GBAPSD Board of Education Regular Meeting: December 22, 2025

001(upbeat music) (James) All right, we're gonna reconvene into open session for the regular board meeting and we'll stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. (indistinct) - I pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. (James) Thank you. Will someone please read the mission statement? Go anywhere? Lynn? (Lynn) We educate all students to be college, career and community ready, inspired to succeed in our diverse world. (James) Thank you. I'll read the land acknowledgement. We, the members of the Green Bay Area Public School District recognize and honor the original inhabitants of Northeast Wisconsin. Our district lives, works and learns upon the ancestral homelands of the Menominee and Ho-Chunk nations and the current homeland of Oneida Nation. We

002acknowledge the 12 diverse and vibrant First Nations who have participated here since before recorded time and continue to be integral parts of our community. We uphold our responsibility to repair relationships, initiate partnerships and stand with our First Nation communities. Right, we're gonna transition into open forum and not first, I'm gonna recognize the intra city student council for open, for their report. (Speaker 1) From east, they are having a teacher's tea event. Their spirit week is coming up and they were gonna have a bake sale from prom. For J-DAL, they celebrated having 50% of their school having 95% of attendance, right? And then they're gonna have community Christmas tree decorating. At Preble, we had host of regional testing. December 4th through the 6th, Sting Cancer had a volunteer event at the KI. There was a band

003concert on November 15th. The first pep band event was two Fridays ago. And our JV1 basketball won that game. On December 19th, we had our son at Game versus Southwest at Preble and it was very successful. We had a student council blood drive on the 17th. And then Sting Cancer had a Thanksgiving food drive. (Speaker 2) At Southwest, we recently finished up our musical. We also had a band and orchestra concert on the 17th. There's a choir concert after break. We had four people from Esports compete at state. We had a student receive the National Merit Scholarship. We had our teacher appreciation breakfast today, which was very successful. We're currently, I guess, ending our spirit week. It was all of last week and these two days as well. And then Sting Cancer did a stocking

004drive where the proceeds went to cancer patients. At West, NHS and IB Club held a Thanksgiving potluck. Student council is hosting a door decorating contest. There was a band concert on December 10th and choir and orchestra concert was on the 17th. Their school play was very successful and the ELA teacher there was chosen to speak during the tree lighting ceremony at the state capitol building. (audio cuts out) (James) All right, thank you very much. Public Forum, do we have anyone registered to speak? Does anyone in the audience have the desire to speak? Great, we'll move on then to updates and turn it over to Superintendent Bayer for the superintendent update. (Vicki) Okay, thank you. This is always a great time of year because there's a lot of activity going on in our schools. I'll begin

005with this slide. This was actually shared with me by one of our parents and I wanna read what the parent had written. For Green Bay Area Public School District, high school students volunteered at the Neville Museum. On December 3rd, that day was free admission to the museum for Brown County residents and they had over 700 visitors. One of the busiest days they've ever had. The children's only shop, a whimsical recreation of the HC Prange. Oh, I remember that. Holiday Experience is back at the Neville Museum for its 14th year and our students helped with that. The students shopped with children ages four through 12 to purchase holiday gifts and gift wrap them for their loved ones. They had a long line of eager shoppers the entire three hours. It was heartwarming. It was a fun

006night of volunteering to kick off the holiday season. So again, that was shared by one of our parents. In the picture, that's Caitlin from Southwest, Samantha from Southwest, Elaina from Preble and Lorelei from East. Okay, you mentioned this one, right? This is a teacher from West High School. That's Ellie Hins-Ridue and she had the honor of and found out Monday before the honor of speaking at the Governor's tree lighting. And it was a fantastic experience. She did a marvelous job. The student on the far right, Janesville student, she is blind and read her speech with Braille and it was fascinating. And if Wisconsin I was still a thing, I would direct you to go and take a look at it. If it ever comes back up, I would encourage everybody to go listen to Ellie's

007speech and to the student's speech. It was really a great way to celebrate Wisconsin and education. Every single one of our schools has their musical events, choir events over the last couple of weeks. This was Eisenhower. Shelly DeGrave is the music teacher. That's her on the left. And the students sang a combination of songs in Spanish and in English. The parents were just thrilled. Franklin I.B., they had their M.Y.P. event a couple of weeks ago. The picture on the top left, that student for her project volunteered at a nursing home and provided activities for the residents. She was incredibly thoughtful and put a lot of energy into her project. The boys on the bottom want school start times to change. So David Johns has their information and I'm guessing there's gonna be some outreach. They

008put a lot of research into the benefits of later start time for middle schoolers and high schoolers. It was a good presentation. Two o'clock, they don't wanna start yet. [BLANK_AUDIO] You mentioned as well the Southwest musical. And I've told the students and their directors, I've seen a lot of musicals in my lifetime, this is probably in the top five. It was absolutely fantastic from the moment you walked into the school, the lobby area, everything was so detailed and well thought out. Really appreciated. Brandon Rockstro is one of the directors for the musical. It was fantastic. [BLANK_AUDIO] Tiny Earth, you actually heard from the leader of Tiny Earth from our area. I was invited along with David Johns to attend their most recent event. It was held at Lambeau in the atrium. There were over 70

009different projects and West High School were the only high school students there. This was the largest Tiny Earth event in the world. And the turnout was just phenomenal and you would be so proud board, you would be so proud of our students and the projects and the research that they did. [BLANK_AUDIO] Yeah, I told Beaumont I would put their doors on here. [LAUGH] I think every elementary school and maybe even the middle have some door decorating contests right now. These are the outstanding doors from Beaumont. I got to be a guest judge and I was on the naughty list. I'm not sure how that happened. [BLANK_AUDIO] Lombardi, Alex, I don't know if you wanna talk about this a little bit, but that was just last Friday. CO2 car races, nice setup in the hallway. (Alex)

