001and uh take off where we're moving to reports. So, back to school updates with Nick. >> Yep. Uh just a real brief back to school update. We've had a uh a real smooth uh start to the back of the back to school start of the year. Um it's been great having kids back in our buildings, staff back in our buildings. um you know wish that the construction would have been 100% done but um I guess we can't have can't have everything but uh uh it has been a very good start to the year. We had a great um back to school staff um u set of meetings that I think you know Bob you and you and Maria were a part of um and got to see that and so it was fun seeing uh
002staff involved. We've already had the governor in our, you know, two of our buildings uh this year. So, it's been kind of a kind of a busy two weeks uh as we are rolling into the third week of the year. Um as I move into the next update, which is the enrollment update and I know normally Andrea will give you the enrollment update. I know Tim on the screen. So, this is our most current enrollment update. We try to do this uh kind of we'll probably do it for at least another meeting or two and then um as far as adding it to the meetings, but you can see kind of where we're sitting uh as it relates to uh enrollment in the different buildings. Um we're currently at 1940 students. Uh the actual third
003Friday count in September will be coming up in two weeks about a week and a half uh which will be the actual formal count. Um, as you can see, you know, Rivercrest, we've, um, we're still kind of flirting with that 27, 28th and third and fifth grade. Um, putting some additional things in place, working with staff on some of those pieces. Anything that's in green is underneath or under class size guidelines. We have uh, one that's need to adjust. Willow Rivers fourth grade did jump above class size guidelines, so I need to change that from uh, green to to no color there. Um, and then a while back the board asked, you know, can you have it be a darker color if it's more or less under the class size guidelines? So, you can kind
004of see how that how that shakes out. You know, one of the things that's a little bit uh alarming for us, we look at this, our first grade class has dropped below 300. Um, and be probably our first class below 300 in potentially uh 20 plus years. Uh, so it's uh kind of concerning uh as we look at that. kindergarten just above 300. Um, as we look at those we look at those different components. When you go into the middle school and high school, uh, we keep, you know, kind of keep keeping tabs. Middle school sitting at about 1065. Uh, the high school is sitting about 1,700. um as we look at grades 9 through 12 and grades 6 through 8 uh as we work through here, you know, they one of the things we
005always remind people is usually it's not um we tend to get the ads early and then the kids that that don't show up or that are attending other they're essentially attending other districts um we don't quite know to take them off the rolls until we get the uh request for their records. And so those have started to roll in uh especially now that um some states are just starting uh last week as and and requesting those records and getting caught up. So that is the enrollment analysis as of uh actually I think it was as of the end of last week uh is what we were looking at. So, the next one on the updates construction report. Um, starting off at North Hudson, you can see that the vast majority of it's done. The one
006the first picture at North Hudson is the new cafeteria space. They're finishing that up. Should be done in the next two weeks. Uh, that was one of the last spaces to get done. Um, keep rolling on down front drop off area, which has gone very, very well. Uh once we got everybody kind of in the right direction with North Hudson and and kind of following the the new design, um I think we've been out there to kind of see how things are going, averaging about 5 to seven minutes for pickup in the afternoon. So, it's been very good in and out. It wouldn't be a construction update without a picture of some bathrooms. Um as we work through, you can see the new entrance at uh North Hudson Elementary. Um and some of the new
007another picture of bathrooms. Again, you can never have enough pictures of of bathrooms, apparently. Uh, as you work through EP Rock Elementary, you can see the new uh controlled entrance. Um, and the new main office area uh that we're kind of they're finishing some things up. New windows and metal panel. You can see the last um picture on this page is the art room. That's the one of the last rooms that that are still in the process of being done. Should be ready to go by the end of next week. uh should be good. So, they're using a different room for art right now. Media center. Um they're finishing up getting uh those different components done and the built-ins uh built-in cabinetry and things along those lines. Um you can see kind of some updated
008pictures of some different spaces that still are a couple weeks out. It's a center kind of column area. It would be like the original I think old gym part of EP Rock um through the the south wing of EP Rock. And so that should be done in the next couple of weeks. So, they're moving very quickly. When you look at the middle school, uh, and the district office, you're starting to see, um, some of the some of the windows and things going in at the district office because the middle school is is primarily, uh, complete. So, a lot of these pictures are diff pictures um that we'll be moving into at the end of um, this coming this coming week, as Bonnie said. However, our next I believe our next two board meetings are still
009scheduled to be here at the high school and then eventually we'll get to uh a meeting at the new space. Um but we're working through so construction is, you know, we're working to get it all finished up and get those things done. Uh but um it it still has probably about two, you know, one to two% that still needs to be done. There's some outside landscaping that needs to be done and cleaned up. And so we're we're kind of working through some of those components as well. So, I'll turn it over to um to Tara for her seclusion and restraint report. >> Thank you, Nick. Uh what you're looking at in front of you is our annual seclusion and restraint report. This is uh by law required to be to the school board by October
0101st and then we report the data to DPI by December 1st. So, what you're looking at is the 2425 school year. It's our total number of seclusions, restraints or seclusion and restraints. That first box there on the top left is the total number of seclusions. You have your total number of restraints and then your total who had both a seclusion and restraint at the same time. On the left hand side of the column, um this is for gened students as well as students with disabilities. We have to uh divide that out. You will see there were zero students uh gened students involved in any kind of seclusion re or restraint. However, on the right side, it breaks down um the number of seclusions for students on IEPs, how many students were involved. So, you can
011see 56 seclusions, a totaling 11 different students, uh 40 restraints, 12 students, and then 23 both a seclusion and restraint at the same time involving a total of four students. Uh looking from years past where we're at, if you scroll down, it breaks it down. The next box is per building. Um looking at the table underneath that you will see over the years our numbers of total incidents going back to 1920 we had over 300 incidents to the 2425 school year we're sitting roughly similar to last year around 74 incidents and then the numbers that I just shared it's a total of 18 students with disabilities that's affected by seclusions or restraints. >> Mr. President. >> Yes. Megan, >> could you just share a general definition of what seclusion is and what restraint is or
012what happens? I know it's not going to be the same for everybody. >> Okay, I have the official definition. So, when we're looking at seclusion restraint, we're looking at anytime there's a um clear present present or imminent risk of safety to themselves or others. So, that has to be very clear, very um imminent and right there, right now when we're looking at exclusion restraint. Um looking at just seclusion, seclusion is the involuntary confinement of a student apart from other students in a room or an area where the student is physically prevented from leaving. We have to remain constant supervision. We also have to document um the time the duration from the beginning to the end of the seclusion. Questions on that before I go restraint? Okay. Uh physical restraint means a restriction that immobilizes or
