001at 6:00. We will call the Monday, January 26th board of education meeting to order. Uh we will start with the pledge of allegiance. Please stand. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Uh we have two items under the consent agenda. Um, we have the approval of the minutes for the December 15th, 2025 board meeting as well as the statement of receipts and expenditures for December 2025. So, do we have a motion? So, move second. Have a first and a second. Any additional discussion? All in favor say I. I. Opposed. And that passes. That brings us to the Woodview School presentation. Good evening. Thank you so much for having us
002or I guess we're having you, but thanks for being here. Um, we're really excited. I have on our first slide, I was excited to share with everybody. This is an actual picture that was taken by a third shift police officer back a few months ago when the northern lights were out. So, it's just such a beautiful picture I had to share it with everybody. Um, turning on helps. Okay, so thank you so much. you guys know who I am, but it is my fifth year. Last time I can take a selfie. I'm going to have to have someone help me next year. I take that same picture every year on the first day of school. So, um I am very honored to be the principal here. I absolutely love this district, love this school, and
003love bragging about how everything is wonderful. So, we're going to share some things with you about Woodview tonight. We are following kind of the same order that we have in the past. I'm going to share a couple things that are happening at Woodview. Um, our theme continues to be better together. And this year, as Dr. Gunderson shared last month, we're going to share some celebrations and some areas of growth in our parent survey data. And then the real MVPs will take over and we have some staff and students ready to tell you about some cool things we're doing here. And we'll finish up with any questions you have. So, um, we just wanted to celebrate once again. This is our fifth consecutive year as a significantly exceeds expectations school. So, that's a point of celebration,
004um, for us here at Woodview. Regarding what I just referenced with our parent survey data, our celebrations that we picked out, you know, there's lots of different questions that are asked, so we're just sharing a couple um, with you tonight. Um, we continue to have a strong sense of safety, belonging, and adult support with over 30 or 93 to 95% of families reporting their child feel safe, welcome, and accepted by adults here. That kind of takes a bunch of questions and puts them all together. And then our perception of our school being secure and safe remains high with over 94% of families feeling that that is an accurate statement. So, we are proud of those things. In regards of, [clears throat] excuse me, some areas of growth, um, we came out that 74% of families
005agree that their child has not experienced bullying at school this year. So I met with my um department kind of grade level leaders and we kind of talked through all of the data and that was a piece that they had picked out that we could focus on by doing some things like sometimes the definition of what bullying is or is not can get a little confusing. So perhaps we could do a better job of um explaining that definition to families, helping assist them when there are student reports that something is happening either at school, is it on the bus, is it on the way home from school. So just working a little bit better on communication with our families in that regard. And um we also thought to bring in our student council and have
006some student leaders help us with um helping out with some strong peer relationships and positive ways to interact interact with each other. So that's going to be kind of our focus um regarding that data moving forward this year. I always like to tell you who's new at Woodview. Um you see their names oftent time but here are their faces. We have Ally Schlly who joined us as our bubble teacher in fourth grade. She's also a Woodview parent and she's been a wonderful addition to our staff here at Woodview. Lisa McCarville, also a Grafton parent, has two high school students joined us midy year um as a special ed pair professional. We had some additional staffing needs in our special ed world after school started. So, we had to bring on another pair professional. And then
007we um had Robin McFadson join us recently as a special ed teacher. All have been wonderful additions to Woodview and we are happy to have them. You're sitting in a very exciting um point of pride for us. Um you saw the pictures but I had to include it because it has been such a wonderful transformation. As you remember last year we actually had like a a a classroom back here that just had dividers. Um, and the furniture was maybe from when I was going through Grafton school system. So, it's really fun to have this new beautiful furniture and um, the kids love the flexible seating and it's just been a really, really nice upgrade to our building. And then the cafeteria, if you didn't see it on the way in, make sure you just at
008least pop your head in on the way out because the pictures don't really do it justice. It really was quite the transformation and it's bright and happy and it just it just looks like elementary school. how it should be. Um, this is a very fun addition. Our PTG president had talked with some I don't know if it was friends or how he got connected to um a different district's um PTG and they talked about how they do a dad's program. Thus became the Woodview Dudes. So Brian Mettinger, our PE teacher, and David Garcia, our PTG president, have taken on this new group that's kind of an offshoot of PTG, and they meet um at an establishment in town for a meeting and come up with really fun things that they want to do. They're just
009starting off um and so they're looking forward to get more dads on board. But they are going to be hosting a mom's night out um where dads stay and moms get to go have fun on February 13th. So they're going to be doing an Olympics theme. They have all sorts of really cool games planned in the gym. And then they are really excited about doing the Cedarberg bed races. They [laughter] they have a um they have a whole thing already planned. So that's really fun. So, they're going to do that. I did not realize that that's a fundraiser. Um, so if you win, like you get money to bring back to your organization. So, they really want to win. And then they're also going to be working on a movie night to benefit our fourth
010grade Madison field trip. So, just kind of a fun new addition to Wood View. As always, we love to take play uh take part in homecoming. It's awesome that the high school gets the whole community and all the schools involved. So, we were a part of that this year. Trunk or Treat came back. It didn't rain and nothing blew away this year, so it was a celebration. We've had some poor luck with trunk or treat in the past. Um, but it's really fun and we use it as a buddy activity. The big buddies take their little buddies around and do a scavenger hunt in the different trunks. So, and we have some amazing families that really know how to how to do their thing with the trunk or treat. Um, as you guys previously saw,
011we had a really fun time celebrating Mrs. Wilson, our first grade teacher that is also um the volleyball coach as she went to state. Our kids got to experience a drum line or version of um while she walked through the halls. So that was a really fun celebration we had this year in addition to her volleyball girls came and read to the first grade students. So that was really cool. The turkey trot continues to be an amazing fundraiser for us. We raised just over $10,000 this year um towards our new playground fundraising. As you can see, we have some awesome parents that come out and cheer. The kids get involved. Um it's just really a fun time. So, I was able to walk again this year. Never will I run again. Um but anyways, um
012like I said earlier, we have some amazing staff members and students here to present. I'm going to turn it over to them at this time and let them introduce themselves. Bring this down a little bit. Oh, sorry. [laughter] That was my job. Sorry. We go from tallest woody staff member to Oh, it doesn't have to be that loud. I'm just kidding. [laughter] There's children, too. Okay. All right. Um, hi. I'm Kayla Meyer. I'm the instructional coach at Woodview. And behind me are some other speakers if they want to come up and introduce themselves as well. I'm Carla Pierro. I teach second grade. Uh, I'm Melissa Schmidt. I'm the reading specialist here at Woodview. Hello. I'm Natalie Wit, a reading interventionist both here as well as at John Long Middle School. So, what we're going to
