02/16/26 HLSD Board Meeting

001just killing me. >> You're doing a marathon? No one has We are live just so we know. >> Thank goodness for >> we can know exactly in 18 seconds. That's >> right. >> I think you should wait 14 seconds. Let's just Oh yeah. Make sure you breath. >> Thank you, sir. >> Right. >> Okay. It is 6:30 p.m. Let's call the meeting to order. And let's begin with the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Proof of giving public notice. Notice was given. There is no item number four tonight because all board members are in attendance. All right. For public comment, just to confirm, Mallerie, you're

002going to do it at the presentation. >> That's all it is. >> Okay. I just want to make sure if you want to say something. >> Nope. just presentation. >> All right. Then we have only attendance. So no public comment. >> Yes. >> On to the achievements. technically still. >> So, it's not breaking statute. >> Not really. So, just as a just a quick like intro as we get ready kind of here today, the team um always we always come mid year to talk a little bit about data, give everybody a little bit of an update on how we're doing, where we're at, and the things that we're looking at um as also part of our strategic plan. and this was to be presented um at this time. So that is why the entire team

003is here tonight um our coaches um with some support from admin um to provide an update for the board. >> All right. So yeah, here's our midyear update. Um so I just first wanted to start with kind of going over our um assessment kind of process. Um, we just want to let you know that we layer data points um to build a comprehensive picture of student learning um which allows us to make evidence-based decisions for individual students and then also our district curriculum um and programming. So on this slide you can see the kind of the three-part system that we have. The first one is um the early warning sign or systems or the screeners that we have in place. Uh these reading and math screeners play gaps in foundational skills immediately so we can

004intervene before the gap widens. Um and then the second one in green we have um some growth and instructional monitoring assessments. These are going to be like our MAPS assessment which is our district assessment um and our reading benchmarks and other classroom data. This data is for teachers and it's for the coaches and the principles to kind of all put together and talk about. Um it pinpoints kind of exactly where students sit in relation to the standards. Um so teachers can adjust their lessons and then determine individual and group needs and it helps us to monitor our universal curriculum curriculum. Um and then the last um part of our assessment strategy is the summitive evaluation and accountability. So those would be like our Wisconsin forward exam and end of unit assessments. And these are accountability

005measures. um these tell us if our students have mass mastered standards and also helps us to monitor our universal curriculum. Um so today we're going to be sharing just a few of these data points um with you so that you can kind of get a pulse check on where we are this year um and how our district is doing in terms of academics right now. So you'll hear about our literacy and math screener data. you'll hear about our maps data for reading and literacy and then also um I was going to share some science and social studies with you too um and that'll be some forward data that I picked from. So we'll start with um oh before we move on to K3 I just want to tell you that again we're doing an overview

006today a general overview but as coaches principles um teachers were also monitoring data points for each student and making instructional decisions based on their individual needs. So these are just two examples um that kind of you can see how we kind of track them throughout the year. Um and then during our PD day in January and then also throughout the year in our common planning meetings, we look at multiple data points um and determine um what stu which students are progressing with the universal curriculum and then maybe who would need or how we can help them grow within that, but then also which students maybe need some more targeted targeted instruction in addition to the um curriculum within the classroom and then also outside of the classroom depending on the student. Um so again overview

007today but we do do this throughout the year. All right so we'll start with Lisa and K3 data literacy. So what we wanted to show you that's wanted to show you how we kind of look and analyze the data in K3. The first thing we do is analyze isolated skill data um when thinking about the um structured literacy. We look at the reading strands from Scarboro's reading rope and then once we figure pin canprint those things down, we look to see how those things are happening in action. So we look at how kids are using those strands in connected text when they're spelling and when they're writing. Then we analyze any mismatch between the isolated skills and what we're seeing in context. and we determine areas of greatest needs. And during common planning, I work

008with the teachers and so does Heather and Dave to kind of um build some small group instruction or change whole group instruction so that we can match those needs. And then we go and do that instruction and we keep doing the circle over and over again. So we're going to take a look at our reading readiness screener. The reading readiness stringer screener is part of act 20. It's given three times a year in grades K through three. It's given twice a year in 4K. So, we're going to take a look at our fall data and our winter data. This is the data that the state asks us to report out. So, we tell them how many students how many students flagged. That means if you flag, you scored beneath the 25th percentile on the screen.

009And then we told them also um how many of that what percentage of the students were um all our students and how many were just regular ed students. So, you can take a look So if you look at this row compared to this row, you can see in the fall our kindergarten, we only had 2% of our students play, which was two students. In the in winter, we had 1% of our students, so one student. Zero in grade 1, zero in grade 1 both times, 3% in grade two, 2% in grade two in winter, and then 3% of regular ed students in grade three, and 5% in grade in grade three in winter. The other thing we need to check for act 20 is that we need to look at students who exit from their

010PRP. So if I flag to meet the 25th percentile, I get what's called a PRP or a personal reading plan. That personal reading plan follows me until I meet the exit criteria of the plan. So I could flag in fall, but maybe not flag in winter, but still have a plan. So this year we had two students entered first grade with a plan and by winter two students had exited their plan. So we had zero students who are carrying plans over from kindergarten right now. In grade two we had seven students who carried the plan over. Five exited. We still have two working on those plans. They're really close to exiting. Grade three we had five. Two exited. We still have three working on those plans. grade four that we carried seven students over, four

011exited and three are still working on the plan. I put this here so you can see that students that are on a plan are progress monitored weekly. So we can progress and monitor their progress and we chart their progress. This student made their goals so they exited the program. How are you? >> Good. >> All right. So this is what we looked like in comparison to the national norms. You'll see this is kindergarten. There are two subtests that um flag students. We give them six subtests to kindergarten, but only two flag you for our PRP. The two that flag you are kindergarten letter word sound fluency and letter naming fluency. That's really looking at how fast can I name letter sounds and how fast can I name letter names. That tells us a processing speed

012for a student. And with that automaticity, we know that they'll be able to decode faster as they become readers. So if you look at where North fell far above the national norm, our median score was a 53, where the national norms was a 29. And here in letter naming, our median was a 51, the national was a 38. in grades one, two, and three, oral reading fluency is what flags you for ERP, which that's looking at the automaticity you have with identifying words and um phonics patterns in connected texts. So, kids get two passages, they're given a minute to read those passages, and we see how many words they get corrected in a minute. So you can see we're still above, you know, these stands on this side, they really stink, so it doesn't make

013it look quite as good as it is. But if you take a look at first grade over at the side, our median was a 71. The national norm was a 35. Here in grade two, it was a 94 and national median was a 78. And in grade three, our median was a 107, the national was a 99. So, with these norms, we're looking pretty good. But just remember, these assessments are one minute assessments. It's it's a one assessment. We look at a variety of assessments to make sure our kids are becoming little strong readers. All right. So, then we move into fourth through 8th grade. Um, and how we we track those readers. Um, so we move into a district assessment, which is a math, a maps assessment. Um, they take that once a year,

014winter to winter. So, um, this allows us to look at growth. Um, but today I'm just showing you a single term kind of where our kids at right now. Um, my notes so I don't forget anything. Um, so this is assessment is an adaptive assessment where students take on the computer and they read and answer questions. It takes um students about um a full class period to take it. So um their stamina needs to be pretty good. Um and again it's one day so we look at a lot of different assessments. Um but I'm just sharing this one with you today because it's really a big kind of a comprehensive where all the things they need to be doing as readers um in relation to the state standards. Um, so what I mean by an

015adaptive assessment is that they answer questions and they're checking the students knowledge in the grade level standards, but as they answer the test, it adapts based on what they're doing. And then that allows the the test to then when the teachers look at it kind of dig into um what's holding what might be holding the kid back or how we can um where they can be pushed to um continue to grow whether they're high or whether they're down a little bit farther. Can I ask a question? >> So the this bar chart or the the chart you have here the like the percent. So the whatever the bottom the purple or whatever color that is blue. >> So that's if I look at like eighth grade it says 61%. So that means 61% of our

016students are in the 81st percentile. Assume that's nationally. >> Mhm. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Make sure I'm understanding that. >> Yeah, I was getting Yep. Yes, it's exactly it. Um so um this also gives a progression of individual skills within instructional areas for us to kind of monitor students as a whole group but then also individually. So this chart shows this year's achievement based on the middle of the year. So at the bottom we've got our grades. So these are different groups of kids. Um the blue is 81st percent or higher. Um the green is um six the 61st to 80th percentile and then the orange sorry the yellow is 41st and 60th and then so on. Um so I would say across all grades looking at this the vast majority of students are above

017the 41st percentile um ranging from 82% to 97%. Um and then there is a strong upward growth that we see when we look from year to year. Um as the kids move through the grades, they get um they we see a clear trajectory of growth as students move through middle school. Um so for example in fourth grade the 28% are the top tier which is the blue which is the bottom on here but the blue whereas we get to um 61% in eighth grade and that's typical that we see um as I I've been tracking this for for years. Um, so the data shows the strength of our literacy program, but there's of course always room to grow and we just continue to um work and dig into the data and support teachers to support

018the kids. Um, now we're going to move on to math. Patty, thank you. Um, those of you that don't know me, I'm Patty Eerman. I'm the math instructional coach for the district. Um, I know Sarah at the beginning talked about different types of assessments. So, I'm going to show you some data from some of those different assessments. So, if we look at kindergarten up on the right, the top right up there. So, we do a universal screener for numbers for all of our kindergarteners when they come in in the fall and then we do one in the winter. So, you can see the blue there is the number of kids that scored 80 to 100%. So, the bar on the left is fall and then the second bar is is winter. Um fall is mainly

019just kindergarten readiness. Are they ready? Are they ready for the learning that in our curriculum? So then we fall down just a little bit. We still have 90% of our kids um in the 80 to 100% in the winter. But the good thing is we look at these other kids that are maybe in the green and the yellow and we can catch it really quick and they can work with our interventionists. um they can work in small groups with the teacher to try and fill those gaps right away so that they don't fall behind. So then we do an end of the year assessment with kindergarten based on standards that we can correlate with that. So then we go to first grade. First grade we don't do the universal screener for all of our students.

020We're looking at doing that for first and second grade but right now we don't. We're just monitoring in the classroom. And but we do have this end of year assessment I want to talk about for grade one and we do it for all the grades K through 8. We do an end of year and what we've done is we've pulled out the early numerousy standards and you probably can't see this but the first one is verbal counting. Then we have adding and subtracting within 20, adding within 100 and subtracting tens. So, we picked out the most important ones. And the blue columns are the students that got all of them right within that standard. >> So, you can see we're really, really strong here. But then we look at the green, they got partial. Maybe

021they got the addition, but they didn't get the subtraction. Um, and then we have some very small two students here in the yellow zero in this one. And these students, they may have alternative math goals or we may be working with them on interventions. Um, but this is great data for us. This also tells us like this strand, maybe we need to work a little bit more on fluency. So, we'll do that next year or maybe in summer school. Um, and this again helps us these kids that are maybe here and here. Maybe we pull them out in in third second grade and we do the screener with them to see if there's some more gaps. So that's an end of the year assessment. So then second grade they get the end of the year

022assessment, but they we also start doing the MAP test with them. So it's the first time they've had a computerized test. So and we like to see how they do when they're leaving North and going going to South. So this is their first math test. This is second grade from last year. So our current third grade, you can see 27% of our kids were greater than the 80 80th percentile. 40% 61 to 80 19% are in that kind of bubble. They're approaching or they're just over. So these are kids we're going to watch. Maybe they just need a little extra practice. Maybe they need some group work. And then these are some kids that maybe we're going to look at for interventions. Maybe they have alternative math goals. But this gives us great data to

023look at like and we also look at by instruction like what strands are they lower in. So that's kindergarten through 2 grade. So now I'm going to jump to third through 8th grade. So in third through 8th grade we take the math test. So this is current. We took this just last J just a month ago. So this is really current data. So again the blue is 81 percentile and up. green 61 to 80, yellow 41 to 60, gold 21 to 40 for orange, and red 1 to 20%. So when we look at we looked at this in January and then we correlated it with what have we taught and what haven't we taught. So for instance, third grade um looks a little bit like, you know, we're a little above the 50th percentile. We'd

024love all these kids to be blue and green, right? But we're not quite there. But we noticed we haven't taught fractions yet. Fractions started this week. Fractions is a huge standard in third grade. So we take that into consideration, but we look at what have we taught and then we pull those kids into small groups. We might screen some of them. This is when we get together with the teachers and the interventionists and say maybe we should screen give the universal screening to this student. So this gives us wonderful data there. The best thing about this is every year I look at this and I love seeing the upward trajectory. Everything shifts. We get more blue every year. We get more green every year, less yellow, less gold, and less red. And that's the goal.

