001I gave this report I think two years ago uh an enrollment report and uh upon request from the board uh put together an enrollment report uh for uh this year as well. Uh there are uh three, four, five main sources of information for this. Uh one, I got a enrollments report uh from Skyward that ran from third Friday count last year to third Friday count this year. So it's all uh enrollments and then I also got a withdrawal report for the same period of time. So all the enrollments and all the withdrawals. Uh in addition uh we have a open enrollment portal and we grabbed a series of reports from there and once again looking at that same time frame third Friday count to third Friday count looking at all open enrollments in and all
002open enrollments out and then there's a couple specialty reports that I'll talk about in a bit too. Uh and then there is a um it called homer the homeschooled portal and so we can track uh registered homeschool students in there. And then the last source of information is the uh Wisconsin public choice the voucher system reports uh for private schools that we were able to access as well. Uh and with that I'll go ahead >> first day graduated 3214. So in other words during that number manipulation there there's 121 students left. >> Exactly it. So here on that uh second page are 2025 enrollment changes. Last year we had 5,711 students enrolled on the third Friday account. This year we have 5564. And from that enrollment and withdrawal uh report uh third Friday to third
003Friday count, we had 321 students who had their first day of school in there. And most of those are over the summer. They're registering for the first time as 4K students or kindergarteners depending on when they come in. Some first graders, too. And 442 graduates. Uh variety of things. Traditional graduation, uh GEDs through the tech school, variety of different ways. We had uh 109 new open enrollments in and 89 withdrawals. So those were uh kind of traditional open enrollments. Uh we had 33 enroll in the school district from private school and 12 withdraw from private school. And then we had 20 that came to us from home school and 24 that left to go to homeschool. And then we had 181 students who moved into the school district and 270 who moved out. Most of
004those happen over the summer. Um just from the the third Friday count, we had a net minus 147 students. And if you add up these enrollments and withdrawals and subtract them, it will not be 147. uh and it's partly because we will have open enrollment students who uh move into the school district and convert their enrollment in that period of time or we have students that move in and then move out and so they get counted double. It is too much work for the purposes of this report to dive into all those minutia details but this gives broad sketches about what's going on in the school district. Um given that about 80% of our change here could be uh was from kind of first day to graduates about 80% of our enrollment change could be
005attributed to birth rate. Fewer kids being born in the school district entering schools. And then about 20% can be attributed to net migration out. We have more kids leave our school district than move in. And they're they're moving all over the place. Uh but about 33% of them are moving to Holman and on Alaska and about 67% are moving everywhere else um all across the state and even across the nation. Any questions there? >> And you'd assume that for instance the parents maybe bought a house there and that's the reason for the move or for some reason they in district or out of district transfer for whatever x reason. >> Absolutely. Yep. If it's a move out, it means they physically moved and they were enrolling in their home school district there, which is a
006reasonable choice for some. We always hope they stay with us, but that's not always the case. Uh, took a little bit deeper dive into open enrollment, and this is specifically the new open enrollments, uh, of which we had 109 in and 89 out. um 60% of new open enrollments out went to an Alaska and you can see from that graph that we have a a net loss compared to an Alaska. More students are leaving for an Alaska than coming to us. Um when you look at the data in and out about 40 to 50% of new open enrollments are kindergarten or 4K and it's usually their first experience with school. So, they're coming to our school district or to an Alaska or another school district for the first time in kindergarten or 4K. Uh, and
007so if they're open enrolling out, they've often never experience the cross. They made a choice to go there for some reason. Um, and this is where things start to get complicated and why our net open enrollment uh out keeps climbing. Uh, of our open enrollments in this last year, of which we had 300 some, 79 did not return. So they were in our school district and they did not return to our school district from open enrollment. Uh 11 moved to the school district of Lacrosse. So that's a good thing. They converted their open enrollment to residential enrollment and 33 were in kindergarten. So um so they were here for 4K and then open and then left to go back to their home district. And we often see that with our um uh our community child
008care centers. uh whether it's a quick trip for kids or um Hulie Childare or Gunderson or YW.CA. Uh they start with us there. It's convenient uh in terms of their employment, their parents employment, and then they go back to their home district uh for kindergarten. That's a pretty common thing. And so we're a net positive on like an annual basis, but we're not retaining open enrollments long term. And so that's where we keep seeing this gap show up between our ins and our outs. >> Turn. So they they open enrolled in last year, >> correct? Or prior years >> or pri but this was new open. So but that's a different >> different metric. Yeah. Yeah, it's just generally they were with us and then they chose to leave for some reason. And I >>
