WSD Board Meeting, Regular, July 14, 2025

001I call the July 14th, 2025 school board meeting to order. It is 6:02 p.m. We are in conference room C of the Fiser Administrative Building at 12121 West North Avenue. Miss Summers, please call the role. >> Miss Bzinski, she's excused. >> Mr. Bower, here. >> Miss Buck, here. >> Mr. Morris >> excused. >> Miss Hammer Rolland >> here. >> Dr. Worley, >> she's excused. >> Mr. Wier >> here. >> Okay. And we do have quorum this evening. First thing on our agenda for tonight is the superintendent's update. >> Thank you, Miss Hawan. Board members. Tim, I I would uh if you could please bring a presentation up, that would be great. It's um daunting to say, but I will say it publicly. We are about six and a half weeks away from the start of

002the school year. Um and and while it's 87 degrees outside and it's wonderful and we're in the midst of summer, we we are uh very busy getting ready for the upcoming school year. We're really excited and want to share some updates and this uh up this superintendent update on where we are with things. Thank you, Tim. We can go to the next slide. I like to always start uh by grounding us in what our mission statement uh states. Uh the mission statement should drive our behaviors um as stakeholders in our our school community. Not only if you are an employee, but if you are a constituent that wants to see the best out of our school system. Our mission statement uh reads, "We serve as active advocates to provide equitable access to excellent academic, co-curricular,

003and social emotional learning opportunities that empower every student to thrive as passionate, productive, and creative citizens." And and so when we go to that mission statement, what's at what's at the core, what's our call to action? Um, we're designed with equity at the center of our work. Um, we want to make sure that we integrate academic and nonacademic supports for all of our students and that we measure our success for our students holistically. We can go to the next slide too. That's at the core what we do um for our students. Oops. That's okay. Let's let's go to the next slide. That's good time. And this this is also um this presentation has been uploaded on board doc. So if you want to get a call get a version of it and review it yourself

004that would be great. Our vision our vision is very clear. We want to ensure an exceptional student experience for all students. We want to eradicate uh inequity. We want to eliminate disproportionality and achieve proficiency for all. When I arrived in the school district, the the the community and the board was very clear with me that they wanted us to focus on our achievement gaps and that we had to be purposeful in making sure that we are creating a an excellent student experience for all students. Just not for some students, but for all of our students. I'm really excited to dig into this work more in August. Uh Dr. Marble and her team have been looking at the ACT performance of certain student groups in our our district. And we're really excited to share some of

005that information with you. And so when you look at our our our vision statement, the call to action, the call to action is one that is a moral imperative, not a slogan. We must reject isolated success or islands of excellence. Um, and I shared that article with our community a few years ago of islands of excellence. We can't be satisfied with just having islands of excellence, but we have to make sure that we're committed to systemwide transformation to ensure that every student um is receiving the best educational experience that they can. Um this is not optional. This is not something that is a choice, but it's the foundation of our work. So, what's going well in our district right now? If we can go to the next slide, Tim can. I'll get there. Okay. [Music]

006Good morning. >> Okay. Outstanding. Um, so what's going well? What's happening in our our system? The first session for our summer school ended this past uh July 10th. We started the second session of summer school today, July 14th. The numbers here are staggering. I believe that we have one of the largest summer schools. Uh when you consider suburban school systems um in in CISA 1, uh we have a total of 876 students enrolled in high school credit courses. Um that's a lot of students. And then we have another 28 students enrolled in high school enrichment courses. Uh we have a total of 1,178 students um enrolled in our junior kindergarten through fifth grade summer school program and another 187 enrolled in our middle school um program for a grand total of 167 FTE um or

007full-time equivalent uh staff members who are working with our kids across uh the summer school program. Many people will always ask the question, why do we have a position identified and and focused on preparing for summer school coordination throughout the school year? We have that position because this is a major undertaking u for our community. Many of our families are dependent on our summer school program. I want to take the time to thank all the teachers um not only teachers who are Waltosa school district employees but also educators from other school systems who come and work with our kids through the summer. I also want to take the time to thank Mr. Steve Oliver u department chair for the social studies department at Wulsa West. He does a wonderful job um in coordinating our summer

008school program. So why is summer school important? Well, there's three real major reasons. one, it offers academic enrichment for students. For some of our students, they can't afford math nasium. They can't afford a tutor. And so, summer school is really important uh for for those children to ensure that we're not creating opportunity gaps uh for for kids. It builds literacy stamina. And what I mean by literacy stamina is that we are continuing to keep books and and and and keeping academic literacy in the forefront of our students and it prevents the summer slide. Um there's a there's a term called the summer slide for for children who maybe they step away from academic work throughout the entire summer. When they come back to the school uh year uh we see something called a summer slide

009where they regress and they fall backwards. The summer school here in Walso makes sure that we prevent the summer slide. And then finally we it supports development of academic skills for students of all ages. Just as a side note, I want to just share with the board and the community. Uh there should be a special um article that'll come out um soon from the journal Sentinel. There was a reporter at summer school today uh interviewing current first grade students who are going to second grade. Um and the the article is a cute story. It's going the the first graders or now the rising second graders are giving advice to incoming first graders on what they should expect um from school. Um, and I think uh I'm thankful to the Journal Sentinel for recognizing the good

010work we're doing with our summer school and also interviewing our students. Some of the advice uh that the Journal Sentinel reporter heard from our students was was truly precious and I I think you'll you'll enjoy the article. Let's go to celebrations. Um last uh last meeting I shared with you a video of our high school graduations. Um, and they were great celebrations, but I just want to make sure that the community knows that we had a we have a 93.6 graduation rate when you consider Waltosa East, Waltosa West, and the Waltosa Virtual Academy. If you take East and West alone, we have nearly a 95% graduation rate. Um, and and that if you I know that the the print is somewhat small, is some of the highest graduation rates we've had in our organization over

011the last five years. That's something to celebrate. But if we can go to the next slide, what I'm even more excited about is that when you look at demographic groups, we're seeing an increase in the number of students, uh, specifically students of color who are graduating from our organization. And this is important to note that the Waltosa Virtual Academy is an offramp for students who are seeking graduation. And so I don't want to have them as as an afterthought. We're seeing that a lot of our children who are also identify as either Hispanic or or African-American, we're seeing an uptick in that graduation rate as well. I'm proud of that work and our teachers deserve a lot of credit for making sure that these young people are getting the the courses and the requirements that

012they need. And there is a connection between what we do with summer school and what we're seeing uh with our high school graduation rates. focus on equity and and that work has been really um the forefront been on on the forefront and the center of our work as an administrative team in this board and and I just wanted to share this good news more good news our advanced placement scores as you all know college board offers something called advanced placement courses in the spring those young people then take a course um and or excuse me take they take an examination that examination uh in some cases for for uh Many of our universities, if you get a a certain score, typically a three or above, you can gain college credit. Well, we had a total

013of 78.9% of our students gain a three or above. Highest rate uh of of students reaching that that three or above uh that status and and plateau in the last five years. I want to thank our teachers. I want to thank our division of academic performance, Dr. Dr. Marble and her team made sure that our teachers were supported. And when we talk about support, support comes through the means of professional learning and and giving teachers time to talk with one another and to plan with one another. Um, and and Dr. Marvel and her team were very explicit and deliberate around creating those supports for our teachers. And the the result were was that the teachers were better prepared to work with our young people to get them ready for those exams. and looked at the

014results. We're really proud uh of those results. But again, let's focus on our work around equity. We're grounded in our mission and our vision. You will see, look at that uptick of the green bar for students who identify as African-American and the number of those students and the percentage of those students who are achieving three or above. Or take a look at the number of of students who identify as Hispanic or Latino. That number has increased. Again, this coincides with the fact that our administration uh made sure that we were providing supports and financial uh uh opportunities for young people to take AP exams. We want to close down those opportunity gaps that persist in so many school districts and persisted here in the Waltosa school district. We we're breaking down those barriers. We're being

