001Did you fish that out of the garbage? All right, I will call the Monday, November 24th board meeting to order. If we can please have everyone stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat] Thank you. Uh we have two items under the consent agenda tonight. Um the approval of the minutes of the October 27, 2025 board meeting as well as a statement of receipts and expenditures for October of 25. Do we have a motion? So move. Second. First and a second. Additional discussion. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. That passes. That brings us to the superintendent report and our guest here tonight.
002Yes. So over my 10 years here in Grafton, we've established a tradition inviting our state champions to board meetings for recognition. And so this fall, we were proud to recognize our academic champions, including our students with perfect ACT scores and national merit qualifiers. And tonight we celebrate a historic achievement. For the first time ever, we have two teams that qualified for the state tournament in the same season, bringing home a silver and a gold trophy, respectively. So, I've asked Mr. Moore to introduce the coaches and teams and have the board and build ask questions, but I'll turn it over to him. Thank you. Um, usually November is one of those, uh, board meeting months where I have circled on my calendar that we're going to highlight our our fall athletic achievement. Uh, but I think
003we can all agree that um, this this fall wasn't your typical fall here at GHS. So, we've had a lot of a lot of our student athletes and our coaches doing extraordinary things. So, I'm very proud to be here to uh, to help introduce those folks and those kids. First of all, I want to focus on our volleyball on our volleyball team. Uh, second place finish in the WI state volleyball tournament. team won the regional and sectional championships to advance the state for the first time in school history and then won their semi-final game and took the championship match to five sets. An extraordinary effort. All conference first team was Paige Prrock Grace Tilly. All conference second team Abby Bartholomew coach of the year our own Ashley Wilson. All state first team was Paige Prey.
004All state honorable mention Grace Tilly. And all tournament team up in Green Bay, Paige Prayer and Grace Tilly. So, I want to bring forth our head coach, Ashley Wilson, and members of our team. [applause] All right. Um, thank you for inviting us to come to this. Um, we had a really awesome season this year and we just felt so supported by the community and by the district and by all of our schools. We just had so many fun events planned and did so many things at all of our school. I just like to thank, you know, Mr. Nelson and Mr. Moore, Miss Schwenzen who made Woodview super special for me since I teach first grade there. Um, you know, this year we started off and at our very first team meeting we said our goal
005is to make it to state and they all thought that I was crazy but then as we started rolling throughout the season they realized that we could actually do it and by the end of the season we you know believed in our team and knew that we could do that together. So we are really excited and proud of all the things that our team did this season and hope to bring home a gold ball next year. So, [applause] um, I just am like thankful for the school cuz I think they made it really special for us and it was just something that we will like remember forever. So, like thank you. [applause] Board members, did you have any questions for the I've never seen you be shy before. [laughter] Comments or questions for the players
006or coach? At what point during the season did you guys believe coach that you guys could actually get to state? Um, probably when we beat New Berlin West, our sectional. I also think when we played Slinger was like our best competition we played all year and like when we really started playing together well. How was it playing at state? I was up there on Friday when there's the record crowd for division 2 which was cru cool. But how was it playing there versus say in our gym? Was it the atmosphere different? Were you more nervous? curious how your feelings were in the in the environment for you. Um, I think there was a lot of adrenaline playing in that big of a like atmosphere and it was really exciting because we hadn't done anything like
007that all year. Uh, we just knew that we wanted to enjoy the experience. It was the first time that our school had ever made it that far. So, our goal was to go and be competitive and have fun and see where that took us. And the environment was amazing. There was like over 4,000 people there. So, it was, you know, crazy to see just the crowds and it was very exciting for our team and for all the teams that made it there. Anyone else? It was it was a blast. I mean, I I coach a couple of brothers on that team and just to bring all those kids as part of the community to see that and be excited about volleyball and be in that building like it was electric. So, thank you for putting
008on a good show. Looking forward to next year. Apparently, it's going to go a little better, so that's cool. But, uh, it was so good to see and such a good community engagement around it, too. What were your thoughts when you got down two to one in the championship game? So, what when you got when you when you when you win the first set, you lose two and you know if we lose one more set, we're done. I feel like we just wanted to have fun and like soak in the moment and just like know this is like the last year for [clears throat] the seniors and just play for them cuz I thought that was really impressive that you didn't quit that you could have easily quit but you win the next game to
009force a game five which was amazing. I mean but that's a really easy thing to do when you're down is be like well it's going to be really hard to win two in a row and you guys didn't quit. I was really proud of you for that. Yeah, I felt like in volleyball it's like a cool sport because you can like kind of come back like it just restarts, you know, every set. So, we just knew like we had to put everything out there, I guess. And like we did, we wanted it. You guys did great. You represented the school and your family and the coach and um you know, and the whole community just had a blast with it. So, congratulations to to all of you. Thank you. [applause] Thank you again to Coach