025So, and I've seen this time and time again. So, I always show that line. So, we're all we have such strong instruction, strong curriculum. It's just we have to look at this filling gaps. But when I look at this, I can tell we are filling in those gaps because by the time they leave us and high school, they've got that great foundation in math. And that's what that's what our goal is. So this data just helps us keep on track looking at those those kids that need a little extra help or those kids that need a little enrichment too. So social science. >> So just the last one. Um I just I don't want to forget the other core subjects which are science and social studies. Um we only do maths assessment with math and

026literacy. So I pulled forward data but I don't think I shared that with you last time we we um went over some data together. So I um just wanted to throw this out there. Um so over time this these are eighth graders only. So, I just wanted to show you that by the time they're in eighth grade um and they only assess in science and social studies two times um while they're with us in fourth grade and then eighth grade. So, these are um just our eighth graders from last year to this year. Um but by the time they leave 8th grade, the vast majority of our students are showing proficiency in state standards are I think prepared for high school and what they need to do in their high school science and socialized classes.

027In science, you can see we reduced the number of students in approaching category by more than half from 23 to 9%. Um, and then in social studies, just something to point out is we saw a significant jump in mastery with nearly 60% of our students scoring in the advanced range. So, just something to celebrate. Um, and just beyond this, like this is one assessment and it's um, the state one, but um, we have other instructional focuses in science and social studies. Right now, our teachers are actively working to develop students disciplinary literacies, which is teaching them to read and think like scientists and like historians, which is key to long-term success in these disciplines. Um, and then beyond the forward exam, our teams analyze classroom data like exit tickets, writing responses, and projects during their

028vertical meetings that we have um every other week. And then this collaborative approach allows them to make informed instructional decisions to support our learners. So, we're really doing this across the board with our core subjects. So, that concludes our pulse check on where we are academically so far this year. We do have another semester to go or we're a little bit into the second semester, but um we'll just continue to monitor where students are and continue to support their program. That concludes great job. >> Dave wanted to add >> I just wanted to make a comment that you know when you look at those numbers we get um new students throughout the year and so I just was touring a parent this morning and they're like so how do you know my student? And obviously

029we'll get some data from their previous school district. However, our system is incredibly comprehensive. So as we get to know that student, right, their data gets infused into the system. So like when I think about, you know, incoming third graders and I might have picked up seven of them or my fourth graders, I had nine new fourth graders this year. So those cohorts, even though we see growth over time, there are new variables every year. And so we have to we the team like the coaching staff and the classroom teachers at all grade levels do an excellent job of getting to know those students and then trying to build on their skills because a lot of those students whether it's math or literacy um come from a a little bit different background. Um it might

030have been the curriculum they're using, it might have been some of the instructional techniques. Um, and so we do a a really nice job of trying to help them um, you know, assimilate with the rest of the class and then build on their previous skill set as quickly as we can. >> I guess I will add to that too because they will never ever put themselves out there, but I I said it when I first came here, this district did an amazing job of spending their ESR dollars back during that co time and they committed to closing the gap for all of their students and they hired these three incredible coaches. Sarah was here as a staff maybe and then we had these these coaching positions. We we committed as a board, as a district

031to stay these three women for doing the great job that they do and and I I I can't applaud them enough. I they are constantly reinventing, constantly looking at what they can do. And and I think I think tonight it was just really important to point out so many people out there just think that everything's based on the Forward exam. And the Ford exam, as we've talked, has changed three times now in the last three years. And so there's not a lot of consistency that we can gain from that. But when we have the instruction and the practice in place that we do here at H Heartland Lakeside with that layered approach, every child is getting basically an individualized plan. Um, and it's extraordinary and it shows in the scores that they just displayed here

032tonight on the board. So, thank you for your leadership, for your great work and all that you're doing to to do what's best for kids in this district. It's truly amazing. >> Yeah. When I looked at that that chart that had the the blue line in the third grade, it was the reading one. I think the 81st percent, I was like 28% or something. But if we were you're just like everybody else in the world, right? Or in the US, we'd be at like 19% there. So, we're not all that different from a starting point in terms of our kids makeup. But then when they get to the eighth grade, they're all a sudden we got 60% in the top four. >> So, very impressive. I think the numbers numbers weren't up there on the

033map, but it was a similar similar story. So, that's great. >> I only had one question. If if you were sitting here, is there anything that you would say you would need? Are you getting what you need from the board and the district to continue to have these results and better or you lacking in anything? Um, I think the coaching, having the coaching and the coaching model at our school is important and I just want to keep doing that. Um, because I think it's the collaborative nature of trying to figure out what kids need and and being able to collaborate and get support. That is the main thing, but I would just want to keep that going. But for the most part, I feel like we're in a good spot and we >> Anything for

034Yeah. at the same with you again. >> Oh, great job. Thank you. Great job, >> Sarah. We'll leave that down. >> Yes, thank you. >> Yeah, I know. I have another We have another presentation because HL is here. >> You're not coming up here. Oh, you want me? >> I thought you were doing this. You can just fine. >> That first that first one was just a placeholder. >> There you go. Okay. Uh we are part of Parlake Side Education Foundation. Thank you for having us and let us present for the busy busy stuff that we've been doing over the past year. We have four of our six um uh board members here and Mallerie, Sicilia, Becca, and then Morgan is also on our Ailia board and then we have two other members. Um one

035of the first things that you might have noticed for this year as opposed to last year is that we kind of had a rebranding of our logo. and Becca's brainchild. If you could go to the next screen. We wanted to kind of show more about how all of these entities come together and blue plus yellow equals green. So that's kind of why we made the different gradient um portion of our logo is still the same. the next one. >> Um, we also made little postcards this year that we've been kind of handing out at all of our events and activities so people can see who we are, what we do, and how we do it. Um, we're a nonprofit that partners with Lakeside District. Uh, our three main kind of pillars are promoting connection and

036unity through school and community event, which is my favorite part. Uh, supporting our teachers through staff and district through volunteerism and enriching education through the awarding of grants. As I said before, we're 100% volunteer run. So, even though there's the six of us on the board, we do have a lot of support in the way of volunteers. Um, and I'll talk about that talk about that a little later, but we're always looking for new help uh for doing our monthly events, donations, ideas, all of it. We were busy this year. Um, school and community events. Uh Becca created our calendar that every family receives at conferences. We do our popcorn and spirit days every month. Uh we do dining nights month almost monthly almost monthly. Um we give Harlem Lakeside School District night shares to

037all the 5K students. And then here is all the stuff that we have done or are planning. Um, I'll go into kind of a little bit more detail about each of not each of these, but some of the bigger ones. On the next slide, you'll notice that unfortunately we had to cancel our family movie night for February. We are just six people and we've got a lot of other stuff coming up and that we have done, but we're excited for the new things that are coming and we're hoping that next year we can still do the family. Next, here's some of our school and community event feedback. The Heartland Street Dance was a new thing that we did this year. Last year we joined the H Heartland Chamber of Commerce. There was been a big

038push with the chamber to include more nonprofits and so we joined. Um they invited us to go to the Heartland street dance this year. So we just had a little booth. We did little temporary tattoos and there was like family thing. >> Like a family area. >> Family area. Yeah. It was super It was super fun. Some house. >> There's a bounce house. Popcorn. Kids just brand everywhere. Um, back to school bash, which is one of the things that I coordinate, um, was super awesome this year. We moved it from from one of the schools to Dex, so we had a bigger space. We had the beer gardens, we had food trucks this year, bathrooms, >> we had bathrooms, Oops. Um, and one of those food trucks, rendevous shaved ice, donated $50, which was 10%

039of their profits from the event back to us. The other food truck said they were going to um and then the school the Scholastic book fair this year, we did something different. Missy was one of the people leading that. She's another board member. Um, but we kept the book fair open during conferences, which was really cool because then the parents and students could come and do the shopping. It was also very interesting because parents would be like, "Oh, my kid had $50 on a B wallet. They said they didn't buy anything." And then they open their backpack and they're like, "Oh." And then there's the kid standing there with three more books. So, we're reading. Um, but there are some of the numbers. We spent a little over 4,600 of the Scholastic dollars, which is

040kind of like the money we give back from Scholastic. >> Yeah. It's kind of like they take their cut and then they give us a certain dollar amount for each for each book or dollar spent. >> Um and then like we can cash that out. >> Um >> and it's like less of the amount. If we use the Scholastic dollars to buy books, it's a much higher amount. So we use that to do um teacher books, north uh book fairy and also the vending machine at north. So so for over $4,600 of the scholastic dollars went to south teacher books, north teacher books, the north book fairy which is for some things that maybe don't have those funds. And then our vending or book vending machine at north the trunk or treat party is another

041one that I plan that I really really love. Um, we partner with all these awesome Heartland entities. So, it's really put on by Kuwanis, not the Rotary Kuanas. Kuanas and the library, but there's a village of Heartland, the Rat Department, DPW, Guanas, uh, the Rotary Club. We all collaborate together to kind of throw this event. And our contribution is coordinating the trunk or treat. Um, two years ago we had about 500 kids come through the trunk or treat. And I can say that because the dentist donated 500 toothbrushes that we were also handing out with nerds, but we gave away all 500 toothbrushes. Um, this year there was probably closer to 700 that just came through the trunk retreat and then there was over 2,000 attendees at the entire event. >> It was closer to

042a thousand because I had stuff set up for >> Okay. So closer to a thousand. It's huge and it's super fun and we were really lucky the last two years with the weather. Um, and it's a great way to like kind of headline Heartland Lakeside with all these other Heartland things. >> And previously that had been the Halloween carnival. So, I don't know if you guys remember the Halloween carnival. We had kind of um the year that I started maybe I don't remember. This was like 3 years ago. Um it would be like at the Heartland North um parking lot and just kind of the trunk or treat. There wasn't too much outside of like there's some things like you could buy a little food and stuff like that. So this has with Mal taking

043it over. This has like snowballed into this really amazing thing for the whole community which is awesome. >> Yeah. Yeah. It's awesome. And last year what happened was we scheduled trunk the same day they were going to have party. Let's do it together. >> Oh, this is an excellent go. And then at after the last one, so you're doing trick-or-treating next year, I was like, I guess, sure. Um, yeah. So, that's always super super super fun. Um, the Merry Market. Do you want to >> Sure. Um, so we did Merry Market this year. It was a craft fair. Um, I was going to be really happy with 20 vendors and like 200 people coming through. Um, like country loves a craft fair. There's not too much that can be said about that. Um, we had

04480 vendors. Um, over 500 attendees. Um, people were leaving. Like the vendors were packing up and they were like, "What date is this next year?" So, that always signals to me that the vendors are making money. Um, we charged them for the spot and then we charged to get in charge to get in uh 12 and under was free. >> And 12 and Yeah. And so, um, we also had one of the first Santaas in the area. Um, Santa rode his motorcycle to us, so that was really special. That um, and so a lot of people brought their kids because it was a free toe event um, that they could get pictures with Santa like before. >> Yeah, there were kids that were coming in. They were like, we are here >> for Santa. >>

