001I got 6:30. We're going to go ahead and get started. Just to be as efficient as possible, we got Ryan up on the controls. He's going to let me know when we need to move forward as quickly as possible. Nobody even thought that was funny. >> It was kind of funny. All right. All right. Ask for a roll call. >> Here. Here. >> Here. >> Join me in the pledge of allegiance. 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. >> All right. Minutes from regular meeting October 27th. Special meeting October 27th. >> I move for approval of the regular meeting minutes of October 27th and the special meeting minutes of October 27th
002as >> second motion is second. All in favor say I. >> All those not same sign. >> All right. Thank you for those that are in attendance. Uh you've made a choice just like we have to probably miss the beginning of the Packer game, but I appreciate you being here uh anyway. Okay. And all those that are listening at home that probably are going to be able to listen and still watch the Packer game. Um, nobody signed up for public comment. Move on to a motion to adopt agenda. >> So move. >> Second. >> Motion in a second then to adopt the agenda. All in favor say I. >> Not. Same sign. >> All right. Moving right along. 8.1 school of the month, Prairie View Elementary. Welcome. >> Thanks. >> Hold on. Technical difficulty. [laughter]
003>> Oh, there we go. All right. We are the school of the month. Prairie [laughter] View Elementary. So, thank you all for being here tonight. Not that you had a choice, but thank you. So, we're going to start uh just with our mission and our vision. So, our mission has not changed over the past uh three years, but we are Panthers together achieve wild success. And then we have our vision. That's a safe learning environment that celebrates all of our students, staff, and families. And then we unite to achieve success in social, emotional, and academic growth at all high levels. Here are our collective commitments. These are some things that we show at the beginning of every one of our staff meetings. So, this is something that we bring up to ensure that all of
004our staff are collectively modeling all of these agreements that we work towards each day. We're going to start with our first goal and that is our school success plan goal for ELA. So, our current state and this was from our spring 2025 data, 81% of our students were on grade level in reading based on the spring I Ready data. And then as you can see um that 70.2% 2% that is students meeting expectations on our forward exam. When looking at our data, we have a clear um discrepancy between the I Ready data and the forward data. So last year, our kindergarten, first and second graders really carried our I Ready data and our third, fourth, and fifth graders struggled a little bit more than we've typically seen on forward. So our desired state is that
00584% of Prairie View students will be on or above grade level in the I Ready reading diagnostic by the end of the 2526 school year. So that is basically saying that our students are proficient in the domains in ELA. So our current state in math 74% of students early on and mid above grade level met their IR typical growth in 2024 2025. 46% of our students early on and mid above grade level met their I already stretch goal um in 2024 25 our desired state is to have 85% of our students who are early on and mid above grade level meet their IA typical growth this year it's really difficult for our our teachers to grow the students that come in proficient or above already and to grow those students above um necessarily where they
006come in then and that's where we're focusing on this So our key action steps that we are have completed and celebrated is co-planning co-eing our writing initiative with our second and fourth and e teachers. So Megan Merkel is working with a teacher in second grade and fourth grade to implement our new literacy program focused on writing. We have had three professional development sessions on engaging students in academic literacies which is tied to that writing initiative. So above and beyond the co-planning co-eing that Megan Merkel is doing, we have other teachers that are also being involved in the professional development and starting to implement some of those strategies along in their instructional practices. We've also had a professional development session with staff on Kagan structures and that's to build upon our building thinking classrooms and mathematics.
007It's a way to structure our students collaborative learning so that we can differentiate instruction during our math workshops to differentiate for all of our learners to get that typical growth and those stretch growth goals that we are looking for. We've also done a data data dive with our staff with our I Ready and forward data. So just to note all of these things that are up here are things that we are um not replacing anything. We're just adding to what we've already kind of started. So with our writing, it's just explicit writing instruction. So really teaching our students how to write. Um it's very different than where we have been in the past where we just kind of model and then send them off and expect them to understand and know what to do. And
008then same with the Kagan structures. Last year our staff and a lot of the other elementary buildings did some professional development with building thinking classrooms which is basically just a way to promote productive struggle and discourse in the math classrooms. Our third goal is focused on attendance. And this is something that I'm very passionate about. Um, but last year we ended our year with 4.5% of our students chronically absent. So that means that they are missing more than 10% of the school year. 96.2% was our overall attendance rate. And while that was um a a fairly significant um increase in our attendance rate from the previous years, it's still not where uh we think that it can be. So our goal for this year is less than 3% of Prairie View K5 students will be
009chronically um absent by the end of the 2526 school year. So with our safe and healthy schools, some of the things that we are focusing on are action steps. We have 12 students right now that are in an attendance check and connect that is with Mrs. Darkangelo. So we recognized and noticed students that at the end of the year last year who were chronically absent and had that same kind of data trending. We started them right away with an attendance check and connect where Mrs. Darkangelo will go down, she'll meet with each student, they set a goal and then um she goes down each morning and if they are there for a certain amount of time that meets their goal, then they get a small prize and incentive. The other part that goes with that
010is the attendance lunch bunch groups. So those same students are then in lunch bunches with our school guidance counselor, Mrs. Dany, and she talks to them about the importance of attendance and why attendance matters. So really getting them to understand why it's important for them to be at school. We've also had contact with multiple families about the early attendance behaviors. Um I've sent home some dojo messages to families as well as having conversations with families who are already starting to flag that they are having some maybe poor attendance habits. We also have our honk forgood attendance which is something that we have started where we look at each week what our attendance rate is and then the winning grade gets to spin the wheel of prize and they get to pick um whatever they land