013reduces the ability of a student to freely move his or her torsos, arms, legs or head. You need specific training and in our district we are trained CPI which is through the crisis prevention institute. >> Yeah, Mr. President >> Molly >> I just had a question looking at the various um school locations. the number at Willow River Elementary. Is that because of the population that is there or can you explain a little bit what's behind that? >> Um, if you look at the total number of students, let me pull that back up. It's not necessarily the population, but um we're looking at only was there three students? Oh, we're looking at Willow. That was all of those 22 total were only two different students. So just depending on sometimes we're without speaking to individual student
014needs right now the makeup of different students and buildings and their needs um it it just happened to be two specific students there that okay >> needed some very specific interventions. >> Gotcha. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions? Okay. Moving on, Nick. >> Yes. Uh so just want to go over uh each kind of department going over some of our district goals so everybody can kind of see where we're heading for the 2526 school year. So I'm going to turn it over to each of the directors as they have their respected areas. So I'll turn over to Shannon to start. >> Okay. I have the first two under educational excellence academic achievement. We're looking for 67% of students in grades 3 through 11 will demonstrate proficiency in English language arts reading and 73%
015of students in grades 3 through 11 demonstrating proficiency in mathematics >> and then you're looking at the same from the work session looking at the English um language arts and then the math from the three different subgroups. We're looking at students with a disability, students of color, and economically disadvantaged students. >> Mr. President, >> yes, Megan, >> I I know I asked this question a lot, but um just could could someone speak to proficiency and what that means? like if if you're not proficient that doesn't in English language arts it doesn't mean you can't read at all but just speak a little bit about the standards. >> Yeah. Um I can speak a little bit to it and then I'll turn it over to Shannon as well. So you know proficiency is right around 60th
016percentile somewhere around there. And so percentile and uh percentages are not one and the same. So the average student in the state of Wisconsin would be in the 50th percentile. Um and because of where Wisconsin sets the cut score uh related to deficiency, you can have a child that can read and can read at grade level and can do all these things, but according to the statewide exams are not considered proficient on statewide exams. And uh a lot of it has to do with because you basically have to be in the top 40% um on the exams in order to be considered proficient. And so that's one of the challenges. Some people will look at this and go, um, 73% proficient in math. That that means 27% of our kids aren't proficient. Does that mean
01727% of our kids can't do math? No, that's not what it means. It just means they're not in the top 40, you know, basically 40% of kids across the state. Even at 73% proficient math, it puts us in the 93rd percentile. So, puts us in the top 7% of all school districts in the state. Um, and it's a 67% proficient in reading. It puts us in the top uh 7% also. And our goal, like we talked about earlier, is to get to the top uh 5% or the 95th percentiles we work through. I don't know, yeah, Shannon, if there's anything you'd like to add about those. >> Oh, the only thing that I was going to add is at at grades 3 through eight, that is measured by forward, and then grades 9 and 10,
018it's the preac exam, and 11 is the ACT exam. And we do have long-term goals set for 70 and 75 respectively. And that would put us in the 95th percentile. >> Erin, >> I have a question. Um, why are the students of color the baseline only 44%. Can somebody speak to that? >> Yeah. Um, so the baseline would be how they did this past year on the exam. So baseline percentage on any of them um would be how they performed this last year. And so then the goal would be to increase that by 3% as well. So baseline is is most recent test and how they performed. >> So we're dividing kids up based on their race or their color on these tests and saying this group we want them to do a little bit
019better. I mean is that what I'm understanding by this number? I just >> Yeah. So these three subgroups are things that the state looks at and it's it tied back to our state report cards and everything else. So um these are the subgroups that we that we look at students with disabilities, students of color and students that are economically or economically disadvantaged. Those would be students that we would considered uh uh free or reduced lunch. And so the state has us measure those things uh because they consider those gap areas for all districts across the state. And so they they have identified that. And so yes, we are we are looking to see how our kids in those uh that happen to be in those three subcategories how they perform. We used to also look
020at ELLL which would be English language learners and the reason we we no longer keep that as one of our goals is because it's um tends to be such a transient population and we may depending on how uh who moves into the district and when they move in you can see huge fluctuations in percentage of students proficient in that areas and so it wasn't a great measure that way. Um but baseline would be uh we would look at all students of color and what what percentage of them are proficient in our district and that's what that baseline same thing with students with disability um or students that are economically disadvantaged and our goal is to close that gap so that all of our students are achieving at the same level regardless of disability, regardless of
021race, regardless of socioeconomic status. >> Thank you. >> Yep. If there are no other questions, uh that'll do it for reports. We'll move on to topics for discussion and possible action. And Nick, are you taking this for Andrea or? >> Yeah, I can take this uh for Andrea. Um you have a consent agenda right off the bat. Um so need a motion for the consent agenda. >> Motion to approve. >> Anyone, >> Mr. President? Yes, Kate. >> You're looking for a motion, correct? >> Yes. >> Uh, I move approval of the consent items and that the chief financial and operations officers be authorized to pay bills in the amount of $6,561,14461. >> Do I have a second? >> Second from Molly. Any questions then? And all those in favor say I. >> I. >> All
022those opposed say nay. Hearing none. The motion passes. Moving on to person uh personal hires. Oh, that's part we moving to expenditures or what? >> Safeway bus contract. Okay. >> Yep. >> Uh so the Safeway bus contract uh this the contract uh mirrors what the board talked about when we negotiated in close session, but you have to act on that contract in open session. And so the administration's recommendation is to adopt the 7% rate increase for our continuing contract safe bus compway bus company for the 25 26 fiscal year. Um and if you have any questions, you can let me know. Otherwise, uh the recommendation is to to approve that increase so that we can go ahead and get the contract signed with them. Mr. um how do we like the 7% um increase that
023we're offering them or contracted for them? Are they telling us how they're going to utilize that 7% is that just to cover their fees or are we going to see some you know we've been hearing from a lot of a number of people in the district with busing issues and um concerns. uh will that 7% be able to make accommodations for families that have those concerns that we've been hearing? >> Um well, this is this is similar to what we went through, you know, in the close session piece. Um, but now since it's open session, um, you know, I think the the the big piece with the 7% rate increase is to help them offset some of their rising, uh, labor costs that they have going on, similar to all of us that are are
