001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Mic test, 1 2. >> Mr. Alberts? Here. Mr. Bignoski? Here. Ms. Folks? Here. Dr. Garcia? Here. Mr. Jackson? Here. Mr. Menke? Here. Mr. Neumeister? Here. Dr. Sprague? Here. Ms. Sukla? Here. A quorum of the Board of Education is present, so the regularly scheduled meeting of Monday, April 20th, 2026 is hereby called to order. Uh we'll now have the pledge. Please stand as you're able and face the I pledge allegiance >> 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. Board members, your microphones may not be turned on potentially. Tonight's agenda has been previously distributed to the board. I would entertain at this time a motion with a second to approve the
002agenda as submitted unless there's a motion to amend. I'd make motion to approve the agenda as presented. Second. Motion is second. Any further discussion? All those in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. >> Aye. Those opposed, motion carries. Move on to public speakers. It is the policy of the board to provide at its public meetings an opportunity for individuals to address the board. Comments about individual staff personnel will not be allowed. Open meeting law prohibits the board from engaging in discussion or responding to matters not included on the agenda. All speakers are reminded that the same policy limits your time to 5 minutes. The limit will be strictly enforced. May I ask the superintendent to keep track of the time and to notify the speaker when it is running out. I will.
003You are also asked to give your name and school district where you reside at the beginning of your time for public record. Our first speaker tonight is Cassie Vorbach. Ooh, sorry. Did I break your microphone? Hello. My name is Cassie Vorbach and I live in the La Crosse school district. I'm here today to talk about something that I wish wasn't even a discussion in the first place, the name of State Road Elementary School. What I think people thought would be a unifying process has pitted the two schools against each other with it appearing as if one side wins and the other side loses depending on the outcome. If this situation is not approached logically and practically, there is not a way out of this that doesn't look to be favoring one side over the other.
004State Road Elementary School should stay State Road Elementary School. The building is not being torn down or moved. It is only being added to. It has had many additions over the years and the name has remained the same. The precedent has already been set in the district. Lincoln was shut down and neither Longfellow or Logan were made to change their names. Why waste time and money to change a name that is not offensive, has history, and is already established? I would much rather see my tax dollars go towards school supplies, school maintenance, or teacher and staff salaries than to have to pay to rebrand a school that doesn't need to be rebranded. If the money is already earmarked for the project, how about using it for an upgrade to the building that we couldn't necessarily
005afford without it? Use it to better the space instead of changing the name. Also, how many meetings will there be if we rebrand the school? We'd have to pick a mascot, pick the colors, pick the logo for the school, etc. Teachers, staff, and parents do not have time for more meetings. Their plates are full. There will be more than enough meetings already happening to combine traditions, curriculum, behavioral policies, and plenty of other items that I know I am not even thinking of. The State Road family is more than willing to open their arms and welcome the Hinchin family to join them. I'm not sure why the thought was that the State Road staff, teachers, and students would be happy to change the name of the school they are attending and will continue to attend. Overwhelmingly,
006the children wanted the name of the school to stay the same. The parents do as well, and although I have not asked, I feel that I can safely say that the staff and teachers do not want to change the name, either. Why force a change when we can fold the Hinchin staff, teachers, and students into State Road with far less struggle? When you blend a family, you don't change the name of the household. You incorporate the new members and their backgrounds and traditions into the existing household. We don't need to force the State Road kids to lose their name just because another school is joining theirs. They can share that identity and become a stronger unit on the other side of this. To change the subject a little, I hope that you all have had
007a chance to go look and see what it looks like over there during construction. The teachers and staff have been doing an amazing job keeping the school year looking as normal as possible as the construction has drastically changed the landscape that they are working in. The playground has been cut in half with the majority of the equipment gone. The construction noise is disruptive and distracting to the students. Whole classrooms have been torn up so that classes have to be moved. And there was a fire alarm that was set off by construction dust on a frigid day this winter. And through all this, everything has still been happening, business as usual. The students deserve some recognition as well for going with the flow with while the chaos of construction is all around them. To end my
008time, I encourage the board to choose the logical, practical, and more budget-friendly option of keeping State Road Elementary School State Road Elementary School. Thank you for your time. We'll then move on to schools showcase. I'll turn it over to you, Dr. Andy. Uh we're fortunate to have um our Family, Career, Community Leaders of America, FCCLA, here to present on the program. >> Hi everyone. My name is Lauren Hayes. I am a first year teacher here at Central High School and I am the advisor of FCCLA for our Central chapter. But, I'm going to turn it over to the kiddos because they did a great job. Sorry. It's okay. You waited for us. There she There we go. Hi, I'm Jameson Buxton. I'm the vice president of the FCCLA chapter and I'm a senior this year.
009And my name is Courtney. I'm in 11th grade and I'm the president of our FCCLA chapter. What are you telling me? Okay. Uh so, in FCCLA we have eight main purposes. It's a national program, so these purposes uh go throughout the entire country. Um and we have one main mission, which is to provide and promote personal growth and leadership development through family consumer science educations and focus on the multiple roles of family members, wage earners, and community leaders. Uh members develop skills for life through character development, creative and critical thinking, interpersonal communication, practical knowledge, and career preparation within the program. So, we have three chapters in the school district of La Crosse. We have Longfellow Middle School, which has 17 members, and it is advised by Miss Josie. And then Logan High School has 11
010members. It is advised by Miss Sellner. And then Central High School, we have 32 members and we are advised by Miss Kalina and Miss Hayes. So, this year uh a couple of the chapter events that we have participated in. Uh we did an ice cream social for our chapter just to start off the year, getting to know everybody. Uh we had a fundraising bake sale a broad barn. We do logger games. Some of these are for fundraising for our chapter. Sometimes it's for a special cause. Sometimes it's to fund kids going to nationals cuz that's all out of our funding. Uh this year we also did Kohl's night, which was for a 12th grade student who has brain cancer. Here he was in FCCLA with us before he had to leave to get his treatment.
011So, we did fundraising for him to get a adaptive bike for him cuz he was a very big mountain biker before his illness. Um we've done things with mental health awareness, presentations to middle school students. We got the middle school chapter kind of started up again this year. And then we also compete, which is kind of the main part of what we do. So, there's the fall leadership conference, regional conferences, and national conferences that we can attend. So, for competitive events at regionals, competitors need to score an 80 or above um to move on to the state leadership conference and then at state competitors need to have the top two scores in the state in their project to advance to nationals. And then at nationals students compete against hundreds upon thousands of other students within
012their categories. And then within FCCLA there's over 50 different events that students can pick from. These range in hospitality, tourism, recreation, which is what I've been competing in, uh baking and pastry, there's focus on children, education, job interview, interior design, uh wild game fabrication, which is a specific state competition. Uh sports management, nutrition, event management, and so many other different categories that you can choose from. So for the national leadership conference it goes all around the country. It's in a different state each year. Um so this past year it was in Orlando, Florida. Um we had eight national qualifiers. I was one of them last year. It was so much fun. We went to the conference for a few days and then we got to sightsee all around Orlando. Um and then in 2024 there
013was an also eight um national qualifiers and they were in Seattle. And this coming year we had this year we had 13 qualifiers for nationals and it will be in Washington, D.C. So this year's national qualifiers throughout Logan and Thatcher Central, Jameson Buxton, um Evangeline Galvan, Brooklyn Peck, Kayla Schoff, Brock Cullihan, Sophia Settergren, Aubrey Al Johnson, um Maya Vangen, Hadley Schrader, Dawson Miles, Sophia Tucker, Kendall Witzky, and Avery Farmer. So I was one of our national qualifiers this year and my project was job interview. So I make a large portfolio and then my judges look over it and then I get interviewed based on a job position that we put together. And right now we're going to have Dawson who was one of our qualifiers just tell you a little bit about his project. So
014my name is Dawson Miles and I compete in Teacher Trained for the past 3 years which consists of me creating lesson plans and educating our community to improve overall health and well-being. So, this year I created health um habit topics, which taught adolescents proper health hygiene and decreased illness. And now Maya and Hadley will show you their project in their interior design category. Um I'm Maya Vongan and this is Hadley Schrader and we chose interior design for our category. And Um so, we were kind of given a prompt for a flower shop coffee shop design. So, what we had to do was draw our blueprints. Everything's up to scale. We chose samples and kind of just designed the whole shop. Yeah, and we did things like coordinate colors and pick out different furnitures and lighting
015um just to make the shop the most community and aesthetically pleasing shop possible. And we did this while also including um financial records and like to scale blueprints and ADA requirements and all the things a real interior designer would use. So, our future um our goal in FCCLA in the coming year is to continue to grow our chapter, serve our community through fundraisers and volunteer work, excel in FCCLA competitive events, and work to provide a space for all of our members to grow, learn, and inspire within our chapter, school, and community. Uh I know for me personally, before high school I wasn't in very many things. I was not good at sports and I just couldn't find anything to connect with until FCCLA. Um I really like the different array of topics. I've competed in
016child care and hospitality and tourism, and it's just a great way to kind of get you out of your comfort zone, to learn how to public speak, to present, to push yourself while also doing all your other school things. And it's a great way to connect with new people and spend your time volunteering. Um I've been in FCCLA for the past 5 years. So, I started in 8th grade and I've gone all the way up to this year. And throughout the past 5 years, I've gotten a ton of real-life experience, whether it's practicing interviews, um making a resume, applying for a job, um and practicing my public speaking, which I've become very passionate in and very well at now. Thank you for taking the time to listen. Now, Miss Josie is going to talk about
017the Longfellow Middle School chapter just a little bit more. Hi, I'm Josie Finocchiaro. I am the chapter advisor for Longfellow FCCLA, and we do not compete in events because a lot of my students are like 7th, 6th grade, so they're still a little too young to really get really in-depth into those competitions. But, what we've been working on right now is a lot of fundraising, and we're using that fundraising to do a bunch of events for our teachers and our office staff for Teacher Appreciation Week, May 4th through 6th. We're making baskets and cards, and we're focusing our big skills on like cooking and with like a breakfast and all of that, and trying new recipes. So, that's really what we've been focused on over at the middle school, and then just igniting that passion
018for them to continue to compete in the high school level. And that's it. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you for presentation. This was very enlightening, and I'm excited to see the passion that the students have. We have a question for Mr. Menke. Yeah, I'm very surprised. I never heard about this during my time in high school when I was there. That was a while. How long has FCCLA been in in schools? Forever. 40s. I can't say specific to Central cuz it's my first year, but I do know that our previous teacher um did um advise FCCLA for probably 5 or so years. Um and I also didn't have it in high school, so I'm very new to this as well, but some like we have 32 members at Central and it's awesome.