010Wilson and the girls. Um but the athletic excitement in the postseason certainly did not stop there. So, um transitioning a little bit over to uh our football program as well. Um we know how Friday went. Okay, we know that uh the game went off at Camp Randle. went well um to say the least. Exhibit A [clears throat] right to my right. Uh but in the meantime, I want to read some of the individual accomplishments and then we want to bring forth members of that team as well. So all conference first team this year, Colton Belkkey, Grayson Bell, Ian Cornelius, Tyler, Tyler Deer, Hudson Miller, Miles Muenberg, Jack Nelson. All conference first team defense, Colton Belkkey, Tyler Deer, Max Glab, Tyler Heinley, Miles Mullenberg, Nick Schiller, and Jaden Smith Kaylor. All conference second team, Caleb Erns,
011Noah King, Jack Marty, Nick Schiller, Pton Whismiller. Honorable mention Sam Hury, DJ James, Reed Schaefer. Offensive lineman of the year was Miles Mullenberg. Defensive player of the year, Tyler Heinley, defensive lineman of the year, Max Glab. All region went to Tyler Deer, both on offense and defense. Max Glab, Tyler Heinley, Miles Mullenberg, both on offense and defense, and Jack Nelson. All State honorable mention Max Glab and Tyler Heinley. Coach of the year was our own Jim Norris. Assistant coach of the year was Mike Seaffeld. And our scholar athlete representative to the Woodland Conference for Football was Ian Cornelius. So, right now, I'd like to bring up Coach Norris and members of the team. [applause] How we doing tonight? Um, up here I have Tyler Deer. Um, knocked out the game while going into the fourth
012quarter into the third. Grayson Bulock kicked the game-winning field goal. Um and then Nick Schiller at quarterback and then Max Glob uh one of our our defensive players and captains. Um you know obviously super exciting time and you know we appreciate all the support. I think one of the coolest things um you know being up at the high school now for eight years is the last three weeks and you know what Grafton means to the community and more importantly our kids um and and our our staff at the high school. When I first got up here as a head coach eight years ago, I walked through the hallways and I saw more Cedarberg stuff, Homestead stuff, Port Washington stuff, um that I saw Grafton athletic stuff. And you know, through the years, it's changed immensely.
013And uh the last three weeks have has uh you know, really showcased what our athletic program is about, uh what this leadership is about. Um both here, right here, and uh in front of the high school, too, and everyone else sitting back there. So, um, you guys invest in our kids, um, time and effort and energy and, um, you know, we as coaches do the same, but our kids respond, uh, we have some of the best athletes in the state and, uh, and not only, you know, athletes, but students as well. Um, so hats off to you guys and, uh, everything that you guys do for, uh, for our kids. So, thank you guys. [applause] Answer some questions. They are they are PR trained uh very well too. So yeah. Did you guys have to
014make all the games so close down the stretch? [laughter] Well, they're they're battle tested, too, cuz a lot of these guys started their sophomore years. Um you know, when we played Port Washington and and had that come from behind win and uh then Manasha, same thing. and uh you know the close game against Stoton and then Rice Lake in 23. So these guys are uh accustomed to uh making you guys sweat it out a little bit. So question for Max. That catch at Catholic Memorial. I mean I just curious what's going through your mind as you see that ball through the air. I really just had to do my job. I mean it's really just the same play. I've done it a million times in the season and I I didn't I mean I did
015drop it once but like [laughter] I was I was ready for it. Very cool. How much I'm curious with you guys a lot I remember two years ago a lot of you were on the field a lot first state. How much do you think it helped coming back? Like was the off factor a lot less and it's just easier to focus on the game versus um it definitely helped being there. We had some experience which I think helped us more than Reedsburg and it wasn't like as big of a deal. Like it was still really cool but we weren't as like shocked as we were the first time and like we weren't taking everything in for the first time. Were you shocked when you couldn't catch number two Tyler? Cuz I I feel like I
016I have not seen you not be able to track someone down. Yeah, he was pretty fast. I was surprised by that. We knew he was going to be really good. And the and the way the state does it is on odd years the the alphabetical team that is like the lowest is the home team. Um so 23 were home 25 were home. So anywhere from bus drop off to the walk to the locker room to the locker room itself. Entrance and exit on the field was all the same. So um we knew what to expect and changed some things in our planning um from 23 and made some adjustments and uh it worked worked well. So, what was going through your mind when you knew you had to to make the kick and kudos to
017to Nick to getting the the snap down. So, they I don't think words can really describe that feeling, you know. I just saw the ball go through the uprights and just a wave of emotion hit, excitement, looked to the fans, they were all jumping, you know, and I was just like, "Wow, did they really just win us the game?" It was It was impressive. Feeling like no other. Awesome. Still six seconds on the clock. [laughter] Besides the onfield things, I've heard stories of your conduct like after the Catholic memorial game and some of the some of the other things that happened late say off the field and I think you represented Grafton so well besides being an athlete but being just good people. So I want to thank you for that and representing the school,