010Yeah, I don't know if you heard this part, but they used to do it on the floor, but they found a way to configure tables and kind of get it up at waist level. Which made it really cool, a lot easier to see. But for a few hours, kids were able to come down and race their cars and that they designed and when they really get them going, I don't know, that was probably about 50 feet and they can get them to go all that distance in a little over one second. So it's pretty impressive and just real quick, put a little plug in for our technology education, our tech ed classes and programs. I talked to the teachers a little bit and the kids really enjoy it. Other classes that didn't make the cars

011were still coming down and had the opportunity to view it. And we're really engaged and I just think it's a great opportunity to showcase some of the cool practical things that they do and how we can focus on some of those programs in the future. [BLANK_AUDIO] (Laura) I also was able to attend in the afternoon and the Education Foundation had given a mini grant to that teacher, the new starting thing that they had was paid for, at least in part by the mini grants. So I was invited by the Education Foundation to come and watch and boy, was that a blast, at a good time. (Vicki) Did they let you hit the button? (Laura) Yeah. (Vicki)nAlso included on that slide, if you could go back just for a second. At the top, that's Mr. Blakeslee's

012classroom. I had a chance to pop into a couple different rooms. I wanna say it was science, but I can't recall at this moment. And then right below that picture, that's Ms. Ramirez. She is a student teacher who just concluded her experience. And when I walked in the classroom, it was a time where the students were sharing what they appreciated most about her and it was really heartfelt and wonderful to see that, do you work with her? Yeah, it was great to see, the students absolutely loved her. [BLANK_AUDIO] Monthly, we have a legislative breakfast facilitated by CESA 7. I wish I could say that we're seeing some movement in our relationship with some of the state legislators, unfortunately. They don't always, those meetings don't always go well. And this past Friday was an example of

013one that did not go well. We were discussing the special education reimbursement and the possibility that it will be under the 42% that was expected. And there doesn't seem to be any concern from some of the group that were there. Not expecting any movement, even at the time where we have a major, major surplus in Madison, it is last number I saw was about $4.5 billion. That could really be helpful coming back to our communities. And for the last slide, I want to thank the Board of Education because of your work, your resolution, tax bills are transparent now. Our communities, at least Green Bay, sees when they get their property tax, how much is actually going to the voucher program. And feedback I've been hearing has been very good. I hope all of you are

014hearing the same community members that are grateful that they can see that now. And that's the report for this month. (James) Thank you, Superintendent Bayer. I will tell you that Laura and I were able to attend the Town of Scott meeting just a couple weeks ago and they're taking it up. They're prepping the resolution. So hopefully they'll continue to be movement on that expanding the transparency. And I also have monitored some social platforms like the community platforms. And you're right, it's a mixture of surprise and a thankfulness for that transparency. I mean, there's a mix, but the majority of what I see out there is grateful to have the information. Laura. (Laura) Yeah, I'm hearing the same thing. It's important for people to understand that this was a huge victory for the city of Green

015Bay and for our district. But the work still continues like we were in Town of Scott, but we still have to do the same process in Alaway and there's other municipalities. So we're not done yet. (James) Lynn. (Lynn) Just wanted to let you know that I spoke to the Town of Scott Board meeting before you did. I also spoke to the City of Green Bay Finance Committee a year before the board took it up. So I'm trying to do my part. (James) Thank you. Others. Then we will continue through the agenda to the legislative update. Jeanette. (Jeanette) All right. So I'm not going to read the whole legislative report. You've all seen it. But I would like to talk about a few things. There has been some activity in Madison. The 2025 Wisconsin Act 57

016is now a law. It took effect December 11th. And this act creates two mandates under which schools must provide certain informational notices to parents and guardians. It's outlined there. And it's about telling parents when sexual misconduct may have occurred in the schools. So you can read that information there. I'm not going to go all through it. There's a compliance deadline coming up for Title II of the ADA's new rule on accessibility of web content and mobile apps. This deadline can be slightly confusing because it is based on the size of your district. Our district's deadline is April 24th, 2026, not April 26th, 2027. That is for smaller districts. And WASB strongly encourages school districts to independently verify their compliance deadline. But that's pretty important. We don't want to miss that. Governor Evers signed a few

017education bills and vetoed others. They are in the handout that I've given you. And I've already mentioned Act 57. Another one to think about is Wisconsin Act 79, which is pertaining to allowing representatives of federally chartered youth membership organizations to come into the school. It really didn't change much in the current law. Just a few words, but it didn't make much of a difference. So one of the assembly bills that is in committee right now, Assembly Bill 749 relates to instruction in blood and organ donation in high school grades. It is creating a curriculum mandate. And students are already exposed to this information in science classes and through community events. WASB is strongly against this bill. So if you want to talk to your assembly rep, that might be helpful. As far as the federal

018government updates go, there's more than I want to read here. But the IRS is seeking comments on the federal scholarship granting tax credit program. This is a program that people can make donations to schools. Originally, it was created to help private schools, but there is a strong possibility that these donations could be used for public schools. That is going to be an ongoing discussion, I'm sure, because the intent of this was to help private schools and the voucher systems. So if you wish to make comments on this program, there is a commenting period. I didn't write the dates down here. So if you're interested in that, I'm sure there's something out there on the IRS or I can look it up and you can ask me if you need more information. That's it. (James) Any