009that one I don't have it would take a lot of work to like drill down to specifics which could be beneficial. >> 73 of those were kindergarten kids. >> The only place we're given why is on alternative open enrollments in that's the one place where they're required to put in a reason. >> Okay. And that like people wanting to do CRVA. Uh it could be that it's usually a little bit more generic. So for alternate enroll So alternate open enrollment out where they provide an explanation. We had 40 of those this last year. 21 said they wanted to remain in their current school. And so what that means is they were in West Salem as a resident school just as a resident student. They moved to Lacrosse, but they wanted their children to stay in
010West Salem. So they weren't in our school district and they wanted to stay with their friends or teachers, whatever it might be. Not unreasonable request. So that's about 53%. Uh 10% were for family situations. So oftentimes divorce or an aunt where they're living with. And so they're trying to maintain enrollment in their their original school. And then another 8% were siblings. So their siblings already attended there for some reason, often because of the remaining school district. And then they want their kid their their siblings to go with them to that same school. Um often, you know, not an unreasonable request. So that's 71% of the open enrollment out during the school year. Um, and those uh for all of our open enrollments add up to about 40% of open enrollments. And so that that's I
011you can use that to kind of like cast a broader understanding of what's going on with open enrollment. The remaining 20 30%, you know, they had concerns that we hope we would be able to address, but for whatever reason we're not. So they chose to go elsewhere. Um something I had reported uh a couple years ago and tried to update again here with a little bit more understanding of some of these things was what are the enrollments within our control? You know, where did they uh maybe uh experience us or they were making a more specific choice about the school district. One of those is non4k and kindergarten open enrollment. um they've experienced a school district, ours or someone else's, and they're making a choice about coming to their next school district. And so I
012think those are more within our control than other types of open enrollments where there's kind of no experience. Uh we had 67 uh that um I think that's flipped. It should be in the blue column should be in. >> Oh, okay. >> Yes. 31. Yeah, that's an error. Uh, the blue should be in, the red should be out. Apologize for that. So, 67 uh were open and rolled in and 53 open and rolled out. We had 33 private school students come from private school to public school and 12 left for public school. There were 20 homeschool students that uh came into the school district. Blue is in and 24 left. um you know just on those three metrics that's about a net plus 31. But when you go back out to that open enrollment in
013that aren't returning there were 29 in there that were reasonably within our control uh that we that would fall into the some of these categories. Uh and so that gets it a little bit more to neutral. But then there's also some open enrollment out not returning. So they went to Holman and then they came back to us. I we can't track those numbers because of the way the reporting works, but there are some of those most likely. Uh and then there's some other factors that we'll look into. Homeschool never enrolled but stayed away or private school. They just went straight to private school. We didn't know them. My assessment is probably netneutralish but maybe gaining a little bit, you know. So that's just ballpark based on the limited information we have. Just so when you
014say in our control you mean they are they are in our area in our district otherwise physically and if for some offering we could have maybe we could attract them. >> Yes. If we provided the right perception of our school district set of opportunities the right communication the right experience they might have chosen us but for something that happened. Okay. What this slide does is reassure me that, you know, we're losing as many as we're gaining maybe most likely and that our value proposition is similar to others. We would like it to be better, but uh it's similar. Uh some other enrollment factors, uh one is our open enrollment history. It was implemented in 1998. We ran a net positive for many years, but in uh since 20 gosh 18, we've started to see a
015net loss of about a minus 104 uh today. And that trend has been pretty consistent up on the outs and it has uh tapered off on the ins. If you look at all of our open enrollments, we have 315 that come in and 419 that go out. I did get the columns right on this one. Um, and you can see the five districts where we see the most open enrollment out and in. Uh, 213 go to an Alaska, 75 come back, 97 go to West Salem, 66 come back. Uh, and we're above water with Holman Westby Innotto. Um, 51% go of of our open enrollments go to an Alaska. It's our primary competitor for students that are choosing to open enroll. Um >> that is true. >> There you go. >> But but wait a
016minute. The 65% always attending. So that of the 419, well over half >> may live in Lacrosse, but have always attended. >> Yes. >> So okay, that's a different kind of story, too. It adds some nuance to it, but I think Mr. Newmeisterers's point is correct. Like we didn't attract them at the outset, right? Right. >> We had a chance in 4K in kindergarten and they didn't choose us. >> Um, but yeah, about twothirds always attended the district that they're currently in. So that's good information to have. Both are both attended ours or on Alaska or Homeman, whatever it might be. About 40% of open enrollments occurred at kindergarten or 4K. So they started somewhere else and continued on and then 25% of open enrolled stay in the district they move out of. So uh
