001[music] Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Also this year, the LEA is marking 80 years of serving the educators of Lacrosse. Since 1945, our teachers have stood together to advocate for what all of you care about as well. safe, well-resourced, highquality learning environments for our children. For eight decades, the LEA educators have shown up every day with one purpose, doing what's best for kids. That commitment has never wavered through changes in funding, curriculum, leadership, and technology. Our educators dedication is one of the most stable and reliable constants in this district. Today, 67% of Lacrosse educators choose to be part of the LEA. That high level of participation means two things. First, educators believe deeply in collaboration and collective problem solving. And second, the district believes the district benefits from a strong unified voice that
002helps ensure consistency, stability, and professionalism across our schools. A strong collective voice helps stabilize our workforce and strengthens our mission. Our work also extends beyond the school walls. LEA members show up in the community at Labor Day events, football games, through food pantry drives, scholarships for high school students, and sponsorships with local partners. We believe public schools thrive when the community thrives, and we take that responsibility seriously. We also advocate at every level of government. That includes meeting with lawmakers locally and in Madison, providing testimony to state leaders, traveling to the nation's capital, and building educator leadership. This isn't abstract political work. It's the day-to-day effort to ensure our students, staff, and schools have the resources they need and deserve. And most importantly, we do this work in partnership. We value our collaborative relationship with
003the district and with many community organizations that support our schools. We don't get everything right on the first try, but we work at the same table with the same goal, improving student learning and supporting the people who make that learning possible. A strong union doesn't just benefit educators. It benefits everyone connected to the school system. Decades of research across multiple states, including Wisconsin, show that schools function better, students achieve more, and communities thrive when educators are supported and respected. For educators, a strong union ensures fair wages, benefits, and retirement security. It protects against unfair work treatment, gives educators a real voice in curriculum and workload decisions, and provides professional development, mentoring, and support. Students benefit enormously from stability, experienced teachers, consistent relationships, and safe, well-resourced classrooms. Unions advocate for manageable class sizes, increased student supports,
004and programs that meet both academic and social emotional needs. Strong public schools create strong communities. Unions help ensure economic stability through middle class jobs, increased civic engagement, and partnering with community organizations to support equity and opportunity. And for school districts, strong unions create clear communication channels, reduce turnover, ensure compliance with labor standards, and contribute to a motivated and professional workforce. So, as we celebrate American Education Week, I want to reaffirm something fundamental. Lacrosse educators, administrators, and the school board share the same vision. A district where students succeed, staff feel supported, and our community continues to be proud of its public schools. Thank you. [applause] I can certainly take any questions or feedback. I'm just curious. So 67% membership is fantastic. I'm just wondering for those who may not become what you have in recent What
005would your pitches? >> Yeah, I would say you can't afford to not be in your union. This is the single professional group for teachers in the Lacrosse district. It's it supports everybody. I could be a member of a professional music educators group, but that's very specific to my content. The LEA serves all all staff um teaching staff and so we're there to ensure that their workplace rights are being accommodated and held up. Um I'm very proud of the work that we do with the district. We have a really good relationship. Dr. Engel and I meet very regularly. Um I've had open dialogues with schoolboard members. Um our staff feel supported um a majority of the time in in their work and that they're being heard and listened to. We have channels to go um deal
006issues when they come up. Um, and so I just think the LA I think our strong numbers do show um that we do have a great support system here and and we want to keep that uh keep that good work going. >> Um, our next item then is our financial a to Thank you to the staff um Dr. Engel and her staff and the auditors for getting the report to us as quickly as they did. Um there's a report that's due to state in December. We just discussed concerns about that going to the state before the board saw the audit. So um really appreciate the response from staff to make this happen this year. So thank you. >> I know some in the crowd may have come here just to see Jill speak and so
007you're not interested in around for the audit. We totally understand if you've got other obligations this evening. Uh that said, uh it's always good to see the bottom line of the school district and thankful to have uh Miss Frag here uh to introduce um our auditors and our report. >> So, uh Greg Patel from uh Kerber Rose, our auditors is supposed to be >> He's here. We can see him. >> Oh, you see him? Great. Hey, Greg. Um, I don't see him. Um, anyways, I want to also before Greg starts, I want to to thank uh Dvita Mulling, our supervisor of finance and the staff in the business office who manage our finances on a daily basis which allow us to have a good audit. So, I will let Greg take it away. >> Okay.