011on. So it could be anywhere from just extra recess, a pencil, mini donuts, a fun drink, but the kids really love it. We go into the classroom and they get to spin and last week it was second grade that won and they got from the prize bin. All right. So, we can't have our students here, but we thought it might be nice to show you kind of a day in the life of a panther, so you could experience and see what all of our students and staff get to do each day. Welcome to the day in the life of our day and they are ready to go for the day. Here's some of our fourth graders. to our second grade class where they are working on some of their ELA workshop time. We have some
012students, we have some students organizing together. Next, we head over to Mrs. On to the next. We are going to go to fifth grade where they are working on their vocabulary slides. So each week they have vocabulary [snorts] definitions and put in some pictures. Now we move on to art with kindergarten. As you can see they are working on making a mural for their hallway. So each grade is a different portion that they're working on and they will put it all together for our holiday. Now the brand special some kindergart friends working together collaboratively to build a big tower on special issuers together in her class. [clears throat] On to the next activity. We have some second grade and fifth grade buddies working together to know each other and share something that they enjoy about
013fall. Now we off first graders that are enjoying their delicious lunch. We have lunch where each has their own lunch and recess and now we're in our room where we have Friday brought to you by the smartphone. Then we go on to our recess. Friends love our new Asa. Then we head into our afternoon in first grade. Here's math lesson. This is showing a screen and asking how many of the students know they have to stand up and then we will share. This is part of our updated. Then we head over to kindergarten where they are working on their number of the day. They're looking at the shapes as well as that's what their unit is on. So right now she's asking for in the next Our student council members are going to be working
014together with some of our former fifth graders and they're going to be putting together some things for our food drive student council meets twice a month to work on things for the school. Here we have our end of the day. Mr. Starky is missing our students all together for the night and goodbye to all of you. Thank you so much for joining us for a day in life together. >> So just something so that you kind of see what they get to do and experience each day. We'd love for them to be here, but they're probably all at home watching the Packer game as Chad was saying. [laughter] Oops. Sorry, Mary. All right, there we go. So these are just some pictures that kind of go along with what our uh goals are for this
015year. So, our SSP um is really focused on our writing. So, as you can see here, I don't know if this will work um but we are all engaging in a book study and it's not necessarily a typical book study where we read it cover to cover, but it's more of a resource where if we are teaching a certain genre um of writing, it's a resource that we can pull and we can open it and we can say this is uh some of the lessons that go with it. Here's some of the academic vocabulary that we can use. And then in these pictures, this is when we did um one of our professional developments and each of the teachers is doing an activity that they would do with their own students where they have to
016determine um which subtopic the pictures would fit under. So it's a sorting activity. It's kind of um the start of the unit where they would actually break down and determine where those pictures go with the um subtopics for the genre that they're teaching. And then in that bottom picture is our teaching and assessing cycle. So this is something that we do when we meet as collaborative teams on Thursday. We look at um where our students are at. We what we want them to be able to know um how will we know when they get it? And then this is kind of around that whole writing process. So in the past it's t typically been where we brainstorm, we draft, we we revise and then we have our final product. This is a little bit different
017where it really starts together as a whole group where we deconstruct a text and then they kind of figure out exactly what needs to be taught. they have that end product in mind and then they go through this entire cycle. So the other half of this slide is talking about our Kagan structures where we're focusing on with our math, but they are structures you can use with any content area. It's also a way to just build community within your classrooms. So that's a structure to um turn group work into collaborative learning where every student participates, every student has a voice, every student is heard and listened to by their peers. So you're really building that sense of community. Um, it can be done with community builders. In this case, our staff is also going through
018those lessons with math activities so they can then also learn and experience what it's like, what it feels like, what it sounds like for the students in their classrooms to implement them into classrooms. It's also good for your students that are introverted that sit in the back and they're quiet, the ones that don't raise the hands, our multilingual learners or lower level students because they're hearing conversations and they're having conversations before they have to do the work independently. So we're setting them up for success by having giving them practice with their peers before asking them to do that independent work. >> Yeah. So this is some implementing them. So like I said, it's really starts off with teachers doing it with their students community builders first so that students get comfortable with each other working
019in a group. So some of our teachers have already taken these Kag instructors. We have our second grade and fifth grade teachers have done it with their buddies to build a sense of community with some Halloween activities. In the upper left, we have students that in the bottom picture are doing it in their literacy intervention classes are using some of those strategies as well as where have our art teacher and some math um programs are also using these structures. And then on the left side is our writing um implementation. So like Mrs. Darkangelo was stating u Megan Merkel, our EL teacher is co-eing and co-planning with a second grade and fourth grade teacher. and um they are basically looking at each different genre that they need to be teaching and writing and then they are
020co-planning a unit with the end in mind. So then they look for what that exemplar might look like and then they go back and determine what they actually need to teach to the students. So on the top left and across those are all of the uh anchor charts that are in our second and fourth grade classrooms. They have done descriptive reports and then personal narratives. And then in the bottom you can actually see some of our fourth graders writing and then um you can actually see their uh products as well. And we've really found that using this structure where we kind of start with that deconstruction and really explicitly teach our students. A lot of the time we've had students that either they don't write because they don't know how to or they don't write
