001Okay, if I got a thumbs up. All right, held to order the duly noted meeting for the school district of Jefferson Board of Education. We'll start off with the pledge of allegiance. And the flag is in the back there. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Schmid, could we please have roll call? Mr. Condan, here. Mrs. Fox here. Mr. Eel here. Mrs. McWill. Mr. Nobling here. Mr. Feltier here. Mrs. Winkman here. All right. Thank you. So, we get to start off with the fun stuff, our recognitions for our citizen of the month. And we will start off with Mr. Wickman in east. All right. Good evening. I get the great honor of
002introducing everybody to my fifth grade student, Edith Spanom. And Edith, who are you here with tonight? Um, my dad and my grandparents and my aunt and my brother. All right. Thank you all for coming. Edith was nominated by the fifth grade team. And this is what they share. Edith consistently demonstrates remarkable qualities in the classroom. She volunteers whenever she has a chance, showcasing her enthusiasm for learning and participation. Her kind and caring nature along with her responsible attitude makes her a wonderful role model for her peers. Edith always puts forth her best effort and her attention to details commendable. Anybody who has worked with Edith has nothing but high praise for her. She is the type of student that her teacher would be lucky to have in their classroom. Outside of the classroom, Edith volunteers
003her time to be a junior coach at Reese's and a member of the school safety patrol. Both of the responsibilities showcase her dedication to the safety and positive culture at East Elementary. And I would agree with everything that your teachers wrote about you. You're an amazing student and we are lucky to have you. You spot All right. And then next up, Mr. Howard for West. Good evening, everybody. Um, we're proud to nominate Lucas Mulch. Lucas is uh in Mrs. Felton's fourth grade class, so he's representing our fourth grade at West Elementary. Lucas, if you could introduce your family members that are here tonight. I have my dad, my sister and brother, my grandpa, my nana, and my mom and my cliff. All right, great. What a thank you for the support everybody. Uh, Lucas is,
004like I said, was nominated by our fourth grade team by Mrs. Felton. And Mrs. Felton, as usual, just did an outstanding job. And here's what she had to say about Lucas. It is with great pleasure that the fourth grade team would like to nominate Lucas Mulch for our citizen of the month award. Lucas demonstrates the three Rs we strive for at West Elementary School. Lucas is respectful. Lucas is responsible. And Lucas is ready. Respectful. Lucas consistently uses good manners with Strop and Pierce. He's friendly, polite to anyone near him, and I appreciate the way he kindly says good morning when we sign in for morning lunch count. Responsible, Lucas strives to do his best. He will stay focused on any task until it is complete. Even if he needs a little extra time, he will
005complete his work to the best of his ability. His reading teacher recently commented, "He is such a hard worker. As a result, he has made tremendous gains in the area of reading." and then ready. Lucas follows the routines of the classroom and the rules of the school. He's a great role model to others. He strives to work hard every day to build his knowledge. He uses time in class wisely. Congratulations, Lucas Mulch and Mrs. Krauss with Sullivan. Good morning. Good morning. [laughter] He's just doing the announcements. Good evening everybody. Um I am pleased to introduce to you Reagan Bickl. Reagan, who is here with you tonight? My mom, my dad, and my sister Aubrey. Well, thank you for coming tonight. So Reagan is in fourth grade and she was nominated by her teacher, Mrs. Parchham.
006Miss Parchham said, "I would like to nominate Reagan Bickl because she works so hard to make her classroom a great community. She is always willing to help other students. She loves to share her knowledge and is able to do so in a really kind and encouraging manner." Reagan also strives to keep her classroom and school clean and efficient. She is always one of the first students proactively looking for ways to help and even cleaning up after others when needed. Another reason I selected Ragan for my citizen of the month is because she is genuinely very kind and goes out of her way to make others feel good. She also works hard and is very smart, but gives others a chance to shine, too. Reagan is an amazing contributor to our classroom, school, and district community.
007I'm so grateful and proud to have her as a student in my classroom this year. And I asked Reagan earlier what her favorite part of Sullivan was, and what did you say? my classroom because I get to see everyone in my class. Excellent. So, Reagan Bickl, Mr. Madson with the middle school. All right. Good evening, everyone. Uh I'm very uh it's my pleasure right now to introduce Colton Klo. Colton is a seventh grader over at the middle school. Uh Colton, who do you have with here with you here today? I'm with my father and grandfather. All right. Welcome. Thank you guys for being here. Appreciate that. Uh as I mentioned, Colton was nominated by our seventh grade team. So I wanted to share what they had to say about Colton. Uh the seventh grade team
008would like to recognize Colton Klo as our citizen of the month. Colton has many attributes that make him worthy of this recognition. He is always friendly, kind, and respectful to his peers and teachers. He can get along with anyone. Cen takes pride in his education and puts over into all that he does. He's a critical thinker, a problem solver, and a thoughtful participant in classroom discussions. So, it is with that that they wanted to uh bring Colton forward as our citizen of the month. Uh Colton is also a member of the jazz band at JMS. Colton, what instrument do you play? I play the trumpet. Right. And do you have any favorite parts of seventh grade so far at all? Yes, my favorite part is probably band class. It's very good. Uh join me in
009congratulating Colton Klo is our citizen of the month and Mr. Scrret with the high school. And good evening. Arelli Hernandez is the October citizen of the month for Jefferson High School. Andelli who's with you here tonight. I have my mom, my dad, and my little sister here. Thank you for coming. Thank you for attending. Uh so was nominated by Mr. Fast and our junior teachers. Uh they had to say the following. Aelli is a positive role model to peers, a diligent student, polite and respectful to all. She's a leader in the Spanish Honor Society and did an amazing job at our Spanish field day at the middle school. She participates in soccer and goes above and beyond in her classes, even when participating in areas that they wouldn't say are her strong suits. Or is
010a very helpful student and is a great example for all other students at JHS. Congratulations. Are we good on photos? This is okay. All right. Congratulations to all the citizens of the month. Thank you to all the families that came out for this. We do have a good consent agenda. So, if you could stick around a few more minutes. Um, but the next part on the agenda is going to be public comment. Is anybody here for public comment? Not seeing anybody jump up for that. All right. So then we will roll into the consent agenda. This month's consent agenda includes the minutes from our last meetings. There's no employments or res resignations to report at this time and we do have a list of donations that'll be read in. Any of this could be separated
011into uh for separate discussion. Any comments, questions? Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? So moved. Second motion in a second. All uh any further discussion. All in favor of the motion say I. I. Any oppose say nay. And the consent agenda passes. I am going to read the donations into uh the record here. We have a $1,500 monetary donation from Kathleen Beer uh in memory of Ron Beer for the JHS gymnastics. $1,000 monetary donation from St. Vincent Depal Society to JHS for the basic uh Thanksgiving dinner. $500 monetary donations from the Knights of Columbus number 1864 to JHS for the basic Thanksgiving dinner. A $500 monetary donation from the Rotary Club of Jefferson to JHS JHS for the basic Thanksgiving dinner. and a $500 monetary donation from Nestle Karina Petcare
012in honor of Kathy Dorne to East Elementary in sort support of Kathy's work with adopt a class program for over 20 years. I think we have Kathy here, correct? Oh, we have Nestle people. We do have folks from Nestle here. Okay, hang on. I'm checking my notes. Are you Mr. Langanger. Perfect. I We do have something for you. Well, for Miss Dorne, but uh Yeah. Do you want to come up and grab that? Do we have that? We're just going to get a photo. Yeah. Oh, I'm I thought there was my apologies. Miscommunication there, but we did want to recognize Miss Langanger. The work she's done today. What do you want as the backdrop? Oops. Oops. I'm back. Yeah, Kathy worked on factory for more than 35 years. Wanted to honor her. She retired and
013awesome. Thanks for Thank you very much. So in total this month is $4,000 of donations. School year to date is $66,466.76 from the community. So we thank you all very much for that support. And with that concludes the consent agenda. You are more than welcome to stick around for the less than fun portion of the meeting, but if you're looking for an opportunity to run away, now's a perfectly fine time or stay for reports. Oh, there are some good reports as well. We got I'm sorry. We have the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards. Uh we also have a report from the FFA. So, there are some good reports if you want to stick around for that. So, we'll start in the reports. We'll start off with uh the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards. And I know we
014have students here for that, right? Oh, he's gonna I got you. Okay. Grace. Grace. Tap it. Just make uh Hello, I'm Grace Warberg. This is Kaylee Stoz. And that's Daniel Ellson. and we're here presenting our Ria experience from this spring. Uh Rya selects three sophomores who uh show some leadership skills and are go up to UPN Woods to experience this camp. So we we arrived midday on a Friday and we were put into a cabin by a bandana and did a get to know you activity with our counselors. And then following that, we were introduced to this game called clipping. And we were given a certain amount of little wooden clips and you decorated them and you clipped other people in other groups. So over the course of the weekend, we had breakfast, lunch, and
015dinner all together with the entire program and then would break out and do small deep sessions about talking about different ways we can be better leaders in our school. And then we had a lot of challenges about teamwork and how to be better leaders. And then also in our little groups, we broke apart and there was like older adult leaders that then also were joined by Rotary members that also showed us uh different ways that they in their communities help and lead. And they also um gave us like a little test that like we could use to um see if it was like a good decision to do or if it was um necessary for the action to be done and it was is it truthful? Is it uh beneficial to all people and is
