March 19, 2025 FPS School Board Meeting

001Good evening everyone and welcome to the Franklin Board of Education meeting for Wednesday, March 19th, 2025. Uh the meeting has been properly posted. Can we have a roll call, please? Mrs. Larson. Mrs. Seperski here. Dr. Khan here. Mrs. Wakowski here. Mrs. Yank here. Mr. Sprag here. Dr. Beer here. We are all present. Thank you. Can we all stand for the pledge, please? I aliance 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. Right. I'm looking for a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. Second. Motion was made by Mrs. Wkowski, seconded by Dr. Khan. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. Franklin High School presentation, Mrs. Larson, please. Yes. It is my pleasure to

002introduce Mr. Mike Vololo and the associate principles and a group of VIPs from the high school who are going to come and talk to us about the pathways that they are working on at the school. Um they're going to share their experiences with us and tell us how things are going for them. Thank you, Mr. Vololo, please. Right. Thank you, Mrs. Larson. and thank you board of education. Uh so we have five students who are here on this beautiful spring night and we're going to end with them talking about their experiences and some of the courses that you've approved most recently in the last couple of years. So rarely if ever have we come back and said what are students learning those experiences that makes them life ready. So that's where we're going to end.

003Okay. Uh I did want to you know have and start if you kind of go to the next slide there Jess you reminder like every building in the district we have goals built around the coherence plan. So we don't want to ignore that. Uh I did give you a handout that gives you a quick snapshot of some of the work in terms of measuring how things are going in terms of classroom proficiency. So you'll see that in the very top. Um and that's you know your more typical achievement and growth goals tied to the daily teaching and learning. And then following that we have information about our engagement goals. So we did want to give you a you know high level overview of that. But our primary focus today will be on the students who

004are more interesting than all of us. That being said we do want to talk about our engagement work. Uh specifically just give you an idea of how we've seen that improve as we've gone through. So we'll start with some staff engagement. Yeah. So uh you'll see staff engagement is kind of like that third block down or box down if you just wanted to follow along with us. And so you'll see our two metrics. we were talking about having access to training to do their job effectively and that their opinion counts. So those were our focus areas within our staff engagement team and you'll see that we've seen growth throughout not only the baseline in spring but through the fall and into the winter. So we're eager to see what it'll look like spring to spring

005so we can have some of that to compare as well. But some of the actions we've been able to take to honor those is we really been increasing staff voice in their need and want to have universal expectations. Um, and so we've been able to put task forces together in order to help build those universal expectations and impact their voice in that. And then to really meet that training component, thinking around the lens of how can we use the staff expertise in order to build up that training as well. So we've used uh not only the staff to help build up that training to support those universal expectations, but also any outside resources we've needed to as well. Can I just ask what the total number of staff are there? You have 113 responses out

006of how many? Was it 120? Just a guess. Yeah. If you were including all all staff, it would be 140. I think it's closer to 140. Sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. So, it's been really awesome to be part of the staff engagement team um that's met throughout the year to really focus on these two areas of training and opinions and seeing our staff um like comfortably share their voice and what they're feeling and what their struggles are so that we can team and collaborate but also build up our leadership within our teachers of taking those initiatives and sharing their voice and their expertise as Cla shared as well. and our family or community engagement team is our is our smallest, but it's a mighty team at the high school um led by some

007members of our school improvement team. We've looked at looking at events differently. So, how can we have a menu of options for families when they come to the high school? So, in the fall, we partnered with the Wisconsin Education Fair and put parent teacher student conferences on that night. Even the subtle shift of not calling them parent teacher conferences, but really trying to include the student within that name to highlight that they have a voice in that night and we want to see them there. So, we've seen increased participation from students on our parent teacher student conference nights. We just had our spring conferences that were partnered with the trades hiring event. So, another opportunity for families to come in for multiple reasons and we've tried to increase the amount of information we can share

008with families and they can share with us on those nights by having sessions offered by either our school counselors or members of our school team. Annine did a session for families around vaping. We've done in high school specific sessions around how to support your high schooler as they prepare for college AP tests and things of that nature. And lastly, in terms of student engagement and you know typically we look at engagement as being higher in fall than it is in winter and spring and our engagement for students like the other groups has also gone up throughout the year and you know the lever for that that we're continue to push on is you know think about advisory. Think about that idea of we've had themes through the quarters of the year where we take student

009engagement themes and we actually you know have that drilled down to conferring with our advises over the course of let's say four weeks. We've been able to conduct interviews with students from service groups, right? Remember that language you've heard from Dr. Mo around students disabilities, right? Students who are English learners, right? And actually hear about their experience. And we've seen our engagement go up. I'm not saying that's simply because of advisory or those different, you know, opportunities. However, we're truly hearing from our students in terms of what their experience is each and every day. And that's a great segue uh for us to go in and talk about the profile of a graduate. This is a slightly refreshed graphic. Um so uh compared to the what you would have seen arguably about a year and

010a half ago give or take um it's been a minute uh but this is a uh updated and refreshed um look at the profile of a graduate somewhere we have four nouns up there as well as you know five sort of qualities or dispositions or adjectives or ways of being um that we developed by engaging stakeholders across our community and schools. And one of the things I ask these students here to reflect on is reflect on what their experiences in some of our newest course pathways have done to help them learn about themselves or to gain experience they would not have otherwise had. And okay, they did not have the profile when they signed up for the classes. They didn't have the profile in the sense of like it wasn't part of daily teaching and

011learning because we haven't gotten to that point yet, right? That's really big, meaty, heavy work across our system, not just for one school, but for all of our schools. However, I ask the students to come here and reflect on their experience and share with you how these courses that you approved, right? And you know, we'll come back in fall and talk about maybe a next thing u maybe it's an educator pathway, maybe it's in theater, maybe it's in something else. And you know, I'm going to ask you to ask us, right? How does this fit into that life readiness piece? How does this tie to the profile? Not just how does it tie to college career readiness, but how does it tie to life readiness? And that's why I have these students here. You know,

012they're teachers. I said, "Give me some names some students." And they gave your names, right? you're here because you know like you came to mind immediately. So without anything further, I want these students to talk about three of our more recent course pathways that you've either expanded or refreshed or built and approved for us and have the students share something they learned about themselves or something they gained from their experience in that class. We have students here and I'll introduce them in a second. Uh students when you're talking just give your name and speak close to the mic. Uh Jack and McKenna will begin from the educator They're going to kick us off and then we'll talk about computer science. So we'll talk about computer science program tonight but I think okay that wasn't able

013to be here tonight but here again I let them you share their experiences and then thank you foring these pathways. Uh so I'm Jack. Uh I'm in the foundations of education class and um one way it's really helped me is that uh first off it's uh it's through W Parkside. So, it's a college course and I feel like just getting that experience of doing like college level work has really uh helped me prepare for like what I'm going to be looking at at the future, especially with like wanting to be a teacher and wanting to go into education. It's kind of got me an idea of like what I want to be thinking about like going forward. And then in terms of class content, it's made me a lot more like aware of like how

014schools work and how kind of to work with kids because you kind of understand uh with the class like okay, this is this is how like kids think. this is how um like the schools try to help with that and I think overall it's just really helped me prepare for the future with my um education uh plans. I'm McKenna. I'm also part of the foundations of education class. Um, this class we focus a lot on not only reflecting ourselves as who we want to be in the future as teachers um, but who the kids are in the community, how they are seen, um, and how we can help them grow. Uh, this helps me a lot think about coming from a place of growing up in education, seeing how I want my kids to grow

015up in education and have teachers that care about them and know where they're coming from. I think this class is a great start on having teachers know uh and reflect where these kids uh are coming from. And yeah. Um hello, I'm Anand. Um I'm currently a junior at Franklin High School and I've taken pretty much all the computer science courses our school offers. Um, one thing I've really taken away from computer science uh, at our school is the ability to be able to collaborate and connect with my peers on a deeper level that I've never really had the chance to do before. So, I've been programming pretty much my entire life, but obviously before high school it was just me by myself. Um, and then freshman year I I walk into programming one um, class

016of like 32 people. And throughout the year, I realized that uh this is a whole class filled with people who are just like me, who shares hobby, who share hobbies and interests just like me. Um, and ever since my freshman year, I've been um able to stay with these peers and just sort of be able to collaborate with them uh throughout uh my three years of high school so far. Um we have a coding club at high school that uh we founded and are currently running. Um we have 15 plus people and we're still growing every every single year. Um we participate in hackathons, competitions, uh like like the Marquette coding ch competition and stuff. Um uh if you go to the next page or next slide here. Yeah. So that's some of the sorry

017um right there on the left. Um those are some of the kids who participated in the congressional app challenge. Uh essentially it was just um it was it was a challenge that you make an app over like the course of six months and both the first and second place award winners were from our school. Uh so right there and you can see Mr. Hust and Mr. Wolo and that man right there all the way on the right is Congressman Brian Steel who came to our school uh to give us our little certificates that we got. And you can see Mr. Hus right in the middle. He's back here also. And then that picture there on the right is a completely student led event that we currently host we hosted about a month ago. I think

018like March 4th. Um it's a hackathon that we hosted at our school. We had like uh 20 people there I think. Um and essentially it was like um the prompt was to come up with something to help your community. Um these people here came up with a way to recycle. not recycle um get food that the restaurants have to like food shelters so that people could actually use that even instead of getting it wasted. So they got their little awards there and yeah we had a little award ceremony. It was completely student driven. So we were the ones giving them the awards, we bought those awards, we bought the food um and like we hosted the we hosted it in Mr. Hus classroom again back here. Wait, where's Mr. Hus? And yeah, so I just

019I just Hello. Yeah, I I just wanted to have these pictures up here just to show you what your u programming classes at the high schools have done for us. I just wanted to thank you guys also. So yeah, thanks. My name is Alvira. I've also taken about all of the programming classes at the school. And on building on what N said, um I agree that a lot of the people at our school are really, especially in our programming classes are really driven and they're really hardworking and it really helps when like we have lots of peer working projects that we work with together. So it helps with the fact that everyone has the same interest and we're able to connect with each other and we always work together pure programming which helps a lot

