001We'll order the noted meeting for the school, Mr. Jefferson, Board of Education. We'll start off with the pledge of allegiance and the flags in the back there. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Could you please do roll call? Mr. Common here. Mrs. Bob, Mr. Eagle here. William, Mr. Belgier here. Mrs. Wink here. Thank you. First up is going to be our consent agenda. This meeting it consists of our minutes from the July 28th meeting. one employment of uh Miss Amy Zimmer as a high school English teacher and no resignations. These could be separated out for further discussion or it could be taken as one big motion. Any questions, comments
002or suggestions? Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? So move second. Motion second. Any further discussion? All in favor of the motion say I. I. Any oppose say nay. Sent agenda passes. Next up is going to be Miss Nissan with our at risk report. Hello. So, um this is the annual update on the at risk for alternative education report and I will go through what um Jefferson's options are and then I have a link in there to um what the outcomes were this past school year. Then I can answer any questions. So, um, Jefferson offers several different alternative education program options for students, um, school through high school. So, one of the, um, the first ones is Soore, and that is in our offsite location, which is, um, the Fire Cal
003Lane, I think it's called. And um that is for juniors and seniors and it offers an alad track and um the GD option too. And I I'll get more detail. Then we have bridges which is here at the high school and it's more um 9th through 12th more heavily with the ninth and tth graders. And then um the nest has also been a program at the middle school uh that has offered more um personalized learning for students in sixth, seventh and eth. And then challenge academy is just a program that is open to anybody in the state of Wisconsin to complete their high school credits if they're um just a more non-traditional student. And we did have a few um students who went through the challenge academy in the past and I believe um last
004year or the year before we had um two that completed and then they finished last year. They actually graduated from the challenge academy but then returned here this past school year um to complete some like career building credits through our um through our program. So, and then we also because we are the county seat, we um individuals who might end up at the county jail who have not completed high school and then we are responsible for providing them um education while they are um at the jail. And so that has been um completed through uh we have an instructor who either can go there and work with the the person um at designated times if they're allowed to do that or we've done virtual um instruction. And so this past year we did have one
005student um that was in that. And then there's also different just credit options. Uh there's educ uh Plato there's wholebound options um independent study and uh youth apprenticeship options for students who can work that link. So, this is a six-year breakdown um that kind of shows the the progression of how these programs have um provided different outcomes. And so, the last column obviously is last year. And um for homebound, we we had 12 students on homebound um one on J instruction. We had ones these are the um we had one student that completed the go2 and I didn't go into some of that um some questions. Then the sor alternative we had 31 students that were there 19 graduated and seven were juniors which means that they will uh return next year. Um they do
006also have the option of returning back to high school and some students do um do choose to return if they had fall out on the privacy. And then um bridges last year we had 22 students in there. Um one student graduated and again that program is more for um freshman and sophomores. And then the next at the middle school had nine students and then the challenge academy had two um for the Plato recovery courses. So there are courses um that are more online and some students complete those in school, some at home, some on homebound. It's just a real mix. Um but there were 277 courses completed um at sore work. 92 were through bridges here and then 96 were just credit recovery courses and some of those were taken by students that were in
007special education um and and that was just a way that they need to complete some of their credits. And then we had one student pass a GED test which is different than the the GO2. And then um from total the 79 students that were given opportunities. So um as far as Soar, it is an integrated classroom. Uh students are doing essentially what they need to do to complete uh their credits towards graduation. So it's definitely a personalized approach. There's one teacher and a par professional there. And so the students are kind of given options if they want to finish through taking um courses through Plato or they can choose to do the the GO2 option. But the GO2 option which is state approved. So Jefferson has to um be accepted by the state. we had