016it um including everyone in the decision? I just thought it was very cool like overall that a bunch of different kids from a bunch of different schools could come together and by the end of the weekend they were working together to solve so many different problems and it was just a cool experience overall and I think we all got to learn so much from it and I think we're all very interested in going back next year as student council uh like leaders for this. Um, so if we go to the next slide, we have the video and thanks for listening. Hey, I'm tripping. Oh, whoa. Very good. Thank you. I think we do. Yeah. Okay. Just wait. Grace. I have a question. Did the participants include only people from Wisconsin? Uh, yeah. So, a bunch
017of different schools all over Wisconsin, wasn't it? There were other So, some of the schools brought their foreign exchange students on this adventure. Oh, yeah. And there was a girl that did come just for the Rio experience from France. So though it was mainly people from Wisconsin, there is some outreach programs and they talked about Rotary's outreach to other countries including a big connection in Africa with Rotary members going and serving time helping with women in Africa getting proper hygiene and those kind of things in their communities. Okay, one other question. Okay. Um, so I just kind of want to hear did you think that the the actual experience was more about learning leadership skills or was it more problem solving or was it more serviceoriented? It was a lot of everything. Okay. It was
018all three. Yeah. Okay. So, you got hands-on skills on becoming good leaders but also working on service projects and problem solving. It was focusing mainly on like it was a lot of trust with other leaders. So being able to trust other people in like a group. Okay. I think it was like being able to lead yourself but also being willing to be able to be led. So like being able to lead others as well as like knowing when others should be leading instead of you. So like knowing the difference between I guess being the leader and being the one who has led was very I think over the course of like the weekend was a big thing. I think another big focus was self-reflection like thinking about yourself as a leader and what type of
019leader you are like some people lead very well when they are the sole leader and they can help guide everyone in the right direction but other people are collaborative leaders and other people are quiet leaders. So, there was also a lot of self-reflection and thinking about who you are and how you can make yourself a better leader. Great. All right. Thank you all very much. Nicely done. And then next up is going to be from the FFA Alumni Animal Building Capital Fund Project Report. Thank you. Are we okay? Okay, that's fine. Um, good evening everyone. Thank you for having me. Um, my name is Lauren Fel. I am a science and agriculture teacher here at JHS. Also one of the co-advisers for the Jefferson FFA. So, I'm here on behalf of the Jefferson FFA and
020the Jefferson FFA alumni um to kind of give an update on a animal building project that we've kind of collaboratively been working on over the past several months. Um so, just some objectives like why are we doing what we're doing, what are we doing, etc. So, basically with our referendum that which we are very very grateful for, we got a ton of phenomenal space um for our agriculture program and our FFA programming. Um, the one thing that we're kind of lacking in right now is a space for large animals. So, with our large animals, we we're currently utilizing our shop space, which isn't necessarily ideal. And I think if we Yeah, there we go. Um so the the objective behind this project is to create a space where we can first off house um our
021FFAown owned animals in a more permanent setting as well as in a space that we can bring in larger animals for demonstrations, for vet visits, um for guest speakers, whatever it may be that's a little bit more useful than the space we have now. Because currently um with our shop space, for example, right now it works okay. We can shut up set up some temporary gates. We can bring our goats in, sheep in, horses in, whatever it may be um for the day or for a couple days, but especially when we have a mechanics classes that are super important to our community, we're basically kind of cramming our animals in a tiny little corner. So, it's not a great um setup space for our large animal facility. So, um if you want to just go
022back really really quick. I just want to make sure I got all my spots here. So again, um really just a space a large um to house larger animals for short visits, whether they're being brought in by students or by community members. Then also um like I said, creating a space for our FFA owned animals to be housed year round. So we currently have three goats and three sheep um that we own as an FFA chapter. And those animals are really vital to our program because students not only um are kind of participating in the welfare and care of those animals, they're also used in the classroom for different presentations. So, for example, um we had our three goats in here just a couple weeks ago to be bred and we had a community member
023donate um a buck to breed our doe's with and the students got to participate in that. They got to observe the behaviors that were going on between the animals. We talked about the reproductive cycle um estro cycle. We talked about reproductive organs. This is all my animal science class, but um this can be used in a a variety of our courses in our animal science pathway. So, um, animal science, veterinary science, equin science, um, meat science, a lot of different, um, courses. Okay. Go ahead. So, like I said, we currently own three bore goats and three sheep. Um, we breed them every year. So, not only are those animals vital to kind of our curriculum, but also to the FFA side of our program as well as our students um, show these animals at the
024fair every single year. So, not only the adult animals, but as we breed them, those animals are then um, kitting and lamming out. So they're having babies in the spring and again we bring the animals in for that. So the students are able to observe that process and then then care for the offspring when they're just tiny little babies and then students again will show those animals at the Jefferson County Fair. So it's it's a vital piece of our program not only for the intracurricular piece but also for the FFA and what's called SAPE programming as well. So you can see here we don't only do our sheep and goats, we bring in larger animals for short visits. Um we have some cattle in there. We also have um like I said, horses come in,
025a variety of animals come in. The kind of dilemma we have right now, especially with our FFA owned animals, is they're currently being housed at a farm that we rent from um that's 5 miles away between here and Fort. Um I'm currently taking care of those animals every day, which I don't mind doing, but I feel like it excludes the students from that part of the daily like animal welfare aspect of caring for these animals. What do we do now that it's 20° overnight or even colder? Well, I'm out there doing it, but the students should really be involved in that process as well. So, the idea behind this project is putting a building up that's on campus that students are um able to access before school, after school, during IE, um even during class
026time where they can be part of that day-to-day care and um just welfare of the animals. So, again, we're kind of limited on our school space, especially when we have a mechanics classes going on because that space is meant for a mechanics. It's not meant to be a large animal space. we just utilize it as such because we have nowhere else to go. Um, also it's kind of cutting into we pay that rent out of our FFA budget. Um, and that just kind of cuts into some of the other offerings we're allowed to um, bring to our students as well. There's also no room for demonstration. So, you can see like our top picture. We have Molly in there. Um, when we have larger animals brought in, if we want to do any kind of
027demonstration, we have to bring them outside, which is great if it's nice out. But if it's the last couple days and it's really, really cold, students don't want to go outside and we they really really struggle with going outside as high schoolers um for more than a short amount of time. So, it kind of limits the amount of demonstrations we're able to do in a in a small space. Um, so kind of the cost, I know that's the biggest question. So, our FFA alumni, I'm speaking on behalf of them. They've been kind of working on this project for several months now. They've gone through kind of the beginning phases of um looking at our needs, looking at our wants, and then looking at how do we address those needs and wants. So, on your um
028little pack as I handed out, and I have the pictures on the slide in just a second, we came up with a rough design um that kind of utili or that gives us the space we need while also staying within a reasonable budget because we know money doesn't grow on trees, right? and we're not trying to build something that is going to put a real dent in our FFA budget and our alumni's FFA budget, etc. So, our initial design um currently as it stands is approximately $725,000. And this gives us enough space to house our permanent animals year round while also having a demonstration area as well as bathrooms for students so they don't have to keep going back and forth to the high school or even having to go back in and out of
029the middle school. Um animal maintenance costs will remain the same. So, as far as our FFA funding, like our vet bills, our feed bills, um those kinds of things will remain the same. Um I'll talk about other expenses in just a second. FFA funds the large majority of these expenses. So, when we have a vet come in and do something, the FFA will pay for it when there's feed expenses, um bedding, etc. And we kind of utilize FFA fundraisers to help pay for a lot of this um supplies and equipment. But again, this is a part of our program our students really, really benefit from. So we and our Jefferson FFA and our FFA alumni feel like it's a it's a piece of our program that we want to continue to maintain. Um okay so
030as far as building maintenance because that's another cost. So once it's built um who's going to be paying for that kind of expenses. So I talked to Mr. Graphin and he's been working really closely with us um on this whole entire project with working with civil engineers figuring out where we're going to put the building, what's it going to cost to put it there and then eventually what are the um ongoing costs going to look like. So he gave me this quote. Um, so this is per Tim Graphin. So for heating, electricity, custodial, and maintenance, he's estimating about 10 to 12,000 per year and about um $1,000 to $1,500 for insurance. So this is just a rough estimate um from him. He's not um currently here this week. Um but those came from him as