020with communicating and collaborating with each other. It especially helps when we're working on code and it helps when we talk it out and we're able to understand errors in our own code. And it also like like he said, a lot of the students at our school are really beyond like just the basics. They have they love programming and they're also really good at it. So the robotics and coding club teams and like also in like just students in the classes in general, they're also like really hardworking. So it's not just like they're doing mundane homework. they actually like programming and they actually go beyond and build projects and for I al also have an internship with Mr. Hust and um we made an AAB day lightup project where it helps a lot when we talk

021through our code and like work with other people whether we're working with students or with our teachers. Uh I'm AJ and I've taken the officiating sports class and one thing it taught me is like the deeper like like rules of the sports. So like I play sports like I knew like kind of like the basics of like all the sports and like kind of how to like know how to like graph it or hump it. But it taught me like the deeper rules and like they like exact like how to like call like where to be. And then I think it like helps like being a citizen because like you're giving back to the community because I know like there's like limited rest right now. So like you're going to like give these like youth

022kids like young kids like 10 and younger like the games that they need because like they're going to go come through our high school one day. And so like you're helping our high school in the future. questions. When I ask more awesome I'm just curious what what the apps are, you know, what's the range of apps that you kind of work on. Um, so we had like we had a pretty wide range of apps. We have um somebody made the food recycling stuff that I told you about. Other people made a sign language uh like dictionary app. Uh someone made a website that you could like search up environmental issues in like uh in Wisconsin and like other states and like how what's some um good solutions for that. Yeah. So it's like it's really

023up to what they um think a predominant issue in our community is. And yeah, we kind of just give them free reign to build whatever they need to. So you're not using the punch cards then? You're using some other code? No. No, we're not. Yeah. What languages are you use? Uh coding languages are you using? Well, it it really depends on how much programming the person who's um uh building it. Um we don't want to make it closed off to only people who know programming, but also people who want to get into programming uh should be able to participate. So if someone doesn't know like basically any programming, but they've taken some of Mr. H's classes, they can use code HS which is like a visual um block pro programming um program. So they can

024make an app a pretty good app inside Kods or they could um use like any language like JavaScript, Python, whatever they what whatever they think is fit. It's it's really up to them. Yeah. Um I like the I was so interested when from when I first heard about it with the the refereeing and and those classes, I I just think you're going to be such a role model for other students. um you know to and it it obviously has to build confidence um you know be able to to hold your ground and I it just I'm assuming it imparts a lot more than just the rules of the game. Yeah. like it like kind of like helps you like build confidence like know like exactly what you're going to do like like you know you're

025right cuz like like obviously like people are going to say like you're wrong cuz like it's like they want their kid to succeed but like like you have to like get confidence and like say like your call is like the right call and like you don't want to be like sway from like like you want to like have confidence in yourself so like you don't like sway like what the crowd's saying and stuff. Very cool. I guess I have to ask. It's good to see that we have, you know, women in this class. What is the are women in coding classes? What's the uh they're definitely Is it still a minority? Okay, I'm glad to see her there. Go ahead. Yeah, there's definitely less women, but um there are like a few that really are

026passionate about it and it helps when you have especially like in robotics and coding club and in my computer science a class currently. there's only two girls, but it does help because it's you're able to connect with them easily and it's still like a lot of the people even if they're guys, they're like really understanding and they won't like there's no there's not much of a barrier. Although sometimes like it can be a little difficult, but you know, you just have to make room for yourself and it's like everyone's helps if you need help with coding like pure programming really helps with collaborating with everyone in the class. Thank you. Thank you all for being here. I just I shout out to the teachers. Don't want to don't want to overlook our future educators. You

027you are hitting me where where it counts. Um so thank you. I I just love teachers. Um so thank you for what you're doing and for the path that you're choosing. Um it's it's just admirable and I appreciate it. Thank you. And I just want to add I think one of the ways we as a country and as a community can grow forward and be still the number one and continue to be the number one is by your hard work and dedication and your creativity and innovation as such. Uh we has been the number one country in the world just because of the hard work and dedication because of you guys. So continue to do that and you know you guys your work is very very vital as such. Thank you. Thank you for the

028kind words. Appreciate it. Good job everybody. Thank you everyone. You're wearing your in a second. I'll photoshop in some googly eyes. So, students, I'm going to have you guys be a front row in front of the administrators. So, if you want to stand, if I could have Mr. be likeing in the front sequ. [Music] All right. I'll take it on three time. Perfect. very consistent before. So, you know, that's really figure out how to make my computer not black out every MS. All right. Thank you, everyone. We'll continue to community comment. Um we have uh one participant today uh Natalia Curillo Christensen. Please have a seat. Hello, my name is Natalyia Christensen. Um, I am an eighth grader attending Forest Park Middle School. And as much as I love having the privilege of going to

029this school, I believe that there are ways that we can improve to make sure every child has a accepting learning environment amongst their peers. Um, just last week I was in class minding my own business and finishing up a project for a class, Teched, and I was called a illegal alien by one of my peers. I'm Mexican American. Since this happened, my teacher in this class has been isolating me from my friends purposely um and making comments about how I need to control myself. Um I am being punished for being bullied in short terms. And not only is my teacher the only one um pretty much pull bullying me almost, it feels like my school counselor told me that I should keep quiet about what this peer said to me. This whole experience has made

030me feel very unwelcomed in this school. And if we want to create a place where every child can come to school and learn without the fear of being punished for their ethnicity, then we should make rules enforcing policies to protect groups that aren't the majority. We shouldn't force kids to cover up their ethnicity like it's against the dress code. Everybody should be accepted and respected by everybody, and there should be no leniency on that. There should be no exception to racism, bullying, or harassment for any reason. Racism is racism, and tolerating racism is racism, no matter how you justify it. That's all. Thank you for your comments. Thank you, Natalyia, for speaking. We can follow up tomorrow too also and talk. Appreciate you being here. I know it's pretty brave to have to come up

031to a microphone at a board meeting. All right. I'm looking We'll move on to the consent agenda. I am looking for a motion to approve. So move. Second. Motion was made by Mrs. Larson, seconded by Mrs. Woodowski. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. school board calendar uh circ ground uh building groundbreaking ceremony on April 9th at the ECC at 10:30. regular board of education meeting on um April 9th as well at 6 at the ECC and April 23rd also at 6 pm. Key communicators meeting on Tuesday, April 15th at Forest Park Middle School at 5:00 and the uh Franklin Public Schools business partner breakfast will be Tuesday, April 29th at Ascension Southeast uh Franklin campus. Uh, and that will be at 7:30 a.m. District administrator update. Mrs. Bennon, please. All right. Thank

032you. Good evening. Thank you to our high school team and students for being here tonight. It was nice to uh hear how the courses are carrying out. Uh, and appreciate the whole administrative team being here this evening. Also, uh, as Mr. Sprag just mentioned, the community education and recreation center groundbreaking will take place in a few weeks on April 9th at 10:30. Um it will be off the parking lot on this side here on the we call that southwest. Um so at 10:30 a.m. that day. So we're looking forward to having everybody here for that. They will hopefully start moving ground a little more out there as soon as the weather cooperates. So not like a day like today. Uh Franklin Forward update. We continue to work through the schematic phase uh portion of the

033work. So pretty similar to what we've talked about uh the last couple months. Uh in the next four to eight weeks, we're hoping that the core planning team and consultants can be through the design phase. So really getting scoped in on what that architectural plan looks like. Right now it's still kind of shifting those boxes and looking at that. Uh we did meet with the city the other week uh and just really was introductions to the engineers, inspectors, public works, different key people with the city team. Uh meeting our consultants and meeting our team um and our owner's rep. uh so we can start to have regular scheduled meetings, make sure that we understand what the city needs for planning commission meetings and council meetings so that we have everything so we can keep the

034project moving on time um and make the best use of our uh taxpayers dollars through this work. Um we have an agenda item. Our next one is for April 9th. So Mike Hacker, our owners rep and myself uh will both be giving a more detailed update to the work that's going on. Uh, congratulations to our fantastic staff and students that put on the performance of Adam's Family the past weekend. Uh, starting last Thursday, my family got to enjoy it Sunday. It was a packed house. Um, and that's what I heard about all of the evening's performances. Um, it was an outstanding show from the costumes, the lighting, the performers, the pit band. Um, every part of it. I know I'm missing pieces to it, but the students did an outstanding job. uh 70 plus students

035involved plus our very own staff uh that help choreograph, direct, uh lead the pit or pit orchestra, build the sets, uh all the pieces that go into it, including many board members who have students that are a part of that production. Uh so next up at the Saber Center, we have Forte Theat's professional mainstage production of The Secret Garden. So that is the first two weekends uh in April. Our better place to work task force, we're pretty familiar. has been going on about a year and a half. So the support staff group continues to meet. They're making progress towards looking at what does a compensation model look like for our different work groups. So when we're talking food service versus custodial versus aids, it's all a little bit different. Um so continuing to have conversations

036to to complete a structure in that area, similar to how we completed a compensation structure for professional staff through the better place to work last year. Uh this past Tuesday, last night actually, we met in the same room for a few hours, couple hours, and talked through a lot of the health insurance updates that are going on. So, as we remember back to January, we had the preliminary budget for next school year. We estimated 10% health insurance. Um we got the news that that's actually increasing by 19%. Uh so we started to share with our better place to work committee what some of the options uh for that budget could be for next year. Um, so we've been working with Brown and Brown. Uh, had four options that we shared last evening, three more that

037Brown and Brown is still working on. Um, but as far as when that comes to the board, that is our April meeting. So, April 9th, we'll have a full health insurance and health clinic update. Um, bring forward anywhere from four to seven options depending what we get from Brown and Brown um, for the board to think through and give us some direction on where we should go with that as a district. So that was what we spent our time on last evening with our group. And also Laura and Andy are working on setting up a traveling show as we call them when we go to all of our schools and uh talk during some of the staff meetings. That won't be before April 9th. Like I said, we're still waiting on some of those options