021because they don't want to and they're crying and upset about it. And a lot of the students that are either in that fourth grade class or second grade class, they're able to do it and they're able to do it independently and they feel good about it and [snorts] the teachers feel good about it. So, just some final uh things to add. Some of the things that we do at Prairie View for our student involvement and just really making it a community of learners. We have our PALS, our art club that meets once a week for fourth and fifth grade. We have ASL club that's put on by Mrs. learner because she supports one of our um deaf students and she does that for our kindergarten and third grade. We have student council for our fourth
022and fifth graders. We have K kids. Thank you Carter, you're there. And [clears throat] then we also have soul sisters which is later on in the year. And then our parent involvement. We have an amazing PTO. Um we have this year we've had about 12 members that come each time which is significantly more than we've had in the past. A lot of those are kindergarten and first grade families. Um they put on a lot of different fundraisers for us. So we do a pizza ranch which is this week Thursday if anyone wants to stop by. And then we have Culver's Benvonoodles. We have fun run. Last year we raised over $28,000 with our fund run. So a lot of that then goes back into our classrooms where we are able to give teachers some extra
023money to purchase things for their students. Um they also were able to purchase about $10,000 worth of equipment for our 4K area. So that was just in addition to um some of the things that we got for our bigger kids. We have some classroom volunteers and then we have um some family events that we do. We just had our fall festival. We'll have Santa night and then we have our breakfast and books in the spring. And just a great picture to end. [laughter] [gasps] And that's all we have. Any questions? >> What does Kagan Structures mean? Hagen Structures is a corporation out of California and it's an organization that goes around the United States and they hold workshops on various things from discipline and one of their biggest ones is the cooperating um groups when
024I've been talking about uh there's a two-day workshop that they'll lead teachers through uh with learning various strategies on how to to turn student group work into more engaging activities where every like I said every student has a voice or there's movement students are up and finding different partners to talk to to solve problems and to work um through different scenarios or situations or work through vocabulary and different just fun activities makes it more engaging for students. >> Did some of the teachers actually go through the process? >> So, I was trained in that in a previous district that I worked at and so now I'm bringing it here with my knowledge and expertise in that area. >> Okay. Thank you. >> What's been the response to that? >> Very positive. Um, like I said,
025the art teacher the other day came in. She said she was um working on vocabulary for her SLO and she came in said how great it was for her students to work through some of these just talking with each other about their portraits and the things that they're putting in it. Um, I'm working with a teacher tomorrow on some of our math strategies. So, they're really excited for the possibility. the ones that saw it when we had the second and fifth graders together. Imagine two grade levels together and the teachers just sat back and the students were working within their own groups and they just wandered around and asked and facilitated questions but it was really all the work was being done by the students. >> Yeah, I mean I had a wonderful visit over
026there. I appreciate you guys having us. Um, you know, we had a a great um sit down with with a lot of the staff, a lot of good feedback from them. Um, I'm happy to hear about the, you know, kind of um addressing the absenteeism um and putting a plan in place for that cuz I'm I'm with you on that. I believe it's really important that those students are in the classroom. So, happy to hear that. Um, yeah, I thought the uh the uh playground area was pretty cool. I took a jaunt up the ninja wall and then came down on the slide and yeah, it's it's exhilarating. Um but otherwise just walking through the classrooms um a lot of I mean just engaged students um and and a lot of good structure uh from
027our from our staff as well. So appreciate you guys having us. I was very impressed. >> Thank you. I've got a question just curious about you kind of at the beginning talked about more like the stats. Do we have where the like the change from 2024 to like I ready in the forward exam? >> Sure. Yeah. That first slide about ELA. Yeah. So are you asking maybe why there's that discrepancy? >> No, just like what the change >> Oh, was yes. Okay, that makes more sense. improvement, non-improvement from the year before. So last year we had some new staff that were um in that fifth grade and it had been um a team that was very cohesive and worked really well together and kind of knew the ins and outs and unfortunately it just um
028didn't go over you know as well as we had hoped and there were some things that um we could have done to maybe better support and make sure that those things were in place but ultimately um we looked at what the structure was and really it was our students that were again already proficient. we were not growing them as they they should have been. So our focus was very much so on the students who needed that extra support which is absolutely important but then um we were noticing that those who were already proficient were kind of the ones that were not growing as much as we had hoped that they would. >> I was curious too um you know you've got the goal of 3% for absenteeism like what's that look like and how many
029students is that? >> Yeah, so last year for um like our 4.6 six. I think it was about 21 students. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So, it kind of depends on the year. Um the year always starts out where it's a pretty long list because we haven't been in school for many days, but we have noticed that there are patterns with um certain students that maybe need just some additional support and we really try to make it a place where students want to be there every day. We want the teachers to um feel good about having those conversations with the parents as well as feel supported from us and know that we believe in their attendance and making sure that they're there each and every day not only for academics but just for their social emotional
030well-being and making those friendships and connections. >> So the goal is to bring it by the end of the year from that 4.6 to the three. >> Yes. Yep. That's correct. And I I really did too like to hear about this structure of more participation uh with kids because I think if they get more comfortable um they learn more and participating helps that too. So that was really good to learn about. >> Yeah. And oftentimes, you know, we see and we send them off in groups to do their work, but we don't actually teach them about how to have those conversations and what that group time should actually look like. So that's really the the purpose of that. Anybody else questions? >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. [applause] >> All right.