031far as those numbers. And those numbers as far as like maintenance will um kind of be up to Mr. Graphin and and Dr. Ernest and Mr. and our department as far as how those might fit into our current custodial budget or how the FFA or FFA alumni can help pay for some of those expenses as well. Um the FFA alumni has talked a little bit too about when they do fund raise for the building including you know a couple years worth of maintenance costs into that fundraising so that we can kind of get it up and running. So um so this is kind of the external um look of the building. So again this is just a rough design from our builders. So, we want we obviously want it to look presentable to the community
032um because it's going to be right by the middle school or, you know, close by the middle school. There's some houses over there. So, we want to make sure it's a it's a nice presentable looking building. So, some of these can may change as needed. Um a lot of windows that we have light coming in and out for the animal welfare side of things. Um some big garage doors. You can go ahead and flip it. This is just the other side of the building. So, this would be the side of the building that would face the river. Um so, you wouldn't necessarily see that side as much. Um you can go ahead. So this is a rough um estimate of the inside of the building. Again, this is just an initial design based on what
033we told the builders we're looking for. Um so if we kind of see the area, so this livestock area in the bottom left, that would be like to house our permanent animals. So that would be like a yearround animals are housed there. There would be a sliding barn door right here that would lead out to a pasture space for them as well. So we would include like fencing in the cost of of building the building as well um to establish a pasture area for them. Um this area kind of in the middle would be a show or demonstration area. So this is where we would bring in animals for the day, maybe for a few days depending on um what we're what we have them there for. If we're doing any demonstrations with our own
034animals, that could be done there. If we have a vet come in, a frier come in, whatever it may be, come in. Um that's that space for that. There's also some stalls there, temporary stalls. So again, if we did have um a steer come in for a couple days or a dairy cow come in for a couple days or a horse, whatever it may be, they could stay there temporarily. um restrooms, both men and women's restrooms, and a viewing area. So, this viewing area could be utilized by our high school students. Um it also could be utilized by anyone in the district um if they wanted to come see what we had going on that day or that week if the middle schoolers wanted to come over and kind of observe what's going on or
035even elementary kids or or community members or whoever it may be. Um so, that's a viewing area for that. In this upper corner, feed and hay storage, that would just be a storage room for the animals um supplies. And then the FFA alumni storage area. So, as we started talking about this design, the FFA alumni really lacks a place to store their supplies. So, their equipment for the pancake breakfast that they host or the ice cream stand that they host at the fair. So, since they're going to be the ones really um funding this project, they asked for a small space for themselves for them to store their FFA alumni supplies. So, that's what that space is for. So, this is again just a rough um initial design of kind of what we're looking for
036um for our building. Let me see here. Um so, this is a location of the building. Um this came from um the civil engineer. So there is a city code where it has to be 300 feet away from any residents or residents or residential area. So this would be where those houses are. Um so it has to be at least 300 feet away from that. So where our current a um land is right now where we grow we had corn this year. So it would kind of take up a little chunk of that. So it would be going on current land that is utilized by the FFA program. Um, so it has to be at least again, um, I believe it's 300 feet away from the residential area. So that was the best place to
037put it just based on, um, like wetlands, based on how far it had to be from houses, um, and utilities as well. So that's kind of the rough estimate of where that would be located. Um, so our timeline for our project, so this is just a rough estimate of kind of our um, our kind of goals as we work through this project. So first off, just conducting preliminary research, determining site cost and building design. We're kind of past that. So, I've showed you a lot of that information already. Um, we're reszoning our lot to allow for the building. So, that was a step that's already been um accomplished as well. So, right now we're kind of at this step. So, um this is why I'm here to kind of talk to you about what the
038building may look like and then also on behalf of the FFA alumni discuss their willingness to fund raise for this project. Um once we have kind of our fundraising um effort kicked off, then we will need to get approval from the city. Um I was personally in a meeting with the city that we had in the spring where they are seem pretty much on board with the with the idea of having this project. We just have to get formal approval from them. Um then our fundraising committee for our FFA alumni who will be meeting um after I have this conversation with you at this meeting. Um they're going to kind of kick off our fundraising efforts. Um funds are being raised and then in kind donations secured. So, kind of going back to our budget
039as well, that cost, that initial cost for the building was before any inkind donations of any kind as well. So, that's something else to note as well. And then the goal is either hopefully next summer or maybe even the spring following depending on our fundraising efforts um we would be able to break ground and building would start to um commence and then afterwards hopefully we would be able to um have an open house of some kind to share our building and success with the community. So, that's just a rough kind of estimate of our our objectives as we work through this project. All right. So, that is kind of my presentation. Do we have any questions that I can answer? I actually have a few. So, looking at the plans, it says concrete floor not
040part of contract. I'm assuming this total cost concrete's included in that from a different like um on the clear that you just handed us, it just says concrete floor not part of contract, right? So, I would have to double check with Tim on that because he's the one who helped me kind of secure some of these um costs. Great. But, um I'm not 100% sure on that. I would have to get back to you. I do know one thing I want to note as well is like heating. So, we had a lot of conversation about heating the building. Is it worth heating the whole building? That's going to get pretty pricey. So, we had talked about only heating like half of the building or even twothirds of the building. So, like the viewing areas and
041the bathroom side would be heated, but like the storage areas and then where the livestock like permanent areas would not be heated. So, we did have that conversation of it doesn't make sense to pay for heating the whole building. Um, so that was another note I wanted to make. But as far as the concrete, I would have to um double check with Tim just because he's the one who helped me secure some of those numbers. These are probably Tim questions as well, but do you know if we bid out like got other quotes or is it just Clearary? So, I I personally met with Clearary um to get this design in place. I reached out to a couple other companies as well and they never got designs back to me. Um, so that could be
042something where if we weren't satisfied with this design or or price point, um, we could go back to a couple of those other people who I initially reached out to. Um, but these are the people who got back to me with the design that we wanted. So, this is kind of the initial design that I'm presenting. Okay. And do you know what the rent is currently? Like where we're at? 300 a month. Yeah. And then have we looked at like a renewable energy for just offsetting some of that because electric costs are just going to keep going up um on a building like this that's going to be there for quite a while. Have we looked at throwing solar into the project or anything like that? Um not currently but that's kind of why um
043I'm here to kind of get some of those ideas and then as we start kick off our fundraising campaign um we can look at some of those quotes from different companies or the goal the goal obviously is to get any inkind donations that we can. So, if there's somebody who's be, you know, be willing to help install solar for a reasonable price um or whatever it may be, that's definitely something we want to look at. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Um do we currently have uh do you know at all the number of students that would be accessing this on a on a yearly basis? Yep. So, our classes Yeah. I'm sorry, was that just based on your class sizes now? Yeah, absolutely. So, we currently um have about on average 175 a
044students per year currently and um that's a mix between some plant pathway students, some animal pathway students and introductory um introductory students. Um but in a lot of those courses um students will either take an intro class and then eventually take an animal science class or even if we think about like our food science pathway classes um like we have a meat science class, we have a dairy science class. So those students also benefit from seeing the animals. So although the animal science pathway students, which is approximately like half of that 175, are going to be the majority of the students who are in there, the introductory students as well, um they do a whole animal science unit. They do a whole um like food technology like farm-totable unit. So they're going to benefit from
045that as well. And like I said, we would love to open up collaboration like with the other schools in the district as well, especially since it's going to be in such close proximity to the middle school. finding ways that we can get middle school students in there and get them some um experiences with our animals and even like I said doing elementary days here and there whether it be in the fall or spring where the elementary kids can come in and kind of see the animals and see what we have to offer um that way as well. So, so if you don't mind, I'd like to go over a few of the board notes I want to make sure the board's very clear on. Um, so there are two schoolboard policies that really impact this.