018the district and the community in such a favorable way favorable way. I'll I'll echo that and add real quick along the same lines. But I felt the same way with the volleyball team at state, specifically Grace, I thought was like every time they got down in the semifinals, you were like super positive. And then obviously the last five quarters were a little much for my heart, but um for football, but even some of the observers on the sidelines like the chain gang, I think it was like some of the other people on the sidelines at state, they were I heard them commenting, they're like, "This is the craziest sideline that we've seen at state." And it was just down or up a Katherine Memorial game. This game it was it was awesome to see belief
019I guess. Yeah, the sideline guys were awesome. We didn't even know what they were, but they're in the huddle every play hyping us up. I had to kick the sidelines going. They're like, "Come on." Wonder if they were some of our kids like they started doing jumping up and down. I was like, they were fully into it. Truly helped us win the game. And it's great now that coach Norris in his own household has bragging rights because the last gold ball was 2009 which his wife was a part of. So yeah. Yeah. I heard about that. [laughter] Yeah. Yeah. Don't worry. Yeah. Heard about that for sure. So congratulations to all of you guys. Great job. you know, you know, it was it was great. You know, you know, both teams, what you guys did
020for the community, you know, everyone was behind you and uh the excitement was was fantastic. Before you guys go, I just would like to make one last thing to say to the high school staff um and administration and all the teachers. You know, these extended seasons are great. They come with a lot of extra fun work, but it's extra work. So thank you to all of them for you know making these uh memories for something that not only for the kids and everything to go smooth and just take care of all those details so that we could have the success that we did. So thank you for that. Thank you. [applause] [applause] When you think of like you have the first volleyball team ever to make it to state and then you have the first
021gold ball since 82. It's just some great lifetime memories for our kids. um things that you'll you'll be talking about for 20, 30, 40 years. My neighbor was talking to me about the 82 um um game and so forth. And so it's something that people remember for a long time and and when you're old, you'll remember those. But you've represented our district so well in our community and it's just been a great experience and hopefully volleyball takes the lesson from football and brings the gold ball as Ashley says, right? Like that's what she said. So they're ready to go. Volleyball's ready for next year. um which is super exciting to see and and it's great when students and athletes and coaches are having high expectations and they meet it and they're still expecting to continue
022to do that. It's not just like a fluke of nature. It's like we can do this. So, it's really I'm just really impressed overall with all of our coaches and the work they do and it's a lot of extra effort to do that and they do a great job with it. So, on behalf of our entire community, I'd like to thank you also. All right. Thanks again for our volleyball program and football program coming in. They, like you all said, they represented us so well. But we didn't actually stop there. We have some more uh athletic achievement over this fall. Cali Falls qualified for state cross country for the fourth consecutive year, battling back from injury. Quite the achievement. Kylie Grim was an individual state qualifier in in swim in the 100 freestyle. Boys all
023soccer all conference honores were Nikita Paris, second team, August Benninghoff, Carter Marine, and Ethan Weinhold were all honorable mention. And then esports state qualifiers, Kenneth Burchick, Lincoln Gryar, Aiden Kner, Kellen Eberman, and Robert Krylo. So, a lot of achievement, not your typical fall in athletics uh season at Grafton High School, but a wonderful one. And we're transitioning right into winter. So, can't wait to come back and and report on all of our winter athletic accolades come March. Thank you very much. Yes. And and if you'd like to leave, you're welcome to leave. If you'd like to stay and see Adam Dembiak and Jack Marty come up here and do their presentation on the deforestation project and then leave, you're also welcome to do that. So, I'll invite two of our seniors up. Um, uh, we
024have some work that's being done and the, um, [applause] they're working on the northwest side of our property and they've been working with, uh, Mr. Scullfield on this. So, we've asked them to come and do a presentation so the board and our community can see what's happening on our property. So, I'll turn it over to Adam and Jack. All right. So, our why behind the project is um we spend a lot of time outdoors. Um we also believe deforestation contributes to climate change, degrades water quality, and destroys animal habitats. So, we want to make a change um on our school property. Um we started this project as a justice project our sophomore year. We're seniors now and it took a lot of work. We worked with um a lot of different people around the city
025around the school district to get approval on what to plant. Worked with a lot of faculty members like Miss Banton, Mr. Scullfield, Mr. Kina just to name a few. But they were all ton of help and they they definitely made this project happen. Yeah. So a benefit for this project is for our school courses. So biology could use this area, AP environmental science for a gym class, could be outdoor adventure. Um, also the botney club could use this area as well. So, like I said, we started this project our sophomore year. Uh, we we originally um planted out by like putting a tree 10t by 10 foot like seen on that sharp below. That's the space that we planted trees in. It's right in between the football field and um the road. I don't know
026the real name, but um yeah, it's that area around the pond. So that's how we started it. Um so in the summer, we mow the grass twice to reset it so we could put these little mulch piles down so in the fall the ground wouldn't be as hard cuz we were going to plant them in the cold. Um so we spent most of the day uh transporting mulch from the city, um which Adam worked with the city to get the mulch from. So, we put them in little areas and we ended up planning uh put down probably 170 little mulch piles. So, um in the early fall, um we were in contact with a couple different companies trying to donate tree tubes to protect from wildlife like deer, rabbits to get into the trees over