008to meet requirements and we have to make sure we have to document that the students are in school um 15 hours per week. They have to have 90% attendance. And so, as you can imagine, sometimes that can be a little tricky because it's, you know, um some of the reasons why some of the kiddos end up at at Soore is maybe they haven't had um the best track record. So, um, that can be, you know, hard to work on with students, but I think Maggie does a really good job stressing and and, uh, you know, tracking down kids and working with the families to to get them there. Um, but that is some of the reason why it is harder for students to get to that GTO2 option. And I think some groups are probably
009better than others. Um, and so maybe has two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Kids can also stay um longer throughout the day. They can share their sessions if they are motivated to complete their credits. And then Fridays are also another day that they can come in to continue to work on their credits. Some students choose to also take a class here. And so there's a hybrid of um of options. And then um the other exper experiential hours that they have to have if they're not in school all those hours. They may do it through work, community service, um some field trips and job shadowing, things like that. Um and they can still be part of um sports and clubs and things like that here at the school. Um, and if
010they're part of different counseling groups, we can take that into consideration as well for those reading efforts. And then bridges, which is here, um, also they try to set that up as a morning session, an afternoon session. A lot of those kids though are in school, you know, the whole day. um they might take a few classes in bridges um in the morning or in the afternoon and then they're in other um careerbased classes or whatever academics that they might be able to finish. And then um those students that are being served in there um some are just considered at risk of not graduating. Some are in special education and maybe just struggling uh with that uh regular class environment. And so it was the a way for them um you know to be more
011successful because they are getting more personalized learning options and um probably some more behavioral support and more supportive relationships. And then the nest is at middle schools kind of run the same way like bridges for um our younger students serving students who you know are at risk or students who are in special education for maybe a little more severe um behavioral concerns. And I kind of went through this before that's in the chart of all of the students that are served in those areas. I didn't talk as much about home loan. Home loan can be for a bunch of different um situations. We have students who have um different medical situations where maybe temporarily they need to take some courses either virtually or they can come into the district office to have a smaller quieter
012um environment. For example, we had a student who had a really bad concussion um last year and was really struggling with a full day here in high school. And so the counselors worked with our instructor to um you know give some materials to that student so that it was a little bit easier for them to handle because their precaution was so severe. Um so that's just kind of an example. It also can be for some students who are on some pre-expulsion um like advance agreements and so maybe they made some not so great choices and it's a way for us to still um keep them in school, keep them connected and make sure that they're still getting an education. And then um we went through the other things um and then just ways that we
013look at always improving these options. Um this past year towards the end of the year we were really looking closely at the referral process uh for sore uh because especially it is for students who you know could be off campus where we're looking we've been looking closer at maybe situations where it be better for them to stay on campus um because the district offers so many different alternatives um that there might be some ways to still keep some of our students that are in school. Um, for example, some of our students who were um like EL students that speak predominantly Spanish, they really struggled. Some some students came to us with hardly any credits at all from from their previous country. And so the thought was that that would be an easier way or not
014easier, but you know, a better way for them to to get some credits. But the language barrier was really difficult. And so this we we've been looking closer at some situations like that where it might be better for some students to stay in the building and still get um Play-Doh and those alternatives. And then um the next at the middle school we are looking at some ways of changing that up so that students aren't necessarily already pre-placed in those programs and then you know given a chance at the high school. um this this summer, right at the beginning of the summer, a group of us went to a two-day workshop um around behavior in Wisconsin and it really is looking at building the tier one supports at middle school and working with students with some
015some behaviors and you know just trying to really build staff skills um how to deal with those so that some students maybe are not um looked at as being part of that that situation So, so we're hoping to decrease the students that are thought of being placed in there and then increasing that inclusion for some of the other students that have some behaviors. I will say Jefferson has a lot of great options. So, it's good to see the options. One of the questions I have, I noticed the actual use of GEDs is down quite a bit. Is that because it's being offset by solar or just not as many graduating? Um, I think because of the the the options that are offered to students, I I feel like students have more of a chance to