045I had to make announcements to find him. Um but also uh that was like our last really really nice day of November. So I think we probably would have had more attendees if people weren't outside trying to get rid of all their leaves. Yes. >> That day we also had um we opened up to for vendors to kids in the area. So like kids in the school district. Um we gave them a very discounted fee and allowed them to come in and sell as vendors which I love like kids using their business like >> entrepreneur kind of stuff. Um, and we did have four, five, between four and six kids. Um, and they had really cute ideas and >> I think we had closer to eight cuz we had some pair with their parents. >>

046We had between four and eight and um, they were very cute and they did really well and they were so sweet. Like people would come up and they were like, "How can I help you?" And you know, some of them were like, you know, fifth graders. It was just it's really cute to see. Um but yeah, so we'll be doing that again next year. Um and then the holiday shop is always super popular. We can only do it for Huntland South because it's a lot of work. Um but everything that we sell there is under $10. Um everything's under retail. Nothing is sold above $10. Um and we were also able to provide $2 $240 to students who didn't have funds to ensure everyone could participate. Um, and we worked with the principal and uh

047some advisers to figure out who those kids were. So, they didn't even know that they were like getting that money. And everybody kind of just like it was just a very equal everybody got to go shopping and apparently mugs are very very popular as well as campus. So, Morgan has the hat on that and like when I tell you we could not do it without her. who she truly is amazing and like make sure that the kids are able to get something for their brother or their sister and like >> their dog, their dog, their cat. I mean, um it's like really amazing to see the kids the kids come in with kind of that spirit of giving. um which the first time I volunteered I really wasn't expecting but they truly are like thinking

048about others and like what would my dad like for Christmas and it's just really sweet. So, um I remember doing this in elementary school and I remember being at like a company that came in and had a lot of like >> crappy kind of trinkets and this is not that like Morgan >> put so much Legos >> and it's Yeah. I know like the schools are like this is really a thing every year but it is a big fundraiser for us and the kids just love it. >> Yeah. Um, and then the last one that we've already done is family family bingo night, which was another one of my things because I remember always had family bingo night when I was in school and it made me so happy. I was going to be happy

049if we had 20 people there. We had about 120 from all the schools. Like it's pretty notorious that like the elementary school kids come to our events because, you know, middle schoolers, but we had middle schoolers, we had full families, we had just a parent. Like it was awesome. We had a bunch of uh different donations for prizes. Um extra recesses and lunch are always very popular. Thank you. Um but yeah, those be very happy. Next, um popcorn spirit days here are just the days that we do it. Uh we have volunteers that come on and make popcorn for all the kids at Heartland North and Heartland South and there's always some fun day associated with it. And then another one of our fundraising things is dining nights. We're almost monthly. We have a partnership

050with one of the local restaurants where a portion of our sales are donated. Thank you Julia. I don't know what March is yet. We have a volunteer working on those. Next, we also do teacher appreciation themes. Try to do them every month, but these are some of our topics. So September we did the trail mix bar. October was pumpkin spice or apple nice. uh November. The elegant farmer pies is a fundraiser that we do and then people can choose to purchase a pie for the teachers. So we take those pies and if we don't have enough then HL purchase the pies. Yeah. So we can give them to all the teachers at all the lounges. >> So we we have enough so all the teachers can like have a piece of pie before they go

051for break. Um I would love to give them each a pie and maybe that's something we can strive for. Um yeah, so we're like baking like 10 pies at home and bringing them here so that the teachers can have um just something nice, >> but not caramel apple. >> Not caramel. That was hard. That was a disaster. Uh and then this year for new we did gift wrapping, which was okay. I wish more people would have participated. South had the most uh staff and teachers ask for things to wrap, but people like to wrap. So, we will probably do that again next year. >> So, the offer was that you could sign up and bring in like 10 personal gifts or like if you're giving your class a gift like from the teachers, they could

052bring that to our volunteers who were set up and they would wrap it for them so that teachers are not spending their time having to do stuff outside of school. Um, and they're always, you know, they're they're so busy that we thought it would be a nice I think some of we just need to work on how we like explain it to them. >> I don't think they understood what they were. Um, and then we have February, skipped January, February, we need to get the immunity out and then March, April, and May is teachers appreciation week, which is big week. New this year uh was uh we started a VIP volunteer incentive program. So, every month we do this whole wheel and somebody wins and they can choose from like one of the uh Heartland

053Lakeside swag items, coffee, quick trip gift card, something like that. Um, we've had over60 unique volunteers so far this year. So, although there's only six of us, we still do have a lot of support. Um, and we increased partition participation with those volunteers with the student council and then the Arrowhead. Arrowhead has two organizations. Warhawks Interact, which is kind of they're part of Rotary, right? I think >> they're a big volunteer organization within Arrowhead and then the National Honor Society have to do like 45,000 hours of volunteers. So, they're always looking for our stuff. Uh school spirit shop, which was an awesome collaboration between the district, HLAF, and the shirt company. This is one of the shirts. Branded coffee within Banyan. Exhausted parent and better together are two brands. Uh, as I mentioned before, members

054of the Heartland Chamber of Commerce and then grants. This portion was new last year, but we're seeing some more movement going into 2020 or during 2025, 2026. Um, that was the beginning of the micro grants, which are for requests under 20 $250 an hour >> under >> and under. And major grant cycles. There used to only be two a year and we extended it to three times a year so we can try to get more money out to the teachers and the staff in the district and the students. More grant information. Um so our current board is pretty young. I think Morgan and Sicilia are the longest with maybe two and a half to three years >> ish on the board. Um, I've only been there for a year and a half, but when we

055came in, we were we're very grateful to inherit a strong financial foundation from prior boards. And in part of that, we were we're now able to offer those micro grants, which are monthly on the major grants, which we can do three times a year. The micro grants are for district administrators, teachers, and staff. They're reviewed by just the HLA Asia board. We do it every month at our meetings. They're designed to be simple mechanism to allow district employees to receive to request funds for smaller one-off expenses and the principal approval is required for major grants. Those are above $250 for district admin administrators, teachers and staff. So um in microrant students are also eligible um but major grants they are not three grant cycles. These are reviewed by not only the HL >> what >>

056the students are able to put in for major grants only staff and program I have there >> because we've had some really awesome students >> awesome students um >> the period cart at the middle school >> yeah feminine hygiene cards um what else did she have I feel like places um anyway but the approval it's not just the HL board. We have a committee of district parents. So, they are giving us community buy in on where the money for these major grants are going, which is part of the reason that we have these grant cycles and the process so we can get that board together. Um, and then these are intended to be used for new projects and items which are above and beyond the required curriculum. And these are both principal and superintendent pre-authorization

057required. Next, >> can you just help clarify really quick just because this is broadcast? One thing that comes up a lot is that why isn't the district paying for these curriculum things and and paying for, you know, why why is HLAF doing that? And so I just want to just be able to clarify that if it's if it's above and beyond our curriculum and it's like um like recently the chomp the chomp the ch sauce the chomp sauce adorable amazing but that the teachers if they if they want something extra that is supporting our curriculum then they'll ask and I'll be like yeah sure because they've got all you know money to spend on on those items and they're things that that I would have to weigh out we would have to weigh out as

058a team but if they're willing to purchase those. I just don't want the misnomer out there that like, oh, the district's not paying for them or not taking care of it. >> It's a storybook walk as well, >> right? Things that like weren't considered when curriculums were being created with a budget or it's like, oh my gosh, there's this really cool like new unit or new opportunity we can do. Like, yeah, let's get that moving. So, like I mean, ne next slide has more information. >> Yeah, >> but like these are really cool things like the North story bookw walk. I am a runner and when I run past the library, I slow down for that thing all the time. So, I'm really excited to have that at North. Um the Heartland South Pergola, which

059is part of Landscapes for the Future, um which is a parent >> parent run nonprofit. >> Um doing the pergola out which will also be a a place for outdoor education. Um whiteboards for sixth grade math because they just can't use their whiteboards. They get used, right? the Chomp Saws, Cole's Wild Theater performance, like just really cool stuff like >> butterflies unit. >> Yeah. So, so far this year we've awarded $23,481.50. Next, these are kind of uh the grant awarding over the years. Just going back to 2223. Um you can see over on our overall totals that between 2022 23 and 23 24 um we've doubled over doubled the amount of approved and spent um grants. The difference between approved and spent is that they give us the estimated budget and then maybe something's on

060sale when they actually go and buy it or they didn't need something. So that's what the spent category is. Um, and then 23 24 to 24 25 $11,000 more. And then this year it's only halfway through. So we haven't had a ton of spent, but we're already over half of what we were at last year for our total. So we're trying to spend the money. We love the grants. We want to see more information or more things on how we can help our our teachers and our district and do those really cool fun things. Oh, and two years ago, what? Like a NASA? >> There's that NASA field trip, too. No, it wasn't a field trip, right? They It was like a bus that came like things like that. There just aren't >> So, we

061Yeah, we >> Who expects for the NASA bus to come, you know? So, those are like what HLAF grants do. It's the above and the beyond the extra cool the >> Oh, man. The sparkle. Yeah. >> So, that's what we do with our grants. And then here's our 2025 2026 snapshot of finances um between like fundraising community and expenses. >> Yeah. So the fundraising ones are obviously like how we make the money so that we can then put on like you know fund those grants, right? So we have a bank balance, but it's not going to be there forever. So we do need to still fund raise. Um, we also do community support events which are we kind of consider those like zero sum. Like we might put some money into it. We're not expecting

062to make money out of it but it's just for like bingo. I mean just the >> I thought we were going to make 100 bucks at bingo. >> Yeah. Well that yeah that was the waters. Um but you know trunk or treat is free. Um and then you know we have our own expenses. Um we fund a scholarship every year. uh we do our best to take care of the teachers um and all the other things that Mel kind of already talked about. And then our last slide, this is it. This is the six of us. >> Yeah. And I will say like I mean 160 volunteers um a lot of those come from the high school. A lot >> they like the high school kids do come. So kind of a pain point for

063us right now is that we don't have um enough parents who come and help out. Um we would love to see more parents um our meetings we actually have child care available. >> So which are volunteers from the Warhard Warhawk Center and the National Honor Society. So, um, you know, Becca brings her kids often and and it's wonderful because like a lot of stuff we couldn't do this year without her. She did such she is doing such a wonderful job. Becca does like a lot of our all of our social media and her newsletters >> and the website. >> So, um, so yeah. So, we're trying to make it as accessible as possible. Um, but we have seen a really sharp decline in, you know, volunteers from this school. So, I'm there's a lot of

064reasons that that could be. People are tired, but any questions for us? >> First, I want to say thank you for all this. I know it's a lot of work to organize all these things and I'm thrilled to death at the shopping experience and what you do with the building principal to let kids have that experience to give a gift to someone else cuz you get so much more when you give than what you receive. So doing that I applaud you guys for doing that. That's that's an amazing life lesson and thank you for that and all the donations to the districts. That's great. I have a general question for both of you. I'm not sure the answer. If community members wanted to donate for tax purposes. If they donate with HLEF, it's taxdeductible. If

065they donate directly to the district, it is not. Is that correct? >> Yeah. >> So, anyone listening, >> if you're looking to make large donations, you can take a tax advantage if you do it with the HLF. than if you do it to the district, it's still going to end up in the same uh place for kids. >> Yeah. >> Uh the other question I have is I know that Morgan in the past when you presented where you had mentioned that the bank account will last forever. >> Do you have I I saw in the last one I think the last slide said something about 20ome,000 raised and about 20ome,000 given so kind of a >> close to a wash. >> Yeah, this is just for this year of what we've been doing. So >>

066just this year. >> Yeah. So we had about three grand I think in the chanting and we like I said inherited from the pre previous boards about 90. So we're trying with our grants and that's why we've improved not improved >> we have given out more money than in the >> Yeah. Yeah. the grants the micro grants and the >> more income. >> Not now but at another time she could give you kind of more of that financial >> Oh that's fine. I mean you gave us >> it's about 98. Yeah. >> And you're slowly paying it down or trying to build it? >> I I don't know. >> We since I've been on the board, um, which was June of last year, so only a year and a half, we haven't had an official