024kind of experiencing those pieces. Uh we also have been um reducing some of the routes and it helps offset some of the route reductions because um we're able to run a little bit more efficiently as as our transportation part uh department is up and and moving uh in year two of our under new leadership in the transportation department. And so, um, this isn't necessarily to address a specific concern related to something that a parent brought up, but it is to, um, you know, work with Safeway on some of their financials and to ensure that, uh, we have busing this current year uh, so that we can meet the needs of our kids. >> Mr. President. >> Yes, Kate. >> I just wanted to um because we did talk about this as a board, I wanted
025to kind of discuss what we talked about as well. Um it it was honestly hard for us to look at some a rate increase because we're already struggling and um so we looked at some of the rates that are in different areas and they're certainly far higher than ours are. Um, and it's obviously very important to transport our kids back and forth to school safely. So, uh, we did go ahead and and talk about the 7% increase and obviously have it before us today, but um, wanted to give people the background on what we talked about. >> That's a great that's a that's a great point, uh, Kate. You know, we did pull comparable, uh, contracts across the area. Uh and even with this rate increase, we are still actually paying less than than most
026other districts are paying for for transportation as far as uh per route and and things along those lines. And you can kind of see what we pay per route per day. It's on page two of the memo uh and what the what the new rates would be effective. >> Any other questions? Okay. To entertain a motion to approve, >> Mr. President, I make a motion to approve the Safeway Bus Company contract increase for the 202526 fiscal year. >> Thank you, Megan. Do I have a second? >> Mr. President, I second that. >> Second from Maria. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed? Nay. >> Hearing none. The motion passes. Moving on to long-term fac Oh, the WASBY fall regional meeting. I always >> Yes. You just don't want skipped
027right over there. >> You don't want to miss that. Um, >> so just a heads up to the to the board that the WASBY uh regional meeting will be coming up and uh it will be in Oaklair this year. A lot of years it's been in Monomony, but it is going to be in Oaklair this year on Tuesday, October 28th. Um, we need to get people registered for that. There's a there's u presentations, there's a recognition, um and looking at looking at and a legislative update and then an executive director's report. Uh we tend to send, you know, a decent amount of our board members to that meeting. Um and we carpool to that. So, if you are interested in attending, please let Tim Miner know so we can get those registrations done. It'd be
028nice to have that uh done by the end of September. as far as the registrations, but um just starting to plant a bug in people's ears so they can get it on their calendar if they're wanting to go. So, something to keep in mind for October 28th. So, >> okay, let's keep it with Nick for long-term facilities planning discussion. >> All right. Uh long-term uh school planning information. So, just a couple pieces I mean uh that we wanted to bring up. I know wanted to give an opportunity for the board to ask any additional questions they may have administration or additional information that you would like to see from us um in order for you guys to be able to make uh decisions over the next uh month or so. Um I wanted to uh
029touch base on a couple of items though that has come up in in emails. Uh one item people have been asking about are we sure we have enough space in our buildings? um did go through. Uh Shannon and I worked with principles to go through to make sure that if we ran all four remaining buildings, if the B board chose to go with uh closing two buildings, if we ran them all at full capacity, would we still have room for 4K? And the answer is yes, we would still have room for 4K in all four buildings. Um and in three of the four buildings, we would have room for 4K and RAPC care. um in the one building that may be in question. This again if we're running at 100% of occupancy uh we wouldn't
030have that ability but Hudson Prairie may be a little bit more challenging if we were running all four sections in Hudson Prairie in every grade. We could still have 4K but might not be able to offer wrap care. Wrap care is that um uh piece where uh it provides child care outside of outside of 4K. Um, but we did go through to reverify. We we, you know, do we have enough music rooms, enough art rooms, enough special ed rooms. Uh, we went through and and just wanted to make sure we had the count uh on everything so that we could kind of put people's uh questions, you know, to rest on some of those on some of those items. Um, I wanted to make sure that was in there. There was also a question as
031it related to special education services uh related to Trinity and St. Pats if uh Willow River Elementary was to close. and I'll turn over to Tara to kind of give a little bit of background on that. >> I sure can. So, part of our federal special education funding is we have to spend a certain portion, it's called equitable services on our students uh with identified disabilities in our private schools. So, it's about in the last 3, four, five years anywhere between 30 and 40,000 that we need to spend on our students um with disabilities in private schools. However, those students aren't entitled to FAPE, meaning they don't get that free appropriate public education because they're choosing um to be parentally privately placed. What that does mean is that $30,000 can be spent on a variety
032of ways. It could be the teachers in those schools receive professional development training from us. They receive resources. They may receive parents. Uh we are required to have an annual meeting with the administrators of the private schools. Once a year we meet, we discuss how we are going to um how they're going to spend those dollars and what that looks like. So I think the important piece is those students who are parentally private placed are not entitled to receive FAPE meaning they don't necessarily get that kind of whole package of supports and services if you will. It's just a the available dollars we have and how those private schools decide to spend those >> and how that money is spent is decided by the private schools. And in the past they have chosen to use
033that money to uh purchase time from staff members at Willow River to provide special education services. But um there is not a uh you know some people have asked what what is the obligation of the district as far as providing those services and that's that there's not an obligation of the district. The private schools could choose that if they wanted to spend that money they could spend it on transportation they could spend it on training. they could spend it on curriculum as Terara said, but wanted to make sure that that question uh got answered because there's some information out there that that had asked, you know, what happens with children that are are have special needs that have been coming from Trinity and St. Pats. Uh and we did look this last year, it's there's
034been about a total of about 20 uh individuals. So sometimes people will make comments like there's streams of kids coming from Trinity and St. Pats to Willow to receive services and that's that's just not an accurate statement. Um so let's >> and that's K8 too. So that is spread over middle school. Middle school no one's walking to the middle school their way they're supporting students and and um at the middle school looks very different just because of proximity of the building um with St. Pats and Trinity being so close. >> Mr. President back to the wrap care are are other partners providing that as well as we are. >> Yes. Yeah. So, so um we have I don't know Shannon if you know all of the community based partners off top of your head but
