Hudson Schools - November 10, 2025 - Regular Board Meeting

001call to order tonight's meeting of the Hudson School Board. Please stand for the pledge of the flag to the flag of the United States of America to the stands one nation and justice for all. >> First on the agenda today is uh recognitions for fall athletics with Tim Chuckle. Good evening. >> Testing. >> Good evening. Members of the Hudson High School Captains Council are here tonight to share the accomplishments and highlights from their fall seasons. Students have demonstrated not only excellence in competition, but also leadership, teamwork, and dedication in the classroom and throughout our community. Tonight, we look forward to celebrating their hard work and the collective spirit that represents the Raider Nation. I'm Sai. I'm a senior. >> I'm TJ Pennook and I'm a senior. >> And I'm Ryan. I'm a junior. >> Uh,

002you know, our season was it was really good. We started out, we pulled in biggest freshman class um we've ever had actually, I think. So, it was a great start and we really built good team chemistry right from the get-go in the summer. We had our summer practices every day and really got the guys running and really moving our way because we had the end goal in sight which was state obviously and that's kind of how things went. We kind of moved our way up. Um but then you know first race it wasn't quite ideal. We started out unranked but we knew the work we put in was definitely more than enough. So as the season went on we climbed our way back up into ranked territory and then we ended up taking the eighth

003ranked spot by the time we got to sectionals and that's where we then we ended up clawing for state at sectionals which only the top teams advanced. So, we had to beat out teams we were losing to from the start of the season. And that was really good to see as a team. Um, we really pushed through a lot of the struggles that we had as a team. Even though we had some downs and ups or some big downs, we I mean, we really developed the team from the start. We had our spaghetti dinners where we uh played games and just got together. That helped a lot too, just to really bring bring a good team chemistry in and yeah, just really helped us out in our success. All right. And then our first championship

004race was conference where we raced conference on Rice Lake, which was a course that we ran prior to the season. And it was really cool because we had every single person but one I think PR. So it just kind of showed how much we grew throughout the season as well as taking home two first team all conferences and then one second team and two honorable mentions. And then um going into championship season uh it was time for sectionals and as I commented earlier our first race we were kind of low in this uh rankings and we didn't really know if we could qualify as a team but throughout the season we kind of worked hard progressed and were able to qualify for state and then that was a great experience for all the young guys

005to make it to state. And then as a team, we placed ninth, which was much better than our previous standings in the beginning of the year. And Ryan took third as an individual, which was uh really impressive for him. >> Congratulations. [applause] >> I'm Abby. I'm Olivia. I'm also Olivia. I'm Ka. Um, we had a growth in our freshman enrollment from two last year to seven this year. >> Um, we strive to have a much better team environment because last year we noticed there was a lot of, you can almost say clicks on the team and this year we worked on having just one big cohesive team and we did accomplish that. >> And then to work on that like inclusivity on the team, we've noticed like the team bonding that we had really helped.

006So through that was like our fun Fridays every um fun Fridays in the summer and just our spaghetti dinners with the team like we connected with the boys team really well this year and yeah um at our home meet we did win we got first and multiple of the top 10 from all the grade levels medalled and the top >> we had a spread between our first and seventh runner and it shrunk from last Um, in 2024, our average sectional time was 20 minutes and 24 seconds, and we had a spread from our first to fifth runner of 2 minutes and 13 seconds. And we only had three girls that could run a 5K in under 21 minutes. And then to improve to this year at the same course sectional race, our average time went

007to 2018 with a spread of 39 seconds to our first and fifth runner. And we had six girls under 21. >> And also at conference, one of our girls won the allconerence award for JB. >> Our top six runners all placed at conference. >> Thank you. [applause] >> [applause] >> Uh I'm Kale. >> I'm Cooper. >> Uh this year we started the season off with five straight wins. Uh that mainly developed from our summer practices and uh team workouts throughout the summer from our mini camp to our first uh fall camp. and we took that into our season to start off, like I said, strong. Uh we finished our season with a 7-2 record, splitting our last four games. Um late in the season, we battled through some team adversity, but uh we came together

008back as a team and battle back to win our first playoff game in three years. >> Um some accomplishments we had is we were seven and two as a record. Um we won our first playoff game in three years beating Sun Prairie then lost uh in the second rounds second round by three points and we also had 14 allconerence players. [applause] >> I'm Lily. I'm a junior. >> I'm Maddie. I'm a senior. >> During the 2025 season, we've had many accomplishments. We started this season with three parades and for the first time ever we completed half of our show, the Sundial at Symposium. The week of band camp spent at W Stevens Point in July. We attended and performed at four uh home football games including the uh breast cancer awareness pinkout game. Uh for

009this game, the marching band raised enough money uh to dress the full marching band and staff in the tackle for a cure pink t-shirts. We also were able to make a huge donation to the Rhinos Foundation. >> All the staff members have made such a huge impact on us and other members of the band. With the addition of Miss Bergstrom to the band program this season, there's been huge improvements to this program and we want to continue having her next year hopefully in a full-time position. Lastly, this year we've had the largest marching band we've ever had with over a hundred members and we expect to continue to grow the marching band in the years to come. Our staff gives us the direction but the heart comes from the students. We are so proud proud

010to be part of this band. Thank you. [applause] >> Uh I'm Kelvin. I'm a junior. >> I'm Jack. I'm a senior. >> I'm Quint. I'm a senior. Um to start off the season, we had a ton of captain's practices throughout the summer to kind of meet the guys and get some chemistry before the season. Um and then jumping into the games. Um our first game we didn't do very well. The second game we didn't do very well, but they were just scrimmages. They weren't actual real games. And then our first game we tied. um against Eastridge and uh we kind of found ourselves there and then then on uh we were undefeated throughout the entire season and um we built a lot of chemistry throughout all those games. >> Um some accomplishments, we're regional champs,

011uh sectional champs, we beat Hortonville in a penalty shootout. Uh we were state qualifiers where we went to state and lost to Marquette. We had a undefeated record and eight allconerence players. [applause] >> Hi, I'm Sophie. I'm a junior. I'm Anna. I'm a senior. Um, we had around 38 girls try out for tennis this year. 14 on varsity and 24 on JV. And we tried to focus in on our team values, uh, trust, believe, respect, compete, and have fun. And that kind of built off into making our poster phrase, win from within, because we really wanted to focus in on like the mental game of tennis because that's something a lot of people forget about. And like I think halfway through the season, we did this like post-it note activity where you were assigned a

012random person and you had to write something positive about them for the whole week. And that really helped bring up our team chemistry and positivity all around. Our accomplishments for the season, our record was 16 and four. We play second in conference, just a few points short from memorial. Play second in sectionals, also a few points short from Clare Memorial. Uh, two flights qualify for state, one doubles and one singles or one double doubles, Sophia and Avery, and one singles Anna. Uh [laughter] uh all players all players were allegible qualified for academic allconerence and we were seven seven allconerence winners >> and then also the JV had a record of nine and six and they also played second in conference. >> Congratulations. [applause] >> Hi, I'm Jillian White. I'm a senior. My name is Mallalerie

013Zifco and I'm a junior. Um, so this sorry this season our girls swim and dive team found a lot of success both in and outside of the pool and we start our season very early. It's the beginning of August. So we did a lot of captain's practices throughout that month and a few other like team bonding activities. We went to the farmers market together. We did a hike at Willow River. We had um we have the tradition of like big littles. So, we went through assigning Big Little is kind of like a sorority. So, you get paired up for meets and that was very fun. Um, we participated in our first ever breast cancer awareness donation meet with River Falls thanks to senior Elise Gulick on the team. Um, we added a few new traditions.