015very purposeful around this work. Again, I want to thank our teachers first and foremost because they are on um the front line of making sure that this work happens. I want to thank Dr. Marble and her team for the support that they provided. And that when we talk about the concept of support, that's what support looks like. Provide teachers with the the professional learning, with the resources, with the time so they can prepare to do really good work. So, I want to just bring us back to what does the state expect? Tim, we can go to the next slide. You may ask, how did we get these results? You know, sometimes when you have good results, people are skeptical. They'll say, well, how did that happen? We know what we did. We focused on specifically

016standard number two and ST standard number four. um where we made sure that teachers had time to plan with one another and that we also created opportunities to utilize assessments for and of learning to ensure that we are measuring accurate progress for students. In the month of August, we will provide you an update um as a board around the the the change in the grade system that we used at the secondary level last year. And we we we believe that while there was some growing pains with that change in the grade grading system that this work coincides with what you're seeing with the AP U results that the work really is grounded in standard 4 assessment for an assessment of learning. Just have a few um final comments and then I'll I'll turn it back

017over to you, Madam Chair. the state budget. It has been finalized. Um, you'll hear from Mr. Eer a little later in the meeting around this. I don't want to steal his thunder, but I I have a link here um from the Wisconsin Homeowners Alliance website where they they've done a a quick 30 second commercial to say that homeowners, property owners shouldn't be saddled uh with the the fact that the legislature has refused to give general aid to public schools. What happens in school systems across the state of Wisconsin, if the state legislature doesn't provide general aid, then school districts typically go to the taxpayers through the form of an operational referendum. We're seeing record numbers of of operational referendums continuing to to come to the forefront. Now, I want to be very very clear. There

018has always been um different opinions around how school districts should spend money and that's going to always be there. Um but what I believe is not debatable is if the legislature continues to fail to not give inflationary increases to public schools, we're going to always find ourselves in this situation because the costs don't stay static. The cost will not stay static in terms of how much it costs to operate a school system. Utilities continue to go up. Costs to pay strong employees continue to go up. And if that's not offset by the legislature and giving general aid, something has to give. And what we heard in our community and what I continue to hear in our community is that we want the very best for our children. uh we want to see the results that

019I've just shared with you around AP um uh AP results and graduation results but that there's a cost that so that's associated u with that work. I have mixed opinions about the budget. Um on one hand um I'm concerned that there there isn't any general aid increase from the legislature. That that's a concern. The increase in special education reimbursement is a step in the right direction, but more is needed to serve all of our children and families well. So, I'm mixed. Um there's um it's a mixed bag of how I feel about things. Again, Mr. Eer will tell you that um overall we still have a long way to go. We have registration that needs to happen between now and the start of the school year. So, it's important for families to register so we

020know how many students uh will attend our schools. Then we have the third Friday count that comes and we have to make sure that that's an accurate number. Uh that's important. Um typically in early October, then there's the the final identification of aid that is provided to school districts through the Department of Public Instruction. And then finally, the last Monday in October, Mr. Eer will come back to you and ask you to finalize um the budget. So there's still a lot of steps to go. Um but just wanted to share with you that I mixed but overall um the the the state budget was uh a slight positive for our district. And then I'll conclude um by just sharing with you the next slide, please, Tim. We continue to see good numbers uh with our

021voluntary teacher retention rate. We're at 91.7. Contrary to um statements that there's an exodus uh in the Waltosa school district, that's just not accurate. Uh we are retaining our staff. Um I was just reading an article um this past week that stated that in most industries we're seeing retention numbers somewhere in the area of 85 to 80%. Uh so for us to have the threshold of 90% um is strong and and right now uh we're we're still at a good we're at a good flip here of the 91.7. The teacher uh field rate is at 95.2. Um we're having some struggles in identifying special education teachers. Um but that is a challenge that we've had in our industry for a long time. special education teachers come at a premium and uh they're all of our

022teachers are special, but they they definitely have um um a hold on the marketplace in terms of vacancies. So, I just wanted to share that information with the board and then I I'll just go to our last slide, which is in the Waltosa school district, we're we're united. We have a shared purpose. We may disagree on how certain things may get done, but I hope that we all are all um focused on our shared purpose that every student, every story is our priority. Uh and that that that work means that when we do our jobs well, all students succeed and that we have to make sure that we are closing opportunity and achievement gaps. If we do this, we will fulfill our promise of public education not only in Walt Joseph but the state of

023Wisconsin. So, uh, I just want to thank you for your support of equitable public education, uh, here in Waltosa School District. We have a lot of good things to celebrate. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to share it with you. You may have some questions for me. So, there's there's space for that, but that's what I have. >> Yes. >> Does any of the board members have questions? I can certainly ask some questions. I was going to ask them uh during the consent agenda portion. Um but just about uh the fill rate uh what does the normal cycle of how the teacher fill rate looks like? So what should we be looking for by August 15th? How should what should we be looking for by the beginning of the school year? Um, and is

024that accurate or is that the same for teachers as it is administration? Um, principles, APS, that sort of thing. >> I was asking. >> Sure. Um, good evening. Um, so for school districts based on the cycle of our employment terms, um, we will establish our fill rate for 2025 uh, in September of this year, in which we've done the past several years. Um I would say that um there is if you think about um employment arrangements um if you think about year round staff uh there can be changes throughout the school year for staff who work um year round um non-contract that is um typically um you'll see a little bit more volatility in our hourly um school year staff um than you would uh in teachers for instance. Um and then as you as

025you continue to think through the different employment classifications, we'll see um very little volat volatility in terms of teachers once the school year starts and contracts, their contract time has started. Very little change um in administrative positions uh again uh after July 1. Um so we will lock in on that on that um retention rate in September. Um, last year we were right at or just above uh 90%. Um, I'm expecting that that's where we're going to land again this year. Um, and other school districts uh are um experienced I would say like we did more volatility in like two, three, four years ago and are now um uh settling um at what their rate is. >> Sure. So like the hiring season for teachers should be wrapped up by September. >> Correct. And then

026what is the hiring season so to speak look like for contract administrators, principles, that sort of thing? >> Yep. Uh so that typically starts I would say in February, March and that's typically concluded by now. Um by July one most school districts have all of their staff in place. >> Excel. Uh that's what I would have on this. Seeing no more questions, we will move to the public comment portion of our meeting. Members of the Wawaossa School 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 point, this input in decision-making. The board requests that individuals limit their comment on each item to three minutes. Following any

027comment, an individual board member may respond on the issue raised. However, it is not the intent of the public comment portion of the agenda for the board to enter into a debate with members of the community. Because non-aggenda items are not publicly posted in advance, no action will be taken on public comment regarding non-aggenda items this evening. Um, we'll start with people in the room who have public comment or who have comments. >> Heidi, do you want to time to 30 minutes >> and then Mr. Bower will be monitoring the three minutes per speaker. >> As a reminder, when you see the yellow um sign go up, that means you have one minute left and then when the red sign is up, you have used all three minutes. Do we have anybody in the room

028tonight who would like to provide public comments? Hello, my name is Bob Dhy and I have a soontobe second grader at Madison Elementary. I currently have some very big concerns about the staffing situation that's going on there. According to the district staffing report that I got from the district's website last night, uh, every single third, fourth, and fifth grader, a fifth grade teacher next year will be new to the school. If you include teachers that we've had leave in the middle of last year and the year before, that means eight teachers have left Madison in less than two years. So, while the retention rate of the district is good, there does seem to be an exodus going on at Madison. This much staff turnover, it does not lead to a great learning environment for the

029students. While I understand that some teachers might move or go to another district for better opportunities, eight teachers in that time frame seems to be an insane amount. In my experience, people tend to leave their boss, not their job. It seems like something must be going on with the administration that would make that many teachers want to leave. My request to the school board would be that you guys would look into what's going on with the leadership in Madison. Our kids deserve the best learning environment and it seems like the kids at Madison are not currently getting that. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Does anybody else in the room have comment tonight? >> Jamie, is there anybody online? >> We do have one hand raised. >> Kelly, you have the microphone. >> Hello. Can

030you hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay. Hi, my name is Kelly Goldman. My address is 1846 71st Street. And I just wanted to call to thank the board and the administrative team. I'm one of several parents and community members who submitted a request for you all to consider the policy 5120 for intra district transfer. after um some conversations with PTA leaders within the district about how that policy was sort of playing out and creating an imbalance in the elementary populations and also possibly perpetuating sort of the islands of excellence that we're trying to move away from in our district. And I see that on the agenda this evening the reading of the new policy and I think it really thoroughly addresses a lot of the concerns that we had about that policy and the way