016catch up on credits where they're not made to feel like the GED is their only option. Um, so I like to think it's because there are so many other options that that's not the last, you know, I feel like that's a last resort. Also, the GED, there are age requirements that you have to be, I believe, 18 and a half or you have to be, um, you're a graduating class already graduated. And so, uh, I feel like the, uh, the pupil service staff, you know, between the counselors and, um, social workers, even the county really does a good job with kind of wrapping around students that have, um, you know, some of these at risk behaviors. And, and I think I think Jefferson does a really good job of trying to make sure that kids
017get caught up and and actually graduate from Jefferson. And then um figure out how to put this with all these alternatives. Yeah. Are we lowering the bar to graduate or are there still standards? Are are I mean they're they're able to accelerate through some of these classes faster than a traditional student. Is because they're lowering the bar making it easier? Um, I don't I mean I don't necessarily like to think of it that way. I think some of these kids are facing, you know, so many other challenges outside of school that we're I think we're doing a really good job of leading these kids where they're at to give them more of a chance to be successful as adults. Um, I mean, I understand, you know, probably some of the the thoughts around that, but
018I do think, you know, it's our responsibility to make sure that we're productive citizens in in our society. And I think with the the pimple service um connection too like at Soore there's one of our social workers, Miss um Lindsay uh Finelli that her name she goes around once a week and meets with students individually as well and people from the county who like because some kids have case workers because of things that are going on they meet with them there too. So, I just I feel like there's a lot going on in some of those those kids lives. So, any other questions from the board? Thank you. Yes, thank you. Next up, Dr. Ernst's superintendent report. Good evening, everyone. Um, what I'd like to talk about tonight is report from the uh legal update
019uh to give you the hot topics that are going on in the world of attorneys and school law right now. I attended the the legal conference a couple of weeks ago. I was able to see Dr. Alison. He's doing well. He says hello. So, here's some of our big topics uh going on. Title Nine. Uh, Title N thankfully uh is uh stable from the back and forth world that we dealt with as well. Uh what we found out is we were wise to adopt the Biden regulations and then resend them and adopt the Trump regulations which go back to the 2020 regulations. Um, so title N wise, we're okay this year. We don't have to, there's not a requirement to train all staff. Working on the back to school program, and we'll make sure that
020people understand what the title N regulations are, what schoolboard policy is, and how that affects them on a day-to-day basis. the topic of funding came up and you may have read in the paper about the Trump administration freeze federal funding and then the um unfreezing of those funds. So the question is is you know can the administration freeze federal uh funding uh that Congress already approved? The simple answer is yes but uh the Supreme Court has said it has to be a severe reason for doing so. So thankfully however uh we do have uh title one and title two funds are available to us in the 25 26 school year. They may come with some strings in the future. That's uh to be determined. As far as labor is concerned um big topic was at
02110 because we probably will find out about 10. you remember it was passed in 2011. Basically made collective bargaining uh illegal for everything except for base wages. Um and what has happened since is just last year a county judge said that most of the parts of act 10 were unconstitutional. That is an astay right now uh for it to go to the appeals court and then assuming it will go to the state supreme court. Um, so we're going to find that out. Probably fall or winter 2025. There is a possibility it could go into 2026 as well. Could be an election issue for the state assembly, state senate, and gubernatorial race 2026. So stay tuned on all that. What you need to know is if act 10 is struck down, our employee handbook will probably
022be re be viewed as the status quo. Not just ours, all employee handbooks. Uh the good news for Jefferson, we have a very solid employee handbook. We go over that on a regular basis. We bring updates to the board. Uh and it's very public and uh projects impact. So stay tuned for act 10. Uh when it comes to parents rights, just plenty of reminders and and l luckily some things that we're doing well. Burpa is the family education rights privacy act. That's what uh that's what uh leads and informs us on everything from school records to dealing with discipline. So that's an important one to make sure that we are aware of. Uh the good old saying in local parenthesis like the phrase meeting in place of the parent and there are times when the