014So, we did a little activity with like paper bags with notes of encouragement for different lane assignments. Um, we also did spaghetti dinners at like girls houses. So that was really nice to have like somewhere cozy to eat instead of the middle school. Um we also created our first team run or captain ran social media plage which swimming doesn't really get a ton of awareness so we wanted to kind of bring up the like excitement around it and then I'll let Julian do accomplishment. >> Yeah. So we had 12 new team members between freshman and then um new sophomores and swimmers and divers. Um we undefeated in the regular season and then we also won the simile and border battle invites. Uh we were conference championship champions by over 200 points. Uh we had six

015first team individuals all conference which means they won their race at conference. We had three relays um win first team all conference. Six individuals and relays get second team all conference. five individuals get um honorable mention and then we were sectional champions. Um we had two events where Mallerie won and she got um qualified for state through that and then we had two sectional runner ups and we have four individual state qualifiers and two relay state qualifiers and then it was a great season. We had a lot of team bonding and I thought we had a good time. >> [applause] >> I'm Ava and I'm a sophomore. I'm Caroline and I'm a senior. So, the season we had around 40 girls try out for golf, six on varsity, two of which are returners, six on

016JV, and around 30 on JB2. Uh, this year was really fun. We quickly built new friendships both on and off the course, forming strong and support, building a strong and supportive team. Next year we have four girls returning. So, we're excited to we're excited and looking forward to another good season. >> Um, some of the accomplishments we had was we won conference as a team. Um, barely made it to sectionals with fourth place at regionals, but then we won sectionals to advance to state. Um, three of our six players made an allconerence team. Ava and Lydia with first team all conference and Ava player of the year. Amelia had an honorable mention and then also all six of us made academic allconerence and Ava third team all state. Um we finished a season and placed

01711th at state and also our JB won majority of their matches. >> Congratulations. [applause] Anybody have any comments? Um volleyball. No volleyball. So that's it. Thank you very much. Thank you all for coming out tonight on this cold night to say hi to us and and give us that information. Good good job and congratulations to every Oh, >> say something. Yeah, I I'm always so impressed um with the teams when you come in, individual sports, team sports, it doesn't always go as well as you planned, but I so appreciate that all of you are working to build a great culture and um making friends. And it isn't all about winning, but winning is awesome, too. You We like it, right? Um, but I'm super proud of all of you and I hope you're proud of

018yourself. Good job, >> Maria. Nothing about marching band. Come on. We have a marching band parent here. >> I'll say a little something about marching band. Good job, guys. Watched you guys throughout the season really work hard um late into the evening. So, really, really impressed with your show this year and looking forward to next year's. also just say for all of the teams um I know the dedication that you guys put in to each of your sports and your activities working hard from right after school sometimes till 9 10 o'clock at night um working on your sport getting together on the weekends uh working in the off season um that takes dedication but it also takes you guys working as a team um I've seen a few of these teams uh front and center

019and activities the what you guys do to cultivate a team and a culture ofbody anybody everybody can come and belong and be welcoming. Um I keep doing that. That is the ethos of Hudson and please continue to welcome anybody who wants to join your team. Um you can't go wrong with that. So kudos to all of you and girls uh swimming and diving. Good luck at stake. [applause] >> Thank you Jim. You guys can't escape. >> Yes. Okay. Next. Next up, we have citizens uh request to speak. We have five. We'll read them off. Give five. Uh we'll do two minutes each. And before we start, I'll read our statement. Public comment is for input only. It is not a question answer session or time for debate or a dialogue session. Members of the school

020board will not respond directly to public comments that are made at this meeting. No specific action will be taken at this meeting in response to comments that are made or issues that are raised during the public comment period. If the board determines that action is appropriate, the action will occur at a future board meeting. A district representative may follow up with you after the meeting. Board chair will recognize one speaker at a time. Only those speakers who are recognized will be permitted to speak. Individuals who interfere with or interrupt speakers, the board or the proceedings may be directed to leave. Personal attacks on any individual including any other speaker during the public comment section session are unacceptable as are obscenities or profanity. Persistence in making such remarks will end the individual's opportunity to address the

021board and may result in the individual being directed to leave. Thank you very much. And uh we'll start out with it Richard Thompson. else, but as long as I'm here for the athletic thing, I thought I'd make a statement. Having been on some boards in the past, and unfortunately I know I'm being televised, so yeah, I'll be careful how I say this. Um, but the bottom line is, um, the decision's already been made apparently to close the two schools. So, there's nothing I'm going to say here is going to change it other than I just want to tell you the perception is not good. I Quite honestly, a few years ago, you came out and said, "We need money to build a school. Enrollment's going up." Now, all of a sudden, we need to close

022two schools. Enrollment's going down and we're going to save this money, but there was really never a good published analysis of how much money you were going to save and how much you're going to add for buses. And, you know, is it really going to pay off? And then, you know, in five years or 10 years, are you going to ask to build another school because enrollment goes back up. The perception out there quite honestly folks is that we just want to close the old schools and build new schools. And I don't know if people are willing to tell you that, you know, but I'm just telling you that's the perception. It's not it's not really good, you know. [applause] Next up is John Dolan. Good evening board members. It's good to see you all

023again. I'm here speaking on behalf of hundreds of others, district parents and employees, alumni, community members, finance professionals, teachers, archers, scientists, and polar dogs sled drivers. We have been trying to work together with you for months to find ways to solve the budget problems that the district is facing. We've collectively spent thousands of labor hours going through the hundreds of pages of documents that span more than four years to understand the details. We've learned a lot, asked hundreds of clarifying questions, and found many unanswered points that would likely change the decision you made on October 13th. We have requested multiple times through the board and the district to not rush this decision of closure. instead form a community group with a specific purpose and a deadline to present options to the board of what it

024would take to keep our neighborhood schools aligned. To date, I've I've seen no response to this request, nor any real effort to work with the community to find solutions to our problems together. As a result, we're taking the formal step to demand your attention so we can work with you to solve this problem as a team. We are in the process of commencing formal legal action against the district with our attorneys who are here tonight. The legal timeline for your response will start when it is officially delivered to all of you. We don't want this decision done to us. We want to be part of this and work with you to solve the problem together using the most updated and complete data available and take our best shot to our neighborhood schools. We don't have

025to rush. We have a referendum that passed in the spring to give us the financial buffer to take the time we need to make the best decision that we can. Let's work together to fix the errors, analyze all the costs, propose innovative ideas, and make the best decision we can for the future of our community together. >> Thank you, [applause] Danielle Samson. I was worried that was going to happen. In the applied population enrollment study from 2022, the section on birth trends and projections shows a projected decline in birth rates from 2020 to 2026. However, more recent data available from the same source used in that projection suggests that 2020 was actually the low point and that birth numbers have since rebounded. 2020 is part of this year's kindergarten class. I recognize that birth rates

026and population estimates are only one factor in the decision to close two of our elementary schools. Still, they've been repeatedly referenced in board discussions and public materials. In the document that was put out after the community meeting in September, the district emphasized three separate times that it was working with a demographer to ensure accurate and up-to-date data, acknowledging that best available information was essential for informed decision-making. Yet, that updated information was not available at the time of the vote. Given that both the board and the public expected these updated projections, it's important to understand why they were not included. If the numbers have changed, the context for the discussion has changed as well. My question is simply, why was the vote held before this updated information was shared, especially when it was previously described as