019questions or discussion about the legislative report? All right. Thank you, Jeanette. We'll move on to the consent agenda approval. Lynn, would you please read the motion? (Lynn) I move that the consent agenda as presented be approved. (Samantha) Second. (James) Discussion? Superinendent Bayer, do you want to call out something in discussion or after? All right. If no other discussion, Kinsey? (Kinsey) Online voting is now open. Lynn, are you able to vote online? (Lynn) Okay. Got it. (Kinsey) Alex, do you want a voice vote? (James) You want to turn on your mic so we can capture it? (Alex) Yes. (Kinsey) All votes have been entered and the motion is carried with all board members voting in favor. I recognize this Superintendent Bayer. (Vicki) Thank you. Jackie Fisher, manager of custodial services is a bit of a legend

020in the district. She's just completed her 40th year with us and you just voted to accept her retirement. Pretty amazing lady. She has family members that are in the district. Her son, Joe, still works with us. Her daughter-in-law, Peg, just retired a couple of years ago. I wish to just wish Jackie the best in her retirement. (James) Lynn? (Lynn) I just want to say as far as the consent agenda, the gifts. Because we take all these things together, we never talk about the gifts. I just want people to know that I read that whole thing every time and I am so grateful for the gifts that the community makes to the schools. (James) I secont that. Others? All right. Then we're going to move into section 7 of the agenda with action items. Just

021a note for the public, these are all items that have been discussed during our work session. So some of them will just be voting. But we'll start with 7A, which is the action on the weapon detection recommendation. Yes, Cale, would you go ahead and make your way to the table, please? Will someone please read the motion? Lynn? (Lynn) I move that the Board of Education direct district administration to explore and implement a pilot program of portable weapon detection systems for the district's comprehensive high schools and at the conclusion of the pilot program, submit a report of the program's findings to the Board of Education for further review. (James) Second? Second. (Jeanette) Second. (James) All right. Discussion. So I'll start us off and say that at the work session we requested some more information as it

022relates to the cost of engaging in a pilot program. So, Cale, I'll just put the question to you and let you respond to that. (Cale) Just a thanks to Chris Collar for putting this together. He's been having a lot of conversations with our vendors. I've been staying in touch with him. But he's been our point person for the contact with the vendors. In summary, we received four responses for cost of piloting. It varied in obviously cost, but also length of willingness to provide their equipment. The lowest cost, I will say, is at no cost to the district, but only a two-week pilot. So that's one of the products. Two products were very similar. It's a kind of a rental-based agreement. But reimbursing the district 80% of that rental cost. So that would project out to

023be around $9,000 for a full four-month pilot of one of the systems. There was another unit that is a $2,500 a month agreement. They would allow four months. So that would put that one around $10,000 as well. And then there is a limited pilot for another system that is in one site for two weeks at $20,000. So those are the responses we've received. Again, a short window of the back and forth, but we're confident in those discussions, the numbers I just shared. (James) Jeanette? (Jeanette) I'm not sure I understand the 80% reimbursement. Would that be if we purchased their unit, they'd give us 80% reimbursement of the rent that we paid? Okay. Thank you. (James) Any questions? Samantha? (Samantha) Are each of these equivalent systems, I know initially there were a variety of systems on

024the table that were being looked at and then just kind of an understanding of the cost and what we're getting for that. (Cale) To break it down, the rental reimbursements that estimate if we purchase would be around $9,000. If we didn't, I guess it's worth noting that rental is just over $11,000 for the initial site and then $8,400 each site thereafter. So then just taking that 80% reimbursements where I came up with the $9,000. That is the red light, green light open gate system. The other three systems, I don't want to lump them together, but they are more of what we were calling that red box where they utilize camera. Different technologies, so I want to be fair to the vendors and manufacturers, but basically a pass through where they would identify something on the

025person, but then red box where that potential location is on the person. So three similar technologies, I would say, and then the one with the red light, green light technology. (James) Lynn? And can you just explain to us what the red light, green light technology is again? (Cale) So if there is an object identified, it would just turn red light as you pass through and green light would mean that person is cleared to walk through. No camera identification of where that potential threat would be. That would have to go into further search on that person. (James) Andrew? (Andrew) Is one of these four, I guess the one that is much more of an open air system that isn't lanes that was similar to what you James? (James) The PAC, the evolved system. (Cale) They're all

026open air. They're not closed or they're towers. The open gate, which is the red light, green lights, I would say from a size is a little bit smaller, but they are just basically two devices you are walking through. (Andrew) So do you have to be in discrete lines for some of these or none of these or all of these? (Cale) The way we understand is, yes, for all of them, there would be a line that you're walking through. It's not groups walking through the technology. (Andrew) I thought it evolved in their material stress being somewhat different, unless I'm wrong. There was somewhat, no? (Cale) That's not the way it was explained to us. They did talk about the pacing through, of which how quickly people could walk through and detect and the next person can

027get through. Some systems, there's a slight pause before the next person can walk through. (James) That's the important point, because in the experience that I had at the PAC, one could say that there was lines, but there really wasn't, because the pacing of the entry was such that you didn't really queue up. It was responding fast enough to keep up with the pace, where it didn't have to turn red or green after each person. They could identify a box on someone that just walked through and they could pull them out of line for a secondary search. (Cale) More of a constant flow. (James) Correct. I have a question I'll give to you after, Jeanette. You said four months. It's the first time that I've put a timeline or heard that timeline in conversation and I

028would like kind of a rationalizing why four months for a duration of a pilot. (Cale) I think we wanted to give a range. The high end of that is being about four weeks. The reason we're putting that higher end on it is to get trained and have people feel comfortable with that system to really understand that initial setup could be a little slower, could have a few more bugs, whereas if you let the system play out a little bit longer, you could see that the school time to learn the system, you could see the true full effects of that system. We did range it out to that. Obviously some of the manufacturers weren't able to allow that long of time, so they did provide what they could do in a matter of a week or

