001All right. Uh, we will call to order the August 25th board of education meeting. We'll 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. Thank you. We will next have the consent agenda items. Uh so be looking for a motion to approve the minutes of the July 28, 2025 board meeting as well as the statement of receipts and expenditures for July 2025. So move second. First and the second. Additional discussion. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. And that passes. Superintendent report. Yes. So today was our welcome back for all staff. Uh we kicked everything off with an optional continental breakfast in
002the Grampton High School cafeteria. and we moved to the auditorium. We reviewed our celebrations from the summer and also from last year at each of our buildings. Um and we recognized our years of service recipients at that 5 10 15 20 25 and this year the teacher with the longest tenure was Susan Zelner with 30 years. Um so congratulations to her and all the people that are recognized today. And then staff had meetings this afternoon at each of their buildings and then we continue professional development tomorrow in preparation for our first day of school next week. Our theme for the 2526 school year is inspiring innovation today. So staff were given a t-shirt at their faculty meeting today um and we'll be doing an all staff picture tomorrow um during some of our safety training
003that we have. Um and then looking ahead to our first day of school, we have staggered starts um because of great start conferences um as well as some of the special things we do for sixth graders um and 9th graders. So our first day of school for grades 6 9th through 12 are on Tuesday, September 2nd. sixth grades all by themselves all day on the second whereas freshman it's only in the morning and then um they stay in the afternoon and sophomores through seniors join them on the Tuesday the se September 2nd and then we have EC 4K through 5th 7th and 8th grade join all of us on Wednesday September 3rd to start the 2526 school year um then we have our enrollment update we are we are at 2213 students so we're plus
00438 overall from last year um And speaking speaking with TOER, we were anticipating 2,202. So, we were anticipating being up, but we're about 11 students higher than we thought we would be at this point with our enrollment. Um, with the fifth grade moving to the middle school, our elementary numbers are hard to compare because you have fifth, you know, you have one less grade at each of our schools and the middle school seems a lot larger. Um but overall um we're um 38 excuse me 38 students um is an increase for our enrollment. Um, construction update Toeer has that. But one thing I will say about that is our John Long Middle School ribbon cutting ceremony is on this Wednesday, um, August 27th at 5:45 p.m. We will be on 9inth AB in Hickory. Um,
005and using that entrance there, um, locking off that the new um, parking lot that we have there with some chairs for people need to sit, but it'll be a short brief ceremony. Um, I'm speaking, Mr. not as speaking on behalf of the board and Ryan Schmidt from CG Schmidt will be saying some words also as our construction firm and then we'll have it open for um people to go in and take tours of the building. We'll have some of our student ambassadors there if people want to take a tour if they want to walk through the facility. It's also our sneak peek um night, so there'll be a lot of parents and students that will already be there, but people will be able to go in and see the fifth grade edition and then also
006see the remodeled um LMC, the cafeteria um and if they want to look at the science rooms, they can. the office has been redone um as we've added onto the health room space and redone the main entry so it's a safer environment um for check-in there. So excited to have that occur this Wednesday at 5:45 p.m. with the optional tour following that. And with that, I'll turn it over to for construction update. Yes. So excited to bring the essentially what would be the the final construction update uh for the John Long Middle School uh expansion project. Uh we are substantially completed and moved in. We're not completely unpacked. Um so there's still quite a bit of work going on unboxing things. Uh but that's something you might see anytime the week before school starts. Teachers
007in taking stuff out, getting their room ready. Uh so I have some pictures from the building edition classrooms completed uh collab spaces both in between the rooms in the interior and also joining the hallway uh as well as that hallway area outside the uh new restroom facility in the addition with uh the home of the Falcons on the wall. So bathrooms uh completed. Uh, a lot of these don't look that different than last meeting because these were substantially completed last time. Uh, we do have more grass. In fact, we probably have more grass than this picture shows with some of the rain we've gotten. Um, but certainly the landscaping coming in with the exterior being finished. Uh, we also have uh completed the playground area uh just to the north of John Long Middle School.
