HUHS Board of Education Meeting - December 17, 2025

001Good evening everyone. It is 5:45. I'm going to call this meeting to order and get things started while Tracy gets settled here. Uh Marie, do you have our statement of meeting notice? >> Thank you. And then we will move on to our roll call >> here. Here, >> here. >> All right. And we'll stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I think the microphone might be off. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands nationy and justice for all. Yes, I am. Thank you for helping us with the pledge this evening. Um, is there a motion by a board member to adopt the agenda? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor of confirming the

002agenda as presented signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> Any post? Say n. And that carries. We'll roll on with the agenda as presented. Next on our agenda is our public comment section. Did we have anyone sign up to address the board this evening? Okay, we did not. So, thank you very much. We're going to go next to our recognitions. Okay. And we get to start out with the December Rotary students of the month. Our first Rotary student of the month is Emma Roachen. Super excited to talk about these students tonight as always. So, Emma has a GPA of 4.273. 273 and is ranked ninth in her class and has taken many AP and honors courses including AP US govern politics, AP US history, psychology, microeconomics, macroeconomics, English and language composition, pre-calculus as well

003as the AP stats, physics, uh the CAP Spanish 5 and six, CAP women in literature, um as well as honors English one and two. She's also extremely involved in both the high school and the community overall. So within HUHS, she has been in the math club and was the director of community service since her freshman year where she built a connection with Majestic Heights, a local senior living community. Emma is also heavily involved in First Robotics where she has been the business team lead and the first ambassador for HUS team 1091. She also serves on the highly selective first Wisconsin student board of directors where she is drafting a local advocacy toolkit to help the first teams throughout Wisconsin engage in local advocacy. Emma is also the co-founder and president of the international awareness club,

004the stage manager in the HUHS musical, on the student council executive board, a varsity tennis player, a peers for peers member, a sources of strength member, and a school board representative. in the community. She serves on the Washington County Youth Leadership Board, works as a lifeguard and swim instructor, interns in the Washington County Community Development Department, has previously interned in the Washington County Executives Office, and is an alumnest of the American Legion Auxiliary, Badger Girl State. Emma is very grateful to her family and friends, her teachers at both Aaron and Huhs and the Hartford Rot Rotary Club for recognizing her and she will share a few additional pieces of information about herself and the future. >> All right, thank you so much you guys. This is this really means a lot. I mean, getting to

005see all the wonderful seniors before me do this um as I've been here like every month and then just being able to do this myself is just really so cool and just it's a big honor for me to do this. So, my plans after high school are to attend a private Jesuit or Catholic university um to study political science um potentially double majoring in Spanish on the pre-law track with hopes to become a district attorney. Um, my favorite memory from HHS, um, one is directly related to HHS and one is not. The one directly related to HHS, um, is my senior tennis season. We had eight of our 10 varsity players advance from subsectionals to sectionals this year and it was just a really amazing experience with my team and we just had such a

006great group of girls this year. Um, and then my like not directly related to HS is ALABGS. Um, that was mentioned. Um, it was truly a transformative week at W Ash Oshkosh and I would recommend for anyone to do it. Um, and advice that I would give to incoming freshmen is get involved and be open to things that might scare you. Um, I'll use the anecdote of ALABGS. I had never really been away from my parents before for as long as I was um before I did ALA BGS and I was so nervous to go. Like I cried when my parents left um on the Sunday when they dropped me off, but an hour in I was sold and it was the best experience of my life. So, thank you guys. >> Thank you, Emma.

007Our next Rotary student of the month is Kora Wilson. Congratulations to Kora as well. She has a passion for deep academic understanding of the world, specifically through analytical and scientific lenses. By virtue of many of the AP classes and other advanced courses offered here, Kora has been able to thoroughly explore her passions by taking a variety of AP courses such as uh pre-calculus, English language composition, statistics, calculus A, B and BC, microeconomics, macroeconomics, physics, biology, chemistry in which she has performed very well in. She's also taken and passed distinguished in the project lead the way principles biomedical science and human biology or human body systems courses. Kora's high admiration for her academics provides her with a 4.298 GPA, raking her sixth among her 316 classmates. Kora stays busy year round and as a two-time captain

008of the girls swim team. She also is the manager for the boys swim team and a pioneer of HUHS's lacrosse team. She serves the community through her positions as the president of the concert choir, president of peer peers for peers and executive councilwoman in the National Honor Society. Kora also participates in math club math team sources of strength as well as coaches novice level swimming lessons. During the summer months, she stays busy working full-time for the Hartford local family-owned factory, Lee Precision. Throughout her high school career, Cor has had the opportunity in honor of singing with the Wisconsin School Music Association State Honors Choir, competing in the WIA Girls Swimming State Championship two times each year, qualifying in two events, and being named a College Board National Recognition Program Award recipient. Kora has worked tirelessly

009and is extremely grateful to have her hard work honored by HHS and the Rotary Club. And now Kora will tell you a bit more about herself and her future. Hello. Sorry, I'm a little taller than Emma. Um, first of all, I want to thank you guys so much for having me here today. Um, this is my first board meeting. I'm a little excited, but I'm very grateful to be here to be able to talk about myself. Um, so my plans after high school are to go to a university. I'm not sure where I'm going to attend yet. Marquette comes out on Friday though, so fingers crossed for me. But I plan to study biomedical engineering. And I hope to continue on to my MERS and my PhD as my end goal is to pursue my

010own research and hopefully eventually teach as a professor at a university so I can inspire students like me. Um my favorite memory at HHS has to be like Dr. Gan stated going to um WIAA state for swim. Um many of you guys know I have two older sisters who have also stood before you as a Rotary student and they had the honor of also competing at these state swimming events. So, I've been a super fan for a while, and being able to be in the shoes of my biggest inspirations was just really a dream come true. Advice I would give to incoming freshmen is to not be afraid of failure. Failure is what has held me behind so many times, but you have to jump into the deep end because, you know, sometimes you will

011fall flat on your face, but that's not what counts. that counts is how you get back up from falling. And I think high school is the perfect opportunity to fall flat on your face because you have so many people around you that care about you and are there to support you and they will help you get back up. So take the risk, take the chance, try the fun thing you're scared of, and if you fall, it's okay because you'll get back up. Thank you. >> Thank you, Kora. So, we will now move into donations. And our first donation is well, first of all, I'll just say a large thank you on behalf of the board and our larger HUHS family. We really want to thank Wells Construction for the generous donation to the technology and

012engineering education department of a partial pre-cast wall for educational purposes. And the estimated cost of that donation is $30,000. So, a huge thank you um to Wells as well as thank you to Lisa Jalen for making that connection possible. Um this will just be great for for our students. So, thank you. Thank you. Our second donation on behalf of the board and the HUS family, we would like to thank Mr. and Miss Lawson of Hammerstone Tool, Inc. and Cornell Tool for their generous donation of equipment and material. Um Hammerstone Tool Inc. donate a custom toolbox. Think car scan tool with a subscription as well as accessories valued at $11,30069 for auto classes and Cornwall Tool donated tools valued at $10,74725 to Skills USA. So, a huge thank you to the Lost Fam Law family for

013their extremely generous donation of over $22,000. These are just amazing pieces for our students and we are truly truly grateful. Our third donation tonight is for the wrestling club. The generous donation of 12 singlets to be used for our varsity championship matches. And the estimated cost of that donation is $1,35960. So again, thank you greatly. just amazed at the generosity um continued from our community is is just truly amazing. So, thank you. Thank you again. >> Thank you, Dr. Gain. I echo I echo that sentiment. What a great community we have. Congratulations to our Rotary students and thank you for all the donations that we got to recognize this evening. Um next on our agenda is our consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the items on the consent agenda? >> So moved. >>

014Motion by Nolan Jacket. Is there a second? >> Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any conversation or discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor of approving the items on the consent agenda signify by saying I. I. >> I. >> Any oppose say nay. And that carries. That has been approved. Uh next we have our reports. Our first report this evening is from our student board reps. Hello again. All right. Um so I will be talking um about both of the topics on the board today as Owen's not here. So I'll start with the winter music performances. Um they were both great shows um with a continued tradition of excellence as always from the choir on the 4th and the band and orchestra on the 10th. Thank you to all those who

015came and it was a wonderful show. Um and the oral zone an update on that as I kind of talked about last month. Um I discussed with Mr. Dodie about reinstating the oral zone um and more kind of specifics about what programs will be offered through that program which includes like strategies to improve mindset skills, general coping strategies and group activities. Um, and this will begin in the second semester and will be held in the CCC. Um, and one of the largest challenges we identified was getting the word out. So, Miss Lamb, um, she's really kind of the brainchild of this part of the operation. Um, she created a draft of a weekly calendar for the TVs um, around the school so that students would know what's happening in those areas that we offer like

016the CCC, the drama, and the library. um because there are so many opportunities for other enrichment opportunities that kids don't know about in the school. So, I think this will be really helpful to kind of get students more aware of what awesome resources we have here. Um we're going to be discussing just about the ACT prep sessions that we're currently working on. Um these would take place during travel of Tday beginning the second semester. There will be sessions specific to each subject area of the ACT, science, math, English, writing, and reading. Um today, um during OT, we met with Mrs. Smith to discuss the planning and scheduling of these prep sessions. We're looking to start the week of January 26th. Um we came up with the idea to hold sessions for all of the different

017subjects every day of the week during travel OT to ensure that the students have all possible opportunities to get the help where they need it. And right now we're working on a document for the teachers to for them to select when they're available to help teach the prep sessions and what they want to teach. And we're also working on a flyer to go around the school on the TVs for when the sessions are confirmed and dates are set. So to get the word out to the kids and hopefully get good results from that. Uh I'll be talking about some future plans for the college and career center and the library. So as Emma mentioned, some things happening in the library, college and career center and the drama lecture hall will be advertised to students with

018the help of a OT weekly schedule that will be plastered on the TVs around the school. So each day activities being held during OT in these three areas will be displayed. So for example in the college and career center uh it'll um utilize oral zone which is the mental health initiative Emma's been working on and students will be able to see this and sign up for the session if interested. This also includes college speakers tutoring and as Miss uh Barry has suggested community volunteers etc. Okay. So, this allows the students to um so we want the students to like know and access the opportunities that we as HHS offer within our large library and the drama le and utilize them for their benefits and we're really excited for all these but we have a certain

019bias towards our me and Olivia's tutoring. Um, we're doing a tutoring Tuesday that we thought of and it's offered weekly for students for voluntary signup as well as welcoming atmosphere in the college and career center that Lily's been working on. Um, so me and Matilda sent out a survey for the class of 2029 and we gathered feedback and this has not been done by any other board reps before and it included questions to get the freshman classes thoughts and ideas for the future. It was sent out on Monday and we have gotten 60 responses so far. So, we've gotten really good feedback and there were many, many great answers about new class ideas, new club ideas, and improvements the 2029 class would like to see. And we'll analyze this data and update you guys in