019We're getting new kids each year, so it's been super fun and I hope to keep growing our chapter. It's awesome to see that grow there and I'm kind of more so curious since it seems it reminds me so much of DECA and Future Business Leaders of America, but more so in a personal way, I'd say. I'm kind of curious for the students here is where you all heading to after high school? You going into Sounds like there's a lot of potential for teaching or just Come on up. Yeah. Healthcare. Um next year I'm attending Madison and I'm pre-nursing. I plan on going into healthcare. I would like to go into public relations in some sort of global international relations. Um I would like to go into education or nursing. I'd like to go into political
020science and marketing. And I'm going into healthcare. I'm noticing a trend here. It seems to be a great organization for you all, so thank you all so much. And Yeah, thanks again. Impressive, good. It's a great opportunity for you all. Pretty diverse group. Thank you for that showcase. That was a good one. You know, that was many years he's been out of school. It's Two years is a lot, I guess. Thank you so much for coming. If you've presented and you're ready to to go on about the rest of your day, you're welcome to. You can also stick around and see great government in action, so. The organization has been around since the '40s though. It started as Future Homemakers of America. Did you just Google that? No. No. It was around when I was
021in school. I was in Future Teachers of America, I remember. Oh, you saved it for me, but not for Trevor. I see how it is. I'm like And I'm going to move on. Move on to the Superintendent's Consent Agenda. The superintendent's consent agenda is a mechanism used by the board to deal with routine business that must come before the body. Are there any items that members want removed uh to remove from the board that from the Let me start again. The consent agenda is a mechanism used by the board to deal with routine business that must come before the body. Are there any items that members want to remove from the superintendent's consent agenda? I do have a question for the HR. Your question is? Um so I'm expecting this to probably come up later
022during the session about the food nutrition staff or the support staff for um Logan High School. Um are How are we looking for applicants comes to the food staff for the high school? Um the typical process, you know, we post uh internally and externally, uh seek applicants. We've uh modified some things over the years to attract and retain our school nutrition folks a little bit better, and we've had pretty good success. Um our kitchen staffs are generally full throughout the school year, but like other positions that are similar to that, there's more kind of internal change throughout the year as folks kind of come and go into different roles. Um but the vacancies we have now are typical throughout the school year. Some are kind and target their end dates for the end of the
023school year knowing that they can move on without impeding our our school operations. I probably save some of my questions for later. Some kind of curious here more of the modifications for them there cuz reason why I asked this is course we had in the food nutrition afterwards or the instance we had, but um when I came up with to Logan High School kind of just to see some of them in action right there, they said they really needed someone over there, and it sounds like it's very much of a big huge need for the community. So we'll add that to the agenda later. >> Yeah. I'll save the I'll save more questions for later. Are there any other I any items members want removed from the agenda? If not, I'll look for motion to
024approve. So moved. Seconded. Motion to approve and seconded the items on the superintendent's consent agenda. Any further discussion? All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. All those opposed? Motion carries. Next item is the board consent agenda. This is the minutes from our last meeting and our workshop. Board consent agenda is a mechanism used by the board to deal with routine business that must come before the body. Are there any items that members want to remove from the board consent agenda? Hearing none, I'd look for a motion to approve the board consent agenda as presented. >> So moved. Seconded. Motion and a second, any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed? Motion carries. Move on to matters here for board action. Um starting with
025uh operational expectation monitoring report OE1. And uh this is looking for any potential changes for the monitoring report. Uh administration has no recommendations for changes for OE1. It seems to continue to work well with the indicators as we have been presenting. So we would need a motion to approve um without any changes. I'd make motion to accept the OE1 global operation expect expectation monitoring report template as it currently stands. Seconded. Motion and a second, any further discussion? All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. I. All those opposed? Motion carries. We'll then move on to um consider uh approval of name recommendations for the newly consolidated schools and you have two attachments um for the new building and um the State Road building. Uh last time uh we met, we discussed
026the process. Um Ms. Cheryl gave a great presentation on the process for uh the recommendation to the school board. Uh presented uh four names for each site with uh rationale for each. And uh at this point it's on the board's agenda for action and so there's an opportunity to make a decision tonight if you are interested in doing so. Typically by Robert's Rules of Order you make a motion and then there's discussion and if the board members are okay with it perhaps we could just have a bit of discussion to kind of see where board members are at on this what their thoughts are in general before we put together a motion if that's okay and if anybody like to kick off that discussion on thoughts for naming. I I think perhaps the easier one
027to start off with might be the Hogan Elementary School and I'm kind of curious there's any suggestions to change the or the Hogan Administrative Center to the Hogan Elementary School. I'm kind of curious there's any um momentum here on the board perhaps look at other names for it but it sounds very clear from what I've heard to to keep it Hogan Elementary School. It's a little bit less contentious and I'm kind of curious hear the thoughts from the board. So what I'm more so leaning for is keeping Hogan by its name. Did we ever get clarification on the the I know there was a family that donated land. Did we ever get clarification on that if there was Okay. Thank you. Well, I'll just kick it off I guess for since people are probably struggling
028with where we start on this. Um for for me the Hogan site is the Hogan site. In my mind it's been that name. I I The only reason we wouldn't have it is um I don't know. Like even the neighborhood identifies himself as that. I think that that property has been known as Hogan. I kind of think it's amazing that that piece of property has been used for education for in excess of a hundred years and for that to continue to do so under the Hogan name I think it's um is appropriate for this community. Um I appreciate the work of the committee for other names, but at the end of the day in fact, when I talked to people in the community and even some of the neighbors that have messaged me about different
029questions about when is the building start or when is the groundbreaking things like that, they've all referred to it as the new Hogan building. So um for that reason, that's the where I'm leaning. I agree with you 100% that it is I mean, it is known for the area Hogan is uh what it's been forever and and to your point, the the community calls it the Hogan area, you know, it even have the neighborhood association is listed as that, so I don't see any reason not to have it that. Even though there's a lot of deserving names, I'm going to say that, but uh at this point, I don't see that change is necessary. I've been feeling similarly for a while that even if there was not a legal obligation to keep the name, that
030the fact that it's it's the Hogan neighborhood, the Hogan neighborhood association, and I like you, Deb, I like that it it keeps the the lineage of the property and intact in a way, so I've that's kind of where I've been at as well. Other comments on the naming of that building? I'll look for a motion if there is no further discuss Oh, sorry. I mean, I I was just going to say I'm glad you guys all spoke so I can just say I agree with all of that. Um more more the reason I kind of want to stay with that name is just I'm I'm about, you know, honoring the people that donated the land long time ago, so uh that's kind of where I stand on that with the exceptions of having, you know,
031everybody kind of call it that already, so. Yeah, I think it's natural that people would call it that because we haven't given it another name. So, like the default is what it was before. I'm not sure that's necessarily a reason to keep it. Um but I like the idea of honoring the people who donated it. I guess my only question was like whether there was a thought of moving toward more like descriptive names for the buildings. Um it seems like with the newer buildings, Northwoods, Northside, Southern Bluffs, these are about sort of I don't know, descriptive. Location. >> Location, right? Or something about the beauty of what this what's around the school, but having said that, I'm I'm not going to strongly oppose keeping it Hogan. >> say I just didn't know if that's should
032be part of our conversation. When we named the Northside, um it was built on the former Franklin site, but there were schools combining, so we didn't want to call it Franklin because it just didn't seem to make sense at that time. And so that's how it ended up with the that name. Um because there wasn't another school on that site that the Hogan name seems kind of neutral to me. I agree. Any other comments from anyone? There also wasn't a I mean, the other reports, um want to get a little bit more data for the State Road and Hinson can um the way that process went down. Um there wasn't any consistency, like there was no there wasn't a lot of correlation between the two the Spence and Emerson lists, right? There's directionally you could
033tell it was a lot about the setting that that school sits in, but I didn't see a lot of correlation between the two. Mhm. >> two school communities coming out of that, so I agree. Um and it is a neutral site, right? The only question I have is like Hogan might have gotten a bad name over the years cuz with her administration said We know we're going to have any concerns with that. >> I'm just kidding. No, I think in general I'm It's an opportunity to rehabilitate the name. >> go. There you go. Let's reclaim it. >> Just asking. I I think it would be nice if we over time then also can find a way to incorporate images in the history of the site and the old building. Yeah. You know, which I think
034is true of any redevelopment. We had at least for me I had somebody reach out an email me saying that they were suggesting we have plaques up for these buildings no matter what we do. So everyone got that. Awesome to hear. And I thought that was just an incredible opportunity. And I kind of mentioned this beforehand and another person probably emailed all of us here with the same thing is that a name builds upon the community. It sets the foundation for the community for it to and I think there's a lot of ways to honor that with our own plaques on our history. I mean no matter what way we make for what we name something, we want this to be in the unity for the community for. So I'd love to hear instances of
035plaques being at either of the schools. Either way I'm kind of curious that's an option we can do. Maybe it's not exactly a option to discuss right here, but For reference update maybe. Just something for out there. Still honor names. Jim or Um Holly, did you have anything you want to add to this? Uh you guys kind of covered everything that I was going to say, so. I'll make the motion to adopt Hogan as the name. Seconded. Motion and a second to adopt Hogan for the site or for the name for the the new building on the Hogan site. Any further discussion? All those in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. As opposed? Motion carries. Congratulations on the name for Hogan. Um now we move on to the um State Road. more
036interesting conversation perhaps. Um And I don't I don't know if anybody wants to wade into it. Um I I will just because somebody needs to. Um So, I have good friends at State Road that of course have lobbied me and said please keep it State Road. Um I've also had some good friends at Hinshin who said think about inclusion and think about the community. And I've been given a lot of thought. Dr. Ningle and I talked about this a year ago when I first became president about where we're going with names. And um I appreciate the work of the committee that they've done. I mean, I've really looked at all the names and have given it a ton of thought. And um at the end of the day, the kids at Emerson and at Spence
037and at Hinshin are leaving a whole building. And the kids at State Road, if we don't name it State Road, will lose a name. But they'll retain their building. And um with that said, I think for a matter of inclusion, um I like um several the names that were provided, but the name that I am leaning towards is Pamel Creek because Pamel Creek connects because it runs through the neighborhoods of Hinshin and State Road. And it feels like a connector to me. And so, that's where I'm thinking um for a name. Um and so, I'll throw something out there because it's not State Road and start out with a conversation. I don't know where the rest of the board members feel, but um that would that's where I'm at. But I'm open to hear what
038other board members say. I've been leaning in more so with a similar example and for that exact same reason, the fact that Pamel Creek is more of a connection for it. One of the things I've heard from Hinshin is that they kind of feel as if, like you said, they're losing part of their own culture. Hinshin had a very unique culture for elementary schools that we want to give them the honor to uh again building on that foundation to build a community forum as well. And they had a lot of development there going in there before the referendum. There was the Hinchey Association. They're planning on funding to get sidewalks through that baseball field there, too. So, I thought of a way exactly how exactly we'd be honoring Hinchey as they go forward to a
039new school. I thought about Pamlico Creek would be very much of a uniting name for them. So, I've been leaning more more so towards that direction. It's It's something I'm more hesitant towards, and I'm very open about that just with the naming for some things just cuz we want to honor both the members, but um like State Road, they have their own culture and their own history, and I love seeing the kids come up here present that as there as well, but I have been leaning slightly more towards the Pamlico Creek than I have been towards State Elementary. I like that Pamlico Creek was the top for both. Um for both committees that came in as the top choice for both committees. I like Woodside Elementary, too, but that's a personal preference that I won't