031it was being used. So, I just wanted to say thanks for being responsive and for the thoughtful analysis. And I'm hoping that moving forward, like Dr. Mean said just a moment ago, this policy will help continue or help focus a little more on creating wonderful robust enrollment and environments at all of our elementary schools so that all families and all students have a great experience. So, I just wanted to say thanks. Thank you. >> We do have another hand raised. >> Um Chris Murka, you have the microphone. Today, the 2030 task force released part two of the XCore report building on May's findings. The pattern is clear. A systemic governance failure arming students, educators, and public trust. Since May, two dozen whistleblowers and counting have stepped forward from across the district describing retaliation, intimidation, and

032administrative misconduct. Madison alone had 10 former and current staff into a single detailed whistleblower account. And now as Dr. Mean speaks on equity, the Department of Public Instruction has flagged Watossa for racial disproportionality in special education and low performance among black students. On some equity metrics, we rank among the lowest districts statewide. How can this bull continue to look away while like stem McKinley Madison eat Eisenhower and Underwood suffer systemic harm when educators speak up they're punished when families raise concern concerns they're dismissed state agencies have issued flags and acknowledge complaints the community is watching and not just the community but also those outside the community. You have the evidence, you have the reports, you have the time. What more do you need to act? Thank you. >> Darren Moes Rice. >> Okay. With that,

033we will conclude the public comment portion of our meeting. Moving to the consent agenda. Are there any items on the consent agenda which board members would like to remove for separate discussion and action? >> Okay. Not necessarily. Well, yeah. One or just general discussion. >> Okay. What item? >> Um uh I >> Oh. long since last ADA. And >> yeah, I just wanted to to make sure I I had it right in my mind. Um, so we I I've this is one of our first major projects from the uh the uh building referendum. And I would just want to point out that it is an ADA improvement because I've heard a lot of criticism >> um from others in the community that we uh we the the vote for the money was um precedented on

034on us doing ADA improvements and prioritizing them and then saying that we are not doing that. And I wanted to point out that we are in fact doing that and making it a priority. Um, and I hope that people are paying attention to that. >> Thank you for making a >> seeing no other items that you would like to discuss or remove. Can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Uh, it is recommended that school board approve the consent agenda and I so move. >> May I have a second? >> Second. Miss Summers, please call the role. >> Miss Bzenski. Mr. Bower, >> yes. >> Miss Bach, >> yes. >> Mr. Morris, Miss Hammer Roland, >> yes. >> Dr. Worley, Mr. Wadier, >> yes. >> Madam Chair, may I just point out

035that uh under consent uh items E FG are annual policies that must be updated and and that's u a requirement. And then also I just want to highlight C and D. Um as always the generous gifts of our community is appreciated. Um and we go every meeting with some type of generous gift that is provided to our schools in some way shape or form. So and Mr. Thank you for your uh for mentioning I because yes uh there was significant concern and energy around are we making proper ADA improvements at all of our schools and um Mr. uh Lefountain is very busy making sure that this work. So thank you for highlighting. Moving on to item number five, strategic goal six, operations. We'll start with the presentation of architectural engineering planning services. Believe is that

036>> Mr. and Good evening. >> Good evening. Um, can I find the attachment through? Is it in the folder? >> Should be. Uh, Tim, I think you have it already. >> Got it. So, in your packet is um a concept agreement between uh in principle uh provided by P and Zimman Design Group. Um the purpose of what we're going to talk about here is we sent out an RFP uh for architectural design and engineering services related to um work that will be ongoing for the secondary ad hoc committee and then any subsequent efforts to um take the modeling that we've talked about or any other moning modeling further. Um, and with that we need to partner with uh a professional design firm that can help guide the district uh and the ad hoc committee through

037that process. So the RP was sent out. We sent it out to firms that responded to our 2024 referendum work and sign work. Um, and those firms were P and Zimmerman. Um through analysis of the fees that were provided um we were approached and uh by P and Zimmerman with a concept of um kind of having the best in the worlds to approach the uh the advice that we're seeking from the firms that being that um P having a long familiarity with the district is currently engaged in some of the secondary very ad hoc work going ongoing um and then bringing to the table another architectural with their expertise their ability to do more facility assessment secondary schools and act as the architect of record. So the concept for discussion is essentially PRA would lead

038the district advise the district in that planning work and then upon uh any work that might occur as a result of the secondary uh planning efforts if there were already construction or remodeling. uh is their amendment would be um uh have an agreement with the district to assist the district with that and any potential uh referendum planning that might result >> and I sorry I wanted to introduce if I if I may um with us is Nick Ken from P and Stuart Lar from Zoom Design Group. Uh they obviously P has a long history with the district. Zimmerman does as well. They have a long uh past history on projects for the district as well. So I they're available for any questions you may have as well. >> Questions. >> Yeah. I'm sorry. Um you

039said we uh reached out to and asked for uh bids from groups that interacted with us for the 2024 referendum process. Uh, how many was that? So, in 2024, I sent the RFP out to, I believe, five architectural design firms. Only two responded, and those two were P and Zimmerman. >> Um, so that's that's both of those responded. That's why they're here. Both P and Z both correct. And the uh assuming the the reason that we have both on one proposal is that we have a large scope of needs and you're going with a divide and conquer. Each group take the area that they have are the most efficient in and have the most expertise in and uh try to help us make sure we're on budget. Correct. >> I think with budget would not

040necessarily be in play here. Maybe some conceptual budgeting might might occur with partnership with a construction firm as well. Um I I think you characterize it very well. Um we're going to have the familiarity of P and their uh current work they're doing right now in tandem with another firm that has great experience in the educational market. Um and I think those fresh eyes on our secondary uh facilities and the advice they can give us on those will be a benefit to the district. Um so yes that I think you characterize it very well. >> Go ahead. >> Um so uh I didn't quite understand the when you said above budget. Um so this proposal is it is it already budgeted somewhere? Is it like where where does the the two numbers I'm seeing on

041the screen under fee structure where where do those live in our finances? >> I'll I'll let Scott answer that, but um essentially the PRA fee would be for that that secondary ad hoc uh consultation uh modeling scenarios and so on and educational program. And the Zimmerman fee of 67 would be um or the indepth facility analysis of all secondary schools. And I I'll let Scott speak to the budget. >> So I think I think the question that you're getting at Jason is will it be on budget and and did we budget for it? So to both those pieces we were able to budget in at 42526 or work they're assisting relative to the ad hoc committee um which may or may not bring a recommendation for facilities to the board. So any cost beyond what's

042in this contract um would be a separate essential item for the board um relative to a referendum that may or may not happen. Um this is just to get us to the point of figuring out what it is we need at the secondary schools and their combined work and the cost won't exceed what's there. Thus we're able to budget for it this year. I'm sorry. I thought you referred to any budget for construction you have going forward. >> Yeah. No, I just didn't know like what what talking about. >> Any other questions from the board? >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> And then are you going to go over the capital improvement plan as well? Item B. Yeah. Perfect. Thank you for being here tonight. >> Thanks. >> And I will I'll just

043add holding on that we will the next meeting we'll have uh contracts uh for the board to review as well the official EAA documents that are mentioned here. >> Okay. The next item, so in front of you in the attachment is a document that many of you probably have seen already. Uh this is a two-year plan for the capital improvement projects that the board has approved. And I think since the first approval back in January 8 of 25 formal appro approval, there's been revisions to this as um project scope and uh costs were further refined on projects as projects were completed and as we had emergency issues that occurred over time and they were added to the capital improvement plan. So this plan was again revised and presented to the financial resource committee last month.