0318.2 High School Activities and Athletics Fall Season Update. It's >> okay. >> Good evening, Mr. Gerber. Good evening everyone. Thanks for having me back. Um I'm on the agenda twice tonight. So, uh double the fun, right? Uh the first thing we're going to talk about is fall sports activities in general. Um not just sports related, but activities in general. And just keep in mind that a lot of our clubs and organizations really kick off in the winter. So, they're really getting underway now. So, when we talk again about winter activities and spring, that'll be much heavier on the activity side. Uh, but this weekend, by the way, the music will be kicking off Thursday through Saturday, the 7:30 shows, and then 2 o'clock on Sunday for the matinea show. Uh, so make sure you get
032there early uh to get your spot. Um, I know uh Dr. Dr. Dphano talked about this on the Daily Dodges uh let's talk episode about our participation numbers in athletics being up again this year which we're very uh fortunate for that where other schools are seeing a decline in student participation in in a number of different areas. We're actually seeing that increase. So we saw an increase of our uh uh seven fall sports. We saw an increase in participation numbers in four of those. Uh and then soccer and tennis which always have very strong numbers stayed relatively flat. It's the same which is a good thing. We don't want to see a decline but we want to see them either staying the same or growing. Uh I believe soccer itself had 54 participants. Um and
033uh uh tennis was just under 40 this year. Um we continue to see growth in our co-op for our swim team. We just got to continue to nurture that program along as we continue to try to uh build that and bring that back. Overall participation, there were 306 students uh this fall that participated in the athletics. 176 boys uh amounted to 32% of our high school male population was out for a fall sport this year. Uh 130 girls making up 29% of our female population. And that's been a trend the last number of years. We've seen our boys numbers increase or be just a little bit higher than our girls. Although uh football does distort that number a little bit. Uh overall participation 288 uh male students were engaged in at least one activity. That's
034sports or uh performing arts or the few clubs that have gotten started. um 22 boys are uh were actively involved in at least four uh groups, which to me is the number we really want to look at is don't just specialize in sport. Don't just specialize in one activity, get out and do multiple things. So, in terms of just our fall numbers, uh in fall offerings, 22 boys were involved in at least four activities. Uh our girls numbers, even though they were lower in athletics, uh really shine out in our activities area. 281 girls were engaged in at least one activity at the high school this uh fall. 41 girls were uh involved in four or more activities as a comparison. And here's the the fun one. Two of our girls were involved in nine
035different activities uh this fall. Uh that would be Ella Geese who's a senior and Lucy Gonzalez uh who's a a senior or junior, excuse me. And Lucy just added another one with basketball starting tonight. So she's pretty busy. I don't know when she has time to fit all this in. And then um talking with uh Mr. Gays and Mr. Hendrickson, uh they had 110 members to the marching band this year, which is the highest they've had in a number of years. So that was really great to see. And you you got to see that this uh fall at the football games. Um and we made some adjustments at homecoming which I I got really great uh feedback from their organization this uh this fall and we're going to continue to try to highlight them. But
036uh they'll be moving now into pep band which I know Mr. Gaylet said he has three organizations this winter that he's looking to get out at basketball games and hockey this this winter. So it'll be a good good experience for them. In terms of accountability, what we're doing in activities to reinforce the uh messages that we're trying to put forth with our uh high school, uh the activities department continues to do weekly grade checks. I can tell you that that is unique to the Badger Conference. There is not one other school in the Badger Conference that does a weekly grade check. We're doing that. We've really worked that out really well. So, if a kid shows up on the Flist, they're getting an email from me and their coach with an opportunity to get that
037up before they're allowed to play. they do not play if they have an F that week. So, most schools are only doing term or semester checks. We're doing it weekly. That's a local decision we've made. That was something I carried over from um uh the uh Miss Garing that was here before me. She had started that and that's something we've continued on to a lot of success. We also or I also start started doing daily attendance checks. So, our coaches in the season will get a an attendance report. If a student is marked absent or unexcused, they are not allowed to practice. And it is if it's game day, they do not play. Um, four years ago when we started that, there were some individuals that had to learn the hard way, but that certainly
038helped with our attendance and accountability at school. In addition to that, uh, this year to support our tardy efforts at the high school, um, we started doing or I started doing weekly tardy checks on all of our inseason athletes. If a student over the course of their season uh gets 10 tardies, they start missing playing time. What that looks like is specific to the team because not every team schedule, not every sport is structured the same. Um I start meeting with them when they have four tardies and then again at eight tardies and hopefully it doesn't have to continue on. Uh throughout the fall we only had two student athletes uh that uh miss any playing time because of their tardy. So, I I feel like we were pretty successful um to start that. And
039then our fall student accolades. Um Owen Hemling uh just last week was the national winner in the animal science systems at the National FFA a fair which was awesome. Um >> there she is. [laughter] >> Um and then uh like I said, there'll be more and more of those coming as we head into the winter when more of our clubs get going again. Again, Mach Trial, for instance, last year, made it to the state tournament. They'll be getting uh started here pretty quick. Uh from an athletic standpoint, McKenna Nelson qualified to the WI state uh golf tournament again for the third straight year. She finished third this year. Um the the girl that won the state tournament this year set a WI record in terms of round at the state tournament. So, if you're going