067grant come all the way through the process that HLAF has denied. >> Yeah. Wait, we want to give that money to the teachers and the students and the district administers that are applying through the grants. And the reason we have the grant process is because when we give those bigger grants that are over $250, we have community buying because the community members that are donating and giving our money to fundraising want to know where the money's going. >> And that also gives the community >> a feeling of being part of it and making those decisions. So it's not just us that are making those over $250 decisions. community committee >> and there's only seven of us. >> Keep saying that. >> Any other questions? >> Glow party is March 20th. >> Yeah, >> we have

068a Dday and dice. >> Photo booth and shape. >> Thank you guys. >> Thank you. You guys stay here. >> Yeah, you stay. >> All right. If that's it, Tina, right? We have nothing else. Great. >> Then we'll move into committee reports. We'll start with PBC. >> PBC met this morning. We had some conflicts and interest or conflicts of schedules and we made it this morning and now we're back today to report. Uh first report, there are a few additions and changes. We have a new art in in the building. So excited to see that one. Um, so with that, we briefly went over those changes that were there. Uh, we then went into the 35.1 updates. So, if you remember last month, we went through the real quick, easy changes that were in there,

069whether it was 2025, the new dates, um, and then we went through a little more in depth. Now, with that list that we had, we pulled about, uh, five different, um, items from the policies from that list. Um, it was digital conduct, AI, food services, wellness, and free meal retention or free meal uh plan, price meal. That one was pulled. We're going to look at those next month. They were just they still need to be gone through by either it or business services. So, they're working through those. The ones that are in the list have been gone through and have been updated with the legal information. Not much has changed inside the actual documents besides the wording that has been placed inside the legal from uh Neil Uh and those are the ones that are

070listed that for for today. Uh policy we then went over search and seizure. Uh this is policy 5771. Uh the reason we went through this is because of the recent incident in Kenosha. Um we verified that our policy matches the standards of what we want for the district. Uh we also recently sent in a crisis management in November to DPI. So we talked about these and we're going to continue to bring those up. So, we just want to be aware of the policy and make sure we had our stuff covered with recent things going on. >> Yeah. And I think it was just a great opportunity with an audience out there to say, "Hey, you're seeing it in the news and you saw what happened there without having a policy in play." We have a

071policy in play and we follow it and everybody we have the plan. So, just more of a more of a community awareness piece um than anything. >> And then the last ball you went over was 8330, which is student records. we had a request from the uh police department just for some student records and in our policy we don't give that out and so we reviewed the policy just to make sure that that wasn't there just for the protection of of kids and in different scenarios that are there. Um so we we just reviewed it to make sure that matches what we were moving forward with. Um and we work on a case by case basis. So if there is a scenario or an incident going on at that point then that information would be

072distributed in those pieces. Um and then the other part of that policy or in accordance with any policy that's there we made sure that the district is now updating and making sure the stakeholders have a a uh more accurate and clear resolution with the with the departments as well. So we are updating our key stakeholders in the district to make sure that that list is accurate. So, I will update on top of that because after we had the PPC meeting, we had our leadership team and we sat together and went through all the key holders for every building and we adjusted that, made sure all the phone numbers were accurate. So, H Heartland PD will know exactly who to call in what order. Um, have all of our accurate information and then we'll go from

073there. I really think that that might be some of the communication gap. Um, but I also just want to reinforce that our number one priority is to protect the children as is H Heartland PDs. we just have to do it together in a way that is FURPA compliant, legal, um, and and something we're all comfortable with. So, um, that's kind of where we came came to on this one >> and that was the extent of that agenda. All right. Thank you. Very good. So, this one and Tina, you had the listed in this case. Do you want to have that vote for here? Because it wasn't in the consent. >> Which one? >> The updates is sitting in this. It's not in an actual >> Oh, it's >> in this piece. >> Uh yeah, it

074can be voted on now here with within that. >> Uh I don't think we can. >> There's not a there's not there's not an agenda item for a vote. >> So, I don't think we can. >> Huh. Well, we'll add it to the next one. >> Right. Um the only thing that I wanted to add is we pulled those five out and I just want to go back to the AI portion of it. >> Um it was a bunch of legal added to AI. We still have a little AI policy of what that is. We're going to expand with it. We're going to bring it back to the board next month to be able to look at and at least digest and then hopefully go forward on the following month after that. So, we're not

075trying to rush it out by any means. We just want to make sure we protect it. We still have that protection that's there and we'll continue to add that. >> And I'll add to Yeah. And I'll add to that one too is that our staff really are mindful about that roll out. Um we continue to meet um on a regular basis and our team is just like you know the practice of teaching the art of teaching you know what are we using it for what is appropriate at what ages it really probably ought to be scaffolded out instead of like everybody all at once and so they're being very mindful in their um their thoughts on rolling AI out and I think I think that's the right thing to do um for all people and

076their comfort levels and they're doing great work. >> What's their finger on the pulse as far as student utilization? Are they seeing an uptick or an interest level increase or nah? It's about the same as it was last year. >> I don't think there's a way for us to to know that primarily because we don't allow it in the in the building. So, if they're using AI, they're doing it at home on their own devices, right? >> Um, so for us to be able to track that, I think that's probably one of our bigger concerns, too, as far as, you know, rolling that out. I think we want to know and be able to answer that question. I think some of our staff can tell if a student is going home at night and utilizing

077AI and I think those just become conferences. Hey Johnny, you know, this is really great. Can you tell me where you, you know, found your information? It becomes kind of this one-on-one conversation because our staff at let's have really great relationships with kids. And so I think we we kind of talked early on. It's not a point that is an anger point for us as as educators or as teachers in the classrooms like, "Oh, they did all their math at home." Right? We've used that example. Instead, it becomes a conversation. Wow, you really struggled with this in class, but I see you got it right in this quiz. Tell me about how you got there. Right? Because likely using AI, there's a step or two that's missing. And so we're able to identify it, but

078we really work on making that a learning a learning experience for our kids to kind of teach them how to use AI appropriately. Um, and and answers on those types of things probably not the best way that we want to jump off at that. You know, we want to talk about being informed and and how to utilize it. But we definitely want to avoid open AI situations. So those are other pieces that we're taking a look at now that uh Chris and I kind of we talked about that this morning. um kind of the the Super Bowl kind of freaks some people out and and some of the stuff with um you know devices. So, we're we're going to take our time with this. We are um and it's going to be guided and you

079guys will be 100% involved in the in the roll out of that. >> But to be able to answer that question, how many if there's more? Oh, no. Just I was just wondering if you've seen it. I've seen it more in the news >> and I wondered if that translates down >> into the classroom. Just curious more managing >> if you're not hearing it from the teachers and I guess that's probably not >> Oh, I think they're seeing it, but they're managing it. You know, they're managing it, but I think it's hard for us because it's not taking place in the building. It's taking place outside of the building, and that's not right. Our jurisdiction necessarily, >> right? All right, thank you both very much. Finance committee. >> Okay, so we met uh our normal

080meeting. Um spending's in line, the financials look fine. Um so we kind of did our regular review of those. Uh we spent a little bit of time at the end of the meeting talking about budget revisions. Um, I think this got some air time at our last board, meaning that, you know, we just had some unexpected costs or increased costs above budget in some certain areas. Um, I think Patrick has and continues to go through account by account looking for opportunities to save where we may have over budgeted for stuff. I think if the if we had to close the books today, we'd estimate like a 50 grand uh reduction, a kind of above budget costs, which if you recall, we budgeted about $350,000 to go to fund 46, which is the C capital improvement

081plan. So that's, you look at that as potential cushion where something like that could come out of if we had, you know, operating costs in excess of budget. And so, you know, if we looked at that today, that's what it would be. But that's it's a moving target and it'll continue to move until we get closer to the end of the year and all the costs kind of materialized. Um we continue to learn that kitchen equipment is ridiculously expensive for commercial grade kitchens. Um so there's going to be some kitchen repairs needed towards the end of the year which are going to be in the neighborhood of 30 grand. Um we are having uh you know this warmer weather. We'll be getting new parking lots at South and the middle school. And so I think

082they're getting going bid >> and at North. >> Yeah, I can talk more about it, Phil. >> Yeah, I think you can talk about your piece. That's fine. >> And yeah, we're getting some new carpeting at the library and south, too. So, we just kind of went over those sorts of things, but >> um everything else is good. >> I just had one question. It's for Patrick. So when we allocate money for fund 46 that's part of the budget planning process but until the money is transferred in there technically that's still available without board action if you >> because because the actual transfer itself has to be approved >> by the board right with >> yes so just like every budget it's it's our best estimation >> okay >> but I talked to the finance

083committee and I said well where do you think if we need to reduce somewhere without in impacting program pro programming or families or stuff that's going on in the classroom. Uh the obvious place would be to reduce that transfer. >> So yes, we could we can make a revision in our budget. >> Okay. >> Um based on what final spending looks like and where everything settles. Um but like Matt said, right now it's probably looking if we ended today that transfer would be around 300 instead of 350. >> Yeah. No, I I I thank you. I was just wondering if that was something that we had to take action on because once it gets in, it's a little more difficult to pull out. >> Yep. >> So that's why I thought I wanted to clarify.

084Yes, you could still do it before we voted it. >> Yep. Okay. >> And I think that's why we wait till the end of the year. Correct. So that >> great >> if there are those things that we need for. >> It's one of those discretionary items where if something happens, that's one area that's kind of a buffer. Okay. Thank you. >> Great. All right. Thanks, Matt. Yep. Now we'll move on to consent agenda. Before we talk through consent agenda, Morgan, how would you like to read off the donations? >> I think it would be appropriate. >> Love to. I had no hand in approving them. Um the this month we had $22,000 approved for um grants from HLAF. We have 127 to Miss Pe's for some neurody divergent and ADHD tool kits. $250 to

085Mrs. Blank for fifth grade team building clubs, which I think they do like Rubik's cubes and crocheting. Um 100 or $1,18 to Miss Orllech for a mini golf unit at Northshore. $5,200 to Miss Feldner for the H Heartland North Storybook Walk. $2,200 roughly for Miss Quick for the Chamsaws for Heartland South. And then the big one is $13,000 to landscapes for the future for H Heartland South PLA. >> Great. Thank you. And thank you, HLEF. >> I do think we have to approve those. >> That would be part of the consent. >> Okay. Thank I wasn't sure if the grants were different >> unless and that brings us to the next point which is the consent agenda. Under the consent agenda rules, it allows us to approve a group of items rather than having independent

086decisions on each one. As such, if anyone does not have a request to pull one of the consent agenda items out, I'd be looking for a motion to approve the consent agenda items as presented. So moved. Second. Any discussion on those items? All those in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. >> Motion carries. Thank you. All right. On to new business. First one, transportation. I know you were going to take away that one. >> The transportation contract. as we as we ever so gently inch more close to a resolution on all of this transportation conversation um that we have had over the course of the last two and a half years. Um I have in front of you tonight an agreement to dissolve the transportation cooperative with Arrowhead Union High School and Dausman um at

087June 30th of 2028. This was part of the goal so that we could move away from it if need be. We did go out earlier for RFP this year just to have an idea of the cost. I will say from a cost perspective, it's certainly something we're going to have to have a conversation about um based on our current where we are right now. It's about a $200,000 increase 150 um to what we're doing right now. but it offers us the opportunity to um set everything separate on our own. Um so that that is one piece of this. There is also a piece of this that says that we may stay with all of the theater schools and work out a still a consortium still an idea that will be on a tier 2 or

