Board of Education Regular Meeting - September 8, 2025

001[Music] like to call to order this um meeting of the board of education for the school district of Lacrosse. We recognize that well can't read that anymore the Ho Chunk Administrative Center because we're meeting elsewhere but this building occupies the land of the Ho Chunk people. Please take a moment to celebrate and honor this ancestral Ho Chunk land in the sacred lands of all indigenous people. >> Will the secretary please call the role? >> Mr. >> Here >> Mr. Jackson >> here. >> Mr. May >> here. >> Mr. New >> here. >> Dr. Spray >> here. >> Miss here. I do want to first of all say welcome before we move into the rest of our meeting. Um we are meeting here for the first time in this space. Uh it was not planned. I

002was hoping we could have a lovely meeting where we all reminisced about the qualities of the Hogan building. However, the Hogan building opted to um kick us out by having air conditioner not go well and create some unpleasant smells and such things. So, we're here and we're going to stay here. Um and I just want to explain why we're here. I appreciate the staff doing a great job of moving us here with it and everything that we have to do the setup. Um, so I just want to say thank you for that. Um, and at some point maybe in a future meeting we can have a farewell to Hogan because I think we should recognize that space. We were there for so long. So anyway, I want to explain that and I want to welcome

003our students. We'll talk to you later in the meeting, but I just want to welcome you um to our meeting. This is the first meeting for all of you. So with that said, um a quorum of the board is present and the uh regular scheduled meeting of September 8th, 2025 is called to order. We will now have the pledge of allegiance. Please stand and face the American flag. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Tonight's agenda has been previously distributed to the board. At this time, I'd uh entertain a motioned unless there is a motion to amend. >> Like to make a motion to approve the agenda as presented. Seconded.

004>> We have a motion and a second to approve the agenda. Any discussion? All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> Those opposed. Motion carries. Um this evening we have no public speakers. I'm not sure they could have found us anyway, but that's all right. Um, no one signed up. So, now we have a school showcase. I'll turn over Dr. Engel. Uh, >> excited to have Mr. Garrett Fischer here. He's our principal at Northwoods International Elementary School, but also our summer school coordinator and here to present a little bit on our summer school program this year. Right. So, the introduction ready. Thank you guys for taking some time uh to let me come up here and talk a little bit about summer school. Uh I've been the summer school

005supervisor for uh a couple of years now and uh it's been a real joy to get to work with everybody in the school district and something that I I really enjoy doing. So um this is the first year that we're kind of doing a showcase. Just want to talk a little bit about what the programming looks like, but then also talk a little bit about some future plans and some of the feedback we've gotten from the community. And we've also got some pictures at the end which are always great to see kids doing fun things in the summer. So um first talk about some of the highlights. Uh one of the unique things about uh lacrosse in particular is this is one of the largest programs for sure in the Kulie region but really of

006any other district in comparable size to lacrosse. Um we have uh 181 enrichment course offerings. So we kind of have two different there's really three things. There's high school credit classes and then we have enrichment courses and then uh we have our what we call foundations and foundations focuses mostly on our reading and math uh curriculum. And then enrichment is kind of a very broad open uh programming depending on kind of what teachers want and are passionate about teaching. And the philosophy that I've kind of adopted with it is trying to limit barriers for teachers uh to have access to working with our kids. I think we have really great quality staff in Lacrosse and we want to increase opportunities for them to have contact and engagement with students over the summer and that's really

007what our focus has been is trying to give them those opportunities. So we have a lot of different offerings. Uh we are pretty much running throughout the entire summer. Um most programs operate in one month or a couple of weeks out of the summer. uh in surrounding districts. We are offering things as soon as we get out basically all the way up until the last couple of days that we can offer programming. And um it's really diverse because there's a lot of teachers that are very passionate about a whole variety of different things from backpacking to uh art classes and cooking to uh even some more academic focused uh curriculum in the summer that they are able to get some students uh involved in. So that um the other thing that I think is a

008highlight is we've had a lot of uh families that have approved and been very supportive of the summer programming that we have. Uh 82% of the respondents this year were either satisfied or very satisfied. And that's pretty consistent. We're always in that upper 80 uh to range for families that are uh happy with a lot of the programming and options that we have. Um, we've also been really working on building some of our community partnerships with uh the BGC and the Y Surround Care. Uh, some of the other things that we've been kind of working on cultivating the last couple years that came out of the pandemic was our partnership with the Lacrosse Community Theater. Um, and that's been a really big hit. Uh we have some really passionate former educators and current educators that

009are a part of that program and have worked really hard to to grow that and it's been a real big hit with a lot of families and even community members as a whole that love being a part of that and helping kids find different avenues to kind of partner with that. Um the the the focus too again is this is kind of the summer kind of my perspective is a freeing kind of experience for even teachers. This is something that you can really work on that hands-on experiential learning. Uh you don't have to worry so much about all the different assessments and different things that you might be doing. It's kind of getting back into the love of teaching and working with kids and giving them opportunities to do uh exciting and fun things both

010in and outside the classroom. Um, another big highlight for this summer in particular was we worked really hard on building out our curriculum and we had uh two teachers in particular or staff members in the district that worked hard on helping build our K through5 curriculum uh so that we had something that any teacher coming in would have viable curriculum that they could use that would align with the standards and a lot of the coursework that we were already doing in the district. Um it was definitely things that we can expand upon but uh a big improvement from kind of where we were in the last couple of years. Um when we're looking at we do a survey at the end of the year too to kind of get uh feedback on how things have

011been going and uh what you can see is a lot of families are involved uh and it talks again about how uh you know they're they're feeling good about some of the programming that we have. Um this kind of shows a lot of the schools that are used. We do use a lot of the buildings in the district and there's pros and cons to that. Uh, one of the pros is that I know some of the folks are very passionate about their community schools and having them uh having programming close to them that kids can walk to. So, we do have a lot of buildings that we do use over the summer. We use pretty much every building in the district in some capacity. Some obviously we use a lot more than others. Um that

012also presents some you know concerns to is how do we make it equitable so that everybody has access to that programming. But uh definitely something that a lot of families have been uh supportive and improving of and a lot of you can you see with the other uh graph here that a lot of uh um we did open up June foundations which is something we're looking to continue to expand on as we move forward. and then some testimonials just from families. And I think uh you guys have access to this too. So if you want to read through some of these, you can uh see some of the things that families and uh different community members that were involved in summer school were talking about. And then this kind of talks a little bit about

013what are some of the barriers and some of the reasons you might not have chosen to participate. Uh scheduling conflicts, uh transportation, those are some of the bigger things. when you look at other, it really separates out into a bunch of other different things. Um, but those are barriers that we're continually looking at trying to reduce and work through. And that kind of talks a little bit more about our opportunities for growth. So, we're really looking at uh increasing our communication with staff and families. That's been something that uh we've been trying to sort out and get a little bit better. Uh we've got some better communication uh pro platforms with parent square that were new to a lot of staff last year and something that we're looking to build off more as we get

014into uh this upcoming summer. And then um increasing our focus and our work with individual uh uh reading plans especially and some of our intervention work over the summer. That's some of the things that we're statemandated that we're going to have to get into, but something that we've had to focus on trying to build out our curriculum and make it a little bit more uh viable and something that will carry over to long-lasting impacts in the school year. Um there's also always some confusion about how much students can participate in summer programming and if things overlap, if they can participate multiple programs. So, just trying to clear up some of those different things with families and and having the website a little bit more streamlined. Um, some of the other things we're looking at too

015is just uh looking at better ways for families to have their students go to one location instead of feeling like they have to drive their kids kind of all over the the city to participate in programming. So, it's something that we're trying to make a pathway for families that are looking for something a little bit more streamlined like that. And we did see a slight dip uh with the number of individual students that participated this summer. Uh some of the feedback was that you know just with the condensed summer scheduling and some of the other things going on that that kind of impacted uh kids uh participating and families signing up. And then again just kind of extending off of that where we want to go is again extending that access and finding more ways