017if you live in West Salem and you move to Lacrosse, they go back to West Salem about 25% of the time is what the the data here says. And then uh what I noticed as I was looking at a variety of different ways to cut the data. There's a lot of transients back and forth between an Alaska and Lacrosse are um you know people view this as like a pool of apartments and houses uh that you know the highway might be there physically but the access to affordable rents or the next house the next place to live is right there. And so whether you uh live, you know, in the Huber Henchin neighborhood or on the north side of the lower depot or up in an Alaska, it's all the same housing market, you know,
018from a family's perspective. And so we see a fair amount of open enrollment in and out uh from even sometimes the same students as they're trying to stay in their home district uh while transferring back and forth between a more affordable rent situation somewhere else. I think a hostile takeover is what we need to start planning for. Just annex the entirety of >> two high schools is nice. I don't know about three. >> Excuse me. Did you catch that? >> Uh homeschool enrollment. Uh we have seen uh pretty level homeschool enrollment over the years. Uh it was a little less before the pandemic. Certainly spiked during the pandemic as people made a variety of choices and it's come back down since. And this year it's at its lowest it's been in in six years at
019147. Um 43 of those were new homeschool enrollments for this year which is interesting. were able to find that data >> and they were all what grade? I mean is it >> we don't have access to grade. All we have is the parents name and the number of kids. There's very little data associated with it. And I can compare last year's list to this year's list to see who was a new one. That's about it. Um private school invol enrollment. Um, we have 258 FTE in private school vouchers for 2526. So, we get a report every year that tells us the number of kids that are going out. We don't know where. Uh, we don't know what schools. We can make pretty good guesses. We suspect they're the ones that are locally. Can't travel too
020far. Uh, and we have a fair number of options around us. So the Lutheran schools in Luther uh Aquinus uh school system uh Providence Academy and Kulie Christian are the primary places that >> I would include virtual schools as well in some cases. Um some of some of the privates do offer virtual schools. Those are actually popping up more and more frequently especially in the Milwaukee area. uh they can take advantage of our rules to draw funds that way. I think I've seen one or two that might qualify for that, but it's hard for us to know because we don't know where our kids go. Um in trying to like quantify, you know, what some of this means because we don't have great data around it. Uh I looked at all the school districts in
021Lacrosse County, you know, so the ones that would be closest to these private schools. And 43% of Lacrosse County resident vouchers come from the school district of Lacrosse. So if you look at all the vouchers in the county, 43% come from Lacrosse. >> Next door. >> Absolutely. And that's about our percentage of the public school enrollment in Lacrosse County. Uh Holman and an Alaska are about half our size. West Salem's a fifth to sixth of our size, you know, so that's ballpark where it would make sense for us to be if we had proportional enrollment to private schools on the voucher side. Um, it's easier because we have a longer history to see some things at Aquinus. Uh, and so, you know, there's also Luther and Kulie Christian and Providence, but if we look at
022Aquinus, we can get some some kind of history there. Enrollment at Aquinus fell by 36% from 1994 to 2012. >> Is this just the high school or system? >> The whole system. >> Yep. Elementary. >> Yep. Uh so there was a a steady decline there. In fact, it was greater decline than at the public schools uh through that period of time. And then in 2013, vouchers stabilized enrollment right around that thousand student mark. And that's about their physical capacity uh when you look at the middle and high schools. And so they've been careful to stay in that ballpark so that they can accommodate the kids that um they can educate. And vouchers have increased over time but have really stabilized since 2018 uh at Aquinus at about 19%. It's fluctuated between 18 and 19% since
023then uh in terms of vouchers. Uh other uh schools have seen greater increases, but at Aquinus it's stayed pretty steady. Um long-term enrollment trends. Um we've had declining enrollment for 30 years. Uh in 1995, uh our enrollment was 8,152. Uh today it's 5564. students a 32% reduction. Uh for a while it was stable at the high school and then it was stable at the elementary school. Uh but all three levels have been declining now uh in recent years. Primary cause of declining enrollment is birth rates. Uh they've been declining locally, statewide, and nationally. And the birth rate in Lacrosse County has dropped 30% since 1990. So, lines up pretty well with the decline in the number of students in our schools as well. Um, population changes locally. Uh, the city of Lacrosse and the surrounding
024townships have grown 1.8% in 35 years. So, we were at 51,544 in the city of Lacrosse in 1990 and we're at 52,542. um 998 new residents in the city of Lacrosse 35 years later. Um and so if there's fewer kids being born in the same population of residents, you're just going to have fewer kids in your schools. And homeman and on Alaska despite, you know, their incredible growth over that period of time, uh they have also been experiencing declining enrollment over the last five years. And on Alaska is really now in our situation. and they're landlocked as well. Uh their um buildable land is almost built out and so uh they're in a very similar situation that we are and they've been steadying their enrollment through open enrollment uh and equally homeman and lacrosse students.