027the winter and to act as a greenhouse. So, got in contact with a couple different companies to donate wood stakes and tree tubes. They uh very generously donated 150 tree tubes and stakes to us, which we're very thankful for. And another thing we did in the early fall was pre-dig all the holes where the mulch was to get the ground all soft, ready for planting. Um, so we on this day in the fall, we had about eight students come out u including me and Adam. Um, we did a demonstration of how basically how to plant a tree, how you should put the tree tube on and how to pound the steak in and use the zip ties on the tree tubes that were donated. And we ended up planting about 150 trees in total. Next
028is just a couple pictures of what it looks like now, what the final product is. And in the future, so this next year, the trees probably won't reach the top of the tree tubes. It's just going to take a little while, maybe three years for it to look like that picture on the right. Then maybe four years for the middle picture. And then after that, after they outgrow the tree tubes, we plan to come back, cut them down, and pretty much let the space do what it does. And hopefully in the next 5 to 10 years, she'll look like that space to the right. And maybe in the next 20 years could look like the current forest. So, excellent. So, going back to your sophomore year, what kind of led you guys to this decision
029to to kind of start with this program? Um, Mrs. Bolgamman has a um what was it called? Justice Justice Project. It's called Justice Project. So, um, we, uh, that was our injustice was, uh, we noticed that there was trees all lined up around the football field and it looked really nice. So, we wanted to extend that to to make the area look even better. Excellent. Certainly, with all of the change that we've had in our green space, that's a great addition to help with that area. other questions or comments? I think it's just a cool initiative you guys learned kind of subsequently through it and worked closely with a lot of the staff and community to try to rally support and funding behind it. It's a really cool project. Um we were alerted to a
030through a kind of a presentation like this and I I drive past her all the time. It wasn't until I drove past her recently. I'm like, "Oh, that that has taken place." It's not something that we're like seeking approval for at this meeting, but it was more of like the information towards it and it was really really cool to see that um and that the support that you guys received from the district as well with that was was on par for that. So, I appreciate you guys taking the initiative to take that on and hopefully you guys come back in the future and see what it looks like 1015 years from now. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. like uh Bob said, you know, it is something that we're excited to see and it's
031going to help the the area for a long time. So, thank you very much. Thank you for giving us the time. Thank you. [applause] [applause] [laughter] Um and then I would say that our commitment to academics is reflected in our intentional use of the term student athletes. But in all aspects, both academic and athletics, our students are achieving at higher levels than we've ever seen before. So, um later tonight, you we'll have a detailed reporting out on the district report card from DPI. Um but we achieved the highest score in history um with achieving the highest ranking of significant exceeds expectations um which ranked us number 11 out of 367 grade 4 12 K4 through 12 districts. Um and so it's great to see our students being recognized in that way. And then also US
032News and World Report just came out with their annual release of schools and all four of our schools um are in the top 3% or lower or higher, excuse me, um across the state. So our all of our schools achieving just at high levels both academically, we just heard about athletics earlier that we'd heard about academics and now looking at our system overall, it's just great to see the the accolades that our system is getting. Um and kudos to our students and our teachers for all the success that they're achieving. And and um a big impact on that is the school board and you impact um those outcomes that we're seeing. Um and so we do have our um spring election coming up on Tuesday, April 7th. So there's a non-candidacy deadline of Friday, December
03326th at 5. The candidate filing deadline on Tuesday, January 6th at 5:00 p.m. And then on our district web page, we do have a schoolboard tab at the right hand side of your computer screen. And if you click that tab, there's a board election link. Um it does show our three incumbents alphabetically. Um which is Mr. Min, Mr. Nod, and Mrs. Walls. Um this is where we'll update candidate profiles for incumbents and any other community members that turn in papers. Um there's a link with general information for schoolboard candidates and a link with the forms and instructions for running for the school board, as well as a short questionnaire that each candidate completes about themselves that we post leading up to the election. And if anyone has any questions, um they can contact Mr. Ada
034or myself um for that information. And then our educational funding partners. I have an email that I received from Kennedy's PTG um that talked about over the past few weeks they had um some fundraising opportunities with donuts with grown-ups which was a successful free family event where students had the opportunity to invite a grown-up or two to Kennedy for a special sweet treat to kick off the morning. 50 dozen donuts donated by Olsson's Piggly Wiggly and coffee was donated again this year by BSG. So a huge thank you to them both. October 14th, they had MC Teacher Night. Um, another successful fundraiser for them. They had the KES teachers and families show up and almost beat last year's record high donation of 1,031. Um, they had raised $965 in total donations. October 30th, they had