008Then in terms of the interior remodel, the expanded cafeteria uh is is in great shape now. Uh it was being used this week a little bit. We got to see pictures at the welcome back with kids and staff inside it. Uh this in the main office, an expanded healthc care room area. This is the um the uh welcome desk if you will uh with a a direct view of the vestibule whereas previously uh that area the reception desk had an obstructed view uh didn't really uh so this is a safety upgrade. Uh then we have the teacher lounge being remodeled uh larger updated for more staff. Uh and then this is the existing science room that is on the north side of the building. That remodeling has uh been completed of that area. And we
009have the new science room uh which uh was created uh just north of the main office because it was displaced by the cafeteria expansion uh that has been completed. Uh and then here are some collaboration rooms that have been added to the LMC as part of the remodel. And finally, we have some site work. The additional parking spaces that were added to the south of John Long due to losing parking that had been displaced by the building expansion. Looking at the budget, uh you can see as each month goes by, typically another set of invoices come in. Uh so for professional services, we're we're very close to being build out. Uh construction is about 80%. Uh but the the payout that we get in September will get us a lot closer to that 100% build
010out. Owner direct projects is uh about 60% spoken for 60% invoiced. Uh that particular area um is waiting for next summer. So we have a number of alternative projects uh that we wanted to do that couldn't be fit in to this particular summer with everything that was going on. not everything could be completed. Um, so that will be some we have some projects that are finishing up uh into the fall, but then we also have some projects that are on hold essentially until next summer uh to be completed. So overall 93% of funds committed, 77% invoiced to date. And as Jeff said, we have our ribbon cutting ceremony. And yes, I did steal this slide from Jeff's welcome back presentation. Um so uh very excited uh to be at this point substantially completed. Uh people
011and their things have have moved in and we're going to be ready to go uh starting day one. Any questions on that? Questions for Toeer or Jeff? So Toeer, some of those things we talked about next year, were those some of the items moved to the cap plan too? Correct. So, those are some of the items in the CAP plan that'll be covered with um with referendum dollars, but also you have the uh the main entryway, the concrete and some of the drive that we would have loved to have finished this summer. They said we're just not going to be able to fit it in. So, that's been delayed until next summer. So, that's why you'll notice that some of the curving is just painted, but it's chipped and everything else. and decide that, you
012know, they put a new black coat seal on it, but it's just to give us another year because they were just afraid if they'd torn all that out, we wouldn't have been able to have it ready for the first day of school with busing and parents needing to access those spaces. Additional questions. You mentioned the black top when it was there was an incident that Sean Long would be that space in between. When is that going to be redone? So Jamie has got an invoice for that and I think is working on that. I can't see. That is completed. So it's been it has been completed. Oh, like today. Yeah. Or yesterday. N over the weekend. So it got completed over the weekend. So thanks Jamie for taking care of that. He'd worked with a
013company with that and um the police are helping us with restitution for that. So that won't cost the district or taxpayers dollars to get that reimbured. One last one. the chillers or the chiller components over at John Long, those will be operational for school start the air conditioning at John Long. So yes, so what they did today, they trained until that they're going to replace the entire unit, but they have portable inside each classroom. Great. Thanks, Jamie. I think we have Is it 19? It's approximately 19, I believe. I think it's 19 portable conditioners that they have to be able to cool that entire space until we can get that moved in. And if that's in at our first day off or the PD September 20th, I believe. Is that right? September. Yes. Yeah. September
01422. Yep. So that'll get us through that, but it will allow that building to be cooled. Perfect. Thank you. All right. Look forward to the ribbon cutting. So it's great. And then the energy this morning, you know, with the welcome back was uh was great to see everybody back in the back in the building. So, great job. Well done on that. Good. Thank you. All right. That concludes your report. Yes, it does. That concludes my report. All right. Next, do we have public comments? Anybody like to address the board? Okay. Um I have not received any emails, so nothing was forwarded on. Um we will go to item C, personnel report. Yes, we have two items for approval for the board and others that are umformational only. So, new hire of Jasmine Freeze, special education
015teacher at John Long Middle School. Um Jasmine had student taught with us last year. So, exciting to have her join our team full-time. And then a resignation just occurred this morning. Um Jana Helgenstein, our district e coordinator. Um and so then we have new hires forformational. We have Lori Lori Brutder, our lead custodian at Kennedy Elementary School. Amy Janata, special ed a aid at John Long Middle School. Amy Moore, special ed a aid at Grafton High School. Ryan Staniac, a special education aid at John Long Middle School. And Zachary Steltzer, student supervisor at Grafton High School, and the resignation of Tracy Leato, student supervisor at Grafton High School. So, we would ask for board approval for both the hire and the resignation. Any questions on a personal report? All right, we'll do this in two.