044Um, so what I'll highlight here are some changes. As you look through both columns identified at each school, um, we have a water main replacement that was an emergency repair. That's a estimate. Uh, and that project is completed and I believe it's on the agenda for discussion later. Um, and as we go through, you see that a majority of the projects in 2425 have been completed. As we move through the document and we focus on the last two pages, I'll focus first on the first column. There are a couple projects that are near completion. And as you look at the bottom line, um we have approximately $122,000 in value of those uh of those total 2425 projects to complete. some carryover, I guess, in the 2526 school year, but they are budgeted for and they're

045all on budget or or under budget. Um, as we point to as I point over to the 2526 column, uh, Scott Eker and I worked on this together. Um, and we it was decided given the state of the balance of the capital improvement was so low to rep prioritize some of the projects in 2526. So the items you see for Longfellow uh Whitman and uh East are what we're considering we have to do. Uh we cannot defer these things anymore. Um and those would be projects for the 2526 year. Um when you look at West that's probably the biggest change in order to fill that capital improvement B budget back to a healthy balance. It was decided to defer the standby power generator uh the unit substation and electrical um remodel at West and uh

046it was decided to defer any roofing improvements at West in an effort to rebuild that capital improvement. The entry canopy remodel uh that's something that's failed. the center street improvements were we're already committed to and then as you saw in the consent agenda we're making those improvements uh at west on that hillside really good project uh that will coincide with the work on center street and really provide a nice finished uh uh path for everyone to use. So, with that, um, the revised, uh, plan will show a balance as of right now in fund 41 of approximately $1.2 million. >> Can I can I add a little color here, too? >> Yes, please. >> Um, for anyone that may have watched the uh, finance and resources committee meeting or read the minutes, this is something

047we also discussed there. Um to kind of just get some context here, uh our our um capital projects fund is is at a level now that I'd like to reserve it essentially for emergencies. If we don't have money there for emergencies, then we'll have to pull it from our general fund, which is we want to use primarily for educating students. And um given that uh and I think um the water main leak at Jefferson is a perfect example of something that we we did not know would happen, right? Um and if we exhaust all of our capital projects funds for um even though we know a roof is old, it hasn't collapsed yet. Um, I want I want us to reserve some money for the unknowns that we do know will happen. And um, so

048my concern and talking to Kevin and finance committee was if we were to spend all this down, we'd have nothing left for those unknowns that are going to happen with our aging facilities. So you can see uh, now we're calling the balance in fund 41 an emergency use balance. So instead of planning things out, we know we just have to reserve that for those unknown things that will come up. >> Any questions or comments from other board members? Yeah, I'll just share in finance, we also talked about um with the work going on with the secondary ad hoc committee that we didn't want to commit such large amounts for projects that may or may not need to be done based on their um decisions and what the board votes on for secondary schools. >> I

049do. Sure. Um so this is mostly to Scott then. Um if we're reserving 1.2 2 million in our fund 41. What would be we should be replenishing that? Is there a plan to be putting money into fund 41 year overyear? Um is that part of the 2526 budget? Is that something that'll come out later in the 2728 budget? How should or does that look? Um, I'm going to maybe answer part of that as part of the state budget update, too. Um, but right now, any surplus we have, we're designating for fund 10 fund balance. Um, should, of course, the board could take official action or direct me to put it to fund 41 instead. Um, from a from a DPI standpoint, um, fund balance for either of those could be spent on capital items. Uh,

050fund balance from fund 41 could not be spent on anything other than capital items. So, um, there are certain state aid advantages to putting money into fund 41 and spending it from there, but it it re then it it it puts more restrictions on the board on they have to spend it from there. So, I think before we would decide where we want to put fund balance, I'd want to go through with the board the real specific pluses and minuses of having it be in one fund balance versus another. But right now it's all planned to go to fund 10. >> Thank you. That's all I have. >> Thank you. We'll move uh to item C uh state budget update. So Mr. Echer will join us. >> Okay. So, um I used to do a

051lot of work with Washington school districts. Am >> I not sharing? There we go. >> It's sharing. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Um, and the school districts in Washington, their fiscal year ran runs September to August, so coincides with uh academic year, but they would always complain to me about how their state budget wasn't done in May and and their fiscal year didn't start until September. And I always thought, boy, I wish I had I wish I was complaining about three months uh of lead time. Um, and what I'm getting at is honestly the state did a a pretty good job getting this done relatively quickly. I remember years where we were well into July before we had anything from the state. There's also years where it's done in April or May. So, we're kind

052of on par for the course here. Um that said, um I was just on a webinar on Friday for with WASB as they were outlining um their interpretation of what's in the state budget for education. The week prior to that, I was on a WBO webinar and they were outlining things and and there's differences interpretation from one week to the next. So, uh, I I bring that up because to say we're still working through the exact impacts on our district and as Dr. Mean said, um, for the purpose of the budget publication we be approving later that that the the deadline for print was prior to the state finishing their budget. So, um, what will be presented to you later for adoption and on July 28th at the budget hearing is the most conservative revenue

053budget. Um, I am certain things will get better from there and I want to go through the the spots where I think things where well where I know they'll change. I just don't know how much yet as we're still working through that. So, uh, the first thing is our July 1st aid estimate. uh we were anticipating we we um you know we've got I'll continually give credit to the the past administration who uh built our debt for the the 2018 referendum in such a way that frankly we found a loophole in the the state aid formula that um saves us uh I I just looked it up somewhere in the neighborhood of about $20 million to saving taxpayers since 2018. Um and what so what that does is one year uh we get a whole

054bunch of state aid and the next year we get less. Um had we not found that loophole we do would just get less every year. So we were this was this is one of the years we were anticipating less. Um and that's essentially about where we are where the July 1 estimate is about $187,000 less than we had budgeted. that won't be finalized until October, but that's right around the right ballpark. That has no impact on our budget because um whatever we don't collect in state aid uh we can collect via the revenue cap on property taxes. So more state aid would help pro uh property owners, less state aid um hurts property owners, but no impact on the actual budget itself. the the big win uh for all school districts is this the special

055ed aid increase. Um that's going to be a um we anticipate around 10%. Um it's a it's a big positive for us. Um from a budget standpoint, there's no impact on on property taxes and no impact on policy. Uh open enrollment tuition and this is the thing that changed in the the one week uh in between. Um, initially thought it was going to go up about 20%. It's still going up about 10%. Um, that's a positive to our budget. Uh, without us, you know, we're not we're not taking any more students. We're just getting more for the students that we already said could come. So, um, that's a net positive. It has no impact on property taxes. uh from a policy standpoint once once we know exactly what those dollars are um I would like

056to cost out for the board again whether it what our best strategy is going forward given that we're receiving more money than the last time we costed that out um voucher payments. So these are payments that our residents make um so that students across the state can go to private schools. um this um this will go up. Uh it has no impact on our budget, but it does have a negative impact on property taxes because we levy as well as every district in the state levies to um send money to private schools across the state. Uh another win is our high cost special ed. Um, it's going from it's going up to about 90% reimbursement now for our district. I mean, that's that's good, but to give you a frame of reference, that's about triple

057what it currently is. This year, we're anticipating or last year we got right in the middle of years here. 2425 that just finished. Our revenue is about 200,000 for that. So, if that triples, that's about 600,000. So, um, another win for us. Again, no, um, that's just a positive to the budget, no impact on property taxes. And finally, um, this the state decided they had a clerical error. Uh, and I've been, this is one of the items I've been talking about all year where I wasn't sure whether the money was going to, uh, stay in the revenue cap or, uh, land outside the revenue cap. So they have moved this act 12 money which was uh essentially they determined a one-time money outside of the revenue limit back into the revenue limit. So this will

058have a negative impact on our budget. It'll have a positive impact on property taxes because essentially it will look like more state aid. The positives though overall are going to outweigh the negatives from a budget standpoint. So, I anticipate, you know, uh what you'll be approving on June 28th, July 28th, uh is a a budget with about 1.2 1.3 million as surplus. I would expect uh in October when you have final budget approval, it will be greater than that. Um but again, we have there's lots of steps to go through. Third Friday account we mentioned. Um that so that'll include our residents, non-residents, how many are going elsewhere. Um we've we'll have uh um staffing finalization. Uh and finally, the state will certify their state aid to us on October 15th. And then um by

059November 8th, I believe we need to certify the levy. So the board normally uh certifies the levy the second board meeting in October. Any questions from the board? >> Uh start. So regarding the open enrollment u 20% tuition increase the uh even though this year's incoming minimum was set to zero new students um the existing students uh the reimbursement for or the amount for them is 20% higher which means it may go from a cost to a surplus or student. So yeah, um and it's not going to be 20%. That was as of this writing and then I learned later it's probably closer to 10 to 15%. Um the I think the most difficult thing with open enrollment is the what is the marginal cost of adding one student, right? Um, let's say we have,