027crucial to making the best possible decision. >> Thank you, Scott Ellson, Scott. Oh, wait. No, Lisa Wolf is next. I'm sorry. Hi guys. I'm here to express my disappointment on the record. On October 13th, the board voted for options that were not clearly and thoroughly evaluated. I asked Nick for the source data and he refused to provide it to me. I also asked each and every board member where these numbers came from for the options that is and they told me simply Nick came up with them. This shows complete lack of due diligence and in fact negligence. I have multiple board members telling me in writing that they just don't have the bandwidth or don't have the time. This is inappropriate. We need to evaluate these options more fully. I provided a five school redistricted

028model that had robust savings that not one person commented on at the meeting. Granted, I know that these public comments are not meant for you to comment on immediately, but I did send it in an email prior and only had one response about that email. The numbers provided by Nick showed option one with zero savings. This negated any sort of potential redistricting and redistribution of students, which would have resulted in fewer full-time equivalents being needed. Therefore, potential savings were not calculated in what could have been with that option one. We weren't comparing apples to apples. Okay? Option one, zero savings, no redistricting. The other options had redistricting and redistribution in them. All of the alleged savings in the options promoted by Nick came from firing full-time equivalents. The actual cost operationally to keep Holton open

029is $45,000 a year according to your own numbers. Empty classrooms, which has been the narrative pushed by Nick, is not what costs the district money. Rather, it is underutilized teachers. Redistricting and redistribution of students is what will save this district money, not closure of brick and mortar. I guess my time is up, so I'll be back next time. Thanks, Scott Ellington. With all the sports going on, I was blessed to be with the soccer team in Milwaukee for their state tour. That was pretty fun. So, but on to business here. In my letter to all of you on October 27th, I talked about my concern about the optics of multi-million dollar surplus budgets for the next two years while closing both schools. Using district numbers, I shared a plan with you for how one of

030the schools could remain open until at least 2030 without negatively impacting district priorities with class size, staff retention, and traction and programs. Please reconsider and you could still work with the same subcommittees you discussed at your last board meeting. Quick aside, based on some of the discussion about a possible charter school inspired some thoughts of a possible Spanish immersion track in one of our elementary schools that could help attract new students and families to our district. That all being said, as a community, we need to move forward, heal, forgive, model to our children how we deal with life's disappointments, come together, and find positive ways to seek the silver lining that is Hud Hudson Public Schools. that's been in the paper a couple times. In my mind, despite the diff difference of opinion, I believe

031that you are a very strong school board looking out for our students best interests. I do not support a recall for any of you. Let's put our energy into making this difficult transition as positive as possible. Thank you all for all that you do, and I look forward to working with you in the future. Thank you. >> Thank you, Scott. Now we're moving on to reports. We're going to start with response to public inquiries related to special education and construction. >> All right, I'll turn it over to Terra and Bonnie related to special education. >> You I'll start with a couple uh wonders we have in the special education world. One of the first wonders is what's happened at the federal level with the Office of Special Education Programs. That office, from our understanding, we

032have about 90% of their staff laid off at the federal level. What does that mean for us here in Hudson? At the federal level, gives us about $1.1 million a year in terms of our uh special education funding for our grant. And that money we've received this year. Um in that's about all that happens at the federal level for us. Um in terms of uh parents rights and students rights all of that is done through the state level through DPI. So all those protections are still in place. Any kind of due process state complaints are all handled at DPI. I think an important piece to note is IDA hasn't changed. We are still legally required to provide all of those services for whatever student walks in our door with an IEP and that doesn't change

033regardless of what's happening at the federal level. The states manage, like I said, 99% of what we do on the daily basis. All that happens at that federal level for us is I imagine someone's hitting a button somewhere. So that 1.1 million shows up in our our grant dollars. Um Bonnie is going to explain a little bit more about special education costs and then I'll talk about another piece with special education. Yeah. So there was a request to um pull some historical data on special education expenses with the Hudson school district. So if you look at the chart, the first um column is an inclusive expenses of what we spend in fund 27 which is specifically special education costs. So this year or last year um I went through last year because that's an audited

034report in full year. So we spent about $14.4 million in special education. Our special education aid is set at the state level and it's a percentage that they base on your previous year's expenses. So last year um the aid percent was 29.16%. Um special education categorically what that calculates out to is about $3.6 million. Um the flowthrough aid which Tara just talked about um that's a grant and there's a description we put in the notes. it's just an entitlement that's given specifically for special education was approximately $1 million. And then that last column, um I believe there was a comment about the $8 million that wasn't accounted for. So the district has to take money from our fund 10 operating budget and transfer it to special education to make it a zero budget. So last

035year we transferred from fund 10 about $9.4 4 million to make that transfer and make it cost neutral. Um this year it will be less because um the state increased that percentage. Um so in to the 40% range um but we just wanted to give you some historical perspective because there seem to be some questions about that. >> Mr. president. >> Um, and Bonnie, I might botch the way I say this, so please correct me, but the fund 10 just because there's a lot of different funds in K12 is our general education fund, >> correct? >> Which we get from our per pupil revenue. So, it's coming from money that in theory could be spent on anything within our educational process and then it's moved over into special ed so we have enough money to

036cover all those costs. And the majority of funding in fund 10 is our local tax levy and our state equalization. Those are the biggest components of that. >> Thank you, Bonnie. >> I want to talk about the second piece with special education and a lot um of worry on transitioning. We'll be moving from six buildings to four buildings. How are we going to support our students with disabilities transitioning from building to building? One thing we are very familiar with in the special education world is transitions. We already do um transitions from 4K to elementary. We do transitions from elementary to middle, middle to high, and we even do high school onto the transition program um for our 18 to 21 population. Students with disabilities are able to stay in school until their 22nd birthday. And

037so it's something we're already very familiar with. We'll take what we're already doing in supporting those students and apply it to the boundary situation. One thing to remember is all of our buildings support all of our students, whoever's walking through the door with the IEP. Uh we have a whole continuum of services in every building. So if it's a student who needs just support in the general education setting all the way to the other end of the continuum where we have a student with a disability who may be in a special ed classroom all day and that's housed in all of our buildings and will continue to be the same. >> Mr. President. >> Yes, ma'am. So, I got a question, Tara, um, from somebody asking just a little about a little bit more details

038with the transition. I think for folks who have kids in, um, K through five, they haven't gone through the transitions yet, if they had don't have older kids who have needed that. So, the person asked, um, if my child is moving to another school and they have a new case manager, will there be meetings with the their current case manager and their new case manager? Maybe I'm not saying it right. And the family to make sure that transition is smooth. >> We may not be able to do transitions with families. We were looking at over 700 students and that would be 700 meetings with families. Um, but we do always do case manager to case manager. There are certain situations where we know that students may be more involved in a variety of services that

039families do come on board for those, but I'd say for the majority it's case manager to case manager. >> Thank you. >> You're right. >> Uh just the the other one we had related to construction that keeps coming up uh related to the EP Rock letters outside the media center. There's a lot of stuff out there saying that we paid $75,000 for those letters. We had our construction manager dig into it. Uh we had a bid alternate. Um it's called alternate number seven, which is uh the base bid was to provide the solid surface letters shown on the plans. And the alternate was to eliminate the letters and give us a credit uh plus include a $10,000 allowance for graphic signage to replace the lettering. So, the credit for bid alternate 7 was uh looks

040to me like $6,776. So, when you add that to the $10,000 allowance, it's $16,776. Uh, not $75,000, I think, is what is kind of floating around out there. Um, so I just wanted to be able to address that. They were able to kind of pull the documents on that. We've had uh quite a few people ask about it, records request about it and things like that. So, I thought it easier to try to dig into it and figure out um kind of where that was coming from. So, I just wanted to make sure the board had that information um as we as we work through it. So, uh other items uh any other questions related to construction or the uh special education report? >> Uh just a quick overall, you usually give an overall update

041on construction. I know we're kind of in the final stages. They're wrapping up. you're reconciling all of the bills to the change orders and kind of dialing in the last number. The last meeting you indicated we'd probably be uh coming in under budget. Is that where we're still sitting? What's your sense at this point? >> Bonnie, if you have a better sense, >> I would say we're definitely within budget. Um I'm not sure where we'll be under budget. There's a couple outstanding items that we're dealing with um in schools, but we're definitely within the budget. We've not exhausted all of our funds. >> Okay. Thank you. >> No other questions for that. Move on to topics for discussion and possible action. Start with the approval of the October regular meeting minutes. Consent items. Excuse me.