016Uh, first I would look for a motion for the new hire of Jasmine Freeze, special education teacher at John Law Middle School. So move. Second. First and second. Additional discussion. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. And that passes. And then I look for a motion for the resignation of Jana Helenstein, uh, district e coordinator. So move. Second. Additional discussion. All in favor say I. Opposed. and that passes as well. Um, we welcome Jasmine as well as our other new hirees and wish Jana and Tracy um, best of luck in their future endeavors. Um, item D, 20-year CAT pat. Yes. So excited to bring the CAT plan uh, back to the board as we do each August for approval. Uh we did get a preliminary look at the cash maintenance plan back at the May
017finance committee meeting. Then in July we did approve uh a transfer uh into fund 46 that was booked back into the prior year. Uh we've also now had a chance to kind of close the books, find out what costs actually hit the 202425 fiscal year so that we know where we stand. So, uh, in the in the, uh, board memo in your packet, there is a list of these projects that were, uh, either completed or partially completed in the 24-25, uh, fiscal year. Some of them will certainly bleed into the next year, as a lot of summer projects do. If it's not completed by June 30th, then some of those costs do follow into the the following year. Um, so, uh, these projects, uh, did, uh, cost the, uh, the CAP plan about $990,000. That
018of course with was with some of these projects as essentially alternates into the referendum being covered by the referendum, primarily the projects at J uh, John Long Middle School. Then we have newly identified projects uh in the CAP plan and those are uh highlighted in blue in the the the spreadsheet that was shared with you and so those have been added to the plan. Once we take a look at the total cost over the next 10 years, projected cost of all the projects we anticipate doing and looking at the amount of the um annual um transfer from fund 10 into fund 46, uh we can track where our fund balance stands. Um and at the basically in 10 years, over the next 10 years, this cap plan is fully funded. Um, it's in a much
019better spot thanks to some help from uh some referendum funds that will keep it healthy long term and avoid having to increase that transfer into fund 46, eliminate or decrease that transfer, which of course keeps more money in fund 10, more money in the classroom. So, any questions about uh the CAP plan, projects that were added, projects that were completed? Yeah, I have a couple questions in reviewing this cap plan to the last one and Jamie might be able to shed some light on some of them. I know generally, you know, there were some things added like Toeer you alluded to and then I was also looking at things that actually came in less compared to the last cap plan like the tennis courts up here came in a little bit less. Uh like the
020bleachers here in the gym though is up a little bit from what I saw. Yep. So that is um that's higher because of the insulation cost. So there's the bleachers, but when Jamie went in and dug into it deeper, they were going to cost more because of installation. So we updated that as well. Okay. Very much a a living breathing document. Jamie and I meet once a week and some of those weeks we update uh some of the numbers in here. And then uh at John Long, the air conditioning condensing unit, I think in the CAT plan you sent out Toeer, it had west and I'm assuming is that the combined of the main gym? Yeah, the west shouldn't be in there. Sorry. So it Oh, no. There's two different ones on the west side,
021but we had it broken out into two different sections, but we're not being build that way. So, I decided it would be better to combine the total cost into one and just apply those invoices to that one particular project. So, those are two different units on the west side of the building. Good. Cuz then that total for the single now appeared to be like 70 grand less than the prior two combined when I looked. That's good. Yes. Sorry. Um, yeah. And like I said, there were like I think the security cameras came in a little bit less too, but like you said, we're fully funded. I actually look we're funded through like 38 39 fully funded until we start going negative, but there's a long ways off and a lot of things will change. As
022you said, weekly they change. So, I think we're in a real great spot. So, thank you to you and Jamie for all the work and putting this together. I think it it bodess well for preserving our buildings and keeping them up to date and planning for all the maintenance and updates, too. Any other comments or questions? Other than that, I echo what Mark said. Thank you for all the work to do this. This was a commitment that we made to the community and we've certainly followed through and done that. So, thank you for that. With that said, I would look for a motion to approve the 2526 CAP maintenance plan as presented. So move second. Additional discussion. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. And that passes. Thank you. Um E. DPI special education model
023forms and policies and procedures. Amanda, good evening. All right. I'm here to talk about policy 2460, which annually um directs the board to adopt the DPI model policies and procedures as they relate to special education um so that we can maintain compliance with all of our federal and state laws. Um if you haven't read the 106 page attachment, rest assured I have. Um and we work very hard to maintain compliance with all of these model policies and procedures. Um I will be meeting with our special ed department for three hours this week um to focus on this compliance um and on a side and related note um we have our procedural compliance self assessment coming up which with uh Jeff alluded to this morning um which is our audit that DPI directs all school districts
