001All right, it is 6:30, so I'm going to call the board meeting tonight to order. Dave, if you do roll call for us, please. All right, Cody present. Jennifer present. Ann here. Brian here. I am here. Uh, those that are able, please stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. uh board of education guidelines. With an open mind, we will establish an atmosphere that allows expression of all views even when views are not in line with all members being respectful of time. We will work collaboratively with the district administrator by having open and honest conversations around district priorities. We'll work collaboratively with all stakeholders to monitor key indicators
002so that equitable teaching and learning results in high achievement. We'll work to building a trust environment where both students and staff can reach their full potential and celebrate successes in the academics, the arts, and athletics. Uh public comments. During the public comment period of the agenda, the board welcomes comments from the public on any item not on the agenda. Please note that pursuant to state law, the board cannot engage in conversations with you, but may ask questions. The board may refer the item to staff, a standing committee, or a future agenda for discussion and action. Each person wishing to speak will have up to three minutes to speak. Speakers are asked to provide their name, address, and topic for discussion. Uh, so with that being read, do we have any public comments tonight? All right.
003I don't see any. So, we will move forward. Uh, showcasing schools and student learning. We have Jimmy here tonight with CWSA for an update. All right. Am I supposed to go up there by the microphones? If you could come forward to turn on camera's got Okay. So, we've been doing a lot of fun stuff. So, um, kind of just want to go over a quick overview. So, we've been working a lot on grants and funding. So, a lot of smaller ones for charter schools, right? A lot of them have simple applications that we're looking to apply for to just kind of, you know, in a sense when every cent matters, right? Just trying to bolster it so we can fund some of our field trips. We're actually preparing to go to trees for tomorrow, next
004month. So, we're getting all the permission slips and every preparation made for that field trip. Um, public relations, you know, we have the website up. So, at their showcase, they were actually showing some of the students made a CWSA website and it looks really good actually. So, it's really exciting to see as well as Facebook and then trying to be more engaging in paired square. Um, that's to also tie into, you know, trying to recruit for uh CWSA. We're actually looking into radio ads, right? And trying to see, um, what we can do to get students out of district as well, right, to get the word out and showcase, you know, the other learning opportunities are out there. Um, and then other than that, uh, the contract, uh, next month, I would like to get
005that on the agenda if we could to review and potentially sign it. So, um, the contract is due in June, so I really want to get the ball rolling on, you know, redlinining and adding comments and just trying to make it right and hopefully get that all wrapped up. So, with that, any questions? So, I just had a comment, Jimmy, just so you know, the open enrollment period ends on April 30th. So, if you're trying to grab kids from other districts, you know, just remind them to file for open enrollment. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you. I'd like to add a little bit to that day. It kind of goes along with R3, which is a later uh agenda item. Um CWSA has really done a nice job of tying in that career and community readiness. Um
006they really had some individuals just kind of explore their future careers or ultimately their dream jobs. I'm just going to read a couple of these um and kind of give you an idea. One student career wanted to be a drone pilot. So, he was able to visit a veteranowned and operated company in Martfield where they actually uh where drones were designed and made. Another student's career was to be a professional sports referee. So, she was able to go to W Stevens Point where she worked uh with one of the referees during an actual game. She even got to keep the game whistle. Um a seventh grader's career robotics is uh is robotics engineering. So he was able to spend some time at Wclair uh in a robotics lab uh with robotic engineering professor. Uh a
007seventh grader's career wanted to be an ER doctor. So she was able to spend all day at the Wisconsin Rapids and an urgent care physic uh with an urgent care physician. Um just amazing. They had to come back once they had these uh uh experiences. They had to come back and report out to the the the class. Uh so they did like one student uh wanted to be a cook. So, they did a live cooking demonstration after visiting a bakery. Um, another student uh asked for fellow students to volunteer and she did their hair and makeup after job shadowing at cosmetology. Uh, so it's really been kind of nice to see uh the application of that community and career readiness. And so, just wanted to make sure I added that as far as the CWSA.