016for students to participate. um strengthening those community partnerships and continuing to look for ways to to build out those partnerships with other uh folks in the area. And then uh continuing like we talked about increasing that curriculum and academic rigor and finding ways for us to bring research-based uh learning into the classroom setting especially during that foundations program and then uh continuing uh to look at other programming options and finding ways to reduce barriers. And then we've got some of the pictures. So again, we've got wide range of things, whether it's uh theater programming, we've got we had fly fishing go this summer, which to me is a big draw to the area. So I was glad that we could get some of that out there and enjoy some of that. Uh we had a

017lot of different activities where kids were able to actually get on the water uh in some of the rivers in the surrounding area. Um, we had our EL science adventures which is a long-standing program uh that has a lot of different things that kids have been able to participate in and get access to things that kind of go beyond what they might be able to do during the school year. Uh, we had uh again lots of different things, art classes and a lot of things that kids really enjoyed. Uh, backpacking was expanded this year, which has been a really cool thing that kids get to do some actual overnight backpacking courses that we've been able to help support uh, in collaboration with other community partnerships and the LPF. And we've got some mountain biking courses,

018too, that have been a big hit as well. And that's all we got. >> Questions? Not a question so much, but I saw the 101 Dalmatians production at Logan Middle this summer that was a collaboration with LCT and it was a riot. It was excellent. We've got lots of talented theater kids in this district. >> Yeah, they're definitely very passionate about. So, we're really happy and proud to be working with them uh on that program. >> As father of two Dalmatians for the summer, it was really really fun. They do a great job and they're super passionate about it. And that's I think the biggest advantage to summer school is how do we reduce those barriers to give kids access to some, you know, really quality people over the summer and have that continuation. >>

019Um, as someone who's participated in some of the summer school programs, I absolutely adore the wide variety of options you have. I did a trail work one over the summer a few years ago now, uh, where the entire course was going around and cleaning up some of the trails for community members. And then there were a handful of more athlete focused ones that I've been able to enjoy. >> Yeah, lots of great opportunities through that. And some of too is having a bigger uh impact on seeing where kids want to go with their future and giving them some access and opportunities to that. Uh we've partnered with uh Brida to open access to some licensing programs too that help kids kind of further their education a little bit more than what they might be able

020to do during the school year and pursue some of those different career opportunities they might be interested in. >> You had a go ahead >> you had a number first of all I want to say I love having speakers standing in front of us instead of at our feet. I just can't even tell you how excited I am about this. I hated that for 20ome years. Um, so you had a number of students that were off-site backpacking things were that or did were there was their home like one of the schools and then they went out from that or where were the off-site locations? >> A lot of the backpack it depends on kind of where staff have some of their materials and are set up a lot of times during the school year. The

021backpacking in particular happened at Longfellow because they have an outdoor club. Um, and yeah, that's some of the really great things where we've been able to partner with Go Rightway to help provide some of the transportation at a little bit more reasonable rate for some of the more extended and longer range trips. Um, but again, it it does produce some barriers for students that don't have access maybe to even getting to that that school or having some of those things. Um, something though that in working with a lot of the the teachers, they've been able to recognize that and found some creative solutions and help them to to sort some of that stuff out and even looked at some ways to help sponsor um them with maybe any additional funds or things that they might

022need to to make the program functional for them. >> So, where were some of the off-site locations that the courses were at? >> Yeah, so they went for the backpacking. They went to Pictured Rocks uh for uh I think it was two nights overnight. They went uh to Yellowstone River which is in not Yellowstone way out there but close. We did have with E Science Adventures they used to always go to Yellowstone and we haven't since the pandemic been able to pick that back up. Um and that comes with some grant funding that's been able to support that. Um we also uh there's the summer on the farm which is super popular. Um and that's over actually in uh Minnesota just across the river where they have some uh programming over there. um a little

023bit difficult for some families to get there. Um the fly fishing courses really started at State Road and we picked that strategically because they have some streams and things that are close by that they could do some of the uh you know entomology and looking at the bugs and the ecology of the river but then also expand that out and have some trips down to the um Bohemian Valley which is down kind of closer to the Valley. So >> thank you. >> I apologize if I missed this in your slides. What percentage of our total enrollment participates in a summer program? >> So, I think this year we had um I'd have to I'd have to look. I don't have a number. We're we're finishing the summer school report right now. So, typically uh we

024have >> I don't want to make up a number. I I'll look it up and I can definitely share that with you guys. I can give it to Laura and she can pass it along. It's >> typically been a quarter to a third of individual students. Sure. >> Other questions? Well, thank you. It's a great program. >> Yeah. Thank you. Thanks a lot. [Applause] >> Okay. Then we will move on to the um superintendent consent agenda. The consent agenda is a mechanism used by the board to deal with routine business that must come before the body. Uh are there any I moved from the consent agenda? The only one was the HR approvals. How are we doing on hiring? >> Good. I think the last time I looked at the HR board, there were two

025teacher vacancies and four TA vacancies, maybe six. So, we're in really good position, much better than in prior years. Um, and I think we've got um people in place and ready to go for the teacher vacancies. >> I'll make a motion to approve the items on the superintendent's consent agenda as presented. I'll second >> motion and a second um for approve the superintendent's consent agenda. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. >> Those opposed. Motion carries. We then move on to the board consent agenda where we have the minutes from our last meeting. The consent agenda for the uh is a mechanism used by the board to deal with routine business and must come before the body. Are there any items that members want to remove from the board consent agenda? Hearing

026none, I'd look for a motion. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Do you have that? >> Okay, we have a motion and a second to approve the board consent agenda. Any discussion? >> All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Those opposed? Motion carries. We then move on to matters reserved for board action. And our first one is the resolution proposal for the 2026 WASBY delegate assembly. There's a document attached. And I know that Mr. Mr. Ma and Dr. Engel worked on it. So, I'm going to turn it over to you two. >> You want to start, Mr. Ma? >> Um, I'll let you go first. >> Okay. Um, so Mr. Ma and I uh spent about an hour together um looking at this uh issue. Uh we started by looking at

027what the delegate assembly had approved the prior years like so we got the format for this is what they're going to want when we submit something. Uh and then we also looked at um what already exists in the WASBY resolutions. Could we take something that's already existing and add on to that as an amendment or do we need to create something new? And then we were also thinking, is there existing language in here that the the school board association has already approved that we could mirror so it feels like it's in keeping with what has already been done. Um Mr. Man and I went back and forth on two different uh provisions. One was private school aids which got into vouchers and uh funding and and different things that way. Then the other natural location

028was early childhood education funding and public private partnerships. Um so uh as we picked through both of those um I think Mr. Ma identified that this felt more like an early childhood issue than a a voucher issue even though they overlap in some ways. Uh and I agreed with him. Uh and so we sought to amend the existing resolution uh 3.241 241 early childhood um partnerships. Um and what we did was we took the language from the voucher area and added it to this uh early childhood area and felt like that was a good marrying of the two different things. So language from over here added to something over here. And uh what we came up with was all publicly funded 3K and 4K schools including schools receiving voucher funding or funding through public agencies

029other than the DPI must have the exact same accountability reporting and transparency standards and/or requirements or and requirements. Was supports a single funding mechanism for 4K education. Creating two publicly supported education systems threatens the sustainability of public schools. And then we got into the rationale and I'll turn it over to Mr. Ma. >> Yes. So like to thank Aaron also for partnering with this as well. He was largely the brains behind. I was more so supporting but I got real good hand into this here too. Wanted to make sure that the language was kind of acceptable what the board was talking through the table our last meeting and um kind of established the needs of which from which we heard the board table. Um this resolution we're amending was put into the book last year

030I believe. So it is a relatively new one, something which we can refresh out and um happy to hear some feedback. Does this um I guess my question I put out to all of you is does this language address the what we talked about at the last meeting, our concerns about um the new state budget putting the money in for child care and it kind of really dissolves a lot of the good work we've done with the lacrosse model that we invented in Lacrosse um for the four-year-old um um kindergarten program working with uh child care facilities and preschools. And um so we we wanted to have some language to ask Wasby to consider um advocating on behalf of our model in our schools and our partnerships um that we have some standing that the