088tier three basis. Um, and that of course, as you know, the whole reason you do a consortium where you do this the way we did is to reduce cost because you're sharing all of those buses and the idea is to reduce the cost of busing. Um, so as as a district that would offer to that consortium the highest level of buying power, you would maybe consider thinking about how that how we fit into that calculation. If not, we we know that we have the opportunity or the ability to go outside of um that consortium and and do our own bid. Um so those are the things, but first we have to get this signed. Um um and it basically is an addendum that just basically dissolves our uh a dissolution of the agreement remain in

089full force in effect through June 30th of 2028 and automatically dissolve and terminate on June 30th of 2028 coinciding with the conclusion of the 2028-28 school year and the expiration of the current contract with the Dowin Transport Company. So that's that was one of the goals we had and so I asked tonight um my recommendation is that we would um sign off on the dissolution of this consortium agreement. >> Can I make >> add to that just I want some clarify on some stuff. I mean, this gives us a lot of flexibility in two years to, as Tina said, this doesn't lock us into I mean, I just don't want any confusion for people are watching. This doesn't lock us into some $200,000 increase in transportation. >> Doesn't prohibit us from continuing to work with

090every other feeder school, but we our hands were tied in that contract where Arrowhead basically dictates everything and we kind of get told what we can and can't do and what times we can and can't start with. Um, and we've had a tremendously difficult time trying to get some really, you know, safety student first changes incorporated. This has been a tremendous fight. Um, you know, I think in two years when this thing comes up, I mean, maybe this whole collective doesn't make sense, but maybe there's two or three other feeder schools we could get with to get some of that same buying power, but get it more control over our schedule. So, I think this is this I I don't think anybody before H Heartland started looking at this realized how messed up the situation

091was, how these contracts just continued to roll that had were put in place 25 years ago. So, strongly urge us to get out of this thing. >> This is just us giving out. It's not the whole thing dissolving. >> All of the feeder schools, everybody, the feeder schools, all eight of the districts will sign this contract. >> Oh, okay. Nice. I just wasn't sure if all of them you were >> not they wouldn't that you can't yeah you can't in isolation do that because it's a 6603 agreement for all of us so everybody has to sign on with it in order for it to happen >> and if one person doesn't I think we all want to >> okay I just I assumed that you knew that people wanted to leave but I wasn't sure

092anybody wants out of it at this point >> okay cool >> I motion to approve the transportation contract as presented. >> Second. >> All right, we have a motion on the floor to approve the transportation amendment as presented. Is there any discussion? >> If not, all those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> All those opposed motion carries and we'll take care of that after. Thank you. >> All right. Next is the discussion regarding the transportation pay to ride program. >> Yeah. So, you have a lot of information that has been shared. You've asked some really great questions. We've been able to provide a lot of feedback. I have asked Moren to be here tonight. She's been here for ever and has a lot of the background and the historical knowledge and is really

093the one that is the student data driving piece behind a lot of this transportation work. um though she just kind of took over in the last two and a half years of all of it though she has really been instrumental. So I have her here tonight as a resource um to kind of help clarify. She has done an extraordinary amount of work to help clarify this going forward. So um appreciate your work and being here this evening to help us out. Um on February 10th um Patrick and I worked together to create a memo to send out to you. You will recall two years ago um we we recognized and realized through um just some deep diving that we didn't have hazardous zones identified but we were identifying some zones as hazardous and we had

094we found that there was a equity piece in that we were charging some families a lot of money to ride the bus and other families no money to ride the bus. Some families were in hazardous zones, some were not in hazardous zones. And so it was quite a mess. And so we we agreed that we would go through a process to have Wauaaw County come out. And of course, this is none of this is district stuff, right? These are Wakaaw County has to come out, assess all of the the areas. Well, lo and behold, there were two subdivisions that were being allowed to ride the bus um for free, and they are not hazardous owns because the district said they were hazardous zones and they were not identified as such. The district though, however, recognized

095that the contracts are messed up. We needed to figure this out. So, the district said, "You know what? We'll do this kind of in between band-aid for a little while until we get the contracts figured out." and we were trying to balance out that big $700 plus dollar. I don't even remember how much it was 7 something 750 for some families while others were playing zero. The board said, "You know what? We're going to flatten this whole thing out and we're going to charge every student that's paid a ride $110 and we're going to cap that at $330 per household." And so that was the decision that was made 2 years ago. And then we come to this next year after we had another incident with busing and Matt and Chris got involved, Hegeland got

096involved and we started meeting with Dman and that's when we really started recognizing just how really messed up the contract was. So we again continued to try to work through it. We knew we weren't going to be able to come to any kind of resolution for this school year. And so the board at that time said we're going to stay. We're going to stay where we're at. That's stay, you know, stay put. We're not going to do anything with that. Um, we now have resolution to this contract. We now know that things are changing. I can tell you that we will see something different in our traveling in our our busing situation. We already know that we're going to be able to get out of the contract in two years if everybody resolves to get

097rid of this. So, now it's time to take a look at that band-aid and try to figure out what we want to do. um four options have been have been sent forward um to this board to kind of have a conversation about it. I think there's a lot of things that go into this um decision. Um some of which are um board decisions and others of which are ops, right? They're operational um decision making. So basically what we're looking at are is a gamut of eliminating the pay to ride program completely. Um the district would continue pay to ride service entirely for families living within the 0 to2 mile radius who are not otherwise eligible for transportation. Those people would be in hazardous zones. Please know that that is the law. 0 to2 miles. No

098no busing if you're not in a in a hazardous zone legally. There is no there is no um >> statutorial obligation to provide buses. Thank you. However, because of what we've done in the last two years, 156 students have been paid a riding not for 110 because we have some students who are um economically disadvantaged or um way had had a waiver signed. So, we we that's that's what we know. Um pay to ride revenue is approximately $17,000 and that would be eliminated. potential savings. However, um estimated savings would be 28 to 56,000 annually because with 156 students, that's two full buses that we would be eliminating at a cost savings there. Um additional savings would also occur from the fuel search charges of those two buses being eliminated as well as the annual CPI

099adjustment to those two buses. um that positive fiscal um impact compared to status quo depending on final bus reductions. Okay, so that's one of the options. We basically just laid out all four that that we could come up with as a as a group. Um option two is open paid to ride to all students living 0 to2 miles non-hazardous zones. Okay, that's what we have currently in place. Under this option, any family residing within 0 to2 miles of school and not impacted by a hazardous walking zone could elect to purchase transportation. The free uh fee structure is as follows. $849 per student. The full cost of recovery with no cap payment um required in full prior to the start of the school year. So that payment would have to come in before getting on the

100bus and getting on that list. Um and families qualifying for free and reduced lunch could apply for financial assistance. Um the impact is currently that we have 376 students who reside within a 0 to2 mile radius and are not impacted by hazardous zones. Um key considerations here for you as the board would be this eliminates district subsidy for optional riders um and the administrative process needed for enrollment in financial assistance applications. What I will say is that we need to do a better job from a district admin side, from a um standard operating procedure to put in place a system that um helps us know who is on that bus. So, that's something we're working on. We're working on a tracking system and we're working on um a sign up or a registry for all

101students riding the bus. So, we'll talk about that just as kind of again that's an ops side of the house. Um, option three, um, open pay to ride to students living one to two miles or 0.9 or right, we're trying to figure out some kind of radius there. Um, this option mirrors option two, but limits eligibility to families residing between 1 to 2 miles from school who are not affected by a hazardous walking zone. So again, very similar to what option two is, but it just it shortens that opportunity. Um currently we have 225 students who live within the 1 to two mile radius and are not impacted by hazardous zones. Those are the eligible students. Um and again same key considerations. And then option four is to maintain status quo. $110 per student fee

102330 cap. Um fiscal impact nest net net district cost per rider would be $674. total estimated annual subsidy for the 156 students currently um writing would be 74,140 excluding any fuel search charges and CPI increases. So that's that's kind of the summary of of where we are at right now. Um, I do want to clarify there's some misconception or or misunderstanding about what the state rate is or that determined by the state is. Um, the $849 is not a state determined rate. It reflects our local cost. So specifically to our area, the $849 represents the district's cost to transport each student and is calculated by dividing the total regular transportation costs from the previous year by the wrership during that same period. So during this 2425 school year, we had 438 students who were aid

103eligible outside of the 2 miles hazardous designation. So that means our district's pay to ride fee is $110. For students who pay, the district subsidizes $739 per rider. And for students who don't pay but still ride, the district covers the full $849 for ridership. Understanding the difference between eligible riders and wrership is really hard for people as well. Eligible means you can ride the right, you ride, you can ride. >> You live in one of those areas we service. >> You all know required to bus that? >> Yes. You all know that we have? >> No. No. You're required to bus eligible riders outside of 2 miles. >> That's private and public. >> Mhm. >> Yep. >> So, we're paying for private students as well to go to that school. >> Yep. Is that 438

104just our H Heartland Lakeside kiddos, not the p the not private? >> No. >> Ones that we have to pay for as That's that's what we that's what we had to report to DPI for aid purposes. So that's just our >> And how much do we get from the state for the eligible kiddos? >> I don't have that off the top. >> It's minimal though, right? >> It is. It is minimal. It's it's a nominal, >> right? >> If we pay $850 a rider, we're I mean I'm Don't quote me on this, but it's somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 to $200. >> Okay. >> Um it was low, >> right? No, I know it's low cuz I think the budget has like 7,500 bucks on >> 612. >> Yeah, transportation aid's very minimal. >>

105Yeah. And then is that private aid private transportation? Is that the pay to ride line on the um income statement >> specifically? Let's >> like the I have it down. >> I think it was like budgeted at like $10,000. Uh, no. You're you're that you're looking at there is our actual private school. >> Oh, that's I'm going to try to call that out. >> Um, okay. So, that's not even >> But that's that's a statutory requirement, >> right? Yes, I know that. I just I thought that was our paid, right? >> No. >> Okay. >> Um, yeah. >> That's that's my piece. That's kind of that overview. You guys have all had it for, you know, a week and to take a look at it and this is a board decision. So, I'm just trying

106to to give you the facts of where we're at and the history behind it. >> Thank you. I'd just like to open it up for board conversation. >> Can I can I make one comment question first? I mean, I personally I live within I'm in a non-hazardous zone within less than two miles or within one mile. So, I'm technically these options impact me. Is that is that an issue for us or me participating in the discussion? cuz I do actually pay to ride for my first grader. >> I know we're supposed to like recuse ourselves if we think there's I I just want to throw it out to the board if you're >> say it was in the discussion. You just decide whether or not you're it would be the the other side of it.