013talk to you about just as an overview is we want to talk to you about how we make decisions at Woodview in terms of our supports that we give students. And so, we want to talk to you about how we our decision-making process, how we uh group students into uh supports and extensions, and also how we like to celebrate student success and the new ways that we've done that this year. So our decision making process is we start off the year with giving students that were identified the last school year with a boost based off of the spring data. Then we gather a whole bunch of new assessment data um with the assessments as you can see there. And then we meet as an instructional support team. we call that IST where we triangulate this
014data and teachers and specialists are part of that conversation and that's where we form those different groups um to give those levels of support. One thing that we look at when we are part of those IST meetings is we look at our data wall where we compile all of the assessment data that we have on students and then we can see and identify the students that need support and the areas that they may need support in. Another thing that we look at in addition to the data wall is this flowchart. And um what this helps both classroom teachers and interventionists do, it helps us pinpoint the most foundational need that students have so that we know where the uh where to instruct the students. And once we now we know which students need support, we
015know what area they need uh support in. [clears throat] We then develop our tier 2, tier three and extension groups. So as you can see, uh Mrs. Schmidt and Mrs. Wit, Miss Wit, we have the um tier three groups up at the top. Uh Mrs. Provided enrichment groups and Mrs. Brockrop uh was providing a tier 2 group to students. So in second grade um we are committed as second grade teachers to come together and make sure that we are sharing students during this roar time. Um that way we can get in these extension groups as well as our tier 2 intervention groups and we identify these reading and math extension groups and through the I Ready and Bridges assessments that we do give. Um and I would like to introduce some of my students who
016are going to help explain what we do in some of those groups. So we're going to start with Belle. You're gonna do great. All right. My reading group is fun. I especially love that I got to learn about Africa. We learned about animals and their habitats. [applause] And now we have Melanie. that first. In our math group, Seduku is frustrating, but learning how to control your frustration is a good thing. I love learning big words. I can sound them out and figure out what they mean. Let's try one. Serenetti. So, this is a tricky word, and they had to learn how to um segment it into different hunks and chunks so they can understand how to say it. And what did you do here, Melanie? I segmented into parts that I could sound out into
017the syllables. Nice job. [applause] Alexander. And now we have Alexander. In my reading group, we read a safari book. Learning about the safari is such a fun experience. Sometimes when you go with your family, you already know all about it. In my math group, we work on big problems with cuts. They are fun braiding teachers. Let's try one together. Craft beer. OKAY. SO, this first one is called Craft Fair. I'll read it while he gets started. Um, it says, "Second graders made some items to sell at a craft fair. They made bookmarks, greeting cards, and friendship bracelets. The first customer purchased two bookmarks for 40. The second customer purchased a bookmark, a greeting card, and a friendship bracelet for .75. The third customer purchased two greeting cards and a friendship bracelet for 85 cents. So,
018how much do the second graders charge for each item? Do you want to talk through this? So, first, so first things first, if a customer purchased two bookmarks for 40 cents, if you could put those into two equal parts that that would equal to be 40, what would it be? So 40 plus 40 is oh no half of 40 half [laughter] he's teaching me some days too. Okay. So if we know then that the bookmarks are cents. Then we go on to the second C customer. The second customer purchased a bookmark, greeting card, and a friendship bracelet for 75. So if we know a book a bookmark is 20 20 cents, um then what is a greeting card and a friendship bracelet? Now, it's hard to get this first try. So, what helped me is
019going on to the third and final question. So if the um third customer purchased two greeting cards and a friendship bracelet for 85 cents. If we know that um two greeting cards would be 40 cents then uh how much would a friendship bracelet be? So 40 and it would be 30. Sorry. Um 20 or hold up. Uh you're right. So these problems actually kind of pushed the kids into trying something and correcting mistakes. So it ended up being this, right? Yeah. So, two greeting cards for 40 cents and a friendship bracelet, which would be 85 um sorry, 85 cents. Um, so the hard part about this is just figuring them all out. So if we know then so if we go back to um the second thing second one we know that now if the
020bookmark is 20 cents we can make the bracelet 20 25 cents. Um, so then you have to have your greeting card, right? Yep. And then a greeting card. So, if we have the friendship bracelet at 25 cents and the greeting card for um for 30 cents or sorry um and we have the um wait bookmark for 20 cents and we have a bracelet it for 25. If we try it out, we get 45. And if we're trying to get to 75, the greeting card would be $30. So, or 30 cents, sorry. Um, [snorts] so then our greeting cards would be 40 cent or the greeting cards would be 20 cents. That's 20 cents. The friendship bracelet would be 20. That looked like a Z. 20 5 cents. And then we said that the greeting card
021was cents. So let's see if this is equal to 85. 20 + 25 is 45 or sorry let's see if this is equal to 75. I meant um 20 + 25 = 45 + 30 = 75. So we did it. NOW IF [applause] but so now for this one if we add um two greeting cards [snorts] and we have a friendship bracelet. If we know the friendship bracelet is 25 cents and a greeting card is 30. Two would be 60 cents. So 60 + 25 would be 85. So that means we did it. [applause] Do you have any questions for my kids? Okay. uh groups of students who would benefit from both extension as you just heard about and intervention are identified using database decisions. The data analysis doesn't stop there. However, after we analyze
022the initial um beginning of the year data, where am I pointing there? Okay. Um we have several school teams that discuss the data that's obtained from the assessments that we give and our our teams work to design and monitor the different tiers of support that you heard about. So we have tiers, we have teams like the SIT team which stands for student intervention team that's comprised of our principal, our school psychologist, our instructional coach and our interventionist. And we meet weekly to look at progress monitoring data to determine if the interventions that we are doing with kids are working effectively and if they're not then we discuss action steps to impact progress. An additional team that we have is our PLC meetings and classroom teachers have the opport or sorry before I move off of
023sit team meetings. Our classroom teachers are not in attendance at those meetings with us but they do have an opportunity to fill out a request for assistance form if they have students that they have behavioral or academic concerns about and then we discuss those students at our meeting. So, we would then invite the classroom teachers to come to those meetings as well as any speech and language pathologists or uh special ed case managers if the students that we're discussing are relevant to either of those groups of people. Um, additionally, our PLC meetings are held by our grade level teams and those are held weekly as well. Kayla, our instructional coach, attends those meetings every week. Natalie and I go once a month and those are datadriven discussions where we are discussing not only the students