046Uh, 6605 is crowdfunding and 7230 is gifts, grants, and bequests. So 6605 allows the district administrator to approve this type of crowdfunding. And then 7330, um, of course, if this was raised, it would be accepted by the board. We certainly don't want to put the cart before the horse. Sorry for that pun. Uh but we want to make sure that the board is comfortable uh by asking and answering all these questions. Uh we do have a significant commitment from the DDN family to the FFA alumni. Um and the proposed building which you're seeing tonight has been downscaled significantly from a previous mockup. Uh making it the realization a little bit more achievable. Uh as uh Mr. Fel mentioned, there's no such thing as free lunch. uh there would be an ann annual operating costs to
047the animal housing facility. You saw those prices there. Um so tonight is the best option to uh best opportunity to ask questions, you know, all the who, what, when, where, why types of questions that we're already asking. And then so as far as moving forward, we have some options. If there's no opposition to it, I can proceed under the district administrator's approval for the crowdfunding piece. If the board would rather uh make this an action item, we would put it on a future agenda, possibly December 10th for an action item. Want to make sure all those all that information, all those options were clear to the board. I I guess I have a question or I guess concern when I hear that the rent at this other barn or farm is $300 per month, $3,600
048per year, and now we're going to add a building that's going to be over $10,000 per year to maintain. Is that sustainable in our budget? And do we do we have anything from the FFA alumni or any groups that can help offset that? Because that's that's pretty significant. Well, I do want to um just touch base on on a couple things there. So, the $3 a month rent that comes out of the FFA budget. That is not a school funded expense necessarily. It's not a a building expense. It's an FFA expense. So, we currently pay that. Um, and then again, as far as the like maintenance costs goes, this would it's really the idea of it is allowing the students to become more like engaged with the animals rather than it just being me out
049there every day and then the kids going out, you know, bringing them in occasionally so that the kids are able to participate in it. So, but I do want to touch base on the $3 a month comes from the FFA's budget. We're the ones who pay that. I say that's why it's good to hear a commitment. You know, it's hard to say you have to do this for the next 20 years, but there is a commitment to pay for to help out with these annual expenses. Um, Mr. Graphin does have a a large budget. You don't want to um spend all of his money on little uh things, but uh we want to be upfront and honest with the board that there would be, of course, insurance and heating and all those things that go
050along with taking a a very sizable gift to the district. Um, so it's it's weighing the cost versus the return on investment that you get with the kids on a yearly basis. Any other questions from the board? I guess maybe just clarification with that that amount of maintenance. Is that [clears throat] where is that coming? Is that strictly out of pim's budget or I guess how are we what's our plan for that? So the plan for that Ryan's got some ideas. Um and Tim thought about this too. He thinks that he could absorb that in the budget but you know this is 2025. We don't know what 2030 looks like. What 2035 looks like. you know, the future's hard to tell. Um, however, we can readjust some things. The, uh, Mrs. Freel mentioned the eggland.
051Um, you know, every year that that is harvested and, uh, what they do with that profit depends on a yearly basis. I I certainly don't want to put any ideas in their uh, mind as far as them helping out with that cost. uh long time ago in another uh district um the FFA had a greenhouse and the FFA alumni in that district helped pay for the uh cost of LP because they wanted to run the greenhouse all winter long and grow poinsettas. So that would be a good example where we could work with the uh FFA alumni for that type of support for an annual basis. Um also just uh to um comment on that as well. So, our alumni did say um and I'm speaking on behalf of them that they would be willing
052to kind of up their fundraising budget a little bit to try and secure a little bit more funds other than just the initial building cost to try and offset some of those costs especially during the first few years. Um so, that is something that our alumni has has thought about as well. So, just wanted to point that out as well. Yeah. So, just a couple quick comments. Um one just on the utility aspect and some options for renewable resources. Um, one of the things that was a little bit less of a highlight out of the one big beautiful bill act is that it did change originally. Um, some solar options could have been maybe more of an option. It used to be prior to that passage. Um, I think it was 2031 was the time
053frame or 2032 for that. It got it got shortened to 2027. And so that will un may be less of an option than it was before for that. Uh, the one thing I will say as far as Mr. graph and working with his utility cost comparisons every month. Um during his last report he talked a lot about his energy savings and talking about peaks and how we're charged electricity on that. Um a lot of it thankfully he's able to currently he's coming in on time and under budget I guess I would say is regarding his electricity bills for example and his heat bills. Now heat's a little bit different. We have Twin Energy that works as a consultant for that. you know, if we're heating a half to twothirds of it, you know, that's a
054lot better than obviously heating the entirety of it. Um, but but some of those costs and figures are really looking at primarily gas, electricity, sewer, and water. Um, and and some amount for custodial services for cleaning. Um, you know, the the test kitchen is a great example that um while Miss Freel and Mr. vessels. Students do an amazing job cleaning it up kind of preliminary. We still have staff that come through every so often to make sure that it's sanitary, that it's clean, things like that. Um, so as far as the energy utility pieces, you know, as Dr. Ern has said, it difficult to sometimes make say that's a commitment we're going to have for 20 years going forward that we're going to continue to do those those costs. But, uh, what I will say
055working with Mr. Graphin in regards to the management of it is it's something he currently feels he can absorb. Um gratefully we haven't had to increase that portion of his budget over the last three years just because of management and the pricing that we've had. So um that's just one of his kind of commitments from that element. Um and then the second two is you know this is a significant fundraising opportunity. Um I think as Dr. Erna said, you know, if if depending on the board's comfort level, if it needs to be an action item, this is more just the awareness from my understanding of the ability to raise funds, it still is going to need um you know, because we are going to essentially receive that gift. Um in total, we'll we'll follow our
056board policies for procurement, things like that. You know, I know Clearary has been the one that you've been working with currently. Um but that doesn't preclude, right, that that there's still we want to consider who's going to provide the best value for the FFA through to Jefferson. Um, and so those would be future things that we would bring back for the board um, prior to receiving that donation and then taking action on that. So, Dr. Ern, I hope I didn't overstep or if there's anything else. No, no, that's great. I mean, tonight is basically so the board's aware that, hey, if you start seeing these fundraising uh, items out there, you're not surprised by it and you can be in supportive of it. Uh, it's going to take a little bit of time to raise
057that those types of funds, but um, the FFA alumni is pretty good at surprising us, too. they could probably do it faster than I would guess. So, just wanted to make sure that the board's aware and comfortable with the fact that this crowdfunding is taking place and that money will come to the district, not the FFI FFA alumni association or how does that work? Well, they would they would raise the money. I don't know if they're going to work with the Dians for um the the Jefferson Foundation and put it the money there. Then ultimately the donation would be made to the district. Okay. But the collection and crowdfunding would be done outside the district and then brought to us once things were raised. Correct. Yeah. So our FFA alumni is putting together their own
058private committee um that will be a fundraising committee for this project and yes once they have the funds necessary then they will come back to the board. Okay. Yeah. I guess I would definitely encourage more estimates from more companies with the building. It I I think we generally do three um just trying to push to see if they want to be competitive and try. I mean, it's it's a good initial plan, but it would be good to get one or two other companies to bid on this. Yeah, absolutely. I think we can I'll follow up with the alumni on that as well. And I know you had a question about concrete, and I was kind of thinking about it. I'm like, could that was another conversation our alumni had along with the heating of we
059don't really need to heat the whole building with concrete. We don't really need concrete in the whole building necessarily. So, that could be a way where we save some money as well. You know, putting concrete where it's necessary, but not necessary. You know, we could do something else. So, just since it came up, I I recently had a opportunity to work with Clearary on a building with concrete. Um, a lot of times the Clearary buildings say concrete's not in the contract because Clearary sells buildings, not concrete. But the builders that do this wrap it all together. So, the Clearary drawing is going to say we don't do concrete, but the whole package includes concrete. I'm not saying that's necessarily the case with this one, but that's what my contract said. Any other questions or comments?