042>> Mr. President, I move approval of the consent items and that the chief financial and operations officer be authorized to pay bills in the amount of 2,758,216.96. >> Have a second. >> Second for Megan. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those oppose say nay. >> Motion passes. >> Mr. President, if I may, uh, we have a retirement that I wanted to speak to. Very good. You always surprised me with that. >> Yep. Sorry. There's a special employee I want to recognize Isabelle Bar, a special ed parah for 38 years at North Hudson and uh she'll be retiring. So just wanted to recognize her and we'll certainly be planning for to celebrate her more at the upcoming recognition banquet in May. >> So 38 years. So Scott, how many years you have?

043So you're not the longest tenure teacher. >> Thank you. >> Moving on to we had long-term debt. >> Yep. >> By as well. >> Yep. So um we have been reviewing with Baird um our long-term debt. Um and I think most of you know this is Brian Brewer from Baird. Um some of our bonds have become callable. So we he has a scenario where we could um refinance those um bonds with a savings of about $2 million um just to recognize that that savings has to stay in debt service. We can't use that for operating costs, but it would be a savings to the tax levy long term. So Brian's going to go over that and answer any questions you have. >> Yep. >> Thanks for being here. >> Good evening. Good to see the

044work. Um, as Bonnie summarized, uh, the market, uh, interest rates have have moved, um, lower than when we originally financed some of the prior referendum uh, debt authorization. Uh, specifically, what we're looking at tonight is, uh, from the 2016 referendum debt. Um, and Tim, if we can move to the, uh, the chart one more. Yeah. So, this uh chart is the one I've utilized with the board for each time I've come and presented to you. The bottom is the 30-year history. So, it just gives you an idea of how rates move year in and year out. Uh it gives a little perspective of where we are today relative to where we were when you financed prior um debt authorizations. Um, I've worked with the district since 2000 and we've financed um a few new referendums

045and refinanced more um with this refinancing just since the the great financial crisis. This will be the fourth refinancing uh which would you know if if the savings stays at the 2.6ish million estimate um it would put the total savings uh around four and a half million uh reducing what was already locked in. Um, and as Bonnie mentioned, this is within your fund 39. So, I know it's a fund, uh, but that's the one that's uh um specific to principal and interest repayment. So, it reduces the tax uh rate to pay back the debt so that it can't be transferred to the general fund fund 10 um to to help elsewhere in the budget, but it does reduce the the tax burden uh related to the debt repayments. So if you look at this chart

046when you issued in two 2016 and 2017 was the was the second and final portion um it was uh very very favorable as well. So the only real reason we're we're able to uh bring a opportunity to refinance is in that upper right corner. um you see that kind of mid midyear rates moved higher but in the last few months uh interest rates especially that gray and purple line have come down. So if you think about it you are we're we're 10 years into a 20-year payback and so you're effectively replacing the second 10 years in 2016 with the first 10 years in 2025. So, um, because those those gray, which is a five-year, uh, index rate, and the purple, which is a 10-year, because those are coming down, that's what's generating the savings. So,

047you're replacing the old higher uh interest rate with new lower interest rates, and that's where the interest cost uh savings is coming from. So, if we flip to the next page, this I might need you to zoom a little bit here. Um, this is the detail page. This is what uh Bonnie, Nick, and Dave and I work through and kind of look at in terms of how do we want to set up the future levies in fund 39 um to you know manage future um tax years or at least you know how it would impact future tax years. Um, so the the way the page is oriented, the left side of the page is the uh existing rates on the 2016 borrow. So you see four 4% primarily and there's one 3% in there. Uh,

048we're leaving the 3% because right now that one doesn't generate enough savings, but we're replacing the three and a half and 4% um interest rates with um current rates that are in the two two to three range. Um and so that is what generates that yellow column towards the right which it says potential debt service savings. Um ultimately that adds up towards the bottom at that uh approximately 2.6 million of future um levy reduction uh during the remaining 10 years. Along with that, the board has has levied to make additional payments on debt to uh kind of stabilize the the the levies for debt. Um, and this is an example of how to utilize those dollars. Um, you'll notice that we're using some in 2027, so a year from now. When we did the final

049financing in 2017 related to the 2016 referendum, um, we had a 10-year maturity that we put there to keep the interest cost lower, knowing that in the next 10 years, we were going to do something with it. Either we're going to prepay little by little or we're going to refinance it 10 years later and stretch it out 10, you know, the final 10 years. Because of the the ongoing um you know, mil rate and and levy management, you have funds to make a payment on that maturity and avoid the interest cost. So, by not needing to borrow for that next year, uh you're avoiding another five to 600,000 over the 10 years. So that helps the total. It doesn't really show up in the 2.6 that we're talking about today, but it's it's, you know,

050as part of the overall planning. Um, it it results in interest cost avoidance. Ultimately, the far right column is what we're um, you know, targeting for future levies related to fund 39 payments. So this year, the levy was 8.9 million. uh for the next five years, the estimates 6.9 million. So we have a $2 million uh planned uh step down. Then you keep those payments level. And then in 2032 to 2036, there's another 2.9 or no, sorry, $900,000 step down. And then uh once the 2016 referendum debt is paid in full in 2036, there's another step down to 3.2. So we're basically, you know, creating a future step down in the levies related to fund 39. So the next page shows it as a picture, which might be easier to consume than this busy slide

051that I have here. So the gray bars are how it is currently scheduled. Uh, and the blue bars are what the what this illustration is showing in terms of stepping down. Um, so it gives some future levy flexibility, you know, as we go into the second year of the banial budget, which as as you know, didn't did not does not change really from what you were managing for this year. Uh, so there's not additional state aid. Um, uh, put into the statewide pot. So, as it gets redistributed around the state, um you know, we'll we'll have to see how Hudson's numbers stack up with every other school district, but there's not new dollars to redistribute. So, this gives you a little bit of cushion heading into 2627 on the the total tax levy. Um so,

052the discussion is tonight. I wanted to present you know the concept uh the estimated savings at this point. Obviously, savings are not finalized until we go into the market and sell it to investors. Um, but tonight is discussion. Um, and then, uh, on the 24th, you would have an action item at that at that board meeting, uh, to establish, uh, parameters for going to sell and lock in with investors. Um um you know once paperwork is ready uh Bonnie and I and Dave are and I think maybe Nick are on a rating call later this week u for credit rating. Um and that would be current currently the district is rated double A1 by Moody's which is the second highest they offer. Um, we've asked what it takes to get to AAA and you know,