024that we're servicing in our small groups but students that are getting tier 2 level of support in the classrooms as well. And new [clears throat] this year, a bit of time is being set aside each professional development day for specialed case managers, uh, interventionists, our coach, and our speech and language pathologists who have students that they are servicing with personal reading plans. We have an opportunity to meet together and collaborate or problem solve around the students that have personal reading plans. In terms of progress monitoring, if we have students that are in intervention groups and are receiving additional support, whether it be by a classroom teacher or by us, they may be getting progress monitored. And this is just a little snapshot to show you that we look at their weekly data. And we just
025color code it quickly to be able to see at a glance like if it's green, it means their scores increased. If it's red, it means their score decreased. If it's yellow, it remained the same. So, it's just a a way for us to quickly see grade level by grade level, student by student, if we need to. um who is making progress, who might be stagnant. Um and this is kind of data that we use to to decide who we're going to have conversations around at our next meeting. Next path also provides an intervention workspace that lets us easily see which students that are receiving intervention or some kind of support are on track or not on track to meet their progress monitoring goals. So we can sort by on track and not on track in
026um in this workspace. That allows us to celebrate students who are on track and showing growth as well as quickly identify the students that we will be discussing at our our meetings the following week. If we decide through our discussions that we need to intensify intervention in some way, maybe decrease our group size, maybe change the intervention focus or add additional layers of support. The nice thing about um Next Path is that also they will draw in a phase line for us. So when we tell Next Path what we're impacting, what kind of change we're going to make, it will draw in a vertical phase line which you can see on that bottom graph. And it allows us to then see if whatever change we made has impacted the students rate of improvement. Missy just
027showed you ways in which we analyze our weekly progress monitoring data. New this year, we have implemented some ways to celebrate our students reading success. So, at Woodview, our reading is Gumbelievable. This is an idea that stemmed from a podcast from Melissa and Lorie Love Literacy in which Angie Hanlin was interviewed um sharing these practices that she has implemented at one of her previous schools. Both Missy and myself are having our students participate in this incentive to help our students take ownership of their reading goals. We've opened up these practices for classroom teachers to participate in if they choose to, and many of them are. When a student exceeds their previous week's progress monitoring score, they earn a prize from our gumball machine. They also get to add their name to a paper gumball piece
028that is then added to our door displays. When a student reaches or exceeds the endofear goal, which is reaching or exceeding the spring 25th percentile, they are invited to wear a lanyard that says, "I met my reading goal." Staff are aware of what this lanyard symbolizes. So, when they see a student walking in the hallway wearing that lanyard, they can congratulate them. Students are also able to ring the victory bell in the office and receive a signed certificate. So, here are some pictures of what our gumball door displays look like as well as our gumball machine setup. We do have our gumball machine here tonight that after our presentation, if you would like to try it out, you are welcome to. Here are some examples of students participating in ringing the victory ballot in the
029office. Miss Schwenzen has been sending pictures of these special moments home and emailing them to families so that way they can celebrate their students reading success at home as well. We do have some students here tonight that would like to share their experience with ringing the victory bell. So, if I could have Noel, Willow, Eden, and Eli come up. Thank you. Thank you. All right. First, we have Noel. So, Noel, how did it make you feel to ring the bell? I felt um nervous but excited at the same time. Why were you feeling a little nervous? Um I didn't know who was going to be there or what was going to happen. Why were you feeling excited? because it was my first time and I could graduate reading. How did you celebrate at home? Uh,
030play board games, eat um a good meal, and my mom was really happy for me. Awesome. Thanks, NOEL. [applause] All right. Next, we have Willow. Willow, how did it make you feel to ring the victory bell? Excited. And how did mom and dad feel about you ringing the bell? They almost screamed. [laughter] Nice work, Noel. [applause] Next, we have Eden. Eden, how did it make you feel to ring the victory bell? Excited. Excited. How did you celebrate at home? Um, with ice cream. With ice cream. How fun. Thanks, EDEN. [applause] And last, we have Eli. I felt very proud when I finished my reading goal and I got to ring the bell. [applause] With this new system, we are trying to motivate to our students to accelerate. What started out as data that we were
031just collecting has turned into all of the smiling faces that you can see here. This is not working. Thank you. [applause] We're just gonna do this for Okay. Um All right. So, as you can see, this has been a really fun addition. The bell is in the office. Feel free to check it out on your way. Everybody that's in the [clears throat] office claps and it's a big celebration. And then I sent an email home to the families explaining with the pictures and it's been really fun to get their responses and they really enjoy celebrating with their students. So, kind of piggybacking off of celebrating and reaching goals, I tried something new this year to kind of frontload an idea that Dr. Gunderson and I have moving forward with forward. I printed off all of
032our students in third grade and fourth grade's I Ready scores in the fall and created a folder for them. And then I met with every single third and fourth grader, showed them their report, talked through what their score meant, what their goals meant, and we came up with one idea of the way that they could um then meet that goal for winter. So, it was really um it was a little time inensive, but it was really a fun way to have individual one-on-one conversations with students. Um and I really enjoyed it. and I think most of them enjoyed it too. [laughter] Um, moving forward, um, Woodview and Kennedy are both going to implement a really intentional student [clears throat] centered way for we talk with students every year, of course, about how the forward is
033important and why they should try their hardest. Um, but we're going to dig a little deeper this year and you know, you can't really see the the sheet in depth there, but that's the actual sheet that we're going to use with the students. um where they'll have their the fourth grade students will have their score from third grade and we're going to talk through that with them and um have them come up with goals for themselves. It helps them take a little bit of ownership. It's a little bit harder. You know, when you're in high school and you take the ACT, a lot of times you're really invested because you might want that score for your future plans. When you're a little bit younger, it's a little bit hard to see why why we should
034care so much about this big test. So, we're just trying to think of ways to help them that will then carry forward as they move forward with goal setting and investing in doing their best. And then, of course, as we just talked about with the reading goals, we're going to come up with some incentives to make it a little bit more worth their while. So, that's all um in progress right now, but just wanted to foreshadow foreshadow that for you that Kennedy and Woodview are both going to be doing that in fourth grade. That's all for us tonight. Thank you so much for having us. And if you have any questions for anybody that presented, especially the stars of the show that are a little bit shorter than me, we'll go like this. All right.