107>> Depends on how you vote. >> That's why I want to do it before we talk. >> I don't know enough of the law on the discussion part. I would say if it's a direct again when when there was conversations previously about conflict of interest that were brought up the clear communication from our attorney was that if there is a direct financial impact that could be affected by a person then that would constitute a >> then I think that's me for sure because we do pay for our first grader to take the bus. >> So in that case it would be a direct conflict. Now where if and then again this this is just if it was something to where it was a student fee that was for the district >> right >> and we're

108voting between $30 and 25 >> it's different because it goes through the whole district and it's not isolating a certain segment of it whereas in this case it is particular it's not districtwide so it probably would be considered a conflict of interest. That's fine. >> Yeah, I'm just it's u I'm looking at board policy because I just always like right um is 144.3 >> um and there's some different factors here but she'll use a position as a board member here. No, remember she'll accept anyone she'll engage in or have a financial you qualify for because you're >> so based on what I'm reading here, >> no board member shall engage in or have a financial interest directly or indirectly in any activity that conflicts or raises a reasonable question of conflict with the board member's

109duties and responsibilities in the school system and as a public officer. Okay. Well, I'll just >> I guess the question that I would have is you're you participate in the program as an active participant. You do not you don't pay to ride. So, I'm not sure. >> Well, and your kid wouldn't be affected by this because he's going to be in six. >> Yeah. He'll be a walker next year regardless. >> I mean, theoretically you're >> Well, I guess technically you could pay to have him bust. >> Yeah. I mean, I >> I don't I don't care you guys. I mean, I don't care. Well, It's not it's not an authoritative thing that I can make. This is more law and legal. Uh I I my own personal opinion would be if you're taking direct

110advantage of the program and using it then it's 100% a clear answer that it's a conflict. If you're not taking advantage of it, you're not utilizing it. I'll just it's more gray. It's so I would say it's not. But that's again that's me. I'm not saying that in an official capacity. That's just my interpretation. But I'm definitely not an attorney. >> So, do I do that? >> This >> can I be in the conversation? >> From the recusal standpoint, it's probably safer not to participate in the discussion because it could be considered advoc. >> It could be considered advocacy for something. >> That's right. >> I'll set it up. Anybody actually go I'll just be quiet. >> I can't be quiet. So, well, let's just see where the conversation goes when I I I can

111share my opinion. I was here for the first year. Chris, you were here for the second year where it was status quo and then every everybody uh Matt, you were here the second year as well. But my my personal opinion is if you look at the state of affairs of districts in general financially and you see what's on the horizon with rising costs and the uncertainty with the transportation program and you consider that the district has already subsidized ridership for 2 years. The goal of the program, if we were to keep paid to ride, would be to afford the opportunity for families that really need it and to make sure that we have busing for kids that absolutely need it, either qualify for u hazardous zone or outside of the two miles. And so I

112would say our position would be to make sure that this program is something that can be sustained for the future for the kids so that we can continue to make sure the kids get here safe under those requirements. I would advocate for if there's space it allows for the writership program to continue. But I I would say in again my own personal opinion would be that it would be open to anyone that could get their kids to an existing pickup point and there is space on the bus. So we cover our grounds. We set up our transportation program based on what's required and that if there's space on the bus and someone can get to a pickup location, so we're not adding cost to the district and there's there's a space then they can pay

113to ride and it would be to pay the fee. I don't the the cost to the district per student so that >> full recovery >> the full recovery the 849 >> again I don't I don't see why the district would pay for and continue to subsidize again that's my opinion because again we want to make sure that the program stays solvent and that we have the finances to be able to sustain it long term >> because if you look at the numbers that Tina shared and you factor that over 5 years or 10 years look at the math I mean that's easily a roof Holy smokes. >> But most of Oh, sorry. I can't talk. >> So, that that would be just my my take and my my perspective on it. >> With option two,

114is that the way it it works? Like with option two, if there's an we can open pay to ride, it's an existing bus route and there's capacity and if there were four seats, then there would be four option or you know what I'm saying? I can't spit it out. Okay. So, it's not like we would ever add another bus. >> No, we would not because that's the way we do it now. >> Not. >> So, yes. So, what it what it was supposed to be was if you were a rider on the bus and you were in the 0 to2 miles, we were going to allow you to pay a ride because you were already on the bus. Well, that got out of control because some family said, "Well, this one, this child of mine's

115riding. Why can't my child just get on that bus with them?" Because on that stop with them because the buses come to Northshore and they can just get on a on a shuttle. So, that's what we did. But then you have kids. So before all this ever happened, anybody that lived in Hartridge walked to South and Northshore. They never bust. We have kids that live in Hartridge that bus to Northshore. Granted, they got to get on the they've got to go to the two stops that are in heart or in H Heartidge. They've got to walk to a stop. We actually have kids that walk farther to the bus stop than to walk to Northshore. Doesn't make sense, but we have it. But the problem that people don't understand is if we get rid of

116those shuttle buses, those kids can't ride anyway. So those kids aren't going to be able to shuttle here to get on a bus, ride a bus here to get on a shuttle bus to go to South because if we're going to have buses >> there's not an existing route for >> Well, no. Because if we're going to if we're not going to have shuttle buses next year, then we're not going to make a direct route for kids to get to South. >> Right. Now the kids come here and Yeah. So >> Right. That's what I mean. There's not a stop there because it's under the mileage. So, we don't have a scheduled stop, so we wouldn't add one. >> So, right now, if a child wants to ride the bus, if and they're within the

117two miles, if they can get to a con if they can get to a stop, they can ride the bus and pay, they can ride the bus. >> Okay. >> I will say this, we have a beautiful path between Northshore Middle School and South that is going to be paved. >> It is this summer. >> Repaved. Repaved. >> Repaved this summer. And it is taken well care of. It is It is salted. It is. So, I mean, for for anybody listening that's like, "What do you mean we're going to get rid of the shuttle?" And they're not going to be I would argue it would take less time for those kids to walk from Northshore Middle School to South than it would be for them to sit on that shuttle, wait for the shuttle, get

118driven to South and vice versa. It it the time right now that that's taking is they're on that bus a lot. >> Well, the other thing is we do have families that pay in case of it's raining or it's snowing. Well, if you add up those families or they're or their kids aren't even riding the bus, we may have families that a whole bus that we don't even need. >> Mhm. >> So, if nothing else, we really need to have people commit and that's it. Yes, my kids are going to be on the bus. And granted, one day they they may not buy, but at least >> the majority, >> Right. Or at least it's paid for. Well, >> Yeah. Then you can do what you want. >> Yeah. >> So, at least that that

119would be my fault. I don't know that Chris speaking this direction. >> I don't use it, but I live my I live 1.2 miles away. So, I'm not too comfortable. I'm in the same boat as you. Maybe >> you're not hazardous over there. >> Interesting. >> Cuz he's connected to it's like one road is >> maybe I don't know where you live but farms right by the sh. Okay. I'm sorry. >> I I sit in a similar spot. It was two years ago and we decided to put in a more of an equal pay and we kind of subsidize and it's been quite a subsidy for those two pieces of it as we figured out this program and one of the biggest things was getting rid of that transfer point >> um which was a

120huge safety concern, right? So it was you know and now it allows buses to go directly to where they're going to be going. So we do lose that opportunity for that kids to come here. So I think if we clean up that bus route it makes make more sense. Um, I I kind of lean towards that number two option as well, which is they've got the program, they want to pay to play and there's room. It's there, there's an option, but it's not just a subsidy on by the the district. >> Plus, it's $28,000 a bus a year. Is that what I have? So, >> that's a little bit strange. I mean, can we really have a discussion that's only two people voting on something? Well, and that's that's why I said if it's >>

121so I'm also gonna say it's whether or not you feel it affects you and you could make that decision as a board member what that is, right? >> But if you don't think that this if if you're voting as the board and it >> you are not a part of that in general, you could you could decide for yourself whether or not they would be there. I can't tell. >> Let's just decide if you want to have this or not. I just kind of awkward, >> but there's if there's that three that can't do it, that's not as quality. >> Then it's not you can't vote on it if we don't have three. That's my point, right? >> Well, I'm for sure I for sure can't, >> right? Because I pay for it. >> She

122directly pays. >> But I pay for my kid to go to North, not my kid to go to South. Let me just please let me just take that out. I am 24 miles from South. My kid will walk to South and Northshore. I have no problem with that. It is my first grader going to South and my four-year-old next year. >> Gotcha. >> So, all right. And if you look at it as an isolated moment in time that Well, the two of you, I was going to say the three, but I forgot you're not part of it. You're not voting for anything that directly affects you at the moment at all. You're not utilizing it. I don't see that as anything that points at you. I mean, if you voted on something today that a

123year from now we find out ends up affecting us personally, well, so be it. But at this moment in time, it's not. >> Okay. So, >> I take Chris's counsel and uh for No, no, no, not my council. >> So, if if no one has anything else, then I'd be looking for a recommended motion for how to proceed with the paid to ride. And if no one has an opinion, then I'll make one. >> Well, wait. Let me >> unless there's more. >> Were you basic you basically you were pushing for basically which option was yours a combination of the options? I kind of got lost in where you were going. I understood conceptually. Is it laid out as one of the three or you was yours a hybrid? >> I wasn't really paying attention

124to >> it was an option. His was a hybrid. So it was an option of >> it's basically full cost and you can get to a >> Yeah. If you get to a stops and there and there's room also on the >> caveats. Look, here's my my take on this since I can participate is that like I don't I don't think we should maintain the status quo. You know, I don't think we've got winners and losers and you know, we're not covering the cost of busing. So, I I don't like like that opinion. Um, I would I would prefer a way we could like lock in people to to ride the bus because I think we're underutilized even people within those >> within districts, >> right? So, I would agree with that. >> We could

125do something about that. >> Yes. So, I I'm I'm working that's all part of all these decisions, right? It's that operational thing and and until we have decisions made. I sat tonight cuz, you know, I had some time um and created a a registration form, right, for all members to ride the bus and like make a commitment to riding the bus and then also try to like plan out any one of these four scenarios to like get a letter out and get a registration form out and get that that process because like some of you, I don't think we'll run into this problem because our buses are not full, right? That's the That's the is the other issue that we have. >> Well, that's my concern. I mean, I think a lot of people have

126the option of free busing and don't take advantage of it. There's plenty of parents that drop off that don't have it, but we we've saved them seats at buses and that's >> that's great. If you want to drive if you want to drive your kid, that's fine. But, you know, it's costing the district money we don't need to spend. And there's probably people within this 1 to two miles non-hazardous that could really benefit from this that it wouldn't be such a hardship if we didn't have all these people who we have to bust for but they don't take advantage of it. >> Yeah. So I think what we're what we're looking at is a registration and then a lottery system um that will you know put it if if we go to capacity. I just

127am not sure that we're going to get to capacity. The other piece that I will say is I think some people really avoid the the riding. I think I know for a fact we've already had a couple of North families come through that are touring and the biggest number one question is are you going to have that shuttle bus? We've heard a lot about that shuttle bus. It's a real safety issue. >> Okay. Nope. We're going to eliminate that. Okay. Well, if you're going to eliminate that, then that must mean that my kindergarter is no longer going to be on the bus with an eighth grader. I feel much better about not being on a bus with an eighth grader for my kindergartener. Maybe I'm gonna look at transportation a little bit differently next year.

128So, there are those pieces, too. Like, as much as you know, h we can't do that. We But there's some really good things that are happening for people that do ride or have the ability to ride that that may help their families. The other side of this, too, we don't know if we're going to start 40 minutes earlier next year at Northshore Middle School, which could al also affect ridership. All of those pieces have to come together, but we have to have a decision made and move forward with it. And if we have to make adjustments as we go along, we bring it to the board. But for right now, I know for a fact Larry and Dowman and they're they're waiting to hear what the decision is so that they can start to build

129out because at the end of the day, in addition to all of this, you know, we're in that consortium and trying to create different opportunities and right now there's some things on the table that are really hard to swallow for the whole community as a whole. Um, as all of our students are Arrowhead students potentially, right? Um, we want to look at this as a whole community and if H Heartland can help by making some some decisions that will help create opportunities for other feeder schools to go later and not have to start 45 minutes at 7:00 in the morning or whatever it might be, then I think that's our duty to do that, right? I think it's our duty to work together as families in this community. But I I I don't know what

130the answer is. I just know that there's a lot of trickle down based on this decision. So, it's a hard decision and I get that and I can appreciate the work that you have to do to make that. I just lean on that fiscal piece. >> Hazardous zones and how they are evaluated. Is that by annually? Is it annually that we we look at those things or is it by >> Well, t typically they wouldn't be they wouldn't be re-evaluated unless there was a material change. >> Sure. >> Yeah. Unless there's a change in traffic flow pattern um infrastructure um pedestrian bridge even with that we would have to raise our hands and request somebody to come out reevaluate >> walker county would come out >> we would just automatically get a letter >> like

131you right so we know that they're going to they're considering that that roundabout in that Maple K is that K and Maple >> um so that will impact 20 students nine of whom already paid a ride but it's that that what we call river reserve 2, I don't know if that's what it's actually called. >> River reserve one. >> It's res. Okay, so it's river reserve one and river reserve two um is now going to be they're all now fully eligible. They'll all end up being hazardous. We know they'll be hazardous because there's absolutely no way for River Reserve one to cross safely >> going forward. So that one we just kind of know no-brainer. Once it's done, we'll have them come out and they'll categorize that. Um I think I I think there there

132are people who would argue there are more hazardous zones. Um but Wauaaw County won't deem that and neither will um the state. So until something changes like Patrick said structurally to that that's that's where we're at. >> And and then just age there's no age of the wise where that two miles is right. >> Age don't. The other piece that we haven't mentioned tonight too is there's still the financial assistance that's available. >> Correct. >> So families that have a difficult time paying for it can apply for financial assistance. There's an application process. So if it is high and they don't have the means to pay for it, there's still a way that they can have access to the buses. >> Correct. >> If they are eligible for that. >> Correct. Correct. >> Yep. Correct.