020the future. >> Do we have any comments or questions from the board? >> I would just like to say way to go. Um, we heard some really great bits of information tonight. Um, I love that the freshman class is already putting their voice out there and giving great responses. So, kudos to all of you for the work that you do and thank you for sharing with us. Thank you guys as always. Uh, next item for reports is our referendum funded projects update from Mr. Ethan Sipple. >> Hello. Hello. Okay. Hello again. Um the desk the dust has kind of settled on all of the bid packages and some contracts and getting everybody in board for the referendum. So, we thought a quick update just on how everything's looking. um worked this past week with Stacy

021and Rob to get a format that we can bring to you anytime we update to just keep continuing to track progress, track our savings, track how things are going um on the financial side and then a quick update on uh the Bitpack 5 edition that we're working on. So that was my agenda. Go through the financial piece, take a look at uh some a picture and where we're at with the addition and then get into any questions. So here uh kind of two tables that look at the top half being the the hard construction costs associated with what we're doing including some of those risk reserves that we have built in. So for example uh in bid package one the GMP amount we had how much we've built to date and how far complete we

022are. The reason this isn't, you know, fully 100% is there's a couple pieces of electrical equipment that we have to do in the summer of 2026 just based on phasing and procurement from that piece. So we're we're as far as we can be with bid package one right now and bid package 2 is tracking right alongside it. These buildate numbers are from the last month's billing. So, uh, as of right now, schedule-wise for the bid package 2, which is the pool repairs and upgrades. Um, right now, as of Friday, the flooring will be done, and we are shooting to fill the pool on Friday, the following Friday, uh, the day after Christmas. The reason being, we need to do a 72-hour test on the water to make sure that it's not going anywhere it's not

023supposed to be. We're confident that we've done everything we needed to and this is kind of the the final check before um we turn over all the final parts and pieces in that test time. Things we're doing schedule-wise, our reassembling bleachers, doing the final light fixture installs, our punch list, our final commissioning, all those kinds of things um to get this turned over to uh the basically turn on the pool chemical systems, which is a process of uh balancing getting all the water back to safe levels. When we say filling the pool, it's it's going to be just just water, cold water. It's not going to be treated, not safe for anybody to go into. But um we are tracking right on schedule with where we expect it to be for that. And uh the

024reason I bring up those two bid packages is if you look at the percent complete versus the amount of our risk reserves remaining, we did very well. We did not encounter some of the problems that we had accounted for such as large voids underneath the slab deck because of the leak. We didn't know. We knew there was air space in places it shouldn't have been. We didn't have to fill it in. We didn't have to remediate. A lot of things didn't have to happen there, especially in the pool piece. So, we were in a very good position getting through those first two bid packages. And the final three parts and pieces, uh, no cost has been incurred yet. So overall with bid packages one through five, we are about 17.9% complete with and the 92%

025number is skewed because we haven't really begun or gotten into bid package five yet, but doing very well on the risk reserve side. Any questions in that section? Um the below the line piece, this is all of the um other uh financial costs that this project incurs um don't necess necessarily um aren't a material or something being installed by a subcontractor. Um the way things are going there, it's it's pretty much right on track. Um I would be comparing the 17 to the 21 that lines up. And once you come down all the way to the bottom, we're looking at about 1.4 in savings under the referendum, which is a great spot to be questions. It's a really good spot. >> Looks like we're all good. >> About a fifth of the way through. >>

026Awesome. >> Then on bid package five, we are in the middle of pouring our addition foundations. We're going to be working The cold snap didn't really affect us too much. We did have a couple spots where it actually got through all of our ground thaw and we had an inch or two of frost that we had to take care of. Um, you can't pour on ground that's less than 40 degrees. Otherwise, when it thaws underneath what you just poured for concrete, it it creates problems down the line. So, but that was a like an eight hours of heating something up, it wasn't a very big deal. Um, tomorrow we're set to actually pour this section of wall along the existing building and back fill that. And then, um, that's kind of the next step for

027what comes next, which is masonry wall starting to go up. Working our way through all of that. Any questions? That's a pretty short update this week. Um, if any questions come up after or before, please reach out to the team and we can uh address them. >> Just just wanted to thank you Ethan and CJ Schmidt and Bray and our just for working so closely with our core planning team that meets regularly. Uh just truly appreciate it. >> Thank you. And thank you for being here for updates and including pictures as well. >> Yeah, >> it's wonderful how we've been along on the journey >> so much so far. So, we really appreciate that. Thank you. >> Right on. All right. Thank you everyone. >> Thank you. Next report is our January 2026 referendum general

028obligation promisory note sale discussion from Mr. Nelson. >> So today I have uh two different people that are going to speak to this. Um first is uh Mr. Mike Clark from Robert W. Baird is going to talk through the the process of issuing uh the next uh the final amount of the 25.8. So, as you recall, last April, uh, last December, excuse me, last February, we had the meeting to approve it, uh, the $14 million, uh, the first draw on the money of the 25.8. Um, and now we're going to do the second, which will bring the rest of that, the 11.8 million. So, I've asked Mike to just talk through that process at the next board meeting in January. that morning they'll be going through the actual sale um where they're posting it and

029getting the bids and then bring that to the board for approval that night uh once the board approves that uh within a few weeks time will actually receive those dollars. And then the second person that's here to talk is Mr. Brett Weeden from PTMA. Uh Brett was here last year as well. He'll talk about uh the current 14 million, the uh how it's have been invested, um our estimated uh interest income on that money, and then talk about how we'll move forward with the 11.8. So, with that, I'll turn it over to Mike. >> Good evening. Um go to the next slide if you could. Uh so, we're in really good shape in terms of the financing. Um, the financing, just to backtrack a little bit, we broke into two pieces because there were there

030are some IRS requirements in terms of how soon you spend the money. The IRS allows you to issue tax exempt debt, but they like you to spend that money in timely fashion. At the time, there were some arbitrage concern and Brent probably can address that. That's less of a concern now. At the time, we had an inverted yield curve, meaning the shorter term rates were actually higher than some of the longer term rates, which resulted in earning more money on your unspent proceeds, which is great, but again, the IRS put some limitations on that. So, um, because of the spending schedule for the project and some arbitrage concerns, we looked at doing two issues. So, we're here to talk about the second issue. Uh and actually rates one more comment on the rates. Uh rates

031have actually worked out well. Uh on the first issue, the majority of the maturities were on the longer end. And as I mentioned, the shorter end of the yield curve was actually higher, meaning the interest rates were shorter. And so now we're coming back in to fill that shorter end. And that shorter end has dropped, which I'm sure Brent will expand on on the investment side as well. So things have worked out well. You know, I'd like to say it was planned that way, but I always tell people if I could tell you where interest rates are going to be a year from now at I'd have a different job and probably not be standing here before you tonight. So, um, now if you could go to the next. So, we again we have the

03214 million in place and just as a reminder, the district I'm sure met the initial small requirement, but has three years to spend those dollars. So, three years from uh April to uh 25. And again, on this one, because it's below $15 million in the calendar year of 26, you'll have three dollar three years to spend those dollars. Again, we do not anticipate taking that long, but you do have that that ability. Uh and so we have a hypothetical interest rate right now of 3.6% for the rate we're hoping to achieve in the spring. That's a little conservative actually what we're seeing. So hopefully it'll come a little bit better than that. And you can see as I mentioned we're kind of filling in the two if you take the two maturities together. The payments

033are fairly consistent across the board. Um and in terms of we also take into account state aid impact which you know the district has negativeed. So that that that cost is factored in in terms of projected tax rate impact. Uh we were projecting 37 cents. Now we're projecting 34 cents when all said and done. U excuse me the max is 37 average of 34. The referendum is 45 cents and and we'll be coming in eight cents below that. Hopefully a little bit better. And that results in almost 3.4 $3.5 million less in interest cost for the taxpayers. And then the last slide we have is just kind of a timeline. There's a lot of things in here. We've already began preparation for the documents. It's a little easier when we had fairly recent sale to

034just update documents. We have to go through the rating process again. Um and those again won't be quite as thorough because it's a we have a recent rating to work off of. Uh but again, we anticipate taking bids the morning of January 21st and having those bids presented to the board that evening for approval. Anticipated settlement date, February 11th. Um that that's the date the district would receive the funds. Are there any questions I can address in terms of the process or the final borrowing. >> No, looks like we don't have any. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um, thank you everybody. Appreciate it. Uh, the opportunity to stand before you tonight. Uh, Brett weed in once again with PTMA Financial. So, um, kind of to dovtail on Mike's comments, uh, we work

035with the district on the investment side of the bond proceeds that you've received. So, um, I don't know if I'm if I should be driving or if somebody wants to, um, take the lead on switching slides, but I certainly can do that or prompt. There we go. Look at that. Um, so don't want to harp on these next two slides that in depth, but I think there may have been some changeover. So, just brief introduction. um you know formerly PMA we've been serving the public sector for 40 years um and certainly in the construct of this discussion here coming before you on the municipal advisory side working with bond proceeds management so I've been at PMA for 20 years and recently we had a merger with public trust advisors hence the the new name of

036PTMA so uh public treasury management um and advisory solutions so Um and the connection then with WHISK or the Wisconsin Investment Series Cooperative which the district is a member of uh PTMA serves as the administrator and marketer of the fund. So that's why there's um kind of the different the different acronyms there so you get familiar with that. But through Wisconsin Investment Series Cooperative uh Hartford Union then had bond proceeds and we worked with the district to look at the draw schedule that CG Schmidt provided. certainly working with Mike and his team on the financing side and you know that that team approach we come together and say okay what's suitable and appropriate for investment of the funds we'll kind of get into those details a little bit later here but just um as your

037representative I'm kind of on the front end working with Rob and his team and then certainly CG Schmidt and Mike as we move forward with the um the investment and the bond proceeds management with those dollars and so kind of looking back, right? You we had the $25.8 million project. Um the first issue was 14 million as Mike had alluded to earlier due to IRS constraints. So long as you're not um coming to market with over 15 million in tax exempt borrowing every calendar year, you're really deemed as what's known as small issuer. And so without getting too crazy with arbitrage, I know I don't want to put anybody to sleep here tonight, but there's two arms of it. One is rebate. So, by virtue of being under that small issuer status for the 14

038million, rebate's not an issue, but you have a three-year temporary period where the IRS says if you have money left over three years after closing, which was 4225 in this issue. So, if you had money theoretically speaking in April of 2028, then we need to talk about some restrictions. But looking at the draw schedule, I don't think that there would be any issue there. Just, you know, to be transparent on that front. The bond yield, the arbitrage yield, you can see there was 98 the district thankfully you're earning above that for the first issue. We'll get to that a little bit more in detail. Um and then issue number two which Mike had mentioned we've got the sale date of January 21st and I apologize I didn't have the closing date on here but it's

039the money will be received on February 11th. So that's when we have that conversation to say, "All right, how can we invest these next dollars?" And then looking at kind of more of the the details on what transpired with the $14 million investment going back to April of 2025, um on behalf of the district, we'll go out and look at all local banks, um all states allowable investment vehicles for investment of the bond proceeds. So not too super exciting, right? It's just CDs, government agencies, treasury notes, bills, nothing too exciting, but obviously focusing on safety first, liquidity second, yield third, right? So, but you can see some of the the locals that were in the mix. Bank 59 certainly was a large player and they invested direct, which is great. Um, a very important institution