038from Brown and Brown. Um but will happen either between those meetings or probably following the second meeting of April when we have uh direction decided from the board table and can share that with our our our family here in Franklin. A timely followup to that as we're talking budget dollars and finance for schools is that the legislators joint finance committee is holding a second of four hearings on Friday, April 4th. So this is at Wisconsin State Fair Park. Um Andy and I are both planning to attend and speak. Any board members that are available, we'd love to have you there. also working with Leo Ecman also to get um some parents of students with special needs so we can speak to the need specifically in funding of special education as our state looks at the

039bianial budget uh also looking at those CTE programs um and what how we can continue to support those as we know there's a workforce that needs uh more workers in the state and a followup to our school resource officer thank you to the board for approving that the department and General Ozinski and Principal Vololo went um through interviews this week um and have decided that our second school resource officer will be officer David Chrissy. So, he doesn't start till next school year. Uh but this is important because he can get through some of the training and get into our schools and meet some of our staff ahead of next school year. So, we will have two next year, one permanently at the middle school, one permanently at the high school, then obviously supporting in the

040elementaryaries when they're needed. We will keep our adopt a school program. Um, that's really helped improve relationships and just the students seeing an officer more regularly in the buildings. As Principal Vololo mentioned, next week is spring break. Seldomly do we need to remind anybody that that's coming up, but it is. It's next week. Um, and I think everybody's looking forward to that. And then there's been a variety of athletics and activities updates. I'll give you the quickest rundown and apologize for any that I miss, but I think we pretty thoroughly looked at it. Thanks to Chad for his help on this. Um, in early February, the dance team was crowned state champs in jazz, runner up in palm and runner up in kick. Uh, the FHS Sabers cheer won the WACPC. Please don't ask me

041what it stands for. Wisconsin association of cheer and palms coaches. Nice. Thank you. So, they won the state cheer championship. Uh, that was late February. They also recently made history as the first team in Wisconsin in our division to reach semi-finals UCA nationals as well. Our FHS savers girls basketball team was regional champions. In addition, boys swim, varsity boys bowling. Two of our gymnasts from our Franklin Mosquo co-op team and three of our wrestlers made state appearances. And our high school mock trial team placed in the top 10 in state for the third year in a row in a row winning two rounds. So, you saw outstanding words from our students this evening, but it's just great that they keep representing us so well, not only in the state, but in the nation. So, a

042lot of updates tonight. Uh, but thank you and let me know if you have any questions. Can you just repeat the day that the state budget hearings is happening? Yes, it is Friday, April 4th, and they start at 10:00 a.m. Um, so getting there a couple hours early to get your name in, you get two minutes to speak or as a group, you can get up to five. If there's any information, just a link to the info that if you could share it out, that would be great. Absolutely. They've been kept. We got an email from WB. Did we slip through my mental? It just came in yesterday like afternoon. It's pretty recent. And just a question on health insurance. Will we hear what happened with the initiatives that were started last year? Were they

043successful? Well, you know what happened? Sure. Yeah. We'll have Garner data. And we shared some of that or shared all of that with better place to work last night and had their representatives speaking to it. So, absolutely. Right. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Uh, reports, presentations, and other board business. FHS international trip presentation. Miss Bastian, Miss Weston, please. Mr. Gain, everybody. Uh, one of the things, by the way, at your if you go past the little school improvement snapshot, there's another one just has international travel. Yep. Perfect. Thank you, Dr. Beer. Um, and that was put together uh with Mr. Gain and Miss Carson in terms of like just like thinking about with other educators as well, like how do we have something that makes sense that can like serve all the

044different educational opportunities we have there. So just sharing that with you to know that like that conversation was you know staff initiated and led in the sense of like all right let's talk about all the different things we want to do and different groups want to move and you know have something out there so we're not stepping on each other. So with that being said Pat you want to I'll start. Sure. My name is Pat Gain. I'm a science teacher at the high school. I'm directly down the hall from Mr. Hust. Um, I've been teaching here for uh 12 years and I was fortunate enough to take students to Costa Rica in 2019 and we all know how that came to a quick stop uh moving forward. So, we'd love to start that again. Um,

045and we are proposing a trip in the summer of 2026 for Costa Rica. Once again, having been there and experienced it, um I have uh a lot more insight on how to plan and I've done a lot of homework and comparisons between opportunities and um I'm very confident and excited that we can give the kids a really uh great opportunity. I'm uh proposing that we are going through uh Explorica. I did go through EF tours last time and we had a great experience. I could show you the highlight video. It's awesome. Um but um given the circumstances with some price increases and some opportunities with uh an additional day versus EF as well as three additional um tours that we could take. Um I'm hitting a lot of the great things we had that we

046had last time, but um hoping to uh add to that those opportunities as well. So, we sent you all of the information u prior to this and so maybe I'll just let Trisha speak about her trip that she's proposing and then you can come back to either of us or both of us with questions. Would that be fair? All right, let's do that. Hi, I'm Trisha Carson. I'm the German teacher at the high school and I traveled with Franklin High School German students last year during spring break and my goal would be to travel at spring break of 2026. The um tour is similar but not identical and I'm traveling with EF once again. They offer opportunities for students that I think are beneficial and I'm familiar with the company and traveled with them for

047many years. So I know the questions to ask or ask for specific things to set up the the program for the students so they get the most out of their time. Um, and I'm happy to answer questions if you have any. Anybody have questions? How'd your trip go last spring break? It was great. So, we had a student who is wheelchair bound go with us and we checked ahead of time. Can EF accommodate her? Um, that was a bumpy road at the beginning for sure. Uh, Europe just is not set up for wheelchairs. And I also think that when they contacted um restaurants for example or we did a boat tour and you know I think everyone thought oh someone can just carry her up the three stairs and we'll just fold up the wheelchair

048and we'll just put it in the restaurant. Well, it didn't work like that. So that beginning part honestly was bumpy. Everything else in the beginning part in the whole trip went fine and the rest of the kids went with the flow really well. Um it was maybe the third night we couldn't get in the restaurant and the tour guide suggested that I refuse service. So I did and all the kids on the trip and there were parents as well. They all just went with the flow. So we said right next to our hotel there's a grocery store and we got there and they were closing in 20 minutes and kids all walked into the store which was a great experience honestly. Um they found food and we were all reimbured for that expense and probably

049they gave us a little more money than what we really spent at the grocery store but still it was an inconvenience. So this year I don't have um a student in a wheelchair or any other I don't currently have any students who would need that kind of assistance. How many students did you take last time? I think I had 32 students and no maybe 28 student we were we were a group of like 38 and I think we had so I don't know I can't remember exactly we filled a bus though yeah I I just to add to the whole idea of you you experience things and and you always learn things moving forward that you have to address. So, I will just speak to the two things I learned on my trip. Number one,

050um flying out of Milwaukee is way more expensive than flying out of Chicago. So, this time I'm planning to take a charter bus, the same one that the dance team would use. They're very reliable um to get down to O'Hare. So, we're saving about $400 a kid there. And then um the other thing that um we did was we um made it made it so it's going to be a private trip. We're not going to be traveling with other schools. Obviously the unpredictability and the unfamiliarity and the different goal mindset like who's you know who's here for what reasons. I just want to have that one group of sabers all on the same bus making it happen and making the memories. So um there is additional charge for that but with the numbers uh it

051will be waved if we hit I believe 25 students. Do you find that the language is a barrier or how's that? I mean they don't speak in Costa Rica. Yeah. They don't necessarily speak English there. You're right. I mean, I got my pack of gum from the super marcado pretty good. It wasn't a problem. No. Uh, they there a lot of people speak English, especially with the tour guides and things like that, but it it is so valuable to become immersed in the in the local flavor and just love having downtime. That's some of my favorite times is the downtime. Specifically, there's a uh um a city uh a little town I should say really called um Tortuger and it's where the turtles come and lay their eggs and um it's only accessible by boat

052and um we visit the primary school there and we walk the streets and meet the locals and is is just so valuable. And that's where you you pull out whatever Spanish you have and you work through it. And honestly, I I can tell you that um the ratio I have for um students to chaperrons will allow me hopefully, if I get enough students to perhaps bring uh a world language teacher along with me to kind of help out. I hate to admit it. Um it took me a while to become a science teacher. I have a degree in international business with a minor in Spanish, but I will be the first to tell you that if you don't use it, you lose it. So, yeah, buying that pack of gum was was a big thing

053for me when I got out there. But I do have a little experience, so we'll get by. But you had your numbers down, right? When they told you the cost, you knew the numbers. Yeah. What's that? When you when they told you the cost, you recognized the numbers because you have to they'll tell you the cost in Spanish. Yeah. I I bought a I bought a little uh package of potato chips when I got there. And it cost me like 850 um colon. That's what it was. 850 colon. It was like a 125. Okay. Yeah. But it was that sticker shock for sure. Well, thanks for doing the extra work to put these trips together. I know you get a trip out of it, but it's a lot of it's a lot of work and

054it's a lot of responsibility, but absolutely experience that's invaluable. Just told the kids in class and they're all excited and uh parents are excited, too. Um, many of you know Dr. Patty Golden. She uh um she went went on the trip with me last time as a as a parent with Haley and Hannah Beckman, her her kids. And I know Helena is going to be qualifying for that. And um I'm I'm going to if if y'all approve this, I'm going to uh call her first because I want her as a chaperone, not just as a doctor, but she's amazing with kids. And those are the kind of people I'm going to surround myself with for this trip hopefully. Is there fundraising opportunities for students or don't you do that anymore? I think that the there