031that's now been taken away from us in the current funding. Any comments or questions? Yeah, >> I really I I like the new language. I I appreciate the both the tone um and the rationale behind it. I think it cuts to the nature of the issue that that we are facing. If if I had a concern, I guess it would be for the WASBY process for adoption. And if districts that had a significantly different model that were more in favor of of uh what get kids ready kind of created or allowed them to do um there'd be push back or the possibility for amendment on that but I think just the the simple language of like funding through public agencies other than DPI right so the specific call was DCW is the new agency >>

032children DCHs >> DHS excuse me thank you DC families, right? So, yeah, putting putting multiple high level agencies in charge of essentially the same service is needlessly redundant. >> Yeah. >> Were you going to say something? >> Yeah, one thing I will say is this could very well be changed by the rules committee before it's brought to the actual delegation. Um, and make sure keep an eye on this as it goes through this. Make sure keep update the board. So when the state convention does come or if let's say I miss it and you're there as well that you'll have all the information available for kind of keeping a track on this as well. >> I think that's why our strategy was to try and use existing language from somewhere else to bring it over

033so it felt familiar to the folks that were looking at this new language. I I think other districts that don't use our model that are just school only models will probably support this um because it's the the it's detracting. I mean I I'm struggling with a school district that would that isn't being um detracted from by this new legislation. And again >> um uh options for families are good. um giving families a variety of choices with what works for them. But our model did that. >> Yeah, I think the focus on the accountability issue uh and the standards issue is is what makes it >> probably more palatable to most most people. I did reach out to our local representatives and senator just to advocate on behalf of reconsidering this as we move forward or

034to put in additional measures to ensure that it maintains the same high expectations for 4K education and they expressed that benium process is a compromise and trying to get to a finish line was necessary and this is one of those measures and maybe there's an opportunity as we move forward to just policy to to improve state If there is no other discussion, we'd want a motion to approve um this resolution and a second and then it would be a roll call vote. >> I'll make a motion to approve the resolution proposal for the 2026 WBY Delegate Assembly as presented. >> I'll second motion and a second. Any further discussion on the resolution? We'll take that roll call vote. We have to have a roll call vote for this, right? >> No. Oh, I thought >>

035mine says roll call vote. I'm just saying. Oh, >> does it? >> Oh, no. That's the next one. I'm ahead of it. >> Okay. All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> Those opposed. Motion carries. Um, thank you um, Dr. Engel and Mr. Mr. MCO for your work on that resolution and um I appreciate uh I look forward to you representing it and uh presenting it at the WASBY delegate um conference in January. Okay. Now, the one where we're going to have a roll call, the 2627 school year start date. Um um I for the public I'm going to read the resolution and then I'll let Dr. Engel speak to it. Whereas pursuant to Wisconsin statute section 118.045 045 commencement of school term. The state of Wisconsin provides that

036public school districts cannot start prior to September 1st. And whereas the school board may commence a school term prior to September 1st if it submits a written request to the Department of Public Instruction asking for an earlier start date listing the extraordinary reasons for earlier start date request. And whereas chapter PI27 commencement of school term lists in quotes excessive costs associated with the transportation of pupils who attend private schools that starts prior to September 1st end quotes as an extraordinary reason for the department of public instruction may request grant request and whereas the school district lacrosse has made good faith effort to work with private schools to coordinate a school start date on or after September 1st and whereas 1460 pupils or 25% % of pupils attend private school located in the school district of

037Lacrosse, subjecting the district to excessive cost of transporting private school pupils. Be it resolved that the school district of Lacrosse is officially requesting approval to commence the school term prior to September 1st to alleviate the excessive costs associated with transporting pupils who attend private schools prior to September 1st by commencing the 2026 27 school year on August 20th, 2026. Be it resolved further resolved that on September 8th, 2025, the board of education for the school district of Lacrosse pass this resolution to alleviate the excessive cost associated with transporting pupils who attend private school prior to September 1st. So, um I'll turn it over to you and then we'll look for a motion um on this resolution. >> Yes. So, last year we pursued this uh waiver with the DPI. Uh we did so um through

038the process of starting with our our teaching staff and uh you know asking like is this a calendar you would be interested in and the goal was to start earlier when we felt like kids and parents and teachers were ready to get back at school and to end before June when we know our students are ready to be done and we feel like the opportunity for learning starts to decline. It would also offer the opportunity to provide a full week of spring break uh which is something we've been hearing for from our teachers for a number of years and parents as an opportunity to to take a vacation during the school year. Um what with the the teacher uh kind of uh green light to explore this further. We sent out a survey to our

039our families uh to gather their feedback. it was generally positive. Uh and so then we pursued it with the state uh and they approved the waiver after we went through this exact same process last year with the school board. Um we reflected with our teacher group again this year at the questions out there. There's been surprisingly very few. Um we felt like we wanted to commit to this for we wanted to commit to this for a period of time at least. I do know that another school district in our region has already applied for this waiver and received it by the DPI. So, I'm confident that ours will be received uh well by the DPI as well with this um with this resolution. Uh so, that's kind of the the process and where we're at

040right now. And with new student reps, I am curious about your your thoughts on starting. It doesn't matter as much for seniors because you graduate before Memorial Day weekend, but any thoughts on starting in August? Um, I would say personally I really liked it. As someone who really only works during the summer, a full-time job, I really appreciated having a shorter summer. Um, I would say as a senior, I definitely will appreciate ending early so I have a longer period of time before I graduate and leave for college. Um, I think other students definitely feel different, but I think it's nice that we could just start school, still have some good weather. It definitely impacts a lot of students moods, and I think that it's a really nice way to end the school year, starting

041with a good nice spring. Okay. Then in that case, um I will say that the only like I say major complaint very loosely that I have is a lot of sport schedules were decided well in advance. >> So we had like golf is gone consistently. We have teach uh one of my teachers who teaches AP economics. She is gone usually at least once a week if not for the entire day. This week she will be gone for two, which means that we miss out on a lot of valuable learning. And then the football team and a handful of other sports teams for the school uh are because a lot of our non-conference games are further out of the area and school starts before that. We had teams that got back at about midnight on a

042Thursday because football games, although they're usually Friday, were scheduled for Thursdays because we didn't know we were starting school that early. So, I had teammates who were uh struggling to stay awake because no matter what they could do by the time you actually made it home, >> um at the middle schools at 8:25 instead of uh 7:35, um we've seen uh it's developmentally appropriate for middle school brains. And so, while that's not related to this per se, it's one of those other changes we made this year uh which has been really positive. And um despite starting in August, they're showing up uh and showing up on time, which is great. Yes, Scott. >> I I um obviously the change is difficult on some parents. Um I think once they get used to it, it'll be

043better. However, a lot of people like that that last holiday of the summer is kind of their last harrah as a family and a lot of people like to leave for a lot of times an entire week. So that obviously affects um some people, but I also believe you bet later on this year once it starts getting nice out and all of a sudden they're done with school boy that early school will be a nice change for them that they started earlier. But it takes some adjustment and you know people don't like change sometimes. But honestly we were forced to do this if if we didn't have to pay for that busing. it it's a cost versus, you know, um starting earlier or later. It it just made financial sense and it's a decision that

044had to be made for that reason as well. And I think the teachers like I think they will like it given the given time and then the longer uh spring break is going to be nice for people. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> I will say just because I lack the information on this, we had to converse with the private schools in the area before this. Correct. and we were unable to reach a conclusion with them. Do we what do we believe is the source of that? Do we think it's just private schools wanting to do their own thing or is there statistical data that they were using to back that up? >> Yeah, so as a part of this process, I reached out to our private school uh partners in the area and

045uh just inquired if they would be interested in starting on September 1st. We always invite a private school representative to our calendar committee so that they're a part of that from the start and we try and align to the best of our ability. And they said that when they talk to their parents and students that um starting early is when their families want to get back to school. It aligns with athletic calendars and practices. So they see higher participation in athletics and clubs. uh and it allows them to take breaks throughout the school year to kind of uh you know pace school so it's not uh overwhelming for folks and they've found that their fan break and so for those very same reasons we wanted to pursue something similar ever since the law was put

