to not have to wait till the end of the year and the audit that took place while it's taking place now. Um so appreciate you and I know Jess does a lot of work and your team also looks at these numbers probably more than you want to but um is very much appreciated. So thank you for your hard work. >> Thank you. I'll pass that along to my team as well. >> You okay thank you. We can move to um letter C resolution authoring temporary

088note borrowing in an amount not to exceed $16.5 million in issuance of tax and revenue anticipation promisory notes and participation in the PMA levy and aid anticipation notes program. So that is long verbiage uh supplied by uh legal um regarding our cash flow borrowing. Um it's technically called um a cash anticipation note because we know we're going to be getting the cash. So it's in anticipation of that cash coming. Um it's backed by a guaranteed tax levy essentially. Uh so we had discussion about this uh two weeks ago and this is up for action tonight. Jamie, you want to unshare the pre the previous report still there. There we go. >> Sharing. Okay. Yeah. All right. So, um we should uh put the motion on the floor and then see if there's any further questions

089or discussion. >> Mr. Bower. >> It is recommended that the school board approve a resolution authorizing temporary note borrowing and an amount not to exceed $16.5 million issuance of tax and revenue anticip anticipation anticipation promisory notes and participation in the PMA levy and aid anticipation notes program and I so move. May I have a second? Second. Thank you. Miss Holand uh questions, comments, further discussion. Can you just summarize one more time the benefit of of making this move now and working with with this pool? Um, so we would have to acquire money for cash flow regardless. So our our choices would be to work with the local bank, um, get a line of credit, uh, or join an investment pool. Um, with the investment pool, we're able to um the the group of school districts

090that is involved pools resources towards legal fees, for instance. Um so on the fee side it's lower and on the reinvestment side um because we don't use all this money at once so we also reinvest it um you know we we only draw from it when we actually need it. So that group of districts has a larger sort of bank of funds that they can um yield greater interest rates on the return. So we get a lower rate because we're borrowing more and we get a higher rate because we're reinvesting more. >> Okay. >> Great. Thank you. >> Um just so that the community understands as well, could you just briefly explain why we are borrowing this money and um that is not due to many poor decisions or mismanagement? >> Yeah. Um so about

09140% of school districts in the state uh cash flow borrow. Um the reason for that is unless you have a fund balance of probably in the neighborhood of 20%. Um you don't have enough money in the bank to carry you through I'll call your lean times because as I said before the bulk of our revenue doesn't come until winter and spring. Yet we have essentially even expenses all 12 months. So unless you have um a significant amount of money sitting in fund balance to carry you through that um you're going to have to cash flow borrow. Uh there there is um there's I guess healthy debate across the state about what level of fund balance is enough. Um there are uh people that say you should have no fund balance or really really low fund

092balance because that is the taxpayers's money. Why why would you um you're collecting too much from us, so you should have a really low fund balance. For districts like that, they're borrowing significantly more than we are because they don't have they have far less than we do to get through. So then the other side of the coin is you should have so much fund balance that you never have to borrow, right? And then but then people will say, like I said, some people like that because you don't have to borrow, but The downside of that is you're you're can't think of a better word than um you're you're kind of sitting on on people's money um for for a use that isn't designated. So, we're sitting at kind of that in between range right now.

093Um certainly I would say we were we were um probably overly healthy with fund balance when we were approaching 40 or 50%. Um the board has a goal to get back to the point of not cash flow borrowing. U but we're going to get there slowly. >> Thank you. This was both great questions and clarifications. Sometimes people are signing on for the first time and are watching the board meeting for the first time. So thanks for explaining that. Again, we did talk about it. um when we had had this original presentation. So, not seeing any other comments, I will ask Miss Summers to please call the role. >> Miss Bzinski, >> yes. >> Mr. Bower, >> yes. >> Miss Faul, >> yes. >> Mr. Morris, >> excused. >> Miss Hy Rolland, >> yes. >> Dr.