060No, I really appreciate all the work you put in though and for the opportunity for our students and so it sounds like a challenge, but uh you've done a great job and and thank you and thank you to the alumni. They're super involved and super supportive of our students and that's an incredible thing to see. So in this community, absolutely. Thank you. So similar to the Pressbox uh project, if there are no objections, we'll let them do the crowdfunding. Ultimately, then it's board action to accept the gift and donation when we get to that point. All right. Well, thank you. Yeah. Thank you so much. And then next up is going to be our bullying prevention report. Good evening. So, I'm here to provide um a probably overdue bullying prevention and procedures uh little information
061and presentation that will become an annual report uh every every year at this time. So, [snorts] first off, just talk about bullying. A little reminder that the you know definition of bullying is when there is an imbalance of power um either physical or emotional and it is repeated over time and there's an intent to cause physical or emotional harm. So these are all the factors that um have to be investigated when there is a report of bullying or a complaint that that comes through to the schools. So, first up, I want to talk about all of the ways that Jefferson is um providing, you know, ways to prevent bullying. There are so many things going on in our schools that I feel like we have a lot to be proud of. Um JMS and JHS
062provide lessons in in home rooms and those are um planned out by pupil services, by counseling staff. They really emphasize October and November because of the bullying um prevention awareness day that lands. And I put that up there because we did just recently do um you know a big drive for bullying awareness and wore orange and there was a lot of participation in that which was really nice to see. And actually um we're going to look into probably ordering shirts or providing a chance for everyone to order shirts next year that say Jefferson on them. So, so that'll be something to look for next year. Um, the bullying task force annual meeting. So, this was taking place I think before I came to Jefferson and I will continue um that process. So, I will be
063looking to um offer a chance for people to be part of that prevention task force and providing a day um probably in January, February for um people who are interested. And that will consist of members um some members of the community hopefully um some students, some staff, and um that way we can, you know, look at other ways that we're um needing to address in the area of bullying in this school district. um, Hope Squad I put up there. Even though that does focus on suicide prevention, I still think it's um, it's connected because it is providing like that sense of community and empathy with the students um, and really just caring about each other and we do have a really great hope squad. We actually just um provided a showing of um, my ascension
064last week at the after the college and career night on um, Wednesday night. And um they have other events throughout the year as well. I know this month they're doing um like chains of of thanks or you know they have um some different things that the students vote on every month that they do activities and um they have bracelets that they did um in September, October, I believe. So um so those are all really good things. at elementary they have their think boxes and so that's a way that students can you know report if they're feeling that they're being bullied or they're having some student conflict and then pupil services um address those situations. Um there's also secondstep lessons that are provided by pupil services and um there are um lessons that cover bullying topics
065and bullying prevention and just all of those topics around friendships and how to have appropriate relationships and and all of those things. And so that is an ongoing process throughout the whole entire school year. Um and then our youth frontiers retreats uh which I think is a really great opportunity for our students. So in fourth grade, seventh grade and 10th grade. So there's kindness retreat for fourth graders, courage retreats for seventh graders, and respect retreats for 10th graders. And those um you know include the students in that grade and they they just cover ways of building that community and and building relationships. And so, you know, I would say the hope is that there are so many ways that that community feeling is is built that I would um you know, statistically it should be
066reducing all of those um reports of bullying um the more community you have and the more um united that kids um feel and feeling part of a a group. And then um just another thing I added up there last summer, middle school participated in some behavior academy training and um through that it was a a two-day seminar that pupil services and um myself attended, Mr. Ericson and we we worked together to come up with some ideas of kind of realigning um some of the um discipline process at the middle school. And so that has been um I think they've been seeing some really positive uh outcomes from from that new kind of um behavior. It's kind of hard to explain. If you want to know more information, we can come back with more information on
067that. Um, and then the there was a youth summit just last Friday that I was able to go to with some of our counselors and we actually had about five students that were there and um this was offered through the Greater Watertown Foundation and they're starting to focus on um lessening like technology and students lives because there's a lot of cyber bullying. um students are addicted to technology and that's like a whole another topic but um it was a full day in Watertown and it was students and different generations, people in the community, politicians, um it parents, it was a really great um great experience for some of our students and um I'm looking forward to some of the things that are going to come out of that. Um, I can I know that we're
068already starting to come up with some ideas for next year and the Greater Watertown Foundation is also going to be pursuing next steps and and our involvement in the in the different districts. So, I think there'll be some neat stuff coming out of that. Um, and just to throw up there, we do have a board policy on [snorts] bullying, um, which is on the website and also student anti-harassment um, policy, you know, which which covers prohibiting all forms of harassment. I do have a link to the bullying page, the bullying prevention on our website. I don't know if you can click on that that blue at the bottom just to show that there is a way to access all this information on the Jefferson website. So people can go up there and get um get
069any sort of resources and they can also file complaints either through SUSO and there or there's actual forms on there that they can fill out. Um and then you can go to the next Next slide. Speaking of SUSO, I'll go back. Um, since 2021, I put up there that there have been 327 reports that have actually been um phoned or or filed, not phoned through, but filed through um SUSO, which then were notified. And that is not just bullying. So that is also um it could be just concern about um a student's welfare um whether it be around you know suicide, self harm, drugs and alcohol. There there are so many different things that come through but there can be um bullying can be identified as a concern for students. Now when we get those
070they're not always um what you would call bullying. I mean, sometimes it could be things that happen at lunch. Um, there's been sometimes there's like kind of goofy things that come through there, but I would not want to um sway anybody from using it because I do think Jefferson has done a really good job of getting the community to use it. Um, I think I said it last year at my prior district. We I mean, everybody in the state has access to this who um was able to get like safety grants. I mean, everybody is has access to this, but my previous district, we could not get the amount of participation that Jefferson has been able to get. So, um, so bravo to to Jefferson because I feel like we get a lot of information
071through it and we've probably saved some students lives through it. So, um, it's a really good resource for the district. And so, that this information is all on the website. I just kind of put that up there. And then the reporting process. I don't know if you can link on that blue. There we go. This kind of um summarizes the the process of the investigation part. And so when there is a report, it goes through there are different um report forms for each level, elementary, middle, and high school. And then there's but there's the same process that everybody is to use when they are investigating and this kind of goes through the whole um gamut as far as sending letters home um especially when they do identify that it is bullying and a lot of
072people are involved with this part and there's interviews um that take place and as far as pupil services is also very active in meeting weekly at each building. Each building has pupil service meetings every week to discuss any other sort of um concerns about students. So whenever there there are things that are being looked into, usually it's being talked talked about at those meetings. So I feel like every building has a really good pulse of of what's going on with the students. Um you can back out of that. And then um I did focus on middle school I found um some data based on because we do have a district um Google document that everybody uses the administrators and um for their reporting and um middle school had put on their 2324 they had six
073confirmed out of 26 investigations and last year two out of 23 confirmed um out of all of their investigations and I think middle school techn, you know, kind of ends up being that that hot bed where there's probably more conflict at that age just because that's the way middle school kids are. And so that's why I focused on on that data. Um, and uh, does anybody have any questions? Questions from the board? Um, I just saw or you just presented the middle school. Do you have any um I know you and I kind of agree it's probably a little bit more targeted there. Do you have any uh any numbers related to the high school um high school? Last year the numbers that were there was sorry if you could keep using the mic just
074because there are folks online that there it goes. Okay. Sorry. So, there was there was one confirmed at the high school last year and I did not I could not find data from the 23 24. Okay. I I guess as this becomes uh a report I guess in the future just if it's zero awesome. If it's one I guess that's good too. Absolutely. Just just so it's there. Mhm. So when it's confirmed, it are you saying that it meets those three criteria or are you saying there's other factors that actually make it confirmed? Um well it depends on the situation obviously but yeah I think it it meets that criteria in that investigation process. DPI provides um you know like a format in in the the forms that we go through and so it essentially
075is very much guided um that whole investigation process and then those numbers aren't just from those reporting lines are just from all sources. So if parent directly reports to a principal or teacher or something that's included as well. Mr. Mr. Eriken, it looks like you had something you wanted to add again. Sorry if you don't mind jumping up with the mic. [laughter] I was going to say the numbers that you see up there are the confirmed cases. Like you said, they meet those three thresholds that we look for. Um there are several other situations that um are still classified as harassment or just really mean behavior um which also still come with consequences and follow up with families. So important to note that too that there's some still mean behaviors or harassing behaviors that aren't
076classified as bullying. So if like it's squashed, do you address it? Is it still classified as bullying like or does it you know what I mean? cuz I can I know a parent reached out to me this semester for 8th grade and it would have definitely met all three of those criteria and I kind of walked that parent through actually contacting you guys directly and just said look start there if you're comfortable she was and um went through that process but like would that be considered I mean we won't get into details but like those three criteria were definitely met but if it's squashed and it's resolved it's not ongoing is that not good question so it would still get classified as a bullying situation at that point. Um and then we would be addressing