024to do every five years on all of our IEPs. So this is immensely helpful in keeping us on track with all of those uh state and federal regulations. So it is our recommendation that we continue to adopt the most current DPI manual which is from 2022. Any questions for Amanda? Okay. I will look for a motion to adopt the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction model local education agency special education policies and procedures as the board's official policy. So moved. Second. First and a second. Additional discussion. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. That passes. Thank you very much, Amanda. All right. F Donovan Group staff survey results. Yes. So we um we have been using the Donovan group. I can go back to 2018. I couldn't find my 2017. So Karen and I were trying
025to remember how long we've been using the Donovan group, but they've been doing staff and student surveys for us at least back into 18. So at least seven years that we've been utilizing them for um looking at our staff and student data, excuse me, staff and parent data. Um and we've been showing that at our welcome backs. Uh we had a a parent request that we would start showing it at a board meeting and so earlier last year. So, we made the commitment to do that again this year with um at our board meeting. So, um today these are the same these are actually the same slides that I showed today um at our welcome back. So, you can see that um for our staff survey results um we made a bigger emphasis on getting
026staff to take our surveys. Um last year, two years ago, we had um I can't remember if it was like 150 or something like that, but we made an emphasis let's get more people taking the survey. There's about 270 staff um in the district that take um that would be equivalency of all of our staff. Um and as we'd said, if we're going to make decisions based on our results, then we want to have as many people taking the survey as possible to make sure our results truly are indicative of all staff and maybe not just someone who's either really happy or someone who's really upset or wherever they fall on that spectrum. So, we're very pleased to get 234 responses, which is the most ever. Um, and as you look at, you know, taking
027a 25% increase, um, to still see the data that we have is we're really proud of our data points that we have. If it's in orange, um, it's the best data we've had in the last 5 years. Donovan Group on our document each year will give us the last five years. Um, and these will be our best in the last five years um, that we've seen across the district for our staff survey results. Um, as I mentioned today, you know, our daytime maintenance staff um consistently um scores very highly on on the various ways that they complete work orders. Um, you can also see that our technology staff is also um scored very highly on how well they respond to teachers and staff um that need help. Um, but with 98% I'll just emphasize I'll
028let people read all of them, but the orange ones I'll emphasize. So, the vision for our district is clear. That's great to have 98% when we've moved into vision 2030. um you know going third year of that having the board set that as a vision for us to look forward it's great to see the positive response to that um and this is agree or strongly agree um is what we would this this comes down to 98% feeling safe in their building 97% teachers using student data to improve instructional practices to meet the needs of diverse learners. Um we can see 97% of teachers working together. So those things of looking at data, working together, those are part of our professional learning communities, staff working together to improve student learning, having 90% of our 97% of
029our staff recommending a school or department to a friend, 96% work in a positive professional work environment, 95% are satisfied with the district. 94% are comfortable bringing to their supervisor. 92% believe their principal is an effective instructional leader. Um 90% have the opportunity to be involved in decisions affecting my work. 91% principal supervisor is responsive, addresses concerns effectively, 91% quality work is expected of all students at my school. So we've we've set the standard of 90%. If it's 90% then we say it's a point of pride. If it's less than 90% then we say um that it's an area for us to improve. So those are all the questions that we ask. We have three questions that aren't at that 90% yet. Um but two of the three are the best that we've had in
030the last 5 years with one being morale. Um 88% morale and work environment is good and 84% satisfied with the cleanliness of school classroom office space. So that's our nighttime custodians that we outsource. Um and we're seeing that an uptick of 15%. Um so although not to the 90% we are seeing an uptick. And then um an area that we saw a couple years ago as sort of a holdover from COVID was students showing respect from staff for staff and staff um really rating that lowly and so or low. And so we've we've tried addressing that um with some of our various processes at our schools and we've seen a 16% increase up to 80%. Um so not the highest because it was higher um in the last 5 years. Um but we are trending
031in the right direction on the areas that we want improvement on to get to that 90% across the board. New surveys this year um were about virtual learning. So some some you know comments that we've heard at board meetings from parents or emails have the board has received. Um, so we had made a commitment to ask um, questions to both staff and parents. And I'll show what the parent survey results are as well. Um, but you can see here that we surveyed our staff and they're almost exact same questions that we asked staff and parents. Um, 53% of staff are satisfied with virtual learning days and achieving my instructional goals. 45% would rate student engagement during virtual learning days as high or moderate. 55% support continue to include virtual learning days in future school calendars.