046in place uh and so I reached out again this year to our private school partners and they once again indicated that no we would prefer to start in that um third week of August and so we're doing our best to align with them. >> That was my question. Oh, thank you. >> Jim, did you have a question? >> Any other comments or questions on this resolution? >> We'll need a roll call on this one. >> I'll make a motion to adopt the resolution regarding the 2026 27th school year start date. >> Second, >> Mr. Alberts. >> I >> Mr. Bneski. >> Hi, >> Miss Books. >> Hi, >> Dr. Garcia. >> Hi, >> Mr. Jackson. >> Hi, >> Mr. Ma. I, >> Mr. Newmeister. >> I, >> Dr. Sprag. >> I, >> Miss Sula. >>

047I. >> Motion passes. We move on to the information section of the agenda, starting out with results monitoring report R2.3, academic performance. And I'll turn over to Dr. Engel. >> Um, so, especially for the benefit of our our new uh student schoolboard reps, this is uh one of those uh policies that we're monitoring. And so, for the results policies, we try and split them up throughout the school year. so that um it's timely for when we get the results. And so the the policy that we are um working with right here is uh results policy number two, academic performance. And generally it states students will demonstrate a high level of individual success using multiple measures of performance. And the specific policy element we're looking at today is students will develop skills necessary for lifelong learning.

048So that's the the value that the school board has put into writing and expects us as a school district to comply with. And so we have to demonstrate that students are developing the skills for lifelong learning. Uh and today this monitoring report will demonstrate how we're um proving that our it's our book report that we're presenting uh to the school board. And so we're thankful to have Miss Carrie Huth, our director of curriculum instruction and assessment and uh Dr. Britta Roering, our uh supervisor of career and technical readiness to help present this information. >> Thank you. I'll start. Um this is our R 2.3. We are we loving lovingly call it our redefining readiness. Um so there's three indicators. We look at career ready, college ready and college and career ready which we also are

049starting to um shift to the language future ready. Um so just a quick overview are redefining ready. America's high schools have profound responsibility to ensure that our nation's 14 million high school students are college ready, career ready, and life ready. Standardized test scores, traditionally used as a primary readiness, provide an accurate representation of our students potential. Redefining ready is a national initiative to introduce new researchbased metrics to more accurately assess whether students are college ready, career ready, and life ready. So with that on the cover page you will see that we have um indicated for um indicator one career ready that we have made reasonable progress. For indicator 2 college ready we have marked that we have made reasonable progress as well as for college and career career ready or future ready we have marked

050um we have made reasonable progress. Um Dan, do you have this? >> The link should be live. >> Thank you. Um so we will go through this scorecard and then go into um more details. So you can see this is um colorcoded. Um we have our college ready indicators with the blue font and you can see our 2.8 GPA. um as we go down below had made growth from last year to this year. So we are looking at a 58% of our high school seniors that had above a 2.8 GPA. We had 16% of our seniors pass an AP test, which is up from last year. Students earning an a C or higher in AP courses, we had 43% holding steady and up a little bit from last year. students earning a C or higher

051in advanced standing courses in English or math. So, similar to the one above, but specific to English and math, we have 58% um this year who have earned that C or higher. Students earning a C or higher in algebra 2, extended algebra 2 or honors algebra 1, 59% which held steady from last year. percentage of dual credit with a university. We have 90% of our graduating seniors earning dual credit with university. And our ACT college ready um this is where um the percentage 20% of our students met all of the benchmarks for um that ACT meeting the English, reading, science, and math benchmark. All of those seven components fall into the college ready um percentage. And you can see that this year we had 58% of our high school seniors who met that college ready

052indicator which was up from 51 last year. >> I would just like to reiterate this is our college senior or high school seniors that graduated last year. So it's their snapshot. So we're looking at the high school seniors that graduated last year. This is how they performed on all these metrics. >> Thank you. Um going into our career ready, there are four indicators within that. um of our attendance rate for freshman year. You will notice that this year's percentage is down from last year to 60% versus 67 last year. As a reminder, we've looked back at data significantly. And these were our this was the COVID um seventh and eighth grade for years for them. And these was their freshman year where they had the 60%. But with that even being lower, we had 90%

053of our seniors earn a transcripted credit up from 74 the year before. Participation in two or more extracurriculars at 53%. And then our collegebased experiences and industrybased certifications. You will notice that that's we went back and pulled the data for the last five years, but this one is reported separate for collegebased certifications and industrybased certifications. A little different than last year and Brida can explain that as well, but both of those are up from last year. So those four indicators go into our career ready um which this year because the attendant attendance has a significant impact on that we have 72% compared to the 83 but looking at all four of those indicators we were um above um last year's in three of those four and that's why we did mark that we were making

054reasonable progress and then the college and career readiness that is both are all 11 of those um indicators combined. And we have 54% of those graduating seniors compared to 51% the year before. Um as you go into the the it's like a little chapter book here, our packet. As you go into that, um, you can see specific, um, reference groups and how we're showing growth or, um, we're seeing just the breakup of where the reference groups fall within each one of those percentages. Any questions along the way so far? >> Mr. Go ahead. >> Okay. Um, thank you. So my question had largely do about the career readiness and I noticed a large part of the makeup of career readiness. One of the metrics that was used is attendance. And I saw a report, it

055was by the Wisconsin Institute by Law and Liberty probably a month ago that said that our states experiencing a very high trend towards chronic absenteeism since the pandemic. And I was looking through the attendance here and seeing the attendance has been plummeting kind of since the pandemic. And then career readiness is one of our lowest marks we've had in quite a few years. It's still reasonable I would say but it's something of concern for the future is um what are some ways in which we are addressing perhaps chronic absenteeism and how scope of career readiness >> uh chronic absenteeism is something we've been looking at for several years um Mr. Dr. Kurt Te, part of our community, our director for community services, as well as um many of us as um uh staff members, actually

056meet with a countywide um team that is looking at chronic absenteeism across the different districts, ours included. Um I know that different schools within our district are taking actions to engage um our students um in you know times have changed since COVID. So finding um ways to engage them within the schools by activities, clubs, sports um relationships with the staff in the buildings even um Dr. Engel's reference to our our middle school students who have a higher attendance rate already as they shift into high school that freshman year is key. Um, but even though those freshmen that year had such a had a lower percentage, they excelled in so many other areas. So, it's it's great to see that there was so much engagement. Um, but also that percentage was lower, >> right? Like Krie

057just mentioned, the other um the other areas I feel are very strong, very proud of, I'm going to specifically point out our percent earning transcripted credit. 90% of our seniors. Um, and to earn that credit, they not only need the opportunity, but they need to achieve what we used to know as an 80%. Um, a three or four or two plus three or four. Um, but the transcriptive credit courses, they are all transcripted with Western Technical College, Chipua Valley Technical College, Fox Valley, and Gateway. The majority of them are through Western. And so, these are all pathway courses. So, courses in specific areas of careers. um actually not in any core content areas. >> I think to the chronic absenteeism question if we look pre- pandemic in 2019 2020 by the DPI's definition we were

058at 12.9%. Uh in 2122 that year that we came back um from the pandemic was 22.7 so almost doubled in terms of the rate of chronic absenteeism. uh and we've been combating some changing norms and expectations as a result. Our society has shifted a little bit in how they think about school attendance. And it's partially because we sent kids home for two full weeks if they tested positive for COVID and provided all of their materials online and educated them virtually to the best of our ability. Uh and it reshaped how parents, families, students, teachers think about education. And so we're busy recovering from that. uh in 23 24 the last time we have DPI measurements on chronic absenteeism we were back down to 17.7%. So a 5% drop and halfway back to uh where we

059were in 201920 we continue to see incremental improvement over time um but um it'll take a while for us to get there. Absolutely. You start to see a decline in academic outcomes. It just you can't benefit from all the great education and teaching we provide if you're not here. uh and so students start to miss out on crucial academic lessons but also social emotional ones uh and other uh elements that are important for engagement, belonging and connection that are crucial for learning. But to your point, during the COVID years, if you those early years, if you tested positive for COVID, you were out for 10 days, right? That's two weeks. And 10% is 17 days. We have 175 days in a school year. So, you are almost guaranteed to be chronically absent if you got