077it with the expectation that the behavior doesn't continue. So that's a monitoring process that we have to continue um to make sure that it's not something that's still going on and proceeding. So that part of that is checking in with the victim, checking in with the offenders. Um and that's just a process that myself and our people service team is responsible for really throughout the rest of the year, but especially early on right after the events take place. Thank you. And I would say too that um we're really fortunate to have the amount of pupil service staff um on hand because they can also do like weekly meetings with students um especially if we know that they're in, you know, um a conflict situation or a bullying situation. And I think just having that ability
078to be able to meet with students in in school to talk through um you know what's going on in their lives has been really beneficial too for for students and and hopefully you know decreasing and ending some of those behaviors. Any other questions from the board? All right. Thank you very much. Next up is going to be Dr. Ernest with the his superintendent report. I'm going to try something Nate. See if it works. Can you put the u the board meeting up that tab? All right. Uh so, um superintendent report tonight. It's always a good time or it's always a good idea to just review our commitments, our mission, our vision. Uh and then just to remind you also what we've done with our strategic plan, our wigs, our wildly important goal. uh focusing on
079what's most important. Thank you, Nate. Um so just to boil them down, simplexity, make the complex simple, uh student reading achievement, and then staff collaboration, growth, and leadership. So tonight, I want to give you an update on 2025 Wisconsin Act 42, just because it's been in the news. I'm sure you've heard about it. Uh no cell phones whatsoever in schools, right? Well, that's oversimplifying it. Um, so but to to back up, there's been a lot of research uh lately, The Anxious Generation, other types of books out there um and data and information and and as I I mentioned, research Wisconsin Act 42 recently signed on October 31st by Governor Evers. um basically says that school boards need to adapt a wireless communication device policy that prohibits pupils from using a wireless communication device other than
080school district wireless community devices during instructional time. Uh well, guess what? Here's the good news. We already have that. Um so we have schoolboard policy 5136 uh personal communication devices and then we have handbook language in our high school handbook and our middle school handbook. I gave two examples there. Uh the middle school is is students may use PCDs, cell phones, personal communication devices before and after school. The high school is a little bit different. Allows the students to use them during lunch before and after school and in between uh classes as long as they do not create a distraction. I think we can have a conversation at an administrative level and a board level in the future if that is going to be tightened up a bit. But the good news with the law
081that was just passed, we do meet all the criteria um to make sure that we're complying with that log law that doesn't kick in until July 1st of 2026. So that's the cell phone update. I figure you'd be curious on that. Civics exam updates. Uh this has been a law for probably 10ish years. Um, just recently the Trump administration announced that there are new questions and then they took some questions out. So, we have a new bank of questions. If you want to have some fun, I uh I uploaded all 128 questions there. It's the questions and the answers. What's different for students is students take a multiple choice test out of a 100 questions and they have to get 65 correct. We typically do that their junior year. Uh but I'm happy to report
082that our social studies department updated the assessment to align all 100 with 128 questions. So they have the correct questions right now. Uh but um you may have seen that in the news recently as well. Wanted to update the board on that. And then report cards. Report cards come out tomorrow and we do not have a meeting until December 10th. Uh so we will provide uh anformational uh report on December 10th for our report cards. um they're embargoed. We know them internally. We know the results. Um what I'm doing as superintendent, I'm meeting with all the building principles and we're conducting a SWAT analysis. That's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and going over that uh with the with the principles. I want to make be real clear about this report card. For as long as
083there's been report cards, they change them every once in a while. They change the cut scores. They do all kinds of things. They recently changed the cut scores. They also changed some of the reporting for the uh report cards. So this is a new baseline score. It's not an apples to apples if you compare this score to a previous year or other years. But what do you think one of the first things that people are going to do? They're going to compare to other years. So just keep that in mind. This is a baseline score. It also takes two years of data where other report cards have taken three years of data. So just keep that in mind. Um you you will see all of the report card results. I'll make sure that I share
084that information with you. And as I mentioned um the we'll do a full report on December 10th. The other thing you can look forward to is when the principles start their good news reports. part of their good news reports. They will reference their school report card report card scores and talk about uh what they're doing to increase academic achievement uh in their buildings. Okay. Uh and then uh the other thing I want to mention just just to show you this the state that we're in as a state right now. So um the whole state is down losing students and there's a few reasons for that. its birth rate. Uh and then it's also just the rising availability of school choice options, the r the rise of vouchers in this state and we've seen that in
085our own third party count. Uh an important note, replacement birth rate is 2.1 and the current state birth rate is 1.5. So we do have an enrollment projection study that will happen late this winter to give us some new up-to-date information. Uh but I thought it was important to to point out that trend uh that's going on uh right now because this was another thing in the news. And then uh ending on good and loud um want to give some kudos to the middle school. Um Mr. Madison was informed of W Whitewater surplus stale. So you can see pictures of uh some furniture that's new to us for Mr. Mash Madashesky's room. uh furniture for sixth grade pod and then a nice new table in the middle school conference room and the cost was zero.
086So happy in these financial times to point that out. Uh kudos to Tim Graphen, Greg Zilich, and Nick Wadel for hooking up the school trailer and going to pick up all that nice new furniture. So thank you to Wire. So what questions you have? Got one more thing that's not on my slides. I'm happy to report. Normally, we bring to you a uh request for short-term borrowing. We don't need it this year. So, we won't need uh we've got enough cash flow, cash balance. He can't wait to brag himself here. So, here goes Mr. Van, but uh uh we will not need to ask for that short-term borrowing and that just saves on interest payments in our district. Correct. And uh for clarity, too. Thank you, Dr. Ernest. So, the past few years we bring
087that resolution, right, just for the board between typically Premier and Badger Bank. um thankfully have not had to utilize that in the past few years and so just with our current cash flow um didn't want to uh it's it's still close that December third payment for general aid can't come soon enough as it always is at the end of November but um again don't want to uh our cash flow is a piece that we look at when we uh bring those reports to you all and so for this year um do not have the need for that uh but that's something we evaluate every year obviously as we look at our income coming in it doesn't always come in at times throughout the year and expenses that come up. So, thank you, Dr. Ernest. Any
088questions? What hyperlink was it for the civics exam? Um, I put the whole test in executive content for you. Okay. Thank you. All 128 uh questions. Now, it's the question and the answer. So, it's not a multiple choice uh test for you. You can you can check them out. as a former social studies teacher who gave this similar test to eighth grade students in the state of Arizona. It's it's interesting to see things come full circle. I was just going to mention uh at the legislative conference on Saturday, they had a speaker from Wisconsin policy forum who did say that if we wanted to go out on their website. um they actually did create a slide and a mechanism of comparing essentially apples to apples with regard to um if you want to compare your
089district and look at the scores they created a way under research to be able to do that. So I thought that was helpful. Um they gave us kind of the website and under Wisconsin policy forum. Yeah. because they've not only changed the cut scores for the four different categories, but then also the the different categories exceeds are there's different scores for that as well. Any other questions or comments? Then we will move into the review process for the midyear evaluation of the superintendent. And were you gonna I'll just make a note that you get a an email from Valerie if you haven't. [laughter] Perfect. And I'm sorry. I know it was noted here. Uh by November 25th, right? All right. So, we have homework. All right. Uh, next up is going to be the 2025
090American Education Week resolution. And Dr. Ernis, were you going to speak on this one? Yeah, happy to. This is uh just to show the district gives will we have a a nice small appreciation gift to give out during that week. Um, PTO's and buildings also plan small ways to show their appreciation during this time. The resolution is just an annual board action to emphasize the importance of American Education Week and to demonstrate the board support of our staff members. With that, is there a motion to adopt the 2025 American Education Week resolution is presented. So move second. Motion in a second. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. Right. Motion passes and sign this one. So to read it into the record here. Whereas the public schools are the backbone of our
091democracy, providing young people with the tools they need to maintain our nation's precious values of freedom, civility, and equality. And whereas by equipping young Americans with both practical skills and broader intellectual abilities, schools give them hope for and access to a productive future. And whereas education employees, be they custodians or teachers, administrative assistants, pair professionals or librarians, work tirelessly to serve our children and communities with care and professionalism. And whereas schools are community lynchpins, bringing together adults and children, educators and volunteers, business leaders and elected officials in a common enterprise. Now therefore, be it resolved that the school district of Jefferson School Board does hereby proclaim November 17th through the 21st, 2025 as the annual observance of American Education Week, dated the 10th day of November, 2025. All right, some recognition for staff there. Next
092up is going to be our report of redefining ready report card. I'll try that again. Good evening. Um, I'm gonna have Nick and Mike join me tonight as well. Um, you might actually pull up the card. Is that okay, Nate? Um, you have a link in your um report that will take you to this page. Correct. Do I need to present this? Okay. No. Um, I just want to kind of talk you through a little bit of this. Um, it goes through what redefining ready is, what the benchmarks that we created for success are. And then down here, you'll see links to the high school, the middle school, and the sooncoming elementary that we have not developed yet. Um, this a multi-year process. Um, and so what we're going to do today is kind of