008Sounds like really good uh connections with key partners. So, I really appreciate those helping out in that. Any other questions from the board? Thank you, Jimmy. Thank you, guys. Up next, communicating with the board, our superintendent, Nathan Black. Okay. And let me start out with again, we appreciate uh everybody coming tonight, whatever. And the basic fact that as we are looking at this is that we failed a referendum. One of the areas is this is an area that we work very hard to be able to be in touch with the community to reach out to know their priorities to be able to understand where they are but the at the end of the day the feedback that we received is that it was not in line with what the community was comfortable voting for and
009we're taking that certain we basically as we're taking that very much to heart and we certainly recognize that this um being a as a result of the not passing referendum that that is $2 million in funding that we are now having to make up for in the course of the next school year and to be able to work on those. Now, as we're going through this, there's a big process of again, just a note that we take this very seriously. I recogn I'm looking at all the things that we could have been done differently. And one of the areas as we're shifting to be able to going is taking to heart the basic feedback that we're getting initial areas of specific discomfort from the community that we're really focusing on or there's concerns about behaviors
010um in the schools. And there's also those around our academics. Those are our two main areas that are going to be able to be there things we're going to need to be changing to be able to go ahead and gain the community's confidence in those areas above and beyond. We've been investing in those. However, what we've been doing clearly wasn't enough to be able to build continuing confidence and so those are going to be major areas of focus now. And also part of this as we're shifting to it is also recognizing that we are starting the process of really listening. Part of it is we've over the course of the last week we've been engaging with our staff to be able to listen to to be able to share in insights initially but also to
011start hearing back feedback that they've got as we're sh this is also going to be pivoting to be listening to the community and having listening sessions and also ways to listen out to be able to have specific areas that they need to see. But with that, as we're moving forward, essentially, this is where we're moving forward to put and again, the impact of not being able to have a referendum um and have that funding is one that is going to impact our schools next year. There's going to be less. We're going to need to have um teacher cuts as part of it. There's everything is on the table that we're looking through and looking at various operations that we're not going to be able to update computers or maintenance or various aspects of it that
012it it's going to be a wide swath as we're doing for it. Um, part of this is we're going to adjust our staff, our adjust our staffing to be in line with our declining enrollments would be one part of this, but essentially that we're going to be able to work with the budget that we have. Um, and to be able to work to be able to get we still are committed to being able to support high levels of learning. Um, but it's going to look very different next year as far as how that goes. And so, just knowing as we're moving up to the next referendum is um, possible is in April of 2026. And so that is as far as the areas, one of the things that is going to, for example, from the
013past referendum, one of the strategies that we used was very digital based or being able to focus on, we're going to be a lot more in the community, listening to what is going on there, being able to have things more in print as we're, you know, there's a number of areas that we've already identified that as we're hearing and going over the areas that people are needing to get some feedback on. Again, our last community survey gave us feedback from what are some areas of cuts that people felt were con that they would want to look at, but also that here's the area they communicated here's where we'd like to get our information. We're leading into those areas. And so, we'll share as we make our readjustments, those are things we'll be sharing with the
014community. We'll be sharing here is as we've as we're retooling underneath this financial area, these are here's what our schools look like right now and here's how how they're running. Um, there's still many great things that are going to be happening. we are going to be supporting our students and that it we're so grateful for our educators who really make that happen. But again, in the early stages of it, this is we're we're painting this in broad tones. But this will be an ongoing thing as a regular point to be able to note and we owe that to our community, to our board, to our staff to be able to understand what are the next steps for this. But just know that this is a this is a painful time. This is this hurts. I've