053some of it some of the answers are things that I think Hudson residents and community members don't really want in their backyard. Uh, they would like larger industrial base and, you know, manufacturing in in the communities and that's, you know, being double A1, uh, allows most investors in the market to buy the the bonds that the school district offers. So, it's a very, very strong credit rating. Um, so that's part of the process and getting getting the district ready to access the market and lock in new lower interest rates. >> Brian, do you know how many districts about have a higher bond rating than we do? Approximately, >> uh, two >> in out of the 400 and so in the state >> out of the 421. >> Okay. >> Um, I think it's two that's

054currently at AAA. >> Okay. >> And there's not that many of the AA1. I don't know the exact number, but it's probably like 12ish 12 to 13. So, it's it's hard in Wisconsin because your budget your your funding is not decided at the board level. It's decided at the state level at the per pupil funding level. And then the local level is how do you balance that budget from the revenues and expenses? >> I have a question. I just want to use the word defeasance. Is this defeasence? Uh this is this is refinance. >> Is it similar? It's just can't be defeasants because they're not corporate. We're not a Okay. >> Uh so the difference in my mind, it's a I use that word a lot. >> I just wanted to use it. So [laughter]

055>> it's it's it's a great um so the the technical difference I use is we are able to pay off like when you borrow new at lower rates, we are going to turn around and pay it to the investor like the old uh holders of the bonds. So, it's immediate like within 90 days. Um, a defeasence, whether it's a bond defeasence or a cash defeasence, uh, in my mind involves an escrow period. So, where there's a couple of years until you can pay off the old bond holders. So, you're borrowing new or you're taking cash, putting it into an escrow, and the escrow agent will then pay it out at a future date. So, it's it's similar, but this because of the timing, this is more like you're replacing the old with the new immediately.

056>> So, it's kind of like if you're a homeowner, you're refinancing. You're paying off a little bit. >> In this ca, in this one in particular, it's exactly like that. >> Over a rate. >> Yeah. The only difference is you had to wait until 2026. So, March one of 2026 was the first eligible date. So the fact that interest rates are moving down as you're approaching that date is what's creating the ability whereas a homeowner it's you know anytime the market is low enough to generate enough savings to pay the closing cost >> and everything we're refinancing is a capital item because it's fund fund 39 a capital item that we purchased >> correct >> capital fund >> um so this is out of wheelhouse. But so just to make sure I understand, it was

057originally a 72.375 million bonds that were from July of 2016 and we're ref financing 39.765 million at this lower interest rate which is going to save us >> 3.3. >> Okay. At the bottom 2.685 million over the next 10 years. Correct. Okay. Thank you. >> That's great. >> And just to clarify, we're not lengthening the term. We're, you know, the the term is the same amount of time. It's just >> I think the thing that's a little different for us, um, when you take out a mortgage, you have a one mortgage for the whole 20 years or 30 years. For us, when we go to bonds, we buy a one-year bond, a two-year bond, a three-year bond, a four-year bond, and we pay interest on that bond until it's due, and then we pay it,

058you know, in whatever year it is that they come due. And I think so we're basically taking bonds that were set up in years 11 through 20 and we're making them more like years 1 through 10. So that obviously a shorter term makes for a lower rate and that lower rate is the savings which in essence will help us you know drop debt service mill rate because the savings is purely taxpayer savings. It's not it doesn't go anywhere in the school district. It can't be used to offset anything else. Nick explained what I was going to ask about the the tax savings and how that functions. So, thank you, Nick. >> Brian. >> Yeah, and just to point out, sometimes I get tripped up on this. Um, you know, we try and think about these

059things as like our mortgages, we we would refinance when rates get really low, but you touched on it a little bit. The the reason we didn't refinance in 2020 and 2021 is that we could not at that time with these bonds, >> correct? federal tax law back in 2017. That that tax cuts and jobs act back then removed the ability to refinance prior to the the March one of 2026 date. So you had to wait until 90 days prior and hope that interest rates are low enough to generate savings. And I do want to point out like back in 16 the rates weren't very high. Like you you financed that originally well below what you what the board communicated at that time. I think it ended up being about 16 million less in total interest

060cost from what because we were trying to be conservative and rates were lower. So the fact you're generating any savings at this point, you know, it's more about replacing years 11 11 through 20 with years 1 through 10. So it's shorter rates which are lower which you know what's generating the the actual interest reduction. >> Mr. President, I just I just wanted to say the bar graph on page five was very helpful in helping me understand this. It's great use of a bar graph. I appreciate it, >> especially coming after the previous page. >> Yeah, this one. >> Yes. >> Anyone else? Okay. Thank you very much. >> All right. Thank you. Have a good evening. >> Thanks, Brian. Um, next uh topic is the 26 27 school calendar and can we do better than

061I guess I did this year because I'm sure Jamie is laughing right now that we're at a board meeting and the Packer game will be starting. He would have never allowed that. >> Talk about that today. >> Okay. So what we have linked uh two weeks ago I presented to the board the draft for the 2627 calendar and since then we made one small tweak that I'd like to just point out to you. Uh one change we we changed the floating 7 and a half uh hours of professional development. We changed that to an in-person professional development day on the 19th. So essentially teachers are coming back one day sooner than what I had presented two weeks ago. And that's pretty much in response to some of the rounding and some of the feedback we've

062received from staff regarding um moving from six elementary schools to four and kind of needing a little bit more time with those teams with leadership teams, PBIS teams. And we did run that by principles and middle school and high school principles also are um excited to have an extra full day to kind of tackle some of their larger professional development uh needs. So other than that, the rest of the calendar uh is the same as what you saw two weeks ago and administration is recommending approval of the 26 27 calendar. >> Does anyone have a question? >> Mr. President, I just wanted to let you know I've heard really positive feedback about the calendar in general and from teachers and principles and I said maybe that's because Shannon was just there. So thank you for

063that. Thank you. No other questions. Ask for a motion to approve. >> Mr. President, >> a motion to approve this calendar, the school calendar for year 2026 2027. >> Have a second. >> Second for Megan. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those oppose say nay. Hearing none. Motion passes. Thank you, Shannon. >> Thank you. Next is uh moving to a boundary update. Is this good? >> Oh, overnight travel. Sorry, >> that's me again. So, that was um again I brought this two weeks ago in the work session. The overnight travel and if you remember that um overnight travel is is utilized and scheduled when activities and athletics are scheduled for far for long distance far away. So again, um administration is recommending approval of the overnight travel No changes. Make a

064motion to that. >> Mr. President, I make a motion to approve the travel. >> Thank you, Aaron. Second. >> Second, >> Molly. All those in favor say I. >> I. All those opposed say nay. >> Motion carries. Next would be school closure and transitioning planning with Nick to start us off. >> Yep. No problem. Uh I'm going to touch on a couple things then have guest here. >> President, um, don't we have to approve the meeting minutes first before we get into that? [clears throat] >> That was in the consent agenda. >> Oh, that was part of that. >> So, that's in the consent agenda. >> Okay. But we didn't do that, did we? No, we didn't. >> We voted for the consent. It's all >> Oh, we did it all at once. Okay. All

065right. Um, so you >> Yeah, the I mean the all the things listed under the consent agenda, that's why they're in the consent agenda. This hasn't changed. This is >> I guess I was confused too because 4K was in there in the contract. So I thought we may discuss it but >> no. So any new changes to 4K contracts or if there's substantial changes we would pull them out and they would have their own item on the agenda to to talk about. But since 4K is kind of a renewal contract that we do every year. Um that's why it goes in the consent agenda um as we continue to kind of work through it. Other questions about that before I move in? All right. So, before I'm gonna uh introduce uh Brian Zeller because the