055are fundraising ideas, many ideas. I at my previous district, we did a lot of fundraising. Um, when I presented two years ago, um, we had in the slide presentation that I'd be happy to meet with parents, but the fundraising most likely would be parentrun or organized, but I'm more than willing to share ideas with them and I'll obviously share with Pat. Yeah, I've been uh talking to Vicky Cordani about fundraising. She knows a thing or two. So, we're hopefully going to tap into her expertise to come up with a plan on our side of it. But I know that Explorica also will allow the students to set up their own individual websites where family and friends can also contribute to help offset their costs as well. EF as well. Is there a limit and I

056I'm sorry I read this before I'm just not remembering right now as to how many students you can take on the trip and if so is it like a first come first served or how are you I certain application process to get on the trip or um so students need to be in a German class for next school year and then um I don't think we'll fill a bus I think typically it's about 55 people you can put on a bus so with the amount of students I have. Um I don't know. I've never I've come close to filling a bus, but I've never actually filled a whole bus. So, I don't I don't think I'll have a problem with that. But the Spanish teacher who is taking students this summer, she ended up having

057a waiting list. And then I would certainly do that as well. And as students make their decision like maybe I can't go, then we can pull from the waiting list. Yeah. I don't have a magic crystal ball as far as my uh my interest goes or what the maximum would be, but um 35 is a number that sticks in my head that is manageable, will fit on a bus, will give us some elbow room and allow me to um maybe target an age group that will allow for a trip to happen every two years and get those students that are in that, you know, that same age level thereabouts within a year of each other. So potentially, and this is just thinking out loud, um the summer of 26, that would be students who were

058in their finishing their junior year going into their senior year or who had just graduated. And so um those were the that would be my target audience to begin with, but then we would kind of see how it goes from there. And my kids don't have to be in any specific science class. It's just if they're in science class, they would qualify, which is like the whole school. So I don't have the German class specifics to deal with. So there's no class requirements at all. Okay. So how do you advertise to the students then in terms of getting the information to everybody so they know it's happening? Like you would be just in your German classes, but if you're are you going to send it out to like the whole school or Yeah. So um

059I can send correspondence via email. Um I can have students sign up for my gold block of anybody who's interested. other science teachers are willing to use that as an opener to see if anybody might be uh interested in pursuing the opportunity. So, you know, word of mouth meeting, follow-up meeting in the evening with parents uh involved and things like that. So, just trying to kind of sequentially give kids the opportunity to hear about it, explore and see if it might be for them. All right. Thank you. I'm looking for a motion. I move that we approve the spring break world language trip and the summer I'm sorry spring break 2026 world language trip and the summer 2026 science trip as presented. I will second. All right. Motion was made by Dr. Beer, seconded by

060Mrs. Yank. Any further discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. uh sum summer fall 2025 early college credit and start college now request approval Mr. Bolo, please. That's right, everybody. Uh, at your disposal. And just I know he won't say anything about it, but uh you're partaking in March Madness this week. Uh please make sure you express some thanks to Pat because um it's a lot of work and it's a lot of fun. So whether you've been, you know, just paying attention to spirit days or whatever, you know, your level of engagement is with that or you're, you know, if you have a child, um Pat works really hard for it. So say something real quick. I I just had a thought when you

061guys were talking about um the uh officiating classes and of course the education classes. Engineering is always in or excuse me the uh programming is always intrigued me. But I want to let you know that there are kids who sought me out to become referees for the rounds of action with their peers. Talk about confidence. So I just want to pass that on. It's just an incredible class and Steve Dro's done a great job and these kids do have that confidence. So, you're right. Those skills are are beyond measure. So, all right. Thanks so much. Appreciate the feedback. Yep. And I've never met an official who corrected me because I was never wrong. That's why I never got technical or anything else. That's what I tell myself. That's that's a story in my head. That's

062the confidence. I did review the early college credit and start college now submissions. As you may recall, the early college credit courses can be for summer or fall. That's what we're approving. Start college now does not have a summer option per the state statute. So that's only fall. In front of you is just the updated um you know table with the quick snapshot in terms of the chart junk I'll call it. Um that that infographic there isn't terribly um you know useful. However, right as you know students request more than they could possibly take. Um, so you there's a student who I believe requested 53 different courses across every tech school as well as Marquette University. They have a very specific thing they want to be able to do and their hope is they're able

063to do it somewhere. So they requested all these things at four different you know places and that's one person. So you know across start college now and early college credit. So I always share that to share that you remember you know you can see the past year's data students don't take all the classes they can't uh and also like our criteria for denial is again like you know do we have a comparable course so you you'll notice things like you know introductory psychology or English one or general biology or chemistry things very specifically that you know one for one go with the course we offer at the high school that's our criteria for denial otherwise there really isn't anything other than for us to approve them Thank you. I'm looking for a motion. So moved.

064Second. All right. Motion was made by Mrs. Lararsson, seconded by Dr. Beer. Any further discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Thanks. Communications update. Mr. Kofka, please. How we doing? Oh, thank you. All right. All right. Good evening. Uh this is the time of year when I typically come and do an annual update just on how communications as a department has been running. Uh you guys all got the update. Is this in front of you? I think because I'm going to refer to some of this. So I plan to just kind of hit the highlights through this um and then share a few other uh anecdotes we received from the communication survey that we held over the last few weeks. Um, so in terms of the communications update, so the

065areas I'll be talking about are just kind of a review of our communications mediums or channels, the way we push out our communications, uh, some recent communication honors we received, the reser uh, survey results as I mentioned. We'll talk a little bit about Franklin forward examples because that was a big portion of our work this past year, uh, as well as the new CIRC uh, center that's going up. And then also give you some social media metrics and highlights. I know you guys love those, so I'll share some of those as well. So everything I'm referring to is in the packet. if you have that in front of you. Um so as a review I work uh directly with the district administrator while for leading our communication efforts. Uh these are directly tied to our

066coherence plan. We made that shift last year. So all the goals of of what we do as the communications department uh stem from that. Our our channels or our mediums with how we get out all of our information. Um they're listed there for you, but our building uh school buildings do weekly bulletins on Mondays, electronic newsletters. The district does a bi-weekly every two weeks district newsletter electronically as well. Uh we do the Franklin Find staff newsletter. That's every two weeks opposite of the district newsletter. That's just for our staff. That's for all internal updates from our department. So I coordinate that with our department leaders here at the district office. Uh we started in 2023, I believe, the focal point, the four-page mailer that you're familiar with that goes out in the mail. Uh we

067started with doing two to three a year. We were kind of feeling trying to feel what our groove was for that. Um one of the things that we're excited about for next year is we got a lot of positive feedback on this uh being a way that community members receive information from us when we did a survey uh as part of our referendum initiative. And so we got this was the number one way people heard about some of the things that we were doing. And so we're going to up this to four times a year uh for next school year for 2526. Uh, opening doors is the one-pager front and back color item that we do in the city newsletter. So, the city is gracious enough to let us put that in there as a

068a vehicle for uh getting more information out to our our community members. Uh, so that goes out four times a year. So, I I oversee and and publish that. And then we also put out in the Franklin Neighbors magazines that goes to some of the residents in Franklin. I don't decide where it goes. Uh, but they they're able to take stories from us and so we we put stories in there for free and uh they just want stories from the school. So, we put usually two to three stories in there that goes out monthly. Uh, and I help to publish and and create those as well. Outside of the publication aspect, um, I handle all of our school messenger notifications. So, when we have to push out email blast, text message blast, phone call blast

069to our families. Um, there's a great comment later in the survey that I'm sure you'll you'll find funny. Uh, there I manage our website. I take care of our social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Uh, we started publishing to LinkedIn this year, which has been great because when you publish on LinkedIn, those that are employees of Franklin Public Schools or have worked ever at Franklin Public Schools, they can they can attribute themselves to having worked in the district. And so that just is like our branding is out there more. And so, um, we had we don't see a lot of engagement on LinkedIn, but it's just nice to have those stories cross-osted there. And then if if people are looking for us as a place to work or just information about us as a district, that's

070another platform that that is available on. some communication honors that we received this past year. So through Whisper, which is the Wisconsin School Public Relations Association, we can submit different um media different uh publications or or items or videos or or things that we work on. And so we were awarded three awards of excellence. When Whisper gives out their awards, there's two categories. There's awards of excellence, which is the higher tier, and awards of merit, which is is the lower tier. And so we were given three awards at the higher tier. Uh we were given one for just our Franklin focal points just as a district publication and the way that we tie that back to our messaging of being a better place to learn, better place to work and and part of a better

071community. Uh we were given one for the current state video series that I did as part of the Franklin Forward work that was showing all of the different areas we plan to address at the high school. Uh things like the the athletic spaces and the the CTE spaces. Um, and then we also received an award for the one-pager uh that we did after we received back the community survey. We put together this one pager that kind of encapsulated all of the results. And so this was pushed out through our newsletters and digitally and available on our website as kind of the the snapshot of if you want to know what the survey said, this is what the survey said. Uh, so they felt that that was also an award of excellence for that piece as

072well. Moving into the communication survey results. So I tried to put the snapshots on there. We had about 300 responses. We came in at 298. Your your documents says 285. We had a few stragglers after I I sent that in on Friday. Um so I want to hit some of the highlights and some of the takeaways from the survey. Uh so as we look at some of the I'll talk through the first few graphs on the the page there. Um what we did for the survey this year was the last three years we've we've had the survey be the same questions. And so we kind of had benchmarks to follow and we categorized the questions we asked as one-way communication when we broadcast stuff out, two-way communication when we broadcast out and we also ask

073for feedback. Things like surveys, social media would fall into that. Um if we did any kind of other way to to get information from from families and such. Uh and then passive communication, which is how we store our information like the website and and if that is available and accessible to to people that are looking for information. Um, so we we used some of those same questions, but I altered them a little because we were seeing the same results over the last three years. And so we kind of wanted to um look at how look at some of the deeper things I'll go into here with the graphs with do we need to look at the frequency with how we push out our messaging? Are we are we sending too much messaging now because now