015been in the community now. is my 17th year and I'm seeing and the impact of the change really is I feel it myself and just know that we are we recognize that the um the strategy that we impact that we and the numbers we went on to be able to design our current strategy. We we leaned into that one but simply put it didn't work. It was the wrong strategy. And so we are re we're committed to basically meeting student teachers where they're at meeting the community where it's at. And if if just the two main hallmarks of those areas are we need to be able to gain our do better on on behavior and do better on our achievement most those are the kingpins on the shift to be able to come to the
016voters to say here's how things are different um for those points and so we'll engage with communities um we'll give more details on how that looks goes out but that is our current state of the state of where where we're moving next uh our was manager Lyn Knight. Um, so yeah, with the failed referendum, my job got a little bit more interesting, if I should say. Um, but that doesn't stop the duties that I am I have to do every single year. Now, it's coming up audit time. Um, it just seems like I just got rid of the last audit and now I'm working on this year's audit already. Um, so, uh, just, uh, I'm trying to do things daytoday with our audit. I'm in touch with our auditors probably pretty consistently each month just
017to make sure that um there are going to be no surprises during audit time. That's my main concern is that I don't have any surprises. So again, um we're just moving forward uh with the failed referendum and we're going to um we're going to have a strategy. Uh I'm also going to in the next few months I don't want to overpromise but in the next few months I will be presenting to the board a transparency tool in regards to our um financials. So there the financials are very difficult to understand coming from our software. I want to make that more you know communityfriendly so when they look at our financials they can understand what they're looking at. So, I'm working on that with a a company called ClearG Gov and um we would we should
018be able to present that shortly. I'm thinking maybe three months, three or four months. So, just know that it's on the horizon. Questions for Lynn from the board. Seeing none. Um lastly, with communicating with the board, our student representative. Well, so since I saw you all last in February, at the high school have kicked off a lot in the spring. Somewhat hopefully on a lighter note, some good news in the high school. Um in March, we finished up our blood drive uh that we had. We had I think a total of 49 units of blood donated, which is a lot. That is something wonderful for me to hear as somebody who's participated in a lot of the blood drives. So, our next one will be in June and hopefully we'll have a wonderful turnout. Again,
019that time we had a lot of students who came to this particular blood drive in March. So hopefully we'll have a similar turnout again uh going forward. Um the high school finished up its musical which I was a part of uh as a senior which was amazing. Uh we had a very good turnout. Um some other notice uh not noticeable accomplishments, our seniors had the breeze awards ceremony. Um this uh today we uh the seniors we went on a senior field trip to Action City which is a arcade trampoline park kind of um place in uh Oaklair. It was kind of like a final hurrah for us seniors. It was a lot of fun. Definitely something that I would recommend doing for future senior classes. Um for the juniors, prom is coming up which will
020be in a couple of weeks. I've heard a lot of buzz about that. Everybody's very excited for it this year. Again, um student council, we are planning the spring pep rally right now um for the school to celebrate our spring sports, softball, baseball, uh track and boys golf. And we will be having, you know, some games uh to celebrate. Uh and then for next month, we are student council. We are planning the community dodgeball tournament, which is hope getting up on its feet right now. Hopefully that will uh have information out by next week hopefully for that. So if you're interested uh I'll have more information posted pretty much everywhere about that. And then pretty much we're just kind of gearing up for other end of the year activities at the high school. Um picking
021new representatives for next year, a new student representative for next year hopefully. And yeah, just kind of starting up the end of the year already. Uh, what is the date for the the June blood drive? Is there one there? I believe it is going to be June 11th. I'm not entirely positive. I would have to check in with um Arun, my blood drive representative, but I believe it's the 11th. Uh, questions from the board. All right. Thank you. Uh moving on to our board policies, our three self-directed thinkers. Uh we just heard from Jason about career and uh community readiness. Uh Nathan will touch a little bit on that too. Just And it this particular board policy focuses on it says all students are creative self-directed thinkers prepared for and able to adapt to a
022changing world. There's four parts to this one. Um and now just of this policy as we present to the board. Um again just the four parts briefly. Use information from a variety of sources to solve problems and make independent decisions. Second part, set priorities and goals. Assess p personal progress. Make appropriate adjustments. Plan and prepare for challenging careers based on personal interests and strengths. And the final one, demonstrate resilience of patients with the ability to cope with adversity. Most of the new work that's happened that's different this year has been in this area. Plan and prepare for challenging careers based on personal interests and strengths. This is certainly an area of our community conversations that that was an area of focus and building a portrait of a graduate to sort of backwards plan where we're