040to if you're going to go down, you're going to go down to the the new state record. Uh she also won player of the year awards in the Badger Conference. Our girls golf team in general qualified for the team sectionals for the first time since 2018. It's really nice to see that program develop. Having talked to Miss Garing at homecoming, understanding where the numbers were with that program just a few years ago to today where they're able to qualify for the team sectional, a pretty impressive build. Um, and I have to compliment Coach Chase and Coach Nortman for that development. And then uh overall um we our our student athletes uh received 24 Badger Conference or East Central Conference all conference recognitions this year. Uh so pretty uh pretty successful individually again. And then uh
041fall community projects. As you know, all of our uh groups are involved in some sort of community effort working with kids or or local businesses or organizations cross country. Um under the leadership of uh Coach Daniels is really trying to build their program. And so they're doing that through some efforts with Girls on the Run at Prairie View and Jefferson. Um I know they're going to be uh developing a community run club. So, anyone that's listening that likes to run, watch out for a Facebook group that they're putting together, uh, trying to get some more activity going on in the winter and spring. And then, uh, they want to be working with Noel's Angel Walk in the future. They've already talked about adding in a 5K run to that event, which has traditionally been a
042walk, and it sounds like they've had some positive momentum in that direction. So, they're looking to help there as well. Uh football continues to help with the taste of Beaver Dam um and with the Humane Society and of course they're a driving force with our youth football program. Uh the golf program uh has really gotten underway with the junior golf program at Old Hickory. That program has been up and down, but getting our high school kids working with youth kids from our community, I think, is always a really powerful step. uh swim uh was is looking at developing more of a partnership with their pave program in the community. Uh tennis uh they've done this for a number of years, cleaning up local parks in BD after the winter. And uh volleyball once again ran
043their pink out um in September, donating those proceeds to uh cancer research. The last thing I'll say uh before opening it up is I will be back. Uh, I'll be back in December to talk about some more field trips because I know we love talking about those. Uh, and then I'll be back in January for school of the month. Any questions on anything? >> I just want to comment, Ryan. I I like it that how you've broken it down. I mean, you know, kind of give us a a glimpse of all the different activities that uh the kids are participating in. And it's phenomenal. >> Yeah. Yeah. We uh so I've been tracking it over the last four years just everything they do from athletics to the performing arts to our clubs and organizations. What
044our kids do I I was talking with an ad at our convention today. They have a school over 2,000 kids at their high school down in Illinois and they've got 1300 kids out for athletics in the fall. You know we don't have those type of numbers but when you start to compare the percentages and the amount of kids that are doing different things in our school is pretty impressive. And I I would stack up our numbers compared to anyone else in our area. At a time when kids aren't doing nearly as much, when their specialization or they're finding reasons not to engage, what we have here is pretty good. And as we know, the more engaged students are with their school, they're going to do better in their school as well. I think one of
045my one of my favorite examples is uh when I went to a football game this fall and I saw the football players in the marching band when I was in high school that you couldn't do both. You had to choose and I just really appreciated that they all find a way to make it work so that the kids can have more experiences. That was pretty awesome. >> I really liked hearing about the girls golf because when I was in high school there was no girls golf. I I had to play on the guys team. So, it's nice that uh I didn't make varsity. I was on JB. It's nice to hear how and how well they're doing. >> Yeah, there it's it's been an incredible growth. You know, obviously we could spend all night talking
046about what McKenna's done individually, but I think when you when you watch her interact with her teammates, she she legitimately wants to be here with her teammates and it's, you know, rising tide lives all boats, right? They're pushing each other. They're having fun together. the road trips, that whole experience about being a high school athlete um is really special and you can see that with that group. It's a tight-knit group and it's just it's wonderful to see where they've gone and where they can continue to go. >> So, as so where do you see areas of potential future growth in our athletics and activities? >> We h we have to uh like every school, we have to unlock the reasons why our female participation numbers are lower. Um and and there's a lot of reasons
047out there why that is, but we have to find out why our girls specific to Beaver Dam aren't out. Um in the fall, for instance, there are five sports offerings, right? So why is our number below 30%. Now on the flip side of that, our female p uh participation in our clubs and organizations, it's incredibly strong. So is there a reason why we're doing those things and not the others? We have to look at that and that comes in when we're talking u with our students every year when we're when I meet with our athletic leadership team like I am on Thursday you know what are we doing that we can improve on because you know I don't have the answers as an adult you know I don't know what you know appeals to a
048a 15 and 16 and 17 year old. So we got to be talking with our our kids about what we need to be doing differently to attract more kids out for activities. And I would imagine some of the things that you are doing with the girls on the run and getting sports to younger kids uh is going to help that. >> The two sports that I've said consistently have the biggest area for growth especially for female athletes is cross country and swim. I think we can see tremendous growth there. There is a and and not just female athletes, male athletes too. There is there are a number of students walking our halls where those two sports are perfect for them. We just got to get them early into the program. It starts with middle school