040I won't knock anybody I won't knock anybody off the hill for that one, but I but I do agree and the speaker did bring up that there was precedent that we didn't rename when we moved and when we closed Lincoln, but there was a lot of hurt feelings there. Part of the reason we're considering this is because there was a desire that that process had maybe taken into consideration a little more carefully the merging of those two communities and done something to make it feel a little more like a single unified new community. And so, I think that starts with a new name that they can that all the both communities can get behind. Eventually. So, I I grew up a block away from State Road, so that's like my my uh neighborhood. Um if
041we have to change the name, I would go towards more wood side. I still remember when Pammel Creek turned into concrete and I still have some feelings about that. Um Also, they have the the outside classroom in the woods. They have all the trails and I honestly am personal. My brothers used to through those woods pretending they were in Lord of the Rings. So, and and when I think of that neighborhood, I think of the woods that surround it. Um So, if we have to change it, cuz I do think that will will probably stay State Road in some people's hearts forever. Um I I would prefer wood side. Can I bring up a just a question? Have we ever considered just knocking it down to three possible names and kind of bringing it back
042out there for the for one, the school, the the students, the teachers and everything? And and maybe there's two of them right there that we consider and maybe add one and kind of knock it down to give them a little more opportunity to voice cuz obviously we've heard from all sides of this. But if we go strictly off the base and don't call it what it currently is or any other school's name that we're closing, this gives them more of an opportunity to be part of the final name if we can knock it down to three and bring it back to them. There's no real hurry right at this point that we need to name this school tomorrow or even today. So, I I'm just throwing it out there as an option. Because I really
043it'll be Franklin forever for me too and I do not like Northside School. So, So, I think a name like that is important and and I I would love to to give everyone the opportunity to to voice at least on the three we can knock it down to. I think I I think you're more hanging towards a correct direction. I think the one thing to push back for the State Road would probably add to that third name would be State Road Elementary School. Not if we give direction that it's not. I mean, we've already we if we go to three you know, three names and State Road isn't one, well, others can hope that it is. If it's not, it's not. It's These are the three options and we direct it to one of these
044three is going to be the name of the school and we want their their input. I think it gives them the community the opportunity to speak loud and clear on one of the three. I would just throw out there that, you know, the list that is in the recommendation indicates the order of preference of the additional names, but when the staff were choosing them, the staff at State Road chose State Road to keep as their primary name. So, just a point of clarification there for folks, just so you're not confused by that particular list. That's just uh I the staff would want to make sure that that was clear in this process. Other comments? I've been trying to be really open-minded about this because uh Hinson is my school and my daughters and my son
045will be at State Road and so, it's for me, it has been trying to think about you know, what it what is the act of of naming or renaming, you know, do for us and and how are we thinking about these two parts of the community coming together in important ways and where what what are we prioritizing by by making the choice either to keep State Road or to or to change State Road. And I I certainly have heard, as I'm sure everybody on the board has, in emails and in the comments like tonight, um you know, there is a cost associated with changing a name. Um and at the same time the State Road students it was at the last meeting it was like all my daughter's friends who came came to speak to
046us. So, um, I will have to deal with that regardless of which way we end up going. Um, but and then you know, at the same time the students and the staff from Hinckley are being asked to make a really significant move as well. And part of me truthfully wonders is this the kind of thing that happens in a school district and is is only of this significance for a few years until it becomes the new normal and how much of that factor in. So, I'm that's where my head's at. Um, I think that it's it makes sense for me given given all of that to I think in this instance prioritize the move from Hinckley into State Road and and what those students and staff are going to be going through and to think
047about creating a welcoming um, environment at a at a newly named school. The foundation for the new community there. Maybe. Any other comments? I think the the fact that we're melding two distinct cultures into an an existing building throws some some wrenches into like the Hogan one's pretty cut and dry, right? We're still moving two two schools into a new building, but they're both going to a new building, right? It's a brand new building. It's very different cultures. So, I just want to make sure I'm clarifying that this is not there's no double standards here in the way I'm thinking about uh, the process. For me, I think a new name, a new identity, new colors creates the opportunity to create community. Um, and I think that if I'm the student that is moving to
048a brand new building to a new building that's existing that has existing culture, knowing that I get to be a part of creating that makes that movie easier. Whether that's a student or a family or a staff. So, I'm supportive of a name. Um I did like this is I love I like the way this report was written cuz it gave me a lot of like data. Like where some of these names landed within top 10s or top fives. Uh and I like the data, so that was I liked the that. I'm I'm not sold on any name. Um it's all change. I'd like to hear everybody's opinions as we go through this and on on what that looks like. But I'm definitely supportive of um changing the name to create community for for both
049um both uh groups involved. Other thoughts? Comments? I also like the Woodside name. I just The reason I landed on Pammel Creek is it seemed more like the piece that connects the two schools in um but I'm I'm like that other name as well. >> Yeah, and it was the top submission of the committee. The committee The committee recommended Woodside name. It's a connector. So, you Dr. Angle, you gave us clarification. So, it's a you know, cuz it's the report the staff voting results on top five for each school. So, I'm assuming top five that the two columns top five was um all the new names and then the automatic submissions. So, that's why it's not showing up in the staff >> That's right. Okay. Yep. Just wanted to clarify where that came from. Tim,
050Tim, you haven't spoken. I don't know if you're already to Thank you for calling me out. I woke up this >> the option out if you would. I woke up this morning and asked my wife what she said she thought and she didn't tell me, so that was it was great. Um I like going into this meeting I kind of you know shared the same sentiment as the speaker did in terms of you know cost and you know, why change something that's already named. Um, but after you guys all spoke, I you know, I I agree with all of it. That's why it's a hard decision and to know exactly what to choose. Um, I always say this when I go shopping. I wish I had two options instead of five. Um, so it makes
051it a little bit more difficult even past that. I mean, I like the Pamlico Creek. I you know, I grew up getting crawfish out of it and I did like it when they changed it to a a big concrete cuz we could sneak down there and run around in it. But anyways, um, and it doesn't flood. Things no, so Um, but yeah, I mean, all of these are great names. Uh, I just kind of was leaning to you know, keep it the same. Um, you know, I've heard from both sides. And from the most part, the teachers kind of want to keep it the same. Uh, we heard from students that want to keep it the same. Uh, yeah, I it's a tough decision. I as I've wrestled with this, the picture in my head
052was the picture from the presentation last time of the kids on their knees um, begging us to choose the same and how do I tell them um, I might disagree with them. Um, but I again in my mind um, the the coming together, they they have their building. It's it would be a different name. Um, I don't makes my uh, sense in my mind. And the other thing that is important to me that really has had an impact on me is 3 years ago um, when I came back to the board and we talked to the the middle schools, one of the things that we heard was that that integration piece of of bringing in the Lincoln kids into both of the middle schools didn't it happened so quickly. It it didn't people hadn't given
053thought to how important that piece is and how and considering that and that's really has had a big impact on me as well and I I want to make sure we don't do that same thing and how do we integrate and to me a new identity coming together is is a great way to do that and someone has said it's an opportunity to bring people together to create their future together under the new identity. So, um Adam, you haven't spoken, but I'm kind of sensing from the board unless Adam goes off in a different direction, which he can do. Um or sometimes does. Um that at least to move to advance this conversation, we we as a board might be leaning towards a new name. We haven't selected a name, but we might be a
054new name and then the process maybe would be something we'd want to talk about. Adam and then we'll I don't think I really had so much to add. Do you I think I agree with you towards the the name change or at least at least we can settle that. My only one concern that's kind of leading me against that is kind of you said is this something that's going to tear the community apart by picking a new name, but like you said, it's getting that new identity up right there. Um and I don't think I raised my hand, but Well, you looked like you were going to. Okay. I was thinking. Um I just want to address the budget conversation that came up a couple times from the speaker and and Tim brought it up
055as well. We're under budget like everything on the project we has this we last meeting we went through all of the additional projects that we're going to do. Uh State Road is going to get a brand new kitchen out of this. Um new production kitchen, so there's upgrades that we weren't even planning on having going into that building that is going to go into that building because of the fact that we're under budget, so yes, this does cost money. It is part of the change, but to me it's we're already under budget. Um we're already giving that school additional things that weren't even in scope going into the original project. Um I'm not saying that should sway anybody, but I just want to make sure for the record budget-wise we're this this is not stretching
056budgets. We're We're already under budget so on this. I think this >> We just mentioned for the record also that being that we're on a under budget, some out there may wonder why we're not picking other things to do with that money's, but it has to stay in the in that uh in that realm of what we actually asked the community for. So, we can't take that money's and and you know, bring it to Logan to build a a new state-of-the-art kitchen there or something. It's we're limited to what we can use it for. Although I'm all for that. Imagine that. Or in the pool. Yeah, or the pool, yeah. Did you have anything you wanted to add to this, Jim? Uh no, I'm kind of wide open on this. Uh I don't really have
057feelings one way or another. I guess I would lean toward Pamlico Creek simply because it came out top for both schools. I just think this is one of the first times in my three years on the board that I have not felt like I have a clear sense of what is the right way to go forward, and I did not expect it to be about naming a building. Um one thing that I've been thinking about um quite a lot, but now as as we're talking through all this as well is I think and I I wouldn't want to speak for staff at Henchmen. Um but it my sense would be that maybe one of the big concerns is of of losing the the programming and losing some of the work that they've been doing over
058there that differentiates them as a school, that makes them unique. Um and so the question I guess I would have in response to that is is how much does a you know, how much does the name weigh into whether we're able to you know, keep those best parts of everything that's been going on at at Hinshin. So, I'm just spinning in all kinds of circles around this. I think the first decision we have to make is do we change the name? And then if we do, then that would be a separate decision. Is that a direction the board would like to go? Are you comfortable with that choice? It's a fair step forward. And at least gets a way in on are we at least in agreement or not in agreement if we want to
059change the name or not. We can do this by conversation or a vote, however you want to proceed. Um vote seems kind of strong, but I want to make sure that people's opinions are are brought forward to the table on that. Um Board members that are not liking the idea of changing the name, um Are there any board members that would be opposed to changing the name? I mean I could go either way, but I am more leaning towards just keeping it State Road. I would agree. I don't know. And I couldn't even say is it 50/50? Is it 60/40? I don't >> I it's tough because you you understand the desire to keep it the same, right? But I also look at the new kids and the new families that are attending that. It
060kind of gives them the opportunity to to build this new school together with a fresh name, with fresh identity. And and I think it gives them more of an inclusiveness to to be part of it. It's going to be difficult anyways because they lost their school and you know, they're going to go to a new school where they're going to meet new friends. Granted, some of them are with them, but I think it just would make it easy on them. That's why I lean towards, you know, the the new name more than not, but it's I do understand that it's not good either way, right? So, but I I think that if if you are moving there, you're all for a new name. That would be what I would think. No matter what way we
061go, we're still going to be the La Crosse School District. At least that at least. We're not going to change that, but Yeah, I'm I'm more in favor of changing the name when I think mostly about the inch and kind of like Zach what you said there, too, but like I'm not going to be mad either way it goes, too. If it says it's State Road or not, but for my sake of the conversation, I'll say I'm in favor of changing the name. Well, I I'd recommend we vote. I'd say if you want to do a test vote here. enforce the issue. Yeah. So, um as board president, I'll make a motion that we as a board would uh look would agree to change the name um of the State Road School. I'll second. Any
062further discussion? All those in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. >> Aye. Aye. Those opposed? Nay. Two nays. So, we've agreed now that we'll change the name. Do we want to discuss the names or do we want to discuss a process to select the names? Um I I'm okay with going back and giving people voice, right? Like we've at least got a direction. Some are not going to be happy, some will, but at least we can give a voice um to that. And I I I would like to at least hear that voice. That's my opinion. I definitely think it would be wise to go out to the community and have them decide whether they'd be going through the same process again and seeing if Pamalee Creek comes up as number one