025>> Um we've got two different uh projections for enrollment. One that we use is the UW applied population lab. U their most optimistic projection is a minus 386 students in five years. That was from from last year. The median outcome would result in minus 746 students in five years. Assuming stable 4K and kindergarten enrollments, and we know that that's not happening. Um those have always felt a little on the dire side given our experiences. we usually come in a little less uh significant than those. >> Uh and that's why the MD RERS enrollment projections have been nice. It's a a more detailed and nuanced uh projection and uh we're thankful to have this around. Our 2025 prediction uh was that we would have 5,545 students. Uh and the actual was about 20 students more. So
026they were within 3% in year one, which is a good sign for the future. and they estimate a minus 315 students in five years. And we're hopeful that's the trend as opposed to the UW applied population lab. Uh next steps, um you know, if you get students in your school district, they stick around. And so I think that highlights the need to focus on 4K and kindergarten enrollments and uh uh and the to promote um the great programs that we have at that level and to to see how our all day 4K programming works. Um and then shifting the public perception of the school district to promote enrollment. Uh we have amazing opportunities in our school district. We have amazing teachers and uh as we improve our facilities that will make a difference as well.
027And lastly, we need to continue to adapt to declining enrollment. Uh our projections indicate it will continue. We're in a really good place right now. We've made some really important decisions that will stabilize things for a number of years. We'll just have to keep our eye on that um that trend and make sure that um we don't fall behind uh the power curve on budgets and staffing and all those other things. And that's all I have. Happy to take any questions and entertain any conversation. So this declining enrollment like I mean it's not realistic it's going to go to zero but that seems like that's the direction like is there some point it's going to level off or like I would think this would be still a district where people are going to want their
028kids to go. Is there any projections on that or any information on that? Um when I look at the MD Roers enrollment projections, uh it shows kind of more significant declines in the first five years and then as we get out to 35 and 40, we're only losing about a 100 kids a year after that. And so I would anticipate. >> Holly's face said what my brain was thinking. >> That's 100 over fiveyear periods, you know. So it's 20 a year, you know, it's pretty small for a school district our size, you know. So that's >> unfortunate declines but pretty stable, you know. So I think once, you know, it looks to me that once we hit 2030, even 2027, you know, it's going to be fewer and fewer after that. You know, it'll it'll
029stabilize and we'll hit, you know, some level of new normal for birth rates that will kind of just kind of lock in for a period of time. you know, people are still going to have kids. It's just a matter of how many. And uh you know, my my philosophy has slowly become our job is to educate the kids we have, not the ones we want. And for those that are here, we provide the best darn education we possibly can. And we make ourselves as competitive as possible so that you want to come live here in Lacrosse and attend our schools. questions. Jim's formulating some I just I think of Polytech uh school and the excitement that those kids show when they're there and the teachers that are there. You don't always see that in schools.
030Um so I don't know if there's something that could be expanded upon with that particular product. Why do kids seem to gravitate and once they get there they really seem to enjoy it? You know, that's just a general observation, but if we could play on that particular sound um and maybe we are doing it through the trades that were offering at Logan and Central, other introductory trades at the middle school. I know we heard something about the FFA, but I don't know other than that. Uh are they getting interested in eighth grade in terms of a construction trade? I mean, I think the earlier you expose kids to those type things, maybe they show more of an interest. So, I don't know if there's introductory construction, introductory robotics, whatever. >> Yeah, we are fortunate to
031have career and teched classes at the middle school level and all students get access to all of those. They get a chance to kind of survey what they like so that they get excited about careers and what might come in high school. I think what I think your point about polytechnics is a good one. That school uses project-based learning, very hands-on, very engaging. And you know, they have a very intense focus on that at Polytenic. But that doesn't mean we can't create engaging education across our school district. And at the high school level, you probably experienced yourself a teacher that like lectured all day and then you got to do some work at the very end of the class and then you were off on your way. It was maybe informative, maybe not, but it
032might not have been engaging. And so I think as we um think about students today, think about the best teaching that we can provide, what does that engaging, hands-on uh instruction look like? Uh when I think about every time I'm in a class in a elementary building and I go to lunch and I sit down with the kids, I always ask them, "What's your favorite class?" Inevitably, it's art, music, or fire. Right? Those are the most engaging hands-on classes. They're also novel. They don't have to put up with their teacher all day in those classes, right? Uh but those are the places where they're most excited because of the type of instruction that naturally goes on that the the subject matter just makes alive. Uh and so how can we do that in a 11th
033grade English class? How can we do that in a algebra class? How do we create engaging exciting um uh instruction that that uh kids really uh enjoy? Now you have to somehow translate that experience to parents making decisions in 4K and that's harder to do but I think that's how we would create you know vibrant high schools that are super attractive and I think we great things already you can't beat the opportunities in our school district for AP classes dual creditmies like we knock it out of the park it's a matter of making folks aware of that and how do we do that is there like a better way you know, you turn the TV on and Aquinus has this, you know, this great media based like come to Aquinus, right? Is is there an