032However, if removing virtual learning days would necessitate making up instructional time, 59% would remove a non-instructional day, so a staff PD day, just make that a student day. Uh 4% would remove a day of winter mid- winter break. 4% would add a day to the end of the school year. And 32% other. They checked other. The Donovan group said that that would the the prevailing theme with other was extending the school day 3 to 10 minutes. Um so, as a reminder, you know, it used to be days of instruction. So if we had if we had half a day, it counted as a day. If you had, you know, early release or you had a snow day, it didn't matter as long as you had school for an hour. Now it's all about instructional hours.
033So it doesn't matter how many days you have school, it matters on how many hours. So that's why staff would say extending your school day, you know, I I talked today if you have 162 days that we have students. If you have five minutes a day that you lose, it's 14 hours of instructional time. So five minutes a day adds up to quite a bit of instructional hours um over a course of a school year. So that's why um staff I'm assuming that'd be my assumption that they are choosing others. So interesting that that that um the majority but it's definitely not a strong majority are either satisfied or want to continue seeing um virtual learning days and future skill calendars. Um and as I said this morning, you know, more people want it than
034don't want it. However, we don't make any decisions where it makes that many pe that many people are unhappy. So we need to look at how are we doing it? How are we do? How can we make it more effective? How can we have students be engaged more um this year? Because we already have our calendar set. We're doing these days. So, how can we make them more effective this year? And then as we look ahead to future calendars, what does that look like? That'll be all part of the discussion of with staff, with administration, um with getting parent feedback on ideas as we look at future calendars and heading into the, you know, the 2627 school year. But for this year, the focus is on if 53% are are they believe it achieves their
035instruction goals, how can we get that higher? How can we get student engagement higher? Because those are happening um in the next month. So that's the staff staff survey results, parent survey results. Um and and similar to the the um staff survey results, there are some questions that um that we are able to break down. Um some of these questions here, we break down by building. So I'm able to break down morale work environment is good. It's 88% overall. Each building is different percentages to give to that 88%. Each principal gets their own spreadsheet that shows how they compare to the district and how are they trending over the last 5 years. So they can see what that looks like. It's in a similar vein. The parent survey results. These are all the parent survey
036results that aren't related either to busing and using the here comes the bus app or our food choices or each building has their own questions. So my student feels safe at school if you go to the high school, elementary school, middle school, wherever it may be to answer those questions. Instead of trying to lay out all those questions and show four different schools and the comparison pieces, we're going to have the schools when they do their presentations highlight the areas that either were an area of strength or oh this was an area that we could use improvement in and they'll showcase that and so it isn't a comparison or trying to make sense of it. But these results here are all the other questions besides the busing or um our lunch pieces. So you can
037see that 95 94% understand their child is at in terms of meeting onle expectations. 93% can find the information on your district website. 93% would recommend the Grafton School District to others. 92% are satisfied the Grafton School District. 91% believe their child is adequately prepared for the next grade level or post high school pursuit. 89% believe the school board superintendent make decisions aligned to the district mission. 87% believe the school board and superintendent are effectively improving the district. 86% believe the superintendent is willing to listen concerns of parents. So um none of these are highlighted in orange because none of our results can compare with postco. So after co we had the best results we've ever had on any survey by parents. Parents loved what we are doing in our system during co because they
038looked at other systems and how they were responding to co. So none of these are top five. If you look at the co year there are multiple pieces here that would be the highest that we've ever had before. and to see as many as we have above 90% I'm really happy and it really it almost mirrors some of our staff of them feeling happy um and s you know recommending this their school or department um to a friend um aligns well with them 93% recommending the crafting school district to others as well and then their virtual learning questions and it's almost exactly what our staff said um which is which is interesting you had 52% are satisfied with including virtual learning days in the school calendar. 47% feel their child engages in learning during virtual
039learning days and 52% support continuing continuing to include virtual learning days. So I think it was 55 with staff you're down to 52%. So, it's still a majority, but it's a it's a it's it's a it's a small majority um but that do see the benefit of having virtual learning days. And then um they had out of the four things that they picked removing a non-instructional day, 51%, 18% red remove a day of mid- winter break, I think that was four for for staff, um add a day at the end of the school year, that was four for staff, and then 14% was other and they also picked extending the school day minutes. Um so, uh similar themes um as we look at it. So definitely people who see the benefit of it, but then