023school has to assume that role that role in uh place of the parents. There's other times where uh examples are foster parents and uh grandparents or other relatives raising children. They assume that role as well. Uh so it's really important to make sure that we understand where the parents rights are and then where there are rights from other parents other than a biological parent or adopted parent. When it comes to special ed education in section 504, the attorney uh from the law firm that we use presented as Tess Brian and um we're we're right on target with that. So kudos to Miss Nissan and everyone else with regard to special education section 504. Our principles in this district uh serve as the case managers for 504. So uh I'm happy to report that we're doing
024well that way. Uh and then more legal require developments and uh reminders regarding students WA policy. Um it's the the two genders policy so to speak uh following from the from the executive order which was uh delivered. So then the WI did go along with that executive order and they changed their rules. So to be sure, to be clear, students assigned female at birth when biased male may still train and compete ma uh male sports vitamin student has not begun hormone therapy. Uh and that policy took place on February 19, 2025. So that's the female to male. However, students assigned male at birth may still practice with the team that aligns with their gender identity, but they cannot participate. The other big thing is name, image, and likeness. So you heard of NIL. I'm going
025to skip right to the summary. In some school district should have zero part, no known part and NIL agreements. If students do it, great, good for them. But there should be no participation from the school district in that. Uh can't set it up, can't refer things, uh can't use, in our instance, Jefferson attire. Uh of course, pretty obvious one. No intoxicating substances or entertainment or weapons can't be used on that. But here are the A through F. All the things that can and cannot be done with NIS that's made like this. So just stay tuned when you're you see your first ad from the famous high school kid coming out. I'm sure it's uh not too far around the corner. And then immigration status. Uh so we've had some registration help days uh recently. So
026it's important to remember that Plyier versus DO is a US Supreme Court case from the early 1980s is still in place in this country. It means that undocumented students have a right to a public education. It also means that we don't even ask we don't even ask uh a person's citizen status in the United States. Uh that's different from employment obviously, but when it comes to educating students, flyer versus toe is still the law of the brain. And then last but not least, just some school district governance. Um we've done this, we had a workshop on it. We've gone over this. So I feel that the board has done a a great job with this. It's just making sure that we understand the what constitutes open meeting under the open meetings law. And then also
027um just making sure that we are following our own core laws as well. So lots of good learning. Um I appreciate attending that legal seminar every year. Really kicks off the school year well to make sure that we've got our RTS crossed for any questions regarding legal update. All right. Well, thank you. And then next up is going to be our policy update from Yola 34.2. This is a first reading. We do have the policy overview there. And we also have the executive content, the track changes to skim over. Again, just a first reading. No action tonight. Does anybody have any questions or comments on that one? I have one. It's um page six. It's under board member behavioral communications and code of conduct. There was some new language added that said uh part C
028qualifications of the office. Um I guess where where are qualifications in the office? Where is that defined? Um there's so um it should be qualification for the office should be in the reference should be the state statute um most likely but then also there's because state statute does talk about the difference between a board president and a board clerk for example. So I'm assuming that's why they added that language there. This is the old language that they're recommending that we add to Okay. Yeah. I just I didn't really find where it was defined. So, I'm just curious what that what that means. You can do a little bit more detail then. All right. I I think it's simply of like the election materials when you apply or put in certification. It's like the priorities. Those
029things are qualifications of office. And then the other piece for us is because we have um locations. So we have large and we have certain regions. So that might be piece of there isn't I don't know is there administrative guidelines for for something like this where there could be somewhere that Oh okay. Just curious because it was added language and I just trying to find more of us to find. Yeah, I mean the the good and bad with Niola is our teams of lawyers that go through this and it's like hey let's strike this word here, let's add here. So for the most part more often than not it's a good idea to look at their suggestions, but it's good to ask questions. Any other questions or comments? Again, just the first reading. We'll take