066board had asked me to uh have somebody talk to them about uh or bring somebody in to to talk to you guys about the buildings and opportunities and things like that. Uh and so Brian is Brian is here to be able to do that. Um but before he gets into his commercial real estate presentation, uh just a couple of the boundary updates as we're working through uh with the consultants, we had uh meeting with them last week as we get ready to kind of plan the boundary process um and what that looks like and there give us preliminary information related to the enrollment analysis. Um we don't have uh we don't have their final final numbers uh with them as right now but they will be presenting on December 8th their full enrollment analysis which

067includes uh all of the um development within the district and and all those other different components birth rates all of those different components will all be tied to it. They did spend two days last week uh driving the district, making sure they understood uh where there is development, where there's development land that's available and talking with different folks about that. Uh so they could take into account um related to their enrollment uh projections. I can tell you that uh preliminarily they had shared with us that uh they anticipate that our elementary enrollment is going to kind of equalize at about somewhere between 17 and 1,800 students. uh over the next 10 years and that'll probably be our new normal. We're currently at 1938 I think in our elementaryaries. Uh our middle school, they're expecting that

068our middle school is going to equalize or or hit that kind of point of equilibrium somewhere between that uh you know 850 and 950 range uh as we as we move forward. Uh and then the high school somewhere probably between that uh 1300 and 1450. they're going to have more precise numbers uh to share at the December 8th meeting, but um they anticipate that over the next 10 years that our enrollment, taking into account um birth rates, taking account development, taking into account all those different components, uh that our resident enrollment is going to drop somewhere um between five and 800 students over the next over the next 10 years. Uh so just kind of some background information as we uh continue to get the enrollment reports. Again, December 8th, so we haven't seen anything

069official from them. They just kind of started to kind of share some of the initial preliminary data as they look at it. Um they also look at our mobility rate. They look at our turnover rates. They look at the housing rates. All of those different components uh in order to come to come to the numbers. From what we could gather, they kind of anticipate that, you know, our kind of our new normal long-term equilibrium could be somewhere, you know, around that 300 student, give or take, uh, per per grade level. Um, it's going to take longer for the high school to hit that, you know, 300 to 400. Um, and the reason that is is because we have our larger cohorts that are still working their way working their way through the district. So, that's

070kind of preliminarily what we have. And now I just uh want to make sure and give plenty of time for Brian Ziller. I have Brian, you can have a seat at the table. You don't have to stand at the microphone. And uh Brian is here to kind of talk about options related to um the buildings and answer questions for the board and and share his expertise. So I'll kind of turn it over to Brian. >> Uh Green is on. >> All right. Perfect. Uh Brian Zeller, as Nick had indicated, uh I'm a principal with Telus Property Services and Solutions, have represented the district in the past when you acquired your uh former administration building and represent you currently as we're uh working through the disposition of that. have also worked with other districts and am

071currently working with uh Stillwater School District in the disposition of their Lake Elmo Elementary School uh and had previously sold another elementary school for them. So, kind of a a wide range of experience through the years of doing commercial real estate here in the valley. Everything from former Nike military bases to uh hospitals to dog tracks to a little bit of everything. So, this is definitely uh within my wheelhouse. So, I did have an opportunity to uh evaluate your properties. I don't know what level of detail you'd like to go into now. I think some of it's maybe more appropriate in close session as you contemplate strategies and and asking prices and things of that nature, but wanted to make myself available uh after an introduction and field any questions that you might have. >>

072Thanks for coming tonight. appreciate it. Um, I know one of the buildings Willow is on the state historic registries. I'm wondering could you tell us a little bit about what that what that means as we think about I I've done a little reading myself and but would love your perspective as you think about >> candidly sometimes that's a good thing and sometimes it's a bad thing. It it can cause restrictions in terms of what type of renovation or retrofitting you can do. Um, so I'd want to dig a little deeper into the specifics of of how it's registered and and what the impacts of that are. Um, but I I personally think that building will be repurposed. Um, I I see it as a probably a multi-tenant. Um, one thing that the board will want

073to consider is if they want to put deed restrictions on one or both of the properties, preventing them from being uh a competitive use or a private school or a charter school or something of that nature. Um, that's not uncommon. Still Water is doing that with their current facility in Lake Elmo. Um, we've done it for banks, for hospitals, for a little bit of everything. So that'll be something for you to to consider, but I don't see it as a hurdle that we can overcome. U but definitely something that'll factor into the process. >> Thanks, Mr. President. Um on the other building, Holton, we got a or I got a question today and I I found it interesting. The person was asking about when what I guess was called the Holton School District or whatever

074it was called in 1958 when it was absorbed into Hudson about whether that property at that time had some sort of agreement or restriction on it that requires it to always be a school or the property to only function as a school. And I don't expect you to know the answer to that today. I'm just curious from your your Still Water uh [clears throat] experience or or otherwise or Nick if you happen to know anything about how how that property became part of the Holton District. Um >> I've run into that situation before when a a beach property was actually donated to a city and it had those types of restrictions. We'd probably want to pull title uh and see if there's anything of record against that property. That would be the the quickest and

075easiest way to know if there's any incumbrance. My question would be with with Willow. Um is there a difference in code or development? Like we know to keep it as a school, we make renovations in it, we're going to have to absorb a substantial cost for fire suppression sprinklers, boilers, what have you. If it's developed as a a non-school apartment or living, are the codes different where they can do individual heating units where they don't have to absorb those those costs? >> Generally speaking, yes. >> Yes. Generally speaking, so a developer would evaluate the the most efficient and effective way to divide utilities uh to the different units depending on if that's mixed use or or what it is. But uh I would suggest one of our first meetings would be with the city to

076talk about code and talk about use and zoning and and density and kind of what they envision. Um I've had a very preliminary conversation with them just in my evaluation process, but um we'll need to work closely with the city. Yes. >> Can you talk about your experience in maybe other communities where we've they've had something similar happening? Um what the process was, how long it took or how long in your professional opinion something like that might take? >> Sure. Um I think I'll probably speak mostly to uh Washington County or Still Water just that's where we're currently negotiating. Um the market as a whole right now there's not a lot of inventory. So it's really an interesting market in that um prices are a little elevated. Um there aren't as many opportunities. The entitlement

077process is taking longer and longer these days. So um renovations are becoming more attractive to to developers. Um so with that said, in Lake Elmo, that community has a directive from that council to grow at a certain rate and a certain number of units. So the fact that this is a fairly large parcel in the middle of Lake Elmo with city and water makes it pretty attractive. Um I would make similar comments about Willow. Um given the size of that structure and the fact that sewer and water is there, assuming that um that the city's receptive to, you know, a mixed use or a higher density residential, um that's going to be an attractive project. Um Colton is going to be attractive for other reasons. it proximity to, you know, the major intersection and and

078the highway that comes through there. Um, it being the first stop off of the Hudson exit, uh, I I think you're also going to have a pretty high level of interest. So, both of those opportunities within six months, uh, we found we procured a buyer. So, those, um, I wasn't sure what to expect on the first elementary school because it was north. It didn't have sewer and water. But we found a buyer right away on that one. >> Mr. President, >> um, so you have been through this process before with other districts. What sort of buyers do you generally see? I mean, is there a typical buyer or is it just what what's the gamut maybe then? Um, I'll receive phone calls from you can only imagine. Um, we never really know until the end

079of the day if if it's a real scenario or not. I can tell you most recently I received a call from a group wanting to do a funeral home uh and an event center. Um, it just you never know. And my philosophy is I show it to everybody. I don't really try to pre-qualify them because I don't know who they're connected to or or what other relationships they might have. So, I show it to everybody and um then ultimately I I bring the prospects to you and it's for you to decide who's the best fit. But, um it'll literally be everybody you can imagine that I'll feel the phone call from. When you say uh it's up to us, it's it's really is still controlled by the city and the municipality to some extent >>

080for for zoning. Yeah. uh as as long as the we wouldn't want to enter an agreement with anybody that you know had an outlandish outlandish plan that we knew wasn't going to be approved by the city anyways. But um yeah, the city's going to have significant influence and and what can go there and ultimately what type of project and who the buyer might be. There has been some concern noted in the community about are could they be demolished and you know we've been we've heard about the cost you would expect we would see a developer come in and say >> I wouldn't recommend it. No. Um I mean you're going to get in. What I might recommend is that you do an initial study for hazardous materials so that that's something that could be disclosed.