035we have worked with uh you know I know Trinity and St. Pats both offer part of our 4K programming. Uh Bethl's part of our four 4K programming. Um we have I think five other community partners as well. So for the portion that kids are receiving 4K it's a public school it's free uh and so that portion of their day has to be free. Um but there are other providers that are providing wrap care. Um and there are providers that provide child care and 4K services that aren't part of our program. Um there's the one that's right up by the old Hudson Golf Course is not part of our program and also Kinderare is not part of our program either. So >> Mr. President, >> yes Megan, >> um you mentioned that Hudson Prairie would possibly
036be the challenge with RapCare. >> And what was that? I'm sorry. I didn't catch that. >> Oh, sorry. You said that Hudson Prairie might be the one uh school that if we went down to four schools, there would be a challenge with 4K wrap care. Is there a space in the middle school that could be used so kids don't have to be bust? I realize you might not have the answer to that. I'm just, >> you know, a lot of it a lot of it really depends on, you know, it's going to depend on numbers and boundaries and everything else. I mean, so there's a there's a possibility that if not every single grade level has four classrooms. if one of the grade levels only has three sections instead of four, which is a very
037real possibility, um that there would be room in that building for rap care. It's just we wanted to make sure we're very clear that if all of the buildings were basically running at 100% occupancy, um not ideal occupancy, but 100% occupancy that it would um rape would be more challenging at Hudson Prairie um to to offer that. And just so people understand, well, I was talking with Sue Helmers, who coordinates our 4K program. We've had 4K, I think, since 2017 is I think when we added it. We haven't had the same providers backtoback years in any of the years since 2017. We've always had some sections at Willow River. Uh but sometimes we have it at Rivercrest, sometimes we've had it at Prair this Prairie, we've had it at North. Um we've had a Willow
038EP Rock, you know, we've had it different places, but it hasn't been the same every year. So it has mixed up and and moved uh as well as our private providers have changed up as well. >> Mr. President, >> Maria, >> um Nick, I wonder if you could speak a little bit. I know you and I spoke earlier this afternoon. Um there have been some questions around the staffing scenarios for the options and kind of trilling trying to drill in how accurate do you and the team feel the reductions that been that have been presented um hold true today. Um looking at just for example option two uh certified staff's totals going down to 20. Is that where we think we're going to land? and could you share more about how that number was arrived
039at? And then the second question would be in relation to class sizes. Um I know we have class size guidelines. You and I spoke a little bit about that. Can you tell a little bit about speak to how we drill into that and what the class sizes >> might look like um given what we know about enrollment projections and how um we apply the class size guidelines that are existing. >> Absolutely. So there is a document in the Google folder called base staffing scenario. Um I've referred to it multiple times. It's the 2526 base staffing scenario that was drafted back on the 5th of of July. And what we did is we looked at um based on the number of sections we think we would need um in order to uh offer you know based
040on current enrollment offer everything that we that we currently have based on the different scenarios. Um and so you have on the far left option one is six elementary schools. It was kind of the the the current uh kind of current situation uh or baseline. And then as you work across what you see is how many FTEEs we think it we need for each of those different things and then what is the actual reduction. And so um when it comes to classroom uh classroom teachers you know again it can fluctuate because like for example this uh this summer the board decided to add two additional sections at Hudson Prairie uh in June. And so um all of a sudden where we thought we had two fewer now we have you know we have two more.
041And so it can fluctuate a little bit, but based on what we think uh based on our current number of students, we would say this is how many sections it would take uh you know for if you had four buildings open or if you only closed Willow or you only closed Holton. Uh there was the scenario of Greater Alike Elementary, but that's been kind of taken off the table by the board. But also um the other thing that's not just classroom teachers but we also look at uh instructional coaches, school counselors, media specialists, all those different components based on what is the reduction um if you were to if we were to close buildings. And so that's where you start to get some of those odd numbers like a 78 or.3 or things like that.
042All of those numbers, um, those staffing levels outside of the regular classroom teachers are done on a on a per on a, uh, formula. And so, uh, we figure out about how many sections a PE teacher can handle in a day. Uh, how many we we all lot to them. And then we figure out how many sections are in the building times how many times they have PE. And so we go through and we start to figure out, okay, how many PE teachers then does it take at this building or that building in order to cover it. So some of the things you've heard is, you know, when you get to a four section building because we have music three times a week that um you need more than one music room. And people say,
043well, if you need more than one music room, why don't you need more than one art room? Well, we have we don't have art as much as we have music. So we can actually have one art room, but we need more than one music room. And so all of that stuff has been taken into account with the buildings as we're counting classrooms and the principles are looking at do you have space for this, do you have space for that? Then as you go down and you look at the different um you look at the different scenarios, we break it out by administrators and then we also go into support staff and each of the scenarios were based on July 2005 numbers, you know, give or take. and and what we looked at when we looked
044at the dollar amounts, we did the average um cost of an employee in each of these areas. We didn't look at specific people because depending on um how it goes. Sometimes you have people leave that are higher cost, sometimes you have to reduce people that are lesser cost. And so we tried to look at the average as you work through there. So, you know, the argument would be that right now we think it'd be roughly a reduction of about 19 staff members, 19 to 20 staff members if you were to go down to four elementary buildings, K5. Uh, and you can kind of see where we would see the reductions kind of play out a as you look at that and you can see them on the on the different the different scenarios that Tim
045has up there. That's information the public can look at. Um I know some people had said well that those you know I don't think there's what about this savings or what about that savings included at the bottom is the potential approximate staffing savings you see at the bottom for each of these buildings. Those are that's with everything built in uh going into July 5th. And so the only thing I want to draw your attention to is noon duty position. It's a position not an FTE. And the same thing with uh media center uh or media assistants in down in support staff area. Those are um like the noon duty is like a 2hour position. So it's not we're not laying off um necessarily, you know, 12 uh full-time people in that case. Um it's when
046you start to reduce some of those positions. Uh you can that's where you get you get the reductions that way. But everything everything is tied back to um average salaries for all these different positions and as you as we kind of work work through these different positions. So that was your question as it related to staffing. And so sometimes people say, well, is it this or is that? This right here, this spreadsheet is our best estimate as of right now or as of July 5th. And you know, as we get more information, you know, we can make it make adjustments. Then your other question related to class sizes. And so, um, when when you go to how did you determine how many sections you need and aren't all the classes going to get much bigger