035Well, thank you VERY [applause] Thank you very much for having us. Board, any comments or questions? [clears throat] Not everybody. I have a question or kind of a clarification. So, um the second grade teacher, what's your name again? Hi. Was this an example of like the roar groups and like what they're reading and math doing and how you're using the data to um meet them from the groups and then what we're doing inside those groups. And it sounded like so were both of you learning about Africa and safaris um but in different groups or were you in the same group? Yeah. So you were in two different reading groups. So I have two reading groups and two math groups every week. Okay. I wanted to know what kind of animals you learned about from cheetahs.
036Do you have a favorite? Yours was elephant. Elephant. [laughter] Anyone else? I think [clears throat] it's really cool with the celebrations and how you guys find these incentives. I mean, I'm a parent of small children and finding fun little incentive things to celebrate victories in this is really neat how you guys did that. I think it really boosts the morale of the kids, too. And they have these like public celebrations about it. So, kudos to your team on finding effective and things to do to to really celebrate as a school these victories and all the students today. You guys did a great job. Some of those are really tough. So, congratulations. Excellent. One more HAND FOR EVERYONE. [applause] CAN I GET A PICTURE? YES. Y if we can have all the kids and the teachers
037come up. We'll get a quick picture. Students be present. Why don't you come on picture? They're like nothing as much as we want to do. Dad is the background. You know what their school talking? If you look right here, Can I take a picture first? [laughter] [clears throat] Take a picture. Right here. [snorts] [applause] That was always obviously great kid and he's close with my boys. talking. We'd always go from Whatever. I like that there's a little gap. Yeah. Right. Yeah. You're going to have to Yeah. I was watching basketball watch. pulled a joke and walked out. Haven't changed much. All [snorts] [clears throat] [sighs and snorts] right, we will continue with the rest of the superintendent's report. Yes. So, we had our district spelling be on Wednesday, um, January 14th, and we want to
038congratulate all of our students that were able to compete that night at the high school auditorium. Um, but a special congratulations to our champion of the Grafton spelling bee, Daniel Dannyella Oopian, as well as finalist Aiden Han and Advette Boba. Um, they will be, these three students will be advancing to the CISA1 regional spelling bee on March 3rd. Uh, we had a total of 39 district students who participated in the spelling bee. So, best wishes to those three as they advance. Um, thanks to everyone who helped with our 4K information all night, which was last Thursday night. Uh, we had 64 families in attendance. Um, reminder, the priority open enrollment window for 4K is now open through February 6th. So, parents can enroll students at district office Monday through Friday from 7:30 to 4:00. Um,
039and all that information is available on our district website. Um, and congratulations to Topheer Adams, our director of business services, who was recognized as the WBO business manager of the year. It's it's ironic that the business manager association sets up these rules that you get you're nominated and you're awarded the business manager of the year in 2025. So, Toeer has really been business manager of the year in 2025 and now we're in 2026 and he's finally officially been recognized. So they set it up so that like multiple times they get to be recognized. Um and luckily we love Toeer, so it's fun to make it's fun to make fun of him. But um so we had um we had a number of our board members, some of our directors, another picture that I didn't put
040on here of our business office as well as Jamie um that were there congratulating him and they put a a quick video together um that we'd like to show you that um showcased some different pieces of Toepher and there's little Ruby when she was in elementary school. clinic has impacted our community. He's helped make rafts in a destination district for our staff and families. We've had on our facility as we were fortunate to have increasing enrollment in our district. Having a mentor seems my first year as a as a business manager in the profession. The school business manager of the year award recognizes the outstanding school business managers in Wisconsin and their contributions to public education. To Adams, director of business services for the Grafton School District, is a recipient of this award for his
041nine years of financial leadership and his commitment to mentoring the next generation of business officials. His recent achievements include the successful passage of two capital referenda, including a 2024 expansion to accommodate rising voting and leveraging innovative structures to maximize state aid for his district. Beyond his district duties, Adam serves as the co-chair for the Wasow Fall Conference Planning Committee, shares his expertise as an educator at Concordia University and mentor to business managers across the state. is unique in that he was a kinder teacher early on in his career. So he brings a different perspective um to most of the managers when discussing budget priorities placed our district in its best financial shape and long-term plan and strategic debt management. Thanks Ker for being a mentor to me you know navigate some challenging waters in my
042first year in the business office. So um just so appreciative to that he's deeply invested in the district success beyond his professional role takes pride in our district successes and we are fortunate to have him on our team. Thank you. I'm honored to receive this award. I want to thank N3 for sponsoring this award and bringing attention uh to a position that sometimes flies under the radar. I would not be receiving this award if it weren't for the willingness of my colleagues both past and present to support my growth during my time in this profession. This recognition reflects the high quality of people in the graduate school district and the contributions every team member makes for the district success. The school board has consistently put the needs of students at the forefront of what they