081It's likely that every buyer that comes through the door is going to want to know if there's any hazardous materials that they have to deal with. Um that can just be a preliminary study that you contract somebody to do for you. But no, I would not recommend demolition. I think both of those properties will be repurposed. >> I don't know if this is a question for uh for you, Brian, or for uh Nick, but could you go through what our process is? I know we probably put together a asking price and then we asked to see what the plans will be, you know, just how without saying anything that would be an issue of close session, but how do we do this as a board once we decide to list the properties? >> Generally speaking,

082you know, we we have a listing agreement. Um, mine are a little unusual and that I give you the ability to cancel that agreement with 30 days notice. Uh, at any time during the term of that agreement. But uh once you list with us, then we get to work quickly and get our marketing assembled and we get you online in the system. I focus on the commercial sites, prexy, um minar that you the most favorable for. Um and and we put the property out there, we make it available, and then as inquiries come forward, I try to communicate that with uh Nick just so that he can be aware of what's happening. If we're making progress or not making progress, uh I'm available at any time, you know, for questions or comments from the board.

083Um but then we're really in a you know, responding mode, if you will. We we see who's interested, uh what's on their mind, what their thoughts are, uh communication with the city to if it's at all feasible, if it's a fit, not a fit, and then ultimately, you know, hope to bring you a probably start with a letter of intent uh and then into a purchase agreement. >> Are there uh are there times where municipalities purchase or is it more >> I would say it's happened. Um, it hasn't happened to me, but I'm I'm certainly aware that it has happened. I think the city at least, well, I think the township and the city, the township just built a new city hall. That's the only thing I could imagine that they might have needed. Um,

084and then the city has just recently acquired, you know, three or four properties in town. So, I think their needs are met. So, I don't think it would occur uh in either instance, but it's possible andor the county. questions. >> Thank you, Brian. Appreciate you coming. >> Thanks, Brian. >> Um, just kind of review a couple of other items related to school closures, transition planning. Uh, we we actually had our first uh staff form this morning. Um, and what we do, you know, we're kind of working through the staffing timelines and things along those lines. I'm going to turn it over to Andrea and Shannon and D kind of go through that >> in terms of the staffing timeline. Um, so we laid out this for staff and we'll continue to do it at the

085building forums, laying everything out between October and then summer 2026 with some key periods being um right now with the building forms going out and talking about our guiding principles um of how we're going to make decision making or decisions for staffing next year. And then um December, the beginning of December is when we're going to be sending out the staffing survey. So we're working collaboratively uh with the different committees. We have two committees, the support staff staffing committee and then the certified staff staffing committee. Um both committees are going to work on the staffing um survey again going out in December with the final determinations um prior to spring break for certified staff and then uh in April sometime for support staff. So trying to be very transparent with the steps that we're taking

086through uh the timeline uh over the next six to nine months. Um and then also pivoting to the guidelines um the guiding principles for staffing decisions. Uh we detail them out um in the document that we're sharing with staff, but it's robust certified and support staff staffing processes, building teams to support educational excellence and optimize staffing resources to ensure long-term efficiency and consistency across the district, collaboration, respect, long-term sustainability and legal compliance. And then we have bullet points throughout all of those. um to really get uh to how we want to work together collaboratively, not only within the staffing committees, but also hearing feedback from staff throughout the process. Um and again, we're uh trying to be very transparent uh with this this communication um and have utilized TAC and I'm sure we'll come back

087here on a regular basis sharing additional information with you guys as we're moving forward. Okay. >> I just want because I know acronyms are a thing and it takes a while to get used to, but just so people watching or people here know, it's the TAC is the teacher advisory committee. >> Yes. >> So that people know we are involving them in this process. >> We definitely are. And we have a meeting at end of January as well that's already scheduled. Um and then we had one prior to the determination. So we're getting feedback on what questions they wanted to have us for the staffing survey. So we're important point through this is that we really have two parallel processes. It's the layoff process um where yes we have to reduce some positions um K12

088uh but then there's also the staffing process. The staffing process of where we find places for our remaining teachers has been something we've done since I've been here. Um and it's a pretty robust system um where we look at team composition. We look at a lot of different uh factors to find again the best places and hopefully the best teams um for our students. >> So, I know this isn't popular or fun to talk about, but I think it's important to hear from the board or and I'm speaking for myself, but um with layoffs, I guess my hope would be that we're looking really high achieving teachers as people who we want to be in our our school district and maybe some people who are struggling or or it doesn't seem like this is the

089right fit that those people would um maybe follow a different route. But I I do as a board member expect that those highly those high achievers are staying with us >> and I have great confidence that that's going to be the case. I think our layoff language which we refined last year the first criteria is probationary employees certainly attrition so retirements because we always have lots of those and mean several every year and then we go to probationary staff who are not yet effective in all six standards which is our evaluation system. So that is applicable before we ever get to our uh veteran staff members. And then we have criteria from there um that if we even need to go there, then we spell out if it's um a significant discipline or a current

090performance improvement plan, significant discipline within the last three years or current performance improvement plan. Um then that's the next criteria we look at. Um and so we kind of have that laid out in that manner. But again, I think uh if you look at our hiring any particular year, we hire 30 to 50 certified staff members and like classroom teachers, the tenative um numbers we were looking at was around seven classroom teachers. Um and so between all those pieces, I would think it's unlikely that we would go beyond that. >> Okay. >> Thank you very much, >> Mr. President. Um, looking at the calendar we just approved a little bit ago, there's a lot of, uh, professional development days in August. Um, and I'd imagine those will be used for team building and getting classrooms

091set up and or something along those lines. What I don't have the calendar in front of me, but do we have professional development days after staffing decisions will be made this year, you know, left left in this school year where we'll be bringing you staff together. How >> we talked about it some and I think um at this point we're still trying to figure out the right balance and certainly Shannon you can speak. I I don't mean to overstep but I think it's a conversation we're having. Yeah, we're we're doing uh rounding right now in the from the teaching and learning department. So, we're getting different ideas and different thoughts behind that. Some some are feeling like as soon as I know my team, I want to get together with my team and I want

092to and I want to get together. Others are feeling like, you know, let us finish the year at Willow River or let us finish out our school year and let us just process one thing at a time and then once the year is done. So, we're still working through doing a good job for everybody on that. Thank you. >> All right. Uh, open houses. I don't know if Shannon you want to speak to that. >> I can speak to that, too. Talked a little bit about this already, but we have open houses for parents. Next Monday and Tuesday. So, uh, Monday the 17th, the open houses are at North Hudson and Prairie, and on Tuesday they will be at EP Rock and Riverest. And this is in response to parents reaching out and saying, "Hey,