049really, but elementary. >> Thank you. >> I I like it too that not only are they participating in a sport or an activity, but that they're doing some good in the in the community, you know, whether it's helping out with the taste of Beaverdam or, you know, pave or any of that kind of stuff that makes a difference. And consistently I will have coaches say our kids want to do this and they're asking can we do more of this and you again you don't get that everywhere in a lot of communities it's go to practice go home just think about what I need to do for me right >> but we have cons I mean girls soccer we'll talk about in the spring but that's a great example those girls are pushing to do more
050with area businesses and groups they love going out to the humane society and working with the animals out there. So, it's it's something that uh it's it's a good culture piece and I think speaks to why our kids are as wellrounded as they are here. [snorts] >> Mr. Gerber, I got a question about um can you give us some insight as in as the WIA and kind of how we possibly ended up way up north? Is there any rhyme or reason behind that? I mean, do you have any insight that you could share with us? And uh is there is there I don't want to say outrage, but is there um is there concern across the state that you've heard about when when you're shipping one school all the way across the state to play
051a game like that? >> Yeah. Um how much time you got? [laughter] >> Um here here >> two minutes. >> So so here's here's the short end of it. Uh last year everyone was really disappointed in how the playoffs were put together. example, Beaver Dam wins their conference, they they lose one game, they're a five seed going on the road. That happened to multiple schools across the state in various different ways. Uh there was all sorts of controversy in Madison. There was a lawsuit over over the playoffs. The coach association came together. They took what Ohio does where you essentially rank out top 32 teams and you set them up and without giving geograph geography a consideration like had been in the past, they just said one's going to play 32, two is going to
052play 31. The argument was that too often in the past geography played a primary role rather than a back seat. Is there outrage? I would say there's a lot of people very frustrated. We weren't the only school. I know Sun Prairie East went up to Hudson for a game. So, there's plenty of schools that were negatively affected. I I talked to a buddy of mine who's up way up north. They would have come down to Franklin had they won their game. Yeah, the the the travel is not okay and it's something that uh is being discussed and talked about. I I having been on uh the wrestling executive board when we first came out with electronic seating will tell you that in three years that we've had electronic seating, we've tweaked it every year to
053improve it. So, you put together a plan, you're going to find the warts, [snorts] you got to tweak it, and I think that's where they're going to be. >> Yeah. I mean, without belaboring it, too, um I'd like to commend our whole um coaching staff and the families because they did a wonderful job, I think, making it a great experience for the kids. So, they made like a whole day of it, you know, they they they worked in a college visit, you know, so so there was some benefit to it. Um but time, travel, um and the cost, real cost. So the cost to to ship any football program like that across the state essentially for one game equates to the total travel cost that you would spend on an entire um sports team like
054girls tennis for the season, right? So, that's that's the issue that we we have. Um, and we've got to find a way to, you know, help encourage closing that gap or maybe maybe there's a direct WIA event tournament proceeds offset uh for for things like that. And I know that WIA is, I think, responsive to listening um to that, but I'm really happy that our kids and our families, it sounds like, had a wonderful experience. Um, so they they turned it into something positive. And just to provide a little bit of context, I did what I could on the back end to try to find a different solution because my concern necess wasn't necessarily the drive up. It was a drive back. At the time, they would have. Um, however, some when you get into
055the playoffs, sometimes being the visiting team, you you don't get what you want all the all the time. But yes, there there are going to be conversations about it because uh it's not right. But, you know, we live and learn. We're going to move forward, right? >> Yeah. And I would agree with Mark. I mean, what I heard, uh, you know, finding out what they did, making that a trip, uh, stopping at college or two, I mean, I thought that was very wise and I was happy to hear that, but, uh, still a concern about >> shooting for the one seed next time, then we don't >> Yeah, if we just win all our games, we'll be be okay. So, that was my directive to Brock. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Anything else?
056>> All right, girls. Yep. There you go. All right. I step back up. Yeah. >> Girls hockey co-op. >> Um, so kind of a unique situation. Um, I was just here not too long ago to talk about girls hockey. Um, and in that amount of time, uh, we had a request that actually made quite a bit of sense for us. So, what we'd like to do in addition to adding Lammyra, which we've already talked about, is at Fall River. Now, you might be asking why we keep adding these schools in our co-op. Hockey, again, very different than our other sports. They are assigned in the youth level to certain communities. They do not have a choice. Um, very similar to uh in some communities like hometown baseball. It's very regional. Uh so, the community of
057Fall River cannot go play in Sun Prairie. They cannot play into Forest. They are assigned to Beaver Dam. When they get to high school, then it it's up to what do you do? It's wide open. So, um, we have families on both the girls and the boys team. We're only talking about girls tonight, uh, that play in Beaver Dam, play youth hockey. They are assigned here by WAJA. Um, their administration reached out to us uh, to see if we would be willing to take them on. We are early in the process. If we were late in the process, I would not have come back. Uh but because we're early in the process, um I'm asking to add Fall River. Um I did note in the minutes or in my my notes that this will um
058this will trigger us taking a look at some of the other schools that are in our co-op that maybe not have uh future kids coming in um to to try to trim up and and be a little bit more nimble. Uh but we're going to try to add Fall River. And again to previous questions that have been asked before, we are not paying any additional costs uh to add Fall River because all of our costs are split by school based on the number of kids. Um so adding them is not going to be an additional cost for our our school or our community. And that was uh very much discussed with uh the administration at Fall River. We I make a motion that we approve the addition of Fall River to the girls hockey co-op.