040here in the community. We realized that Forte Bank had a part in the investment. some other folks that were on the list, they passed um or maybe they offered rates and they were too low, but certainly they're in the mix moving forward with the next issuance. Um and then just a snapshot of kind of the overall portfolio. You can see 50% of the portfolio was invested locally with Bank 59, 30% of which stayed liquid with our fund to help provide that uh liquidity in case the draw schedule were to speed up um throughout time. and then 20% in FDIC FDIC insured banks um through WHISK. And then finally, kind of just to give you guys some perspective as well, at the time of the first issuance, there's an estimated call it 470,000 that was estimated

041for interest earnings. We came in a little bit above that. So just north of 515,000 through um end of November to date. So, we we continually have that updated conversation um you know with administration to kind of give everybody an update on investment earnings and certainly kind of keeping an eye on arbitrage. But once again, I think the arbitrage doesn't look like it'd be an issue and the Fed funds effective rate kind of where we see short-term rates. That was right before the Fed decision on uh December 11th. So that has come down 25 basis points or coming to 3 um 64 is where we're kind of sitting on the short end of the yield curve. Just a level set as well. Lot going on here. I apologize but once again it kind of just

042shows you the reporting that happens on a monthly basis for the district. This is provided for the first issue of the 14 million. This will also be provided for the 11.8 once we're able to get that portfolio in place. Um but really kind of just gives you guys a snapshot of what what we're looking at from the interest earning standpoint and from an IRS regulation standpoint and I apologize this is um really hard to read and I you know would be hardressed to even read it with my readers if I had them with me but long story short when we look at the proposed um investment here and this is a snapshot as of the 11th um so shortly thereafter that Fed decision certainly these rates could potentially come down but kind of thinking If

043this were to be executed, let's say on the 11th, you'd probably be somewhere north of 237,000 in interest earnings for the next round of proceeds. But please know that this is not a live bid response, if you will. So those locals haven't been contacted. This is just to say, hey, listen, let's look at a snapshot of investing these dollars for 6 to9 months. What could we conceivably get in the market as of that point in time? And so I feel like this may be a little bit of an aggressive bid in that we had the Fed decision with rates coming down, but this was a snapshot as of December. And so this certainly could change right as we get to um the portfolio um you know um set up here in February of 2026. So

044yeah, overall like I said, arbitrage um looking at rebate, you guys are in good standing from that perspective. And then overall investment earnings, you're doing great. of local involvement. So, we're we really, like I said, appreciate the opportunity to work with the district. Um, and certainly we'll um be happy to come back and talk about progress with uh the next issuance as well. So, I don't know, Rob, if there's anything else you want me to touch on, but um if there's any questions, certainly willing to to field those now. >> Any questions or comments from board members? Thank you very much to both of you for presenting tonight. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Our next report is our 2024 2025 audit report from Mr. Rob Nelson. >> So I have uh Mr. Paul France

045here from uh Baker Tilly, our audit firm, and asked him to provide an update from our audit that was completed for the 2024 2025 school year. So Paul, >> thanks Rob. Good evening everyone. Good to see you. Um As Rob mentioned, Paul France, principal with Baker Tilly in Milwaukee, uh to share the results of your June 30, 2025 audit. Included in your packet tonight are three electronic documents. Uh one being the financial statements, another being an audit communication letter uh that houses some required communications that we need to have with you as the governing body. And third, a single audit report related to the federal and state grants that the district received and expended during uh last fiscal year. Happy to share that there's no surprises coming to my presentation. It was a very clean,

046well-run, efficient audit. Um, highlighted very um I want to highlight Rob and Jenny and their support team in the process. Um, you know, I've spoken with with your board in the past and discussed concerns and and issues throughout the the audit process and I'm happy to say that nothing to that extent existed during the course of the audit. Um, any issue that we've raised of concern over the years have been taken very seriously by Robin and and Jenny and team and and really have made significant strides in managing the day-to-day operations and you having good financial data at your fingertips to make the decisions that you need to as a board. So, while I could speak to June 30th, um, I think you have much more current information at your fingertips to be making the

047decisions that you need. That's I think from my standpoint the best thing that I can tell you in that. So we did express an unmodified opinion on the uh financial statements in the single audit. What that tells you uh is that all necessary disclosures within that financial statement document have been included that all necessary accounting principles have been adopted and applied consistently year-over-year and that the document itself is free of material in the statement. So when you hire an external auditor ultimately the that you're looking to hear clean bill of health. Within that financial statement document, I'll just highlight a few financial numbers for you. Your general fund, your main operating fund, end of the year with just under $7.8 million of fund balance. That fund balance is broken down into a couple buckets to

048help you understand what's available for spending. About $100,000 in restricted fund balance. That again is an outside source. uh that requires that money to be spent for a specific purpose. So, we carve that out. Uh you have about $550,000 of assigned fund balance. Assignments meaning that management or the the board have made a decision to kind of set some money aside for future possible expenditures. Ultimately, all of these buckets get you into your unassigned category, which is your really your reserve or your savings account, the rainy day fund of the the operating fund, which at the end of the year was just uh above $7.1 million. I like to take that that unassigned category and divide it by your operating costs to come up with a percentage to kind of put a a health of

049your reserves um and kind of weigh in a little bit on on where you sit. Um, so taking that 7.1 divided by your about $18.5 million of budgeted operating expenditures, you come up with a percentage about 39%. I look for my communities and school districts to be at least somewhere between 10 to 25%. So strong financial reserve, no concerns that you're above. I have communities that are well below 10% and well above 25%. It's just being aware of what that reserve amount is and being comfortable where you want it to to sit. So, as long as you're discussing how we could be using that or what the purpose of of having that level of of comfort there is, there's certainly no concern in having 39% or north of of that. When you put together your

050budget for 2425, you'd plan to use a little bit of fund balance about about $50,000ish. you actually ended up adding to fund balance about $675,000. Uh so you had some operating savings, you had some additional revenues come in. So it was a very positive year uh in your general fund. Uh the only other exciting exciting thing within the financial statements this year was your capital project fund that we saw the $14 million come in. Um obviously in our audit there isn't a ton of expenditures yet but uh ultimately here in the presentations before there's a lot of exciting things going on uh in the future future audits within the single audit. Um so a single audit is anytime that a district uh receives more than $750,000 of federal grant dollars. Uh you are required to

051have a compliance audit. And because uh we're in Wisconsin any you have a federal single audit, you also get a state single audit. So, uh also issued an unmodified opinion over that that audit um had no um compliance findings related to the work that we we did over that. We do continue to have two earmarked material weaknesses due to size and cost benefit decisions that the the district have made. not uh unusual um to have your auditors prepare the financial statements and to have lack of segregation of duties over uh um accounting functions. Part of our responsibility is just to make you aware that you've made some costbenefit decisions to outsource some of that and ultimately run a lean ship. Certainly not telling you that you need to go hire and spend spend money. It's

052more or less to make you aware that you've made that decision so that you do the due diligence in what management provides you. 95% of the clients that I work with have these comments. Um, additionally, um, in that other document I me mentioned the required communications, um, that houses some description about responsibilities of ours and management. Nothing unusual in there, but does lay that out for you. Additionally in there we talk about the audit plan where we spent our time in conducting our work. Um what the thought process was with that we we do start with a a riskbased approach start starting very basic in general for all governments when we look at the the industry governments and school districts that that is and evaluate the significant transaction cycles of of the entity that we're

053auditing. So how do you pay bills? How do you pay payroll? How do you collect cash? looking for areas of risk in in those procedures and controls on the day-to-day aspects. If we come across something, we insert additional audit procedures and and ultimately address that risk through through those steps. Happy to note that we did not identify any unusual risks through that process. Our audit plan was what we would have expected to start with and had we identified risks or areas of concern in the controls, we would communicate that within this document. And short of what I've already discussed with the lack of segregation of duties, there were no direct things. So, uh I know Rob and Jenny and I talk throughout the year about ideas of what could be done differently. And so, um

054again, just to highlight, there is forward thinking in in this. We're not seeing statement in uh in the operational aspect of that. Um, additionally in there we move into I list out any new accounting principles that management and and we worked through uh there was a new Gazsby this year uh related to recording compensated absences. Happy to note it wasn't material. Had it been it wouldn't have changed the day-to-day aspects of how you manage compensated absences. It's more of a financial reporting type type uh Gazsby. Um so again nothing significant there to note. There's a section that discusses accounting estimates in here. Accounting estimates being um things that we would evaluate um that are put into the financial statements uh from maybe a third party like an actual rail study. Happy to note that all

055were clear neutral and non nonbias meaning ultimately that they were appropriate to be within there. There's a section that discusses difficulties with the audit. uh we'd be required to to note that in there as I'm sure you can take away. There was nothing written there and had there been, you would have heard about them long before receiving the report in my presentation tonight. Um it's a privilege to work with with the district. Lastly, there's a section that discusses not test services, so non- audit services that we do for the district. preparing the financial statements, working uh through any adjusting journal entries, some work with the single audit and the reporting package that comes with that. All customary things that we do do as as additional services for our audit clients. But why I have to

056evaluate that is at the end of the day in order to give you the opinions that I mentioned, I have to be able to determine that Baker, Tilly, and myself are independent. And by doing those services, we didn't compromise that that importance. So, we were independent. So, with that, I'll pause. Happy to take any questions, but otherwise, thank you so much. >> Any comments or questions from board members? >> Just wanted to thank you and thank Jenny and Rob and the team for working so hard and diligently and really um enhancing a lot of our processes and procedures. So, huge thank you to Rob and the team. >> Thank you for your work and thank you for being here. I'm impressed with how you can remember all those figures so easily. Nice job. >> Many

057years of of remembering what I need to remember. Right. >> Well done. >> Happy holidays. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Our next report is our principal report from Miss Kelly Lamb. >> Well, I don't know how I'm going to follow up that report. So, thank you. Took me back to my auditing days. Wow, that was fun stuff. Well, now for something a little bit more exciting hopefully in students, but we all love money. All right, so let's talk about November and December. So, I'm going to kind of include two different statistics for the oral extension days. For our last oral extension day, that was at the end of term one. This is some of our data which is really great to see that again we really want to focus on the freshmen because we

058want to make sure freshmen are starting off strong and are ahead of the game. So that is one major data point we like to see and the number of students that earned a deer F did decrease by 32.9% especially at a term when those grades do count. That is very important to note. The total amount of Fs did decrease overall by almost 27%. And seniors decrease by 50%. So obviously the seniors are taking advantage of this and making sure that they are getting the credits as this is their last year to make sure that they can graduate and overall the total amounts of D's and FS decreased by almost 27%. This last time we did start different enrichment opportunities such as AP government support, making smart financial decisions in life with a Q&A. We also