074we've added, you know, all these publications that we talked about. Do we need to look at possibly adjusting our electronic newsletter? So that that was what I was hoping to gain from some of the ways uh that we we put these questions together. Um you can see the first graph just shows the different levels of of parents that responded. Higher from elementary, lower from middle and and kind of in the middle from high school parents. Uh the the second graph shows that still on a smartphone is the typical way that people read our communications. So we are cognizant of that when we push stuff out so that things are going to a way that'll form fit on a phone. Uh the third question was one that we altered that I was just talking about. So

075when we look at um electronic newsletters, in a given month a a family member receives six electronic newsletters. They're getting four building bulletins and two district newsletters. And so we we retoled this question because in the past we asked is is that you know what do you prefer? Do you prefer once a month, twice a month, three times a month? And it always came back to what we had. And so I wanted to ask it in a different way of knowing we do all this communication now. What do you prefer? And so I was very interested to see that it kind of all came in relatively close to each other. they were within, you know, 15 or 20 responses when you look at those bar graphs. So, the one on the far right is our

076current six a month. The one in the middle is five a month, meaning we would go down to one electronic uh district newsletter. And then the one on the far left is um three, meaning we would only do building bulletins every every other week and then one district newsletter. So, we're going to talk about that and see if we want to adjust that as we go into 2526 and possibly retool a little bit how we do our electronic communication. Um, knowing that this came in this way, if it was overwhelmingly one over the other, I don't think there'd be a discussion. But knowing it's kind of in that middle there, I think we need to to discuss what that could look like. The next graph talks about where people get most information. This comes in

077the same way every year. The building bulletin, that regular communication weekly is where people are getting information from us, families I should say. Uh, and then the second is the um the second is actually school messenger blasts over on the right. And then close is the district newsletter. So those tend to be the top three when we've surveyed over the last few years. Um a fourth that's interesting to mention and this was the same way last year is direct contact with a teacher or a staff member. So some of the comments that came in anecdotally or people love getting that that direct communication from a teacher. Um there were a few comments about it not being consistent across teacher and what could that look like? Do we need to encourage a regular and um kind

078of systemic approach to doing that where teachers send something every every two weeks or or something like that. So, those are comments that I'll share with the principles and we can discuss what that could look like. Um, the handwritten notes, we sent some of our schools, they all get postcards that we put together and so they can do a handwritten note and mail that home. And so, that's been wellreceived as well and that was mentioned in the comments. As we move down to the um graphs in the middle there, this was just how would you rank our one-way communication? The past two years, it's been in that four or five range and you can see that's still consistent here, meaning higher quality or high quality. Uh, which social media platforms do you use the most?

079So, Facebook has always been the top. Instagram has been slowly and continues to grow. Um, the other ones kind of all peter out down there. Um, Twitter and X doesn't really give us traction much anymore. We we still have continue to use it as a way to just push out information when we have it, but we really don't get much in terms of likes or engagement there. So, we're we're talking about do we need to continue to post to Twitter? Is it more for certain um like a lot of athletes and sports and and that and uh current news like live news is is on Twitter. So we're we're talking about if if we want to pull back from that or not. Um and then I mentioned we started posting to LinkedIn this year. On

080the far right is just how would you rank our two-way communication. That's in the three four five range. So in that kind of upper tier. Um, and that could be anything, like I said, from just surveys and us collecting information, what we do with the information, um, responding through social media. That falls under two-way as well. The graph at the bottom of the page gets into our district website, just asking if people are visiting our district website. You can see the yeses and nos there. And then how would you rank our website? Kind of in that 345 range. Our website hasn't had a refresh in a few years. We're talking about what that could look like. uh the contract we have with Final Site, which is our website provider, goes through five years and this

081next year is the fifth year. Um so we're talking about if after that we want to either look at a different provider or look at different refresh or or just a different look to our website. So that's something we'll be exploring in 2526 as well. Our overall rank for just how would you rank our communications overall um in that four five range of of high quality. So that's good to see that that continues and has been that way on the last few surveys as well. uh the bottom of that page, the Franklin Forward work examples, those are all clickable for you. You guys have seen all of the Franklin Forward things that that have been worked on, but um I did link them up there. Uh just in terms of creating our logo, um working

082with our partners with CDSmith, P, Cadence Consulting, um helping to put our brand out there as we were building referendum initiatives, um doing different banners, postcards, uh the Franklin Focal, putting together the thank you video that was our kind of culminating piece at the the end of the campaign. Um, all of those are are archived on the Franklin Forward page and we continue to do regular updates there and we're also looking at doing regular updates once a month in uh district newsletters uh going forward. The next page is just a few links to some CIRC examples where we did some work there um helping to kind of brand what that looked like as we were in kind of that 2022 2023 how do we best explain this to the community? We put together some different

083layouts of what the fields and the the structures would look like. Um and then that all led to now moving forward to the groundbreaking ceremony that's coming up. Um so there's some linked up examples there. And then our social media metrics. The first is Facebook. So just to kind of reexlain this, it's also listed there if you want to read it, but the reach is what we look for. The number of people that have seen a story at least once. And this metric doesn't include reach from people who maybe viewed it when it was shared by someone else. So these are kind of good numbers to go by. They call it organic reach when you get into social media definitions and whatnot. The first few have to do with our construction home construction project. That

084one always is is in the top uh areas. So Frank our Franklin High School construction 2 class. Uh the first one is from November of this past year. I believe that was the pre-D drywall. Um and that one got a lot of of reach. Uh the second one was the when they did the actual groundbreaking in September. And then the third one was our homecoming parade. Our homecoming parade always gets great reach on social media. Um, number four is a is a good honorable mention because it was something new this year was when the Forest Park Middle School staff during our staff um professional development days in August, they went around and visited every sixth grader at home. And so that got a lot that got a lot of reach, which was great to see.

085And in terms of reach, those numbers continue to be around that kind of 26 27 for the top ones. But then even trailing off, like people are seeing our stuff, which is good. and I tend to cross-ost into some of the Franklin uh community groups and things like that just so it kind of hopefully gets in front of more eyeballs on Instagram. And these metrics I forgot to mention this these are from last April when I presented to you through through this past week. So this is about the last year. Um so some from last school year, some from this year. Um what's interesting on Instagram is our our the follow us. We get a lot of students that follow us. So it's always interesting to kind of compare who what what are moms looking

086at on Facebook and what are the kids looking at on Instagram. Um although a lot of adults use Instagram as well, but the um the fir the top posts have to do the top post had to do with one of our elementary grad walks from last uh graduation last spring. Uh and then post number two and three were homecoming related. Uh post number four was another elementary gradwalk. Post number five was our FHS dance team going uh winning state honors which was just here in February. So to know that it got that much reach that quick um that that one spread pretty fast. Um that's it on the social media metrics. And then just in terms of um closing this up in terms of future communication planning. So looking forward um like I said we

087plan to explore the frequency of our electronic newsletters and see if we want to shift that for 2526. Um amongst IT and communications we've been examining different communications platforms. We use school messenger as I me as I mentioned right now. Um but we're looking at is is there something that can be offered better that offers different services. There are some systems out there that offer um live chatting and onetoone translate translation live. So, if I was chatting to if I was a teacher and I was chatting to a a family and their their preferred language in the home was uh Spanish, that it would live translate for them. So, school messenger doesn't have that right now for us. Um, so we're looking at at things like that. Um, offering something that could be like a

088a teacher parent communication tool. Yeah, we can email, but is there something something better or different there? And just a better user experience for our families. Our messages go out right now and they don't really like go to one place for the parent. And so there are some apps out there that that do allow for that. And so we're exploring exploring those. Uh from the survey, I just wanted to read a few highlights. So we asked on the survey, which we didn't do in the past, we asked what are some areas that are um positive areas for our communication. What are some areas of growth or areas that you see for for struggle? So I'll read the areas of growth first. Um one person commented the website and communications needs a modern overhaul. The website

089is not great for finding info, which I know has been sometimes a struggle. Um, we do have a lot on our website and so we're looking at if we do refresh that, what does that mean? Uh, it would be nice to have texts about upcoming events from classroom needs, teacher communication. So, speaking a little bit to what I just mentioned there about is there a need for a a good teacherto parent communication type tool. Uh, too much information that is not relevant to me or my children. I believe this was an elementary parent. Um, which makes it hard to sort out the stuff that I actually need to know. So, for what it's worth, uh, somebody wanted us to spread more on social media about when we have spirit weeks, so we can talk about

090doing that when we have spirit weeks at high school or the other buildings. Uh, more streamlined communication would be better. I had no idea the school district was using so many different communication channels. Um, shut down the shut down the Facebook Franklin Moms group. Lots of misinformation and negativity. I thought that was interesting that they thought we control that. uh consider shifting the district information into the school newsletters and then putting more of an emphasis on frequency and consistency of the teacher parent communications. This feedback is actually something the secretaries and I have talked about about in the building newsletters maybe putting a banner for district news and sorting things out a little bit better there because sometimes the district news gets lumped in with school news and so to the point earlier about you

091know if if I don't know what to look at. So we're talking about doing that as we as we go forward. Uh school uh that one that was not They wanted school contact phone numbers in the newsletters, I guess. So, we can look at putting that in the footer if it's not there, which I think it is. Uh, please don't call in the early morning about school closures. Call the previous night instead. Um, let's see what else is relevant. Uh, somebody did ask for kind of what I finished on. Uh, please have a district-wide communication platform. Um, that way it will streamline all communications. Instead of different emails from teachers, principal, district, it would all funnel into one. This person did mention they came from another district that had used a tool called Parent Square,

092which is one of the ones we're looking at. Um, was that I already said? Yep, that I already said. And then the positives. So, one of the positives was communication is well done. I always feel like the info is available if I need to find something out. Um, they love, one person wrote they love the handwritten positive letters from staff. Uh, the one-way communication around emergencies, weather notices is excellent and very thorough. The newsletters are consistent. We rely on them to know what's going on at the building and district level. We also enjoy the positive messages that social media posts convey. They foster a sense of pride in the district and for our family. I thought that was just a great that was all one comment. Um text messages for urgent situations are extremely helpful