043do every day. my superintendent, Jeff Nelson, my boss and friend, who I've had the pleasure of working with going on 10 years now. My fellow administrators that work hard to serve our students, and my business office makes everything run smoothly behind the scenes. Finally, I want to thank my family for their love, support, and patience. My mom raised me to believe in myself and believe I can do whatever I set my mind to. My wife, Leslie, who supported and believed in me when I came up with the crazy idea of jumping from being a kindergarten teacher being a school business administrator and my kids Leo and Ruby. Coming in school district and getting to have that extra connection, a better life at school has been the most satisfying part of my time in graduate. I
044accept this honor and look forward to continuing to improve the lives of students and staff and supporting others in my profession. Thank you. [applause] So, we're very fortunate to have Toeer um in our district as business manager and as he said, he's been here for 10 years and so very well-deserved honor for him and great to have the entire state um be aware of the what we have here in Grafton and so proud of him and his work and appreciate um all of his work and friendship and um commitment to our district and wanted to recognize him at the board level as well. So, um kudostober. Thank you. Thank you. Um, couple of last things, special events in October in in February. Um, we have our Wisconsin school bus driver appreciation week and our adult
045school crossing guard recognition week. Um, February 9th through 13th and February 16th through 20th. So, as we as we think of this cold spell that we're in right now and as you head into February, it's a great opportunity though to thank those who keep our kids safe, whether they keep them safe on the bus or whether they keep them safe on a daily basis as they walk to and from school. Um so as a reminder to our community if you see those bus drivers or the school crossing guards during those week to to please thank them for their efforts um we will give a gift on behalf of the district and I um go to rightway and and present lunch for them and then our school crossing guards I meet with them and give them
046an apple on behalf of the district but um if you have time during the February to thank them I think that'd be that'd be greatly appreciated. So we thank all the work they do to keep our kids safe on a daily basis. Um and then I have our educational funding partners. I have two emails that I received from um one from um the GF. Uh it says um the Graphen Education Foundation's gift wrapping event in December was a success. Um volunteers and NHS members wrapped over 250 gifts. We'll be hosting the event again in 2026. February 7th, we will be partnering with Rio Boutique and District 6 and Cedarberg for a Valentine shopping event. Both shops will donate a portion of instore sales to GEF. We are collecting donations for our annual online auction. So,
047we welcome donations from the community and grant applications are open and golden apple teacher of the year nominations will be opening in February. And I paused as I read this because it says Tracy Potter will be attending and be available to answer or respond to any questions. And I saw Tracy Potter sitting there and then I'm like, am I supposed to be reading this or am I supposed to let Tracy read it? And then I kept reading Tracy. Yeah. So I [laughter] So I kept reading because I was like I was supposed to read it but I should have read that sentence. So I So that's why I pause like what am I supposed to do here? So I I apologize if there's something you would like to add, Tracy. It says she's here for
048questions, by the way. So I and I'm embarrassed. I apologize. I was reading and I was locked in and then I'm like I should have paused there, I think. But any Yeah, my bad. Um make sure KES I'm supposed to read this one, right? Okay, good. Um Kennedy's PTG sent an update um saying that they had a Milwaukee pretzel fundraiser. Um the uh Milwaukee pretzel donates 50% of their total sales. So they sold over $5,000 in pretzels resulting in donation of 2705. Um the restaurant give back night on December 9th at Grafton Quiznos was $21 donation and the restaurant give back night on January 13th at Grafton Cudoba was $375 donation. Um they have a new addition to the KES teachers lounge called Kenny's Cravings Corner. uh basically their version of a vending machine stocked
049with a variety of sweet treats, salty snacks, cold beverages, and of course coffee. So teachers can help teachers and staff can help themselves know their craving strikes. And they just wrapped up staff appreciation week January 20th through the 23rd. Um this is the third time they've had it. Um third year in a row of holding it in January instead of in May to bring some fun and cheer to our gloomy month. Um they had a wicked theme of Kennedy staff is wicked awesome. Um it was highlighted by Field of Poppies, a popular catered lunch and four good donations in Amazon wish list for their classrooms. And then in February they have February 3rd restaurant night even odds and February 19th through the 22nd the PTG's online silent auction fundraising event. Um all from the comforts
050of home. And if there's anyone else here from another educational funding partner and I don't believe there is. So with that that concludes my report. Any questions for Okay, thank you very much. Uh, next we have uh public comment. Um, I did receive one email um right after our last meeting which I did forward on to the group and no other emails. Is there anyone here tonight that would like to address the board? Good evening. Um, if anyone doesn't know me, I'm Joe Brown, director of bands at Grafton High School. Um, actually the next item on the agenda. Oh, sorry. I didn't But you are resident, so if you'd like to make a comment, you can make a comment. I don't have anything. [laughter] But you are an official item. You're a big deal, Mr.