063again. Well, and if we like I don't know if you meant to to word it in that way, but are we going to commit to a process where we accept that recommendation and move on it or is it going to be more information for another conversation? We'd have to decide that as well. >> I I think that's a good point because the Dr. Engel and the staff that worked on the everybody that worked on the process understood that the final decision is with this body. And so, I think clarifying that before we go out to get that input I think is a is key. I mean, I personally think we got the input from those two schools. I would agree with that. I would argue the same. Our committees, our staff, our students, our community
064had a broad opportunity to submit names. We had some very thoughtful people work very hard to screen those names and provide rationale for each. You have the best possible names here in my opinion and an opportunity to pick one that the students and staff supported each of them for good reason. I think discerning between these five, you know, it's a matter of preference for a lot of folks and I've heard one or two rise to the top amongst you all so far and you know, the board has specifically held on to the authority to name buildings and from my perspective, we've provided you the best possible information to do so at this point. I also understand a desire to to get a more democratic approach to it, to survey one last time on maybe one
065or two names. But, you may or may not like the results of that too. So, I think you have enough information personally from my perspective to feel confident that the staff and students will support the decision that you've made with those five names. So to push the envelope, I'll make a motion that we name the new school Pamel Creek Elementary. Second. Adam second, okay. Motion a second to name the new the school Pamel Creek Elementary. Discussion. May I hear? Go to Jeff first. Dr. Engles, how with the rebrand, with the ability to have input on mascots and colors and things like what what what is that timeline? What would you need from a timeline standpoint to make sure that you could implement this before the school year? Yeah, with a a name, we would probably
066take about six to seven months to go through another process to pick out mascots, colors, and all of those sorts of things. Um We've talked about branding at a number of our schools. You know, as an example, Northwoods International has a you know, very old symbol that's used for their school. Literally 1997 clip art. Um and they've been asking for something new for a long time. We're finally in a position to be able to focus on those sorts of things. And so this would fit into a similar process as some of our other schools would be going through. So the time is ripe really right now and we would be ready well in advance of the completion of construction and you know, the ultimate merger of our schools to be able to rebrand all the
067things that we would need. Thank you. Yes. I am far from it for me to not agree with our fine superintendent, but I'm going to. Um I think I am all in favor of knocking this down to three and giving it back to to the uh to the people that it affects the most. Uh we already made one difficult decision. They're going to have a new school name. So, now let's let's give 30-day referral to on the name. Give them an opportunity to to pick the the name they feel is best that they desire to gather. And I I I realize Pamalee Creek is is number one on all of them. But, it's most of them still wanted to stay at Roads. Most of them still wanted to turn It It just depends on what
068they wanted, right? So, this gives them a second uh kick at the can. And I'm I will be voting against uh it just for that reason, because I want to give them another opportunity. I don't think 30 days harms anybody at this point. The they The they is that the students and the staff, or who are you looking to kick this back to? The student staff, public. It doesn't, you know, I think we just open it up again. Or Or I I Unless people think just the students and the staff, I'm okay with whatever. I just think we shouldn't be the ultimate decision on this. Um we already made a difficult decision saying it's going to have a new name. So, let's get everyone involved in picking the final. If we not If we can
069bring it to the top three, and maybe we do that automatically just by the votes. Makes it simple. Then give them the opportunity of the three. I would add the subcommittees already picked the top three for us, so we could go with the three that the subcommittee put forward, if we wanted to do that. >> I think that's a good idea thinking about it. And just ask them to try to come to consensus around it. Just for the clarification for the public, it's the Woodside, Maple Ridge, and Pamalee Creek are the three. If you scroll down That's right. a little bit, you can see where the committee picked those three plus State Road as the final recommendations. There we go. We have a first and a second, so we have to vote. Yeah, but Or
070we can keep talking. We can table it, too. So, it's um the decision, however you want to I guess another point of information, like how how intrusive is that process on the on the staff? Yeah. How I know gathering information, I'm not I think Scott, I think I agree with the concept. I'm just want to understand like how hard is it going to be for for staff to get that information? Are we asking them to go back into committee, or are we sending out a survey, choose your top name? Like the those would be different processes. >> See, for me it's probably just a survey. Here's your top name. I just wanted that cuz to me Yeah. I'm a data person as we've as I said earlier, right? So, yeah, these three got kicked up
071by the committee, but if you look at Maple Ridge was not in top 10 of either school, right? But schools can get behind it, right? So, it came out as a recommendation from a small group on a committee. Right. Versus this is empirical data that said these are top three based on rankings. Again, it just I'd like to see a similar set where if it's our survey, it gives me more of that. Mhm. True, here's your here's your top rank like cuz we voted for it, so we think we're being asked to do this. The group >> Um whether that's the school communities and the and the if possible the neighborhoods around there since it's their neighborhood. I don't know if that's probably a little bit too much, but I said a lot of words,
072so how intrusive is that going to be on staff if we ask them to do that? For staff itself, a survey is easy. We can send something out, they can fill it out in 5 to 7 days, and you'll have your answer relatively quickly. It's not particularly difficult for students either, you know, whether it's a paper ballot in class or uh physical or a survey electronically for older kids, that's relatively easy to accomplish as well. Surveying a particular neighborhood is particularly difficult. Um that would be tough um without you know, with any sort of like clarity that it is just those folks who have weighed in. Broader community. Depends on how quality a survey you want. You know, you can spend a lot of money to ensure everybody has an opportunity. You can throw something
073up on Facebook and get 200 responses pretty quickly of a cross section of the world. Yeah. Thank you. I I'll just say um this isn't going to be an easy decision and getting more input, I I don't know that you're going to see anything much more clear than what you already have and at the end of the day we're elected um you're elected to do um a a hard job and we're being asked to do that now and so that's I'm comfortable with making a decision this evening but um that's my opinion. I would be as well. I'll call the question. Okay, call the question. All those in favor of the motion to to name the school Pammel Creek signify by saying I. I. I. Those opposed. Nay. Can you raise your hands just so
074we can count. One, two, three. >> I prefer I'll say nay, sorry. These are for nays. Okay, for nays raise your hand, please. One, two, three. So motion passes. We have named the school Pammel Creek. Congratulations. Um I think it was a difficult decision but I appreciate the board sticking here with us. I appreciate people having no votes which is usually me so it's nice to um not be that person but I also understand how um you have to make a stand, you have to make a choice. So, I respect that as well. Um, but I'm glad that we have a decision going forward. I just can't believe how hard that is. Okay. >> It's crazy. I think we all need a like a break for a minute here. Okay. Um, I will offer up
075to our our our audience we're moving on to some other agenda items including early childhood impact and our school nutrition program and you're welcome to stick around if you would like for that. I also understand that some of you might have been here for this particular agenda item. So, if you wanted to leave you're more than welcome to do so. You're also welcome to stick around to see great government in action. This uh He says with dripping with conviction. A tough decision way back when was when they changed the name from Central Red Raiders to Yeah. Yeah, I'm sorry. That was a big argument and still is in the community. I'm sure it was a big discussion when they changed the UWL mascot as well. It was. And that was needed. Yeah, my hometown they
076changed it and I'm still calling it the other name. Um, moving on to information items the early childhood impact update. Uh, very excited to welcome uh, Michelle Sampson here to uh, present the first returns of our early childhood community impact program. Yes, thank you. Is this on? It is. Sorry, I'm just trying to get connected. The mic will pick you up wherever you're at. Dan's great. Adjusting audio. Sometimes I get going and I just want to make sure you all can hear me. There you go. Is that about Ouch! She's content. Okay, perfect. So, thank you for having me back. My name is Michelle Sampson. I'm the Early Childhood Impact Coordinator for the School District of La Crosse. If you could remember, I came in August of last year where we did kind of a
077initial presentation of our work when it was still in its infancy stage. So, we are here today just to present an update on where we're at. So, I'll spend a few minutes just kind of reviewing what this work is because August was a long time ago. This is the Prenatal to Classroom Initiative that the School District is working on to improve early childhood outcomes by looking at the earliest life experiences for our children in our community. So, we are basing a lot of what we are doing on what we know about brain science and early childhood development. And when we think about this work, we know that children do not live in isolation. So, we are really focusing on how do we improve experiences for children within the context of their homes, their families, their
078communities, their neighborhoods because we know that's where children live. And ultimately, our goal is to build a foundation that gives every child and family in our community a chance to thrive. So, in August, we came, we gave kind of a high-level overview because that's where we were with the work. We shared how this idea came to be and why the school district was is invested in this, but we also shared this video that we're not going to share again tonight, um but I can send it to Laura and she can send it out if anybody's interested. But if you can remember, this video um was by Dr. Jack Shonkoff, who is the founder of the Center of the Developing Child um over at Harvard University. Uh and it focuses or the the video is on
079uh how early childhood experiences affect lifelong health and learning. Um and this video is just a really great video because it sums up the reason why the school district along with so many of our community partners are invested and prioritizing this work. So, this video uh highlighted the impact that earliest life experiences, beginning with prenatal care, um uh have on both brain development and biology, uh which have lasting implications and truly affect trajectory of young children. Um and it also the video also focuses, and you can see I took a screenshot there, um of of the video on how our current system relies very heavily on pediatric care to be the kind of catch-all for children and young families to then refer to other programs um or resources. And instead, the video asks, "How do
080we, as uh um as a system, move away from relying solely on pediatric care, but build a early childhood ecosystem in which primary care is an integral part of that, but it's alongside all of our other resources within the community?" Um because early childhood is such a critical time in a child's life. Um By the time a baby's born, 25% of their brain is already developed. By the time they're three, 75%. By the time they go to school at five, 90% of their brain is developed. So, it's we have a small amount of window of time to get this right. Um I like to use the analogy when I'm talking with people in the community about why this work is so important, um it's kind of similar to building a house. The first thing you
081do is you build your foundation. And if that foundation is poured and it's shotty and you continue to build the rest of the house, there will be challenges. And you can go back and fix that foundation. However, it um is very costly, it takes a lot of time, and sometimes the house is not as structurally sound as if it would have been done right the first time. And that's what we want for every child in our community is how do we give them the best start in life. Um and we know that that is supporting families in our community. So, where are we at? Uh we have a new uh project name and logo since the last time we came and this was something that the steering committee quickly identified for this for this initiative
082because it is a community-driven because this work is community-driven. Uh we wanted this work to not be on the shoulders of one organization, but rather our community as a whole coming together and looking for a shared solution on how we can better support families um in our community. So, after a few different uh project name and logos, kind of similar to what you all just did, uh we voted uh back in December and came up with La Crosse Area Right Beginnings. Um we did keep it with our school district colors just because um everything I'd sent out was already in the school district colors, so we kept it with that. Um but we wanted to um uh have a a name that really encompassed the community aspect of it. So, our community or our steering
083committee meets monthly. We have since we've started in July, and you can see on the screen who makes up that steering committee. So, we have representation from La Crosse County both in public health and in the Department of Children with Special Needs. Amplify Health by Gundersen, we have representation from Population Health and also a pediatrician. From The Parenting Place, we have both Family Resource side of the organization along with our child care resource and referral side. We the La Crosse City of La Crosse from the Planning Department, Mayo Clinic from their community engagement team, School District of La Crosse, we have from our Community Services Department. We also have Student Services along with a elementary school principal is on our steering committee. From the YMCA, she individual she oversees some of the community health workers,