094Wley, >> yes. >> Mr. Wadier, >> excused. And the motion carries. Uh the next item we discussed at the last board meeting as well. This is an emergency repair to a chiller uh at West High School. >> Okay. Can we um respond? Do you have a >> It is recommended that the school board approve the proposal to replace the variable speed drive system for the centrifugal chiller at number one at West High School. And I may have a second. >> Second, >> Mr. Bower. Thank you. Um any further comments or questions? We established at the last meeting that there are two chillers and one of them has had um a loss of of working and needs to be replaced. Meanwhile, there is still cooling happening. Um but uh we need to get the school back

095to its full um full capacity. >> Comments questions. Yeah. >> Um the timeline of when we're going to replace, right? We're going into cold months, right? Why do we need an AC unit? What is the timeline around rebuilding our AC unit effectively or one of our AC units at West? >> Well, we have we found through a referendum um and other things that have the flood is a good example. Other things that have broken recently, the lead times on some heavy duty mechanical um have been are seem like they're ever extending. So, um, we really need to get this order now to have it in place or, you know, typically we go into cooling season again late spring. Um, we could probably wait another month or two, but the time this is the right time

096right now. >> And then where are we funding this from? Be the next question. So, uh, the administration made a recommendation to the finance committee and the board, uh, probably about three months ago that we, um, shift our fund, um, plans from, uh, non-emergency deferred maintenance to only emergency deferred maintenance. So, the board is aware we have hundreds of millions of dollars of deferred maintenance. Um, we were using that fund to pay for things that had not yet broken but surely would and we are now reserving them for only things that have broken. So, it's coming from that funding. So, no other. >> Okay. Miss Summers, please call the RO. >> Miss Bzinski? >> Yes. >> Mr. Bower? >> Yes. >> Miss Bach? >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris? >> Excused. Miss Roland, >> yes. >>

097Dr. Worley, >> yes. >> Mr. Wier, excused. >> And the motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Acer, for your reports and all of your works. Okay, so we're ready to move on to item number seven for governance. Um, and the um legislative advocacy committee has an update. >> Yeah, absolutely. Um, so this actually comes from the discussion from two times ago where uh it was requested that the LACE provide more regular updates on what is going on, what we're what we are up to and um kind of building up that pipeline. Uh so in the past month or so, uh Mr. Mr. Morris and I have met um talked through our what we would like to execute in terms of resolutions taking a stand as a board or at least proposing that we take

098a stand as a board and how we're going to uh get the word out to our elected officials or other groups that uh we're passing resolutions on. Right? WIA would be an example from last time we met. Um, one of the things that we are keeping an eye on is the development of the ad hoc secondary school committee. Um, because well, depending on the recommendations that come from that group, um, depending on the recommendations that come from the district, um, that would likely lead to a referendum. Right? We just talked about things that we have hundreds of millions of dollars worth of deferred maintenance. So, um I wish them them the ad hoc committee luck in figuring out what they would suggest. Um but that said, in whatever decision gets made, it will likely have

099significant ripple effects across the entire city. So, one of the things that we propose that this board should consider is what is what those ripple effects are, how they're going to affect our colleagues over at city hall and our constituency as a city. Um, in the attachments, I have a letter um that would be addressed to Mr. Arshambo, which would be Dr. Mean's uh analogous person, right? the city administrator, right? Um it would be a very interesting meeting to get us and the common council and the mayor all in the same room to talk through all of these issues and what our plans how our plans will affect them so that we can take that into consideration as we get our own house in order. We figure out how we're going to do this. Um

100so the recommendation is that uh the LAC is asking Dr. Worley to send out a letter to plan to have Dr. Means and Mr. Arshambo to plan a meeting amongst our two groups um in February March somewhere along those lines. Uh by that point we should have the recommendations from the secondary ad hoc committee. Um it would give uh our two leaders time to organize a meeting like this and to set an agenda around it um so that we can have this kind of robust conversation with the entire city. >> Thank you. And this is not unprecedented. We have met before. So it's good timing. >> Um even if we didn't have a major issue, um it'd still be great to coordinate a meeting. So, >> you're just looking, you're just announcing this and >>