040also people who don't see the benefit in it and aren't seeing their own children as engaged as we would we would like them to be as teachers. Our teachers said the same thing or our staff said the same thing um as parents did as well. So, um, we shared this today with all staff and, um, we'll be having discussions, um, with our leadership team, with our teacher leadership teams, um, with our union as we look ahead to future changes and how we can make it more efficient and effective, um, as we move forward. And that takes me through all of our staff and parent survey results. Any comments, questions on the survey results? great data to have, you know, I mean, as we go through and do this and obviously from the district standpoint, the
041virtual days as we get ready to go to John Long gave us the opportunity to take large masses to other schools for on-site um visits and those kind of things. So, um certainly see the benefits of and challenges of both sides. So yeah, it did allow us to either go on site visits or bring multiple grades together for a PD that we wouldn't be able to get subs for as we look at curriculum pieces or looking at other site visits or doing various pieces for professional development that we would not have had time for, which has been very beneficial to move our district forward. Um some of the ACT 20 training um helped us quite a bit by having these days as well. Um, so it's helped us and our scores are showing that when
042you look at third grade reading scores being the highest that we've ever had, ACT score at the highest at the high school that we've had. Like I mean, we're seeing some really great things. Two students having a perfect score. I mean, you're having some really good results. Um, but um, our staff and parents are aligned that that there is a need for improvement in this area. Much more discussion to come. Much more. Yes, sir. All right. Well, thank you for sharing that. Um I think that's a good thing for us to do not only today but as well as going forward after we share that with staff. So um that's great information. All right. Um H school perception student survey results. Julia. Yes. Good evening. Um so this spring gra the Grafton school district partnered
043with school perceptions to administer a stu student survey to gather information on vision 2030's KPIs. You can see the two KPIs listed there. LR2, which was develop a grade uh 3 through 12 survey to look for 100% connection rate for our students at school, and LR4, which was develop a 3 through 12 student survey with an emphasis on 21st century skills. So, the survey was administered in March of 2025. We had uh 1,517 student responses that were collected. That's a 92% participation rate. We did a really good job of making sure that students um were given time to do it during the school day. Students who didn't complete it were maybe absent. It was right before spring break. Um and then they were emailed um the survey and possibly didn't complete it. The students were
044asked a variety of questions and could select um on a scale of five, either definitely, sort of, not really, or no. And then there was also an option to say don't know or doesn't apply if they didn't know how to answer that question. Uh so each question that was asked fed into an index and you can see the five index listed here. Um and then you can also see our average score for the 2025 uh survey. And um that's an average score of all the questions that fed into that index and of all of our students 3 through 12. So you can see that we have scores of four or higher for connection, learning, environment, experience and then also our 21st century skills. Looking specifically at LR2, which is that 100% student connection rate, there
045were seven questions that related to this index, and you can see them here. Uh it asks questions about connection to peers, adults, and then also helping people when they can. And then our 21st century skills questions, school perceptions didn't have questions related to this specific topic. So our instructional technology leadership team discussed what was the criteria to be 21st century ready and they determined that there were some categories that we wanted to include for our students to be college career and life ready and that involved uh critical thinking and problem solving. We had two questions for all of our students around that creativity and innovation collaboration and communication digit digital literacy career planning and then AI awareness. So there was a 14 total questions that fed into that index as well. Looking at the entire
046survey, there was about 30 questions students responded to. And here are the top five district strengths. Um looking at the average score. So that last column there. And again, this is uh 3 through 12. Uh similar to the staff and um the sorry the parent survey, we can break this down by school. Um, but this is our results uh for all of our buildings. You can see that our highest was I have friends to sit with at lunch or hang out with at school with uh average score of 4.82 and 98% of our students agreeing with that statement. Then we look um we go to our next strength. I act responsibly when using digital tools and online platforms with a 4.7 and 97% agreeing. I use kind and respectful words when talking to others online
047with an average score of 4.65 and 91% of our students agreeing. I try my best at school with a score of 4.63 and 96% of our students agreeing. And my parents and guardians help me with school as much as they can if I ask, which was an average score of 4.61 and 94% of our students agreeing. Looking at our five lowest scores, um you can notice that our average score is still above three. So still more students were agreeing than disagreeing for all of these questions. Um but our lowest one was a average score of 3.45, which is I talk to people outside of school about what I'm learning with 63% of our students agreeing. The next lowest was most kids at school follow the rules with an average score of 4 point sorry 3.48.