034opportunity for us to do that? Because I I don't know that parents generally know all the things that we have to offer, especially like you said, I think for a kid. So, how do we get to those parents before, you know, they even have kids? Um, because Again, you can only control what we can control and the things that we can control are the people leaving or the people not coming. So, I mean decrease in enrollment and you know, housing and all that stuff is out of our control. So, how do we get better at doing that maybe and are we doing enough right? Yeah, I think we have some public perception to work on. You know, there's when you talk to realators, you know, in our area about, you know, what they think are
035better or worse school districts, they have opinions. Uh, and so I think there's some uh advertising that might need to go on there. Then it's about, you know, how do you reach the audience you want to reach? I think we have a really good Facebook page. It's probably one of the better ones I've seen across the state. The challenge is that's an internal audience. the people that subscribe to a Facebook page are the ones that already go there that are already connected and it's hard for that to land on the page of somebody who's not there, you know, so and see those things or somebody who's not in the school district yet. >> As a parent that recently moved back into Lacrosse, I have to say that I did not I was not aware at
036all of what Lacrosse School District offered and we were like, well, you know, on Alaska looks really good. Um, we were just kind of going off of what uh I think Red Fin like the school scores and and the the reviews and whatnot. Um, I am so happy we are in cross school district now that I know its offerings and glad that we didn't end up in Homeman around Alaska. But I mean that I think is a real problem. Um, even I even grew up here and I was like, I don't know, you know, so I I don't know how we fixed that, but like as a parent that has recently moved into the district that it's a problem. >> Totally. >> You know, there's an old marketing adage of people have to hear or
037see things seven times before they act on it. And um you know I think part of it going back to the Aquinus they're putting it out in all sorts of media forms, social media, news, all kinds of media. And so when people are making decisions they've already heard that message seven times. They haven't heard our message seven times. >> They also have like little yard signs everywhere too. >> Yeah. And I and I it's a different culture and it's a lot of different things. But I think, you know, what I hear from people all the time is staff and parents is and when people learn about school district lacrosse, what makes them the most excited are all the choices. And we offer more choices than anybody around. And we don't tell anybody about that. And
038I think that's an opportunity that we can work on doing, figuring out a better way of getting that message out there. And and again, people have to hear things seven times before they act on it. So just because you see one really cool flyer, then you saw one really cool flyer, but you got to see or hear something six more times before you're going to act on it. And I think that moves the needle with realators, it moves a needle with lots of parties. >> I think part of the problem though is that I mean that that all just cost money, >> right? $40,000 budget for Yeah. >> Advertising which gives us essentially one TV run with 4K >> in the spring and some of the other basic print stuff. >> Well, then like how
039much does each student bring in? Like maybe we need to look at our budget. >> I mean that's that's kind of what I'm getting at is like I I hear everything everyone's saying and I agree like we need to be getting the message out there more and and you know Aquinus as a as a system has a really strong tradition and and community just built around it. So there's and and so to do that for the public schools, it's there's there's an economy of scale there too that we're working with. Like it's it's a much harder thing to to get that level of investment where where we could maybe redirect some of those resources more to communication. like what kind of advertisement would be targeted at a family like Molly's who is considering moving back
040to the area and when and how do they interact with that? Like we don't we don't know where you're at in Washington, right? When when you're thinking about jobs and and whether to make the move presumably, yeah, people are looking at at all the school report cards and they're looking at Red Fin and all the different ways to get ratings that are part of the larger family considerations, but like where does an advertisement intervene in that in a in a way that is going to be meaningful? Like I'm not an advertiser, but that seems like a pretty tough road to hope. >> How does an Alaska do it? I mean, they're honestly kicking our butt in open enrollment and we offer a heck of a lot more than an Alaska does. So >> we're the
041perception is one people are leaving the city and we keep on losing you know our neighborhood resources. So they are looking to leave the city. So and I am a real estate agent so I see it all the time you know and and people are looking elsewhere but we have the best school system definitely around. I think Tim brings a great Obviously, you need money for it, but there's different ways we can even do it. You know, sharing, you can do a a a blitz, not just like things we offer and have it shared. Maybe it goes viral there. You know, we there's there's way to advertise that doesn't cost so much, but I think we got to tout our own school system a lot better than we do because people just think of us