084other community impact work, and Surround Care. Western Technical College individual works very closely with student parents. Then, the last logo on there is Wisconsin Early Childhood Collaborating Partners. That is an organization that's a state-wide organization dually funded by DCF and DPI. So, and essentially our steering committee, we are working together to see the early childhood systems in our community as a whole make data-driven decisions to create transformational change. So, this was another slide that we shared back in August. What are we hoping to do? And we know if we build a connected network of prevention and intervention support for young children and families, then families and children will get the right help at the right time so that we can strengthen early life experiences, improve school readiness, support healthy development, and create lasting positive change
085within our community. So, back in August, we were still in that first kind of piece of our road map. So, since then, we have developed a full needs and asset assessment. So, we as a steering committee decided right away that we needed to hear from our community. We needed to hear from parents and caregivers and from stakeholders what they utilize in our community and what their needs are. So, we developed a community-wide needs and asset assessment. We conducted a data collection process to hear from a wide array of parents, caregivers, as well as stakeholders. To do that effectively, we met with a lot of different community organizations to engage them in this work and assist in the needs and asset assessment process. Simultaneously, while we were doing that, we were also determining and looking at
086what metrics we can ultimately use to not only track our progress through this work, but to measure impact and help us with our strategic planning. We wrapped up the data collection process and collected and analyzed that data to create a detailed report for the community, which I believe you all were were able to get. And finally, we identified the common themes that came out of that needs and asset assessment. So, currently, the steering committee is taking all of that information and we are looking at what are the underlying reasons for the challenge the identified needs and challenges that our community shared with us. So, and that information is critical because we will use it as we move to next steps in the strategic planning phase. So, I want to take a few minutes and just
087share what that process looked like to collect that data because we took 5 months to collect the needs and asset uh assessment data. Um And the purpose of that is we want to be very intentional about doing with families and not just for families and not just making assumptions. Um all of us on the steering committee are um very connected to the community, but again, we wanted to hear directly from specifically parents and caregivers, but also stakeholders and the individuals who work very closely with parents and caregivers. So, the needs and asset assessment was simple. Three questions. What are the resources or the um uh assets within our community that you find beneficial in regards to raising young children? What are the biggest challenges, needs that you face in regard to raising young children? And
088what do you wish either you had access to earlier, whether that's knowledge, resources, um or you wish that we had in our community that would make things better? And uh those questions, we went back and forth a little bit, but ultimately landed that we kept them open in a narrative form. It would have been a lot easier for myself if that was in uh drop-down or multiple choice, but to eliminate any of our own biases and allow for parents and caregivers to share their authentic experiences, we left it open as a narrative. Um and they came out and they shared their information with us. So, this process uh consisted of 29 total meetings that I had with 36 different organizations or groups within our communities of stakeholders that we identified as having built relationships with
089parents and caregivers. Uh I attended many play groups, uh family nights where I held group discussions or individual meetings, just chatting with families, parents, caregivers. Um but something we wanted to be really intentional about, and we had a lot of conversations about, were where are the parents that we know are not attending the playgroups? Where are the families that are often times left out of these types of conversations? Um and to do that, I was very intentional about meeting with us like I met with our CPS team, Child Protective Services down at La Crosse County and asked them to help us collect this information. Um we met with community health workers who work very closely with families who experience a lot of barriers in our community. I met with New Horizons, Project Proven, which is
090another organization or a program out of Western that works with families impacted by the justice system. So we really looked at where our pockets of families in our community and how can we connect to them? Knowing that we can't just shoot them an email and they're going to necessarily fill that out, but how can we leverage the existing relationships in our community? And so we uh connected with our stakeholders. So and all of this data I'll just take a brief moment to show you is in Qualtrics. If you are not familiar with Qualtrics, I was not before this. Uh super awesome because oh gosh, it's going to make me See here, log in. Um it allows us to really break down the data. So we on top of those three basic or those three questions
091for families and uh caregivers, we asked a handful of demographic questions so that way we can better uh break down the data, look and look at where the need is. So you can see here this is all broken down into graphs and we can click into any of this. So like this group here identified that they qualify for public assistance. If I click into that, I can still identify who are the families that are struggling to meet basic needs and then from there we can collect we can look at all of that very specific data. So, that process will be very helpful as we move into the next stage within our work. I'm going to go back to presenting. So, I'm not going to take too much time going through this because you all had
092access to or all have the report. Um but our top assets that were identified through that process, the number one uh asset was the local organizations and programs that we have in our community. There were I think over 70 different organizations and programs identified through this process. Um and there but there were four that came through as essential pillars uh within the community and that would be the public library, the Parenting Place, the um YMCA, and the School District of La Crosse. So, um the second asset identified was education and early intervention and support specifically for families with children with um disabilities. Um and the third asset identified were the programs out there that help families meet basic needs and financial support. When it comes to top needs identified, uh the top need was child
093care. Uh that came out to accessibility, availability, cost, um and work hours misaligning with what uh with what child care hours can offer. Um and the second one was economic stressors. So, things like meeting basic needs, transportation, and this um idea from middle-income families who make too much to qualify for services but not quite enough um to live comfortably and having to make some really difficult uh decisions. And the third one was navigating systemic barriers and mental health challenges like social isolation, digital media, child development, education, and special education services. And I am actually going to pause here because part of why we're here today as well is you all are connected active community members and we'd love to get your insights on if this aligns with personal experiences or things that you hear from
094our community as well. Um I'm living this right now. I have a two and four-year-old. And I do have to say that the you say the top four pillars are absolutely right. Um Parenting Place, library, YMCA, district school cross. I've utilized every single one of them. So. But could just bring up something also as as a North Sider I'd be um I'd be mad at myself if I didn't bring this up but one of them important is the library. The North Side no longer has a library. So obviously um that's a little tough to hear. But I I totally understand it but I think we need to look at other avenues obviously as well because we we cannot continue to lose staples like that in in this community and and be functional. Yeah, I think
095the free programming that comes out of of um organizations like the library families um depend on. I wouldn't be surprised if if that is you know a trend and and that kind of thing amenities being removed from from certain parts of of the community with our geography that transportation issues doesn't doesn't creep up that list in top needs over time too. So hopefully there's you know something we can do to make sure those amenities stay in in place as a as a community not just as a school district. But I'm on the back end of where Molly is. My my youngest turns five soon enough. And so having recently been through um you know the early childhood stuff there was the child the child care crisis absolutely is is real. I mean we were doing
096three different drop offs and we're on waiting lists from the time my son was was born right and then when a spot opens up in the infant room and he's two years old and I said great thanks. Um so yeah absolutely this drives with with my experience recently yeah. I should probably not speak too much since I'm the 20-year-old single college student here. I don't have that much experience parenting I admit but I think about this from a perspective of one of my biggest goals in my life to have a family for myself and that this kind of I mean I hear about the child care that was a big thing in Washtenaw County District brought up over two was about that and and economic stressors is huge for younger generation to how in the
097world do we even start a family when it's so hard even get just get started. But unique perspective I might think too is the fact that most families these days are more disordered than what they used to be back and one of the biggest reasons why I wanted myself to be on the board was really to protect my sister my half sister who went through a huge legal court case just about who's going to have custody and schools are more so their safe spot for them. So that's the perspective I think of when I hear of early child care is how can a school be a safe spot for that child as it was for me when I was growing up too. I don't know if that helps too much again from the 20-year-old college
098single college student but Yeah I mean it's definitely it's conversations we've had about every child I mean we we know just to develop in a healthy way needs responsive adults and they also need a healthy environment and so that It's overlooked and there's a lot of like the mental health crisis I think comes from the fact that a lot of children don't have that rock in their life. So I I it's kind of my perspective about this has shifted quite a lot since I first got on the board and I see this as a very important pillar for providing that rock for students and allowing those parents to have that life so that they can take care of their child, too. But, I'll leave it at that. I think it's interesting that our top assets
099include early intervention support and basic needs and financial support, and our top needs are economic stressors and navigating systemic barriers. It's clear that like there there might be enough resources available, but they're not getting, as you said, met with the right people at the right time. You're finding out too late or by word of mouth, as the report said. Um so, finding out how to communicate better and put those things to together seems critical. I will keep going then. Um so, our final question uh that we asked in the survey was, you know, what do you wish we had in our community or what do you wish you had access to sooner? And it was just that. Uh the overarching thing that came out of that question were parents saying, "I wish I would have
100known about this resource sooner. My child was 5 years old before I learned about these playgroups or I didn't know about WIC or whatever those services that they said would have made a difference." They did not know about. Um so, parents uh specifically, but even our stakeholders said there needs to be some sort of centralized hub resource for kind of a one-stop shop that parents and families can get what they need because a lot of it is word of mouth. Um and that's that can be really difficult or the transportation barriers of having to, you know, go go everywhere. So, a centralized hub of resources specific to early childhood was the the biggest ask. The second one were was universal support specific to uh universal child care, universal health care, specifically mental health care options,
101things like affordable housing, all came out of that universal supports. And then the final one was parent education. So, parents saying that they they need more information on what's considered typical development, what are milestones they should be looking for. Um raising children is hard. So, just knowing what's normal hard and what you know, maybe they need to seek out you know, professional help on. So, that those were kind of the three the top three things that came out of the community asks. So, our steering committee at the start of each meeting we have a list of norms that we have all agreed upon and go through. And one of our norms is this idea here that it is our responsibility to see it all, not do it all. Meaning that we all kind of have
102our own little niche within this this early childhood system and we need to be able to take a step back and see the systems as a whole, but it's not one organization's responsibility to take this all on. We need to come together and look at solutions that include everyone and not just one specific organization, including the school district. So, another really exciting thing that has come out of specifically since this needs and asset assessment data report came out is some various community partner meetings both at the local and the state level. It's been getting recognized what what we're doing here. So, we've had some exciting meetings from community partners that have talked about potential future funding opportunities, resources, and things like that to move this forward. It's very evident that um this initiative has truly
103been about bringing together the right people to look beyond just solving what's wrong, but moving into what's possible. And so um thinking back to the theory of change that I shared in the beginning, our goal as a steering committee within this work is to ensure that families get the right help at the right time, especially looking at this data that has come out. Um how do we connect families? We hear that there's all these great resources, but how do we connect them? Um how do we bring together these very high-performing organizations, but yet they're kind of siloed in our community. How do we co-construct to create a early childhood ecosystem that connects the resources, connects families um to be able to meet basic needs, reduce social isolation, all of these things that we have learned.