029two weeks. (James) Jeanette, do you still have a question? Okay, Lynn. (Lynn) So do I understand this correctly? If we approve this, what we're approving is that you go ahead and you're going to decide which company to go with for the pilot and what school to try it out in and then you'll, or I mean, are we going to try out two different ones or what's your plan, Cale? (Cale) At this point, I believe we would select one of the technologies and pilot that technology and then report back the results. Beyond that, I think is up for discussion and reviewing the results and basing our next steps on the results of the initial pilot. (James) Yeah, Lynn, go ahead. (Lynn) So are you planning to do this at one school or do you envision moving

030it and trying it at different schools? (Vicki) I would recommend that we have it in all of our high schools so that every, if this is something, a direction that the board chooses to go in, I think all of the high schools should have an opportunity to experience it and to weigh in. (James) So that kind of contributes to the duration of the pilot, right? You want to be able to set it up, get some people trained at a particular school, move it to the next one and try to cycle through all of them. So when I think about the pilot and what I'm looking to learn, I know that there is an interest by the district to make sure that they understand the learning curve or whatever. From a pilot perspective, I'm more focused

031on the systems themselves, right? And then you can allow and you can design for and plan for how you'll implement or roll out or if we roll out. But I'm trying to rationalize what am I going to learn differently from Southwest about that system than I would at Preble or East. And I don't know that there is anything that we'll learn. Right, so then I'm trying to see if we can pull apart the operationalization and what we can learn about what it will take to operate them from, let's talk about the technology and are we going to get too many false positives and the secondary searches are going to become problematic and I don't know that we need to push it around to all the high schools to do that, which means we could probably

032get a tighter window to do a pilot and potentially at lower cost. Jeanette. (Jeanette) Cost, where are we going to get the money to pay for this? (James) Are you directing that at me? (Jeanette) I'm directing it at whomever can answer. So when we were at our work session, Superintendent Bayer said there were some grants for that. So those are grants that we could write today and get tomorrow or we write today and get next year. Or how does that work? (Vicki) I don't think the funding is available immediately, but there is a grant out there from the Office of School Safety. Do you want to Go ahead. (Cale) We are exploring it. There is concern that that grant, these are not eligible for the grant, so we haven't gotten certainty on that yet. So

033just in full transparency, we had a discussion last week about this and we will be attempting to apply, but we're not sure the weapons detection system itself would be eligible. (James) Andrew, did you have a question? (Andrew) Yes, are we trying to just get any and all strict factual questions out of the way in one round and then debate or is this all combined? (James) Oh, the four is open for discussion. (Andrew) Okay. Yeah, I guess when I'm looking at a pilot here, I think we're at the point where you, I don't think you can really pilot these without changing the school environment. You know, right in our administration memo, there are pros and cons and the cons are significant. The unfortunate fact, looking at the history of school shootings in the US is that

034many of the types of school shootings that would occur would not be stopped by a weapons detector or the weapons detector would be forcefully bypassed. There have been shootings at schools that have had weapons detectors that tragically started with the elimination of the people operating the weapon detector and then proceeding forward. So I'm concerned about creating a false sense of security. I'm concerned about having a pilot that might feel pretty good and okay for a month for a month and getting people very upset if we didn't continue. It's going to look like we quit if we think that if it's anything but great. From what I read, I guess I would have to reread the proposals. If we had to do one, I would prefer the least invasive one, and I think Evolve is somewhat

035less evasive. This is a multi-million dollar commitment that people are going to expect us to do once the pilot goes in. Because what do you mean you're going to take it away now? What do you mean? Yeah, we tried it, but it cost. Multi-millions, this is not insignificant. That is, in a budget deficit situation, that is many staff, unless we were to go out for it as a referendum item in a separate question. But even then, it's an upfront cost. It's an ongoing cost. So those are my concerns about doing a pilot. I also think that doing a pilot like this automatically, whatever it does to the sense of community at a school, I think it already does that when you pilot it, because there's no difference between lining up for the pilot metal detector

036and lining up for the real one, other than you might get a false sense of the community thinking it's okay after a couple of weeks, and it might be really grating over time. From my point of view, my opinion, having studied it carefully, I just do not think we get the protection that people think we do, and I think we get a partial solution and a large false sense of security from the systems we have here, especially if we have to pay just to use them. I also think that we shouldn't consider the 80% discount off the one, because if it's really a pilot, we shouldn't be assuming that we're going to just pilot it and buy it. And many people will assume that we're just going to buy whatever we pilot. So I don't

037believe this is the way to go. (James) Thank you, others? Oh, sorry, Chanel. (Speaker 1) I agree with the points that Mr. Becker has been stating. One thing I have been thinking about as we've done this discussion is if a survey would go out to staff and students about this, we've kind of been doing our own intra city student council survey, and we've gotten very mixed results from people. And I think if the board were to go through and pilot something right away without asking the community what they think about it. I know we've kind of did some initial right after the incident happened before, but I think going in, especially before you implement a pilot and asking how they would feel and maybe some suggestions they could bring up to the table would be

038a good idea. (James) Thank you for that. Others? Let's do Sam and then Jeanette. (Samantha) I know one of the things that has come up quite a bit in the memo is the discussion of additional staffing needed to work the lanes and then to think about secondary screenings and things like that. Has there been any additional discussion of in the event of a pilot who would be staffing those lanes and what the cost for that additional possible staffing would look like? And then I had a second question as well, but. (Vicki) David Johns and I have been looking at utilization of existing staff, at least for the pilot, not teaching staff, but existing staff in other positions. Oh, for the morning. Yeah, yeah, good point. Good point. (Samantha) And then my second one from a

039policy side of things, considering things like secondary searches, are we covered under current policy for student searches in that sense, or would we need to get something on the books fast and pretty immediately if we would move forward with this to make sure that we are covered from a policy standpoint? (Vicki) Yeah, that's a really good question. We would need an updated policy and Melissa has provided a draft. It's embedded in the memo. Page two. (James) Oh, Jeanette, please. (Jeanette) Okay, I'm wondering what we're going to do about backpacks because they're going to have to be, we had discussed that already, we stick with the clear backpacks, but they can't wear them through these sensors. So there's going to have to be a table or conveyor belt. That's expensive somewhere for the backpacks to go.