042lacrosse school district. I think of it 1983. Well, you know, hello. There wasn't a lot there. We had building trades. Mr. Curtis rocked it. That was unheard of back then where you learned, you know, how to do electricity and you learned a lot of that and um but then it kind of went away. Building trades left and then it's coming back now. But there's a lot to offer and we need to find some solution because we're gonna we're dying of slow death is the bottom line and we cannot continue down that road. I mean, we'll never completely go because our city's always going to have around 50,000, but it's going to be mostly rentals most day. I'm I'm I'm willing to bet especially on the north side because nobody's going to move there. So, we
043need uh we need to look at other alternatives. I think one of the more inexpensive things we could do is one of the things we did when we were looking for houses is we looked at the reviews for the schools and those are right on Redin and Zillow too. So if we could ask people who have had positive experiences with the school district to leave a review on whatever that is that would probably be really helpful. >> Absolutely. >> And that's free. >> And you I I learned this from uh executive coaching. And then you go five stars matters and then they'll do five stars instead of four. >> Five stars instead of four. Otherwise, you're a hater. >> Well, I would say the best people to advertise are parentto parent and that comes from
044teachers. Teachers in the classroom, they like this teacher, they like that school and therefore that's your best advertisements. And if you get one teacher, whatever saying some negative things about the community, about their school or whatever that spreads pretty fast. Um, I think the affluency of an Alaska is something that draws people to an Alaska. They hear about some maybe poverty area and I don't want my kid involved in that. Um, I would I would also say activities has a lot to do with it and whether they're it's successful or not, whether it's a a music program or whatever, kids want and they see the band go down the street during the parade or whatever or they hear this show and they hear about that, they want their kid to be part of that, whether
045it's the basketball team or the football team or whatever. I mean, Aquinus drives that to the hilt as far as their recruitment of good athletes. if they hear a good athlete, I mean, I don't care, Arcadia, Wisconsin kids are coming down to Aquinus to play a sport that they're embedded with, uh, and they're recruited and if they can't afford the tuition tuition, somebody pays it. So, they have that sense of >> now, we do >> vouchers. We pay >> I know, but at the same time, not all of it. There are there are people that can't afford it even with a voucher and therefore I know people that are paying for Aquinus tuition for certain kids. A guy came up to me just the other day and said, >> "Yeah, I felt sorry for the
046kid and the parents, so I came up with the money to pay the tuition. That's wild. >> So I've thought a lot about this topic. So this is a >> you're the one who called for the workshop. So thank as they look at the in-n-outs every year, it's to me it's it's revenue, right? Like it's kids, but for me it's also revenue. So to some of the earlier points we made about how do we how do we fund ourselves? How do we look at our budgets? Um that kind of stick with me. I got a lot of topics. So PR is our first thing like this is a branding campaign, right? So that's what we are doing. We are branding. I think to me we are our own worst enemy because of our choice and
047because we are split right and that split at the high school level is great for lots of different reasons but it also hurts us right because we spend we don't spend our time the strength of an Alaska the strength of Holman is they are on Alaska they are home they wear the same colors the community wears it right it creates its own brand it creates its own PR because it's tied to the We are one, we are lacrosse. We lose some of that branding power because it's central and local, right? So, I think we should seriously think about how we approach this is not a let's talk about consolidation. This is talk about like consolidating our message >> as one district. We are one lacrosse. We should be working and talking to the community as
048one district, as one community, and figuring out ways to highlight all of those strengths as a district and the accessibility across our district and the choices that we have because of that power. We we miss some of that because we are not we don't have one call it high school and one identity. We have two identities which is great. But then how do we look at some of those identities in areas where maybe we We saw some we we listened to a lot of really great um stories at the start of the like when I first came on about show choir consolidating and the experiences students had and how much more powerful we were as a unit more competitive as we were as a unit. We should be looking at opportunities across the district at
049clubs, music, drama, certain sports. Like if you look at us and say are we splitting our funding across two programs? Are we hurting ourselves in the way that we compete? Uh I watch my kids in soccer and I go, "Okay, Central's got to we we were fifth and sixth this year in boys soccer, right? If you put us together, we'd probably be third in the district because we could have a pretty good starting 11 with some depth. I think a lot of our sports programs, a lot of our band, you you watch our bands in the uh October Fest parade and you see them both and you're like an Alaska looks way bigger, right?" So the perception that we present to the community, it's it's being shown and we're not trying to, right? We're just
050trying to represent our schools, our kids do a great job or teachers do a great job. But it it's that that perception that it continues to like be reinforced by the way that we approach the market. So I want us to kind of think about that because I've done a lot of research while some of our performance at least in sports. Uh we average usually fifth and sixth in the conference in WIA. If you take a five-year average, got some peaks and we got a couple sports where we do pretty well. I think boys basketball at Central does pretty well consistently. Uh but if you look at most sports, football included, we do not compete for most years. And part of it is because our resources are split, our players are split. There's concerns about