060and I don't have the class size ranges memorized, um, but if if we have 16 first graders at, uh, Eisenhower and we add a 17th first grader, the marginal cost of that student, whe whether they're our own student or an open enrollment student, is essentially zero. Um, and I believe that probably when Wawaossa started um, aggressively adding open enrollment students, it probably was, right? The old analogy is if you fill seats on a plane, it doesn't cost anymore to fly the plane. Um, but if it if you reach that tipping point where you need to add a second plane, that's when when things get out of whack. So, I think that we what the board is working on right now is right sizing open enrollment. Um, you know, we really we didn't just tap the

061brakes, we we slammed on the brakes as far as having new students come. Given though this this um additional money available, I think it at least warrants another study so that I can come back to the board and say, "Hey, this is still the right decision or not." >> Right. I think it warrants another study, but I I would also want us to revisit the reasons why we went down to zero to begin with. And you know, um, history tends to repeat itself. The the reason it was brought up in the beginning was it was a way to generate revenue in a tight time, which is where we are right now. And I don't wouldn't want us to have it flip on us then in a few years and then we regret it because it

062it is a full how long how many is it a full 12 years to to uh for them to phase out. So we're it's a 12-year decision. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> Okay. We'll move to discussion of the Jefferson Elementary School water main repairs. Is that you as well? So, I think I can cover this. Kevin, jump in if I miss anything here. Um, so we had a water main break uh at at Jefferson. If any of you have summer school students that were going there, we were very worried about having access to water and um keeping the building open or not. Uh so, this is one of those things that we could not control, right? So, the water man break uh I'll tell you as best I know it thought was going

063to be a relatively easy repair. It kept breaking at different spots in the line. Um I I that is not my expertise, but I understand what that means as we had to keep fixing it. It got to be a bigger project that we had to rip up um the city's uh concrete and asphalt to get it fixed. Um that means that we have to repair that to get, you know, all the way back to where our our ownership of that pipe begins. So, as as Kevin um highlighted, we estimate that cost to be about $70,000. Uh we'll give you updates as we go when we when it's complete. But I don't um this is just an example of um I don't know that the community or board has been made aware in the past when

064these types of emergencies happen um how how we address it. So, it's simply creating an awareness that these things happen and if we want to maintain having a school open, we have to have water. >> Any questions on this item? >> And that would be the remaining purpose of fund 41. >> Exactly. >> For when these things happen. >> We're hoping there's not another a break at a different school, but you just never know. >> And that wasn't related at all to the there's a lot of construction going on in that area. Is that was the water main break related to that or was that completely separate than the city's construction? >> You may refer to all traffic. >> Well, they just they're tearing up a lot of the roads over there. Was that >>

065Yeah. All completely separate. Okay. >> I have >> Okay. Thank you. All right. Moving to action to approve budget for publication. So, I will be asking for action for this. Um, so that uh the state requires that our proposed budget be published in the newspaper prior to the the budget hearing. Um, it's kind of weird because you're you're not approving the budget here. You're approving that it can be in the newspaper and then at the budget hearing you would actually approve the budget. So, the format here is this isn't something I made up. um th this is the required DPI format uh for per state statute. At the budget hearing um you'll get much more you and the public get much more explanation in I think a more meaningful way about what's in the budget.

066Again, this is simply um state statute. >> Any questions? for um uh and would you mind if I we took a step back? Can you run us through how um what the calendar looks like for the budget? Right. So, we're going to have the hearing. We're going to approve the budget on the 28th. What else is going to happen to the 2526 budget over the course of the next 12 months? And then when does the 26 the work for the 2627 budget begin? >> Sure. So um maybe I'll back up further with how 2526 work because that's essentially how 2627 will work. >> Um we'll we'll bring uh so 2526 uh we brought a a multi-year projection to the board. I believe it was December. And at that time um also um gave the board

067preliminary estimates for things like staffing numbers um uh um salary increases so that I could build that uh projection. So everything starts with that in I'll call it early winter. Um the next step for the board I believe was probably maybe around February where I just gave an update on here's the projection for it would have been 2526 at that point. Um I think uh oh I I should the board also um uh there's a budget calendar the board approved either October or November. So that happens I that's the first step. Um that's actually referenced in our budget booklet that you'll see on the 28th as well. So throughout the spring then is updates as necessary to the board on if anything significant has changed. This marks the first time that you're actually approving anything.

068Um July 28th you'll approve the what we'll call it a preliminary budget and October you'll approve a final budget. You'll approve a tax levy at the end of October, very beginning of November. And then um the new process that we put in place is if there are uh any changes that are going to affect the fund balance uh throughout the year, the board would approve those. So the um we wouldn't normally bring a proposal to the board. The example I like to use is if West High School wants to move $50 from social studies to science, that's not something we bring to the board for approval. But if we had to hire an emergency staff member um and that's going to impact fund balance, that would be something we bring to the board for well

069for uh it be a um revised budget. Okay. So October will finish the 2526 budget approval process once we certify the levy. Correct. And then almost immediately you're beginning the work on the next year's budget. >> Correct. I I've always got two budgets going on. Yep. So we'll be monitoring 2526 and begin work on 2627. >> So if um schoolboard members or community members are interested in kind of digging in the numbers and making suggestions and how would that voice be heard ideally? So um you know my role I believe my role as a CFO is to carry out the um the vision that the uh cabinet and the board has and in large part a budget is a reflection of a community or it should be um I think in any governmental entity or

070frankly in my own home um it's hard to agree exactly on how every penny should be spent. Um and and I think I can give guidance there. But if if a community member has if they wanted to voice how money should be spent, I think that is that would be something they'd come to the board and have a discussion about and I would get direction from the board on whether that's a budget priority or not. Uh my job is to carry out the budget as approved by the board >> and but that work would begin October, November, right? that would allow us to plan, right, for um yeah, if someone were to come and say, "Hey, we need to have this curriculum and we need four more teachers." The time for that isn't May, it's,

071you know, way backed up in the fall so we can start planning or the board could start those deliberations. Um pivoting to July 28th. Um what sort of information can you give us a sneak peek? What sort of information are we going to be seeing? Um, if I had my computer, I wouldn't give you a sneak peek. Um, there is, so, um, I just printed out a PDF. It's 112 pages. Uh, now thankfully there's a digital version that is much easier to follow. Um, but it's lots of graphs, charts. I'm going to have um a a really slim down uh um presentation of the budget, the kind of the real highlights. Um but there is going to be links and access and um you you can you'll see you can actually view it on your

072phone. It's um I think it's beyond really almost anything anyone in Wisconsin is doing as uh a method to just really see exactly what's in our budget. I have no further questions. Thank you. Nice work. >> Any other questions for board members? >> Motion. >> It is recommended that the school board approve the budget for publication and I so move. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Miss Summers, please call the RO. >> Miss Pinski. Mr. Bower. >> Yes. >> Miss Bach. >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris. Miss Hammer Rolland. >> Yes. >> Dr. Worley. Mr. Wadier. >> Yes. >> Moving to item number six, board governance. Uh we will get a legislative advocacy committee update. Mr. Bower. >> Excellent. Thank you. Um so uh Mr. Morris and I are part of the legislative advocacy

073committee. Um we started our work uh late May. Um and really started to dig into everything. Um the first thing that we did is we reviewed all of the work of the previous LAC. Um we reflected and updated um we reflected on the resolutions that were passed by this board prior to my election in April. Um and we found that we had five resolutions which is nice. Uh we summarized those things for the uh our electeds. Um and we sent that out at the beginning of July after our most recent LAC meeting. Um so we did that. We also reflected on the relationship between the city and the district and we found good things there. So we sent a thank you letter to um our partners there uh in order to encourage ongoing participation and