030a look at it again here in two weeks. Then we've got our strategic plan update. Dr. Ernest. Yes. Thank you. So tonight I want to talk we I presented this briefly at the workshop. Uh so uh the wildly important goals what we've done over the last couple years is to move down to more specific goals as our lag measure and then having lead measures. Uh so I'd like to talk about uh goal one and goal two this evening. Uh it was put together with input from staff and our administrative team. So I bring these to you tonight. So wig one um during the 2025 2026 school year we will increase student reading achievement state assessments each cohort grades fourth through 11. So you're looking at the cohort of kids from fourth grade to fifth grade
031for example and then there are different uh they've made an adjustment to the cut scores on a core exam for example uh and there's new categories. So uh we want to increase approaching meeting and advance by 2% in each uh subcategory common Wisconsin forward and the preacct exams and then also increase the meeting college benchmark benchmark on the ACT by 4%. Those are lofty goals but we do think that there are attainable goals as well. So we really want to put our foot forward as far as the uh achievement goal for the first five work. Second goal is more of a staff goal meaning that during the 25 26 school year we'll prioritize staff collaboration and leadership and growth as measured by maintaining or increasing our student survey index scores. So key word is either
032maintaining or increasing because some of those scores are high and Robin Hughes talked to us about there is a law of diminishing returns uh as far as increasing increasing when you already have a high number. What's really important is the lead measures and they're they're being developed right now. The first wild important goal for example um the principles are working with their building leadership teams to set building goals. And so when this works well, you have district goal that informs the building goal that informs the teachers SLO and PPG. That's student learning objective and professional practice goal and that informs the student goals and then student achievement. So that's the the top down that you really want to see with a goal like this if everyone's working and doing lead measures and keeping a scoreboard
033and accountability to try and reach this goal. So, we had success with this last year. I I I appreciate this year's goals because they really are saying achievement is something we want to uh focus on for the first goal and then staff collaboration, leadership, and growth for the second goal. Um, a good example of a lead measure for wig 2 is we're working on a compensation salary um, committee to look at that. Um, so we can get some feedback from staff what they would like to see in a salary structure for the future. So we're going to set those meetings up uh, soon. That would be a lead measure for wild goal 2. And then the SLOs's and PPGs and building goals would be a lead measure for impact. And why are we talking about
034this on an annual basis? It's all the things that we want to do to push and help achieve the aims of our fiveyear strategic plan so we can we can sit back in 2029 and see look how we did. So, uh, asking for your approval on these two goals tonight so we can get to work with our principles and everyone else to try and kick off. It's going to be great. Happy to answer questions. Comments or questions from the board? Is there a motion to approve the 202526 strategic plan goals as presented? So second motion and second. Any further discussion? All in favor of the motion say I. I. Any oppose say nay. And the motion passes. Next up is going to be Mr. Maya with the transportation rates. Yes. Good evening. Uh one topic
035under finance and operations. So tonight just bringing for your um recommended action approval of updated transportation rates. So our current contract uh with Delman um obviously the intention of our staff and providing service to our kids before and after school getting them here um is is currently through the original contract 2021 through 2025 albeit um working with uh President Larry Kirkley and their team Caroline is here from DSM as well. Appreciate their support. um continuing to look at the right contract options for school district and endowment in the future. Um but our contract is still active in the the section term I did include there for it's not renewing one-year terms. So really truly through through 2028. Um, and so with that, regardless, there's a there's a provision in there as what we're bringing to
036your review and recommendations for tonight is as we've been evaluating our busing, um, and as we continue to get new information based on the number of kids that register and sign up for busing, um, recommending that while there is a just a standard 2.5% increase in um, bus rates, um, just looking comparatively um, at how many kiddos we have on buses, uh, the Dallas team is co-signing and also recommending just that we can reduce by two routes. So, um as a reminder, the last time we did that was in the 2122 school year. Uh originally, I believe it was kind of thought as kind of a from some of the maybe COVID and the less utilization at the time. Um but as we've just seen enrollments continue to trend um just in that downward direction