040And then another thing that I think is extremely important is the use of other doorways, such as I was talking to a parent whose child is on the football team and they go out for practice out the back door with the teacher. And when they come back in, they come back in that back door that doesn't have a metal detector added. And who knows what can be picked out, passed up. That just undermines the consistency of using the metal detectors if other doors are used to enter the school, even if it's a teacher. (Cale) So I'll address the backpack question first. What should be clarified is backpacks themselves can pass through. The items that, depending on the sensitivity that we set the system at, items would have to either come out of the backpack or

041go the backpack itself with the contents go around and then be searched. Large binders, water bottles, large metal items would set off the system. So those we, Chromebooks, another, that would be a big one as well, would have to get passed through, whether it's a table or something like that. But the backpack themselves can go through. As for exterior doors, we would have to limit entry at multiple points. Suggested Preble, for example, having two entry points being a larger school. Through a survey of the selected vendor, they would help conduct a survey of the building deciding if we need multiple exits or entry points into that building. All other entry points and exit points would have to have additional security. So whether that's alarms or notification when those doors are open, would be something needed

042to create, to have these systems be effective to meet that fidelity that we've talked about. The other piece we have discussed, we could create multiple exits and entry for staff using our badge system. So rather than just a badge in, it could be something like a badge in, badge out to monitor those. So there would be security needed, additional security needed at exits. There is security now, it just would have to look a little different. (Lynn) Then following up on what Chanel said, have you given any thought to, and including you and this Vicki, have you given any thought to doing a survey? Is it, does it make sense to stop and do a survey? And then of course the students are telling us that as they do their own survey, they're getting mixed results.

043So maybe it wouldn't be of any help. What are your thoughts about that? (Vicki) The initial proposal was to do a survey after we had piloted, after the students and staff and families had an opportunity to see it in action. (James) Andrew? (Andrew) I would say I'm also absolutely opposed to some, any kind of pilot that would impose closed lunch if that would happen. I don't think any pilot should be allowed to impose closed lunch on something that is a test that is a pilot, for sure. I don't like closing, forcing closed lunch anyways, but I think it would be absolutely, absolutely unfair to do that to students to say, well, we have to close your lunch because we're piloting, we're piloting this. I don't know if you're considering doing that for a pilot or

044not, but that is also a concern of mine. Yeah, I really don't think we're getting a false sense of security and protected from one type of thing where someone intending harm could just change the type of harm. Unfortunately, but that's, if we had a, if a device existed that was non-invasive and conclusively, you know, conclusively just rang a bell if there's a threat without invading privacy, sign me up, but that doesn't exist. (James) Thank you. Alex? (Alex) For the most part, the only thing I plan to say is I feel like we pretty much have all the information that we need. I mean, from a lot of different sources, you know, we're not the only people who have piloted these things or use these things. I feel like all the information we hope to glean

045is already there. And more importantly, all of the things that are problems that, quite frankly, we don't, you can't have answers to, aren't going to change. So to me, there's no reason to even pilot this. At this point, you have to make a decision whether we can and want to spend the money and try to do it, even though I don't think there's any possible way based on the information that we can do this to a useful point of fidelity, that there's any benefit to it. And you just got to decide whether or not you want to go down that road or not. So I don't even have to do that. I don't even personally think a pilot is worth it. I think you got to just ultimately be at the point of making the

046decision you want to make. And quite frankly, I think there's a lot more important things that we should be doing and spending our time on that can directly decrease the amount of negative and dangerous behavior in our schools and set the tone for a much more positive functional environment, many of which do not cost us any money. And there are solutions for putting in place. (James) I'm going to call the question. I think everyone's had an opportunity to speak. Okay, Lynn. (Lynn) I just want to get clarification about open campus because I noticed that David was saying these are the people we're going to staff this with in the morning. Does this mean that because the schools are open, the campuses are open, that when we do this pilot, it's going to have to be

047in effect all day long? (Vicki) Well, with open campus, we would recommend that there's that that it's running during lunch as well. (James) Okay, we're good. Okay, so the motion has not been altered. There's been no friendlies, whatever. So let's just go ahead and take a vote on the motion. (Kinsey) For some reason, my it did not record who made the motion on this one. Do you remember (James) Lynn made the read the motion I can't and Jeanette seconded. (Kinsey) And you're ready to take the vote. (James) We are. (Kinsey) Online voting is now open. (Alex) It does not appear to want to let me vote tonight. So I will just say no. (Kinsey) All votes have been entered and the motion did not carry the results of the individual board member votes are as

048follows. Meister No. Knill Yes. Mineau No. Gerlach No. Lyerly Yes. McCoy No. Becker No. (James) All right, thank you very much. So we're going to move to 7B recommendation to consolidate wage rates. Will someone please read the motion? Please. Lynn. (Lynn) I move that the wage rates for utility utility painter and facility technician positions be consolidated as presented be approved. (James) We have a second. (Samantha) Second (James) discussion. Kinsey. (Kinsey) online voting is now open. (Alex) I will be a yes. (Kinsey) All votes have been entered All votes have been entered in the motion is carried with all board members voting in favor. (James) Thank you 7C resolution of authorizing request for DPI school start date. Someone please read the motion. Yeah, Lynn. (Lynn) I move that the resolution authorizing the request to the