04848 and 69% of our students agreeing. Then we have I feel safe answering questions in class even when I'm not sure I have the right answer with an average score of 3.69 and 73% of our students agreeing. Uh if I were bullied, I would feel comfortable talking to someone about it with an average score of 3.88 and 76% of our students agreeing. And lastly, students treat me with respect with an average score of 3.93 and 82% of our students agreeing. Lastly, um all of our students were asked on a 10-point scale. Most days I like my school. We had 55% of our students saying um seven or higher on the on this scale. Um and this will be a question that will be asked every year and we can continue to track this for our
049district and our school. Um, in general, again, this is a survey that we will also do next year. So, similar to our staff and student, we'll be able to track year-over-year. Um, adjust our um our student experience and our KPIs based on the feedback we receive from our students. Are there any questions? Questions only. Certainly, I think it was a good survey and look forward to future ones to give us some additional data. Great. Thank you. Thank you very much. And you get to stay. I will stay. For implementation of AI guidelines for grades 3 through 12. Two 2 through 12. Yes. Uh so to prepare our students to be college and career and life ready, the Grafton School District created a task force to establish guidelines for students and staff around AI usage. Uh
050the task force was made up of elementary, middle school, high school teachers as well as instructional coaches and districtwide staff. Our goals were to create guidelines for staff and students, review AI programs for district-wide adoption, and provide professional development and next steps for staff. So after multiple versions and discussions, not only with the AI task force, but also with district leadership team, we created guidelines with the following topics. You can see uh we have some general principles that are listed, some non-negotiables, specific guidelines for staff, um guidelines for students that mirror the guidelines for staff, how we can site generative AI, how to use AI on assessments, and then some resources for staff and students. The full guidelines are posted on the teaching and learning website for everybody to view. Um and there will be
051a letter going out to families as well. In addition, the task force looked at a variety of AI programs specifically designed for schools and recommended the purchase of Brisk. So, Brisk is an AI tool that will support teacher and student AI usage. Some features include um tools for teachers to check student use of AI. Uh resources to assist with teacher productivity. And then there is also Brisk Boost which is a secure interface for students um that allow them to interact with AI safely and does include teacher oversight of how the student is interacting with the AI chatbot. Uh the reason why the AI task force selected Brist was again to create a safe space for students to practice interactions with AI. We know it's the future. It's here and we want to make sure that
052we're getting our students ready for um what they will experience post high school. Uh it also complies with Furpa, COPA and state privacy laws. Uh Brisk does not sell data. So any chats in within Brisk, it's not being used to train other AI models. So it's a very safe resource for our teachers and students. Uh there are no ads and then also in that Brisk boost um it will flag staff sorry flag staff on inappropriate usage um if a student is being inappropriate with the use of AI. In addition, we do have another uh tool available to staff. It is Google Gemini. Um and this will also be available to students. Uh this is an AI tool that's included with our Google education suite and it does support teacher and student usage of AI. Uh
053some features that are included are tools for teachers that are embedded within our Google workspace. So using it within Docs, uh Slides and Gmail. And then it also allows our students to practice prompt creation. So Brisk doesn't have that available within their suite yet, but uh Google Gemini for Education does. And we know that prompt creation and AI is an important skill for our students to learn. And because it is part of our Google suite, we do have some tracking capabilities through the tech department. So again, why Google Gemini? Um it creates a safe space for our students to practice AI prompting with available oversight. It does also comply with Furpa, COPA, HIPPA, and state privacy laws. And um the data is not sold or used to train AI models similar to Brisk. In addition
054in addition, there are content filters and factchecking prompts and there are no ads as well. I do want to note that um Google Gemini for education is different than a Google Gemini personal account. So we want to make sure that if you're using Google Gemini on your personal account, you understand that it does not follow the same things. But because we are a school, we have some extra protections. So, our next steps, again, I mentioned there's going to be um a letter to parents sent out about all the information that I shared this evening. There's also going to be some work um this week on teachers adding a statement to their syllabus at John Long Middle School and the high school. We want to make sure that we're very clear with our students on how