008Thank you, and thank you for the board for having us here tonight. We also have Brianna Olsen who's the senior manager on the audit and together she and I will present the audit results and we have some financial observations and along the way if you have any questions feel free to stop us or we can take any questions at the end for a second to see if we can Let's continue. Thank you. >> Okay. >> All right. I will get started with the district's audit results. Uh the district did receive an unmodified opinion. And this is the same as last year. Um, this is on the financial statements themselves, saying that they're fairly presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles for state and local governments in the United States of America. Um, also the
009same as last year for internal control findings, we have a finding under financial reporting. Now, this is a significant deficiency which is lesser than a material weakness. This is just essentially saying that Kerberose is preparing the financial report on behalf of the district. Um, and this is really a costbenefit decision that the district has made to have us prepare the report with all of the accounting principles applied within the footnotes. Um, now it's reduced down to a significant efficiency due to Patty and Tvita's team having the knowledge and skills to be able to review those reports and the accuracy of those footnotes. Um this is a very common very common finding among a majority of the districts in the state of Wisconsin as well. And then the district falls under a federal single audit meaning
010they expend $750,000 or more of federal dollars within the fiscal year. And the program that we ended up testing this year was child nutrition and there were no compliance findings within that. Any questions for the audit results themselves? the finding is not just majority of um districts around the state but even local governments. Um so it's it's it's a requirement that came into effect about 20 years ago. Um and it shows up in a lot of audits. So it's I just for the public and for the board um it's something auditors have to report on but it's not >> representative representative of any concerns. Well, [laughter] >> I I would say it's not necessarily that you don't have an auditor on staff, but the breath in the change in governmental accounting standards has been fairly
011significant in the 20 years that I've been in public accounting. Um, I entered and we are on Gatsby statements 43 and 45. We're now at, I believe, 103. So, uh, they've been busy at the Gazsby level, uh, creating all of these new disclosures and liabilities over the past 20 years. And really the time that it would take, I think that Patty and Dita could put these financial statements together, but the time that it takes and the um you know, knowing all of the nuances of each note disclosure is probably not worth the time commitment from their standpoint to do that once a year. Our team um prepares [snorts] all of our school districts and we have 58 public school districts. So there are not um really any school districts that are preparing their own financial
012statements out there. And out of all the findings, uh this is a rather insignificant one. We have a lot of our districts that are having a bit of a challenge with cash reconciliations. Uh may not have the most ideal segregation of duties. Those are much more important findings to discuss when presenting the audit results in my opinion. And if you have this financial reporting finding >> okay >> so as far as financial observations then the general fund unassigned fund balance ended at $26.3 million and that's as of June 30th 2025. We really um suggest somewhere between 20 to 25% of your general fund expenditures in that unassigned fund balance. And that really allows you from a cash flow perspective to um weather the the ups and downs in terms of collections of revenues. You start
013your fiscal year on July 1st and you don't collect the majority of your state and federal monies until the second half of the fiscal year as well as the tax levy. So having 20 to 25% really uh typically will allow you to avoid short-term borrowing. And um from a bond rating standpoint, they consider anything from 20 to 30% to be good. and anything above 30% to be excellent. So, I think it's always helpful from a perspective of looking back at where you've been in relation to your unassigned fund balance. And so on this um slide here, the black represents the unassigned general fund balance and the blue represents the general fund expenditures for the past five years here. And you can see uh while the expenditures have um increased mainly this year, the unassigned fund
014balance has been relatively stable. And I think that's um a testament to the financial planning of your team as well as at the board level um adopting a very realistic budget. And so we can see here um that unassigned general fund balance plotted as a percent of your general fund expenditures over the past five years. And although the line goes up and comes back down, it's within basically two and a half percent um of each other of all the five years. So a high of 25.43% at the end of June 30th, 2024 and then just a slight dip down to 23 and a half% here for the audit year that we're reporting on here. So um from our perspective it's a snapshot of a point in time uh to be used in conjunction with management's
015projections for the future financial trends for the district. Um but we feel like you're in a very good spot financially as of June 30th. That graph doesn't represent the amount of fund balance because it's a it's a factor of fund balance to what your current budget is. So as your budget increases, if your fund balance remains the same, that percentage would declin, right? >> Correct. Yeah. And this is an overall fund balance too. You also have um some committed and assigned funds, but the unassigned fund balance is essentially resources available to start the 2526 fiscal year. You're welcome. Any other questions for Brianna or I Okay. Well, thank you for having us tonight. >> Have a good night. >> So, we will need action on this item. Looking for a motion to accept the 242