035the third annual costume trot with great weather, great participation, and great fun. Raised $2548 in family donations. And then November 11th, they had restaurant night at Hefner's featuring featuring Marin Gunderson's Kids Creation Flavor of the Day, Kennedy Crunch. Again, the KES family showed up and Hefner's donated $444. And November 20 17th through the 20th, they wrapped up a very successful Schalactic book fair after taking last year off due to space constraints. They sold over $12,000 in product. Um, and they combined it with the free family fun night on Thursday, November 20th with having the Mad Science Experiential Experiential Show. Great turnout and lots of fun. And then in November, December, they have the Milwaukee Pretzel fundraiser kicked off this week with order pickup taking place just for winter break. Milwaukee Pretzel donates 50% of the
036total sales back to the PTG. So, this is always a great fundraiser for them. And December 9th is restaurant night quiznos 3 to 8:00 p.m. And I don't know if we have anyone else speaking for the educational funding partners. I don't think so. So, um, and last but not least, um, congratulations to the school board on being named Grafton's outstanding community group and our own Kelly Reek on being named outstanding citizen. Um, they were all recognized that last night at the treelighting ceremony and then at a reception afterwards, Lester Bartell had nominated the school board and did a nice job of thanking the board for being a great representatives to our community on how to work together and focus on the needs of our students, staff, and community. So, congratulations to the board on being
037recognized in such a positive way and also to Kelly Reek, both very deserving recipients. And that concludes the superintendent report. You any questions [clears throat] or comments for Jeff? Okay, thank you very much. Uh, next, uh, public comment. Um, I did receive three emails. I had four of those on the board, so you guys did receive that. Is there anyone else that would like to address the board? Okay, seeing none, um, we will go to item C. U, recommendations for board action from the November 10th curriculum committee meeting. Yeah, the curriculum committee met last Monday, two Mondays ago, and teachers came forward to present new coursework proposals, including multicultural cuisine, a new course added to the culinary sequence that will have students prepare international dishes, a much needed one. Right now, we have a ton
038of sections of baking and kids are always interested in trying new cuisine. We have an education 235 child and adolescent adolescent development. A second education course available for our students and will be offered in partnership with Wshkosh as a cap course and this will go after the intro to um education for teachers. So it'll give our students an even better idea if education is a career they would like to pursue. We have emerging technologies, a new course order offered for information technology sequence that will focus on learning about new technologies and how to use them in responsible ways. Literature and composition 12, a new year-long course option for seniors to fulfill the English credit requirement. This course will be following the similar format to previous onle course offered in grades 9 through 11 offered in
039the com arts department. So I am looking tonight. It was recommended by the committee to go ahead and approve all these. The teachers had really good explanations and I think it'll add a great variety to our high school. So I'm looking tonight for a motion to approve the addition of the following courses. The multicultural cuisine education AP finance emerging technologies and literature and comp. So moved. Second. Any comments or discussion regarding the presentation? We're good. And we can do them all in one. Okay. All right. We got a first and a second. Any additional discussion? Yep. First. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. And that passes. Okay. And then we go to the restructuring. Yes. Perfect. We also then uh just need to restructure with the addition of the new courses. So with the
040addition of literature and composition 12, we're going to remove it was recommended that we remove the technical writing course and communication course. Since now we have a year-long senior course, it'll replace these options for students instead of two semester long ones. A name change for American literature and composition 10 to literature and composition 10 and world literature and composition 11 to literature and composition 11. Students study both American authors and international authors in both courses. For business information and technology department changes, name change for career internship, business co-op to career internship. Co-op programming will no longer be offered by the state of Wisconsin starting next year. A name change for the computer applications to CCR to business software Microsoft Office. It just is clear title of the concepts and skills being covered in that class.
041a split of business and merchandising class, a year-long class to two semesterl long classes titled introduction to business and a marketing class. It allows a little more flexibility in student schedule since you're not locked into a year-long class. You can just take a semester or not. And I'll be looking for a motion tonight as it was recommended by the committee that we approve these changes. Is there any questions? So, do we need to do these in two through eight as on the form? You can just do it at one motion. Okay. Just to say the course changes as Okay. Okay. Questions, comments. All right. We would look for a motion to approve the course change and names as presented. So move. Second. Additional discussion. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. And that passes. And
042we also [clears throat] had a new ELA long read adoption. The committee is recommending that we add Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha [clears throat] Christie. Uh chairperson Brian Durst came to share information about how the book will tie into the class for unit three, crime scenes for students in grade nine. it. The essential question for the unit is who suffers when a crime is committed and the goals of the unit include analyzing themes, main ideas, details, making inference about characters and themes and analyzing literary techniques. So, we are looking for a motion to approve that adoption. It was recommended by the committee. Any comments or questions on recommendation? This was the ninth grade read. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. And then no other changes to any of the reads. Just just this one.