055they can you use AI in the classroom so that there's less gray area when they're working on assignments. There will also be some ongoing training for teachers which is starting this Wednesday and we will continue to evaluate the roll out of the guidelines through the AI task force um receiving feedback from teachers um and staff as well as using those student survey results on the school perceptions next March to see how our implementation is going. Any questions, comments or questions? informational only. Good to be in front of this. I mean, obviously AI is here and we have to deal with it. So, um, appreciate the task force being put together and um, I'm sure our teachers are going to need the additional training and it'll be a a roll out for our our students and
056teachers, but certainly good for for our school district. All right. Any other good Thank you. Um J ghs cell phone policy Mr. Manti and Mr. Kina are gonna present on this topic for us. Good evening everyone. Uh thanks for giving us the opportunity to talk to you a little bit about our cell phone uh procedures update at uh Grafton High School. If you recall last year, we came to the board uh with a cell phone procedures update uh which required our students to uh begin checking their cell phones within classroom caddies at the beginning of each period uh 1 through 8. Um we had some really good success with uh that procedure last year. Mr. Khan is going to talk with you a little bit about that procedure as a reminder. talk a little bit
057about the success and then I'm going to share a a recommendation with you uh to enhance that uh procedure moving forward. Yeah. So last summer uh we spent a lot of time um kind of defining our why and our goal was to remove a major distraction in our instructional time and so uh we worked with staff and uh came up with a a great way for all of our staff and students to check their phones and it was a reasonable solution. So, we're we didn't use the word ban. We still allow kids to be able to uh be like young adults, still have a phone with them, but during instructional time, we were going to all check them. And we had phone caddies for 85 minutes. All students check their phone. Um again, the reasonable
058was kids could use them before school, they can use them during passing time, they can use them during lunch, and in some cases, we allow kids to use them during study hall as long as they're taking care of business for the first 60 minutes. Then they allowed the last 25 minutes as a brain break. So again, it was reasonable. We had great feedback from not only our staff but from parents and we had good feedback from our kids. So to continue with our procedures, uh we would like to um move this policy to include our Blackhawk time period as well. Our Blackhawk time period is our instructional period the beginning of the day where students have some choice in terms of where they go. teachers can also request students, but it's a it's a period
059that uh we want them to emphasize and be as effective as possible during that time as well to get their day off to a successful start. So, uh we simply want to take this policy and procedure and enhance that by including Blackhawk time as one of the periods where they are checking their phones. Um the language change is simple. Uh it's right up on the screens. uh we would just take out the uh and study hall from the first paragraph and we would change periods 1 through 8 uh just to all instructional periods including Blackhawk time. Um and just one important thing to note as I included in the memo um students will continue to have access to their phones during passing times, lunch and within study hall parameters. So it's just the Blackhawk time
060piece that uh we're requesting. That's it. Okay, thank you. Questions? And I think as I recall, you said there were some teachers already kind of enforcing this at Blackhawk time, right? Yeah. So there there are some teachers that would do that just on their own. Yes. Already enforcing that and understanding it was working so well in their periods 1 through 8 that they were just doing that on their own with Blackhawk time as well. Yep, that's accurate. Anyone else? Nope. Okay. Thank you for the presentation. Okay. Um with that, um I would look for a motion to adopt the GHS handbook language to reflect the cell phone policy change as described above. So move second. Additional discussion. All in favor say I. I opposed. That passes. Thank you very much. Um okay. Student overnight trip
061request. Yes, we have one student overnight trip request that we would ask for board approval for. It's for the Graft afternoon High School girls basketball team, the winter holiday tournament in Wanuki with coach Matt Damato. You can see the chaperones that are listed, the three females, Lisa, Tori, and Lindsay going along with them. Um, and it's 1229 through 12:30 um where they're staying at in Middleton. um and they do fundraising for their free throw throwathon to be able to support that. So, we'd ask for board approval for this tournament in December for the girls high school basketball team. Questions? Otherwise, I look for a motion to approve the trip request as presented. So, moved. Second. First and second. Additional discussion. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. And that passes as well. um L um
062board meeting schedule. So our September meeting um is also our annual meeting. So our annual meeting will start at 6:00. Um and then that will be followed by our regular board meeting. No earlier than 6:45. That brings us to adjournment. Um do we have a motion to adjurnn? Second. All in favor say I. I opposed and we are adjourned. Thank you everyone.