051Brown. [laughter] I screwed up by saying Tracy Potter said, so you're good. All right. I see we have no public comment. We will move on. That brings us to the student overnight trip request. Is there anyone here to speak on that? Um I think there is someone here to speak [laughter] on this actually. So in your pamphlet and your packet is a ghs um overnight trip application for the band and choir and Mr. Joe Brown is here to speak. Yes. Um so last um spring we had a very successful trip to New York City. Um we got to do a lot of awesome things um there. We got to have a both the band and the choir got to participate in a Broadway clinic working with um a guy who's playing been playing piano um
052on Wicked for 17 years and so that was awesome um getting to work with he ran kind of a rehearsal um with the band on a big Wicked medley. Um that was a lot of fun and great experience for the kids and then got to do some really cool really in-depth um musical things with the choir which was awesome as well. the band got to perform on the USS Intrepid um which was really cool playing on a aircraft carrier. Um and so now we are looking forward to our 2027 spring break trip. Um this year we will be going to um New Orleans. Um so we're very excited about that. Um so this is kind of our uh itinerary. It's going to be a three-day trip, two nights. Um we will leave um uh from
053midway is where they have us right now um on the 22nd which is that u Monday of spring break um for 2027 and then we'll be returning on that Wednesday in the evening. um the um first day we get to do um see Marty GR World and Swamp Boat tour and then some time on the Riverwalk. The biggest thing with all of this itinerary that we wanted for this trip versus the New York trip was a little bit less packed together on the first um day. We left here at about 2:00 a.m. um for our 6:30 a.m. flight um to New York and then the choir performed at 7:00 that night and we didn't get to go to hotel. So, we tried to have a much better balance of doing things um versus overdoing things
054on the trip while still getting some great experiences. Um that is why this trip is a little bit shorter than our trips have been in the past. um one night. This is two nights. Last two trips were three nights. Um it'll help balance things out but still get some awesome opportunities for the students. Second day we'll be um going to the World War II Museum which will include um some performances as well as a jazz museum and an aquarium and then a ghost tour in the evening. And then the final day we'll get to workshop and tour at Tulain University and then um perform at the St. Louis Cathedral before heading home. Um, so we are also traveling with a new company this year. We previously went with Southwestern Travel. Um, and this year we
055were going with Academic Expeditions. Um, the biggest issues we had with Southwestern Travel in the past were the timely communication and logistics, especially in the month leading up to the New York trip, especially um they weren't very forward with as many things as we needed. I know um Summer Klepic had a lot of issues getting um what they could do for music or music that was going to be sent to us for the clinics and the performances and what they could do. And that wasn't really figured out until kind of short notice for preparing music for performance. Um, and so we talked with our friends over at Cedarberg High School who have used academic expeditions before. They highly recommended um, this company and especially our rep Bob has been great help so far in preparing
056this trip. super um responsive to our emails in a timely manner and fixing things as we were getting the um itinerary set and everything has been a really great help. Um they also have better systems to organize rooms and take things off of u mine and Miss Klepic's plates. There's just a lot of things as far as putting the kids in rooms that Southwestern Travel didn't have to kind of do that on their own or form for the kids to fill out that we had to facilitate that and that just adds more things while we're also trying to do what we do in a normal school year as well as plan the trip. Um and so we get that um little extra help from the travel company this time. Um and then there is also
057more included in the price. So, um you may notice if you remember previous price is a little bit more than it was, but it's somewhat pretty similar to the price for this trip. Um but a lot of that is um going to be because of inflation and because of there is more included with this trip um than the what we southwestern had. So that so what is included? Um the bold ones are the biggest differences. Um all airline baggage fees this time are included. We were that was not the case last time. Last time they just said, "Oh, we'll probably get Southwest." They did not get Southwest. Um so each kid, each um instrumentalist had to pay 80 bucks um there you total to get their instrument to New York and back. Um but this
058time that's included. All of the meals are included. Um in New York with Southwestern Travel Company about half of the meals, most of the lunches were at the kids' expenses. Um, in this case, they have an allowance that if they want to go past that, they can do that on their own dime, but um, they have at least an allowance that should be able to cover a solid lunch um, for themselves. And then the evenings, the dinners are usually more big productions. One of the nights is a bowling, so it's a probably pizza. Um, and then personalized laser engraved luggage tag. Um, last time, you know, we just we I have stickers we put on all the instrument cases to make sure we kept track, but it'll be nice for everyone who checks a bag
059to have something that's unique to them, especially for this. Um, as well as um motor coaches. We will probably have two motor coaches to New York. We had 100 people travel um about 24 adults. Um the two chaperrons, myself and Miss Klepic, and then about 75 students, which was just awesome. Um, so we'll probably have about two buses going down there and then we get a tour guide per bus and then interest fees and everything to everything we need and security in the hotel which is nice. Advance that. So this is kind of the breakdown of price. This is the starting point for about 40 paying participants per motor coach. Um, it is a little bit flexible if that goes up from there. I think usually the motor coaches fit about 55. Um, so if
060we end up at a 100 total people, um, the price may go down just a little bit. Um, so the general student rate, they generally put four to a room. That's going to be about 17.85. And then, um, adult chaprons have the choice to go either they can have a roommate or not. And then there's variable pricing for that. That's all I have for that. Any questions? Excellent. Sounds like a fun trip. Appreciate you doing that and coordinating that and getting more interest in the band. That's awesome. Yeah, it's been really fun. We went to Nashville in 2023, New York in 2025. So, it's been it's been really fun getting more and more trips and getting I've I've definitely seen the interest in staying in in bandit choir because of it. So, awesome. Yeah. Any
061other questions or comments? Okay, that said, do we have a motion to accept the um overnight trip request as presented? So moved. Second. Additional discussion. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. It passes. So, thank you. Have a great time. Great memories. All right, that brings us to the uh personnel report. Yes, we have um no new hires that are for board approval, but we do have um two instances for information only. We have a new hire of mezner who's our communications coordinator receptionist in district office. And then we have a resignation of Leah Smith, accounts payable facilities coordinator in district office and that position has been posted for um but to support staff positions. Just making the board aware of informationational any questions? Okay. Um, approval of open enrollment seats for 2627. All right.