047and all these different components and the answer to that question is it depends. If you're used to having 13 or 14 in a class, then yes, your class sizes are going to look bigger because the whole point of re rebalancing the uh district and going down is to get closer to our class size guidelines. However, it is not when when we looked at number of sections. Um, our class size guidelines for K2 are uh 18 to 22 and and our class size guidelines for 3 through 5 are 22 to 27. When looking at current and again, all we have is our current students. So it's it would be when we look at the staffing model, it's if we had to staff our current number of kids in the district based on this um I used
04820 students per class in K2 and 25 students per class in three through five. Um as to kind of break it to kind of break it down uh so that it wasn't up against the top class size guidelines. Um, and when you when you break it that way, you break it down or in the number of and if there was a number of sections like let's say it came in at like 15.3 sections, we round it up to 16. Uh, if it came in at 14.8, rounded up to 15. And so, you know, just looking at it um, prematurely, if we were to staff at four buildings based on our current population, average class size in kindergarten would be still 19.1. In first grade would be 19.7. In second grade it would be 20.4. In
049third grade it would be 24.9. In fourth grade it would be 24.1. And in fifth grade it would be 25.1. And now again that's you may have some classes closer to 27 and you may have some classes closer to 23. But you know those are those are the averages in a in a in a perfect world. So, um it's it's not incre but if you're used to having smaller classes than that um you know for example EP Rock has three sections of 20 in fourth grade this year and if you're used to having that now you go up to 24 or 25 in fifth grade then yes you could argue that the class size has gone up. Um or you could say that currently there are two sections of 28 in fifth grade at Rivercrest
050and you would argue that the class sizes go down to 25 um based on averaging things out. So um I know there are some people putting information out there and putting their own numbers out there. Um but you know this is based on what we currently have in the district. um as we as we kind of try to staff based on these models. >> Thank you. I appreciate you walking through that. >> Yep. Brian, >> thanks, Mr. President. I have a question about the transition to either five or four schools with with special education. um hearing some concern about sorry this will be a little inartful but but a a smooth transition that there's certain experts at one school or another and students are used to re receiving students and parents um you know the
051benefits of that expertise and kind of how would we look at transitioning special education to a smaller footprint >> turn that over to Tara she's our expert related to special education >> expert it's a strong But um so all students regardless what building they would end up in would receive their IEP supports and services and based on once we know where they're at in their building and their supports and services, we'll take our staff and divide them amongst the building. Um all of our teachers in the state of Wisconsin are certified to be crosscat specialed teachers. We know we have wonderful teachers in all our buildings and certain buildings have just a a long expertise of maybe one disability category versus another, but we will definitely look at providing support. And we currently do now
052um when we have students show up in other buildings, we use and lean on those expertise in those buildings and give them some release time to support um staff and students as they're transitioning to into buildings. >> Thank you. Any other questions related to that? Erin, >> I would just like to ask when was the last time that we did a building um like a cost bid for repairs for Willow and Holton. Uh so the the last um facility needs assessment uh was done in 2022 as the board was looking at the 10-year facility plan. Um and at that time um it kind of slated uh Willow with a little over $18 million worth of uh needs and Holton with a little over $5 million worth of needs. um you know those those costs uh
053it's it's trying they they tried to I think inflate them as far as like follow inflation construction inflation and things like that because over a 10-year period. Um but it's it's hard to know exactly, you know, until you go out to bid. Uh sometimes you have a real favorable bid environment. Things come in five or 10% under what you think they're going to be and other times you don't have as favorable of an environment. You know, a lot of times people will say, "Just leave our school alone and just keep it open." And it just doesn't it just doesn't work that way all the time. Um, you know, an example would be when the chiller was dying at Willow River last year, you know, we don't have a choice. We had to invest over $300,000
054in a new chiller at Willow River. Um, you know, there are things like uh parking lot improvements that need to happen. Um, we have ADA requirements, things along those lines. There are things that are on the deferred maintenance list that the the the board is if they're going to keep buildings open, they they have to invest more money in these things. And in 2022 when we went to referendum, the conversation was we don't that you know at that time people didn't know if they weren't ready to make a decision on closing buildings or keeping buildings open. And and at that time they said well we have real needs in our buildings. Can we at least go to referendum to ask for buildings that you know are going to stay open long term? And so that's
055why uh that's why we ended up doing that. Now I do know that you know kind of uh one of the things that comes in Roman or kind of an offshoot is people will say why did uh why did we build Willow River or not Willow River um Rivercrest and why was it built so big and it's it's um bigger than we needed. And a couple things I just want to I just want to point to and it's in the enrollment tabs. Uh, and you can you can look at the enrollment analysis um uh pieces. Um, I'm just trying to pull it up here. Yeah, enrollment. It's called elementary enrollment history. Um, so you have to understand that when when the referendum for River happened, which was in ' 06, um, you know, there were
0562,200 students in in the district, uh, elementary students, and it was continuing to climb and by all measures, it was it was going to continue to climb. And it wasn't until when Rivercrest opened in 0809 uh that and it it still didn't hit its peak until 26 let's see I think we hit our peak in 2011 2012 with over 2600 elementary students in the district uh in in ' 06 I don't believe anybody was forecasting the financial meltdown and and the crisis that happened. Uh the other thing that nobody has been forecasting and and but all of the demographers are saying is a very real thing is when birth rates dropped after the financial uh recession, they've never recovered and they usually do recover within 3 to 5 years after a recession historically and they
057have never recovered. And so uh some people ask why did you know why did we build that building so big and and the board is now just trying to you know make up for that. Well, the the thing is that building is 17 years old. It's not a building that was just made uh you know, three years ago. Uh I don't believe there's anybody sitting on this stage that was involved in uh that process. Um but it is also our only elementary school that is south of the interstate. And um and when we reboundered in 2018, uh we were on pace to um that building was on pace to keep getting bigger and bigger and to exceed its its capacity. And so we moved kids out of that building because we did have uh reason
058to believe the developments were happening on the south side of the district and the yield rates just didn't turn out the way that they they were supposed to. And so we purposely pulled kids out of Rivercrest, pushed them north. so that we could fill buildings that um had space so that we could make more space in in Riverest to handle any of growth on the south side. And it just it just did not come. If you look at this chart, you can see uh with the exception of two years over the last 13 uh we've had a decline in elementary enrollment. Um and and it's if you look at from our peak of 26 of uh 2621 to uh we're at 1928 when this was originally done. We're at 1940 right now. It's a drop