059>> Second it. >> All right. We have a motion and a second then to add Fall River to the girls hockey co-op. Uh all in favor say I. I. >> All those not same sign. >> Good. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. District safety drills. >> Good evening. So in 2017, Wisconsin legislature adopted uh Wisconsin Act 143. As part of act 143, all public and private schools are required to conduct annual safety drills and proper response to a school violence event in accordance with school safety plan for that building. Person in charge of a particular school building must submit a brief written evaluation of the drill to the school board or governing body within 30 days and the board or governing body must review the evaluation. A drill regarding a school violence event
060may be substituted for other required drills relating to fire, tornado, or other hazards or school safety incidents. Um, in your packet, you were given the uh school violence drill summaries that were written for each individual building. Uh, these drills were all conducted with local law enforcement and were debriefed immediately after with local law enforcement. Um, we're asking tonight that you guys accept those and then once they are signed, I will upload those to our office of school safety share file. Any questions? >> I move for acceptance of the um school what >> district safety drills report as presented. >> Second. >> All right. Uh motion and second then to approve the district safety drills report. All in favor say I. >> I. >> All those not same sign. >> Thanks. >> All right. Thank you
061very much. >> Thank you, Troy. >> All right. That moves us on to uh reports by the board of education. And as always, starting out with our student reps. So with that, I will turn it over to uh Dinara and Carter. >> Hi, good afternoon. Um, once again, me and Carter are really honored to be here, so thank you for having us. And we start off with our student organizations in FFA. We're proud to recognize Owen Hemling, who earned a national recognition as a national aggra science fair winner. His achievement showcases both his dedication and the strength of our own agricultural program. Additionally, we would like to shout out Mr. Gansky and Mr. Chico, our FFA advisers for guiding out or for helping out our club through a successful trip in Indianapolis. In HOSA, members
062recently celebrated HOSA week, which engaged in leadership building activities and service projects that promoted interest in the health sciences. This week helped students explore healthcare careers and develop valuable teamwork and communication skills. >> Then uh moving on to Key Club. Key Club plans to hold their Key Club week. Technically, it was this week, but because HOSA week was on the same week, we decided to push it back to next week, which works well because it's also the district food drive. So, we're going to feature dressup days, schoolwide promotion of the district food drive, and activities aimed at encouraging students to join Key Club and volunteer in our community. And then within the school, our members are organizing an inner club competition for the food drive where uh each day a different club, it's like their
063day and they bring in food to try to earn as many points as possible. And then if people want to like sabotage them, they could put points in the minus bin to take away points from that club. Kind of just get to get more participation throughout our students in the building. Um, and then our Key Club members are excited, I know I am, next Friday to go around all the schools and pick up the food and donate it to local food pantries and places that need them. Uh, moving on to fine arts. The cast and crew for this year's fall musical, Brigadun are excited to open their performance this Thursday, November 13th. Um, shows run Thursday to Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and then that final 2 p.m. matinea on Sunday the 16th. Uh, our students
064have been working hard to bring this classic production to life and I'm sure it's going to be an exciting performance. I'll be there and tickets can be purchased online on GoFan before the show. I believe they're $10. In our National Honor Society, members are preparing for the Veterans Day breakfast tomorrow morning. This annual event honors our local veterans through a morning of food, gratitude, and fellowship, and it's always one of the most meaningful service projects of the year. Um, following the recognition breakfast, veterans and National Honor Society members will have the opportunity to hear different performances from our choir and band students. And then turning over to our athletics, our winter sport season is finally underway. Teams are beginning practices and gearing up for competition. Coaches and athletes alike are looking forward to another strong
065season filled with hard work, growth, and school pride. We are excited to see how our basketball, wrestling, hockey, and swim teams perform this year. Uh around a week ago, I had the pleasure of volunteering alongside some other Kika members at Prairie View Elementary's fall festival. Um I assisted in the bounce house, which got a little wild. You can ask those two back there, [laughter] but overall it went really well. Our Key Club students really enjoyed it and the preview students seem to have a lot of fun throughout the event. I encourage you help out next year. Just don't let the bounce house fall over next year. That's [laughter] that'd be my recommendation. Um and then finally for academics, term one came to a close on November 3rd, marking an important milestone for our school year.
066Teachers and students are reflecting on progress so far and setting goals for success in term two. Additionally, our junior students completed a ACT feedback uh survey and they shared kind of suggestions for the future. How can administration promote the ACT and students trying their best in preparing ahead of time to reach their maximum scores? >> Yeah, overall it's been exciting and productive last two weeks since we just had a meeting not that long ago. I feel like [laughter] we we've done quite a bit since then. Um we really filled with accomplishment, service, and school spirit across our areas of the school as we continue into the school year. Thank you. >> Yeah, I was kind of thinking the same thing. I'm like we just were here a few weeks ago. I'm like, how much are
067they going to come up with? But you guys filled it up nicely. So, thank you for the updates. Any questions for our student reps? >> No, >> I would just say commend you guys on um just a wonderful student body that you know we seem to have and uh the numbers and the participation speak for themselves. So, uh please let your peers know that uh they've got a board of education that's really proud of uh their participation. >> All right, we will. Thank you. Anything else? >> All right. Thank you guys very much. >> Appreciate it. >> Uh we did not have uh any committees. So we'll move on to 9.2 board election April 2026. >> The uh there were are three seats that are up for election on April 7th of 2026. The current
068incumbents are Maria, Lisa, and Joanne. And if any of the incumbents do not intend to run for reelection, you need to file non-candidacy papers before uh by 5:00 p.m. on December 26th. Um and incumbents and any members of the public who are seeking election need to file candidacy papers by 5:00 p.m. on January 6 of 2026. All right. Thank you, Marge. And with that, we'll move to 9.3, board engagement and recognitions. Any of the board members like to share out engagement opportunities or recognitions across our school district? I just had one uh one event. We went to Prairie View for the uh coffee chat and big shout out to the uh kids in the kitchen. >> I knew it was coming. >> Yep. Yep. So, we get the we get, you know, you get the
069the nice picture of them and and all them kids are just so proud of themselves. And uh their work showed they had they made um like egg bites, little egg bites. You had a uh like a sausage and egg uh selection. You also had a a veggie option. So, I'm not going to tell you how many of those I ate, but I I had enough of them. And then uh we had a a nice little doughnut and some apple cider. So, it was uh it was good a good visit. >> I almost was thinking when the school was up here, he didn't say anything. I was I was wondering if there was something wrong. [laughter] >> Just waiting. >> Any other uh engagement or recognition opportunities board wants to talk about? >> I attended the
070middle school choir concert and I realized how much more I enjoyed it when my kids weren't in it. Um no battling over what they're going to wear to the concert, none of that. Um, I really enjoyed that concert. It was so nice to see the way they have to do it there with size and they can't use the high school because of the high school musical going on is the sixth graders come in then they the parents leave then the seventh graders and um it was really neat to sit through all three of those and to see the growth from sixth grade through 8th grade in their abilities and the music selection. So really enjoyed the concert. It was a it was a nice evening. >> Anyone else? >> I also went to the preview
071coffee chat. So, thanks to your team over there for um showing us around the building. Um saw a lot of good things happening in the classroom and appreciate that. Um also got to see Ike go up the the ninja wall, so that was a treat. Um a shout out I wanted to give was to uh we had some students from NHS and FFA at the Second Harvest Mobile Food Pantry on Saturday. So appreciate their efforts as well. >> Anybody else, >> Mark? >> Yep. I just want to uh echo the sentiments and recognize uh all of our veterans uh tomorrow. So looking forward to seeing many of them at the high school and and other locations in the district. Um district food drive again is uh next week. So, thanks to all the the groups
072that are helping participate and work with staff to to coordinate that effort and uh the board has a workshop next Monday. So, uh board members are welcome and encouraged to to bring some items to that. Um I won't be taking the picture, but Mary will, so be sure to consider bringing some things in. Um Brigadun, as we know, is uh this week, so that's awesome. A lot of hard work has gone into it. I'm looking forward to seeing all of the kilts. uh don't have to wear one yet. So, that's good. Um and then I wanted to recognize uh everybody that's been uh participating um with our projects. So, a lot of projects going on. I know we just had an update a couple of weeks ago. Um but a lot of great team efforts.