104And um although we are not solutioning yet, we have to keep reminding the steering committee of that as well. Uh we also would just love to hear um your thoughts as we move into this next kind of strategic planning stage, just hearing your insights, thoughts, things that we should consider as we move into this work. Good job. Uh I noticed of this select group of people that your businesses, organizations that you pulled together, they're all in kind of a little bit education or medical. How about business is this brought in? QuickTrip is doing their own thing, and how about other businesses in La Crosse that could be interested also for their employees? So, one thing we're looking at at this point is as we start to identify um specific goals, projects that we we're going
105to have to bring in more community perspectives into work groups, task force, whatever we want to kind of call it. Um we've already determined child care is going to need to be its own thing. Um child care is so massive and we know that there are experts in our community and people who are invested. We know that Quick Trip opened a child care center and they're invested. Um we know that the Parenting Place is doing phenomenal work um with with child care. So, I think it's just looking at what makes sense who to bring in um for those different work groups as we start to look at um kind of narrowing down what we ultimately want to do with this um data that we collected. And a second follow-up on that is for instance, La
106Crosse is not unique. So, are you doing a research across the US in terms of what communities are being successful in moving forward in this area? Yes. Yeah, and um it's inspirational to look at what different initiatives uh have come out. There are pieces of what we're doing that are happening, you know, across across the nation, but even in the state of Wisconsin. And so, um I've been able to connect with quite a few different um communities within Wisconsin to learn what they're doing, um how it's working, what that looks like. Um and it's been it's been very beneficial because I keep saying to the steering committee, we don't want to recreate the wheel if we don't have to. If we can look at what other communities >> communities have done. And I think since
107uh since the pandemic, communities have gotten creative with some of this these things and we've been uh you know, a few years out now that we can we can look at what they've done with uh you know, certain funding and things like that and we can look at uh how it worked for their community and how we may um implement alter that for our own community. Okay, thank you. One thought about the the central hub. I think yeah, that's that's kind of the way I would imagine it when some of the struggles that you know, that my family has been through is is conflicting schedules and needing to balance, you know, searching here, searching there and knowing where to go for that in the first place. But then also being confident that it's up to
108date. And so when we think about a central hub, it's it's something that really needs to be sustained in the long term and that involves uh like SEO, making sure that it it it becomes the way La Crosse does things, right? And that people who are coming to the community and starting families are are introduced to it. That like when you need something in La Crosse, this is actually the place to go and it's not going to be you know, 6 months out of date, right? That those and that is a lot of labor, not just in the creation of the hub, but on all of those individual partners to to to invest in what it means to to be part of that project. So I I'm sure that you're thinking about that. It sounds
109like you're thinking about that. Just had to speak it into the universe. And and timing is huge and we um even during our last steering committee meeting talked a little bit about timing and you know, how do you get this information to parents because handing them a pamphlet when they're leaving the hospital like after having a baby is not, you know, necessarily the right time to to uh disseminate that information. So what does that look like? are definitely conversations we're we're having. Any comments? Thank you. Thank you. Very good. Thank you. Um so before um I'm done, just what we're doing next. So we're just we're gathering the information from the needs and asset assessment. We'll do some strategic planning. Through the strategic planning process, we will um partner with a purpose. So look at
110who are the organizations in our community already doing the work. Like I said, we're not trying to recreate systems. This data was clear. We have amazing organizations already in our community. Um and then finally, we'll identify metrics uh to ensure that we are making a difference. And then I'll just end on this um nice little thought that I found. So, a healthy ecosystem does not rely on individual trees battling the elements alone, but rather the entire forest that can nourish the soil, clear the canopy, and connect the roots. Just as it is not one organization in our community's responsibility to improve early life experiences, but rather our community's obligation to make sure families have their basic needs met, eliminate barriers to vital early childhood resources, and um connect families and organizations uh to a shared
111village. Thank you. Our next agenda item is discussion of the school nutrition program. This was added. Um one of the board members asked that we add it um based on some uh social media conversations that were going on, and there was some board members' families uh were participating in that. Um I do want to be abundantly clear, this was added um for discussion only. This board has heard from some students um concerns about it, but to be very clear, we know it doesn't happen every day, and we know that everybody from the everybody in the kitchens all the way up to the superintendent, nobody has any intentions of any of kids going hungry. So, there's nothing bad that anybody's been trying to do. So, I want to be really clear that that's not what this
112is about. Um but um we have gotten feedback from students, and then there was a social media thing that kind of blew up. So, we just want to be able to get some good information out to the community so the community He what's going on. We're thankful to have uh Ms. Katie Haug here, our supervisor of school nutrition. And I think there's a few of our school nutrition staff here in the audience as well to support Katie. Uh I'm here to talk about school nutrition with the school district. Uh my name is Katie Haug. I have been working in school nutrition um for the past 12 years in a variety of roles. But Dan, the front monitor's not uh showing the Our monitor is not. We want to see Katie's face twice as well. I
113was hoping I could just send this to you. Um okay, I'll just keep going. Um I started right here in La Crosse as the administrative uh assistant in this department. And then after earning my master's degree in 2018 and going to the University of Eau Claire to complete uh school nutrition management training, um I served as the school nutrition director at a neighboring school district from 2018 or excuse me, 2019 to 20. I returned here to the district in 2020 as the school nutrition specialist uh focusing primarily on uh nutritional analysis and menu development for the district. And then since 2023 I've been in my current role as the uh supervisor of the program. Uh my mom has worked for the district. She just retired now. She worked here 32 years. Um started at Roosevelt
114and moved to Central. Um so I just feel really connected to the um the district. I'm familiar with the staff and I know how the district operates. Um I'm committed uh to building and maintaining the trust that the community has in our department as well as the district. Um I do want to acknowledge, it's already been brought up, that our department has received some negative media attention recently. Um I want to acknowledge that situation. I offer my apology for that and ensure that we do have plans in place to prevent anything like that from happening again in the future. Um but also just to provide an overview of our program and to share some of the positive things that we do each and every day. Um school nutrition programs, as you know, play a vital
115role You can change this slide. Um in supporting students and their success in the classroom. Um meals are available to all students uh regardless of income, and they have a direct uh impact on attendance, behavior, and um overall focus in the classroom. Um for many students, the meals they receive at school are um quite possibly the most nutritious, and even uh the only meals they receive in a day. Uh school nutrition programs are federally funded through USDA and closely monitored at the state level by DPI. Um we have to meet very strict nutrition guidelines, and we go through regular administrative reviews to make sure we are fully compliant with those regulations. Um all of our meals are carefully analyzed um and planned using our menu software, which is Mosaic. Um each reimbursable meal includes fruits,
116vegetables, whole grains, uh protein, milk, while also carefully managing uh limits for calories, saturated fats, and sodium limits. Um in addition to that, each grade level has its own specific requirement and portion sizes that must be met across multiple um menu options daily. And the meal the meals must meet both daily and weekly uh requirements based on age group. To meet these requirements while still appealing to students, we offer multiple choices each day. At the elementary level, you could see two options offered. offers four options, and high school is about five to six options offered daily. Um we're continuously looking for new menu items um to keep our line serving lines fresh and appealing to the students. Um we also partner with local farmers for to bring in produce and local beef. Um, across the
117district we support students with special diets including 37 uh, disability related accommodations as well as three non-disability related special diet needs and our Southern Bluffs team is the kitchen that prepares all of those meals for the entire district. Um, we strive to balance variety and student participation or excuse me, student preferences and needs um, while maintaining participation. Student participation is critical to sustaining our program. Um, our program operate or operates under offer versus serve at all of our sites. This allows students to choose the items they want while uh, requiring them to take a fruit or vegetable. And this approach increases student choice but also helps unnecessary food waste which is important. In addition to offer versus serve, uh, we utilize share tables at several of our sites. Um, this practice allows students to place
118unopened pre-packed You can hit the next slide, Dan. Um, unopened pre-packaged items uh, on a share table that they don't wish to have that maybe a hungry student would still want at no cost. Um, share tables have their own specific requirements. Um, so they have to be carefully monitored. We implement them at sites where we can um, properly over see them. Is that uh, some what schools use the share sites? Are there any schools that don't have a share table? There are sites that don't. Um, it has like I said, it has to be properly monitored and if we don't have eyes on it then we can't. Um, they're also not allowed at the um, real young ages so pre-K and kindergarten cannot offer them so we do we do have them at elementary schools
119just not during those serving times. Um, they're a little bit higher uh, population so we can't be sharing items. Um, our secondary sites try to work them in as they can um, but it's mostly really focused at our elementary level. Okay. So, not in the middle schools or the high schools? Um, Logan Middle has been working one in. Sometimes if they're not used or not uh monitored appropriately, we have to stop using them. So, it can change throughout the year that if we can if we can put it out for the students, we certainly do because it does help minimize waste and it helps students who are hungry, maybe don't want to purchase an idling meal, they can take those items. Um, but it's different throughout the year where we're operating them. But all elementary
120schools are they have it this year? >> to monitor them, yes. If that But are all of them able to monitoring? Not not all of them consistently throughout the year. They have to be they can For example, staff They're only for students. So, if staff are taking off of the table, then we have to shut them down if it continues. If we don't have proper supervision or can't see the table, then we can't have it. If students are not If the students continue to put items that can't be taken off of the share table, then we shut them down. Um, if student If they get to be out of hand, if students are taking items but not actually eating them and trying to take them out of the cafeteria, we have to shut them down.
121So, yes, all of our elementaries can operate them. No, they may not all be operating them every day throughout the year. And the challenge is the regulations around all of this stuff. You know, we would prefer just to have a table and kids can take as they desire, but because the food was purchased with federal funds, there's like a lot of regulations around this. And so, if a staff member even takes something thinking they're going to give it to a kid later, like a a third party would see that it's like, "Oh, a misuse of federal funds." You know, so, it's there's just a ton of oversight around this stuff. You would think something as simple as a share table, right? We just want to help kids avoid throwing stuff away. And yet, there's just
122all these layers of accountability we have to like jump through to make it happen. And I'm thankful for our school nutrition staff who do their best every day to try and figure it out. Yeah, there is just a Just to add to that, um I I think one of the issues that we're going to hear about, but I you know, the budget in that program is so tight and we are hearing from more and more students with very unique dietary needs and one of the questions that we as a board, um I think need to ask is staffing do we put in other funding into this program to make sure our kids have good food throughout the day so that they can learn and and achieve. So, if there were other funding that helped support
123this program, then we wouldn't have to follow all those rules or we'd still have to follow them. We would still have to follow all the rules. Even if we had more people, we would still have to follow all the rules. Even like you could try and, you know, serve steak and lobster every day, it would still have to meet even if we had the money for it, we'd still have to fulfill the dietary guidelines by the federal government. Well, that's a bummer. I think it's just the rules get in the way of doing good things and that's really I can't It's difficult for us to hear about it. I can't imagine how hard it is for you and your staff to just see it every day and know kids would love to take, um an
124orange or a banana home to eat later on when they're hungry and they can't. So, I um how hard that must be. Jim? It's not staff because you don't have enough staff for that particular item or somebody's ill that day or something? Um I mean, we we battle with staffing regularly. Um that's not unique to this year or to one site. >> just Um so, if we can monitor it, we will. Um if we have if there's supervision in the cafeteria that can help, we do that. Um We do our best to get them out there. We know that they're not always there. >> questioning that. I just But I I didn't, you know, is it staffed one day and it's not staffed the next day? It might be the >> really shut it down
125every other day. It's a matter of if it's consistently misused or we know we can't we can't oversee it, then we then we don't have it up and running. Yeah, we we do our best to have them in every school every day. Katie's just trying to be super honest and clear that sometimes you might not see it and we don't want you to think that we're misleading you by saying that it's going to be there every day. I appreciate that. I think we'll move on from the share table. Oh, Adam. I'm sorry, I'm going to ruin that that Um that was So going back to this was something of which that when we heard the social media posts, I went up to the high schools and asked if I can just go ahead and check
126through with the the staff there, too. And share tables, I didn't think about this in the high schools or seems like that's where most was was mostly in Logan High School. So this was one of the big conclusions I got is that even with all things we're using, there's still a lot of waste and a lot of pressure on the staff to produce more than enough, which is fair. But um it sounds like there's quite a lot of waste here in the at least the high schools compared to the elementary schools. And so if there's if we're not able to have the share tables due to regulations, a lot of it sounds federal here, but we also do have WASBE we could perhaps consider making a proposal for that to help lessen that to make
127sure that students will have meals. Cuz not only are we having higher demands, if we're going to be pressuring staff to increase that output for it when we already have some that students can put on a share table, I think that would stop something like that would happen again. I think you're right, Mr. Manka. An opportunity would be to petition the federal government for different or more appropriate regulations and WASBE would be a great avenue to do that. Our staff are trying their best to, you know, carefully predict how much of each thing a kid will want every day. But if it rains and kids decide not to walk over to festival or if there's a a bright day or a field trip gets done early or leaves early like it affects the lunch counts
128every single day and so it's like you put your finger in the wind and do your best and and and when I've been at schools and serving lunch like our staff often know by name like which kids are going to choose which choice and they've even looked at like the counts from before the day like Suzy I think you were a choice A not a choice B. You know, but they still give them the option as they are as they have a right to but they're doing their best each day to to make sure that kids almost on a by name basis get what they need. But I think you're right the the Wasabi could be a great avenue for advocacy. Right, this was something I took a lot of personal interest in just you
129know, seeing the social media post like okay this seems like something we should respond with and I don't want to steal the other half your presentation for him too but would it be useful to have that in the high schools? Is that something that we share tables >> Remind you the board can't decide what the state of the federal policy does. It'd be crazy if we did. Um but is that something to look forward to the policy to see if we can get that out to the state or to federal representatives even just to allow some of that what's it called red lining and things with calling businesses to allow more freedom to be able to have share tables in the middle and high schools. We we could put we could have share tables in