093um, we're going to be moving buildings or we might be moving buildings." And we've never stepped foot into any other building besides my own. So, we uh created these open houses for parents to come in and get a look at the buildings. They because we've staggered them, they can go look at all of them. And um, so our hope is that to get families in, we have principles set up to talk about, you know, their building, five minutes at the beginning, and then just open house style, they'll look at the rooms. And we have between 15 and 20 staff at every building that are volunteering to be there and answer questions, too. >> Any questions about the open houses? We know that people don't have assignments yet, but we want to give people an opportunity

094that if they wanted to see the buildings, they could they could go in and see the buildings. Uh the last thing is just the work group updates. Not going to go through the transition plan up there, but uh we're continually um working through that. They've started to meet. We're going to be having opportunities um in some of the work groups at different times to involve parents, to involve staff, a variety of different components. There's a lot of moving parts obviously related to all these different components. But um we will continually give you updates related to workg groups and things like that. Right now trying to get some of the staffing things on the books and the timelines out because that's one of the things that staff have asked us, you know, most currently. What does

095that what does that look like? Um, and then as we get, you know, the boundary information and things along those lines, we'll be passing that information out to the board as well. So, and to the community. So, any other questions related to school closure transition planning? >> Mr. President, >> um, is there any opportunity, Nick, for board members to participate in these work groups? I noticed there's six workg groups. >> Yeah, I think there'll be some opportunities at different times for board members to participate. Yep. Uh it's just, you know, if board members want to reach out and they say, "Hey, I'm really interested in this area or that area and want to be a part of it." Um yeah, we can work through that and let you know when those work groups will be

096meeting and what that looks like. And you know, I think the the um the piece people have to understand is with within the work groups, there's going to be times where, like, for example, this uh student and family engagement work group, there's going to be times when uh that's going to involve parents and staff and principles. There's going to be other times when that's going to be a smaller group of people that are going to be working through some of the logistics and things along those lines. And so, a lot of it is just going to be, you know, what your preferences as far as wanting to be involved, see what's going on. >> I think once we involve the community in those, that would be really important. Absolutely. >> To have a board member

097in each of those groups just to really gain that perspective to bring it back to the board. It' be really nice. >> Absolutely. >> I don't want to put words in Molly's mouth, but um she we talked about the parent group involved with our committee for special education since that's had a lot of questions about how this is going to affect special special education. robust. >> I don't have a lot to add, but um just Megan and I both have spoken with a member of the community who is special ed advocate and feel like um this is an opportunity for us to have like a parent advisory group. Um that perhaps depending on how it goes um that something could be ongoing in order to maybe like talk about um unmet needs or um to

098think of some of the other things that we talked about. Um, see, uh, help improve outcomes, help share development of programs and services, policy, that kind of thing. Not that they would, the parents would have wouldn't have the decision- making role, but just sort of a collective um, exchange of ideas. So, I think someone will be probably reaching out to you. So, thank you very much. I appreciate the care that you take. Mr. President. >> Yes, Bren. >> Maybe I missed this, but Nick, could you talk a little bit about timeline for the the work groups that will have community involvement? When will we send out notice or how will they be able to sign up some of those? >> Yep. Um, well, as we kind of get those up and up and moving, you

099know, I I can tell you for the boundary uh groups, we will be getting feedback. We have boundary meetings set. I believe I don't know if Tracy we got them on the website yet, but it'll be January 13th and January 27th. Um the goal is, you know, the consultants will be working with the board on December 8th, both to present the element uh the enrollment analysis, but then also to to talk with the board for some guiding principles as it relates to boundaries and and how you want those um kind of crafted and and things to keep in mind. So there'll be a large opportunity for the community to be involved at that point um with with the boundary piece as well as not just in person uh face toface meetings, those two meetings, but

100there's also some survey feedback as well with the different boundary options that that will be proposed. Uh and as far as the other the other work groups, family experiences and and student experiences, those are are coming that we just don't we're not far enough along to be able to say this is when these meetings will happen. Um, but I know uh in talking with the different groups, you know, making sure we're involving the PTO's of all the different buildings and you know what that looks like as well as uh looking for other parent volunteers to be able to help uh make sure it's a successful transition for both our kids, our family, and our staff. So, uh there'll be more to come and as those groups get set up, we'll get rolling on >> is

101um you know, we have the >> Okay, we have the tab on the Hudson Raiders um web page >> so that we're I know we have the open houses on there. Will we have as we kind of >> go along? I think I mean I would as a parent we want to know that we're having meetings in January so I can get those on the calendar because people are planning trips and family stuff. So can we put some tenative dates out on a calendar just so people can kind of plan? >> I think so. >> Yeah. They're not on there yet, but they'll go on there once >> those are kind of throw things on as they get sort of more finalized. And then so will you have a link on here for because I

102know you can ask questions and will there be like a way to sign up or get your name in the mix if you want to or is it a just a show up thing? I would guess part of that is is dependent on like Nick was talking about each of these groups. There are planning folks in charge of those and ultimately those groups will decide how they bring in other >> Okay. So that part is just basically not finalized yet is what you're saying. >> Correct. >> Thank you, >> Mr. President. >> Um Nick, where were those meetings? Where are we planning on having those at? the the one January 13th >> uh the January 13th and 27th will be at the middle school where we've had them in the past. Um and the consultants

103from MGT will be running those meetings. >> Great. >> Um just one comment quick um kind of towards Tracy's direction. uh as we were talking about the communications and the different groups and stuff, it was uh just something neat that we some of us board members were at the WASBY um meeting uh earlier this month and it was really neat. They had a a showing uh displaying public schools and it would be really cool to have some sort of a video on the four elementary schools and just showcasing how cool they are. It be I I just thought it was it was really impactful to see that >> you can do like a video walk through of the space kind of thing. >> Yeah, just kind of like the video that they showed there. >>

104So people can don't have to technically tour the space if they're >> they have an example on their on their website of that exact one. I was like that would be so cool if we did that for the four schools here. It I think it would really help. >> Yeah, we can we can look at putting together um kind of a a new updated district video. Absolutely. Any other questions? That takes us to the end of our public uh public agenda and I'll accept a motion to go in close session. >> Mr. President, >> the board will entertain a motion to convene in close session pursuant to Wisconsin statute 19.85 pair one pair E to deliberate or negotiate the sale of public properties whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require. Second. >> Second from Molly. All

105those in favor. >> Mr. President. >> Yeah. >> Could I just There there's been some confusion in the community about what these closed meetings about properties have been. And I I just want to say out loud it hasn't been about Holton or Willow. We would say that um these are about other property. Nick, maybe you want to say as much as you can say about what this discussion is about just so we have some clarity. >> Yeah, absolutely. So, there's been there's been no discussions in close session at all about Holton or Willow up to this point. Um, the valuations of the properties in what Brian was alluding to earlier would be uh for Willow and Holton would be what he'd be sharing with you guys so that you could make a determination of how

106you would want to uh at least um price things if you're wanting to sell these properties and things like that from a competitive uh bidding purpose. But you wouldn't actually make the decision uh in close session to sell these properties or anything like that. It's just giving you some market analysis so that since you'll be setting up um how you want to handle the bargaining related to the sale of properties potentially down the road. >> Thank you. I I appreciate that. I just want to avoid confusion that's in the public. We wouldn't ever make that any type of that decision in private session. >> Correct. >> Very good. No other questions. Take a roll call. Doll. >> Hi. >> Garza. >> Hi. >> Gerlock. >> Powers. >> Hi. >> Rosowski. >> I. >> Rudy. >>

107I. >> Bowman. I. We are now in close session. >> Five minute break.