093talk you through um both the high school and the middle school card um as well as um our next steps in the process. So I'm going to have Nick kick us off with what um areas of strengths and weakness of the um high school card. Thank you. So yeah, just looking through the high school report card. Um so again, redefining ready, you know, just looks at different indicators uh and how our students perform on those. So, not only do we get a school report card, but we also have our students that get an individual report uh after the year as well. So, just looking at, you know, some of the pieces within the high school uh as far as the strengths. So, we did have some increases and uh students passing algebra 2 that obviously
094you can see there is just an academic indicator along with AP exam success. Uh so, we did have a higher percentage of students pass that uh yearly. in addition increased enrollment uh it's gone up to our highest point of last year of 29.3% of our students uh in AP courses so excellent for our school and then just the overall readiness of graduates within there as far as areas that we're looking to continue to grow some trends there uh personal finance that is now a senior year requirement or senior course requirement uh graduation um requirement for all seniors so want to increase that because we did have a dip in the number students passing that with a C or better and and also in the past they could take FAC uh financial and career connections but
095now it's all personal finance uh GPA of 2.8 eight or higher. Uh so along with some rigor and work expectations rising really post pandemic, we've seen a dip there. Looking to see where that goes next. And then just dual credit enrollment or coursework. Um so in that piece, it's gone down a bit. Uh partially based on some of the requirements of some of our partners just saying, "Yep, in order to teach accounting, you need to have a master's degree in accounting." um most of our teachers wouldn't necessarily have that in order to be able to teach a dual credit course. And then the other part that we see as an opportunity would be uh just some data collection around independent employment for our students. So you know quite a few of our students do have
096part-time jobs um and that they're learning and and gaining skills by learning at those jobs. Um, so we're excited to add that this year and we've talked about data collection pieces of how can we do that so it is accurate for each student and then how are we then accounting for that and then collecting that data put on our report card or dashboard. All right, thank you Nick. Uh, for the middle school uh we have the same pillars with academic indicators, career indicators and uh life indicators and uh thanks Katie. So, we uh ours are a little bit more paired down as you would imagine than the high schools are. Uh very similar in terms of including academic uh standardized testing. Um and I'll just hit some of the highlights here. Uh on the strength
097side, we're we're very proud of the continued growth uh in proficiency that we've been seeing in math. As measured by both the forward and our uh fast bridge screeners that we take three times a year, um our ELA proficiency has remained um high and higher than the state average. Um attendance uh is always a continuous work in progress, but we've seen some growth there uh from last year to this year. Uh part of our uh measurement of career indicators is just band and choir enrollment. Uh and that's another uh source of pride at the middle school. We've uh climbed here to over 70% of all of our students being involved in band and or choir. Um and our AVID elective participation. So uh we are more than double the students that we had in our
098first year with the AVID electives. So all encouraging signs there of strength as far as areas that we want to continue to grow in. Um this is kind of a I wouldn't call it a strength but not a complete area of growth either. Uh but our behavior um or office referrals uh the process for collecting these had changed and that is an improvement. Uh I think it's more efficient and more accurate. However, with it being more accurate, I also think our number went up uh in terms of total ODRs that were documented last year versus the the year previous. So, uh, somewhat of a baseline for us, but, uh, something that we feel is definitely trending in the right direction. Um, our citizenship grades. So, uh, so those of you who are have students at
099the middle school, you'll be receiving your report cards here on Wednesday. Uh, you'll see a letter grade for each academic course that they're in. And then a citizenship grade or a work habits grade that's a marked on a 4, three, two, or one u basis. So, three is the standard or meeting the standard. Three is really the goal for all of our students. uh four is four students who are really exceptional in that area. Um we had uh just over or about twothirds of our students uh receive a three or better in all of their courses. So not not a bad score but an area that we can continue to grow. Uh area that we've continued to talk about is just our reading growth. So proficiencies remain high but uh growth in that area is
100still an area that we want to do better in. And then for the first time last year we uh we put more quantifiable numbers to our co-curricular participation. Uh we've always had rosters for athletics uh but for the variety of clubs that we offer at the middle school we uh we have definitely kept better track of that. So as a baseline we had um over just over 60% of all of our students involved in at least one club sport or activity over the year and just another opportunity that we would like to see our kids continue to grow in as well. Uh finally just uh academic uh coursework data collection as Nick mentioned that's a work in progress for the high school also for the middle school. Um, our kids work in Zello uh at
101the middle school as well and we're continuing to look for just other areas or ways that we can quantify that data to be able to report it out as well. At the end of last year um we were able to send home our families um and our students their first ever um individualized uh redefining ready report card. Some of the family or the parents are shaking their heads. Um I did link in two examples of 11th grader and eighth grader for you if you did not get to see one. Um the purpose of this is for um parents and families to have an understanding of where their kid is in relation excuse me to all the indicators that are established um and for them to eventually how do you become college or career andor ready
102by the end of your senior year. Um so that will always come out at the end of the school year um each year for every student. Um as a team we've kind of been thinking about what are our next steps um and how do we continue to grow make sure our data is defining this? How do we use this data now that's established and we're getting multiple years of it. Um and so our this is our first year if you remember three years ago I believe uh we made a graduation requirement for seniors to complete a portfolio. So this will be the first year that they complete that portfolio um for graduation. Um so trying to implement that identify how when where it looks like um those pieces are all coming into place um for
103this senior year class. Um, we're refining ACP requirements at each grade level. What does it look like to be quote unquote complete as a sixth grader, as a seventh grader of whatever you are to stay on course sequence? Um, to say that then you can complete that portfolio by the time you graduate. Um, and then one other thing is using data from report cards to reflect on offerings, student achievement, how do we build this into our strategic plan? um is we want to make sure that you know we define the student as a whole child and everything that they um can bring um to the workforce or to a college or to military or whatever adventure it is beyond these doors when they leave us. Um and then the last is those individual report cards.
104How do we utilize those um on an individual student basis? because the big report cards are great for us to look at a holistic level, but how do we utilize those within um parent conferences, uh within planning conferences both as eighth grade and as juniors? Um and so using the resources and data that we've been working to establish over the past um three years of this work to um not only support us as a system, but also individual students and their achievements. Any questions? All right. Thank you very much. I know it's a big undertaking. So, yeah. Great topic. Little by little, we make progress every year to become what it is. I'm in the hot seat for a really long time. Okay. Well, then we'll jump into the approval or review of the 2026
10527 New Jefferson High School art course proposals and changes. I'm going to ask um Miss Barney to come up and join me um as she knows this in a little bit more detail of flow than I would. Um so I'll have her kind of present what they're thinking within their department. Thank you, Katie. [clears throat] Hello everybody. My name is Katie Barney and I teach art here at the high school. um in the mornings and then I'm at East Elementary in the afternoon. Um what we are proposing is for the high school um we're looking at the art pathways. Uh the main goal is to streamline the flowchart a little bit as well as address some issues that we saw with prerequisites um not being in place and then also giving us an opportunity to
106run multi-level studio courses which will allow uh for example ceramics one and ceramics 2 to run at the same time. Ideally, it would run twice a semester still or more depending on how many students are um interested, but it would allow um more flexibility in scheduling. So, if a student can't take it second hour, but they could take it fourth, then um either first ceramics one or ceramics 2 could be taken either of those two periods. So, you can see how it increases the um scheduling flexibility. Um the main changes that are happening uh the flowchart is changing. It is putting the 2D and 3D art pathways into one flowchart. Um it's taking intro to art and really making that the standard for the first class that all art students should take. Um not including
107ceramics as we do have an intro to ceramics which is a separate um class which is still necessary. But the intro to art is really an opportunity for students to see um one project from each of the areas that they could then continue on to. Um it gives them uh the basics of the uh elements of art and principles of design and that is something that they need to take into their future classes such as drawing painting or um yearbook or even um stage craft and building sets. Um so really the flowchart some course names are changing. We um looked at other schools in the area and around the nation to see how they were um organizing and labeling their classes. And we also looked internally at teched and really looking at teched intro to
108teched um engineering one engineering 2 and kind of really basing um our naming and numbering off of that already established best practice. Um, and the last thing was um the prerequisites that needed to be addressed based on the changes in the flowchart as well as um adding on for adding prerequisites to a couple classes that didn't have them and hopefully to get many more students taking our classes and um going all the way through the pathway up to AP. So, giving them a very clear idea of what they can do. Did I talk too fast? No. Okay. Any questions from the board? I have one. And I'm not even sure I'm going to be able to articulate this well, but art, ceramics, um, is something that I feel like certain students do a fair amount
109of knowledge gathering outside of school. If you're really into art, you probably are doing a good amount of it and getting experience. That's not always the case, but in my mind, it's like if you're really into art, you're probably doing this for other things. Do you make any exceptions? And can students apply to not have like if they have a lot of experience in middle school and they are just a really stellar you know into art that they don't have to follow the exact pathway that you have done because of their unique experience or if there's a way to prove you know what I don't really want to take intro to art I've got tons of experience I'd rather could I please jump into 3D so that they can get further in the the limited