093uh and catches my attention immediately. The district newsletters are a great read. Keep up the excellent work, Franklin. Franklin district is fantastic. We have experience with others and we really appreciate the effort to keep us informed. There's one one or two others here. Um, I love that you we get to provide feedback to the district. This is the kicker. Whoever provides the voice for the school cancellation calls has a wonderful tone and sounds super intelligent. Did you fill out the survey? That is what my boss said to me this morning when I told her I was going to share that one with you. Uh, text messages have been helpful with reminders to complete specific requests. Quick responses and accurate escalation goes to the right party. We love our school uh schools weekly bulletin. It is

094very informative. So, wanted to share those with you. Um, yeah, and I will take any questions you guys may have. Please, Linda. Linda, so do you think that um the the Franklin focal point and the opening doors are kind of getting to be duplicated? I mean, do we do we need to do both? And how do you see them as different? That's a great question. So, so one worry that we have is with the opening doors being in the city newsletter, like it's it's within the city newsletter. So, are enough people seeing it? We haven't really measured that. We don't know. Um the the benefit of having the focal point is that it's our publication that we're actually pushing out. So when it goes in someone's mailbox, we know they're seeing it because it's the

095thing that they're they're pulling out. Uh we do make a conscious effort to approach both of them differently. So one of the things we like to do in the opening doors is we try to do the student or sometimes we have staff, we've done community member, you know, the talking heads on the side. Um we also try to focus more on in what's in the uh opening doors. We've been putting some of the circ updates and things like that in there. We put the Saber Center events in there. Things that we do different in the focal point are we're really trying to keep with the focal point sticking to stories that tie to the coherence plan or to um better place to learn, better place to work, part of a better community. Um so this

096last one, you kind of see we have these badges for the different um different areas of the coherence plan, the strategic priorities. And so when we're doing the stories in here, we're trying to specifically target and tie to that. So it's more of a district piece. And this is more of a this is in the city newsletter and I feel like it it ties to you occasionally we have a feature story in there about something going on in the schools but I feel like it it may get lost in the city newsletter sometimes. So so yeah. So I think we can still utilize both. The cost for doing the opening doors is not that much for us to do. Um the focal point is a little bit but we we feel that it's worth it

097based on the feedback we've been receiving that people are actually reading it. Um and you mentioned that there's stories in the Franklin Neighbors magazine. Yeah. I don't get that. So, right. Right. Could you put them on the website so that we all can enjoy them? That's a great question. I've asked them to send me the digital copies and they did for like one or two months and I just think it gets lost in their process. Um, what we can do is scan them when we receive them and then just put those stories on. I can I can make a folder like I do for the others and just have that available on our comm's update page. A lot of times it's a repeat of things that we've done that we've already showcased like in a

098newsletter or in a social media post too. Yeah, that's true. That's true. But yeah, we can definitely do that. And you can just request that. I I didn't get the neighbors thing, but then they were doing an article about something I contributed to. Yeah. And so you just call them and ask it can be put on their mailing list. That would be my question is could we just ask them to send one to the board, you know, like if a board member happens to not live in the right neighborhood to get that? Yeah. Could we just so that we are aware of all the stories that are going out? I will make a note of that and I will talk with my uh person there, board members. Send it here. If you all could if

099you all could list your addresses one by one. Go ahead, Mary. Although I mean it was good for why don't they send it to everybody? I mean it's an advertising. It's an it's advert. Yeah. So I mean the purpose behind this it's advertised driven and so they're sending it to an exclusive magazine serving the residents of Franklin's fine neighborhoods is how it's categorized at the bottom. I think you know it comes to new neighborhoods mostly when I used to release high school I used to get it but now on my it's randomly picked up two copies here because you get one and I get one so I could leave mine by the mailbox like we always have copies here. Darling puts them in the front when the in the front foyer area too, like in

100the magazine holder. We'll put them in there as well. But I will ask about getting you guys on the mailing list. Yeah, they profile the coffee people and Grace had no idea I brought in my copy. She's like, "Oh my gosh, here's the kids." So that was so cool. Yeah, that's awesome. My aunt lives in Greenale and she gets it. Oh, for heaven's sake. The Franklin one. Oh, that's interesting. That's where I always get it. So, she reads it and then gives it to me from Greenale. Probably don't worry about it too much. She probably requests it. And I will say about the website, I know you call it as call it passive, but maybe you want to think of it as more self-s serve because I go there to get stuff. I mean, any

101business has got a website because they want, you know, want it to be self-s served. So calling it passive to me seems like, like you said, it's just a place to put stuff. No, people are seeking information. Sure. And it's should be self-s served. More a different focus than just and just sit there. Yeah, because I will say I will say too with the um website in my time doing this role the you know I get a question here and there about oh I couldn't find this could you point me to it and you know I respond to somebody get it to them those questions have also drifted off so either people are able to find it or websites I mean I think websites too are just kind of becoming not like the place people

102go like they sometimes contact someone to get what they need or if a if an organization has a different way that they're putting pushing out information. I don't know. It's it's interesting to study and and look at if if websites are still it's certainly not where I go for up to the day up toate breaking information. I think a lot more people go to social media for that and so I think it's difficult for people to change their habits. Yeah. Which and then I'll talk out of the other side of my mouth for a second. It is important for us to have the website because like we're saying when we have Franklin Forward updates as a page or CIRC updates as a page that's where we're going to park it. So if we have to

103reference it, you know, if I see something on social media that's being misconstrued or misunderstood, I send them the link, hey, here's where all the information is. So it's it's yeah, it serves its purpose. But I understand what you're saying about self-service is that's every they don't want you calling you. They want you to go to their website and do your business at their website. Yeah. Well, and our menus are structured as such that they they trickle down and hopefully get people to what they're looking for if they start with parents or community or contact. Contact has a directory under it if they're looking for contact information. One thing I think a lot of people are using the website for is the calendar. And that would be one place. I don't know what we can

104do to Yeah. be consistent with every school using it and having things up to date. Oh, okay. On that calendar, I think that's a struggle I've seen myself personally and heard in the community as well is that consistency piece with the calendar. Like sure, athletic events are pretty consistent, but like individual school events maybe not so much. So, um, but that's what I hear when people talk about the website. It's like, I went to the website to check the calendar and I didn't see this or something. So, yeah, I'll share that with our building principles and secretaries because they the building secretaries manage it and they know if it's a school event, it should go on the school calendar. Um, and then that all feeds to the website that's all a Google calendar that they

105manage. I will also share that in talking to my lison principal that she finds that when she communicates with parents and there's some uh app that they use where they use video to say oh this is what happened in the classroom and she finds that there's much more engagement with a video as opposed to any kind of you know words. Yeah. So I know they're using something to kind of you know increase the engagement but it's through a video and not sure. Sure. We we dabble in that. We sometimes do a live stream if we're at an event. I'll just do it from my phone and say, "Hey, this is happening now." If it's if it's something that people are welcome to come to. Um, but yeah, we we dabble in video. We push out

106video on Facebook and Instagram as well. I think a lot of classroom teachers probably do one-offs. Like I've had classroom teachers use Class Dojo or whatever. So, I think there are classroom teachers who sort of try and find ways to build a communication platform. But part of that is that inconsistency, you know, through how many years in the elementary school, we probably had eight different things like that. So from year to year, if you're switching, it would be kind of nice to have a consistent district. Yeah. Platform. I'm just thinking back to when I first started paying attention to schoolboard stuff and it was one of the things was about the fact that we weren't going to send home paper anymore and there was this huge hue and cry about the fact that we weren't

107going to get paper flyers for everything and we thought the world was going to end and it didn't. It didn't. So we didn't think that you shephered us along. Yeah. Good job. There you go. Yeah. Can I just ask one quick question? So, I've I've attended a lot of these um uh parent things that informational sessions at the I think there was one at Pleasant View, but mostly they've been at the middle school and and and one was actually at the um the Saber Center and I'm just wondering where all of thoseformational sessions are disseminated to because the attendance uh you know sometimes seems a little less than you would hope. Yeah. So, for the family information sessions that you're talking about, so we had uh I'll talk about winter spring here. We had six

108of them and we had one we had a few in the fall as well. Um and so we so I designed a layout for that, a graphic that we had regularly in our newsletters. We had the the secretaries put it on their upcoming events calendar. They put a table at the top of their calendar so it was listed there. So that goes to all parents. It was in the district newsletter. Um I did do cross-osting then to social media. So I was sharing it out on social media. Um, and so those are the ways we did push it out in terms of trying to get it in front of people. I think one of the things we heard about, you know, I would anecdotally we would hear from people that their nights are so busy

109with kids activities and if they have kids in the school, they're probably doing something. If they're in sports, they're definitely doing something. Um, and so I think that possibly contributed. So, we're discussing if we want to continue doing family information sessions like that or if we would make them more school-based or do do something different for next year because you're right, we have very low attendance for many of those and so looking at doing something different. Right. Well, and I'm not this is not here neither here nor there, but I'm wondering if maybe um doing something that's more attention grabbing. Sure. you know, then neurodeiversity in the modern, whatever it may be. Obviously, it's it speaks to what's being presented, but I don't know, sometimes people maybe need something a little more flashy. Flashy. That's

110a good perfect. Yeah, but you're right. I I thought we should do like a bait and switch like, oh, there's going to be a special boys basketball game. Oh, just kidding. It's about, you know, something else. Strike that from the record. people would people would come, you know. Yeah. For for something. Yeah. It was hard to it was hard to promote those because we got we got descriptions of what the sessions were and if it was a guest speaker or, you know, we had a head shot or things like that and we tried to tried to say, "Okay, this is what it is." And tried to put it in a bite-size, you know, whether it was a horizontal graphic or a square graphic to put that out to people. But I understand what you're saying