016financial audit report as presented. Second. And in discussion, looks like also have a hard copy here. There is a letter uh from the auditor to the board. But you do not have to keep these. Uh we will keep them for you if you want to refer to them. But if you want to take them with you, you're welcome to take those with you. You also will see I'll take a moment that you have your budget book. printed and that is something that you want to refer to as the year goes by. That's it. >> Thank you. Any discussion motion? >> Yeah, I just want to say compliments to having worked in your area similar in another local type of government. People don't understand the vast amount of work that goes on to pull auditors answer
017all these questions. They put things together in ways and ask questions that you spend your whole year keeping things organized and now they slice and dice it 100 different ways. And then when they come in and they talked about the the federal audit review was the nutrition program. You don't know that till they arrive. So it isn't like you can do anything to prepare for it. Um so it's it's an enormous amount of work and it's is this your first year with this audit firm? >> This is our second year. Well, kudos to to staff um on behalf of the board. I did a great job and it's it's a lot of work that people don't understand how much work goes into it. >> Thank you very much. >> All those in favor of the
018motion signify by saying I. >> Those opposed. Motion carries. >> Congratulations on the audit. We'll then 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 would like to remove from the superintendent consent agenda? >> Hearing none, I would look for a motion to approve the superintendent's consent agenda as presented. >> Second with Adam not here. We're kind of trying to come up with a new rhythm tonight. We have a motion in a second. Further discussion. All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> Those opposed. Motion carries. We'll then move on to the board's consent agenda. The board's consent agenda is a mechanism used
019by the board to deal with routine business that must come before the body. Are there any items that members would like to remove from the board consent agenda? Hearing none, we look for a motion to approve the board consent agenda as presented. So move. Aenda as presented. >> Okay. Thank you, Miss Speaks. Are you seconding, Jim? >> Second. >> Okay. Any further discussion? >> All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> Those opposed? Motion carries. We'll then move on to items reserved for board action. And we have operational expectation monitoring OE5 financial planning. And tonight is administration will present any recommended changes for the interpretations and indicators for next year. >> We have no recommendations for changes. The report's been serving us well and we feel like we can
020continue with it as is. >> Thank you. >> So do we >> I think so. Yeah, we >> accept them as they are. Okay, I will make a motion to accept uh gosh, I don't know what to do here. Uh the policy OE financial planning monitoring report template in its current form. Second motion in a second. Thank you for winging that one. >> Yeah, that was tiresome. [laughter] >> Any further discussion on the motion? All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. Those opposed? Motion carries. We move on to the information item and referendum construction plan update. >> Um, right now we are finishing up removal of uh anything useful out of the home administrative center. There was a great article on news 8000 that showed some of the removal
021by Habitat uh for humanity. Uh they've been doing a great job finding things. Uh you can get your uh auditorium chairs uh right now if you're interested over habitat. Uh so, uh there's lots of uh neat things there. Uh and uh really excited to see uh some of that historic material end up in historic homes. Uh it's hard to find moldings that match or door sets that match that the era of of when some of the stuff was created. And so, it's nice to be able to pass that on to our community and keep it out of the landfill. Uh next week, we will start hazardous material removal from the Hogan administrative site. So, we've got lead and just as any old building does. So, we'll be removing that next week uh and anticipating demolition
022in November. Um I'm going to see if I can share Dan my screen. So you can this is what uh State Road Elementary looked like uh this morning about midm morning. [snorts] Uh so uh footings are in. They're already working on some block. Uh up by the school, those are a couple of classrooms that are going in. And then uh the portion to the uh right uh kind of humped mound of dirt uh is where the gymnasium will be. And every time I look at it, I think to myself, it couldn't be that big. Uh and then I look at a person in there and it's like, holy smokes, uh small or a truck and think about how many lengths of that that would be for a gymnasium. Uh and so it is uh it's
023a no small feat for these uh great construction workers to to make this a reality. Uh and uh if you're interested, we have a camera up there. It takes a picture about every 30 minutes. I wouldn't recommend looking at it right now. It'll be pitch black. uh which is why I grabbed this from earlier today so I can show a little bit of what's going on. But they are making quick progress and it's uh very exciting to see that is our oh >> yes um something that we've been working on for [clears throat] gosh probably over a year now uh is uh arranging public transportation to get to the state road site. Uh right now the bus uh picks up and drops off um at approximately Ward and Pamel Creek. I think it loops up
024into the um county's uh facility up there. Uh but our hope is to work with the city and when we have been on getting the the bus transportation out to uh State Road. They can use our turnaround if they need it and we would put up a little bus stop there. Uh but that would facilitate uh parents and students getting to and from State Road Elementary School for all sorts of events. So that is in the works and we continue to work with transportation. Of course, you know, we think it's relatively easy, you know, running school buses and bus stops. It is more complicated when it entails an entire network with tight timing. And so, you know, we're working closely with the experts there to to make the the change happen. Well, that's true. Yes.