049Department of Public Instruction for school start date waiver for 2627 as presented be approved. (Samantha) Second. (James) Thank you. Discussion. Kinsey (Kinsey) online voting is now open. (Alex) I'll be yes. All votes have been entered in the motion is carried with all board members voting in favor. (James) Thank you. 7D 2627 school calendar. Lynn you want to read the motion. (Lynn) I move that the Board of Education adopt the 2026 2027 school calendar with a student start date of September 1st 2026 and student end date of June 4th 2026 with an adjustment to is that correct shouldn't that be June 4th 2027? (Vicki) Yes. (Lynn) Yes. Okay. Okay. With an with an adjustment to an August 31st 2026 start date and June 3rd 2027 end date should the Department of Public Instruction grant the boards

050waiver as presented be approved. (Samantha) Second. (James) Discussion. Kinsey (Kinsey) online voting is now open. All votes have been entered in the motion is carried with all board members voting in favor. (James) Okay. Moving to 7E revisions to the Board of Education Policy 170. Someone please read the motion. (Samantha) I move that the revisions to Board of Education Policy 170 meetings of the Board of Education as presented be approved. (Alex) Second. (James) Discussion. Kinsey (Kinsey) online voting is now open. All votes have been entered in the motion is carried the results of the individual board member votes are as follows. Becker. Yes. McCoy. Yes. Lyerly Yes. Gerlach. No. Mineau. Yes. Knill. Yes. Meister. Yes. (James) Thank you. Do 7F revisions to Board of Education Policy concerning class sizes. Someone please read the motion. (Alex) I

051move that the revisions of Board of Education Policy 343.2 class size rule 343.21 class size and school staffing guidelines and rule 343.22 class size procedures as presented be approved. -Second. (James) Discussion. Yes. Andrew. (Andrew) Thank you. So to me it looks when we're looking at this and when staff and the public is looking at this it certainly creates the appearance that some things stay the same and some cap languages is coming off. So while I would agree that the wording was not strong enough to say that an effort will be made to ensure that no individual class will exceed 30 students K5 and that's not a hard cap I think I would think 30 should be a hard cap for sure at elementary. You know what what do we say to people who are you

052know concerned that we're just we're just whittling away whatever little bit of restrictions there were on class size to begin with. (James) So I think you're putting that either David or to to pretend to Bayer. (Andrew) Yeah. (David) Thank you. Good evening board student leaders. Mr. Becker can I just ask that you restate your question for me please. (Andrew) Yes. So what are we what are we what are we doing here? I understand that the in the rule it was you know things about effort made probably didn't weren't very binding anyways but what what are we doing here and what what do we say to people who would look at this and say all right what I see on the red line is you removed some hard caps or some things that are perceived as

053a hard cap even though I know they're not a hard cap right so I guess I'm 342 343.2 rule one you know a one with the elementary right so to me it looked like we were saying the kindergarten through grade five class staffing guideline is one teacher to 25 students and we're really going to try hard to not go over 30 and we just crossed out we're really going to try hard not to go over 30. (David) Yeah thank you I appreciate you restating that question. The intent with the revisions to this policy and these rules is that the cap actually means the cap and so when we put in things that talk about 25 27 and 30 that that is what we staff up to and putting in the the or retaining the language

054of every effort will be made actually invites us beyond that cap and we're not interested in going there in in extremely rare cases the policy also points out what will happen to bring additional support to those classrooms if a resolution is nothing if nothing can be done except to put the 26th or the 31st person in that classroom so the intent was actually to take out the ambiguity and to reframe the caps as true caps. (James) Go ahead. (Andrew) Yeah I'm gonna follow up and I know as I know as a district we talked and I know that we are below you know meaning we are meaningfully below these numbers as an average across the district but the the problem for the problem for teachers and kids is not is not when the average is

05524 it's when it's when this classroom is is 29 or this school has two of each grade and there's 58 and if the cap was you know if the cap was 25 then it would be very clearly that that 59 would have to become 20-2019 right but does this does this say that that would have to happen or not really or not necessarily or in fact maybe okay maybe I'm making it too easy with with 59 if there's if there's 54 in a two grade school are we are we are we not going to in elementary are we not going to make two 27s and we are going to make three 18s (David) yeah that is a that's a good example to give because that's where we're much much closer to the cap of 25

056with that so at this point that would put us into those other considerations like what is the space available what are the unique needs of the 27 students in each of those two sections and how might we consider that is it a fifth grade section that's we're talking about or is it a second grade section that we're talking about so not a hard no that we wouldn't create two sections of I think 27 each in your example but I do just want to make it clear that the considerations would be in place for those things that I just named the needs of the students the space available the grade level all of those would be developmental developmentally determined (Andrew) so and again the you know when we're setting policy and rules we're not looking at

057you know just who you know I know I I doubt highly that the people in you know that the people in this room would sign off on one one teacher for you know 30 kindergarteners and a class I'm sure you would just split it probably I hopefully but again I just look at this I don't know what you know it's when we say guideline what is that what is what does that do and I guess to some extent it's no it's always it's always been a guideline since I've been on the board and that's fine except where we start having a couple of outlier really big classes and and just to be clear I'm not talking about I don't in any way mean uh-oh the 26th kid moved into that school in in you know

058mid-April and now we have to split it into two 13s obviously I don't mean that but I'm talking about beginning of your staffing so it would be nice if if I just don't know if I'm I don't know if I'm confident that this makes it less likely that we will have a section of 30 or if it makes it more likely or if it's or if it's indifferent to that unlikely possibility but remember whatever unlikely possibility it's an unlikely possibility times many schools in a large district so (James) Alex (Alex) can you just select if clarify and maybe solidify for me what the what was the prompt for editing this policy and what was the hope with the edits that were made from your perspective (David) yeah this is one of the I believe it's