111about something something to and just people prepared so hard for for those um and And it was it was just I will say I I did see that block was always one page and there was one particular one I was tied to. It was very diff difficult for me to kind of like peel that off and promote that because it was always one page. So you could do a little better on being able to compartmentalize that so it can be shared and Sure. and people Well, so what it was was I think what you're referring to is there was the one pager and we had all six sessions winter, right? And that was the only thing I could cut. Well, no. each newsletter. Then when when the next one was coming, the next one was

112featured up by up by the calendar as its own graphic. So it was its own graphic. It was bigger. It was larger. And then under the announcements, we did put the six just as hey, this is our winter series, but we always had a we always had a large graphic for the next one coming in the newsletter. Again, I'm searching and it always come to that and so I had a hard time sharing it. Sure. So done that. And the survey that you reference here is really just parents. Is that correct? Correct. Yeah. So I'm not in there as a community member. Did you ever think about surveying? So the community one we had from uh last April. So we use that right now. But I think to your point now that we have the

113Franklin focal point that goes every mailbox. We could probably put a QR code in there or we can do a mailer in that similar way. Right. But for right now what Chad and I talked about it's like well we just did the um the other one in April through school perceptions which had the communication style. That's where we found out the Franklin focal point. There'll be piece even above opening doors of where people are getting the most community outreach is coming to learn about what's going on in the schools. Yeah. But it's probably something to look at maybe on a every other year basis or something. Something to talk about. Yeah. Yeah. We can do that. Well, this survey was specifically for for parents. Yeah. It has been the last the last three years we've

114been doing surveying. We've just done it to families. Yes. Because they're the ones they're the ones really receiving our our one-way communication. and like if we have to push out messages and all that. So, so that was kind of our audience that we wanted to get the feedback from. I see the point though and getting more feedback from the community. And so, Superintendent Bennon and I will work on that. Particularly, you know, we got new SER building going out. We got some big recreational opportunities ahead of us. There's a whole big world out there at We also are trying to be cognizant of surveys because we had just done the family engagement survey right before this one. And so talking about like are people surveyed out too and how do we best approach that? All

115right. Anybody else? Uh, congratulations, Chad. The the communications has improved um, immensely. Um, and I hear that I hear that from a lot of community members. Um, the awards speak for themselves. Um, the referendum stuff was amazing and um, and we look forward to continuing improvement. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you, J. Thank you. uh resolution awarding the sale of $145 million general obligation school facility improvement bond series 2025A. Mr. Cromy, please. Um so attending with us tonight virtually is Jeff Sely from Ellers. You met him a couple of weeks ago. Um he does come from upper Minnesota. So with their storm um we put the virtual link on. So, uh, I'm going to give you a couple of highlights from the day sale report. So,

116you probably got an email today that the board report was updated. So, um, like bonds that we've done in the past, every bond I've ever been involved in, it's done on the day the day of the sale is when this is updated. So, that's where you'll see that. And that was essentially the link to this report. But, I'm just going to give you a couple of highlights and I'll let Jeff answer any specifics that we have. Um, so first of all, a couple of weeks ago, we did a ratings call with Moody. So, um, essentially like your personal credit rating. There's large or companies that rate organizations for, um, their credit score. So, we went from an AA2 to an AA1. So, that's an increase improvement. Um, a AAA is the highest you can go.

117So, we're one level below that. Um, two major factors. One is our fund balance, general operating fund balance. Um, staying consistently at 35% or above was a large component of that. Um the second one to a smaller degree but still equal was actually our debt management. And so they looked at the defeasences over the past four uh few years and so that's a good sign. Um so why that's important is when you have people come to bid on your bond, they're looking at it as an investment. And so obviously the safer the investment is, the better they feel about going in on it. Um so we had um ultimately seven bids provided on our $145 million. Um a couple of the the key components. One, we had estimated or really ellers um when we went

118through all of the referendum work and all of the documents leading up to this um true interest rate of 5%. Um it's at 4.1. So what that means is approximately $18 million less um to taxpayers over the life of the bond um we're going to save and a lot of that is just related to that moving up to AA1. Wow. Um and having that additional rating. So I think that's a pretty big um piece. In addition, we had a much larger premium that's offered. Jeff can kind of explain the premium piece, but um people that want to bid on it will offer a premium to help offset um interest costs. So that was um I think about three millionish higher than we had anticipated. So um again all that's being calculated towards saving interest long

119term um or at least interest levy long term. So um ultimately we're going to ask you to approve the sale today. Um and then I'll let Jeff add anything if he wants or if we're just going to wait for questions. Well thanks pleasure to be with you. Um, I I want to just highlight a couple things. First of all, we had we took the bids this morning. It was excellent as Andy mentioned, but I I want to go back to the bond rating because I I I don't want anyone to kind of um uh lose track of how important this is. Um, you guys moved up from a double A2 to double A1, which is not by accident. We're talking an elite bond rating here. uh AAA is the best. It's one step above and

120it's less than a handful of schools in the state that have a AAA. So you are in the upper 90ome percentile. Um and and and again that doesn't happen by accident. It takes a commitment and strong leadership uh of the business office uh the Andy his staff and it's also a team approach. It takes uh support and commitment by the superintendent and the school board to position the district in in in in the manner in which you know you've you've earned the double A1 rating. So I I I I just wanted to go back to that. Secondly, the the excellent results of the bids uh again the interest rates were lower. Uh we received the larger premium. Um, combine that and and you're talking over, you know, roughly $20 million less in levy over the

12120 year term of the bonds. Um, so excellent results. Um, yeah, if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. Uh, congratulations. Yeah, pretty phone call take this morning. Yeah, that I have a question. So, when is the call dates? Do we have call dates in this and when are they? If you couldn't hear, Jeff, it's uh do we have call dates and when are they? Yep. So, so the call date is April 1, 2033 and that is when you're allowed to refund these bonds using taxexempt refunding bonds as opposed to taxable. You can refund it ahead of that using taxable bonds. However, it isn't likely to save you money, at least in this environment. you know, in 2030 it might be a little different the environment. Uh, but you're looking at April 1,

1222033 and then all the maturities after that and Andy has that on. Those are the ones that you will refund for any types of savings at that point. Okay. And then I have another general question. Now it's 145 million. It's going to take us four years to spend this money. What was the decision process to maybe not split this up? Why do we go one big issue versus uh splitting up like we did the previous construction? Yeah. So when um Jeff and I had talked about that, so that was early on in the process about splitting it. Um and we used uh like an 8065 split. So 80 million 65. Um ultimately what it was um projected to be was an additional about $ 1.9 million of interest that we would be paying um and

123generating about three and a half to four million less in interest earned. So paying more interest on your loan, earning less interest to spend. So that would be more though because you're not borrowing it all once. Jeff would Jeff would have to be able to answer that. I I I can't necessarily answer that particular piece um to the specifics, but in putting those two things together, we were netting less earning interest, so less dollars we can actually spend towards the referendum or whatever related to the referendum um and paying more in interest from a levy standpoint. But Jeeoff, do you recall and I can add a little bit to that. Um, so, uh, right now if you split it, one of the reasons we split bonds in the past was, um, because, you know, if

124we were trying to get under a certain amount for bank qualification, of course, your bond is too big. Neither neither one would get under that bank qualification, which would bring you better rates. That's a common reason for splitting them. So, that reason was off the table. Not only that, but the bank qualification rates at the time weren't much better than non-bankqualified. So that didn't factor into it. So what factored into it is you could if you split it uh if each one was 20 years and one uh this bond number two came two years later, you'd have 22 years to pay. uh which then results in a little bit of tax reduction if you will um per year over that 22 years. Um however, what we decided to do is kind stay with the 20-year

125term but add another payment and that's why we have that October payment then flipping the April payments after that. So we ended up with a 21-year payment cycle with a 20-year term. So you're only acrewing interest on 20 years, but you're spreading the tax impact out over 21 as opposed to acrewing interest on 22 years. So the interest acral was less. You only had one bond you had to pay all the cost for to issue. And when we looked at it, there just wasn't the financial benefit to go ahead and do the split bond issue at that time. At this time? Yeah. Thanks for Well, I mean, the bank qualified as 10 million, so that wasn't even a Exactly. That wasn't even consideration. And that typically is when you split it. But in in your

126case, you had way too much. It wasn't a consideration. But wouldn't it impact arbitrage? Because again, there's a two-year limit to spend it. So, we're we're holding 145 million. We're going to be in arbitrage after two years. Yep. So, we did look at that component and that would have helped the second borrowing, but not the first one because we we won't meet the six-month threshold. So, between when we close on April 10th or whatever happens to be until October 10th, we have to spend 10% of those dollars. We're not really hitting a construction component until September, which is really the tear down of the pool. So, we're not going to meet even the first threshold of spending those dollars at that particular time. So, we weren't going to certainly hit it on the first one.