130the secondary sites. It's a matter of monitoring them. And as you saw at Lincoln High that we're short on staff. And the the other part of it is that you rely a lot on having the correct items be put on there. We someone can't just take a full entree and put out there. It has to be pre-packaged. Um fruit with a peel, something like that, something that isn't open or taken by students already. And we have to be able to to monitor that. That makes sense, too. And the other half of this I saw is the staffing at Logan High School. I feel like I'm hijacking your presentation here, so Well, and I think Mr. Manca, like we collaborated on that last WASB resolution, we could certainly meet with Ms. Howe, get some point. I'll
131try to follow up on that, too. Um the other big thing that I heard, and again, I'm not trying to steal your presentation here, is that there's a lot of pressure on the staff right now where they are understaffed in Logan. When I was talking to the head um manager there, she said it got to the point where they couldn't even go on breaks at times. So, I actually offered, I didn't hear anything back from it, didn't know if I could or not, but offered to volunteer with them, just be with them for an hour for my lunch break or something, so that they can have a 10-minute break in between there just to get that little bit of fresh air. Since sounds like they get in there, they work, they just have enough of
132a break to snuff the food they have down, they leave down over there, too. That's why I kind of asked about the employee retention right there, cuz I think um it sounds like they're able to get an applicant in, but didn't show up at all over at Logan High School. But how >> I I think for purposes of this discussion, I think your general comments are how can the board help help? How can the board help? I think is the thing to think about, and it's not just this presentation, but as we move forward with this program, I think um as you've shared with us and been very transparent about all the rules and regulations that limit what you can do um and what you and your staff can do. So, I think as you
133think look forward and think of solutions, you know, how can the board assist in that? And I don't want to get into the weeds on that, because some of that is is operational, and that's really not board stuff. Um so, I'm going to let you continue with your report. Yes, it's just a a balance of having adequate food available for students and still um monitoring our waste, we're limiting that. Um School nutrition programs are designed to be self-sufficient. Uh so, as I mentioned, student participation is extremely important for us. Um we are reimbursed based on the number of meals we serve, as well as student eligibility categories free, reduced, and full paid status. Um so, to give some context to that, reimbursement rates vary. Um breakfast can range from 40 cents to just under $3
134for reimbursement, um considering uh severe need and not severe need status. Uh lunch ranges from about 50 cents to just over $4, again depending on free and reduced percentage of a site. Um snacks can fall between 10 cents and just over a dollar. Um so, managing costs and uh all of the or all of the requirements is just a constant focus for our department. Um more like headache, I would think. It's a lot. Um In La Crosse, we operate uh several programs. We offer uh we do school the school breakfast program, the National School Lunch Program, after school snack, and the Summer Food Service Program. Um we also provide vend meals to community partners, um including the Head Start programs both in La Crosse, as well as on Alaska, YMCA and BGC meals, and then
135uh as well as local daycares. And each of these uh programs follow different meal pattern requirements. Across our district, we serve uh meals out of 14 all 14 of our sites every day. Uh this results in significant volume of breakfast and lunch each day, requiring a high level of coordination and consistency across all locations. Um on average, uh we serve just over $1,300 or 1,300 breakfasts a day, um just over 3,100 lunches, which adds up to nearly 800,000 meals uh school meals served each year. That's not including our vend meals. Um I've included the breakdown um of average daily meals by status. That's free, reduced, and full paid. Um so, while we're serving a high volume of meals each year we do continue to work to appeal to students to continue participation and increase participation
136among our students. Um, five of our nine elementary schools qualify for community eligibility provision or CEP. CEP status um, allows all students in those buildings to eat at no cost. Um, currently our CEP sites are Hamilton, Hinshaw, Northside, Cooley Montessori, and Norwood. Um, not all of our kitchens operate the same way. The majority of our kitchens are full prep kitchens um, responsible for storing and preparing all meal components on site and others are satellite kitchens um, with limited storage and prep space. Uh, so they rely on the larger prep kitchens to prepare meals and deliver them. Um, State Road, Hinshaw, Hamilton, and Polytechnic are all satellite kitchens so they rely on meal components from Southern Bluffs, Spence, uh, or Central each day. Looking ahead, we are um, planning a remodel for the State Road Elementary
137School in the kitchen which we're excited about and then that site will become a standalone kitchen at that time. Go ahead. What are the staffing differences between a satellite and a prep kitchen if any? There there are. Um, our satellite kitchens have two people two people. They're two-person kitchens um, typically a seven to eight-hour person kind of there all day and then someone coming in to serve versus our prep kitchens are higher volume uh, four four at the or the elementary and then six to seven at a high school. Are there are there differences in like the the credentials or preparation that individuals working in a prep kitchen need to have versus a satellite kitchen? Um, not necessarily. We do have man- like the their titles are different. At a prep kitchen they're a manager
138and at our satellites it's a assistant manager. Um, they have less responsibility in terms of ordering and prepping some of the food. Um, so that would be different but they would be required to know all of the uh, meal requirements, portion sizing. But our existing staff could move could work in either. Yes, and we do. They move around. Okay. from site to site. And I uh back to meals and I was hoping that I'd see it on there but I haven't and it's probably next slide but um are students able to take more than one meal per day because we've heard that where some go up there three, four times um they're hungry and so they go up there which could be another reason that we're having some shortages. Yes and yes. Um students are
139allowed to take seconds. That is an additional cost. Um What happens for those that have free lunch? They're allowed to take second It is additional cost at at a free or reduced status. It would be more of a full price. Mhm. Um it it is something that our staff tries to account for when we do our forecasting to prepare the meals for that day. Um they need to take into account a number of things. Elementary level students change their mind. As Dr. Engel mentioned, open campus, weather could change. Um meals offered in a day. Um they need to account for students taking seconds, kind of the popularity of the item. The other thing they got to think about um when we when we our menus are developed one item is not always paired up with
140something. So if it's paired up with something um semi-popular they're going to come out to different numbers if the next time it's menu it's with something that's not as popular with the students. So that kind of takes they need to take that into account. There is no exact science to figure out who's going to have seconds, how many, um which which item's going to go. Um but we do our best. Our menu software system Mosaic is where we keep our production records so they know how many they've served the time before. Um it's really it's an educated guess to the to figure out what to prepare. Padding it a little bit hoping that you have enough and that you've accounted for things um that you should should be considering but also um keeping in mind
141that we are trying to limit waste and that is something we get pressure on on the other side. Um We don't want to run out of any option. We've always said if it's available for the first student, it should be available for the last student. Um but that is also why we have multiple options too so that if something runs out, there is always something else available. But I would assume like the the the students that have the last lunch at times aren't left with a lot of choices if they're if you got a real popular item and you know and they the people are going up multiple times to have that they might run low and that could be what's happening on you know our messages and uh what we hear from the public
142and stuff. Um again, we don't that isn't our standard practice that if it runs out, it runs out. But yes, it's it's based >> you're saying I mean if you're not making it there, yeah. >> So satellite kitchens are limited which is you know why we are excited about State Road becoming a full prep kitchen. Um that that'll limit that from happening. The other thing that also plays a role is we don't set our meal serving times or how long between serving lines. Um so some of our sites have the ability if they if something is running low, they they might have time to make more so they can kind of see that as it's happening. Other sites don't have that ability. If we're back-to-back serving lines, a lot of times they're prepping everything before
143service keeping it in a hot unit and pulling it out for service and they don't have time between lines to do that. Um those sites have to be extremely careful about kind of what they're prep what they're preparing and how many meals and what they're anticipating. Um all of our sites do them more you know One thing I really appreciated about our school nutrition staff's flexibility is that they really allow our administrators to set the academic schedule to maximize what's best from kids from a learning perspective and then we do our best to work in lunch breakfast after that and so that means that often times our school nutrition staff are working a little extra little harder a little faster in order to make sure that kids academic learning is maximized cuz that's why we're
144all there so kids can read write and do arithmetic and so I appreciate our school nutrition staff you know going that extra mile to to really prioritize what we're all trying to do at school which is Well and there's no easy answer to this and I'm fully aware of that and you know you wish you could just do the magic ball because you you don't want buckets of waste you know trash cans full of waste which I'm sure there's times you do because it's just the way it works but but you also want to make sure you have enough for everyone so I think we're all understanding that you know it's it's far from a perfect system or really could it be unless you only offered people did did do you know the one time
145around and they had to pick prior to the meals and you know that's difficult as well so we appreciate it thank you May I ask a follow-up question we've heard about those two times there were shortages how many times has it been too much food that there was a lot some waste more than two It's best be safe or two really when you're thinking about it um we do have a sustainability committee in the district um who you know there's pressure from that to kind of limit our waste but in the grand scheme of things if you think about um schools and the number of buildings and the food we're putting out um and not just our district but in general school nutrition programs they're not generating a significant amount of waste. There is waste,
146but it's it's because we have all of this forecasting and we do our best to try to eliminate it and we have share tables and offer versus serve and things like that. Um it's not a ton. It's there, but Right. I know when I've been serving at like Southern Bluffs, there are cases where they will look at how many hot lunches are left. They'll run to the back, fire up four more hash browns so they can meet it like dead on and just hit the right number. And there are some meals where that's possible and some meals where it's not and there's a few extra and that happens and that's okay. We accept that as a part of the process and so I I know our uh school nutrition staff are are pretty darn close
147every single day and there's some things that can go back on the hot lunch for the next day for ala carte and they and they make the most out of that as well and they're really thoughtful about where they're planning those overages. Pizza will wrap up in tin foil so it's out the next day. Orange chicken probably going to the not that there would be any left, but that would might be thrown out. Yes. And it's a very volatile demand you have there and it sounds like based off what I'm hearing that you're doing very well with that there too. It's actually very impressive to hear that. We try. Um so about us a little bit. Currently we have 45 staff members across our district. Two individuals work alongside me in the office. Janita Lee
148is our administrative assistant. Um she processes our claims, prepares our regular work and works directly with families to complete uh meal benefit applications, things like that. Emily Provisky is our school nutrition specialist. Um she has roots right here in La Crosse. She went through our district and graduated from Central. Um her mom is also a long time uh employee of the district. She's a kitchen kindergarten teacher. Um and Emily's responsible for our school menus, our nutritional analysis and making sure we're in compliance across all of the grade levels. Mentioned uh staffing continues to be one of our greatest challenges, but despite that, we have 43 incredibly dedicated team members who truly care about their job and the students that they serve. A handful of them are here tonight. Um our staff work really hard to
149provide nutritious meals to students each day. They build meaningful connections. They're the first to hear about uh exciting weekend plans in the breakfast line or provide a a hug or an ear for a student who's having a tough day. Um they volunteer their time to give nutrition education in the classroom, and they know every student's name uh by choice. Um while I don't have them all pictured here, they truly are a wonderful group, hardworking and compassionate people, and I'm grateful to be on the team with them. Thank you, guys. Thank you. So, at the end of the day, our program is about balancing a lot of priorities: nutrition guidelines, access, participation, financial sustainability, all while keeping students at the forefront. While challenges do arise, um we take pride in our work, and we use those
150as opportunities to learn and improve. Um we remain committed to providing high-quality nutritious meals to students and uh provide excellent service to our community and students. So, thank you, and you're welcome to stop out. Thank you for stopping out at Logan High and I think Central. Um you're always welcome to stop out and see how things are going. Thank you for your report. Um again, when questions came up, I think just learning more about your program is is the place we have to start, so I appreciate your your report. Um I knew you had a tough job, but holy moly, like the the the number of things you're trying to balance, and at the end of the day, just being there for kids um is you and your staff just do an incredible job, and
151and um I don't think I'm I'm confident that nobody at this table ever doubted that um that you were doing the best, but I I think we have a much deeper understanding of the complexity of your work. And so, um thank you for that, but I also want you to understand this board is uh stands with you to how can we help you with trying to navigate doing all the things you do within all the guardrails that you have to do them in. How can we assist with that? Anybody else? No. Definitely very No. Sounds good. Thank you. We're definitely very appreciative of all the work you guys do, and I'm so glad you all even came up here before. Just even just give support to each other for this presentation. Thank you. It's definitely
152Thank you. Quarterly budget report. Once again, if if you've seen what you need to see tonight, uh you're welcome to leave, although Patty's presentation is phenomenal as well. It'll probably be short and sweet because we've had a lot of information tonight, and I'm glad to report that our our third quarter financials look great. So, um we are at the end of the third quarter, and um expenditures are still exceeding our revenues. It's like we go through this almost with the whole year. Um and hardly ever catch up. So, we have For cash flow purposes, we do use those uh fund dollars. But, um in March, uh we also receive a big chunk of money from the state. It is that per pupil categorical aid, the $742 uh per uh 3-year average of students. So, that
153is always very helpful in March because we do not receive any uh tax payments uh from municipalities in March. So, if you just want to take a a look at the revenues and how we compare them from year to year, the percentage of uh revenues received are very comparable from the prior year. Oh, there you go, Dan. Thank you. Um and uh there is uh you know, there's reasons for why the fees and admissions and the rentals line was much larger last year than at this time of year um now because we received the buyback dollars for the um computer buyback. So, that was last year. So, there's going to be differences, but we we kind of plan for that as you see the revenue budget for that line was much smaller than it was
154for last year also. Um I had mentioned the per pupil aid that came in this quarter. And uh there's a difference sometimes in the federal aids and the grants depending on when we are able to submit those claims and when we're reimbursed for them. But, otherwise, the total uh revenues look good comparatively from year to year. Any questions on revenues? So, then we also um report on the expenditures in two ways by function and by um object. And the first one is by function, meaning purpose, breaks it down. Again, the percentage of meeting the budget is comparable from year to year. Uh there is not a lot of difference on any of the lines um except we have exceeded the expenditure budget line for uh the where it says municipal chargebacks, scholarships, and other miscellaneous.