074engagement uh from our city partners. Um, concurrently, uh, we started figuring out what we wanted to do, uh, as we moved forward. Uh, we formalized that structure in a playbook, uh, which kind of outlines where we want to be, uh, ideally by the end of this school year. Um, we'll see how, uh, much work two volunteers are able to get done along with their community partners. Um, and that step really kind of starts with connecting with and reconnecting with uh local and state partnerships. Um, figuring out where uh the interests of our community lie in terms of legislative advocacy. Um, building up that capacity to engage our electives. Um, and I just found this out uh at the convention here this past weekend at WASPY um that September 15th is the submission to uh the

075Wisconsin uh Association of School Boards, which is what was stands for um for their January convention so that we can actually grow our uh advocacy greater than uh this district. I'll pause there. I don't have that's where we're at and where we're kind of heading in the ne near future. Um we have some aspirations that we'll be talking about uh in our next meeting which is a speak and I'll stop there. >> Any questions from the other board members? >> I don't have a question. I just I I think this is really helpful for the community to be able to see what you're doing and maybe to help and be able to work with you on these things. So, thank you for putting all of this together. The playbook, I think, is really helpful. >>

076Absolutely. Credit where credits. That was Mr. Morse's idea. It was a wonderful idea. Um, and yes, that's exactly right because while uh he and I may have a potential uh pulpit here to kind of influence our electeds, um it's not just going to be our voices that are listen. So, >> thank you for your work. Morris is working. >> All right, we will move to second readings andor action to approve policies. Um, Mr. Bower, can you read the first one? >> You bet. >> Uh, this would be 7A. Uh, it is recommended that school board approve policy 2461 recording of IEP team meetings. And I so move. >> May I have a second? I second. Miss Summers, please call the roles. Sorry. Is there any discussion on the title? Okay. Miss Summers, please call the

077RO. >> Miss Bzinski. Mr. >> Yes. >> Miss Bach. >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris. Miss Hammer Rollins. >> Yes. >> Dr. Worley. Mr. Wier. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Now we will move into first readings and policies. And we have a lot of them to go over tonight. Do we want to take a break before we jump in or just keep going? >> Four minutes. I got to walk around. >> Sure. >> Perfect. Uh so we will take we'll come back at um 7:20 round number. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh we will now move to reading the first policies. Miss uh will lead us in that portion. >> Okay. Our first policy is the administrator benefits policy 3425.01. It's the updated um policy where um there's a broader statement for uh the

078health insurance where it just says that it's the plan currently offered by the board. Uh there's a slight change in tuition, the tuition statement. Any board uh questions or comments on this this policy? >> One comment. So really I'm looking at it like the next so A through D are um they're all some variation of each other, >> right? It just covers different employee employee groups. >> Um, and there's no uh to follow up. There's no significant budgetary changes that we would anticipate from any of these policies. These are just changes. >> Sorry to start off this way, but I do have a couple questions about these the policies. So for um child rearing leave, it says that they can only take it every three years, is that uh governed by like state or national

079regulations or is that a district decision? >> So if a member or if a staff member had a child or adopted a child this year and took that leave, they couldn't take it again for another three years. Is that am I understanding that correctly? >> You are. Yes, but this this is something more significant than family medical need like just 12 weeks off. This is this is this is 12 weeks plus finishing out a school year. So that this this does not prevent anyone from taking their fally to be much more significant. >> Okay. >> Um and then I'm just curious um why the holiday pay differs per employment group. Some fourth of July off and some don't. >> Yeah. Um depending on when like what the employees work schedule is. So most employees don't

080work in the summer. Therefore, they don't get July 4th as a holiday. >> Okay. >> Those two questions. >> Okay. Should we move on? Uh next is 3425.01 1 that oh I'm sorry that was the administrator um we're on to professional staff 3425.02 02. Same change with the health insurance statement. Um there was a change in the sick leave that was going to be um we're changing 4 days per year and the paid time off was would be seven days and to refer to the employee handbook for the usage rules of that and add a quarter day. Um what uh I I see some of them uh are not for like as far as simply they're kind of all all different numbers. What what is regulating that? Uh so the WOsa school district um for

081the 232 24 school year um entered into a two-year pilot of all of this uh paid time off or specifically our teacher employee group. And so teachers right now were the only ones who have a blended uh PTO and sick leave um perspective on paid time off. Um the um I don't I don't know who's on here. This mic isn't working. Um uh so so teachers are the only group that has this paid time off model which means that they're um they can use leave time for reasons other than medical appointments um or illnesses for themselves or um uh or immediate family members. Um this was a really significant um additional benefit for um for teachers. None of our other employee groups have that. And then based on um the um probably some inherited language

082when there when you have the collective bargaining agreements for different employee groups. Uh there's some variation in paid leave time. Um for instance for um administrative assistant staff based on the number of days that they've worked during the year um vacation approval, those types of things. So each employee group has a little bit different lead time practices um than than the other again based on when they work and and what benefits they carried through over time. >> Will the teaching staff still maintain their just PT keeping it in one category of PTO time? Uh moving forward, what we'll bring forward in the handbook is a combination of seven days of PTO per year and four days of sick leave per year. And then if there's any leftover leave at the end of the year, that's

083all going to roll into um accumulated sick leave that they could use in the event of family medical leave or some catastrophic family illness or injury. >> Um did you get feedback from teachers on making the shift back to not just only having um AB absolutely. Um so uh over the course of this past school year in particular during all of my building visits um staff members who came to visit me uh if they weren't specifically sharing with me their feedback about PTO I was asking them giving them some examples of things that we thought thought about or you know things we were considering in terms of the PTO change. Had multiple conversations with representatives of the teachers union. um talked with um um we had uh some work groups that formed this spring related

084to our employee survey results. Um they had feedback as well. So yes, uh I both solicited and heard a great deal of feedback related to PTO. Um ultimately um the the change from um 12 days total to the seven and 11 were based on um the fact that if we had all staff members who were actually taking the 12 PTO days from a sub standpoint that would exceed our our budget. Um from an instructional standpoint we start to experience learning loss if teachers are out of the classroom more than 10 days. Um, and we were looking for a plan that we'd be able to support long term, that we wouldn't have to keep coming back and saying, "Oh, we need to adjust this." Um, so we initially thought about bringing forward a proposal that was

085a a total of 10 days overall. And then in conversations with those multiple groups and individual teachers, we're bringing forward the recommendation or will with the employee handbook in August for 11 days total between sick leave and PTO. >> Thank you. Any other questions from board members? >> Next is the educational assistant benefits 3425.03. Uh same change in the health insurance. The plan currently offered by the board is the new statement. Uh the holiday pay changed from 2 to 4 days and um personal leave change. Um upon completion of five day five years employment educational assistance will be granted two personal days annually. Any questions or comments will be different? Next is 3425.04. Um, buildings and browns employee benefits. Um, there were a lot of things in here that we talked about. Um, same change

086in the health insurance statement. Uh, instead of acrewing sick leave, the days are allocated at one time. uh require continuous employment in the buildings and grounds section. So um in the for the post-employment benefits there was that change personal leave rem we removed um approved by the assistant superintendent of human relations and uh the tuition language changed similar to the one in the um administrator benefits. the scholarship amount if any received will be deducted from the district's reimbursement amount. Um again the limitations on use removed the assistant superintendent of human relations uh personal leave upon completion of five years and of employment with the building and grounds employees will be granted two days of personal leave annually. And we also added in half days or quarter days can be taken. Any more discussion? >> 34

0873425.05. Is that what you mean? Okay. Um this is for administrative assistant benefits. same health insurance change. Um, instead of occurring sick leave each month, the days will be allocated at one time based on their classification, whether it's 10, 11, or 12 months. Um, I think there was still a question about the accumulation of sick days for 11 month employees. >> We um, and that is supposed to be stricken. Um, we do not have 11 month employees. >> Okay. Um, let's see if there's anything different. Yeah, there's still that um the tuition change removing the assistant superintendent of human relations. I think it's all similar to the other ones. Um if you don't mind me um Miss back um Julia on um in policy 3425.05 >> yes >> in sick leave in the first paragraph

088there is currently a greeting section that says blank parentheses blank days for 11month administrative assistance. that is um that is uh not should not be added. >> I will let Dr. Zimman know. Thank you. >> Y >> So if we would move this forward, I would I would recommend that we include that language as being >> now we are on 0144.5. This was um reviewed by legal counsel and the policy they suggested edits under the enforcement section and there were just minor changes to section G and in the board member interaction with staff. Any more comments on this item? 2260. This is just updated. Uh it's legally required. Any questions, comments? 2262. This is a new policy in TOSA. uh child care programs. >> Any questions or comments on this one? >> Is this a