023going. This has been work that has been happening um primarily at the high school, but it's also been there's been work at the middle school as that's been expanding over the course of these areas. It's been the board reported some of the changes that they made on that. And as a note, this is an area that is going to be it's building momentum. will have continue things but the focus on how can we prepare our students for a future and give them experiences to do things such as we're sketch out briefly as like CWSA but how can that happen for all students in the NUSA school district because they deserve those opportunities. So that is the that's the main area of change in this year and a focus. Uh at this time before we go
024into discussion I'll look for your motion. So move a second. We have a first and a second uh discussion. We did have a short um conversation about this in our board workshop. Uh any other feedback from the board. All right. Hearing none. Those all in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? None. Motion carried for R3. Thank you. Uh moving on to other board work. Uh we're back over to Lyn Knight, our business manager on the CISA 5 contract. So this is an annual approval by the board. CISA 5 provides us services that for small school districts are difficult to hire out with. So um most of the CIA 5 services are special education and I gave you a synopsis of uh the comparative for 2425 and 2526 as and and our we are projecting our
025increase in our contract by 43.77%. that is mainly due to the special education director. Uh so we are contracting Amanda Betcher from CISA 5 to fulfill that role for 2526. So obviously um that cost is a little bit higher than last year which you know in turn it saves in salaries and benefits. So it's it is a wash for 2526. You'll be seeing it here as an expense but you won't be seeing it in salaries and benefits. So, um, we are asking approval for the 2526 CISA 5 contract. Um, we'll look for a motion before discussion. I'll second it. Um, we have a first and a second. Discussion. I think it was discussed that Amanda would be contracted for four days instead of three going forward. Does that start in July or Year starts in
026July? Yep. July 1. Yep. Uh, any other questions from the board? Uh those all in favor please say I I opposed none motion carried for CSA 5 contract uh information only uh 2526 budget uh projection uh referum discussion special education projection general fund projection uh Lynn Knight and Nathan Black. So, I'll start out with um uh the presentation and I presented this at the workshop last week and um I was asked to go in a little bit deeper for the uh board meeting. So, um we'll start with the revenue limit worksheet. The revenue limit worksheet drives our budget. Uh there are some specific variables on the revenue limit worksheet that affects the bottom line. One of them is our pupil FTE. In 2425, we are we had 953 student FTEES which we are funded on.
027Uh for the 2526 projected projection, I have not changed that number. I don't know what that number is going to be. I'm hoping that it stays the same. The equalized value, I projected a 3% increase. That is a major variable in the uh revenue limit worksheet as well. private vouchers. Um, you have absolutely zero control on the private vouchers. What the state does is they they give us a number on October 15th and they say you school district assess your taxpayers for all these private vouchers. Half the community doesn't even know about these vouchers. They drive it through the public schools in my opinion for non-transparency. So we are assessing our taxpayers on private vouchers and then we have to expense it as well. So that's a whole another conversation. State aid I am projecting
028the same state aid from uh 2425. Um I don't know what that number is going to do. We will get a July 1 estimate obviously on July 1st but from from now until then these are all very highlevel projections. The next one is um what it looks like for our actual revenue limit. How much money we can assess the taxpayers and receive from state aid. There is a cap. It's called the revenue limit cap. So last year in 2425 we have inside the revenue limit and outside the revenue limit. Inside the revenue limit is actually focused on our revenue cap. Last year we um we had a revenue limit of 12,557-293. Within that revenue limit is our operating fund fund 10 and our debt service fund 38. That's inside our revenue limit. Debt service fund
02938 is nonreferendum approved. Okay, that's why it's inside the revenue limit. outside the revenue limit is any debt that was approved by referendum and our community service fund fund 80 that's outside the revenue limit. So we have a cap the revenue cap. We can assess fund 10 and our uh nonreferendum approved debt that's inside the cap. And then we can go above the cap and assess for our referendum approved debt and our community service fund. It's been like that for years. So, our total levy last year was 14,69,886. Because of the failed referendum, we're out. We're down $2 million in 2526 projection. That's where you see where we are losing the money. And we can't hit the budgets outside the referendum, outside the revenue limit. They're hit in general fund. So, the 2 million deficit