059of 700 elementary students. And so I just, you know, I think there's some information out there uh that people are putting out there that is is not accurate and it's misleading. Go ahead, Erin. So, is there any opportunity to see where we're currently at with Holton? So, we just know as a board, I mean, can I mean, bids don't cost anything, right? They people want more money. They're going to come in. They're going to bid a job and they're going to do a a good job. Could we get a bid? So, we know where we would be at if we were to keep that school open. In order for us to do that, uh, the board would have to you would have to hire an architect and engineers in order to get bids and cost
060associated with that and then in order to put a bid package together, similar to what we did for the last set of construction projects. Now, as far as like the uh to do another facility study um of those two buildings, if that's a direction the board wants to go, um, you can absolutely direct us to do that. I just have not I haven't heard that up to this point. So, we haven't we haven't done a new facility study just because there hasn't um there hasn't been anything that's changed material materialistically um related to those buildings as far as uh we haven't done a bunch of work to them to knock some things off the list and um they're only becoming more needy, I guess, would be the the best way. They need more stuff. So,
061would you I mean, if there's another facility study that you would like us to do with those buildings, um that's that's up to the board. However you guys want to direct us to do that. >> I would just like the information on what the cost would be associated with that >> to do a facility study or >> either >> I'm not following. I'm sorry. So, either what? What do you What do you mean? >> Either like the AR you said an architect would have to come in like what what does that cost? Just so we know like what does this cost if we have to go down this route and we remain with one of these schools open so we know what we're getting into like I mean you said that uh Willow was $18
062million and Holton was 5 million but that was three years ago so what needs increased since then I think it's legitimate to look at that and say well this was three years ago and now you've got X Y and Z that's also really bad or are these um to bring them up to code issues I mean they're kind two different are they is it facility maintenance or is it like a requirement now because buildings have requirements every time you go to them and and you update things there are new requirements that come up right I just I I find that would be helpful to just kind of know where we're at I'm not asking to spend the money I'm just asking what what the costs associated with looking at that option would be that make
063sense >> yeah I'm I'm just Not sure. Um, with, you know, like Holton for example, the re the parking lot is in pretty bad condition. Uh, they were predicting it would be in >> I agree with that. >> What's that? >> I agree with that. Um, so I mean they were predicting it needed to be replaced and it it needs to be replaced, but you know, so I mean I don't know that the you could look at the cost pretty easily on what it costs today to replace the asphalt versus what it what it was estimated years ago, two years, three years ago. So I I don't know, you know, many of the things I you know, I've heard too in the community like, well, you don't have to do all this work. you can
064keep it going for the well, it's a school that has needs that has codes and it has safety concerns that other you know entities wouldn't have to worry about. Uh we have to worry about it. Uh so um I don't I don't know if uh you know what has changed at Willow or Holton that would potentially reduce the cost. Um but I you know Nick mentioned Rivercrest you know about the need for it at the time and none of us were there. Well, I was I was part of that push to and I'm proud that we built Rivercrest and I'll say that all along because we still have a large number of kids behind, you know, below in South I94 and what Willow or what River taught us, I think, is that you can predict,
065you can think you can predict the yield rates. And so the yield rates were off so far. And I see it very similar to what people in Holton are saying is, you know, we got a lot of developments coming on. We we can't guarantee a percentage of how many of those house homes will have kids. Um just like we were very surprised in in the Riverest area and some of the big developments that did go in that didn't yield as many students as we expected. So I think there there's something to be said for that is that you you can't make bold predictions >> and those two different things. Uh, Molly. >> Thanks, Mr. President. I just did a quick little just some thoughts about 18 million Willow River. That's really hard to say. Um,
0665 million Holton from 2022. Just in general, if you go in and do an inflation calculator, it's 19.8 million for Willow River, 5.5 for Holton. Does not take into account construction costs. I'd looked at another thing where it said this year 5.5% increase just this year for non-residential construction costs. I think I'm wondering if what we could do is, you know, not to give Dr. Oled another job and a way to kind of do a workaround is say, "Hey, um, Bray Architects, what are you seeing for year-over-year from 20 2022 to 2025? What would your ballpark be?" that's a phone call or an email. It's not a huge deal. So, we can have an idea rather than going in and I agree with Aaron. We're going to have things that have popped up that are
067going to be concerns now that weren't then, but I think we can kind of go with those numbers. They're not going to go down, right? They're not going to go down. So, that's just my commentary about that, >> Mr. President. >> Megan. >> Yeah. I I uh we know the things that were going to cost money are going to cost more, right? like the the numbers don't go down usually for what things cost construction wise. I think um the the concerns that I have are these sort of ongoing structural deficits. And so I understand that there are maybe one-time costs to updating some of the schools, but I I don't see the money in the general fund to do that. So that would require operational referendum most likely. Um and you know, we we heard
068a lot of people speak really passionately today about how much they love their schools. I love Willow and Holton. I have a kid at each school. Um, we also heard this summer two kids come in saying, "Please let me open and roll at Hudson Prairie and stay with my friends." Right. Um, I love Hudson Prairie. I talk to people across the community who have kids in every grade school who love their grade school and this is messy and there's a lot of moving parts. Um, but I I hope as we continue to have this discussion as a community, we remember that all of our schools are nice schools with wonderful teachers with great staff with literally the same curriculum for, you know, English language arts and math. Um, and so there's difference in culture and
069personality, but I I worry that we that sometimes with your own school, you can feel like it's so different and so distinct from the other schools, but there really is a lot of overlap because we're one district. So, I'm kind of going off on a weird tangent here, but to spend I worry about spending too much time to see what it would cost to update these buildings when the facilities costs are one thing, but it's the ongoing every year operational costs that are hitting us in the budget as well. And >> I I asked a question because I I just want to make it clear that I I wasn't proposing that costs would go down. I was actually preparing for an increase of costs um and to not be sticker shocked should we travel down
070that road. Um example, $5 million plus inflation. I heard Molly, it was like, you know, let's just call it six million at the moment, but let's say we were to vote to keep that open and all of a sudden it comes back and oh, it's 12 million or 15 million. That's what I was asking for specifically and that would be a problem. Yeah, I you know based on read the full break uh a wool report um because there's 375 pages there uh 65 pages people can read through um and and some of the items where so in the 10-year facility plan they did add some level of inflation for things that are going out that weren't going to be done for six seven eight years uh construction inflation um Holton the bulk of Holton was