037um just making sure that we're right sizing appropriately. Um, with that the the the chart that you'll see the recommendation and the proposal that I'm recommending for you tonight is that far right column. Um, what that does the rate differences and you can see that Mr. Perkley and his team um have prepared an annual total approximation for the cost that it would be um and from his projections here about $36,000 actually less than the prior year. Um, and so what we're recommending is it is an increase of 2.5% at the base level. Um, in the past when we've reduced buses, um, as you can imagine, there's additional costs that besides just the bus and the driver, we reduce them out, um, that go into your route to help cover all the other elements of operating
038a terminal. Um, and so historically, what's happened is a portion of that has just been redistributed through the other routes to help cover students not. Um, I'd be happy to share some more information in the future or or um, I know they'll be presenting in September just to kind of update. Um but this this last column provides that increase contractually that 2.5% the redistribution of just some of those costs that are assigned to turnable. Um and actually also addresses one of the things that as Stucker just got done talking about our weight too. Um while Dman transportation company employees are not officially school district Jefferson they are an extension of a contracted service for us. Um we recognize that kids start and end their day with them and uh the the DPC drivers and their
039team play an important part in that. So just doing some evaluating of local um local terminals, you know, some of them closer than others, but what they're paying. We just want to make sure that we're maintaining a competitive compensation um to to try and continue to support that. And so this would allow some increases just beyond that 2.5% to maintain competitive feature. Uh so recommendation, there's a lot there. Um it is going to start with also that reduction for two bus routes. Again, we'll be able to go through all those kind of details when we finalize the routes here shortly. um with all the new enrollies. Um but the recommended of that last column, the rates for questions or comments. Um with a two bus cut, I'm just curious because my kids used to ride
040the bus for like an hour every morning, right? Is there a you know a defined time that we shoot for for a bus route trip? Yeah, it's a great question. So, in policy and contractually, typically that's set to 60 minutes. I don't believe if I pull the policy back up here, that's actually defined in ours, but that's still the same thing we do. Um, and and as we're looking at those efficiency pieces, that may affect areas a little bit differently. For example, uh, three routes out towards Sullivan. I'm looking at Caroline. I'm getting an out of, right? those aren't going to necessarily feel that same level absorbing just because those ride times, you know, if they pick up much square mileage, that's going to start putting kids on longer rides. So, we still aim for
041that same under 60 minutes. That was the the direction that I gave Mr. per Carolina and their team as they were re-evaluating that because um I can't recall directly if it's in statute but I know by policy and and a lot of transportation contracts that's typically requirement for and we we you know I I think that would be a good board decision where you know it may be something we could look at in future saying hey if we cut another route it's actually going to put us over for some of that and trying to find you know we don't want to necessarily make decisions like that solely off cost but seeing those kind of numbers can but no I It's maintaining underneath that routine is our was one of our key goals as we prov6
042[Music] transportation rates with DS transport as presented. Second motion and second. Any further discussion? All in favor of the motion say I. I. Any oppose say nay. Motion passes. Thank you. Any future agenda topics? Does anybody have any suggestions? We'll move into announcement. I don't have anything. Uh Dr. Ernest, a few quick ones tonight. National out was a big success. Uh it was nice to be held at the middle school. We can do that in the future. And then also I want to uh say thank you to administrative team and administrative assistants uh and others. We uh participated in some training last week called I love you guys. It's a foundation established provides school safety standard response protocol and standard reunification method training. I'm happy to report that our crisis response plan is solid. We
043learned uh it was a good review and we learned some things last week and we had members from the Jefferson Police Department here as well. So, we're all set to begin the school year. Frequent schools will have safety information from their building meetings and then uh the end of October that professional learning will do some all staff refresher training as well. School safety uh title as we all know new teacher days are August 18th and 19th. So, you're invited for the welcome on August 18th. And then certified staff members will start on August 20th, many of them to their remodel groups. And then all staff members return on August 26 and we'll celebrate years of service and provide professional learning opportunities for all staff on that date. And then last but not least, if you
044want to look at your calendar, the WD region 12 meeting, that's the region that we're part of, is scheduled for Tuesday, September 30th in Sun Prairie. So you can let Valerie know if you're interested in it. It's not in the school district. usually school another hill was my uh right. It almost feels too early. Is there a motion to second? Motion to second. All in favor of adjourning say I. I. And he post a name.