030is directly hitting the general fund. And you can see that from 2425 it's 11 million 2526 we're projecting 9 million and that is our actual tax assessment budget in fund 10. So we are hitting the instruction budget. So that when you when you lose your your revenue limit when your revenue limit goes down and your equalized value goes up your mill rate is going way down. And last or this year 2425 we had a mill rate of $7. Our projection next year is $5.80. And you never hear anything when it goes down, but when it goes up you will hear a lot. And so when the referendum when the referendum is approved next, that number is going to go up and we have to be prepared to explain that. Okay. And special education fund. There
031are two operating funds for the district. their special education and our general fund. The special education fund has to be balanced. The revenues have to equal expenses. That's state law. There's no wiggle room on that whatsoever. So last year's projections, the revenue and expenses were 2.8 million. I'm projecting a slight increase in 2526 to 3.1 million. Next, the general fund is our other operating fund. So special education fund is fund 27. General fund is everything else which includes all the instruction. Um that's where you see the deficit of 3.2 million. Now 2425 budget I projected a 20 million 20.1 million revenues and 20.4 million in expenses. You see a deficit there of 300,000 even though you passed a balanced budget. That's my error. Every year I tell you I'm going to make a mistake one
032year and that is my error. I forgot to budget for some postmp employment retirement benefits. That's why you see a $300,000 deficit in the budget because that is my error. I didn't actually budget for that, but I know we have to spend that. So, I will be coming back to you in June to approve an amended budget that reflects that 300,000 deficit then. So, let's dig into the revenues and the expenses of fund 10. So, I'm going to let go to um the general fund in the separate file. Yeah, just the general fund, not the fun 27. This one right here. Yep. Yep. And I know that is pretty small, but this what this paper or what this does is it shows what we budgeted in 2425 and what I'm projecting in 2526. So, these
033are the revenue side in fund 10. Oh. Oh, there we go. Okay. So, property taxes. Last year we budgeted or this year 2425 we budgeted 11.6 million and I'm projecting a drop in the assessment because of the $2 million referendum that is no longer there of 9.5 million. Other local is um you know school fees or you know rentals or anything local. Um I am not projecting any increase in that whatsoever. So the open enrollment we are projecting an 8% increase from the 2425 budget and the reason we're pres presenting an an increase is because of the increased students in Wise Academy and most of those well I'll say 98% of those students coming into Wise Academy are open enrolled so I'm increasing my revenue knowing that we're going to have an increase in Wise
034Academy open enrolled students interd district. Now, that's um it's 17,000. It's I'm keeping it stagnant. So, in state aid, I am projecting a um a a balance or you know, no change whatsoever in our state aid revenue. Um again, I won't know that until July 1st when the estimates come out and we'll be updating this as um as known figures come out. Uh the per pupil aid uh that is all in the uh state's hands right now. They have not passed the bianium budget. Uh they do know how important that per pupil aid is to rural school districts, especially for school districts that have very high property value like Nakusa because we get dinged in state aid when we have high property value. We rely on that per pupil aid and because that is money
035right away. That is our money and they do it based on how many FTEEs you have in the prior year. So, um I'm I've been advocating the state to keep that in the budget because that would be detrimental for smaller school districts with high property value. Other state aid is common school fund, transportation aid. Um what else do we got there? Um well, you get the gist of it. There's other categorical aids. So I am projecting no increase whatsoever on that uh federal aid because now in 23 24 we had 1.9 million that was the ESRES funds that is no longer part of any anyone's budget. So our federal aid went down to 860,448. Those are the title funds. Um so mo yeah most of those title funds and Medicaid. So, I am not projecting
036any increases in federal aid and I think we all know why there's no increases in federal aid. And then there's the other revenue and I'm keeping that statement as well. So, our revenues because of the referendum not being on 2526 is going to be $2 million less. Right. So, where are we spending the money? We'll go down same one. Yep. All right. So, these are the expenses. So, and I and I kind of um I'm not going to go into the exhibits in your packet. Uh but I just wanted to show you where we are spending the money and what I projected. Now, last year in salaries and benefits, now that is 65% of our district's budget, salaries and benefits. So, um, last year it went up 11.57%. We had an increase in base wages.