062Good evening. So, I'm back to talk about open enrollment. Last year at this time, the board was setting open enrollment seats for this current school year, and you had set a total of 34 seats. This is a chart that talks about the number of applications we received, the seats opened. Um you can see that uh we get many more applications than we um open seats because as we know Grafton is a great place to be. So a lot of people are applying. Um of those 34 seats that we opened, we did have 24 new enrollments carrying over two tuition waiverss. Um and that currently puts us at 161 students total um that are open enrolled into the district. And on the next page, you can see a detailed breakdown of those students that are open
063enrolled in as well as our resident students who are choosing to open or roll out. Um because Grafton is a great place to be, we do continue to be a net positive open enrollment district with fewer Grafton residents choosing to open roll out. Um as um more students are are open and rolling in. Um for this next school year, we are making the recommendation that the board approve 31 seats. Uh this is slightly lower than the number of seats you approved last year and that is because our resident enrollment continues to increase. Um so you can see the breakdown of number of general education seats at each grade level um totaling 31 and then zero special education seats for our district. Um, and if you're wondering, um, our open enrollment window is from February 2nd
064to April 30th. That is when families can put those applications in, and we hold an a lottery early in May. Any questions about our recommendation for approving 31 seats. Comments or questions? Okay. All right. Seeing none, um I would look for a motion to approve the 31 seats as indicated. Additional discussion. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. That passes. Thank you. Thank you. All right. 2026 27 school year calendar final read and approval. Yes. So following last month's board meeting and discussion on the calendar, our administrative team reviewed both board feedback as well as union leadership feedback on the calendars um that we brought forward. Um and after a lengthy discussion um administration was unanimous in re recommending tonight's calendar. Um it is similar to this year's calendar, the 2526 calendar, but it does
065have one virtual learning day for grades 5 through 12 instead of the three that we have this year. Um we believe this change addresses concerns that parents and staff have brought forward about the effectiveness of virtual learning um while still providing students with a valuable experience if we must move to virtual learning um because of excessive snow days um as well as continues developing student independence. Um so we have uh the final version of the calendar has 176 secondary um student days, 174 elementary student days, 190 teacher days. Uh one professional development day as I mentioned that would be virtual learning in the first semester on November 9th. So also a couple months into the school year before we would have our virtual learning day. Um and then we would have spring break from March
06622nd through the 29th. Um, and it would include the the Monday after Easter Sunday to help facilitate holiday and travel plans for staff and students. So, I'm going to take any questions the board might have about the recommendation. So, this resembles the B version. Option B. Yes. This resembles option B that we had um last month. Okay. I appreciate all the time and effort to facilitate this and I think address concerns. I think you know you're not there are different opinions here on the board and with staff and parents and it's a happy medium I would say. Um so yeah I appreciate all the time and effort to do this and come to a good spot I feel. Good. So did we lose PD days or they we would lose a PD day. That's correct.
067Yeah. Yep. So, and by by having the virtual learning days at the secondary level, at the elementary level, they're full ver they're full PD days, but the secondary level they aren't because after you have lunch, we have time for virtual learning and then we have our our wellness hour for staff as well. So, it's typically like more of a half day of PD day um for staff. So, um, as a leadership team, that's that was one of our discussions, and we felt, um, strongly that the full day in December was going to be better than having a half day, um, later. Um, and being able to really, um, take advantage of that time together as a leadership, as a as a district team, um, was something that staff felt strongly about. And, as we said,
068we could come back and revisit this next year. And you the state's talking now about um potentially, you know, not having the state start date be required to be September 1st. So potentially we could be bringing an earlier start time um to the school year as well as an earlier end time um to the year. So there's other pieces that will come together for next year as well um that we're talking about. Okay. But that has nothing to do with 2627. That's all about 272. It's not not this year. This is this is the calendar for 2627. We're thinking about 2728 already, but this is where we are right now. We're not bringing the calendar back again this year. [laughter] I'll read tonight. I promise. Okay. So, it will be a little bit hard for
069us to get feedback on just the one virtual day because we can't really survey until after this 26 27th school year. So, if we do any survey this year, still represent this past year. So, yeah. And we'll keep the we'll keep the survey question in our annual survey because I think it will be interesting to see you know we've made a concerted effort to be more strategic maybe more directive on certain expectations that we have at our various levels. So has that resulted in a better response from parents and staff? Maybe maybe not. So it'll be a interesting way to continue developing data um that we can look at for ways to improve. Are there other measures to know like because I know there was the comment about we want to have this certain day
070because of like data and being able to use that data effectively like our um with losing the other two and having the one on the 7th of December. I'm just curious as you're thinking about going forward, do you have like certain things you're looking at or we'll be looking at on was it really a a loss? I don't am I asking? Yeah. Yeah. Because yeah, we'll be able to evaluate as we move through with our professional development to see the goals that we have set us set for ourselves for the year. Were we able to accomplish those? Did we have enough time? Does staff feel rushed? because that's, you know, a concern of like, oh my gosh, you know, we did Joe talks about, you know, kids being in New York and you're exhausted at
071the end of the day. Well, that's not the purpose of the professional development day. It's just a go go go. We want to learn, but we also want to have time to reflect and collaborate together. So, will we have time to do those things? Those will be the things that [clears throat] we'll have to be watching. There's there's nothing magical about the c the calendar. There's other days we could move around. We could change things. So, we're always evaluating, are we meeting the effectiveness of our goals, our our data? I mean, we just had our chamber um state of the chamber today and I felt like I was delivering like a sales pitch for the best sales year we've ever had um with some of the accolades that our district is getting. So, our data
072is really good right now um with our current system. Um this is a tweak to that um and we plan on continuing to have better data. Yeah. Any other comments, questions? If not, I will look for a motion to approve the recommended 2627 school year calendar. Second. First and second. Additional discussion. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. And we have a calendar. So, thank you very much. Um H uh 2526 second quarter budget report. Yes. So uh we are bringing the uh second quarter budget report uh to you. Um like our first quarter budget report earlier this year very little to talk about in terms of the categories um and variances compared to last year. Uh in previous years or last quarter I should say previous years there were usually things to talk about.