155And that is due to the scholarship money that goes out at this time of year um from the budget. And we don't really uh include the budget for that as far as it can change from year to year as far as how many scholarships are handed out. But there are funds set aside just for the scholarships to offset that. Um any questions on the report of functions? The objects of expenditures will be the same on the bottom line and uh and comparable from year to year. Any questions on that? I always like to point to the charts cuz the charts are helpful, they're colorful. You can see on the charts that um the operating revenues uh it's like the different colors explain where we're spending those or where those monies are coming in from. And
156you can see it's comparable from year to year just by looking at the the size of the color block. And you can see that uh it is the same for expenditures. So that always gives me that comfort that there's not any large unexpected expenditures that we are are spending as we should and that is always uh a comfort uh to me especially. Um fund balance, as you can see that the fund balance is on its upward uh track at this point, but that is because we've received those tax payments in January and and February. We will receive some of tax payments in April because the municipalities get their uh state lottery credits and their those uh monies from the state and then they turn them over to us uh to cover the that tax bill.
157But our last tax uh payments will not come in until August. So, that is another reason that that fund balance might go down a little bit in the next coming months. Um and then we will book those taxes as a receivable at the end of the year. So, they'll look like we have the revenue um but for cash flow purposes, we will not receive that Any questions? All right. So, in the next uh month, you'll see the month of uh April and then in June, you'll see the month of May. Um and then it will be the end of the fiscal year and and that >> to do anything final final dollars you will not uh see reported until August when we close the books for the audit. Thank you. Any questions? No. Good. Thanks,
158Penny. Referendum construction plan update. Things are progressing very nicely at State Road Elementary School. The walls are up almost complete for the gymnasium, at least on uh three sides. They'll be putting on the roof joists as soon as next week. So, that'll be exciting and starting the second story over the first story of the existing building as well. Uh at the uh Hogan Elementary site, um the uh foundations and footings are in on the north side and it looks like there's a castle tower there right now with the um elevator shaft going up. That'll be done here pretty quickly. Um they continue to drill wells on the south end of the site. 110 of those will go in. They'll have two well drilling equipment pieces there. I thought it would be really loud. I sat
159out there I stood out there and listened for about 10 minutes just to see when it would get really loud. New technology, it's relatively quiet. Uh so that's nice for our neighbors. Um and they'll start working on the the courtyard. You know, they kind of build these things from the inside out in a way so that they can get machinery and equipment to everything. Uh so that'll be coming along uh next. Uh everything's moving along nicely. They are working on the trees and the electrical lines. A lot of the trees need to be removed to properly remove the electrical lines, but we will be planting new trees all around the building uh for the future. And that is it. Okay. Thank you. Any questions? Well, Joe, thank you for sitting here for a long meeting.
160We'll turn to you now. Uh this past weekend at Polytechnic, we had our prom night uh on Saturday, which went over well. Um and March 4th, our NHS is going to be holding a fundraiser at Pizza Ranch from like 5:00 to 9:00, I think. Which date, I'm sorry? Um May 4th. Okay. So, that is a meeting day. So, but you know, for anybody else who wants to go and support our school, please do so. Um and I can't really think of anything else to share. Thank you. Thank you for your report. Mr. Bignell, CISO for Board of Control. I had to skip that meeting to attend another meeting at City Hall, so I did not go. Dr. Garcia, La Crosse Public Education Foundation. Um LPEF is doing their Thank a Teacher Day on May 5th
161where they deliver breakfast items to about a thousand teachers in the district and um that's in the middle of teacher appreciation week so good opportunity to show your love and then May 8th is the Golden Apple Gala. Thank you. Um Mr. Alberts, Mr. Neumeister, the city school consortium. Any updates? Do Do you want to go or do you want Oh, I went. Good for you. Thank you. I um I think it was a good meeting. We we uh talked about uh where we go from here with the um with with the I guess the question of the public and getting their feedback and I think uh our superintendent was going to fine-tune um what we were going to ask and how we were going to ask things uh to the public itself and um I
162think we talked about you know, obviously the tough tough questions and budgets and and how we move forward with that stuff but again, this is just preliminary. We're still working on that. First off, we got to know if if the public's even in favor of this so that's our first step but I think the meeting went well. Um others will have an option or opportunity to talk. Um yeah, our next meeting is next Monday. Um I think we're just going to find finally fine-tune the survey and then the I think the objective is to get it out early May so Absolutely. Um for my report, uh you have a meeting next Monday, the reorganization meeting. There are also two linkages coming up May 4th with the cultural partners that was rescheduled from the snow day
163in March as well as May 12th, the linkage with district-wide parents. Dr. Engel. Um Wednesday is administrative professionals day. Our administrative assistants and executive assistants do an amazing job in our school district. Laura makes sure that we function as an entity here every other Monday. So, thank you. Uh National School Bus Driver Appreciation Day is next week Tuesday. Uh I can't imagine having, you know, 40 kids behind me while driving a bus. I could barely hold on as a teacher with 20 in front of me. Uh so, I'm so appreciative for all that they do. Thank you to Jeff Elson, our transportation manager, who helps manage that industry. And then May 7th through the 10th is the Central High School Plant Sale. There's a flyer attached to the agenda if you get a chance to
164check it out. Stop by, buy some plants. We have lots of student-driven plant sales, so lots of opportunities to take care of all your uh green thumb needs. Uh and then join us for the Golden Apple Gala on May 8th. It'll be a lot of fun. Agenda planning, you have in front of you the proposed agenda for both April 27th Board of Education Reorganization Meeting and the May 4th regular meeting. So, look for motion to approve those. So moved. Second. I would like to propose either a workshop or adding onto the agenda. Is that what I do this? Sorry. Um okay. So, coming on the heels of a public speaker the other day talking about social media behavior and knowing that I have also heard complaints about some board members' social media behavior, not just
165one. Um I think that it might be good to have a conversation around respect and trust in what we present to the community. Uh we have a new board member coming on. We're going to have new leadership. I think that it would be nice to be all on the same page. So, you're proposing a workshop on respect? Yes. And trust. For the May 4th meeting, presumably? I had talked to Dr. Engel about having um a workshop. Um one was done um 3 years ago for the those of us who are new board members at that time um about social media and what legally can or cannot be done. Um would you want would that be part of this discussion or you're looking for a different kind of conversation? Um I'm looking for all conversation on
166it. Um I think that it would be good to air clear the air a little bit um and just you know, what maybe what we can and cannot do, what we should and should not do. Um I I didn't really like coming like having someone come up to me and being like, "Oh, did you see this?" and you know, it it just it's not a good feeling. I think that we should all just show the proper respect to that being a board member requires. So, look for a motion to approve these two um agendas along with a workshop for May 4th. So, that was all on the original motion? Would be an option. Make whatever motion you'd like. >> Well, Jim Jim motioned and Adam seconded for approval of both items. >> we're in discussion.
167So, is there a friendly amendment? So, I'll amend my motion to include the topics items that were addressed. Molly. I'll second. Okay. Here we go. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. As opposed, motion carries. Board debriefing, Ms. Fewkes. Um we had a lot of kind of big things going on, school nutrition, uh naming, uh but I thought it was all carried out very respectfully and I really appreciated um information on school nutrition. I know it's a big job, so I also have to give a nod because my personal place right now on early childhood im- impact huge and very important work. Um So, all in all, good meeting, very long, so I'm not going to go any further.
168Could I bring up something? Yeah. So, obviously we all heard a lot about our our school lunch program, the school nutritional program. Uh one thing that one we all back them 100%. Nothing's perfect. We're working on fixing them. But I noticed something tonight when their their team left, every one of them went and hugged her. So, that tells you the kind of leader they have, and we have a servant leader there, and I and I hope we realize the good we have in this community and in this school district that we have so many good people like that because that warms your heart when you see that. When you have so many of of her staff come in there to back her, and then to leave without giving her the hug and and their support
169is it's very touching and overwhelming. So, thank you, La Crosse School District and everyone that's involved in doing the right things. Thank you. Can I add one quick item? I'd like to say thank you to President Sue Kupp. That's out of order. We're going to move We're going to move on to the uh adjournment portion of this. The La Crosse Board of Education will consider a motion to move into closed session on Monday, April 20th, 2026 immediately following the Board of Education meeting Central High School Room 232 pursuant to Wisconsin Statute 19.85 (1) (7) for the purpose of considering financial, medical, social, or personal histories or disciplinary data of specific persons, preliminary consideration of specific personnel problems, or investigation of charges against specific persons. This sounds really bad, but it's not. Um except where paren
170except where um paren b applies, which if discussed in public would likely to have a substantial adverse effect upon reputation of any persons referred to in such histories or data or involved in such problems or investigations to its student behaviors. Is there a motion to adjourn into closed session? So moved. Seconded. Motion is second. Roll call, please. Mr. Alberts? >> Aye. Mr. Bagnewski? Aye. Ms. Folks? Aye. Dr. Garcia? Aye. Mr. Jackson? Aye. Mr. Manko? Aye. Mr. Newmeister? Aye. >> Dr. Sprague? Aye. Ms. Shukla? Aye. This meeting is adjourned.