037That's why that was our increase year. That's why there was such an increase in um, last year, but this year I'm only projecting a 3.5% increase. Now, we have folks that are going to go down this. We're gonna we're going to add the staffs who've been here another year and folks that did uh professional development that are that are um that are eligible to to hop over a lane. If we stop this process, we are going to fall so far behind that we will never catch up in our compensation again. So that's why I've kept the 3.5% increase. We're not scheduled to do any base wage increase next year at all. which is, you know, thank our lucky stars for that because we wouldn't be able to afford it. But at least we can give
038the steps and the PD lanes that have been part of our compensation model. Uh the benefits. Now, we've had some good news today. So, I kind of want to share that with you. We're in an insurance consortium with 12 other other school districts, and we went out for bid for our insurance as a consortium. We were projected to have a 12% increase in our health insurance and the renewals came in and now we were at we're either going to be 1% decrease in our health insurance premium or um basically level. So, uh there's still a lot of work to do, but we are on the other side of our health insurance premiums. So, again, I mean again, projections change all the time. This is just one instance where that known number is no longer valid
039anymore. it's not going to be a 12% increase. Um, our purchase services, that's any service we purchase. So, our transportation is in there. If we have to call somebody in to fix our roof, that's in there. If we have consultants that are coming in, that is in there. Those are all of the purchase services that we go out and hire um experts to come in and help us. Uh so I am projecting a 3.5% increase in that as well. Um the non- capital objects are all the the non like the supplies. They're all the stuff that doesn't have a life to it. Um there's pencils, pens, um just books, notebook, there's just a lot of supplies that are part of the non- capital objects. Uh I am not projecting any increase in that. Uh capital
040objects is your capital equipment. So if we bought a van that would be a capital object. Uh since we are you know in this situation I am projecting zero capital objects next year. Everything is on hold. Uh the lease I projected a 24% increase. And the reason I did that that is where our short-term interest is recorded. Um right now we're borrowing 1.6 6 million uh every year in short-term borrowing to tie us over when we have the lean months. And our lean months are usually in June, July, and November, and then half of December. Because we're so heavily reliant on our taxpayers, we get our money in January, February, April, and August, four times a year. Well, we have to pay people a lot more than four times a year. So when we are
041not receiving any revenue, we have to short-term borrow to cover the cash flow of money going out until the that tax money comes in. So as our fund balance gets tighter, so does that cash flow. We are we have to we need it more often during the year. So right now we're borrowing 1.6 million. I'm projecting that we're going to be increasing our short-term borrowing, which in turn increases our interest expense. So, that's why there's a 24% increase. I'll be working on that probably in the next two months. So, I'll give you more of an update then. Uh, and also the inter fund transfers. This is where fund the special education fund is made whole. So, the general fund has to transfer money into the special education fund every year to make it a zero
042balance in the special education fund. The special education fund does not collect enough revenue to cover all of its expenses. It's unrealistic for that to happen. There is uh there's a lot more expenses in special education than revenue coming in. The state only funds special education less than 22% which is horrible and we have told them it's horrible especially when they're sitting on billions of dollars and our special education fund is struggling to stay afloat. So right now in the bienium budget we the state has talked to the governor and said we need to increase that a little bit. Well, what do you think is gonna happen? The governor and the Democrats are saying, "Yeah, we need to do that." And the Republicans are saying, "No way. We're not doing that." So, there's a constant
043fight. Last year, we fought the same B or the two years ago, we saw that fought the same battle with zero movement. So, we're hoping this year is our year. So, um so we have to increase our interferation fund whole. uh other um I'm not even gonna really talk about that. So last year our expenses were 20 million 20.4 million with all of those moving pieces and again very high projection 21.5 million in expenses this year. So that's where the $3.2 million deficit comes from. I'm not going to go any further. So if we go back to the presentation. So we have some referendum options. Um if you go back one slide. So originally I thought when I presented this last week I thought hey we can just go back to the taxpayers in November.
044No, we can only go back to the taxpayers if there's a statewide election. And unfortunately in November there is not a statewide election. So we have to wait till April 2026. I should have checked on that before I said anything last last week and I apologize for that. Um but I I now know we cannot go back to uh the taxpayers in November. So another option is we utilize fund balance. Uh if we do nothing with the 2526 uh the budget is going to be at a deficit of 3.2 million. That's today. Next week could be different. Next week it could be different because all of these projections out of all the projections I probably know less than 2% of all the numbers. I I I don't know. This is based on historical. This is
045based on what I'm hearing at the state. This is based at what I'm hearing at the federal level. This is my best guess. That's that's what I'm trying to say. It's my best guess. Um so the J if we use our fund balance, the June 30th, 2026 projected fund balance would be 2.9 million. That's a big hit to our fund balance. Uh it's also red flags to any borrow or any any borrowers that that if we want to go up for debt and they see our fund balance drop 3.2 million in one year, that is a huge red flag. We will probably get a phone call from S&P um and Moody's review or debt review and we will probably be downgraded then too. So it is never recommended to use continuous costs. Um, using fund
046balance, it's it's a set you're setting yourself up for disaster. Uh, review staffing and departments. I think Nathan talked about that already. We're deferring maintenance projects, technology purchases, but again, once you defer those projects, they do cost more when you try and start them up again. Now, I've talked to Steve and I talked to Eric and they they have done a phenomenal job. Steve especially, he's a perfectionist. Um, he just he really takes pride in his in the buildings. Uh, Eric takes pride in his technology department. So, it absolutely kills them that they have to, you know, let things slide. So, um, but it's what we got to do. So, next one, RA revise the capital improvement plan using fund 46. Now, um, using fund 46, we have about 3.5 million in there right now.