043Just this one. Yep. Okay. Seeing none, we look for a motion to approve the implementation of Murder on the Orange Express as a long read for 9th grade students. So move. Second. Additional discussion. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. And that passes. And we have someformational items from the same meeting on the 10th. Yes. And Julia is going to come present on this district school report. Hi, good evening. Um, as mentioned, I'm going to be sharing the district report card for the 25 2425 school year. Uh, on district and school report cards there report cards, there are four priority areas. The first is student achievement which looks at ELA and math proficiency on a number of assessments including the forward preACT secure ACT and the DLM. In addition, another area that the report card
044looks at is student growth in ELA and math from year to year on that achievement target group outcomes and then also on track to graduation. So, as Jeff mentioned, uh the Grafton School District report card, we had an overall score of 86.7, which puts us in that significantly exceeds category with five stars. We, uh, this is our first five-star rating since the 2122 uh district report card and we are proud to say that we are the 11th uh district in the state for K4 to 12 districts. The first section again is achievement. Um and this you can see our district scored an 88.7 for the priority area score which is the same or higher than 96.3 districts in the state. This category looks at uh two years of achievement data. You can see the 2324
045achievement data as well as the 2425 achievement data. And again, this is data for grades 3 through 11 on those assessments, the forward ACT, preACT, and DLM. For English language arts for the 2425 school year, you can see that we had 75% of our students score meeting or advanced, which is the purple and the blue categories listed there. And that is up from 71.6 from the previous year. In math, we had 77.9% of our students score meeting or advanced, which again is up from 76.5 from the previous year. Uh during the December board meeting, I will be sharing more detailed information about these specific assessments and how we did. The second category is growth. Uh you can see that the district scored a 75.5 as our priority area score, which is the same or higher
046than 90% of districts in the state. and growth measures year-to-year progress on state tests. Using a value added model, the state looks at how districts impact specific demographic groups. Uh the scores range from 0 to six and anything above a three shows a positive impact for those students at in our district. And you can see for this year's report card, we had a positive impact on all demographic groups in ELA and math with the exception of one under ELA at a 2.6 six, which was students with disabilities. The third area on the state report card is target group outcomes. We received a district score of 80.1, which is the same or higher than 92.8% of districts in the state. And target groups take the students with the lowest test scores in the district and they
047create this mini report card. They look at these four areas of the lowest quartile. And as you can see, we have um great things to celebrate under growth. Our students um in the target group are very close to our non-target group students. And I strongly believe this is due to all the hard work that our schools are doing in terms of providing additional support during Blackhawk time, soar roar, uh be um or in the classroom. An area for growth is our achievement. You can see that we do have a slightly larger gap between our target group students achievement and our non-target group students for both ELA and math. The fourth area for our school report card is on track to graduation. You can see we have a priority area score of 95.6 which is the
048same or higher than 97.9% of districts in the state. And this area looks at four specific areas that measure progression towards graduation. You can see that we outperform the state in all four areas. Chronic absenteeism, graduation, third grade English language arts, and eighth grade mathematics. Most significantly, you'll notice that our third grade English language arts and eighth grade mathematics score outperformed the state by over 30 points for ELA and 25 points for math. Uh, new this year, the state report card is sharing specifically how third grade students performed on the reading portion of the ELA assessment. And this is a requirement for ACT 20. Um, it does not uh go into our overall score, but it is being shared for the first time. And you can see our district had 79.9% of our students score
049meeting or advanced in third grade on the reading portion of the forward exam, which is almost 30% higher than the state average. Another portion of the report card um that is a highlight for us is the number of participants of students who have completed a post-secary option. Again, this is not included in the overall score of the report card, but it's a point of pride as you can see that we have outperformed the state average in all areas, including advanced course offerings, dual enrollment, industry recognized credentials, and work-based learning. When looking at our vision 2030 CA uh key performance indicators, we've continued to exceed our goals for CO3, which is the district report card top 5% achievement and also LR3, the district report card top 5% for on track to graduation at 96 and 98
050respectively. Uh we remained consistent for COR 6, which is the top 5% target group outcomes at 93%. And we've also made progress towards our goal for CO5 with the top 5% growth going from 86% in the previous year to 90% uh this past year. As Jeff mentioned, we are proud of all of our schools. Um each school also has a uh a state report card that is given. You can see that the Grafton High School had an overall score of 82.5 putting it in the four-star category of exceeds expectations. John Long Middle School had an overall score of 89.9 putting it in the significantly exceeds expectation category of five stars. This is the first time in school history that John Long has received a five-star rating. So, we want to celebrate that. Kennedy Elementary School,
051an overall score of 79.2, putting it in the exceeds expectations category with four stars. And last but not least, Woodview Elementary School with an overall score of 92.3, putting it in the significantly exceeds expectation category of five stars. And this is the fifth consecutive year that Woodview has received five-star rating. So again, very proud of all of our schools and our district. Um, and I'll take any questions at this time. Comments or questions? I had a question about the postsecary opportunities slide. Yeah, that one. This Scott always talks about this for the high school. I assume they're this is not measured the same way because we measuring I assume as percentage of the high school. Is this measured as percentage of district kids? This this just looks at our high school students. Yes, this is
052different than the talks about the one that is wanting to have students take an advanced coursework before they leave the high school. So, it could be AP, it could be um um Project Lead the Way, things that aren't measured here. Pardon me. Yep. Advanced autos would something that leads to a certification kids. So, they take some kind of college level coursework before they leave here and then go on to whether it's four-year college, two-year college, trade school, workforce, military, whatever it may be. But that's more the that's the CR. I can't remember which one that is, but it's a KPI that we have. And we just measure class. Yeah. So that's the other and remember this summer we started breaking that out by seniors versus or we're going to be breaking it out by seniors
053by like the other grade levels that sort of combine together because that's where it comes into play of everyone with this um that goes with it. It seemed off and I I was curious how different the measure was. Any other comments or questions? Certainly great news, lots of celebrations. Um, each of the schools then will also be presenting as we go on our our tour starting next month. Okay. Thank you. We had a couple other justformational items at the curriculum meeting. We had uh the curriculum review updates updating shared about current departments going through review which was K8 science K12 PE and health 5 through 12 business and information technology human growth and development. We also did district comparable comparables. We looked at state testing data and compared how uh Grafton did to other districts
054in our area and identifying based on size, proximity and demographics. Examples of the data that we shared with the staff were shared with at the community meet at the committee meeting. The goal is to continue to build on our strengths and collaborate with others whose strengths are opportunities for our growth. We also had an F20 update uh which we shared the committee learned about the family history reading survey which was added to registration for the first time for families with children in 4K through third. Reorming of Ames web cut scores and additional assessments required for students in grades K through and one. The number of students on reading plans for the fall testing window was also reviewed. We did a human growth and development review just for information. We'll be starting the review this January.