059provided more solo ensemble support, rhetoric analysis and research support and then different board games and bees and different things that they can have to do. We also talked with more staff as they're getting used to oral extension days. Some thoughts are more counseling sessions if they have any questions about scheduling especially in the next time different well-being sessions as well. And one thing that is becoming very popular is esports. So I did stop into esports after school and it is amazing. It is so cool to see them work and it's teamwork and we're even talking I know McCoy is here. He's doing a phenomenal job seeing if sometimes we could maybe screen it somewhere so like more people can watch it because it's actually pretty engaging. So if you've not watched esports, I do strongly

060suggest you do because me walking in kind of opened my eyes to how exciting it is and it's a great experience for kids. Um our last oral extension days I'll say was kind of stagnant. So, we're kind of bringing it back to our IDLT and other individuals to see what we can do. I think part of it is the communication with making sure that they know it is a required school day and if they aren't doing what they need to do, that they do have to stay. We are trying to provide more enrichment days because we want the culture of more of maybe a college scene because they are becoming adults and figuring out ways that we can want them to stay here, but also allowing kids that are doing everything that they need to

061do. They have busy schedules to have the ability to work off of campus because as you can see with the Rotary students of the month, their schedule's pretty packed and that couple hours every other month is really important to their well-being and ability to get other items done. Is there any questions about oral extension days? >> I do have one. Could you uh give us a little more insight on the uh smart financial decisions Q&A? Yeah. So, actually that is one of our culinary teachers, Rich Schmidt, that did want to offer his services to help kids that may have different questioning questions about financial decisions such as maybe loans, saving money, retirement. We do know that obviously personal finance is required by the state, but with my background in accounting and finance, I do believe

062you cannot get enough personal finance information to students. And sometimes coming from a different instructor, it can be less intimidating. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you. Keep going. >> All right. Some exciting um academic stuff is we're trying to get into different classrooms and seeing what we're doing. On the right is just a picture of one of our students in residential interior with Mr. Whit, which I think is very exciting. I always see the first part of residential interior. So this time I finally got to go in when they're working in their different houses. And I do want to state what's going to be nice with our addition. These houses are very limited with the exterior. So with the addition, we're actually going to be adding to our curriculum and adding

063those different experiences for our students. And I think that is excellent. And what is really nice is today the eighth graders from Richfield actually took a field trip to the vision house. So I think this is the first time at least in my five years that a middle school contacted us to see if they could see the vision house and walk through it. So it's great to greet them at the vision house. They went to MPTC went to the vision house and then they were going to Matt's automation. We had about I think about 50 eighth graders very excited, full of energy and it was neat to show them all the work that our 12 to 15 students do. And I will say Mike the instructor did a phenomenal job talking to them and answering

064their questions. So that was a great opportunity and another way to connect with our Hartford area schools. And one thing that we've been getting a ton of compliments and I'm not sure if you've walked past our main office entry, but we have a lot of new artwork. And what is even more interesting is this was actually a collaboration with our French foreign exchange students. So I believe the one on the way right that was done with our French foreign exchange students and the other squares were done by Mr. Lamb and Miss Hoter's classes intro to art. So that was a kind of fun activity and then we get to showcase their talents. Gets a little bit more life in that area. Also what we implemented this year is our new coffee cart at HHS. So

065with our transitional program led by Miss Lockwood is every fourth block teachers have the opportunity and other staff members to put an order in and then we get visitors and it's actually handd delivered to us. So in this I always like to maybe have like a diet coke or something to get a little caffeine at the end of the day. So it's always a very welcome treat and they're doing a phenomenal job. So we're really excited for that opportunity and many staff members have taken advantage of that. And then as you can see as we talk about Haley Tomes with her perfect 36 and her giving back with her ACT PEP courses, it has been a phenomenal turnout. She has put so much work into that and it's really exciting to see. I think there

066was about 34 students that came the first day. So, we actually had to move it to a cohort room. So, I'm really excited that kids are taking advantage of the talent that our peers have in order to continue to grow. And it's not just about the ACT. I think it's the overall culture of wanting to do better and learn. In our school goal, we always want to emphasize for you to grow one point. We don't reach a number because we want to make sure everybody is part of that school goal. And I think that has really grown and resonated with a lot of kids being like, "All right, I'm going to do my best." Because you should only really look at yourself and figure out how you can grow. So, it's really exciting to see

067that. And again during the Thanksgiving, we have a lot to be thankful for at HHS. Um, first and foremost, I'm going to say the entire staff. I am truly blessed to have such a hardworking group of staff members because they really put all in. So, it's really nice to give back. So, our admin, we work diligently on cutting pie. I'm not very good, so I did screw up a couple of times. So, some people got that extra slice because it did not look very good. Stevie, you're very good. So, you must have a lot of practice. I am not at Steviey's level yet, but I strive to be at Steviey's cutting level. Um, so not only did we give some pie giver things to our staff, but it's really nice with our OT is really

068that family mentality. I don't care how old you are, you still want to make a turkey hat. And it's kind of gets you back on what really matters. If you read the hat, a lot of it's just family and relationships. And we do need to make that a priority. And I think our school coming together with students and staff has really impacted HHS in a positive manner. So, thank you for all of you as board members because we could not do that without your leadership as well. And a couple more things is just December. It's been great. We've had a choir concert, band and orchestra concert, our FFA, I know June is there, and H Club do their annual um buying toys for the Hartford Christmas Committee, I believe. Is that right? And they always

069get so much money and toys, and it's just a phenomenal experience for those individuals to give back. And something new this year is our book club actually had a serial drive which has been amazing as well. So we have so many more clubs, people getting connected to our school and it's not just about them, it's about giving back and that's one of the best soft skills that we can teach our kids. And then this week, as you can see, we're wearing white. So I'm showing off my Coca-Cola polar bear as we did a winter wonderland. So we're excited for ugly sweater and then festive day on Friday. Well, that explains why I saw Mr. Siwi up there in all white. >> You are correct. >> Like, wow, that's interesting. >> I don't know why they

070were shorts, but >> it all makes sense now. >> Any questions for me? >> Just comments. I really love seeing the pictures and hearing just the the energy that happens in the school. We don't get the chance to see that here during the day. So, it's really wonderful to hear from you and to see that. Um, I echo what you said about esports. I happen to be one here one day after school and got to witness that and and the energy is amazing in that room. And anybody who has he has a little bit of downtime is so excited to share with you and help you understand what's actually happening around the room in esports. So, it was very fun to be a part of. And I will say Mr. Sinsky holds them accountable. So

071when they do want to have extra practice, they do have to have a C in order to get that extra practice in oral time. So that's another way to keep kids accountable and make sure academics is first, but you can also have fun while doing it. >> Awesome. Awesome. And how exciting to hear that Richill Middle School sent their eighth grades to see our vision house. Amazing. So many great things. Thank you, Miss Lamb. Um Heather, did you have something? >> I was just going to say reconnecting with um the giving tree. I missed the giving tree when my kids were at Freeze Lake and here and um doing it this year and dropping the gifts off on Saturday. I was just so impressed that Hartford High School had a tree, but then when you

072went into the town hall, it was just amazing. It was like it was Santa's work chop right there. So to be a part of that and um seeing everything that's happening to support the community and knowing people are struggling right now, um it's nice to see uh everybody just pitching in and doing the best they can. And another side note, my sister and my brother-in-law, they my nephew, they had a basketball tournament here earlier in December, and during the games, they went out in the city of Hartford, and everybody commented what a nice city Hartford is. So, it's also nice to showcase our decorations, our opportunities, and they're from Apple, so it's not too far, but to say, my sister goes, "You never told me how pretty Hartford was." And sometimes we take that for

073granted. Wonderful. Thank you, Miss Lamb. >> Our next report is our 2025 fall athletics and activities report from Mr. Scott Helms. >> Thanks for having me. Uh the report is in the your board packet. I just want to summarize a few things uh from our fall athletics and activities. Um in the fall athletically we celebrated a conference champ with our girls golf program uh as well as a sectional champ for uh boys cross country. Uh two of our individual athletes were named athletes of the year within the conference. Noah Gaye was the runner of the year for cross country and then Hayden Bombgardner was the player of the year for the soccer conference. We had several state qualifiers um which you've heard of um from previous board meetings, but Rita Kipper from girls golf, our

074boys cross country team qualified as a team and ended up taking 14th. Uh Nikki Reinwald was there for girls cross country and then we qualified four events in state swing or girls swimming. Um all state recognition, uh we had one athlete this fall get recognized for first team all state and that was Noah Gaye. Um, we had three athletes, second team all state, girls golf, Rita Kipper, Hayden Bombgardner, uh, boys soccer, and then Jake Otto from our boys volleyball program. We hosted a ton of events this fall. Went by really fast. Uh, very successful fall, uh, for everything that we did. Um, on top of just the athletic events, we also hosted the Northshore Conference Sportsmanship and Leadership uh summit at the Chandelier Ballroom where we had Craig Hillier work with 12 student athletes from

075each conference school and uh leading uh within their athletic programs. Um, as you can see, our athletic participation is very healthy uh from the fall. Um, one area that we continue to look to provide growth is within our boys volleyball program. Uh, boys volleyball is not a huge uh sport in our region. Uh, more towards the Milwaukee or Madison area. Uh, so Coach Wick and I continue to work to try and find ways to grow that program. On the activity side, lots of different activities listed there. So, just a few that I wanted to point out. Um, our initial numbers look really good, higher than we've seen in the last few years, uh, which is outstanding. Our fall musical uh was a great show when Spongebob well attended nominated for 13 different Jerry awards. So

076we're waiting to hear uh what awards will come uh in the near future. Skills USA as part of the competition held at Slinger High School. We held the auto maintenance competition here in our auto shop. Hence that's where some of that donation came from the Lawson family. Um went really well and I want to thank Mr. Garrison for making sure everything ran well uh in the auto shop that day. Our equestri club was a grand champion in the region. Uh then ended up in fifth place. So those four young ladies uh did an outstanding job this fall to finalizing in fifth place throughout the state. Aviation continues to amaze me. Um I don't know if you were able to get through some of the details. Um but we have students in our high school flying

077planes, flying to Oshkosh and uh representing our school and our program at EAA. We also have several students who have graduated from here now within aviation careers. Uh SpaceX, EAA, Textron. So, it's great to see those things coming right from our high school. Um I continue to be very impressed with the opportunities we provide with our students. Um not just to be a part of athletics, but also to get connected through the different activities that we have. We started a few new ones. uh the book club, the bird club, and magic the gathering this year, which are both all three of them are seeing great numbers. Um and more impressive and I think more I'm even more proud of is the service that we continue to talk about that we give our school and our

078community through DECA H Club, student council, book club, art club, FFA, and our best buddies program. Um, I was recently at the national conference down in Florida and got a chance to brag about the community service projects that not only our activities do, but also our student athletes and I can tell you other ads from around the nation are impressed with what we're doing here. Thank you. Questions? >> Awesome. Thank you, Mr. Helms. Any questions from board members? >> Thank you for providing the report and the summary with uh your positive energy. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Mr. Mr. Helms, Miss Frings, and our whole staff and all the families, too, that continue to support all of our activities and athletics. >> And our next report is that from our superintendent, Dr. Stacy

079Gain. >> All right. So many, many things highlighted already tonight, so just wanted to add a few. Um, wanted to note HHS was honored to host the Alpha Battery 121 Field Artillery Wisconsin National Guard deployment ceremony. So for those of you that were there, um truly a phenomenal event and so just wanted to thank um certainly our community is grateful uh for all all they give and wanted to also thank the VFW uh the Hartford chapter for the support as well as the American Legion for providing those stuffed animals to the kids who um of the of the parents that are being deployed. And also wanted to just thank our HHS building and grounds crew, Miss Peterson, Mr. Helms, who all worked so hard to prepare the building during, you know, even despite that storm.