059a last updated 2012 and so in our work of updating the 300 series this is one that just kind of get kept getting kicked down and so wanting to actually bring clarity to the language and and and address things like the ambiguity around phrases like every attempt will be made particularly as it is now December and next month we go into actually staffing and building these classroom structures wanting to have the board have one you know an opportunity a timely opportunity to address class size policy as noted in here there's no increase in any proposed caps at any grade level or any high school configuration (James) Lynn (Lynn) and then we'll so this is directly to you David as you go into this staffing next month and you start doing it using this if we

060were to approve this this is what you feel would work for you you feel confident this is what we ought to do (David) these are staffing ratios that are widely modeled and supported in lots of systems around the country you know there's there's research behind staffing models and clearly the need and opportunity to look to our youngest students and their classrooms and provide to the greatest extent possible the smallest class size as we can for the younger students is is the intent of this and so yeah this this reflects a reality that we believe we can staff from (James) Andrew Alex and then Andrew (Alex) I just want to point out that this is probably more of a work session thing so I apologize you know I have no problem approving what I see right

061now for now but I think big picture long term I definitely would love the opportunity and you know the coming number of semesters let's say a year so to maybe revisit some of this you know especially as we look at what some of the future decisions are we're gonna have to make considering potential budget class size all that kind of stuff because I still think there's a few parts that get left out and I see those play out in some of our schools all the time so I just think I'll leave it at that (james) Andrew (Andrew) thank you and also I'd also like to ask about agr schools and I understand that agr schools the state no longer requires agr schools to adhere to a staffing ratio which was 18 to 1 for for

062k3 but I guess I'd like I'd like to know why we wouldn't just voluntarily perhaps hold ourselves to that that standard because the with the point being that those are schools identified as kids needing extra support small class size being a helpful part of that with um even though I understand that the state doesn't require you to reduce class sizes in agr schools anymore (David) class size is one of the offered strategies for schools who and districts who receive agr money and it's important to recognize that the way agr is framed uh class size is framed in agr is as a strategy to improve academic outcomes and to close achievement gaps and so of the three strategies that are available to us when we have opportunities to staff at the lowest numbers that we can

063we often do you know claim that we are definitely targeting that class size strategy what is more effective in terms of elevating student performance is to bring more support to our teachers and that's why the instructional coaching strategy is one that will give us better opportunities to improve math and reading performance which are both things that are accountable in the agr accountability framework um are looking at the grade levels k through three where we have not used the agr strategy of class size we are still between the mid-nineteenths and 18s in terms of class sizes in all of our k three settings that's an average and yes you can probably find a second grade classroom that has 25 um but historically again our commitment has been to staff our lowest grades um as reasonably small

064as possible um and uh we'll be sharing that as our agr strategy or the coaching model is our agr strategy for the year ahead you do get the um twice a year updates for our agr performance and i'd encourage you to look back at the past um well as as far back as you want to look when class size was selected as a strategy we're going to move in a different direction in order to try to have a greater impact on that achievement for those students (James) Andrew, and then we'll try to call (Andrew) so yeah but why why wouldn't we if if we've been 19 to 20 anyways if we're still making effort in the agr schools to um you know we're gonna focus on coaching like i i just don't i just don't

065see where this um especially because you have the money has to come from somewhere and i like how would you if we're not using agr money to reduce class sizes to to 18 does that mean they're going to go up a little bit but but increase coaching i'm trying to i'm trying to think of whether i can address this with an attempt at an amendment it's because they're guy they're only guidelines anyways so that's that's what i'm struggling with here why wouldn't we have a lower guideline for k3 or a lower guideline for agr schools k3 since it's only a guideline that's not binding anyways (James) so it's uh the opinion of the chair that i think that we can take a vote on this particular motion unless you have a wording and now or

066if you (Andrew) um i'm gonna is there a is this is this now or never as far as staffing timeline i mean could there be an additional it is okay i'm i'm trying to get i'm being asked for a lot of multi-factor and things here to get in um i i i think i would like to try to make an amendment uh okay yeah i will move to i will move to amend uh the rule uh 340 343.2 rule one um by adding after the words after the sentence the district kindergarten through grade five class staffing guideline will be one teacher to 25 students i would like to add i move to amend this by adding the district kindergarten to grade three class staffing guideline for agr schools will be one teacher to 18 students

067i move that as an amendment and then i'll speak briefly to my amendment (James) so can you actually restate where that is is in (Andrew) right so in 343.2 rule one rule one a elementary k5 staffing number one so the district shall attempt to keep elementary school class so ratios reasonable numbers the district kindergarten so right before the the stricken line (James) yep you want to (Andrew) so it'll be the district kindergarten grade five staff classing class staffing guideline will be one teacher 25 students and then the district kindergarten to grade three class staffing guideline for agr schools will be one teacher to 18 students (Alex) i'll second (James) discussion Lynn. (Lynn) i would like to know how you feel about that please (David) what that motion essentially does is have the board select the

068agr strategy that we'll be using to improve academic outcomes in our agr schools (James) um Sam and then Jeanette. (Sam) just to clarify here um one of as you said it's a strategy out of three possible um not a requirement of that particular not a requirement of that particular program correct um in terms of i noticed in the actual policy 343.2 in the implementation there was an addition under class size considerations number nine saying altering the class size as a result of participation in governmental programs that require it so if it ever did become a requirement of that program i think this is our our this is our mechanism to ensure that that's being met um i i know some of the intent of updating the policy also was to remove specific program language out