073Uh the way the the Washington Commons is coming along, very confident we're going to be able to make that transition. So, um thank all the team members that are working hard to make that happen. Um, we celebrated uh a nice milestone moving forward with the max mass excavation at the middle school site. Um, I just want to commend all the local contractors and all the partners that have been part of making that um happen. Um, and and um, you know, it's really a celebration and recognition how much money we spend locally during these projects and just barely a quarter in being well over a million dollars and Ryan Cashman will spearhead kind of a quarterly monitoring and reporting that we'll do. So, want to thank Ryan for for that work that he does with Mike
074Dietrich and his team with CG Schmidt to make sure we track that and are able to report it. And then wanted to uh thank Mary, she loves Mary Possuma loves it when we recognize her, but she makes sure the website's updated with the board updates that are provided um as well as the plan. So, just to reiterate for folks, all of the middle school plans, pictures, renditions, site layout, uh those are all public and on the website people to to look at. If people have questions and want to dive deeper or take a a tour with me, they can certainly do that. It's a virtual tour. There's no building yet. Um and then, um finally, I want to recognize um my team members that help uh lead the continuous improvement community engagement sessions. So, um,
075Ryan Cashman will be hosting two November 12th and November 18th. Don't worry, Ryan. I'll be there with you. Uh, that's finance, operations, and facilities. So, it's here at the ESC. So, this Wednesday and then next week on the 18th. So, um, anybody um in our community who wants to to talk and provide feedback on the areas of finance, operations, and facilities, again, November 12th and November 18th, right here. Um it'll be set up one big bullpen um with a lot of opportunities for people to to offer feedback and ask questions. Uh so please consider doing that. Um bring a friend 5:30 to 7:00 and it's at any time. You can come at 5:45, you can come at 6:15, you can come at 6:45. We're going to rush you through because we want to be done
076at 7 also. But um figure around 20 25 minutes would probably be the max time that you would need if you were pushing. Um and you're welcome to stay longer. And uh we've got cookies. So if that if that helps. We we do have cookies. So uh they're storebought though. Like so. No. No, they're not. They're not. >> Yeah. Taher helps make us some cookies. So >> all right. Okay. I'll stop talking now, Chad. All right. Uh thank thank everybody for the uh engagement and uh recognition updates. >> I move the board recess in close session C. Considering employment, promotion of compensation or performance evaluation date of any public employee over which the governmental body of jurisdiction are exercising responsibility specifically to discuss specific employees and employee groups. >> Second. >> All right. Motion a
077second to move into close session. Roll call, please. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. >> All right. We're going to move into close session. Just note it should be a short close session. So, if you have stuff to talk about afterwards, please don't go far. We're back in open session. We'll move on to district policy and guidelines. Uh 12.1. >> There are no resignations or retirement requests. We can move on to 12.2 two, >> which there are no leaves of absence. >> All right. >> 12.3, there are no appointments. >> All right. >> Brings us to >> what' you do for the last two weeks. >> 12.4 board policy updates. >> Yeah. Just [laughter] >> for the public's sake, the the board had an official business meeting two weeks ago. So, it covered a lot of
078that. >> That's more trying to find my pen there. >> Board policy updates. Uh final reading. Again, uh the board received uh the initial reading. It was um two weeks ago. um the the fall slate. Um there were 31 uh perspective revisions as well as uh one replacement. Um again, this is the process um where we collaborate directly with Niola. They work with I believe it's about over 70% of the school districts in in the state of Wisconsin um help us monitor um our policies. Uh they have legal uh counsel, policy experts that also provide advice. we meet with them, review their um recommendations, uh work through those um and then bring those forward for the board to consider. So, this would be considered the final reading if the board is interested in um adopting
079the 31 revisions and one replacement. >> Questions, comments? I move for approval of the um policy updates and uh replacement. >> Second. >> All right, we have a motion, a second then to approve the board policy updates. Uh we just need all in favor. >> I >> and not same sign. >> All right, moving on to payment of claims. I move for payment of claims in the amount of $3,395,24067. >> Second. >> Motion a second then to approve payment of claims. Roll call vote, please. >> Yes. >> All right. Ask for a motion for adjournment. >> So move Second. >> A motion, a second for adjournment. All in favor say I. I. >> All those not same sign. >> All right, we are journ. Thank you very much.