060sick twice in a school year. >> Absolutely. And even if they did not test positive, but they had some symptoms of a cough or so, you know, there was um they were usually sent home quite quickly. >> Is that two week standard? Was that in the 2425 school year of sending students home? >> No, but those dates are >> in the 2425 school year of sending students home. >> No, but those dates are from their freshman year. >> Okay. >> This the this am I right in that >> freshman from the 24th? Is it is it the freshman in 2425 or is it the senior measuring the seniors in 2425 from when they were freshman? >> Oh yeah. >> From the it's our graduating seniors but measuring it from when they were freshman. >> So

061those are the numbers from four years ago. >> Yes. >> We have that makes a lot more sense to know there. >> It does to me too. I I was thinking we should be over the co pretty quick here then. >> That makes sense. Thank you. They're attend 90. They needed to attend 90% of their freshman year >> for them, which would have been the 2122 school year. >> Thank you. [Music] >> How many AP classes are there? [Laughter] >> We have one in math, science, social studies, language. >> I was going to say eight or nine. >> We'll go 8.5. >> There's quite a bit of them there. It could depend on the year based on enrollment. Yeah, >> I think in our course handbook we list 16. They don't always run based on

062enrollment. >> Another question would be, you know, you talk about people students involved in two or more activities. Do you have any idea how many people actually start activities when they're freshman in high school or most of those people are because they were active in middle school or sooner earlier? >> And we do track activities at the middle school too. We can compare those percentages at a later time, but off the top of my head, no. >> No, no. And the point was, >> yes, >> let's get the middle school going. >> Y >> Mr. guys. >> Um I will say that um at least at Central there is not a whole lot of opportunities for multiple extracurriculars, especially if you want to do a sport and a club. Um more often than not, we

063aren't allowed to meet during like home room time. Uh which would be a really great opportunity, but if you wish to be in a sport and a club, you kind of have to sacrifice. I myself in the was the FBA president last year. Um, and for the first two to three months of the school year, I was not able to attend any meetings just because uh it was directly after school, but I had to go get ready for practice and I had to make the decision of which do I want to prioritize and I don't feel like that's fair to our students and to let that skew our statistics. >> Something to look at. >> Similar from my high schooler as well as when he moved, he was a freshman last year. moved over and

064it was either the sport or the club that >> he was struggling to figure out how to participate in more than just a sport. >> He missed some opportunities there >> to do that. So, and then I've got the mic on going back to the attendance. Have we reviewed our health guidelines? I know I've got children who if they have a fever during the day, that means they're automatically missing the next day by a current policy. So whether they're showing symptoms or or anything else going on, I know I have a a chronically sick eight-year-old um who will spike fevers but is fine. Um but he's missing a fair amount of school because of that policy. So I mean there's there's numbers in there that is there's also skewing some of that as well. So

065it's it's one of those that before CO that wouldn't have been a thing, but now it's now it's a thing. So it's definitely causing issues as far as learning for for our family. >> Those are conversations that are ongoing. Our benchmark after co moved to like 24 hours feverfree which almost guarantees two days missed which was not the intent but >> and then sometimes it's the implement or it's the how that things implemented not necessarily the the intent behind it. And so those are definitely ongoing conversations to try and keep everyone safe while also providing access to to school. I will re-engage >> I will say for a two sport athlete point of view I am in two clubs and a youth apprentichip so I really think it might be dependent on your school schedule.

066I know at Logan I'm able to do all of those things. I do have more homework after school, but I'm able to do all those things and maintain a all school year. So, I think it's really just dependent on the school schedule and what your school provides for you. >> I think sometimes the conflict comes is it done during like a home room type period or is it after school? And we try and be flexible, but that's something we can obviously readress and think about how to create as much opportunity as possible. Glad you brought that up because that's a similar point I was going to bring to is that especially our new schedule, it might cause some challenges for some students who are attending these extracurriculars because there are some students that have to

067work after school to make their own needs. Like I remember back even when I was a student not that long ago um that I couldn't really do some extracurriculars because I had to go to work and be able to earn myself at least somewhat of a wage to kind of help provide for myself. And I think that's kind of one thing I also look at with our new placement for our new schedule is just seeing how as you said there's some problems with extra extracurriculars already popping up just by the sports which come from scheduling think will resolve on its own. But the other question is how exactly are these students going to adapt this as well if they don't have the opportunity to kind of stay for too much time after the school before

068they have to go back to work or do something. >> Yeah, those are definitely things we're always uh thoughtful about. you know, barriers to participation. Um, one of the, um, career ready measures that's listed in the national data but not on this sheet is volunteering, uh, as an option. Uh, and that is one we've always struggled with from an equity perspective. Um, you know, for families that have to take care of younger siblings or after school or have to to work. um you know to create that as a graduation requirement to track as data. It starts to create you know some halves and have nots uh in terms of access and availability and and plenty of our students volunteer during the school day and all sorts of other ways. Helping out your family, you know,

069that's important too. We don't want to create false choices, you know, in some of those sorts of things. Um, as far as like achieving these benchmarks as a school district, you know, if the two or more extracurriculars, not every student may be able to do that, but we have lots of school-based opportunities for taking courses and credentials that we can facilitate. Or if working is important, we can hook you up with a YA uh youth apprenticeship experience, and that's an opportunity for us to to to leverage that experience as a successful prep preparation for for career as well. So, Thank you. I uh I'm just dwelling too because I'm just thinking back like I was a three sport athlete participating in in drama. I was in jazz band and marching band and all the bands

070and like I'm curious about in particular with sports because my oldest is eight now and we're hearing among all the parents like all the woes of like the traveling sports leagues and the and the intensity of it and I'm wondering if the school teams have there been significant changes and it's 20 years since I've been in high school but um if you know sometimes it does depend on what sports you want to be involved in and there are going to be those necessary conflicts But do we have a handle on what has actually changed to make it more or less difficult for different combinations of activities? There's definitely a a acceleration in the last two decades on what level of participation you need to be in in a sport outside of the school season to

071feel like you can be competitive and earn playing time during the school season. you know, on a varsity basketball team there's five starters, you know, and maybe there's an eight person rotation. On a soccer team, there's 11 starters and maybe a 14 person rotation, you know, so there's more opportunity. Uh, and so in pursuit of that kind of athletic culture that has arisen over the last couple decades, club sports have really risen to the four and you can play volleyball year round at this point. You can play basketball year round at this point. And some students feel like they need to be involved year round in order to take advantage of the the WIAA school-based sports. And some coaches get caught up in that as well. And uh recently the WA just eliminated uh summer

072contact restrictions. And so a coach can be working with a kid every single day all year. um those restrictions were um >> sometimes illogical but also prevented the kind of myopic singular focus on a on one sport. >> Uh and our kids are talented. We would want them to participate in as many sports as possible to explore their interests to avoid repetitive use injuries to >> uh gain multiple experiences but it's getting harder and harder with the culture around us to to provide those opportunities. And so that may be limiting some of that um thoughts of two or more extracurriculars. Where you might have historically had lots of multiport athletes, we see fewer and fewer of them. And it's hard in summer for kids to choose. Like, god forbid, you want to get to bed

073before 10 o'clock at night or have a a job to earn a little bit of money when you've got to go from weightlifting in the morning to your club volleyball practice to your club basketball practice to your club soccer practice and then you've got weightlifting in the evening and then uh you're going to go to bed, you know. So, it it gets really tough for kids right now, students to choose among some of these things. coaches are kind of caught in some tough positions sometimes one side or the other the line you know and um families you know are already making these choices in kindergarten and 4K you know about what path their kids going to be on athletically and it certainly impacts this data >> would would the board be interested in a future