080That was when we had our little winter storm that uh snuck up on us. Um, just wanted to mention a few other pieces. The bridging brighter smiles, I've mentioned that before, but we're at probably over three dozen students that will have been helped um through these services at no cost to the district. So, thanks to Miss Hecker, our school nurse, for really leading that support. And we have a couple days here around the corner. So, may even have more students sign up. Also wanted to just thank Miss Hecker. We've had a total of 2,912 health room visits so far this year. Uh, I just wanted to mention that to highlight really the number of students that are supported here. And so we had approximately 1,600 related to various medication administration or medical that way and

081about 1,264 were other reasons for a visit. So uh just a true reminder of how we support students in a number of ways within our building. Mr. Helms mentioned the Skills USA piece. So outstanding there as well as the Spongebob Squarepants. Many, many nominations that we really look forward to hearing more about around the corner. And then in closing, just wanted to mention the we're excited to report um the WPPI schools and government programs are sending us over $20,000 and Hartford Utilities is matching $4,000 for the completed referendum lighting upgrades and so that will be given directly to the school. So, thank you Miss Peterson for leading the charge on that. Also, um just to mention between the focus on energy, um Hartford utilities and more, we're really looking at about $60,000 in incentive rebates

082for the district as well as um just wanted to note we have um I'll probably stop there for now. I think with December, we're going to obviously have colder temperatures, but did save pretty substantially in November. I think it was over 11,000. So again, Miss Peterson, thank you so much for leading that charge as well as our building and grounds and all the staff that have really chipped in to um work towards those savings. And that will be all for tonight. Thank you, Dr. Gain. Does anyone have any questions for Dr. Gain? All right, we'll continue on. The next report is our schoolboard report from myself, Miss Tracy Hennis. I just have a few things. Um our board did meet on December 4th in a workshop for several policies. Um, I want to thank our

083district leadership team and our our our leaders in general here at the district for helping to go through policies this year. I know that's a big a big goal of ours is to get through as many policies as we possibly can. So, I know that that takes some work um behind the scenes um here at the school with staff as well as from the board. So, thank you very much for the um the input and uh efforts on that. I will see more on those policies later in the meeting. Um, I also wanted to remind everybody about the state education convention coming up in a little over a month. Um, the delegate assembly is going to be held on January 21st. Tiffany has agreed to be our delegate. Thank you very much for that, Tiffany.

084Um, this is the first year where we've had an issue where a board meeting falls during the state education convention. With our meetings previously being on Mondays, it was never really even a thought because it starts on Tuesday night. So, this is um just a little bit of a a blip for us. we um will do better next year and make sure that we don't schedule a board meeting during the state education convention. Um so we'll see how Tiffany does with that delegate assembly whether she can make it back here in time or not. And so we will we'll take that um as it comes next next month for our board meeting and um we'll see what we can do whether you're here to participate in person or virtually or if you're traveling and you

085can't we'll see what we can do. So thank you very much for being our delegate. Um and those those resolutions are something we'll be able to talk about a little bit later this meeting as well. Uh Next thing I wanted to mention was we will be seeing a presentation about our library media center utilization and this has come about from a long period of work and discussions um on behalf of our staff and our leaders um even the board members over over time have given some input as well. It really is based upon how we can see our students best utilize that space. I know that we've been looking at that for a long period of time and we've even heard our student board reps talk about some things that are happening in the library

086now during OT and I know that there are some some slight changes happening in that space already and so we'll hear more from Val about that. This all just kind of fell at the same time where this the school saw a desire to have it be better utilized by students. The board has been talking for a while about wanting to get back to a meeting space where we're all sitted on the same level and it feels more welcoming, more inclusive, more collaborative. So, there might be an opportunity there for that space. So, that's exciting for me to see, seeing as that's something that board members um over time have expressed an interest in as well. And I do remember when we met in the library years ago and how that felt in order um just

087just to have us all on the same level and looking at each other face to face especially with our leaders here in the district it has a nice collaborative feel to that meeting. Um, last thing I wanted to mention, oh, regarding those meetings, whether it happens here in this space or in another space in the building, know that it is important to us that we do continue to record meetings and have those recordings available for people. Um, I also want to just mention just hearing what we've gone through so far in this meeting, I can't help but think and reflect on what a truly wonderful staff we have. This has been a really great meeting so far. We've heard from a lot of individuals very complex things. Everything from the numbers that Mr. Nelson and

088the business office have to to deal with on a daily basis and they do such a fantastic job to the really fun things in the pictures that we get to see in the celebrations. So, um just I'm just reminded and very thankful that we have everybody we have here at HHS. So, thank you to everyone. That is all I have tonight for our school board report. Um, so next on our agenda are our items for I'm sorry, there's a report after mine, the 2026 2027 budget projections for Mr. Nelson. >> Thank you. Um, in the board docs, there's two different documents. Um, they'll look familiar for the last couple years of December is when we start to project our next year of budget and beyond. Um this year I put together a three-year budget forecast

089versus five uh just because we know uh this is next school year will be the second year of the state benial budget. So we have a lot of definition to our sources of income uh of revenue for the district uh based on the the what the legislature passed and put into place for schools. Um the biggest impact is always enrollment. Um if you recall um not quite two years ago we had a u population uh enrollment study done by the applied population lab WMadison that was projecting uh our enrollment to decrease 11 to 14% over the next four to five years. Um so what I'm building into the budget is a over the next three years is a reduction of 30 students each year. Uh we do know we have some uh subdivisions that are

090going in. The question is how quickly do they build out and then do they actually bring students. So until we see a change, we'll continue down that path of um seeing that potential enrollment decrease. Uh we did decrease a little less than 30 students this year. Um the nice part with the revenue limit is it uses a three-year average. So, we still have that big middle or excuse me, that big junior class uh in there. So, we'll start we'll lose that on our three-year average. Even though we we lost students this year, we went up one on our three-year average uh for the uh revenue limit. Um we know we can place more confidence in next year's again because the state budget um is is put into place for next year as well. Um it

091gets harder as we go further on but I I illustrate in the document um the assumptions that I put together that 30 student decrease each of the next three years. Um the model uses the current staffing levels remaining the same for the next three years. Um currently we have the we know that uh the state law is $325 per pupil increase each year in the revenue limit. Um, you've heard a lot of the special aid special education aid reimbursement being 42 and 45%. Um, what what we know is that's going to continue to drop down because the the state says here's the pot of money we have and we split it across all the costs uh for special education of all school districts across the state in the prior year. And as those costs continue

092to go up and the pot of money doesn't increase, it gets prorated down. So um we're expecting that I'm using 40% uh for all three years knowing that that could change. Um using a 3% increase in salaries for all three years. Uh we know currently for next school year um we still have a few more months uh to to get into the formula, but we're trending just under 3% uh currently. um for that um increase that would be required um for next year. Um we have uh built in 15% on our health insurance premium for next year and 12 and 10 for the the next three years. So the document lays out what that uh what those assumptions are. Um as you recall this year we put a budget into place with a $150,000 deficit.

093Um, next year, um, based on all that input into the Barrett model here, we would be at about $675,000 deficit. Um, year two goes to about 1.3 to 1.4 million. Again, this is all assuming that we don't make any changes, right? So, we know we're going to have to make some adjustments to our budget to account for some uh for the expenses we have. Uh we hope that the expenditure expenses don't come in as quite as high uh as as I projected. Um and and I think it's a good opportunity that when uh Paul from Baker Tilly was here, we have a healthy fund balance. So we have a little bit of time to be able to weather the storm till we can figure out what does that long range plan look like and what

094is it? We know that staffing is the largest portion of our budget. Um we had uh for for the 425 school year, we cut $ 1.5 million out of the budget. Um, we're going to be looking at what is what is the staffing needs we have based on our students. Uh, the courses that we offer, all those things are things we continue to look at each year. Um, as to to come up with the the most efficient budget that we can. Um, we'll be looking at things uh you heard in the um presentation from CG Schmidt. Um, we're currently trending uh in the right direction with the total budget. Um, are there some pieces that we can accomplish uh within those savings that might be offset with lowering some of the expenditures in our buildings

095and grounds budget, for example. Um, that we can accomplish with um referendum dollars that fit the the the the need we have and the uh fit within how the question was asked. Um, those are some different opportunities we have to to maybe help out our budget over the next couple years, uh, as we bring things forward for the infrastructure needs of our building and our grounds. Uh, that's just one other opportunity we might have to help offset some of these budget deficits. Um, the second document just is kind of a summary that prints out of of the Bar model that gives us that same information. So it's it's what we would expect as we have uh growing costs to operate and we have uh less students the way the revenue limit works that there's going

096to be that continued gap. Now once we make some changes that will then flow through the the model um and be reflected um to reduce those numbers moving forward. But I just wanted to at least bring that to the board. um we'll be we we've begun the process of of building our budget for next year. That process will continue through um all the way through next October when we set the tax levy. So, there's a lot of different steps that happen along the way um that we determine the the amounts we're we're putting in our budget for supplies and and books, um staffing levels, all those different pieces. will be working as a leadership team to to develop those um needs and build them into the budget uh moving forward. And we would expect like

097last year where we had a higher number uh to start the the uh initial budget that was approved in June or July. This year will probably be July. Um and then hopefully we can work down uh that number a little bit. But knowing that again we do have some fund balance that if we choose to as as the board chooses to um we might be able to spend some of those dollars to help uh with year one. Um but that still doesn't change the thought of how do we staff and how do we look at our budget for years two three and beyond. >> Thank you Mr. Nelson. Do any board members have any questions for Mr. Thank you, Rob. Appreciate it. I'm sure we'll be having more discussions in the future. Um, our next

098item on the agenda are items for discussion and possible action. The first one is the FFA Washington Leadership Conference field trip proposal. Hello. I don't know if the microphone is on. She might want it for the recording though. Or McCoy might want it for the recording. Thank you, Mr. We appreciate, Miss Strup, the detail that is all included in that field trip request and just the time obviously that um you all put into, you know, planning and as well as um supervising and making sure that that field trip is really worthwhile. So, thank you so much for that. Do any board members have any questions? Miss Stup, is there anything you wanted to add? Um well it's a great opportunity and this year we actually have four students that are interested in going um with

099that and then I would be chaperoning them and it is basically designed to really build leadership with the students and also that they come home with a service plan that they can um excuse me um implement within the community. And then they also get the history obviously of the DC state. And our members generally they um do some fundraising on their own and then the chapter helps support them and our FFA alumni also is willing to contribute and help support the students on this trip. And our plan is to go the June 9th to through the 12th. So right after school is done. Thank you. >> Are there any board members that have any questions for Miss Strum? >> So, if I'm hearing you correctly, it sounds like the field trip will be largely funded.