051accessibility when some of that comes into play. Um but to Jim's point, part of some people leave a district, whether it's to private schools or out of district or uh something they're passionate about. That could be singing, music, sports, a club, doesn't matter. It could be part of the re one of one of the reasons why they leave. You go back through the history of old schools, a successful program in whether it's the music program, the art program, the athletic program, it goes back to the coach. Unbelievable that the magnetism of that coach just unbelievable. >> Good coaches are like good teachers, right? Like they're they're very successful for a reason. Um so I think we have to think differently as a as a district, as a board, but also as a community. Um, I
052know when like our report cards came out this last week, I saw some negative community negative comments by community members on where we were. And it's it's like, don't you understand like where we are and and the things that we have in place and all the the journey our students make from where they start, especially in some of our atrisisk communities to where they end through high school. >> North Side right now, I think they've had a report card. That's amazing actually what they've accomplished this. They've really >> great growth, right? >> They've got great growth >> year. And then you see them when they get to Logan High and we're we're exceeding, right? So you see where we take them from an elementary level to where we take them throughout their time and that's
053a testament to our teachers and staff and what they do. Um I think that's a different way to tell that story versus, you know, well Alaska exceeds everywhere. That's great. But I think ultimately some of these these conversations and how we approach not only just our branding, our image, how we structure our our activities and how we structure our support goes into a lot of our facilities conversations. Do we need one really nice music, you know, performing arts center? Do we need one really nice gym um for our basketball and volleyball? Um, it allows us to make different decisions in some of our areas of investment because we have a a more cohesive plan of how we think we should be now and also five years from now and 10 years from now, right? I
054think that's the strategy we have to kind of implement. But I think right now it goes back to grassroots, right? A bunch of yard signs that say won lacrosse. Uh, we support lacrosse to your point. Like I see those Aquinus ones that say welcome to Aquinus, right? like those are easy lowcost things that can be funded by boosters, by district, by parents. Um they could be fundraising mechanisms for us. There's ways that we could spin that, but I think it goes back to what do we want the message to be? Who do we want to be as a district and how do we get our message out to the community? Because it's it's hard >> and I would add add that I mean just bring the city in as much as we can. So there's
055a joint effort between the city and Lacrosse School District. Those have to come together. They can't individually go off. >> Agreed. >> If you can do that, you'll probably solve all the problems. Just say >> I find nothing impossible. >> I'm not saying it's impossible. >> To Scott's point, I mean, it's really hard in this market. We have been looking for a house. We have a nice house, but we'd like to look at some changes. It's hard to find a house that's meets your family's needs and >> still in the district. Um, it's easy to find a house in Hullman. Four bedrooms. Got to want to live there. Um it's really easy as a family to find that. So um I think the only other thing I'd want to say is I think at least
056at linkages we hear a lot from our teachers about the how prepared our students are when they come in at K. Um and I think we should think what conversation do we want to start with community especially given the fact that some of our buildings are come up are become vacant um in the next couple years. How do we use those buildings? How do we have public private relationships? How do we find child care and early child education for all of our students? How do we get them prepared for K so they're ready to come in? Um, I think that will long term be a good investment from the way our our kids learn and also on our teachers and staff on like how their day goes. I can only imagine managing some kids and
057classrooms. Um, but again, I think that takes a big community conversation. But if we think that that is something we want to invest in as a community, we should start having that conversation now. We feel like it will make an impact. I'm not saying that's something we need to fully invest in, but there's probably people we can definitely line up with in the community. So again, I've got lots of thoughts on this, but I think that those are kind of the to look at how we can start moving the needle. I think it really comes down to agreeing on upon a voice and agreeing upon areas where we think we can uh find the ability to be better as one um and how that that public perceives us and how the experience our students and
058our families have when they when they are in some of these situations. >> You are worthy of standing ovation there. Well said, >> Tim. >> You know, like you talk about the one high school or whatever and I don't know that whether that's feasible in this city, but one thing I do think that would work and acquaintances, you can talk about vouchers or whatever. One of the things that made a difference in terms of that school and their activities department was they became a 6 through 12 institution where kids were brought in in sixth grade and said this is the Aquinus way. This is the Aquinus way. Seventh graders go to eighth grade classes. Uh coaches are connected with kids in seventh and eighth grade and that kid stays on track. uh math classes. They
059have eighth and ninth graders in algebra 1, algebra 2, geometry because the classes are all right there. The teacher knows who the students are. And so that makes a difference that they're all in the same building. And you could say, well, we combine the two schools and we'll have a larger force. Well, this is a way of connecting because right now our middle schools I don't see have maybe I could be wrong here but they are not accelerating in terms of activities of any sort. Uh I don't know exactly where that's all at. Uh but like I said when I was at when I when I was at Longfall and you have three kids watching a video of a class that is being taught in geometry here and they were having a hard time connecting.