074information item a little bit more about the participation in the clubs and the sports that might be I I don't want to detract from this report but it seems it's something we want to learn a little bit more Is that something the board would be interested in? >> Can I propose maybe a workshop to really look into both participation as well as competitiveness as well as accessibility and scheduling? >> Yeah, all those things. I think that's >> I think that answer a lot of our questions that we have. >> Agreed. Definitely. >> Okay, we can do that. I didn't wanted to track. Are there other questions on this report? I have a couple, but I want Yeah. >> Yeah. Um, I wanted to dwell on uh on the college ready section. um the the the

075breakout and statistics and everything and and just to kind of highlight and and have everybody think about I just wanted to kind call out um in in the disag excuse me the aggregated no disagregated data the broken out data um we still do see and we know we've had this stated in our stated goal of having academic success not be tied to socioeconomic and demographic factors and the statistics that we're seeing here in terms of the percentages of our of our students who are both in the college ready or specifically in the uh the 2.8 or higher GPA. Um there are still some troubling tendencies to see those outcomes associated with demographic factors. In addition, those two graphs, the statistics are almost identical, except I think for um students with disabilities in the case of

076GPA, which is interesting to me because it might indicate that it's the other it's the secondary factor uh that that is trying to get it the right way here that is the limiting factor of students being considered co or college ready in this case that if if the GPA is is identical to the overall college readiness. How do we use that data to find out where's that problem area for our students and does that then identify opportunities to close some of those gaps? So >> just wanted to >> speak that into the universe. Well, I know I as I stood up here last year, we celebrated some of the the the percentages that were present last year. And even though our overall went up this year compared to last year with our 2.8 GPA, there

077were shifts in the um reference groups that um I definitely took note of as well. And I know as we continue to f focus on instructional frameworks and learning and n team we are we're talking and we will continue over the course of the year to have conversations about what does solid teaching and teaching practices look like for all of our learners. And I think in fairness to to you and your team and our or all of our staff, when looking at the percentages is one thing, but when we're looking at the raw numbers and one student is a difference of nine percentage points because it's a small reference group, we also have to understand the the size of the groups that we're looking at. So, >> it's one of the reasons we have a

078combined students of color group, which is it flattens things in a way that's not totally representative of the nuance and variation that's in there, but as a way to create a end size or cell size that's large enough to start to look at trends over time reasonably. Um, you know, we discussed kind of the areas where we're disproportionate consistently over time. um you know this last year the with exceptions policies that keep popping up and uh one of those was uh OE 10.2.4 disproportionate discipline. That's another area where we always see disproportionality. Uh and one of the things we discussed this last year was you know disproportionately that arises from community- based opportunity gaps growing up for families etc. Um and is largely unadressed by our society. it shows up in our schools and it

079plays out in the achievement gaps, the opportunity gaps that we have here as well. And so, you know, that's why we continue to think about things like community schools, our early childhood impact work, our community impact work in our in our housing uh authority neighborhoods and excited for what that will mean over time. >> Other comments or questions? Um I certainly understand uh first of all um the 90% of students um getting uh transcripted credit is remarkable and like we aren't celebrating that one enough I don't think and that that's really good work. I mean, even the ACT, the way that one has gone up, the GPA has gone up. Um, the students earning C or higher in AP courses has gone up just a little bit. But, um, and the students earning C or

080higher in advanced standing, uh, that's a pretty substantial increase. And so, those areas really need to be recognized. Um with that said um our job is to look at reasonable progress and on the career ready the overall number has gone from 83% to 72% largely driven by the attendance of the freshmen which is um certainly understandable with the with the COVID situation. Um I'm struggling as a board member saying we've met that. I I I feel like we did this last year is there's a really good reason why it happened. It's nobody's fault, but we didn't meet our benchmark. And can we uh say we didn't meet our benchmark and acknowledge it was co there's nothing we could do about it. But I I don't see a 10% drop as reasonable progress myself. That that's

081where I'm struggling. I don't feel like um you are doing a bad job. In fact, the areas that you've grown, you've grown so substantially, um particularly in the college ready are are noteworthy. But at the end of the day, when we have to look at the numbers and decide, did we meet the benchmark or didn't we, I'm struggling with saying yes on that one. And and I I there's nothing I can say to you that I want you to do more of other than we'll just next year it's going to go up because CO's going to be over, right? And so we know it'll be better. And I would acknowledge your comment, Deb, and I will say that we spent a lot of time talking about where to put that X on that indicator. Um,

082and we because we looked at all four of those indicators um within career readiness and noticed that um the percentage earning transcripted credit had jumped 16 percentage points. Um participation activities um went up three and down below we went up 10% in one and then 1% in the others. We were we were just going back and forth as to like we made a good amount of progress in in those other three indicators rather and even though the percentage of their attendance was down these students excelled and um met these other benchmarks at such a high level that's why we marked. So that's the rational behind it >> and I I don't know how other board members feel but that's I um I totally understand. I mean, I'm just looking at the top number that you

083have, 83% to 72%. That's a 10% drop that I'm struggling saying >> that's reasonable progress, >> but I totally get why it wasn't and I it's not a bad reflection on anybody from the staff. Um, but I feel like I'm not doing my job if I say it's reasonable progress. >> Totally prepared for that perspective. So, absolutely. I also think that it is it's it is impressive though that that went so far down such a dip yet everything else went up. So that that's very encouraging, you know, and and you know, next next year I don't know what's going to bring. There were eighth graders last year. Who knows? Co co was wicked for us all, right? But I I do agree with that that you know, looking at the other things. >> I I

084I have to agree with you that you probably met your your benchmark there considering yes, that was down, but everything else was up. And it's impressive that, you know, that they went up that high considering that went so far down. So, thank you. >> Yeah. >> Um, if I may be so bold, I'm in >> I'm in AP Statistics this year and we've actually started talking about data like this. Um, I do not feel that it would be fair to judge the growth of a program here. I feel like there has been incredible amounts of growth. I feel like that 90% of college credit which not only shows that our students are intelligent and are very good at what they do but also shows that they have the capability for higher learning and actually prepares

085them for the future better than a lot of the other benchmarks. I feel like the decrease in a statistic from four years ago can and should be overlooked based on the other information we have. >> Get that man a five on that AP test. So how did this this >> we we will take credit though next year if it goes up that >> so in all fairness we as a board didn't say this needs to be our criteria this is what administration brought so how did this become a part of the criteria that we look at that I mean it >> totally and that's a great question so these all come from the redefining readiness effort nationally and the reason these came to the four is they're all predictive of future success and they looked

086at sophomore attendance and junior attendance and senior attendance and kindergarten attendance. And what they found was freshman attendance in high school was predictive of future success. And so that's why we track it and that's why it's important for us to measure. And what that means to us as a school district is we should be trying to increase freshman attendance to the greatest extent possible. That's the implication for us as a school district. And so we do a great job, I believe, of creating belonging and engagement with our freshmen. We have uh different strategies for bringing folks in specially to create that connection of of doing home rooms and other things to uh make freshman year really positive and create that attendance and engagement. The implication if this is down and keeps going down is that

087we're not doing our job. that we did not create an environment where students are attending regularly and there would be legitimate criticism of the school district if that continued to to be a decline because we hadn't done what we were supposed to do to correct the course. In this case, we're chalking it up to a super weird anomaly where there was a global pandemic and and that's why that uh is there and we have other indicators that indicate we're on the right track. Again, you know, this is four-year lagging data, right? it's super hard to, you know, action right now to fix that, but we have other data that indicates that we're on the right track. And so I think this is a good measure. Um, we should take it seriously, even though you're right,

088there's lots of things wrong with it also. And and it is a valuable measure for us to consider as we think about how to operate our school district. >> So help me understand under the career ready the percentage overall percentage went from 83% to 72%. Four of the areas really went up, one went down. So, how did this why wouldn't this look closer to even then? So, how did you come up with these numbers? Because that's what I'm basing my comments on. >> We This is another Groundhog's Day question >> because you have to meet is it two of them for this? Yeah, you have to meet two of the indicators and the the indicator that most of our students meet historically has been this freshman attendance rate and then some will earn the the