100>> Yes. Either through the members through fundraising or the FFA. Um generally all of the activities that we do the students do have to pay you know some towards that but then through our fundraising and the FFA a lot of uh the expenses for activities are covered that way. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Uh hearing no further questions or discussion. Is there a board member who would like to make a motion? >> Yep. I will motion to approve a FFA Washington Leadership Conference field trip proposal. Motion by Nolan Jacket. Is there a second? >> Second by Ken Miller. Miller. Any further discussion? It looks like this is a roll call vote. So, we'll do a roll call vote um on the FFA Washington Leadership Conference field trip proposal starting with

101Nolan Jacket. >> I. >> And that has been approved. Thank you. The next item for discussion is the 2026 2027 school calendar. And we did talk about the calendar a bit last time and just indicated certainly we also are cognizant of what the area schools are doing and while we cannot align uh sometimes identically we are aware and and cognizant when we're looking at you know breaks and things of that nature um also wanting to make it as parentfriendly as we can so that families can best plan um for their time off as well as child care. Are there any additional questions or wonderings about the calendar? Oh, one other note I just wanted to note as well as we did last time is we really try to ensure as much as possible that we

102get equity between the different quarters um or terms I should say because certainly some classes are term classes. So there's a number of factors that go into when those terms um and semesters fall as well. >> Thank you Dr. Gain. Any comments or questions from board members hearing? None. Is there a board member who'd like to make a motion? >> A motion to approve the 2025 2026 school calendar as presented. >> Thank you. Motion by Kenneth Miller. Is there a second? >> And you said 2526. >> This is for 267. >> Oh, it is it is noted wrong in our agenda. Is that >> it? >> Oh, it is. >> I take that back. A motion to approve the 2026 2027 calendar as presented. >> Thank you. Motion by Kenneth Miller. Is there a second?

103>> I'll second that. >> Second by Nolan Jacket. Any further discussion hearing? None. All those in favor of approving the 2026 2027 school calendar as presented say I. >> I. Any oppose say nay. And that has been approved. The next item for discussion and possible action is our library library media center utilization for Miss Valer Hunts. >> Good evening. >> Hi Val. >> Um all right. So this is really a for discussion and we would like some to hear some of your feedback moving forward. So, we have been meeting a lot of meetings lately about the library and how we're utilizing it um differently and we have seen amazing changes already happening this year. So, thanks to Kim Aldore, Tracy Peterson, Stevie, Kelly, and Desiree. We've been really working hard on making sure that the

104library is used in many different ways and used more as a a flexible space. So, thank you to everybody for that. Um but moving forward we would like to make sure that it's a flexible space for all learning instructional areas in that library as well so that they are flexible and used in many instructional places but then also using for our board meetings. So um we would like to talk about a little bit about the layout and what we need to do that to get that all ready into the library. So um just some of the thoughts um I know that some people are going to be working in the next couple weeks to come up with a layout. I know Kim Baltimore has also been working on a layout. So working on some of

105those. Um uh u so if you have any feedback of how you would want that to look, please let us know because that's what we we want to hear from you as well. Um we have been taking some actions already and looking at what we can do to set up for recording with audio of course. We always want to make sure we record our meetings with audio for sure and if we want to continue with video as well and if we want to live stream. So there's kind of like three options there that we could do. We could just continue just to do audio. Um we've done audio before prior to being in this space and then um video we could just record the video and post the video later or we could continue to

106live stream. So those are the like the three options as well. I will let you know that I did at one time share with you I think that was in November the statistics for the live streaming very low especially since it's like five or six people and a lot of times one is me sitting in the back and making sure that it's running correctly. um one is usually another person at home and maybe another is some people's kids that like to watch our bid packages. So, uh we um we do know that it's very little attended live. So, would we be able to just post it uh later? Um if we do do it live, then we would have a little bit maybe more of an expense to put in because we would want some

107cameras set up that are mounted into the library. But we don't need to do that right away. we can kind of continue our discussion and how we are going to do that as um we move forward. Um so we already have the audio purchased because we if you look at our goose necks those are quite old I think probably Tracy can probably veg for that and they take a lot of cords and setup to run. So we did purchase some wireless mice or um microphones that will go in in the room that will pick up your voices. So you won't have per se your own microphone but it will be a microphone for the room space that everybody will be able to hear you and be recorded then for online for the audio or video

108or however we want. Um so I guess we're kind of looking for some feedback from all of you. Um and if anybody else has anything to say that have been part of the conversations please do. >> I know you talked about um getting feedback on layout. I know when we had um the discussion at the workshop a few weeks ago, I think um Mr. Helms got up and kind of pointed on the the map of the library where we used to meet and so that was kind of in the middle um kind of between all those pillar pillars and that area there. So, I don't know if that would still work out. It seemed years ago that seemed to work out pretty well because then we could kind of face it right whichever direction we

109had to and um have a nice little area for the audience. So, I I haven't been in that space, especially with some being moved right now. So, I don't know if I have any other valuable feedback other than that I know what it was years ago. Um, so I'd be curious to see a map or maybe get into the library and talk about it if that's an opportunity. >> Please, let's schedule a time and we can definitely do that. >> If anybody else is interested, that'd be great. One of the things that Miss Alaltimore has also been doing this year, just because we know that this is something on the horizon, is she's been documenting um just through setup notes as well as pictures when she's having groups come into the library space so that

110we can share them with the board of potential layouts. Um one of the biggest pieces of feedback that she's had so far is just looking at furniture that's more flexible. But we do have some of those pieces in the building that we can swap out with some of the tables that are already there. Um, so that there's just some ease and setup and things like that. But she's hosted a lot of classes in there so far this year that she's been doing lessons with. And she had two chemistry classes with 50 students in there that she was able to arrange a section of the library. And so we were really looking at that piece in particular in terms of board setup and that there is ample space in that particular area where she was looking

111at for those students. So she has she's done a really nice job of documenting through pictures and notes of what setup could look like. >> Perfect. And that's I mean you bring up the most important point Steve is that we really want this design for the students. The board being able to meet in there is secondary. So that's just if we can make it work and if it doesn't disrupt what the students need that space to be. So, thank you very much. Any other board members have any comments or questions? >> Yeah, I have uh one thing. I guess the hard part for me is considering things like our budget projection like we just saw. I would have a hard time uh committing to, you know, putting money into a project like that going forward.

112I mean, electrical additions, money for projectors, that kind of a thing. I mean, with budget projections like we just saw, we should really be only putting dollars towards things that are absolutely necessary. And I don't know if I'm convinced that this fits into that category right now. >> Oh, sorry. >> Go ahead. >> I was just going to say I know when I was in there, I did stop in there one day, I did see a screen on a cart. Is that in there all the time? >> Yes. And that's what we would use unless we you would want something more permanently in there and then that's why we put the costs as an optional cost for there. But yes, what right now we would be setting up with very minimal costs because we're going

113to be moving in equipment for the board meetings for that. >> Okay. So the So if I'm understanding you correctly, is a projector something we would absolutely need or we can make do? >> We could probably just use that interactive board that's already in >> Okay, great. I know. I was curious because I know we have such a small small number of of anybody, you know, tuning into us live stream. I was curious to see what other districts are doing out there. Um I've looked first at our our K8s. Um so the the parents and families in our area, what are they used to? Um Harford Joint One does record their meetings and put them on YouTube. >> Yeah. And they put them on later. >> Later, so nothing's live streamed. >> Um Holy Hill

114Area School District just publishes minutes. Um Aaron School District just publishes minutes. I believe Honor just publishes minutes. So, all of our other school districts in our union district are really only used to being able to see the written document minutes a month later when the board approves them. So, we're I think we're we're offering something unique right now and I don't know if it's really being utilized like it could be um or if it's if it's I know the one thing that Laura does a really great job with is our recapping of the month of after the board meeting and a lot of people are using those instead of watching or they're referring back to that and being like, "Okay, if I need to go back to watch something that's what they're doing versus

115sitting there for the long span of time." >> Right. Right. I did look a little further because I thought, okay, those are our K8s. What else could I find out there? Um, Slinger does offer an audio recording in the beginning that they post later, so little MP4s that you can click on. Um, German Town does live stream and record. Um, Hartland does a recording that they post on YouTube later. So, that's those are just the things that I found very quickly. >> Is a H Heartland the Arrowhead School District or is that one of their K8s? >> The Arrowhead. >> Arrowhead. Okay. And my understanding, Val, is if we do, you know, an actual visual recording as well as audio, but it's not live streamed and we use the tables that we have um and

116we use the interactive board, we really could be moving over at zero cost >> pretty much. So, yeah. >> Okay. Just wanted to clarify that. The only thing would be in the layout that I am kind of worried about um would be the electrical because there are very few electrical outlets in there and how we can make sure that we arrange it so that we can don't have cords laying all over the place and make it safe for us to all walk. >> Sure. >> That would be my biggest concern. >> Sure. And would it be better since I'm just looking right now? We don't really have a lot of electrical like around ourselves, but you're thinking more for the because we would have not these mics, correct? >> I know. So, this is a

117long time ago. I've been on the board for a long time. So, we did have like this spider of cords for all the microphones, but we just made sure that was just in between our tables and then wherever the audience was or people coming into to view a meeting, they didn't have to step over any cords. So hopefully we won't be in that situation, especially hearing about the new microphones that we have. But I appreciate you looking out for that. Yeah. So I I think I think this is an exciting conversation. I love hearing that we can potentially do it for zero cost. We have enough furniture and equipment around the building that we can make this happen. So I I'm I'm justly glad that we're talking about it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Val,

118for pulling this together. Are there any other thoughts or comments or questions by other board members? >> Well, I I guess you know, still being fairly new to the whole board meeting and recording and audio, I'm you know, looking tonight, we don't really have any public members present. Um most of the time if there's issues and and you send the agenda out beforehand, so if there's a discussion opportunity that someone in the public wants or the community wants to present, they're going to attend in person. Um I guess listening to this for a couple of discussions that we've had um the live stream and all that seems to be an extended courtesy that we've done for a while now. Um at a zero cost listening to Rob knowing the next couple of years uh the

119tightening of the budget um my thought would be let's go for the zero budget move and let's try and see what happens as a result of that. It's not like we can't come back here if something is, you know, we need to, but um tightening the budget and not doing the live stream and just seeing where it goes, you know, for a year's worth of meetings, I'm I'm all for that because it's one cost that we could minimize. Um especially after listening to Rob. >> And I don't know how you guys feel about the visual part of the recording. I know Val kind of wants some feedback on that as well, I believe. So, when I was hunting around these other school district websites, if they did have a video on YouTube, I went to