110four years that they have, there's always an exception. And um in most of the classes um in the course description, it does say or with instructor approval. Um and I know I can speak for myself that I'm always willing to take a look at an individual case and make an exception. Um, I've had even just in my limited time with the district, I've already had students take classes that um, they may not have met a prerequisite, but they definitely deserve to be there. And I think there's a great working relationship within their PLC um, as and the middle school, what students are coming over with to have those conversations um, with the high school staff. Any other questions? May I add on one one more thing to that? Um it is encouraged that any student
111that is looking to get to the like advanced level the extra advanced level of AP um that they do start taking classes in 9th or 10th grade. But there definitely is enough time to get to that level even if you are required to take every pathway path every point on the pathway. There's three points on the pathway that would be a half credit and then AP is a full credit. I think that's a difference thinking about like English, right? Or math because all those are fullyear courses. These are half credit courses. So you could take intro a fall semester something a spring semester and that could happen multiple times. Any other questions? I have quick question. So the graphic design, is that mostly digital? That's digital arts for the most part. Um it is it's
112partially um non-digital analog I guess. Um we start with some projects that are um drawing um and then we go into the um digital design using different design software as well as um drawing digitally. So is there like a path just for digital at all? Like because I know you were talking about you're wanting more students in art, but um there's a lot of students that don't know they're doing art because it's on a computer. Do you know what I mean? And so like my only concern is like there's intro to art first, which makes it feel kind of formal like it's got to be in your hand, but like you have a lot of students that would just like do sprites or whatever all day long, which is definitely art, but it's on a
113computer, right? So, like is there an opportunity for those students to maybe take something that's just right now like a hobby that they're kind of interested in on the side and maybe introducing them at a higher level like when I say higher I mean on your tier of your chart here not like skill level but and then working their way into other stuff like because right now it look kind of looks like the only place they're getting into that unless I'm reading it wrong is kind of like that graphic design after they've taken like intro to art. This is well in intro to art there's one project that we do digitally so that they can get the flavor of what graphic design um would entail. Um and I would say 80% of the graphic design
114class is digital. Um that's actually one of the classes that I did have a student not take intro to art and join last year and did extremely well. Um and then I think that in the future there is an opportunity to build on the graphic design program. I was just just learned recently of a a dual credit course. As I say, at the technical college level, that's where a lot of them go to is the digital graphic design, web, all that stuff where you know your traditional colleges are more along this line of the four-year for these arts. But like if you're talking about a pathway to technical and you know those sorts of things that might be an opportunity to look at kind of having this side path of the digital going into web
115those sorts of things. Um we I will be honest with you originally weren't going to bring art um to the course changes but we felt that the changes of intro to art and the prerex and the flow of it needed to be addressed. Um, and part of the reason we didn't bring it or weren't originally was because there was two additional courses that would have been brand new courses and we just didn't have the time to put it together. Um, one of them being graphic design too. Um, so I think the vision is there. It's just in this proposal. We didn't have the time um to flesh it all out to know exactly what it would look like for the course handbook which you're going to read following right after this. Um, so I think
116that that vision is there. I just we weren't there yet for today. Does that make sense? It does. There's conversations that are happening. We've already talked about for next September what we need or what we want to do and put together before then. So, thank you. If I may, one more. Um students are welcome to take graphic design one again and then um I would provide them with higher level um projects and instruction. That's where the studio piece kind of comes in. Any other questions from the board? Is there a motion to approve the 202627 Jefferson [clears throat] High School art course proposals and changes as presented? So moved. Second with motion and second. Any further discussion? All in favor of the motion say I. I. Any oppose say nay. And the motion passes. Thank
117you. Just for clarity that was a first and second reading all in one. Okay. Yep. Thank you. Sure. Also, thank you for being here. That's super helpful. Yeah. Just because we did cancel the meeting on the 24th. We're doing this all in one. Yeah. I appreciate that. Yeah. Yeah. And we would have typically brought it in. Yeah. This is good. Next up is going to be the Jefferson High School 202627 academic and career planning guide. Yes, thank you. Uh [laughter] so just to highlight some of the changes, I know that we just mentioned art uh but really going through that handbook and uh it is quite extensive and I want to thank our our departments and department leaders uh counselors uh for going through and Mrs. Dwer for then preparing all those edits, changes and
118going through each year. It is a practice that we go through. So thank you for that and thank you for Mrs. Ground with the new courses and updates as well. Um so really just to highlight some of the things that are are within here. So we do have all previous course updates in addition. Uh so just as a reminder that's MOBA uh the composition and modern music construction uh two theater design writing for the university and our art changes that we just discussed. Uh some other highlights if you notice the career clusters uh the state has updated those. It's a new simplified document. uh but really when we looked at the the practicality of were students going back to that and looking at courses not as much as they were during their conversations with teachers
119and in their um conferences with counselors. So really those pages we felt like one just to keep updating anytime we had a change um and then two the use of them and then three the state tried to simplify it. So let's use that simplified uh document within there. Uh also we moved computer science to its own section. used to live in math because it was a math teacher that taught those. But really kind of like theater was in English and then we moved theater out. We just did the same thing there. Uh we added direct admit info. Um the art pathway updates. Uh also for English we spelled out that uh during your junior year you have to have a writing course as a part of that. Uh so just made sure that we highlighted
120that. uh cleaned up some of the flowcharts, updates to some of the course descriptions, and clarified whether it's an odd or even year uh because we have an odd or an even year every year. Um so, just wanted to make sure that we explained what it would be. So, that's just kind of the highlights um from the handbook. And what questions do you have? Questions from the board? I guess you already addressed it, but I guess I I have to say the career clusters I I guess I was kind of surprised those are crossed out because as a parent I think I use those to help understand how to guide because it because it it really doesn't look anything like what the state has provided. They just have these generic boxes where this was an
121actual layout of what we did in our high school. So I guess I I mean if they're gone they're gone. But I I guess I I think I would kind of miss them as a parent just understanding what they need to take each each year. Yeah. And then based on the updates and and trying to get those back in there, it just wasn't time effective to be able to do that. But could could return. I'm curious to see how many others uh mention that. But during the course selection nights, um there typically weren't many discussions on those charts. It was more based on uh student interest within that content area, not necessarily with the cluster. Uh, but I know that they do talk about that within um within their home room and course planning and
122with counselors. It might just be the engineer and me and Tom, but like I used it too, right? It was good for me. I don't know that my kids cared. You guys really love the index padness, too. Yeah. Any other questions from the board? In that case, is there a motion to approve the Jefferson High School 202627 academic and career planning guide as presented? Second. Motion and second. Any further discussion? All in favor of the motion say I. I. Any oppose say nay. And the motion passes. Thank you. This was also a first and second one, right? Okay. All right. And then coming up is the updated district library plan. Uh Mr. Ally uh reported on this last board meeting, so I guess two weeks ago. Um so if you just have any further questions,
123um he's unable to be here tonight, but I can help answer them if I can. Are there any additional questions? Is there a motion to approve the district library plan as presented? So moved. Second. Motion is second. Any further discussion? All in favor of the motion say I. I. I. Any oppose say nay. Motion passes. This one is just a first reading of the updated PAR professional 3 library media position description. I'm not going to read through every single bullet of this, but I'm going to give you just the background as to why we're bringing this to you. First, it wasn't updated for I don't know a very long time. Um, and second, um, we had the opportunity with, um, a retirement that is going to be happening to reconsider how it was structured. Um,
124we also know that in the um assistant to the um library media specialist, it wasn't laid out clearly as to the roles that that person was doing in in comparison to some of the other roles in the job descriptions. Um, and so we wanted to delineate what was happening at each of the levels of the buildings. And because if we think about the library media, um this looks different or it functions very different than it did even 10 years ago. Um so in that job description, we had to um detail out um the differences in technology and how that has changed what their workflow and what they do on a daily basis. Um and so we structured it very similar to the custodial um job description of the different levels in the disc uh the
125custodial. So it will start with here's the general responsibilities that all library repairers have no matter what building you are in and then it will go through elementary or middle school and high schools they have a little bit different um and then the district assistant um so he'll have all the responsibilities before it plus whatever is then in that role. I see the last update was 2013. Any questions from the board on that one? That one is just a first reading, so we'll come back to it in December 10th. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Speaking of December 10th, any future agenda topics, your requests from the board? No. At some point, I'll address the board about the legislative and Lisa was there as well. So, at some point I'm going to have to go over
126before convention so we got time. Um, go over the policies to see how we as a board want to vote. Sure. All right. Any others? Then we'll get into announcements. The only thing is just remember The December 10th meeting is an odd one because that's on Wednesday. And I put one right on there just for you, President Pelter. November 10th is United States Marine Corps birthday. And then special thank you to all who have served for Veterans Day. Tomorrow we have celebrations going on at our various buildings. Thank you. With that, is there a motion to convene into close session pursuant to Wisconsin statutes 19.85, parents 1, C, and F to discuss formative evaluation of staff members with an administrative contract and a personnel issue. So moved. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor of
127the motion say I. Roll call. Oh, I'm sorry. Roll call. Mr. May, could you please? Mr. Condan. Yes, Mrs. Fox. Yes, Mr. Eel. Yes, Mrs. McWilliam. Yes, Mr. Nobling. Yes, Mr. Peltier. Yes, Mrs. Winkman. Yes.