073Uh but this year we've been tracking both in the first quarter and the second quarter uh spoton with last year for the most part. And on top you can see overall both in fund 10 and fund 27 we're spending uh very similarly to last year's rate of spending through the second quarter. Now, one area we have to take a look at that isn't reflected in our expenditures is our uh insurance costs because those are recorded as liabilities. In the expenditures, our insurance costs are recorded every time we do payroll assuming that dollar amount is going to be that's recorded. But then on our books, we're looking at what's actually happening with claim activity. And so, uh, this is what we've seen on a month-to-month basis through the first six months of this fiscal year. Obviously,
074with July having a challenging month, uh, the green bars are the funding sources, red bars are the expenses, and then you can see whether there's a gain or loss. So, each month, July being a loss, August being a good month, September and October kind of balanced out, not being too uh, far up or down. November was challenging uh but then December was very good. So when we look at that what that means cumulatively right now we're just about breaking even with about a $9,000 loss. And when you think about where we were last year through the second quarter with about 3/4 of a million dollars underwater. We're tracking much better this year than last year. especially as you saw in the second half of the fiscal year uh getting some of that back um through
075the the last six months of that year. So um that is our second quarter budget report. Any questions about how the first two quarters have gone? Only any questions? Just a quick web. Um so those rebate programs and things that kick back into the second portion that isn't reflected in this currently or is this projected in with that as well? It is. So we get quarterly uh rebates. So actually that's why you'll see September and December those those funding sources that's where they get plugged in. Okay. That's why you'll typically see those months being the highest in terms of having funding sources. As you see in December we did receive a fairly large uh rebate. Um and and then the yeah rebate check for those pharmacy rebates and we're looking to probably see more into
076the second uh second half of the year. Yep. Now it's it's a rhythm. Okay. So every 3 months every at the end of every quarter we get one of those payments. You can kind of count on it being about $90,000. Okay. Thank you. Would that be a leg just looking [clears throat] at the December expenses? I mean I would think end of the year people met their deductible. Doing more things, excuse [clears throat] me. So, but there potentially be a leg in expenses in January. Yep. January and potentially February as well. Okay. Some of that actually hitting our claim activity in those months and then seeing March and April come back down a little bit because now people are having to use their deductible up. Yeah. I I just I thought the December number was
077low. It was happily which is good. Is it because it's not going to hit the books until January? Well, it's you can see it fluctuate and and it just sometimes it's the timing of procedures and when claims are coming in. Um you would have expected December to climb up above November. Um but November obviously had some uh some bigger ticket items hit that month. Why would there be more consistency between the funding from month to month? Again, the funding those those quarterly pieces um hit to just the end at the at the at the last month of each quarter. That's why you'll typically see those as the highest. Um August we had some doubling up of some premium coming in. Um, and so that can impact it as well because the funding sources are when
078we take the district's contribution and the employee contribution and put it in there to cover all the claim activity. All right. Information on any other questions or comments? Thank you for the update. [clears throat] All right. Um I um assessment overview and approval of parent opto. Hello everyone. This is our annual notification of upcoming state assessments and our opt out process for families. Uh so the state assessments that are coming up um are on the screen as you can see. We have the ACT which will take place April 8th and 9th. um that is for students in grade 11 and they'll be tested on reading, English, math, science, and writing. We have the preac secure. We have a testing window um of March 16th till April 24th. However, um in line with our what we've
079done in the past, we'll have an all school testing day at the high school. Um so those students will also be testing on April 8th and 9th with some select students starting testing on April 7th. and that is for students in grades 9 and 10 in English, reading, math, and science. We have our Wisconsin Forward exam. The window is also March 16th through the 24th. And students in grades 3 through 8 will be tested in English language arts and math. And in grades four, and eight, they will also be doing science. And then grades four, 8, and 10 will be tested in social studies. And then along with that, we do have um the DM or the dynamic learning maps. Um those are for select students. Um and the window is also March 16th through
080April 24th. Um parents are encouraged to not opt out their child to state testing as full participation helps ensure decisions are based on a complete and reliable picture of student learning across classroom, school, and the districts. However, if a parent would like to opt out their child of state assessments, they must do so in writing. So, per state statute, we are required to honor all parent requests to opt out students at grades four, 8, 9, 10, and 11. However, we would like to request that the board approve all parent optout outs regardless of grade levels that we receive in writing and following the procedures listed on the screen. Are there any questions? Comments or questions? Did we last year have any optouts of this? We did. Yep. We had five opt outs last year um
081which was a decrease from the previous year of seven. Four of them were at John Long Middle School and one of them was at the elementary level and zero at the high school. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Okay. Thank you. Um seeing none, I would look for an approval of the riddens. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Um, approval of the written parental request for our test opt out as presented. So move second for a second. Additional discussion. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. And that passes. Uh, gift reports. Yes, we have multiple gift reports that we'd ask for board approval for. one being um for John Long Middle School for their um it's a restricted gift for their STEM program um in the amount of $550 the button press, circle cutter, badge
082blanks, and art files. And it's Alvin Strung Stronen um donating making that donation. And then we have from Walkshaw County Technical College, Troy [snorts] Olsen being the contact person making a donation to the Grafton High School automotive program, a 2014 Chevrolet Corvette um for students to use in the automotive lab. And the amount the value is $40,668. And then um two donations towards enhancing our future athletic complex development. Marlene Pritchard um in the varsity level of $5,000 and the Grafton Athletic Booster Club in the amount of $500. Any questions on the gift reports? Seeing none, I would look for a motion to approve the gift reports as presented. So move second. Additional discussion. All in favor say I. I opposed. It passes and we thank everyone for their generosity and we'll get them a letter.
083Can I add one thing? Yes. I should have said this earlier when I was congratulating Topheer. Um Jerry Rossi, Steve Natada, and Lester Bartell wrote letters of recommendation for TOER. Um so two of our board members and then well Lester from the the community. Um so I want to recognize them as well because they wrote nice letters. And then um Jackson, who we saw um that Toer's mentoring also wrote one for him. But I wanted to thank the two of you as well as Lester for taking time to write those letters and I should have included that in my notes. Yeah. Thank you. It was easy to do. Congratulations. Um so our next board meeting um will be at John Long um on February 23rd. So we look forward to our visit to John Long.
084All right, that brings us to um adjournment. Um, the board of education will consider a motion to convene in close session pursuant to Wisconsin statute 19.85 section 1 subsection C considering employment promotion compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility for purpose of considering administrator contracts. Do we have a motion to go to closed? Second. First and a second. We'll take a voice vote. Yes. Yes. And yes, we are close.