089a districtrun thing or is this part of right at school? It could be both. Because do we have something outside of right at school? Not right. That's what I understood. school counseling and academic and career planning. This is updated for the academic career planning statutory requirement. Questions or comments from the board also updated to um the current policy. is updated to current policy and legally required. 2451. This is new to Tossa. Also legally required >> 24 I guess I'll just pause if you guys if there is a question or comment just if you want to raise your hand so we can just >> Thank you. >> 2460 um a community member requested to change disabled person to person with a disability. So that was changed throughout. Uh this policy also includes the um old policy

0902460.02 that is legally required and that was on the consent agenda. >> Just one I I like to change the language >> 2460.03 03 also new to TOSA updated to current law. I did have a question about um specifically it says it I don't have it in front of me but calls out alienage. Can we could we change that language or is that statutoily required? Who say like national origin or citizenship status and title >> more humanizing I think to not say alien. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Sure. >> I don't believe that term is any kind of legally required terminology. I would prefer we use the language that we believe better. It's better for families and students. >> Any push Heather? >> Chair, can you please repeat the section that you would like to

091have updated? Oh, I I believe I see it. Um, letter B. Alienage. >> It's in B. The last word. >> Yes, B. If we could just change the language, individual language. And yeah, whatever Mr. Fin thinks is better. >> Thank you. >> Okay. 511.01. This is an update of our current policy and it is legally required. >> I do have a question on that one. It's not about policy itself, which I think is just fine. My question is actually about the number of students experiencing homelessness. Um and how well let's start with that. >> Sure. So in the 2425 school year, we identified at least the most um students experiencing homelessness in the three years that I've been here at 98. I do think that there are likely maybe more that meet the definition. So

092we will continue our efforts um around identification and the processes surrounding that. Um and then I'm trying to think of an appropriate way to what supports are available to students in this position. >> Yeah. So students experiencing homelessness come to us with you know a variety of barriers and and in varying degrees of need. We have a homeless liaison who is our social worker downstairs at Monasuri. So she is the initial point of contact when we make an identification and supports families through waving of fees, different school supplies, um and assisting in making connections to internal and external resources to remove and identify those barriers and help provide support in each individual case. Thank you. >> That's all. >> Okay. Next, uh 511.02 um educational opportunity for military children. This is a new policy required

093by federal law. Same with the next policy 511.03 children and youth in foster care. New policy required by federal law. 5114. This is an update of our current policy for federal compliance. 5120. Yeah, >> I'd like to speak to this one a little bit, but that's okay. So 5120 is a policy that is um been to this board many times uh over the last several years. Tonight it is coming to you specifically around the interd district transfers as one of our public commenters um mentioned earlier in tonight's meeting. I want to point out just a few pieces of the changes that are here. Uh my office approves or denies these in accordance with this policy as well as its accompanying administrative guidelines. And what we did was really try to clarify what are appropriate or

094favorable requests versus more inappropriate requests um that might be underpinning the request for the transfer. So you'll see there um what qualifications might be considered for more of a favorable u approval of a transfer versus transfer requests that don't meet those conditions. And I want to be clear to the community um as the person who fields a lot of these conversations on both ends, people for this more open policy and people um wanting to tighten it up. So I I get all sides and navigate those conversations. But um transfers that don't meet A through D are typically based on reasons such as geographic proximity, school performance of the attendance area school or the school they're requesting, child care arrangements, keeping friends together, um and accessing particular extracurricular activities. The current policy did not have any

095of this language. So, I was quite literally just leaning into the administrative guidelines for um different grade level cutoffs, if you will, in terms of class sizes. Those were adjusted um this last year as well. You can find those in the administrative guidelines. But I believe this language provides me a lot more clarity as well as the community about what are appropriate or inappropriate introducer transfer requests. And I could say if this language had been in here the last three years, there would have been a lot less IDTS across the system. I also want to point out the addition on page four maybe if the transfer request is approved just being very clear about the understandings that come with that. Um it does not come with transportation. Um and the receiving school treats that student

096as if they are any other student in their building. So um they're they're treated as resident students and any right to remain in that school um may be negated if there was any deceit or falsified residency in any way. They remain in effect until graduation. That was a change I believe two or three years ago the school board made. There used to be a reapplication period. And transfer requests for a school in a uh school in which a sibling is attending will receive a preference. And that word is very important. These are year-by-year decisions point in time based on enrollment projections. So there is no guarantee that a younger sibling the circumstances may look different for that cohort in terms of the grade level that's being requested. The size of that uh the intention is

097never to add staff and split sections as a result of IDTS. I'd also draw your attention to the timeline that we changed. I believe that is in here as well on the last page. We had um historically had the these introduc transfer deadlines due April 1st with decisions or March 1st with decisions by April. We are moving that back to February for several reasons. Um one is there's a bottleneck of all things enrollment at the time that these are due. Two, and maybe more importantly, this offers families um more advanced notice on the decision. So should they have other options or open enrollment, things like that, um it it gives families more notice. does require them to be sort of looking out a little bit further ahead. Um, but uh in the scan of policies

098across neighboring districts, not only did I borrow some of the language we already reviewed in terms of piecing what sounded good for our district where the will of the community in this board was from we've heard over the last three years, uh, I also saw a lot of deadlines that were January, February when I was reviewing other policies as well. >> Questions or comments? What? Okay. 52. >> Sorry. Sorry. I think these are great changes. I think that that's a huge issue in our district is how many of our students are moving around to their non- neighborhood assigned schools. Um but I have a question. How would this how would these changes um affect like a family who say they they live in one area and they move to another? So the language still maintains

099that if you move, you are already counted in those numbers. You get to maintain in that forward. So they still fill out an introducer transfer form to document that move and the request. Um but the policy still allows that uh to maintain where they where they've been established. >> And do they move in through that? So say they move to from one east or west side secondary schools. Do they then >> they would still maintain that original. Okay. Thank you. >> They would have a right however to attend where they live. >> Perfect. Thank you. Okay. 5215 missing and absent children. This is an update to our current policy. 6D108 authorization to make electronic fund transfers. This is a new policy. It provides clear authorization from the board to the business office to allow electronic

100fund transfers. And this policy is required for compliance. Um are there questions? There will be a lot of policies coming up here with um that say that they're updated to current Edgar rules which are um the education department general administrative regulations from the US department of education. Um so if we receive any federal money we must have these policies. So the first one is um federal funds and it's just um an updated policy. This is another one for Edgar appliant compliance 611. It's about spending federal money and it is legally required. The next one is 6113. This is a district specific policy and it was reumbered from 611. So it's just a change in the number and couple of small changes. also legally required for EDAR compliance. same thing legally required for compliance. same thing.

1016144. This is updated from the current local policy. Investment income um is legally required and determines how the district can invest money. is rescended. Um this policy will be replaced by 6147 which is the next one we're going to look at the debt management which is a more inclusive policy. So 6147 is the next one. This is the new policy to replace 6145. Um this one is legally required. Uh the board must have a 2/3 vote in order to borrow money. 6146. This is a new policy that is legally required. Keep going. 6150. Uh this is a new policy also legally required. Uh the board does not have to allow tuition students and we currently do not have any tuition students but DPI requires that we have the policy. 6151 is legally required is an

102update to the old version of this policy. also legally required just some minor changes. 6152.01 this is a new policy legally required for compliance with DPI regulations. is an update of our current policy fiscal planning. Um that one I do have questions on um what's the calendar related to updating the facilities plan? I know that we have one that was approved in October if I recall. Um I'm looking at policy right now. Sure. Or is that at the wheel of the facility? >> No, it's not. So if I may, Mr. Becker, >> um, >> so we have created the pace and cadence of November being the time where we bring the the updated long range facilities back to >> perfectly >> on an annual basis. >> Okay. >> Well, let me pause. Do you want