071to be done in 2023 um if it was going to be done. And so uh you can kind of see you would have to add to the Holton numbers essentially inflation from 23 to 25 26 whatever you want to do. The Willow River um the 18 million at Willow River was um to be done in about two more years. So that that does you know according to them have some inflation in those numbers. Um and again it it is a balance of um some of it is just purely maintenance and some of it is bringing everything up to the same playing field as all the buildings, you know, type of thing. And so it's trying to find a balance, but most of this is more maintenance items than it it's not adding a gym or
072things like that. These are these are more maintenance items. So, I would say, you know, yeah, Holton might be closer to six and Willow's probably pretty accurate between 18 and 20 somewhere in there. >> I was appreciative of Molly's idea. I would I would be in favor of if we could just make a phone call and not spend money and just say, "Hey, where are things at?" That would help a little bit. Or have them maybe suggest the other things that we might want to look at. Okay. >> And and just kind of put a set of eyes on it. Okay. Brian. >> Thanks, Mr. President. One of the pieces with facilities that I've been thinking about, I I was I was on that facilities task force in 22 or 23, whenever it was, um,
073and I I have a vivid memory of going through our schools, touring them, and it wasn't just, you know, the chiller needs to be replaced and the the roof needs to be replaced. I I remember Holton in particular because my kids go there. We were looking at one of the special ed facilities. It was it was maybe for speech impairment or vision impairment. I'm not sure what, but it was it was a closet in Holton. Um and what I'm getting to is, you know, if if we're considering keeping one of these buildings open beyond facility maintenance, which I think is mostly what we're talking about here. >> Yep. I think one of the things we would have to consider is what do we need these buildings to be for the future so we can continue
074to serve our kids. So, you know, maybe maybe the closet situation at Holton is resolved now. I'm not sure if it is, but um I don't know if I really have a question here, but that's kind of one of the things that's really weighing on me is is is it's not just keeping one open and moving forward. we have to invest in these facilities um so they can serve our population. I don't know if others have thoughts on that or or Nick if you have anything to add. >> Well, I think you know when you look at the like the Holton like let's just just leave it the way it is. It's perfect. It's fine. Um I think how long will we go before we say with programming, you know, you're sh you share a
075gym for cafeteria space. Um they did that for many years at at North Hudson and made it work, but it was it changed the programming opportunities or or what have you. Made things more difficult. Um I would think that you know you know if Holton was left open at some point we're going to address that. We have to address that. It does become a a scheduling a programming maybe even an equity issue. So I don't Nick maybe comment. >> Yeah. So um you know >> well my point my point was it there would be further investments besides maintenance. >> Mhm. >> You know >> Yeah. So again it goes through as part of that task force back in 202122. Um we did look at educational adequacy on some of these things as Brian Brian alluded
076to. Um and and the cost ranged, you know, I mean, a a lot of what uh what you're seeing in the numbers, this this 6 million roughly for Holton, 18 million roughly to 20 million for for Ru River was not really addressing educational adequacy. It was addressing maintenance issues. Um and and our buildings are very different today. Uh and our needs are very different today than what they were when these buildings were built. And there's expectations of what we're expected to deliver educationally that that wasn't around in the 1960s or in Willow's case in the you know early 1900s. Um and so you know there there was a variety of uh if you go through that report there's a variety of things that that different priorities and and educational accuracy was one of them. So
077yeah, I mean I think you know when we talked about you know why did you add a gym at at North Hudson? People think it's about sports. Well, it's actually about no longer having when we eat lunch dictate when we teach reading because when we eat lunch determines when we can have specials and when we have specials dictates when we can have literacy blocks. And so uh by breaking the lunchroom away from the uh the gymnasium space now all of a sudden we can have literacy blocks when they're best for our kids. and um and you have the ancillary benefit of community use and things like that. So I think sometimes um you know the whole story doesn't get totally told when it comes to some of those pieces because um you know those are
078those are important pieces for people to consider but educational advocacy is is a piece of it and there will be people say I didn't have that when I was in school I don't need it or my kids don't need it and the thing is that that may be fine for you and your children however that's not necessarily the case for everybody that we serve and uh the ranging needs needs that um that everybody has are are different and um you know and that those are the those are the challenges that we have. Um if you have a uh child that doesn't have any physical um mobility needs, will River is probably just fine. Uh if you have a child that has mobility issues, uh maybe wheelchair bound, maybe in a walker, all of a sudden
079a building like Willow River creates some real challenges for that child in getting around that building. And you know, I mean, so there are there are a variety of different things that we have to take in consideration. And just because something doesn't impact a child or a family doesn't mean it may not impact other families. And and that educational adequacy piece or Aaron brought up the point about ADA compliance. If you look through that report, there was a lot of what was happening at Holton that's just not in ADA compliant. It's just it's not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. We haven't had to bring it up to code yet because we haven't done a major uh remodel with it, but you know, we're probably not meeting the spirit of the law or, you
080know, because it it doesn't meet those things. And so there's there is work that has to be done. I'm not saying we can't do that. I'm just telling you there is both one-time cost associated with both of those buildings and there's ongoing cost associated with both of those buildings. That's that's just the reality of it. >> Uh you know I haven't spoken with Brian about his time on the facilities task force but I back then I did go to a lot of the meetings and you know I remember very clearly that people were saying well you've got too much space. we've just got too much space and but they also were like but I don't believe that I don't believe this trend in lower enrollment is going to continue you know there was that disbelief
081that was three years ago um but uh thank you for bringing that up because you know for those that think you're moving too fast you're not giving it time you know you're not looking at the you know the whatif trends um you know this was a discussion in 2022 and and that information I think is still relevant. >> Mr. President, >> Marian, >> kind of piggybacking up on a comment you made about the trends and we've talked about this, the trends and uh declining enrollment, the shifts in what's happening in our county and in our towns. Um I know several of us attended the housing study that the St. Cry economic development corporation put out. They just released their full report today along with um community specific snapshots. Um I live in the town of