089transcripted credit. you know, well, shoot, most of them do, 90%. But participation in two or more extracurriculars and then there's career-based experiences. And so once you start to factor in two or more, it brings down uh the overall percentage down to that 58%. It could never be more than any one of those necessarily or any two of those. Um, but it starts to fall, you know, over time, you know. So you could be attendance freshman year and earning transcripted credit or you could be two or more extracurriculars and an industry based certificate. And so we add all those up in this complicated spreadsheet. >> Yep. >> This is one of those reports that actually takes a lot of work uh and come out with that 5 uh uh 8% or 72% uh career ready >>

090clear as mud. So, I'll just >> there's a spreadsheet that has it all organized. And >> Christie has offered to sit down with anyone who wants to really dive into the weeds on the the data gathering of this one. >> I'll just say as a board we created we wanted reasonable progress in this area. We didn't create I didn't create which ones we select or the odd formula used to figure it out. >> Totally. >> And so, uh, my job is to look if you measured. I'm g I'm sure I'll be outvoted and I'm okay with that. Um, because I'm used to it. Um, but I I'm still looking at the numbers and I see a 10% decline and I I can't say I can't say you met the criteria um in that area and

091that's just where I'm struggling. >> Yeah. >> Um I'm going to try to finish this off so we don't go too much can of worms here. We spent a lot of time on this one here. I can kind of see a lot of Deb's point too and I'm trying again I say grace because this is a statewide issue and learning that this is part of the freshman year >> I fully understand why it is so low too. Um the question I kind of had is it's the administration that brings this data towards us sets the data but shouldn't it be the board who says this is what we want to see to be able to measure based off progress of what we're elected to look at too. Um I understand the science comes to looking

092at the freshmen for looking at a future track right here. But seniors have a choice when they're seniors what they're going to be doing in the future and they should be a um focusing their attendance then they should be able to apply themselves as a senior going into college since we're sending them off to college. we're sending out to the next workforce. There's a huge problem in the workforce with uh Gen Z workers, not shown here as it is to freshmen. Even though this the fact that we're kind of measuring freshmen because it's a future basis, I think should be attending seniors because they make those decisions proactively throughout the entire school year and they're going to be making those choices afterward. So, how are seniors attending even despite the senior itis? And then how's

093that going to flow into their college, into their work, into their career, into kind more so our overall marketing trend? So, I guess my point of that right there is kind of just challenge the board to hear. Should we be looking at attendance for freshmen or should we looking at it for seniors? >> I had two things that might respond to that. One is that I think it's part of our governance policy that administration sets the indicators. We set the policies and they set the indicators. So that's why and this is a good indicator like historically the freshman year is very hard. It is historically the year most kids drop out if they're able to drop out or fall so far behind that even when they're legally required to stay in school till they're 18,

094they never catch up enough to graduate. And it mirrors the kind of difficulty you have when you move away to college your freshman year. And I work with those students who for the first time have to do their laundry and their meal prep and get themselves to class like everything. It's the same kind of overwhelm of having to handle a lot of cognitive load. So that's why it's a predictive indicator. Um, kids who manage a solid way through that freshman year, who manage that 2.8 GPA, it shows that they can work with lots of different teachers and lots of different policies. They can handle lots of different cognitive load, right? A high cognitive load. and those are more predictive of success in college than test scores, standardized test scores or other kinds of measures that

095we often look to to tell if we're progressing. All that is to say, this seems like reasonable progress to me. I think the big jumps in the other things um remind me of your name, >> Owen Sky. >> Owen. Um to your point, we do have a number to look at, but we also have information about that number and where it comes from. And it it's important, I think, to acknowledge that we know where that number comes from and what it means. That's >> and I have in the past voted with exceptions on things like this when it was more flatly like test scores are down. Test scores have been depressed since COVID absences because of absenteeism. And in those cases, I've said, "Well, well, it's the test, it's the score, it's the number, but

096this seems this feels different to me than that." >> I would just piggyback on that, um, Dr. Garcia, and yeah, I I agree that what what's valuable about this whole report is is it's it's a it's a relatively sensitive tool of multiple measures, right? And multiple different kinds of measures and then taking them in combination. So when we're when we're looking at the three indicators and we're trying to decide well does one of three rights not not meet expectations and what's reasonable even within that we look at yes this one indicator is has been a problem for us but again putting it in combination or the various possible combinations by which a student can you know be shown to be college career and thus future ready. So I I appreciate the sensitivity of this and

097and also the the research that it's based on and in and being predictive of success. That being said, if we want to look at change over time on on a particular cohort to see like did those did those attendance rates change in in a four-year period, right? If we're if we're interested in seeing how does our district do in encouraging students from that freshman year to their senior year to improve upon their attendance, I'd absolutely support adding to this and making Carrie do even more work than she already does. So, >> we should have got you chairs. >> There is no vote on this this evening. Um, this will be voted on in July, it looks like. So, um, this is the report. Any other comments or questions? Because it's an R, it's not an,

098um, operating policy. Okay. I think we've belabored the point. >> Thank you both. >> Thank you. Thank you for that. >> Uh, we are going to move on then to referendum construction plan update. It's going to be an item we're going to have on the agenda for information regularly going forward. And I turn it over to Dr. Engel. >> Yeah. I'd like to invite up uh Mr. Joe Levina uh to present for this. We have something a little bit more formal tonight. Um just to walk through kind of our summer updates, you know, all the projects that we did. We had talked last year in the spring about having kind of a a post summer update to kind of let folks know where we're at. Uh but then we'll have it'll be slightly more informal

099as we go throughout the the school year. Uh just where we're at with referendum planning and happy to take any questions then on all of this sort of stuff. And so with that, I will turn it over to Dan to solve the tech issue and then we'll get on to uh referendum and CMI board update. >> If you get stuck, if you need my help, just >> player there, Scott. >> Well, good evening and it's exciting times. I mean, we're about we've been we've been planning for almost 10 months now, a little over that, and we're about to see the the lab fruits of our labors and so exciting. So, I'm going to share with you the the two capital improvement projects or the two referendum projects and then some of the capital improvement projects

100that we were able to accomplish this summer and then some things that we're doing uh before the end of the school year. So when we look at state road addition and remodel just to remind you that we've done 10 months of chair staff administration through this whole process. And so you'll be some seeing some of this work come forward on August 19th. We did a pre-bid walkthrough for all contractors. And so what we did is we put um the all of our information out on the Lacrosse Builders Exchange. And so local contracts contractors could come walk through the building, look at the project. Uh we sent the bids out on August 22nd and so we'll be doing a bid opening on September 16th and bringing it to the board on September 22nd. And so that

101gives us some time to really look between the 16th and 22nd to see where we are budget-wise, bring that forward to you, and our hope is that we'll start construction late October and then finish completion of the project September 1 of 2026. And so some exciting things happening. There'll be some challenges with that as of course as we'll be doing construction with uh the school going on, but we feel like we can handle that pretty well. So, right now we're kind of in the question phase with the contractors before we get the bids in. In fact, today I took a con a phone call from a contractor asking a question about the bid process and and some specifics of in our bid documents. And so, that's ongoing, but we should have something to you on

102September 22nd. >> We've had a fair amount of initial interest. We'll see who ends up submitting bids, but um a lot of folks have expressed interest, so we're excited. >> Yeah. During the pre- bid walkthrough, we had over 20 uh contractors and subcontractors walk through. The information we're getting, they're hungry, and so we're hoping that our bids will come in really well, but uh we'll know more as we get closer to that. Now, the new elementary school design, >> back to the State Road one, you've got a completion of September 1st, 2026. >> Yes. Is that when the schools will merge? >> No. Uh we have planned right now that the schools won't merge until >> August of 2027, but we'll be done one one year in advance. So, one major project will be complete.