127So, we'd be looking at the arbitrage rebate anyways, potentially on the second one depending on how the um schedule is laid out. So, we'd still be in that situation. So, it sounds like you borrow too soon or I mean, don't you adjust your schedule to match that up? We have payments right now. So we're already in for a million dollars at this particular time. So we're floating general fund dollars. So losing general fund interest in the current situation, right? But you told me that you we weren't going to meet the thresholds because we didn't spend enough, but yet now you're seeing we're a million. I'm confused. We weren't we were we're going to be in an arbitrage situation either way, whether we split it or we went single issue. Ultimately, the financial piece didn't make

128sense to split the issue overall. So, we went with the single issue. Yep. And if I can just mention something on arbitrage. Um, uh, the district is working with, um, two companies. One is us, one is another company. We're combining our resources with a different company on the investment side of things. And with that, we bring an arbitrage department in. And throughout the process, we're going to have uh an arbitrage specialist evaluating. And at some point, investments may switch over from time deposit uh to demand deposits uh from, in other words, from taxable to tax exempt in order to maximize the amount that you can keep. In other words, minimize the amount of rebate. However, given your situation, Andy is right. You're you're going to be uh unless of course interest rates investment interest rates

129drop dramatically, you're going to be in a situation where you're going to be earning and and pushing over that threshold of arbitrage regardless of how we manage the split to begin with. What about how we manage expenditures? It's possible, but we would have to be physically under construction pretty heavily to meet that. Okay. And the timeline just doesn't fit that. Otherwise, we would have fronted a significant amount of money to have plans developed before the referendum actually went through. And I don't know if we'd want to put ourselves in that position because if it's no, then we're on the hook for that. I'm looking for a motion. I move to approve the resolution awarding the sale of $145 million general obligation school facility improvement bond series 2025A. Second. All right. Motion was made by uh

130Mrs. Yank, seconded by Mrs. Larson. Do we need a voice vote? Yes. Mr. Sprag. I. Mrs. Wakowski. I. Mrs. Yank. I. Mrs. Seperski. I, Dr. Khan, I. Dr. Beer, I. And I also vote I. The motion passes. Thank you very much. Thanks, Jeff. Thanks, Jeff. You're welcome. Thank you. Have a great evening. Thanks, everyone, for your hard work. This is great news. And again, congratulations, Annie. That's a big deal. Yeah, it was pretty exciting when he called this morning. I was like, "Oh, that's awesome. We'll we'll take that win for sure." All right. Uh, donation to email Ewald Family Foundation scholarship, Mr. Crommy, please. Yep. So, we had a $5,000 donation. Um, as you know, board approval is at $1,000 or exceeding $1,000. Um, the donation is for five scholarships. Um, $1,000 each. Three in

131the CTE, so not necessarily limiting to what the CT, but something under the CT umbrella. Um, and two for students attending a college university. So, we're just bringing forth a motion to approve the $5,000 don donation towards these scholarships. It's a onetime thing. Correct. Onetime scholarship. With thanks to the family, I move to formally accept the donation of $5,000 to be used for the Amal U family foundation scholarship. Second. All right. Motion was made by uh Dr. Beer, seconded by Mrs. Seperski. All in favor? I opposed. Motion clear. Motion carries. Thank you. Board clerk's report. Election notice, please. Mrs. Larson. Notice is hereby given that an election is to be held in the Franklin Public School District on Tuesday, April 1st, 2025, and the following offices are to be elected to succeed the present incumbents

132listed below. The term of office for school board members is three years beginning on Monday, April 21st, 2025. Two school board seats will be filled for a three-year term beginning on Monday, April 21st, 2025. The ballot position for the election are as follows. Position number one, Mike Sprag. Position number two, Alam Amali. Position number three, Debbie Larson. That concludes my report. Thank you very much. Uh, school board liaison reports. Uh, board liaison reports. I have a couple. I met with Mr. Ecman. Um, and, uh, we talked about the family engagement opportunities. We talked about the meet and greet opportunities for incoming sixth and ninth grade students with special needs. Uh we discussed the work of the admin team and student services coaches in planning for student transitions. Uh we discussed I'm going to be visiting

133um I think it's Ben Franklin. I should find out, right? Um a visit for the early childhood special education program um in early April. Um and then we went to the neurode divergent was it neurodeiversity um session last earlier this month. And then I also went to the um uh resource fair that was put together by grace which was incredible. I I I was blown away by how many resources and services and agencies were were there and I hope they're all there next year because they all do great work and they're so passionate. uh um you know serving this population. It was incredible. Thank you. Anyone else? You can report from the education foundation. Just a couple up upcoming events um for everyone to be aware of. We have our um spring consignment sale coming

134and uh pickle ball. I know you're all big fans of pickle ball. I hope you'll come and play pickle ball at the education foundation pickle ball event which is on the 26th of April. Sorry, consignment is on the 12th of April. And then um of course the golf outing is uh Friday, June 13th. So save the date for that as well. Another big education foundation event. We are awaiting our scholarship applications. Um start going through those so we can award our education foundation scholarships at the senior honors night in May. I was also I was also at the resource fair um and also at the U presentation. Um, and as a side note, I also attended a national conference on learning disabilities a couple weeks back. So, lots of research going on. Thank you. Anyone

135else? Uh, Angie and Mary and I attended the uh WASB day at the Capitol um uh last week. Last Wednesday. Just last Wednesday. Yes. We learned that our budget is likely to be very delayed. So that was sad bit of news. Why awaiting Supreme Court decisions on veto power? I would there's an additional component related to Governor Iver's veto light veto of the 300 years for 325 and one side of the aisle hates that and the other side of the aisle hates that they hate that. And so can't we all just get along? Well, super everybody involved. Super awesome. Meanwhile, our students don't get Well, the panelists the panelists um sort of um debated on whether on how how late it might be. Yeah. Um Senator uh Quinn um uh thought it might be thought

136it might be August. Um and Representative Kitchens thought it might be earlier than that. Um based on but but based on schedule. Yeah. Um it's tied to the election too. Supreme Court changes um possibly. Um and we also met with um Senator Wangard and Representative Whitkkey. Um, Senator, Representative Whitkkey with um, representatives from U. Rine and Whitnell. Um, and Senator Wangard with um, those two and Greenale and Greenfield. Greenale. Yeah. Um, and they Good conversations. Good conversations. Um, they seem to both care about education. um and um um cautioned us to not get our hopes up. Yes. About special education fund. Oh, even about special education? That's really we had a focus across the board with the group that that was going to be our main talking point. And yes, there was very much in

137common with all the boards board members I talked to that day and I think there was 300 people at the capital. of course did not talk to all of them but um I did but a 10% uh 10% transfer um of your budget um from general fund to um special education fund is pretty common um and um people are wondering how they're going to overcome that. So um so there was there was it was really it was quite a bit more focused than it was last time I was there. Um, and I don't I I it was very it was very focused. So if you are so inclined to continue to communicate with our representatives either as a board representative or on a personal level, I think continuing to sort of frame it because um

138special education funding is something that in theory is supported by a wide swath of both our elected officials and the population in general. They cited a Marquette um poll that came out several days before our day at the Capitol that showed that um I think it was something like 75% of um people these are just general people surveyed highly support or support increasing funding for special education and that cut across political ideation. Anyway, I would add there's some discussion around a standalone bill related to that that doesn't have a line item veto ability. That would be separate from the budget as a whole. That would be good. So, who knows where that goes, but Yep. Anybody else or school and community engagement reports? I think we all ended up reading at our different schools, right?

139Yes. Yeah. That was so fun. How fun is that? That was so fun. I love trying to explain to kindergarten and first graders who like what does schoolboard mean? Oh, I struggled with that in kindergarten as well, you know, like well yeah I you know it's like how do you explain that to a kindergartener or first grader? We make rules. That's kind of what I defaulted to. We make the rules to keep you safe. But it was fun to be in with students, right? I I don't I wrote a children's book with my brother. It's not something that I heavily publicized because it's kind of a silly bit of fluff, but so I took that in and they thought that was kind of cool. And so then we had we all got to sign the

140book together. Yeah, that's great. Yeah. Yeah, there seemed to be a lot of interesting reading things going on around the school. They had a March Madness reading contest going on. And they're also they had one book they were reading also. The students were engaged and asking all the questions about profession about travel. I showed them them a video of my medical mission trip. You know how refugees camps are. So I was very intrigued by that. Very very interesting to see their reactions. I was going to say you and I did the knowledge. Oh, that's right. We did do the knowledge at Saltwood Glenn. Did you know the answer? I did. I knew the fourth grade answers. Way to go. All right. Um, anybody else? Uh, future agenda items. Friends of Franklin recognition, recreation department update

141or tax levy update. uh 2526 board of education meeting dates, technology report, Frank Franklin forward report, health insurance, health clinic, uh SNC electric company donation, excuse me, policies 5011, non-discrimination of students on the basis of disability 5420, appropriate use of seclusion restraint 6435, delegation of local education agency representative duties for special education. Uh, Countrydale school presentation, Saber Center update, Niola board policy, uh, district administrator evaluation, close session, and uh, I'm looking for a motion to enter into close session pursuant to question on these agenda items. I guess I mean, I printed this earlier and it looks like it's been changed. So, I mean it can happen, but it's the first time I've seen it change. So, it does get added to. Yeah, those were added. The um the donation came in after we had put

142this in on Friday. The Neola board policy one I added today because we have been debating on going to Niola for policy. Um and we just got an email from them yesterday saying that their prices go up April 1st. You can get a agreement and have board approval and go into it uh if you act now. So that's on there to come to the board for discussion and then the board can decide if we want to go that route. But yeah, that just came through yesterday. And then the third one I'm forgetting off the top of my head, but um was one that came in. Oh, the I think I don't know what Nola is. I'm sorry. Uh Nola is a company that works with um 30 plus lawyers to write policy. So majority of

143the districts in the state use Nola to do their board policy writing. Uh and then they present volumes to the like usually twice a year they present a volume of uh policies to the board to look at, decide on and approve. So that's new. We've never done it before. Correct. Right. We write our own policies and go to our own legal council to write them. Okay. Um so you can add these things after the board after you send out the agenda. So this can change. I just make sure that usually it doesn't. We have a spreadsheet where we lay out the whole year. Uh this is as you noted like this doesn't usually happen. Um we just had another donation come in and instead of having it be a surprise I noted today that it

144just came in so we added it on the agenda. Okay. Um and same with the Neil the thing. So all right. The one thing that's missing on this is we never have a treasures report. Why did that just drop off? Why is there no treasur? Yeah. We would always it would always be listed and then we would just sort of say treasures report is in board docks. Is there any questions? It was never really discussed, but it was always there monthly. We should mention it. That's what we should do. Okay. So, we're going to add that. Yes. Thank you. Uh, all right. I'm looking for a motion to enter into close session pursuant to Wisconsin State Statute 19.851C, 851C district administrator self evaluation of goals. So moved. Second. All right. Motion was made by Mrs.

145Seperski. Seconded by Dr. Beer. How many voice vote please? Mrs. Wakowski. I. Mrs. Yank. Hi. Mrs. Seperski. I. Dr. Khan. Hi. Dr. Beer. Hi. I also vote I. Mr. Sprag. I. We are in close session at 7:49. Thank you.