082Hudson. So I just looked at that snapshot uh quickly for myself. The median age of a resident in town of Hudson in 2000 was 34 years old. Fast forward to 2020 is 43 years old. That means we're not bringing in young families if our median age is increasing. The median sale price for housing in Hudson School District increased 8.2% between 2022 and 2024. We went from 425,000 for a median median sale home price to 460,000. Comparatively in New Richmond they had a decrease of 10% between 2022 and 2024. They went from 323,000 as a median sale price to 357 I or increase sorry not a decrease but they they increased um their increase was less than ours. I think all of this together I I would love for this information to be included in that
083long-term planning because we continue to say what is the data. We look at multiple sources and this is a very recent housing study. Um, it looked not only at It looked at our entire county. It looked at specific communities within our county. Um, these are not things we can impact, but they impact us and how we think and how we plan. And I think the community um should be looking into this report very closely and talking with your county boards, with your community development um within your towns about what are we doing? How are we thinking about growth? Because if our schools are our backbone and we need strong schools, we need growth. We need growth of young families. We need affordable housing in our communities to achieve that and continue to see our our
084our school population increase. >> Maria, I think that's th I mean that's a great point. I mean the the study was just released I think today actually. They they put out the study you know town of St. Joe as an example in 2020 the average age was 37.4 in 2020 or sorry in 2000 it was 37.4 for in 2020 it's 45.2. Uh 43% of households had kids under the age of 18 in 2000. In 2020 it's dropped to 32%. This is all while the town has experienced a 60% growth in single family housing units. And I think this is it's it's not unique to St. the town of St. Joe. It's not I mean it this is that stat and those stats are the same thing in all of our municipalities. Yes, there is tremendous
085housing growth over those 20 years and it's not filling, you know, the it's not filling up with uh with young families and and and I think that's um this is a great data point. If you haven't had a chance to look through it, it was just released today. It's it is very very very extensive. Um and and it's not just the city of Hudson. And so the the tough thing is when the township of township of St. Joe, the township of Troy because we don't have all of those townships. Uh we only have portions of them. It's hard to totally extrapolate um which portions we have. Um but uh and where that where that lies, but um it's like you said, the town of Hudson sim similar type of thing. Um the almost the median
086age across our district is gone up eight years. I mean, across the whole district when you look at when you look at all of them. So, and that that creates a real that creates a real uh a real challenge for us. In the city of Hudson, it's gone up seven years. The average household age uh has gone up seven years. So, >> okay. Any other comments or questions? So, just to follow up on the September 22nd, you know, Tracy has kind of captured uh as we went through uh the framework, you know, that we uh for the 22nd. And so, I don't know, Tracy, if you want to kind of go through your document a little bit and kind of make sure that we have everything captured that we thought we heard you say and
087kind of how we're planning on laying it out. >> Sorry, I didn't have the document up. >> Didn't have it up. Sorry, that's my fault. Do you have the title of the document? >> Yep. Community meeting September 22nd. >> Okay. So, I went ahead based on what everyone was talking about um at the previous meeting. Um, so purpose being to engage families, staff, and community members in meaningful conversations that will provide the board of education with broad-based input regarding potential elementary school closures due to declining student enrollment and budget challenges. Um, a welcome and purpose section. Um, providing everybody with common data. um the context in so enrollment trends, budget realities, um working tables with three basic conversation prompts um lasting about 20 to 30 minutes. Um one first prompt being build common ground. What
088do you believe is critical to pro providing educationally for all children in the Hudson School District to succeed now and in the future? What values should guide the board as it makes difficult decisions? Two, the second prompt, learning about challenges, materials to review regarding budget and enrollment. After reviewing the budget and enrollment data, what stands out or surprises you? What additional questions do you have about the data or the district's challenges? So, surprises, insights, questions for the district, possible impacts, and then the third prompt, feedback for the board. Given your set of beliefs and understandings of the challenges, what advice would you give the board of education as they consider the future of our elementary schools? What are the most important things the board should keep in mind as they make this their decision? Cre
089priorities and considerations. So, each table would take time to go through those prompts um provide two to three highlights from their conversation and provide that feedback to the larger group. Um, and the board would be listening for patterns, values, and common concerns. >> Does that does that kind of capture what you guys were thinking was going to happen? And we have already started receiving quite a quite a few questions. Uh, and we're going to be working through to get those categorized and and getting some answers so that we can kind of lead off that meeting as Tracy talked about. So, um, we just want to make sure we're we're hearing what the board's asking us to do and we're we're meeting you where you'd like us to be, >> Mr. President. >> Maria, >> um,
090I know I noticed the form was up, so there was a the form was up and people could start sending in. So, thank you for that. Um, about how many responses do we have so far? >> There are about um well, there's three questions. So there's probably about 25 people who have responded, but multiply that by >> multiply the Okay, great. So I guess my um and I know I I think I saw something go out through parent square, so I appreciate that. Could we just double down on that and ask building principles to send it out in there? ask send it to the PTO's like this has every building when we are talking about what's happening here you know reboundry potentials is impacting everybody and making sure there's strong awareness and that they get
091this moment I don't want people to feel like they've missed an opportunity thanks >> Mr. President. >> Yes. Brian, >> one followup on that. We are offering child care. >> Correct. >> So, if we could just make sure to to highlight that message as well so folks know that we've got good high quality child care so that um we can get more people out. >> Mr. President, >> hang on. >> Do you have snacks for the children while they're there? Because otherwise they'll they'll at least mine wouldn't go crazy if there's no snacks. We can make sure there's snacks. >> Yes. >> Oatmeal raisins. >> Good reason. >> Okay. There's no other questions. That'll bring us to the end of our board meeting and I'd entertain a motion to move into close session. >> Mr.
092President, I make a message to go into close session. >> Oh, sorry. I have to read the link. I don't have the link up. Yes. Uh, Mr. President, I make a motion to convene to close session pursuant to Wisconsin statute paragraph 19.85 PN1 PNF F when considering financial, medical, social or personal histories or disciplinary data of specific persons, preliminary consideration of specific personnel problems or the investigation of charges against specific persons which if discussed in public would be likely to have a s substantial adverse effect upon the reputation of any person referred to in such histories or data or involved in such problems or investigations regarding a former support staff member. >> Thank you, Maria. Do I have a second? >> Second by Brian. We do a voice vote for going into close session. Doll.
093>> Hi. >> Garza. >> Gerlock. >> Powers. >> Hi. >> Rosowski. >> Hi. >> Rudy. >> I >> Bowman. I. We are now in close session.