060It just didn't make sense to me to watch that. And then there were kids taking algebra, but they're teaching, they're being taught with non-mathematical people, people that have a general m middle school background, but not a math background. It makes a difference. I think sooner or later is to your point especially with maybe a 10-year plan or whatever we have um we going to have to take a look at you know maybe a middle school with us with the high school especially probably at Logan you know because we're declining and we continue to decline but he brings up I think in the meantime as t as as our sports teams and other things get low like we have been doing I think we're going have to join forces. It's just the way it was. I
061mean, it used to be that way even with swimming, you know, they had the Logan Central and they had >> West Salem >> still co-opted. >> Yeah. Yeah. They had a lot of that. So, um, we're going to have to get creative coming up. But I think we need to start making a sales pitch sooner rather than later because we got to stop the bleeding right now. You know, we're putting a band-aid on a broken arm and it's obviously not working, but I I think there's is and to not to bring it, you know, but we talked about the best advertising is word of mouth by the parents and stuff. I'm going to be honest with you, there's a lot lot of parents that have no idea all that lacrosse offers. And I think they'd
062be shocked if they So, I think if we tout all the benefits of our school district, it would even wake them up because it honestly it woke me up because I no clue. It's been a long time since I've had children, you know, in the school district and and I think it's something to really be proud of. >> Just want to clarify. I never said one school. So, >> no, >> just want to make sure the public knows. I never said one school. >> I second that. Okay. I didn't hear you. >> But Jim, your point is that's where I think I my head goes is like uh do we continue to consolidate like our facilities on north and south side footprints, right? um to be able to upgrade our middle schools, our high schools
063as well as our elementaryaries. But that frees up a lot of real estate for athletic facilities, for trade education, for fine art facilities. But I think, think of it this way. So if we take our bands, right, you still want uh the band to play at the the halftime of the football game, it's not a change, right? But when we march in a parade where we should march as lacrosse, >> why can't both of them march together, right? >> They should be in one uniform. They should march together. They should it should say lacrosse and that's who we march as not and take a dance team, right? Dance team should be one dance team, right? That's a numbers issue that we have every year. >> And I think we noticed this year that Logan's band
064was puny. I mean, very small, which really shocked me because usually it's pretty good size. And I'm like, you know, and we talk sports wise too. It it goes in this because you remember a few years ago Aquinus didn't have enough to field a football team. >> Y >> so you know and now they're back to full strength. So we are going to have but joining the forces on some of those is is going to make us uh well one to your point we'll be a lot more uh competitive and ultimately it'll be good for the kids too because it builds camaraderie. >> It's a lot more fun, right? Like I watched my I watched Lagoon get uh eight goal mercy rule like in 10 of their games last year, right? >> It's not a
065lot of fun to get, you know, smoked every game. Um it's a lot more fun when at least you're competitive in the games you're playing. Um again, it's not about winning. It's about experience. It's about working as a team. That's what high school sports are, right? >> But to Jim's point, right, it's about activities. It's about giving kids opportunities. It's about finding something they're passionate about both in middle school and all the way through high school. I mean, I I remember during the high school referendum conversations, uh there was a lot of talk about like what what happens when there's there's only one varsity team, there's only one first chair violin, right? But I think what was lost in that and I if I remember correctly I said something to to this effect after I
066joined the board was that there's a reason that the most competitive programs the strongest programs that produce people who carry on a lifelong interest in music and theater and sport are big programs right um that they they can develop talent that they have resources to have more than just the one coach who's holding it all together but but a coaching staff half a culture, right? A a teaching culture in in in music and um that that that the whole thing can go on past that person's retirement. We saw some you know, you think of Mike Esser in the show choir years when when central show choir was the bee's knees and it was not long after I graduated that of course the population decline really had a big part of doing that. But when you
067lose that singular figure because it's so focused around a person like so I absolutely agree with what you're saying and I think I think that some kind of of more not consolidated I don't want to use the word consolidation but but some some kind of more focused centralized uh approach to those activities that that people really rally around is is probably a good idea. And I can remember before was Bud Aronson and he was a standup. >> So it wasn't just you. >> No. Yeah. The sec the the second percussionist on the Grand Central Station. No, definitely not. >> Did we give you some thoughts? >> Absolutely. got a small group of school district staff that's going to get together to talk about public perception and many of the things that you brought up uh
068will be uh part of our discussion and then I hope to bring it back here as a workshop to talk about next steps from the board's perspective and refine the initial things that we're putting together. >> Great. >> This was a good workshop. I think it was good. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> It's interesting to get some context. Thank you. >> No consolidation. >> No. Clear. I'm not I'm not saying we should take a football team.