069of here and because state level programs federal programs change over time so there were the removal of like the sage program and those things um and i just i don't know that i'm necessarily comfortable tying all of our policy language to very specific state level programming or government programming that has the ability to adapt and shift um so i think having that class size consideration number nine a nine on there i'm fine with but again i just wanted to verify that class size is one of the possible strategies and not a requirement of that program is that correct (David) that's correct (James) okay i'm going to so Jeanette i know i could call on you but i really should let andrew speak to his motion (Andrew) right so this is a this is a guideline

070it's not a it's not a binding cap so my understanding is agr when it was a state state directed program it was a pretty much a binding cap at 18 correct if you had um if you had 20 students in a single grade school it got a little dicey right i mean (David) yeah you had to claim a different strategy if you were not meeting the 18 hard and fast (Andrew) so i'm wondering how this guideline of 18 saying that we're still gonna we're gonna make at least suggesting we're gonna make extra effort to keep it small in those schools if we're running an average of 19 anyways unless unless we're planning to increase class size to have more coaches and if that's um i don't i don't think this is binding enough to cause

071a problem unless there is i think if i said it as a hard if i just made a motion to reinstate the agr hard cap i think i would be choosing your strategy here i think i'm expressing a a strong preference to not let it get too high (James) okay so i think we've heard from the motion author we had discussion can we call the question on the amendment right Kinsey. (Kinsey) McCoy (Laura) no (Kinsey) Gerlach (Lynn) no (Kinsey) Knill (Jeanette) no (Kinsey) Meister (Samantha) no (Kinsey) Becker (Andrew) aye (Kinsey) Mineau (Alex) yes (Kinsey) Lyerly. (James) no (Kinsey) motion fails (James) okay let's uh any further discussion on the first the original motion right Kinsey. (Kinsey) online voting is now open all votes have been entered and the motion is carried the results of the

072individual individual board member votes are as follows Meister yes Knill yes Mineau yes Gerlach yes Lyerly yes McCoy yes Becker no. (James) thank you we'll move to 7g revisions to board of education policy 363.5 so please read the motion Lynn. (Lynn) I move that the revisions to board of education policy i move that the revisions to board of education policy 363.5 internet filtering as presented be approved (Alex) second (James) discussion Andrew (Andrew) yeah my apologies for not being able to be at the work session last time because (James) no worry (Andrew) very brief um a very brief explanation for why we would get rid of the committee please (James) No -He's just thinking for Davis technology. (James) Don't say that. [LAUGHTER] -Try it out. Get that one. (James) Or you can go to the public

073forum. Being at the public forum. (Amy) Oh, it was me. It was user error. You guys-- (James) We're not going to say anything about that. Welcome, Amy, executive director of information technology. (Amy) Yes. Please know which button to use. I'm going to hang here by you anyway. Andrew, it's a good question. We have certain federal laws, right? We have to follow e-rate, which tells us we need to follow COPPA and FERPA and so on and so forth. And those rules note what we have to filter. So right now, we filter categories based upon those regulations. And we bring a parent committee together to review the categories that we filter in, that we block, and we allow content to come through. So although we bring a committee together, there isn't really anything the committee can do.

074So for example, topics that we block, right? Anywhere from nudity, dating, sexual, education, weaponry, right? Things like that. We can't unblock those categories. So we've found over the years that the committee isn't functioning the way I believe it was originally intended to to back in 2021, I think is when the committee came into play. (Andrew) I guess I would say to that maybe the committee would find itself unable to override certain things. But I think it's still better to have a committee of technology staff, administrators, educators, parent, and student than to not have it, especially if you have sometimes put a parent committee together anyways. (Vicki) I think this policies, the committee was specific for filtering. There might be other opportunity to bring a group like that together to address different things. (Amy) Yeah, correct.

075It was just to look at the categories that we're filtering. And if we should filter or not filter. So every year we would go through the list of these are the things we are blocking. The other things are the things we're monitoring. Does anybody want to make any changes? We haven't had changes made since 2022. (Andrew) OK, I'm going to vote no. I think I just prefer the committee to exist. A committee that exists in writing is more real than a committee that would be called ad hoc if there's interest. So I don't think there's-- I have no fault with the reasoning behind it. I just think it's better to keep the committee. And rather than spend the time on amendments and snipping out part of it, I'm just going to vote no. (James) Other

076discussion? All right, thank you. Kinsey. (Kinsey) Online voting is now open. [AUDIO OUT] All votes have been entered and the motion is carried. The results of the individual board member votes are as follows. Becker, no. McCoy, yes. Lyerly, yes. Gerlach, yes. Mineau, yes. Knill, yes. Meister, yes. (James) Thank you, everybody. That brings us to the end of this public meeting agenda. We're going to adjourn into closed session. Lynn, would you please read the motion? (Lynn) I move that the board convene into closed session pursuant to Wisconsin statute 19.85, section 1G, confirm with legal counsel for the governmental body who is rendering oral or written advice concerning strategy to be adopted by the body with respect to litigation in which it is or is likely to become involved to wit potential litigation matters regarding the district.

077(Jeanette) Second. (James) I have a second discussion. [AUDIO OUT] Kinsey. (Kinsey) Meister, (Samantha) yes. (Kinsey) Knill, (Jeanette) yes. (Kinsey) Mineau, (Alex) yes. (Kinsey) Gerlach, (Lynn) yes. (Kinsey) Lyerly, (James) yes. (Kinsey) McCoy, (Laura) yes. (Kinsey) Becker, (Andrew) yes. (James) Board members, let's take it and be in recess until 7.30. Try to give us seven or so minutes to take a break. Thank you. We are adjourned into closed session. All right.

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