120it and I would click on it. I will say that the quality of a video from a board meeting, I would rather just listen to it. I mean, honestly, the one of them I clicked on, I don't remember which one it was, but the camera must have been in a place like right in front of board members, and all I saw was like the backside of people as they were saying the pledge of allegiance. I'm like, "Okay, that's really nothing I want." I mean, it's literally just they're butts. So, >> and we could just post audio online, too. I mean, just that and just have like Life is Good Orioles, you know, or whatever with the audio playing in the background as well. I mean, there that is something that we can >> I participate

121in so many meetings where it's visual and the really high tech stuff where it actually moves the camera and then gets it on you when you're speaking. Um, that investment is is way above and beyond what I would recommend. And so we're just kind of middle of the road even on the lower end. And just the audio is probably more sufficient than trying to do all the video, >> right? >> And we do need and we will always record audio especially to go refer back to. >> Sure. >> If we need to for >> technically is good for us to have. I will say that um this district also does such a fantastic job of making sure that whatever visuals or materials are included in our meetings are available to the public. So, if I

122were trying to get that information, I would go back and and click on the link to actually show to actually show the slide presentation or the document versus trying to watch it through the video. It just it's not very efficient. And we're very lucky with McCoy back there running the show all the time and clicking and making sure that people can see what everybody is always able to see. So, very lucky that way. >> Very blessed. Any other comments or questions or any thoughts you want to provide to the team as they continue this? >> So, what keeps us from just winging it and moving the meeting and seeing how it goes? >> Nothing. I think I think we're there. So, um stay tuned. We may trying this out next month. We'll see. >> I

123just got word the microphones were shipped, but I can't guarantee you with FedEx. I'm I should have probably said that, but >> they're going to be the holidays. That is Yeah. No, it's okay. >> They just I just got the notice tonight that they were shipped. So, >> all right. So, sometime very soon hopefully we get to give it a try. But more importantly, we're also making the library what the students need it to be. Thank you very much. Okay, >> I think I'm here for the next one, too. So, >> okay. >> And you got what you needed from us in terms of the last item? >> I believe so. >> Okay. The next item for discussion and possible action is the interactive boards for technology and engineering education classrooms and three other instructional

124spaces. >> Yes. So, um currently in our school, as you just heard about our interactive panels or um boards. Um they are in nearly every classroom except for the tech ed wing and the tech ed wing teachers have requested that they get them now too of course and plus it would make it a lot easier to streamline all of our classrooms. Um makes it easier for subbing when you go in from one classroom to another. That's one thing. But also they have old projectors in their room which are if you walk in their room sometimes I'm even like do they even have it on because it's really hard to see them because they are some of them are I would say almost 15 years old. So it's time to update and so we were thinking

125we would like to propose buying these interactive panels like they are have them in the rest of the class uh classrooms. Um, and we were just going to I did at first had the board packet before you received it was we were just going to get the um interactive panels for the tech ed wing, but then after having a discussion with our uh DT team and IDLT team, um there was a I call it like the Black Friday sale. There's buy 10 get one free and we knew that there was three other instructional spaces that we could put those in. So, we decided to see one see if we could get 10 because we get one free. Um and so um There's some spaces um in like a special ed room. Um there is a

126space in another like support room and there is a space in another classroom area that do that do small group instructions that do not have a board that they could get a board and I think Stacy did you want to comment on where that funding I didn't know. I just wanted to mention that two of the spaces are spaces that are special education related. So certainly could come through that grant money and then also if we wanted to the other space is in the library. So I would defer to Dr. Schley about that but could certainly come from the school funds from the library. Do you want to mention anything about that? Um I yeah I think we have been planning as we have all year long to look at budget and things that we

127can do to pull from common school funds. So that is certainly something that we can look at moving forward. >> So the main reason would be to streamline classrooms for making all of our classrooms with the same technology as well. >> Any questions? How many uh how many of those uh is it 11 total uh were four tech classrooms from the initial request? >> Okay, so there was we need eight for the tech program and then there would be three more that would go in the other classrooms. >> Okay, >> 11 total. >> Two of those could potentially be covered by grants. >> Two of them would be special ed funds. Um one would be common school funds that we have. I'm sorry. Potentially. Yeah, potentially if if we wanted to go. >> Okay, so

128those three do still come out of our base budget for that, >> right? >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Any other comments or questions? >> Tiffany, >> um I'm just thinking having the the viewboards is a really nice asset class and I agree it helps with subs. It helps with one teacher has to come in and use that. they can always log in with their own username. My question is, I know I've run into this in previous districts where you get that technology and then a year later or two years later there's brand new technology out there and everybody wants the latest and greatest thing. So, how I guess what do you foresee happening as far as the schools? Are these going to be is there something on the horizon that we'd be better off waiting

129for or is it wise purchase? >> So, right now There's nothing really on the horizon, but you can never say that because with AI, you never know what's out there. Um, nothing right now that I see on the horizon. And I have it in my budgeting planning sheet that they are replaced every 8 to 10 years. So, they are good for a life of 8 to 10 years. >> And this says the current projectors are are well past their life cycle. >> Yes. Well past >> oh well past I would say they're probably over eight years past I would say from the recycling plan of what they should be um for example Windows K if you have ever seen like the Windows K when you go they're um display that we project on with using

130the projectors those are way past their life cycle um they are probably like six years not being supported now and they are failing really fast right now and so we are having to use interactive boards to project because those devices that are in like the projectors are failing. That's because they're no longer supported and they're no longer made by the company that they are purchased with purchased them with. >> Thank you. Any other comments or questions? >> Yeah, I guess I would just throw it in there. the a for the teched department makes sense, but you know, I'm just going to go say the same thing about budget projections in the future and all that repetitive stuff. I don't know if chasing, you know, getting a couple more to make a get one free deal

131is exactly something that we should be doing right now. So, I I would say maybe we should limit it to just the eight. And I would just point out, Nolan, the reason the um other ones got brought into the question u is because if you take the three that we discussed, that'd be I don't know, you can check my math, but 5,400ish. Um and those uh special education funds are limited, and I'll let Rob jump in as well, but in terms of what you can spend that on. And so we have that money. We have carryover from the prior year um Nolan. So, we do have the funds um from the special ed lens. And so, the thinking was that that would be really maximizing with those two from special education as well as the

132common funds that are are hard and they're limited to what you can purchase. Um Rob, I don't know if you want to jump in on that, but we do have the funds available. Yeah, those special those three the the eight would come out of Bal's regular budget that she has budgeted for to replace the special or excuse me the teched the the two special ed and the the library ones. There are funds as as Stacy mentioned that we have that are not part of our they're part of grants within like special ed and then the the common school funds we have a uh amount of money that actually that the auditor talked about is one of the things we have um on our uh balance sheet that we have we haven't spent all those dollars

133because there's limited things you can spend those on in the in the library but I believe that is one that would be a usable expense as well. So those three could be covered by our kind of outside of our normal budget. >> Isn't the the extra one the free one? So isn't that a point? >> so it's actually cutting into the eight and making it seven essentially is what our thinking was >> and thus decreasing the not to exceed number by >> 5400ish. >> Yeah. Right. Depending on how you want to approve it because we could theoretically carve out those three pieces um for clarity and transparency. We put it all together, but knowing that three of them are coming from different sources than the gened fund. >> And I usually when I put in

134that as a requisition, I usually work with Rob and his team to disperse those correctly. You could denote that maybe in the motion. Any further comments, questions, or discussion? Is there a board member who would like to make a motion? >> I'm going to try here. I would like to make a motion to move forward with purchasing the interactive boards for technology and engineering education. Um not to exceed 18,090. However, with that 18,090 um two of those would come out of a grant from D uh the special ed. One is a free promotion through the purchasing of 10 That's it. >> I would second. >> Yes. I'm just gonna I'm just going to kind of recall this just to make sure we've got this. So, the motion was to purchase the interactive boards for technology

135and engineering education classrooms. I believe you meant and the three other classrooms, right? >> Yes. Sorry. >> Um the three other instructional spaces. Um, not to ex did you use it not to exceed >> not to exceed the 18,90, >> right? >> With two of those being funded by grant money and one of them is a free with purchase special. Um, does that motion work? Okay. So, we have a motion for that as well. Motion by Heather Barry and a second by Tiffany Stapleton. Any further discussion? hearing none. This is a roll call vote because it is a cost of the district. We have a motion and a second to approve the purchase of the interactive boards for technology and education classrooms and three other instructional spaces not to exceed $18,90 with two of them

136being funded by grants. One is a free with purchase deal. My vote is I Tiffany >> I thank you. That has been approved. Uh the next item for discussion and possible action is the 2026 state convention delegate resolutions. Would you like to talk to these very briefly? Sure. Um, first just want to thank Tiffany for being our delegate and I guess I would say you know this is an opportunity for the board to express any thoughts on the various resolutions. I think um if at this time there is any that the board feels strongly about pulling out um to discuss. Otherwise I would suggest that we have further conversation at the workshop where we can talk more in depth about the number of resolutions. There are a number of them in here that we can

137further discuss. >> Yes, Stacey and I did talk about this. So, there are 12 resolutions. I believe it is kind of an interesting year where there are even two opposing view resolutions to look at. So, this this is a year where it could um include a significant amount of discussion to ensure that our delegate is going forward with clarity and how to represent our our board and our community. So, this is a big packet. It's a lot of information to take in. Um, and this is a good look for the board in this packet. And as Stacy has said, we can go ahead and discuss them further in the next um, board workshop on January 8th. But if anybody has any thoughts that they'd like to share in any of these now or maybe point

138out some of the resolutions that they think would require a little bit more time to discuss, please feel free. Nolan, are you ready with anything? >> Oh, I sure am. >> I figured you would be. And if there's anything you want to share for January 8th, you can. But if there's some things you want to point out now, go for it. >> Yeah, I took a good look through these. Uh, what's a good one to start with here? Uh, I'll start with number eight, the public education endowment fund from the Oaklair, I think it was Oaklair school district that resolution packet. So, I would be in favor of our school district opposing uh that resolution uh just for the reason of it proposes taking it out of the about $4 billion budget surplus that's been

139sitting in Madison for I feel like as long as I've been alive. But um I would just go on to add that uh I the reason that budget surplus exists is because people have been overt taxed and I think the only place that uh budget surplus belongs is going back people. So I would like to for us to oppose that one. >> Okay. Thank you. Is there another board member would like to make a comment on that one? >> Looks like no. Nolan. What else would you like to bring up? Uh resolution number four I'll jump to next that was was that Nina joint for the limits on referendum. Yeah. Authority to schedule referenda. So >> so page 12 in the package. >> Yes. And that was to oppose legislation limiting the scheduling of referendum.