101yeah, >> you would you guys wanted an update. I have an update. That's that is our request for you. >> Um, is to send that letter out. I would also send it to the common council and to the mayor just so that it's all above board. Everyone knows exactly what's being asked and then we'll see if they are interested. >> Other board members, any comments or questions? Just to piggy off uh back off of that, um I appreciate that the school district and the city would want to work together. Um we're a a unique situation in that our tax dollars are coming from the same group of people. So, it makes sense to me that the city and the school district would at least I wish we actually met more frequently. We did have an

102open meeting between the common council and the board >> two and like right I think when I started I met with people from the city when I was running because of how aligned our um entities are. So again if anybody has any questions about why we're doing this I would recommend reaching out to the the legislative committee. You guys have um talked about this um multiple times. It's been open in meetings that have been put on to board docks. This meeting, I'm assuming, if it takes place, would also be a public meeting as both entities um are legally required to have all conversations like this um publicly. I encourage community members to send ideas if they have ideas on how the B the board and uh city could work together. um we could maybe pull

103sources resources together and save us money. So um I appreciate that the legislative committee has done this work to get this very open meeting potentially on a schedule for all parties. Um so thank you very much for bringing this to us tonight. >> Thank you and thanks for following up too. This was one of the items that we learned in our board governance training. >> Um and you jumped right on that. So, thanks for pushing it to the committee for pushing that forward and >> getting it going. >> I think this is what policy governance boards do. Um, I would suggest uh Mr. Bar captured uh it really well that the ad hoc committee is they're finding it it's a challenging is a challenging task that we've asked them to dive into. Um often I'm

104asked during those committee meetings is the board watching and I said of course the board is watching the the website and they are um you the board you are anticipating their recommendation and then you will go into work and go into gear starting in January. Um and I think adding this step in the process is just good good government um to collaborate with our our our city colleagues. Mr. Ran is absolutely correct. We're one of those rare school districts that shares the same exact boundaries as the city. So for example, West Dallas West Milwaukee school district has some component of their community that goes into I think it's Green is it Greenale Dr. or New Berlin? I think it's New Burlington. Um some of it goes into New Burland and obviously there's West Milwaukee and

105um and obviously West Dallas. is rare to have the same boundaries for a school system and a city. Um so I think it's imperative that we talk. Um clearly when you talk about secondary schools in particular, there's so many services that our community use and they're interchangeable in terms of our theaters, our athletic fields. U there's just a lot. I mean, so for example, the fact that Hart Park was flooded out is a good thing that we have the Waltosa West football field. Um, I think it's a good thing that we have the soccer complex at Whitman. Those are just examples of the impact of this this committee um ad hoc committee and its work. So, um, I appreciate Mr. Bower and Mr. Bower and Mr. Morris put a lot of thought into the communication

106that will go to the city. Uh but I think it's just another it's another you're doing your due diligence when you have this task in front of you in January to to have u that collaborative meeting in place and and and and yes, Liz is absolutely correct. This is not uh new. Uh you have met with the city council in the past. Um I'm really proud of our relationship. I I feel like we have a strong and collaborative um colleial relationship with the city of Wales. >> Great. Um we can move on to our item, last item of the evening, adjournment. I'm going to ask for a volunteer since Mr. Morris was excused tonight. >> Uh the time is 7:41. Uh I move to >> All right. We have a second. Second. Let's >> have

107a roll. Thank you for that. And Miss Summers, please call the role. >> Miss Bzinski, >> yes. >> Mr. Bower, >> yes. >> Miss Bach, >> yes. >> Mr. Morris, >> excused. >> Miss Himer Rolland, >> yes. >> Dr. Rley, >> yes. >> Mr. Wier, >> excused. And the motion carries. We are adjourned.