055what the state requirements are for the formation of the advisory committee and how the committee is going to be selected and a tenative timeline which hopefully will start this January. And then we learned about securely home which hopefully all board members who have kids in the district have heard about and have sent home. I know I know on November 12th an email was sent to parents about it. It is an update that allows filter options for parents to monitor and manage the child's online activity at home on a schoolisssued device and outside of school hours. Parents can customize filtering rules and monitor activity as well as pause the internet and create online schedules. That was just for information. Yes, it was um a lot of information at the curriculum meeting. So any other I know
056we majority of us were there. Any other comments or questions? I certainly thank all the staff that came and presented the new curriculum um and all the work that went into that. So thank you very much. All right, that brings us now to E. Uh, recommendations from the earlier policy committee meeting. Yes, the uh policy committee met just prior to our full board meeting. Uh, we went through a number of policies. Uh, the committee is recommending a first reading approval of the updates from Niola update 34.2. I think there were 26 policies we reviewed earlier tonight. So the pol the committee recommends adoption of those approval of those 26 policies under update 34.2. Any comments or questions on those first read? Uh we will approve this um in December. No, we are approving tonight. These
057are just revisions. Gotcha. Sorry, I got with the first read. All right. So, we look for a motion to approve the 34 uh point. 2 Neola updates as presented. So, move second. Any additional discussion? All in favor say I. I opposed. And that passes. Thank you. So, the second group of policies we reviewed were related to the self-funding of our health plans. Um, given that we are already practicing this, we uh recommend a first read and approval of two policies, 3419 and 4419. Okay. 3419.01 01. Yep. I'm Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. And 441901. Any comments, questions? Okay. Seeing none, I would look for a motion to approve um new policies 3419.01 and 441901 as presented. So move second. Additional discussion. All in favor say I. I opposed. And that passes. We are also recommending the
058first read and approval of revised policy 9270 homebased private and tribal schooling. Um just given that we're already into the school year, we'd like to get this approved um formally so it's effective immediately. Okay. Any questions? Good. All right. We would look for a motion to approve the revised policy 9270 homebased private and tribal schooling policy. Second. Additional discussion. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. And that passes. And lastly, we would recommend the removal or deletion of policy 4432 employee sick leave. Okay. Is that being replaced with anything or just a It's a part of part of the handbook. Okay. All right. I would look for a motion to approve the deletion of policy 4432 employee sick leave. Second. Additional discussion. All in favor say I. Opposed. And that passes. All right. One less
059policy. All right, that brings us to personnel report. Yes. So, we have threeformational only um items for the board. We have Wayne Gunther, special education aid at John Long Middle School, Lisa Macarville, special education aid at Woodview Elementary School, and Leah Smith, accounts payable and facilities coordinator, district office are our new hires for this month. And so,formational only for the board. Any comments, questions? Do we have any open positions currently? An EL aid at the middle school. We are we are not maybe we don't have an ELA. We're good. That's good news. Uh we are still posted for the special education ad that we have at Woodview. Um that was based on enrollment. We had to add another one. So we've added we still have that open and that's it. I just had those two
060in my mind. So I only that one. Okay. Thank you. And we welcome our new hires to the district. Um G, teacher compensation and retirement benefits. Yes. So last school year, uh during conversations around attracting and retaining teachers, uh it was noted that teachers were seeking salary increases rather than increased retirement benefits. um and that other districts could offer their new hires uh larger salaries due to not having to budget for retirement benefits. Um, and so, uh, last spring, Foster and Foster, our actuarial firm, was contracted to determine the salary equivalent of the existing OPE for teachers, which are outlined on this slide, with the goal of replacing the retirement benefit with an equivalent salary increase in order to align our resources to attract and retain highquality staff. Foster and Foster determined these to be
061the salary equivalencies of the retirement benefit based on how many years the teacher was from retirement uh eligibility using three-year bands. [clears throat] At the September finance committee meeting, administration presented this concept, offering teachers within 10 years of being eligible for retirement or with at least 20 years of district service the option to retain the current benefit or accept the salary increase while all other teachers would receive the salary increase in lie of retirement benefits. The finance committee expressed interest in the administration presenting this concept to staff to gather their feedback. During the September 22nd PD day, uh Jeff and I along with Foster and Foster presented the information to staff uh during two separate presentations. Following that meeting, uh staff were provided information on how many years they were from retirement eligibility along with
062a calculator to help conceptualize the value of the salary increase. Two weeks later, Jeff and I went to each of the buildings during various staff lunch periods to gather feedback from teachers. Uh we also met with union leadership on this issue. The feedback that we received had three primary themes. expand the choice to all current staff, make the salary increases larger, and use one-year bands for salary determination rather than three-year bands. The feedback was presented to the finance committee in October, leading to a general discussion on the subject and specific points raised. In general, some members of the finance committee expressed openness to expanding the choice between the current OPED benefit and the salary increase to all current teachers, not just those within 10 years of eligibility or 20 years of service in the district.