140That's actually something that has reached the governor's desk in the past and has been vetoed. Uh, I would like for our district to oppose that resolution. Uh, I don't think it is genuine or it doesn't have a lot of integrity for school districts that we see around the state to just repeatedly throw questions and questions on the ballot. A big example I will point out are our fellow 912 neighbors to the south in the Arrowhead School District who in November of 2024 had not only a capital projects referendum on their ballot but also a operational referendum. The operational pass and their capital projects failed for $260 million and then immediately they turned around and threw a $130 million referendum on the ballot. I just don't think that is a very integral thing for a school

141district to do. So, you know, that just school districts should not be doing that. So, I would uh suggest for our district to oppose that resolution to uh not allow caps. So, supporting putting caps in place on school districts, just throwing referendums out there all the time like we do see in some cases. >> Thank you. >> Do you have another one, Nolan? Sure. Let's let's jump to one I think we should support. Uh we'll go to resolution two from the Kettle Marine School District on the revisions to the state report card process. Now, obviously, we saw the state report card uh go out last month, and in the last number of years, we've seen the Department of Public Instruction change the way they weigh a lot of things, and you know, overall just make

142lots of modifications to it. Uh I personally think it's a little watered down in some cases. Um but I do like what the Kettle Marine and I also think, New London School District proposed in here for uh you know, growth valued equally and all all those kinds of a. So, I mean, right now the way the state report card is structured, uh there were school districts in the Milwaukee public school district that got three and four star ratings when they had, you know, 10 and 12% uh grade level proficiency. So, uh some of the things that they proposed in there, I I like and so I would like our school district to support that resolution. >> I have a feeling a lot of school district leaders would feel the same. I feel like every year

143our district leaders are having to explain what's changed about the school report cards, what it actually means for our district. Um it's very hard to continue to gauge what it really means when it's changing so often. >> Yeah. I mean, when I had to put in, I think is there 12 to 14 hours just trying to figure out exactly how they score it and all the measurements and I still didn't get it. It was just, you know, out of this world. So those are really good examples. Nolan, is there anything that you think might um cause some controversy or contornation that might might be a resolution we should take extra time to look at? >> Yeah, you mentioned it earlier, the two conflicting ones. So resolution 10 was support decoupling and then resolution >> it's

144right after it, isn't it? >> 10 and 11. Yeah, resolution 11 was opposing decoupling. The Nina Joint School District must have just had a great time going through. I think they proposed a majority of these ones in here. They put in a lot of work to uh proposing um resolutions in here. And to be clear with these resolutions, um, just so everybody kind of knows, what happens is this is, you know, the WASB then takes the resolutions that all the school boards vote on in the state and say, "Okay, now you have your marching orders. This is what we want you to advocate for us and push, you know, as as as you can with our state level government to see what kind of change we can make." >> Yeah. >> So, it's it's basically

145these aren't things that are going to automatically It's basically just what we want the WASB to continue to push forward representing the school districts. >> Yeah. And the WASB does employ a number of lobbyists that actually meet with legislators in there. So I would imagine they're the ones who mainly take all this up. Uh anyways, so the argue of decoupling public and private schools has been pretty large topic I would say in the last couple years. So, you know, a big part of our budget is we have to levy for uh voucher schools and then distribute that to those uh voucher schools. So, the supporting decoupling would be the uh our school district no longer having to levy that and then the state would pay that out. Uh, so that's mainly what those two and

146if Rob you want to jump in there on any of that to explain it better, feel free to, but that's what those two mainly conflict on is whether you should or should not decouple for us levying for those voucher schools or not. >> Do a good job. It's it's uh but some of these do refer to independent charter schools and those are handled a little differently in the revenue limits. So you got to be kind of careful. But what we talked about um with our levy directly is that I think this year is about $586,000 that it was added to the tax levy for Hartford Union to pay those vouchers, right? If we took that off that there, you know, that's just I don't know how they'd pay for it. There's talked about putting it

147into some general revenue stream, but that's the decoupling part. >> Yeah. Yeah. And I think if the state were to take that on, they would probably just put that in their bannual budget somewhere. Uh so I guess moving on, I would personally like to see our district support resolution 10 for supporting decoupling and uh opposing number 11, which would keep uh the decoupling in place. So it's less that we have to levy from our taxpayers. It's, you know, less property taxes that they have to pay, although it still gets funded at the state level, so that probably equals out. Uh, it'll make our jobs a little easier budgeting wise. Uh, the nonpartisan legislative fiscal bureau estimated that districts in the state would overall, you know, be able to cut property taxes by almost $300 million.

148So, and I'm sure a lot of people are really going nuts over their property taxes uh over the state right now. So there's a lot of people have seen a lot of increases that could alleviate a lot of that. So between that easier budgeting, uh removes a local tax implications for the you choice program too. So for those reasons, I think I would like to see us support that one over the uh resolution number 11 that opposes decoupling. >> Thank you, Nolan. Are there any other board members who'd like to share any input on these resolutions? Now, again, we'll we'll make sure we have time to discuss them on January 8th. >> So, are we uh making official positions on these in our workshop or is that No. >> Okay. >> Yes, we will. >>

149And that's really nothing that we've we have to take a vote on. It's just something that we discuss and make sure we have a consensus for what the delegate is going to bring forward at the assembly. So, we have in the past had that discussion at a workshop um or a board meeting, I believe, but usually a workshop is a really good setting for it. >> Okay. Thank you. Are you good? >> Uh close to >> Okay. I know this we're we don't have a whole lot in our agenda tonight. So, we can spend a little time on this, right? Uh I will move to number one next that deals with the uh caps for the choice program for uh public school enrollment. Yeah. So, opposing the removal of CAPS from the Wisconsin Parental Choice

150Program. So right now there is a cap of uh 10% for public school enrollment and 220% of the federal poverty level. Uh that provision is actually I believe set to expire after this school year. So that's going away anyways and I don't know if I really support that cap being in place in the first place. So that's one that I would lean more towards opposing that resolution as well. >> Thank you. Did we get to your highlights? >> I So, yeah, a lot of the other ones aren't too major. Either that or I haven't gotten a chance to dig through them too much yet. And there's a few that aren't too big in there. Yeah, I think that is pretty much everything for me for those. I do look forward to uh discussing those more

151at our board workshop in early January there. >> Thank you, Nolan. And as board members go through them, if you have any questions, um first I would say consult the WASB website. They usually have the catalog of all the resolutions that have been and some of these might be a journey or you can kind of see the steps along the way. Um or then just um reach out to the WASB or the district and see if you have some more questions that can help get your answers. All right, the next item for discussion and possible action is our Dina students assistant athletic director job description. Okay, so it is attached in there and you can certainly see the added information. Um really wanted to have greater clarity around the actual role. uh really truly grateful

152for the work that Miss Frings has um done across the last um period of time that she has been in this position and really it is quite an indepth position in terms of um we added various pieces related to some of those game management duties. So, um well long before the game um and after making those connections with um for example coaches, refs, things of that nature, making sure everything is um set up and ready to go as well as some of the behindthe-scene pieces of ensuring that the handbook working closely with um Mr. homes and you can see just a number of additional areas in particular um really leading our well-being um area as well with our students and sources of strength. Um and I could go certainly on to a number of other

153things. So really just wanted that job description to reflect well in the work that's truly being done and recognize those pieces. >> Thank you, Dr. Dane. Any comments or questions from board members? >> Nothing from me. >> And I would say thank you to Miss Frings for bringing this information forward to make sure that we we're making we're documenting what needs to be documented for your job. So really appreciate the work that you do. >> Yeah. Thank you for all the time and care in our students, families, community. um really represents certainly HUHS well um to the larger community out there in the state and beyond. So, thank you, Miss Frings. >> You can tell she's really liking this. >> Um is there a board member who would like to make a motion? >> Motion

154to approve the dean of students, assistant athletic director description as presented. >> Is there a second? >> Second >> motion by Ken Miller, second by Nolan Jacket to approve the Dina students assistant athletic director job description as presented. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Say nay. And that has been approved. Thank you. Uh the next item for discussion and possible action is our policy and administrative guideline review. >> All right. So, first of all, thank you. Huge thank you to the board and as well as our DT um and staff for really going through literally all of these policies that are listed here in depth back at our earlier meeting a few weeks back. So, just really appreciated the conversation around them, the time it took people to go through

155all these and ensure that our policies and administrative guidelines are truly representing our practice and is reflective of that. So um I guess with that I would say are there any pieces that we would want to discuss further with the policies or administrative guidelines? >> I do have one thing. So just to reflect our uh discussion in the board workshop a couple weeks ago. I would like to motion to amend the policies and administrative guideline review to resend in its entirety uh policy number 8450.01 personal protective equipment during pandemics epidemic events. >> So we have a motion to resend policy 8450.01. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion by Nolan Jacket, seconded by Kenneth Miller. Any discussion? All those in favor of rescending policy 8450.01 signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any oppose

156say nay. And that carries. So now we have that removed from the entire packet if you will of the policies. Is there um any other policy that you would like to discuss or make a a motion to amend um this as being a part of the group? Looks like we're good. Is there a motion from a board member? >> A motion to approve the policies administrative guidelines as presented. >> Thank you. We have a motion by Tiffany Stapleton to approve the policies and administrative guidelines as presented. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Second by Kenneth Miller. Any further discussion? We have a motion and a second to approve the policy administrative guidelines as presented. Everybody in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Any oppose? Say nay. And that has been approved. Uh

157the next item we have is our integrity environmental services to perform asbestous abatement. >> Hi Tracy. Um so the asbestous abatement for uh the remaining referendum projects is a district- held contract. Um so we partnered with environmental management consultants and um who identified areas uh remaining for abatement and um we brought in multiple contractors for um bids and uh integrity environmental was our low bid. Um McCoy if you wanted to pull up the the slide. So um we are asking for approval of Integrity Environmental Services to perform um asbestous abatement in the amount of $62,700 um in um the referendum bid package five work. Any questions? >> Have they done work for the district before? >> Yes. Uh they did um the first phase of asbesus abatement in the building. They were also contracted for

158demolition and are contracted for the demolition in bid package five. >> Thank you. >> And the timing is such that we would be able to have this accomplished over winter break. >> Uh so they would be starting on a portion of it during winter break. Um yes the basement um which houses the boiler room um the ceiling has mastic um which is uh has asbestous so that would be removed and then the remaining work would be done during the summer any further discussion um hearing none I'll go ahead and make the motion to approve integrity environmental services to perform asus abatement at a not to exceed $62,700. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion by myself, Tracy Hen, a second by Nolan Jacket. Any further discussion? Hearing none, we're going to do a roll

159call vote. Starting with you, Tiffany. >> I And that has been approved. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um, next on our agenda are future school board related dates. January 8th is our workshop. January 21st is our next regular board meeting as well as a day Tiffany will be at the state education convention for us. That convention takes place January 21st through the 23rd. January 28th is our annual HUS district showcase, a night not to be missed here at the high school. And there is a date I forgot to mention earlier. January 6 is the deadline um for those who would like to submit paperwork for candidacy for school board election in the spring. Um, are there any items you'd like to bring forward for possible future agenda right now? If not, please feel free

160to always put it in an email or contact me or Stacy. All right, looks like we're good with that. Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Motion by Nolan Jacket to adjurnn. >> Second by Kenneth Miller. All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? And we are adjourned. Thank you.