047We save that through the years for our turf replacement, for our track replacement, for anything that needs replacement because we don't ever want to be in the position where we have to send our kids away to run on a track. We've done that. We don't want to do that anymore. So, we've tried to save some money so in the future when we need those things that we have the money to pay for them. We could dip into it. Um, we could use we could transfer some of our maintenance costs into fund 46. Um, it's an option. I I have my own opinion, but it's an option. I think that's all I have. Right. That's it. And that's all I have. So, again, um, if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. If
048you want to call me or set up a meeting, I have no problem with that either. Um, there's some more documentation in your board packet if you want to look deeper into anything. Um, But that's that's what I got. Uh questions for Lynn. Is there a piece on you? Yes. Just the piece that I would want to share is this is one that I've been sharing with I shared this also with the board last week, but just to in talking about one of the things that we talked about I mentioned earlier is our staffing projections versus our enrollment. Now this this basically I'm just going to go with one chart right here and then I'll sort of move off of it. As you see the projections on this one, this goes back to 2015 2016.
049So, this is a 10-year the last 10 years. This the numbers in orange are how many teachers we've had. The numbers in green are how many support staff members we've had over the years. Now, those are the bar graphs. If you'll take a look at the line graphs, this right here, the light green, the light blue rather, is our overall enrollment. This is how many students that we have who are serviced by the Nakusa School District. The dark one, the dark red blue rather is the number of students we have in our brickandmortar um face-to-face students. And so basically the gap you see between these is the difference that we see in enrollment of students added through um the wise academy. And so with those as that as that comes as this is increased those
050basically our overall enrollments helps keeps that constant. However, most that said, um, one and one of the things that we're talking about going into next year, over the next three years, as Lynn mentioned earlier, is the enrollment in the Wise Academy is going to be going up over the for several years. And so, this is the main this is one of the main adjustments that we're making. I mentioned earlier of bringing our staffing in line with enrollment figures. One, had the enrollment and now these are some changes and some adjustments we would have made had the referendum passed. Um, one of those areas, the plan at that point would have been to bring staffing and enrollment in line with each other due to attrition as people moved over and then just be able to go
051on there. And due to the referendum not passing, we are going to be making the staffing adjustments to bring those in line all in one year. And so that will be one of the ongoing areas to be able to basically we are we owe it to our taxpayers to be able to be wise stewards of funds. And this is this is the match we're doing. So I mentioned I was going to say I'll just share one other overall um bar on this one. And so these are our NUSA enrollment trends. As we've as I mentioned the blue the dark blue is our declining face-to-face enrollment. This is our overall over the next three years. Right now our Wise Academy students are we've got 220. Over the next three years they'll be going up to 300.
052So, as Lynn mentioned, as we're making as we're looking at our staffing, that if we do have some continuing declining enrollment, that will be more than offset by what is coming. And so, this for long-term, these are some strategies that are in place. But essentially, these are just some things we need to look at. And this is our approach to going ahead and adjusting staffing to be in line with future enrollment. And I know we had a conversation about this in our workshop. Um, since it's information only, we will move on. I just have a question. Yeah, go ahead. Are we are we trying to find 3.2 million or the 2 million that we lost in the referendum? So, it's unrealistic to think that we could have 3.2 million in cuts in one year. Um,
053like I said, we're we would be hoping to doing this through attrition. Um, now in my perfect world, in my little financial perfect world, yeah, 3.2 million would be great, but we know that's not going to happen. The closer we could get to that 3.2 million, the better, but it's unrealistic without hurting the kids. And then you mentioned the the benefits piece of it. So, we should like some of that will be coming back to lower the 3.2 million. Again, 3.2 million, if you know me at all, you know how I budget. It's it's very conservative. I I budget for everything. So, um and these are so high level right now. That's that's I don't know what transportation is going to do. I don't know what the city's going to do for electric or you
054know or gas or sewer or water. You know I have an idea based on historical but you know it's just it's difficult to to guess and be confident about it. So I don't know what the state's going to give us. I don't know what the budget's going to do with the bianium with the state level. I don't know what the bananium budget's going to do. I don't know if the per pupil goes away, we're going to have a whole another conversation. Do I think it's going to go away? No. But it could be decreased. I don't I don't know what's in their their heads. So, all I can do is when I find something out, when I hear something to inform you all and then we can have another conversation. This is going to be