063This topic was then brought forward for discussion at the October board meeting to gather thoughts and feedback with favorable views on expanding the choice to all teachers. Following the October board meeting, uh, teachers are sent a summary of the board discussion and informed that at the November board meeting, a recommendation would be made for board approval. One that would give every current teacher, regardless of years of service or retirement eligibility, a one-time irrevocable choice between either retaining their existing OPB retirement structure or accepting a corresponding salary increase in lie of retirement benefits. In preparation for this decision that staff would have to make should the board approve this change, there will be an opport uh optional opportunity to hear from a licensed financial adviser during the wellness hour on December 8th. An optional Q&A session
064would be held on Monday, January 26th for any remaining questions with the deadline to make a decision by Wednesday, January 28th. Moving forward, new teacher hires would not be eligible for this retirement benefit and we be would be offered a salary using the salary comparables of teachers that selected the salary increase. With that, this is the re recommendation that administration is bringing uh to the board. Um and I will hand it back to Steve to solicit any questions, comments or thoughts. Comments or questions? I know we discussed this last month to kind of so nothing's changed uh from last month, but we wanted to at least get that out there. I have not heard any feedback um or no one has reached out to me from staff-wise as far as you know with what the
065recommendation was at the end of last meeting or what we'd be voting on tonight. So any comments, questions, any idea for have we decided who's coming in? We said a licensed a financial advisor is coming in. Yes. Uh so we have a representative uh Abby Ben um and they are going to be our TPA for managing the options that people have for um for investing their money in different vehicles. That allows us to provide additional uh options for staff to choose from beyond what we have without adding a lot of administrative oversight. Um and they do uh have they they're able to provide uh someone to come in who's l a basically a financial adviser but isn't selling a particular product versus having one of the particular vendors come in who could also provide that
066but is also going to be coming in as wanting people to purchase their product. Other questions or comments? Um, I like the work that the finance group did along with administration to get to this point. You know, we've been discussing it for a while. I think it's a um it's it's a little bit more work on on administrations to have the two lanes for a while, but we'll know exactly who is going to be uh the ones that did are going to take the salary and which ones are not. Um, and I think it's going to make us much more competitive going forward with, you know, attracting new talent as needed. Um, so I think this is a a good recommendation. Okay. Good. All right. With that said, I would look to um approve the
067um OPED retirement structure as presented with employees, current employees having the opportunity uh to stay with the OPED or take the salary increase. Second. Additional discussion. All in favor say I. I opposed. And that passes. So, thank you very much. All right. S SWSA membership renewal should not have been on there and I didn't catch it till today. So I apologize that this is on here. We've already done this. Um so I apologize for having a repeat of it. That was my question. Okay. Informational only. Information. [laughter] As a reminder, you've already approved this. That have been a better answer. We're getting older, Jeff, but I think we're we're informationational only instead of instead of I messed up. Yeah, that's good. So, let's jump to I and go to gift reports. Uh, we have a
068number of gift reports we'd ask for board approval for. One from Office Depot, uh, contact person of Justin Browick, business development manager, and a gift card of 1,18348 for an unrestricted gift to Woodview Elementary. We have the Grafton music and theater theater boosters with multiple um um donations. uh the contact person of Rick Cybold, one being the GHS bands, a restricted gift to help purchase a Marumba in the amount of $1,500. Um also the GHS music and theater boosters for the GHS play um of a restricted gift for the drama department for the sponsorship contribution for GHS play lighting team communication equipment in the amount of $2,62.50. Also from the Grafting Music and Theater Boosters with GHS musical is sponsorship contribution for GHS musical in the amount of 56250. Um, another from the Grafted Music
069and Theater Boosters with Rick Cyold for the JLMS musical sponsorship contribution for that of 56250. And last but not least, the grafting music and theater boosters for the Woodview Music Classroom for puppet puppets for um Woodview Elementary School Music in the amount of $390.71. So, we'd ask for board approval for all of those donations. Comments or questions on the gift reports? Seeing none, I look for a motion to approve the gift reports as presented. Second. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. That passes. We thank office depot as well as Rick for his generosity. All right, that brings us to our uh board meeting schedule. So starting uh next month uh will be on the third Monday. Um so it will be um December 15th and we will be at Kennedy. Okay, Mr. Gunderson, you
070ready for us? Yes, ready to go. All right. Excellent. All right, that brings us to adjournment. Uh the board of education will consider a motion to convene in close session pursuant to Wisconsin statute 19.85 85 section 1 subsection D considering strategy for crime detection or prevention for purpose of renewing school safety drill information. Do we have a motion? Second. First and second. Voice vote. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes. Thank you. We are in close.