103to make a suggestion that that's embedded in 6210? >> No, because I think it should be the will of the board to set that calendar and they should have the ability to change it if they so need. Right. If we decide to change, if we the board decide to change uh the long range plan after the secondary uh school ad hoc committee finishes their work, we should be able to do that. We should not be beholden to a policy. >> So, a policy should never indicate an actual date or time in a calendar. >> But are you suggesting I'm just trying to read your question. Are you suggesting that there should be some language that refers to the fact that the board will review the long range facilities plan on an annual basis? >> That

104does not exist. That does not exist. I read it as maintain the long range plan, but to me that is reviewing it regularly and updating it. >> Um, if that's not the right word there, then yes, we should have something like that. some requirement that we do review it at least once a year. Um, but I read that into maintain the long range plan or at least I understood that to be >> well it it it reads the long range short and long range projections or financial requirements. Um, and then it under B it talks about maintain but it doesn't talk about review. So it it it's I just want to make sure that you're as precise as you want to be. That's right. And then and it talks about maintaining. So So in essence,

105what could happen, Mr. Bower, is that the the administration management could maintain a long range facility plan and not bring it to the board. >> That would not be wise. >> But that's the way I read the language right now. That could happen. >> Okay. >> And and we could still operate within the the language of the policy. Um then yes could I make that recommendation to a policy committee to update it to >> so >> bring it up regularly on an annual basis. >> So we'll go back to policy committee for you get another reading on it. >> Yes. >> So maintain and review the long range >> uh B would read something to the effect of maintain the long range facilities plan and review at least annually. Yes. Like that's good at minimum

106something. >> At a minimum annually. Yeah. It doesn't have to be more than once a year, but we should always check it. >> But also to your point, if something major happens and we've already done it uh and something major happens like like that ad hoc committee and the board decides to make a big change, we wouldn't want to wait four extra months. >> Right. >> It also addresses Mr. exactly what you brought up earlier during the consent agenda, which is if there are community members who are concerned about ADA issues, that provides the board the ability to direct a community member to say if you have a concern in this space, we annual at a minimum annually review the long right. So I I thank you for the the change. We thank you for

107identifying the difference in understanding between the word. Sure. >> Okay. >> 6220 >> budget preparation. This is an update of our current policy and it is legally required. 6230. Same thing updated the current policy and it is legally required. updated policy and legally required. 6235 the fund balance. This is the updated to current policy and required Mr. P. >> Um yes I do. Thank you. Um it says in here between what 15 and 30% of our preceding years fund 10 expenditures. Um what is 30% of our what is that number in real numbers? >> So we had this discussion at policy. Um we aren't currently in that range. >> Uh ballpar budget's roughly 100 million. So 15 million to 30 million as a rough estimate. >> And where are we at currently? I expect we'll

108finish the year somewhere around uh between 9 and 10 million. >> Uh and that we have a plan to build towards that 50 to 30%. Correct. >> Um would it be wise for us, the board, to wait until we actually have that number before we've passed this policy? So we're not sort of like breaking the policy when we approve it. >> Again, we had this discussion. I think I want to the way I read it was that I'm pulling it up right now, but that it's a target, not a requirement. So what you could do, Miss Hiveron, is to say once on one, you know, you can put a sentence in there that says once the district achieves a minimum of 15% fund balance, it shall maintain a fund balance of 15 to 30%. >>

109And that's a good suggestion. I understand your point and I think I think if you added the sentence once the district achieves a minimum of 15% of a fem balance it shall maintain and then you can go into the rest of the >> I think we think I think that inherently puts some restrictions on us if we have something that comes up um for I would not want to have what came up last year happen and I don't think it will but all of a sudden we need to pull a large amount out of fund balance to fix that >> well not the electrical system >> yes um and you know there there we we just talked about um I know we we talked about having a emergency repair fund but there could be multiple

110failures Um, I mean, West could have heating and cooling and roof all go in the same threemonth period in the winter if you get a heavy snowfall and all of a sudden we're talking about a million dollar thing. I wouldn't I wouldn't want us to just get caught. I think I think having the target is, you know, it's a good target to have, but I don't I don't think we should prevent future boards from making decisions >> and utilizing the fund balance to get through these last two years have maintained what we would not have been able to maintain. >> No, not at all. >> So, I think adding I guess I would recommend adding a sentence similar to what Dr. said and then still keeping that I'm comfortable with that. >> Okay, we can

111move to the next one. >> 6325 procurement of federal grants and funds. This is a new policy and it is required for Edair compliance 6330. This is an update to our current policy. It's legally required. Um our district is not required to hold an annual meeting. That is why that part is struck. Uh because we are a unified school district. 6350. This is a resend because the statute changed. >> I have a question on that one. Is I still believe that we would want to make sure that our contracts use prevailing wage. Is there a mechanism in policy uh that would maintain um that requirement in uh construction work that we do? >> That was a question. Is there one? >> Mr. Eer, do you know if there is any guidelines that you use now

112when we put things out to bid? So, we have a separate purchasing policy for there's a purchasing policy um for the board. This one is uh if I recall right specific to federal grants and me it one more time. I'm sorry. Yeah, this one is specific to federal grants and what processes we need to go through for that. We have a a different policy that isn't federal grant related um that has certain thresholds and dollar amounts. >> So there is a policy that maintains the spirit of using rebanding. Correct. >> 6423 use of district credit cards. This is an update of our current policy. purchasing cards. This is a new policy to Tossa. A purchasing card is like a credit card but for a specific vendor. Um, and Mr. Eker was going to research if

113the district had any of these out currently. I don't know if that's something you had a chance to look at. >> I think it was the other way around. I'm actually going to research if we have credit cards out. >> Okay. Um, I believe we only have purchasing cards at this point, but yes, I didn't I did not yet research that. >> Would that whether or not we have the credit cards, would that change what you would want the policy to look like? >> It would not. >> Okay. >> 6510. This is we're updating to current policy to comply with Wisconsin law 6520. Update this policy. It is legally required. U policy 6605. This is new to TOSA because crowdfunding has become really popular recently. 6611. Um, this is an update to our current policy

114for the government accounting standards board compliance. >> This is a very important policy. uh districts find themselves in trouble often by not managing um and having policy around these types of so we're really we're excited about this policy >> 6620 this is also an update >> previous statement let's confer this policy as well >> 6625 this is a resend. It is outdated and will be replaced by 6630 which is the next one. Um 6630 is the cash handling and deposits. 6670. The current policy is being reformatted and is legally required. also being reformatted and 6700 Fair Labor Standards Act. This is an update to our current policy is legally required and it differentiates between hourly and salaried employees. That is my last one. >> Okay. Well, I would like to um thank policy committee for

115their work. I know they had like an all day retreat where they went through all of these um and u thank Julia for her work in organizing the notes for us. And then also thank my board colleagues. Um I think it's true that we all spent a lot of time reviewing these before this meeting. Um and so I appreciate that you guys all came prepared to I think marathon run through these today. So thank you very much. >> Madam Chair, if I may, uh Preszinski and Miss Bach spent uh an entire day from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30, I believe, going through all these policies. is we're not done yet. Um we're going to be meeting again next week Friday um from I believe 8:30 to noon um to continue to go through this. And you're

116absolutely right. Thank you for highlighting the fact that the entire board did read through all these um governance at the core of a school district is grounded in policies. And so we we are thankful for your your diligence in looking at this. Summers deserve a lot of credit and the the leaders, our our chiefs, they bring a lot of these changes to you. Um, but I would be remiss if I didn't end by thanking the community. Um, it was mentioned at the beginning of this meeting, Mr. Pinion also referenced that when the community works with us to bring suggestions around policy changes, we can work collaboratively with the community when those ideas are brought to us. uh we're unable to collaborate with individuals when they're unwilling or unable to meet us and and bring those

117those uh suggestions to us. So, we want to thank the community uh in particular the PTA area council for bringing a lot of suggestions around 5120 in particular. >> Time is 8:03 p.m. May I have a motion to adjurnn? >> I move to adjourn. >> I have a second. I'll second. Miss Summers, please call the roles. >> Miss Bzinski. Mr. Bower. >> Yes. >> Miss Balk. >> Yes. Mr. Morris. Miss Himer Roland. >> Yes. >> Dr. Worley. Mr. Wadier. >> Yes.