133It' be an income based system just like free and reduced lunches. Yep. And there's tenders to it. >> Same limit. Same. So you don't qualify for free lunch. >> Same same criteria. >> Yep. >> Free and or reduced program. >> Yeah. I have a chart for last year. How many students or how many families have multiple in this zone >> that I don't that I don't have a moving number too. We got three schools next year. >> The only I have is that obviously it's a lot for one, but then you add in two, three. If that's the case, what does that look like? Don't cap on it. Um, that's that's the one thing that I think would have number two that I get a little worried about just the No, I just if you

134had like three kids, you had triplets and it's >> do we have >> 2,700 bucks or whatever. >> Yeah. 2500 bucks. >> And it is, but again, I still look at it from the fiscal responsibility of the district and sustaining the program for the future. If we would have continued as status quo over the course of five years, I mean, it's it's a roof. >> It's half a million. >> Yeah, it's half a million dollars over five years. So, the goal is to make sure that the program is there for the kids that really need it and are eligible. And I think at least with what I'm proposing is the program still stays in place. So, there is a pay to ride option. It's just that it's being covered. Are you suggesting anybody I think

135the two options there's one where we would only open it to people living one to two versus zero to one. >> Well, we could we these options we can do whatever we want. This is you guys are >> putting some ideas on paper. My personally would be anything under two. I don't think there's a you're quarter mile away and you have a 40-year-old >> maybe you don't feel comfortable. Your four-year-old walking quarter mile and you you got to go to work early and >> Yeah. Okay. I I get it. >> No, I just want to make sure you understood what I would say that's okay. >> It's full cost is from out of the distance. It's covering full cost, >> right? >> Because the cost is cover. >> So that's I I mean I shared

136my opinion. Does anyone else have a stronger suggestion and an alternate arrangement? No, I like that. So essentially it's 0 to two miles non-hazardous existing bus route has capacity and you have to get your kids >> students have to get to the pickup. >> Yes. >> And it's full recovery cost. >> Correct. >> Makes sense to me. >> Terrible. >> Do you see anything with those requirements that makes it difficult for operations? operations >> doesn't wouldn't really change how we I mean >> I think the only consideration is is if a if a family says oh I can't do that and now I'm I've got to drive my kid to school and that's an extra car in the car line. Um so we have to you know obviously from an operations but we've already got

137um Hartland PD involved in some conversations about traffic flow and stop and start kind of things anyway because we're going to have more busing traffic likely. Um so just trying to I think just trying to understand that or figure that out. Um that's those are you know those are real things that we have to have the conversations and take a look at. We are going to stagger start and stop for um all of our schools next year. Um the issues have been that north and south have started at the same time. So, if you've got a kiddo you're dropping off at North, well then your south kid is going to be late and then if your south kid gets dropped off, your north kiddo is going to be late. Um, we call those kind of

138soft starts and we're really squishy about that. But I know that that's stressful for families. And then I also just think from a congestion perspective, it could help us. Um, and we'll probably roll busing out first. Um, and you know, just all those pieces that we have to figure out once we start to kind of play those those pieces out. Um, >> I I will say I I do I do connect with a lot of business managers in the area and there's not many districts that offer programs with pay to ride >> at all. >> Most of them are under two non-hazardous. >> Most of them are they're going to they're going to bust what they're legally and statutoily required to bust >> and that's the that's the limit that they draw it at. >>

139Yep. >> And and most of it has to do with the pure and simple math. >> It's expensive. Well, that's that's I have sympathy for that. I mean, >> I wouldn't want my kindergarter walking two miles like it's insane. That's insane to me. In Wisconsin, >> the state the state law may you may not agree with. >> My second grader, you know, I don't get I don't I'm with you. >> But, you know, there's there's districts that are 100% walking in Wales. So, they have no buses. Everybody walks. Everybody's within two miles of school. >> Wow. >> Cuz you're in a neighborhood school. >> Yeah. But neighborhood school is a little misleading. I mean, there's a lot of students that walk 1.8, 1.9 or they or they >> Well, Harland Lakeside was like that until

140we made um when North and South were neighborhood schools. You only bust if you were 2 miles out. But when they made it K4, well K5 or I mean K2 and then >> 35 they never did the and that's where they found out that they never did the hazardous plans. They just said, "Well, there's a railroad track so anybody on the other side of the railroad track needs to be bust. Oh, there's this. So then anybody needs to be bust that's hazardous." Well, in most people's eyes it is hazardous and it still is. But the sheriff's didn't find it hazardous because of the crosswalk and the lights and all that kind of stuff. So unfortunately it happened years ago and people just got used to having their kids on the busing. So I know my

141my kids were.9 miles away from school and I walked them every day. So you know I mean it's hard. It it is hard, but I don't know what the right answer is either. >> Well, I I struggle for the reasons I just talked about, but I also struggle for the fact that we sat through that arrowhead feeder school meeting where the two state representatives were there and I didn't get any good feelings that there's any relief coming for public schools and future budget cycles for special education, for per head costs, for >> any of that sort of stuff. And you know, we were already this year, two surprise things. We're $50,000 under. You know, next year our health car costs going up 10 15% a year. You know, it's just it's hard. So, I have

142a lot of sympathy for the people in the 1 to two mile range and walking. But >> also, it's it's a hard that's where I would, you know, if we could get >> if we could get concrete numbers on people riding buses because I think there's a lot of people um I mean, we've got a very diverse we've got a diverse mix of income levels in this district compared to most of the other feeder schools. >> Yep. We've got the multi-million dollar houses and then we've got the apartment complexes and the, you know, the rentals and you got everything. We got what 20% free and reduced or something like that or the So, we're we're in a pretty wide range here. So, I mean, that's that's a real cost to to families, but it's nothing

143to a lot of families. And a lot of those families it's nothing to are probably outside the two miles and are driving their kids to school every day which is tough. >> I think the other part is geographically right uh speaking if we if we continue to think about um pay to ride and driving kids to school from I mean you know the bus is going to go over here and then the bus has got to go over there because there's these oneoffs and they're picking them up and that requires more busing and more time on the bus to pick up those kids. Um, so I just I I just there's a lot of moving parts to this whole thing. It is not a it is not a really awesome have to make decision. Um,

144but I think you know it's a public it's public education and we have the requirements to do X Y and Z and I would not want to be in charge of determining for our district and for our students this kid gets to pay nothing while we supplement that person $8 >> $749 >> right from an equity perspective alone I just don't think right like so because I walk to school. The district is paying $750 more a year because I'm a ride because I ride the bus and I'm a walker. So, I'm penalized by that $750. Why not give all of that money to all of the kids in our programming? That I mean that's just you know kind of part of where some of that math when you want to think about it from outside

145of all that emotional stuff which matters but when you start to start to look at programming and and funds. Um I don't know. I don't know. It's a hard decision. Not one I I'm glad I don't have to leave. >> Chris, did you have anything else? No, no men. Other men. Sorry. >> I just want to make a comment, but I can't. But it it has nothing to do with me. I just a thought to think of is those families that need the bus because they have to go to work early and there's no wrap spots open and they then have to leave the kid who then has to walk because they're under two miles. So, like we're really lucky we don't we have a stay at home parent that can be there for the

146kids, but there are those families maybe the kid going to Northshore from Hart Ridge gets on the bus because it's 25 minutes earlier that mom and dad can leave for school work. Just something to think of. And yes, maybe they would qualify for free reduce, but like $850 to someone that just barely doesn't qualify is a lot of money. So, just those things to think of. Yeah. I don't think anybody's not thinking of any of that. I think I think everybody here is thinking that way. And and when you start to make decisions, it's hard, right? It it just is. It's really hard to kind of determine where what do you do? What do you do? >> And that's probably the biggest reason why I still advocate for keeping the pay to rent program and

147not not getting rid of it. Again, it's it's a unique layout and a unique district location. I think we should still absolutely keep it. And I feel like the suggestion that I have is probably the strongest financial way to make sure that it's sustainable for the future. And if we subsidize at some point, increasing costs will come back to bite us. And I would prefer not to have us be in a situation like some of the neighboring districts that are not as financially strong. >> Well, and ultimately if this I mean ultimately if this doesn't work or whatever we decide doesn't work, you can revisit it next year, change policy. >> This isn't, you know, this isn't written in stone for 10 years or something like our current transportation. Yeah. I mean, and the just

148the food for thought, you know, it might not be financially breaking our budget, but there's an opportunity cost to every decision. So, if we're going to subsidize transportation, understand that's okay if that's what we decide to do, but then that money can't be used elsewhere, >> right? Yeah. So, if no further comment, does anyone have a motion that they prefer to make? All right. If not, then I'd like to motion to modify the pay to ride program to allow for students I'll speak slowly to allow for students that are under two miles to have >> what's you have to recommend under two miles and >> yeah under under two miles wasn't finished yet but I'm just trying to think word no you're fine under two miles to have access to a pay to ride program.

149Given that they the students can get to an existing stop that's already routed for students over 2 miles or in a hazardous zone. and that those students would pay the district cost to ride if spots are open at the $849. >> Correct. >> Per student cost. >> Do you say you say full recovery cost? >> Yes, >> I'd say full recovery. >> Full recovery cost in case it >> Yeah, I would that would be the safer language. full recovery cost in case it >> we can change it, right? >> Yeah, because we're I'm still in the we're reading it. >> Does that make sense? You got it. Did I miss anything? >> But that's okay. >> Okay. >> We have a recording. All right. So then the motion on the floor is uh a modification

150to allow for the pay to ride to continue for students affected under two miles not in a hazardous zone. If the students can go to an existing stop, there are spots available on the bus and they pay the full recovery cost to the district for that ridership. I'll second that motion. All right. I'm not going to repeat it because I just did it twice. There's a motion on the floor. Is there any other discussion on the motion? I'm deciding whether or not we would meant to add the paid requirement and the financial assistance piece to it or would that be already? >> I think that's a given. >> That is a Yeah, >> that's a state requirement, right? >> I don't I don't know if it's a state requirement, but the requirements the process would

151be I think it's operationally they can put into place that you got to pay it and you they will do the pre-order. >> That's sure the board I mean want is what we >> Yeah, we're good. Yeah. >> All right. Thank So any further discussion? If not, all those in favor say I. I opposed. All right, that motion carries for the pay to ride program. >> Would you ask for is that abstain? I'm just curious. It doesn't >> I am admitting to a conflict of interest. >> It's a recusal. So, it's not a vote. >> It's not a recorded. It's not an abstension because if you abstain from a vote, if it was a two to two vote and a person abstains, that's a positive vote. >> So, recusal is there is no vote recorded.