055a moving target all the way through October 15th. Any other questions for Lyn? Uh, moving on to our consent agenda tonight. Uh, employment Humpy Elementary School, we have Erica Lindmeer. Uh, Alexander Middle School, Hannah Jake, Trisha Nelson. Uh, new coaches Eric White Eagle, Kelsey Bates, Abby Ciple, Niles Schultz, Dan Wolf. That's correct. Rolloff, and Clark Willard. Uh, resignations and retirements. I'll leave that up to those um here tonight to speak on their behalf. Okay. Humpy Elementary, Jackie Hines. Jackie Hines. Um, Jackie Hines has been here for quite a while. Um, I think she had started out as a consultant. I have enjoyed working with her and I have learned a lot from her in regard to literacy and I know she's looking forward to doing some golfing. All right. And Jason, if you could pick
056up the Alexander Middle School. Sure. The first one is uh Tammy Speed. She's been part of our district for 34 years. The ultimate kid advocate. Uh, started with, you know, fourth grade teacher, moved to our interventionist, just always looking at what ways can we best serve kids and she will be greatly missed uh and I know um there were some tears when that decision was made on her part and others. So um if I can speak to that one. I was Tammy principal for five years and she is a she's a teacher's teacher. She has a heart that loves children. Annie and Taylor were both uh part-time special education assistants with us. Um Annie started this year. She's stepping away uh to pursue other options. Uh Taylor was a replacement mid year and uh personal
057decisions came up. Part-time positions are are hard to keep because they're constantly looking for full-time work. Uh and so uh those two had stepped away. Uh Lisa Vamploo has been part of our district for quite a while as our MS uh teacher assistant, regulated assistant at playground supervision. She's looking forward to being a grandma uh and helping out there. So, um that was a news to us. She she needed to make that change sooner rather than later and she after the spring break, she didn't come back. She was going to go. Uh best of luck to those uh resigning and uh retirements in the district. We appreciate your dedication uh to our uh school and students and uh looks like we have a lot of amazing donations this month. Dave, if you don't mind reading
058uh donations this month, we have United Church of Christ donated a bag of socks to AMS. Sacred Heart Catholic Church donated mittens to AMS. Family helping families. Uh $200 from Musa United Church of Christ. Um backpack for kids. We have $40 from Alfreda JSON Jameson, $72.90 from Rome Makers HC, $25 from Diane Grainer, $250 from Micah and Natalie Mueller, $65 from Bethle Lutheran Wim, $20 from Anonymous. Thank you for your donations. We appreciate every one of them. Thank you, Dave. And and thank you to our donors this month. Very much appreciated. Uh to wrap things up, minutes 35 was our regular board meeting, 326 was our community referendum forum, 331 was a special board meeting, uh and 42 was our regular board workshop. Uh right now, I'll look for a motion to approve the consent
059agenda as presented. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none, those all in favor, please say I. I. Opposed. Motion carried. Um right now I am going to read um our close session and then I'll look for a motion to go into those uh pursuant to Wisconsin state statutes 1985 section 1C considering employment pro promotion compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercise responsibility in 1985 section 1F considering financial medical social or personal histories or discipline inary data specific persons preliminary consideration of specific uh personnel problems of investigation of charges against specific persons except uh where par B applies which if discussed in public would be likely to have a substantial adverse effect upon the reputation of any person referred to in such histories or data or involved
060in such problems or investigations uh to witness to further discuss the report of the independent independent investigator together with the facts and circumstances identified in the report regarding concerns surrounding the high school girls wrestling team and program and the potential staff disciplinary action taken in relative to the incidents. Uh the discussion is likely to involve reference to district employees identified in the report and concerns regarding such employees performance and conduct as well as discussion is likely to involve reference to certain information surrounding students participating in the wrestling program which information is considered confidential under Wisconsin law. And our second close session rolls into uh Wisconsin stats 1985 section 1C considering employment promotion compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or or exercise responsibility to uh witness
061to discuss the evaluation of district administrator. So upon all that I'll look for a motion. I move to go into full session. Got a first second. Uh roll call vote please. Dave uh Jennifer. Yes, an yes, Brian. Yes, I say yes. Cody, yes. Uh, so at this time we are in close session. Thank you everyone for coming tonight.