025>> Thank you. >> Any uh questions, discussion on that report. >> Thank you for that. We'll then move on to communication from the student representatives and I will start with whichever one of you wants to start. Just this past Friday, we had a school dance that was really successful. We had um a bunch of donations. actually was entirely based on donations from parents and guardians um for snacks and just all decorations. It was a Halloween based dance and it was really fun. And then this coming up Thursday we have our uh school showcase where we'll be presenting our projects that we've been working on for the past uh since the start of the school year. And that'll be from 3:30 to 5:45 if you guys want to stop by. >> Uh Thursday >> [laughter] >>
026The date for Hoops for Hope uh has been moved to I believe January 29th. It is mid to late January. I just have to double check the actual date itself. Uh that was just due to some scheduling conflicts. Uh they either flipped whether we were home or away or there was a miscommunication on which would be which. Uh so the date had to be moved. Um I can have more information on that at an upcoming meeting. Um, but as I've stated before, it had they should have a bunch of games. Uh, they're selling t-shirts at Central right now, uh, to try to raise money for the Pinky Square Foundation to fight against childhood cancer. Um, other fundraising news. Um, FBA recently announced our spring into action event on May 9th. Uh, we will be hosting
027a charity carnival to support the Wisconsin Conservation Corps and all the lovely work that they do. um that'll be hosted here at Central outside on the uh sidewalk leading towards uh the track. That is also the same day as a youth track meet through park and wreck. So that should be work quite nicely. At the moment we are in communications trying to set sponsors up. So if you're interested and want to help us run the event be greatly appreciated. Um but it should be a lot of fun. We should be able to do a lot of good. Um we're going to have a handful of different nonprofits coming in to talk about the benefits of being outside, the work that you can do. Um some volunteer work and also um information on the environmental crisis
028as it is. Um my final piece I know I'm rambling is show choir has their dinner show uh Sunday, November 20 Sunday, Saturday, November 23rd. Uh they have two shows at 400 p.m. and 7 p.m. It's $8 here at Central. It also is a silent auction. Uh you'll be able to see our lovely show choir teams uh compete. I believe we should have a middle school there as well, I believe. But uh our like the kids are putting in a lot of work and it should be really fun. So come out and support our lovely programs. >> What time is it? What time does it start on Saturday? >> Uh they have two shows at 400 p.m. and 7 p.m. We'll move on to Mr. and CISA for CISA 4 Board of Control. >> I
029do not have a report. That was the day my daughter was going into surgery. >> And Dr. Garcia is gone, so we will skip the public education foundation update. Um, Mr. Alberts and Mr. Newmeister, City School Consortium, any updates? >> Wednesday. um for my announcement. Um we have there's a schedule going around. Um make sure for the linkages that are coming up, we want to make sure we have good representation for those. Um and uh at the last meeting there was a slip that went around for dates in January. So, make sure if you haven't turned those in to Laura that you get that into her tonight so we can get that scheduled. Um, all of our lives are busy, so want to get that scheduled as soon as possible for the dates in January.
030And, um, if you haven't already uh, and you're interested, the, uh, Wisconsin uh, schoolboard association has their conference in January in Milwaukee. It's a great learning opportunity. It's also a great networking opportunity. So, if you haven't signed up or you haven't considered it, strongly encourage you to do that. Did I miss anything? Uh, Dr. Engel, >> um, the district office will be closed next Thursday and Friday and other than that, I have no announcements. >> Okay. Move on to agenda planning. Um, you have in front of you the proposed agenda for December 1st. Look for a motion to approve that or for any other changes. >> Make a motion to approve the December 1st, 2025 education agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Thank you. >> Is there any further discussion for agenda planning? >> All
031those in favor signify by saying I. >> Those opposed? Motion carries. We move on to board debriefing and this evening it's Mr. Alberts. >> Um I did last week but our last >> Oh >> I'm sorry. I'm highlighted the wrong >> um I'm like I think Tim just did it. >> I'll do it again. >> Yeah, this one was kind of short and sweet. So not much to say. I think I appreciate Ellie coming talking. Sounds like there's a lot of cool stuff going on at the schools too. So that's great. For sure. >> The only other comment I'd make is I was I've been in education all my life and I never understood the complexity of the budgeting until I read some of those reports. Thank you, Ben. Okay. [clears throat] All right. Then
032with that, we will um adjourn this meeting. We'll take a just a few minute break to reassemble here and uh we will go into a workshop on in a moment. Thank you. That's [music] heat.