152All right. Next. >> Can I talk? Yeah. Yeah. >> Next is on the open enrollment correction. >> I'll let you take that one. >> So when when you um when I propose brought the numbers um there wasn't there was one error um based on what was approved what was presented and approved by the board at our last meeting. I did some digging um based on the fact that we have not made any decisions on acceptance or denials. Um we are free to modify this as long as the board approves. Um the only modification uh based on the error was um I meant to allocate one seat for the district at 8th grade instead of zero. Um the fundamental purpose of this is to provide the district some flexibility. Um there's a lot of changes going

153on as we know um with the arrowhead decisions whether to admit or not admit uh and how that might affect our open enrollment. Uh so I think it is in the district's best interest to keep that flexibility open. Um and by allocating one seat that provides us set flexibility. I would also add that um as we see enrollment coming in um it also opens the opportunity for some families that may be leaving other districts that may have students in multiple grade levels and we would be handcuffing those families by not offering the opportunity for them to be at immediate grade level as well >> and we want to make sure that we have that opportunity. >> No other changes would be would be made. It would just be uh moving from zero seats at the

154eighth grade or 26 27 to one seat. Does anyone have any questions for Patrick? If not, then I'd be looking for a motion to approve of the updated open enrollment seat availability for 2627 to include one eighth grade position. Seat. >> So moved. Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. >> Motion carries. Thank you. >> All right. Next, we'll go to district updates. >> So, all of my stuff has already happened. Um, I was Yeah, transportation and our data. I just I do really I I think it's just so important for us to recognize that group of people that are always taking a look at at data differently because we I think I think just in a in a general population people think that we base everything on the

155forward exam and I think there's that that misnomer out there just for schools in general but I can tell you that at H Heartland Lakeside that's not what's happening and I'm just really proud of the work and and all that they're doing to ensure the best instruction for our kids. So, um I just wanted to just reiterate that because I'm just so proud of them. >> That's it. >> Wow, that's the shortest one yet. Look at that. >> Can I ask a question? >> Sure. >> Have we um approved the calendar for next year? Not yet. Just came out from Arrowhead on Monday last week. We sat today at the table. Um this is really interesting because the blessing is tied to that as well, right? And if we don't if we don't follow a

156lot of what Arrowhead's busing is, we have to pay more. >> So we went through and did that. Um and and that's the right thing to do. They've got the greatest buying power. They are I mean that the right thing to do is our families ti are tied to them. I will say that that some of the other feeder schools already went through and had theirs um approved and they're going to be paying more money when we already know that we're going to have an increase across the board for transportation next year. So, I just think it's I I think as much as we can keep our families tied together, you know, if you're high schooler is on vacation and your little is not or vice versa, it just makes things difficult for families. So,

157we want to make sure that um those days that they're off together, you have daycare because you've got an older kid at home, younger kid at, you know, home and they're off at the same time. We're just trying to make sure that we stay um you know, I think helpful for our families. >> That includes the PD days. >> Yes. Y completely when when it makes sense when we can. >> Yeah. We did have a couple that we have to change because it didn't make sense for our calendar. So, that'll come next month. Um we we sat together as an admin team today. U Moren is checking the minutes and then we'll have a committee take a look at it and then we'll bring it to you guys in March. How come we don't have

158off for President's Day? I I have noticed that like out this way we they don't have offers President's Day, but like a lot of other districts do. I'm I'm just curious why. >> I don't know that is a thing out here. I would think with how patriotic everyone is out here, you'd want President's Day off, >> especially since we passed that 250th Susquentennial thing, right? He would have fall off on President's Day. >> I don't I don't think those are related, but Okay. Okay. All right. Then we move on to discussion of business services report. So, I'm going to keep this brief. Um, we met at at finance committee. Um, spending is in in these kind of middle months is relatively static. It's nothing beginning. You have a big ramp up in spending. A lot

159of supplies are ordered. Um, a lot of it's just general um wages, benefits, um, your operating costs that way. Um what we did see in the month of January is our first half of our property local property tax revenue came in. So we did receive about 4.65 million uh in the way of local taxes. Um really helps to build up those cash balances and and really um enjoy some of the interests that we earn while those are are are sitting in in the bank. Um, so that that was it's a pretty static status quo month that way. Um, really wasn't much out of the ordinary. Um, we did talk a little bit about more about the uh the increased special education costs. Um, I continue to spend a lot more time than I'd like to

160admit um digging through accounts and um uh really rebalancing our grant allocations because that's where the the savings can really occur. Um I think I'm getting close to done. Um but um we'll see capital improvements. Um, Greg and I have been working. Um, we are I think tomorrow I'll be posting the three RFPs for paving or for asphalt replacement. So, um, basically the playground areas at all three schools plus some ancillary pavement that was not redone in some of the other projects. So, Northshore um playground area, service drive behind the building, some walkways that are asphalt behind the building, and then the asphalt that wraps around the basketball court and kind of wraps around the front of the building there. That's the scope of the project for Northshore Middle School. Um the elementary school here,

161uh will be the path connecting Northshore and the elementary. um the playground area and then a strip of pavement that uh extends behind the building for a little ways. There's I think there's a shed over there and um it's just kind of runs along that back side of the building. And then for um the ele other elementary um similar um a couple a couple walkways, a service drive, and um the the playground area. So um we're going to get those out. Um, we're going to send them out to three or four contractors that we've had really good luck with in the past. Um, and then also put it on our website for um for the public to to bid. Um, the timeline is is um all bids will be in uh and be reviewed uh

162and provided to you guys uh for review at the May meeting. So, we'll make a decision at that May meeting how we want to proceed. Um, currently I have the scope of the work to be completed June 30th. Um, so we can tie a put a bow on it before the fiscal year ends. Um, we'll see if that has to be altered at all. Um, but that's that's how we're proceeding right now. Um, as far as capital improvements for the month or more of them were maintenance related. Um, at Northshore Middle School, we did a a boiler um repair, replaced a a burner and igniter. Um, we finished uh they finished the district office bathroom. Uh, they replaced a washing machine uh here. Um, they put in a new bottle filler here. Um, I will

163I will uh make a shout out that was donated uh by the president of LK. Um it's a prototype, new design um that retrofits into an existing fitting pretty old type, old style. >> Um at South they did, uh replacement of uh installation of new and replaced old lights in the garage area. Um they did some repairs on one of the basketball hoops in the gym in there that was not functioning correctly. Uh the mural the mural across the cafeteria was also finished. Um and then at North um they uh they did some some replacement of a few broken toilets, one in the boys and one in the girls bathroom. So um that was in addition to what Greg called a lot of snow plowing. So um I will also uh just let you guys

164know we did have a on our salt truck we did have a a breakdown. We uh snapped an axle. Um, so, um, we had that we had that go in when they had it, we had them do all preventative that what it was due for. So, we was about $10,000 total. Um, also, when we talked about kind of finding ways to kind of pinch pennies a little bit in order to make room for some of these um, special education um, costs. Um, one of the things we talked about as a finance committee is um, we we kind of laid out a series of projects we when we passed the budget and my goal is to complete as many of those as we can in this year. One of those areas that I think we will

165probably push to next year is the replacement of our final um, utility truck. um talked with Greg. He said it could definitely make it through the this year. Uh if we could push that cost to 26 27 um what I would like to do is get a move and get that replaced early on like July August so that there is no interruption. We're not trying to replace it when there's potential snow snow is going to fly. Um but we can have that discussion a little bit further down the road. Um, I think that's about it for facilities. Uh, do you guys have any other questions for me? >> Maybe I missed it cuz I'm not in finance anymore, but there used to be like a spreadsheet with that what we did and some of the

166dollar amounts and the costs that were there that we would see. >> You guys still roll through those or is that something we could put in there just for viewing? >> Yep. And I I did I put that in there today and I apologize that I I I didn't have the um You're talking about the monthly finance report? >> No, no, no. that's in there that just the capital improvements like when we were placing things and >> where they are and the upcoming things that we had. We used to have like I know we're getting a big schedule but there used to be a little schedule that was there and >> yeah I can I can definitely I can definitely add that for the future meetings. >> Oh, sounds great. And I try to write

167what most of that here now but I just it's >> Nope. I'd rather >> Yeah. No suggestion. I will definitely have that in there for our next meeting. Um and I think that's a good idea. It just kind of helps keep everyone on the same page like what was completed kind of what's on the horizon and what's the short-term schedule. I think that makes sense. >> Yep. Good. >> By any chance, did you find out if any other districts were doing? >> I reached out and not nothing really aligned with what we were doing. >> Okay. Um, I am I did reach out also to a purchasing cooperative through CISA and I'm waiting to hear back on that to see if there's any >> potential cost savings we could um we could realize that way

168as well. So, thank you. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> All right, that's it. >> Thank you. Good. All right. I only had uh two little things. One was just a question for the other members to see if you are getting training and education opportunities as much as you need or do you see a need for us to add that to future discussions for consideration for our board for education and training? I try to forward what I can when I see things. I mean, if you guys see things, please feel free to share them with the board, but I want to make sure that we have access to the training that we might need. I wouldn't I would love to look into again uh a more neutral training. So if you want to put that

169I don't know if you want to use that. >> Okay. >> I think we're one of two districts in the entire state that is not part of it. anything? >> I don't No, I don't see any. I I like that Tina set up that annual training with the legal guys. Just I think that's if we continue that from my perspective, folks can seek out what they want to seek out. I don't really need to put the energy to set up like a formal thing for my for my opinion. >> Okay. >> Just keep in mind Okay. And then the only other thing is just I've been pretty pretty public about it just again I think either I think Patrick might have mentioned it with open enrollment just to remind everyone of what's the discussion that's

170happening at Arrowhead with the potential change of open enrollment that they're going through this year. They approved 36 seats which covers the feeder district eighth graders that open enroll from the outside. So that there are seats open if those 36 decided to go to Arrowhead. But there has been more discussion from the administration and uh proposals made about trying to get all students underneath one roof. And one of the potential strategies of doing that is a reduction in the open enrollment program overall long term. There have been no decisions made. There have been hypothetical future whatifs presented to the board. There have been no decisions and no direct financial modeling that's happened or operational explanation of what that would even look like. But it is something that we'll keep an eye on. I will of

171course continue to report whatever I hear and just to see how that might affect transportation and enrollment for us as we go forward. >> Will you be voting in any of those things? >> Uh we'll see when things are presented. >> All right. >> Again, thank you. >> You're welcome. Future meetings, finance committee, we have Monday, March 9th at 8:30 a.m. Is that correct? >> Correct. Mhm. PBC to be determined. >> March 19th at 9:00 a.m. >> Okay, next one. Schoolboard meeting Monday, March 23rd at 6:30. >> 5:30. >> I was going to ask if the board had appetite for moving that. >> Appetite. Bring it because food service is going to be there. >> Yes. >> Is that Is that a plan? >> WELL, NO. I KNOW. I WAS I KNOW. HE like right

172into that. >> You guys done Tina? >> Well done. >> I mean, you really did tear her up for that purpose. >> I didn't even think of it. That's good. >> So, we'll do workshop. >> Okay. At 5:30. >> So, wait. Will the 5:30 be regular board or that's >> I mean, >> don't you want to eat? I guess I guess it Well, >> I just think we just need to announce if it's a regular board at 5:30. >> We can still always change it. So, whatever. 5:30 works for me. >> Let's say it's the regular board meeting is at 5:30. >> That's fine. Yeah. >> Are you okay with that? >> We don't have PBC in the morning. We're okay. >> So, it's not double dip. Yep. >> All right. So, that one's >>

173And so food service will come in, do a presentation, do a tasting, >> and answer questions. >> Does that work with your Didn't you have >> I I got my date screw up. Oh, >> the conference is a different week. >> Okay. >> You're still going to that excited conference? >> I'm I'm excited about it. No, it's federal funding. I've been diving into federal funding for two and a half weeks. >> Wasn't the school board I think what we talked I have it on my calendar is the 16th. Did we just >> I think we moved that along. That's fine. I don't want to I don't want to start a discussion. I just >> Yeah, just to Yeah, we moved that. I think we had voted on that was one of the ones that was

174traditionally set for the 16th and then there were conflicts we moved 22. >> Good enough. >> All right, that's it for meetings and then I'd be looking for a motion to adjourn at 8:49 p.m. >> Motion to adjurnn at 8:49 p.m. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I oppose. Motion carries. Thank you everyone for staying. >> Thank you. >> Good to see you. Good night. too, bud.