103I know that State Road's looking forward to using some of that >> that uh new real estate during that time frame, but we're not bringing anybody in until August of 2027. >> Thank you. >> Good question. And then the new elementary school. We're still in the design phase, but we're nearing the end of that completion. Uh we're going to do a design review with the city of Lacrosse on September 19th. And that's really just sharing with the plans that we have right now, and they'll give us feedback from every single department there. Uh we plan on doing the Hogan bid demo out on September 30th. And so we'll get that bid out. So we're starting to think about that building uh removing. I know Miss Sucla, you talked uh this evening about uh the Hogan

104building. This summer I had an opportunity to give tours at Emerson because we had two um from both high schools class reunions that were in town thinking that we're going to close Emerson this year and to walk through that and I think that that's a good idea that we do that with all of our buildings that are closing given an opportunity for the community to walk through uh reminisce. We had a group of teachers that taught at that school. They all came that day. Uh we probably had 40 to 50 people walk through. And so it's something that we might want to consider as well. And so we're going to put the bids out on November 4th. Uh we'll do a pre-bid walk through November 11th. Now I say a pre- bid walkthrough, there's really

105nothing to walk through, but we'll sit down with the plans. They'll give them a week for them to have questions. Excuse me. They'll have questions that they can ask the architects. They can ask us as it relates to that. Uh we'll have a bid opening on December 9th and then we'll bring that to the board on December 15th. Yes, sir. >> That is all this year, correct? >> That's all this year. Yes. >> Hopefully they're still hungry. >> They're still hungry and we we're hearing again that that they are. So we're a lot of interest in that. And then we' start >> we'd start construction in February or March depending on the weather. And so if the weather has the way it's been the last few winters, we'll get started in February and then completion

106of August of 2027. Questions with that process? Yes, sir. >> I'm curious about the demo bid on Hogan. Um to what extent is like reclamation part of the part of the bid? Are we encouraging folks? Are we looking at like Habitat for Humanity? They have a reclamation team. >> Yeah. So, we've already been in contact for with Habitat for Humanity and they've walked through the building twice. And so, we've worked that with before we do a bid demo. They're going to come through. They have a long list of things that they'll be taking that are structural items that are architectural items that they'll be taking and be able to use in similar age buildings in the city. So, we're excited about that. >> And so, we'll be reusing a lot of what's in there. >>

107Great. >> Yeah, great question. >> When is the demo going to take place then? All done. >> Yeah, that will all depend. We'll see where we're at. We're going to have some asbestous that we're going to have to remove before then. But my hope is that we'll have the demo uh in December, late November, December, so that we can break ground right away as soon as the weather's nice after the first of the year. >> Yeah. So, that's kind of the plan where we're at with that. Great question. Anything else as it relates to the new elementary school? Exciting times. We're still in uh the design phase. In fact, just last week, we had staff members give input to the LMC, the library. So, we made some changes there. So, uh we'll be bringing that

108forward, too, as we look at that final piece. Some projects that we did this summer and some of them we're still um doing. The teched building, you've noticed that's out there. It's in use. Um we're putting the final touches on that. In fact, we're using our teched students are doing some of the work in that building right now. uh we moved the generator over from Hogan administration. So that generator works as it's a backup for our IT department and so IT closet is here now at Hogan. So we've made that transition. If you remember from the capital improvement project, we have a track project that we're doing here at Central and we're going to start that yet this fall. And the reason we're doing that, it kind of goes along with the greenhouse. If you

109look look at that, we're in the process of getting the final approval from the city on the greenhouse. And so with all the different buildings that we're doing and different things that are going on at Central, we're moving some things around. I know it's hard to see in this this plan down at the right lower right hand corner, but we're moving the pole vault pit to be inside the track. We're moving the long jump, so it's a little bit different and it's not as close to the greenhouse as it is now. And so we're doing a lot of changes. So, we're working on those, getting approval from the city, but we anticipate starting that this week. And so, we're looking at that project. And then, of course, district offices. You can see a part of

110what you see here, but we've moved about third of the staff from Hogan over to here. And so, we have twothirds yet to go. We hope to complete that process in midocctober. So, it's kind of our timeline for that. >> So, we're not shotputting towards the greenhouse. >> We're not shot putting toward the greenhouse. moving some things around. >> State champions. >> Yes. Yes. >> Throwing the disc though. >> One of the things that we did start the the board meetings a little bit earlier than we thought than we anticipated, but we have wayfinding signs that we'll be putting up in the building. So, it'll be a little bit easier for the general public to find uh your board meetings in the future. at Logan High School. Uh if you've been to the Logan High

111School football game, I don't know if you've been to one of those uh games yet, they've had two home games. This is a picture from last Friday. You can see it's in full use. We're excited about that process. Uh in a couple weeks, I think Central plays Logan. I encourage you all to come out and watch that game. It's at Logan. So, cheer on your favorite team. Um one of the things that I'm I'm proud is we did a remodel of the sped space uh at Logan. These pictures will not do it justice, but it's working with our sped students and teaching them life skills. Everything from washing dishes to laundry to all the skills that they need. Uh, and you'll see in the lower right hand corner, the bathroom that was added into that

112space to just make it a little bit easier for those students. And so proud of that space. And then the freezer, uh, a new freezer that we put in at Logan and that will work as a district freezer. >> Yes. >> Two things is The bleaches are absolutely beautiful. >> I mean, they're they're very nice and thank you for that. But I think I think people underestimate that freezer. That thing is mammoth and much needed. And that is quite quite the uh sight when you ride up to that thing. >> Yes, it is. Yes, it is. >> It's quite amazing. >> And that will serve food for the whole district, actually. So, uh it's a nice Yeah. >> Sorry. >> No, that's okay. um our sped uh students the it's grown quite a lot this

113year. >> Um I helped a lot with them my freshman and sophomore year and I remember that old bathroom. >> I know coach Bingham, she's the assistant basketball coach, but she's one of the teachers there. She helps with them. It was really a struggle for her and the other faculty to, you know, like help some of those children, but I I've heard great things about that. >> Thank you for saying that. One of the things that's unique about that space is that when we were doing the tours for the new elementary school, we saw this bed space and it actually Bray designed it and is we just took that exact design and we put it into our space. And so you'll see the same thing happen at Central this next summer. So, it's something that

114really needed to be done and really proud of. So, thank you for those words. Logan Middle, we have uh a roof project going on. Unfortunately, it's not finished yet. Uh with all of the rain this summer, it really put our roofers uh behind. And so, we're still in the process of doing that, but we'll finish that project up this uh this fall yet. And then we took a couple of unused locker rooms and created classrooms for them. And that's what you see pictures in the lefthand corner. ISP now is at Logan Middle and they have a home forever we hope. And then what we did with the PE teachers, they wanted a health class that they could have that's close to their locker room and so we did some conversions there for them as well.

115And then at Southern Bluffs, we have another solar project going on and we're just about finished with that project on October 24th. You can mark your calendars. We're going to have a kind of a grand opening of the solar. It's not quite finished yet, but it will be by then. So, Souls will lead that celebration that evening. And so, uh actually it's during the school day. So, we encourage you to come to that. And then at Northwood's Playground, we've removed rubber chips there. And then we also put in a swing set, expanded their playground uh there. Something that all the elementaryaries eventually will have is as that's one of their desires as we move forward. You've got a question. >> Yeah. >> What was the base of that play playground? Are those wood chips? >>

116Those are wood chips. >> Yep. >> Yeah. And so in the lower right hand corner, that was all rubber chips. We removed those this year and we put wood chips in there. And then we put in a new swing set with the the wood chips in them. And so we're in the process of doing one per year. And so in the next couple years, we'll have all of our rubber chips removed from the site. >> Can I just ask a quick? years ago, we replaced all the wood chips for rubber chips because it was so much better. >> And now we're now reverting back to >> Yeah. So, let me talk about that a little bit. And so, we um number the safest fall zone if you look at fall zone. And so, we made

117that transition to rubber. We since have had some individuals or some groups come to us and say, "We really don't think that's safe for kids." you know, and I will say the the data out there, we've looked at the data, we don't necessarily agree with that, but they are messy. And so with their concerns and then our concerns with the mess that they provide, we've made that that change back and that's why we've done that. >> So rubber chips are messier than wood chips? >> Much much more so. Much more so. >> Do they break up and disintegrate or >> No, what happens is they just kind of stick to you. They're they're kind of messy on their hands, but kids have them in their pockets. You find them all over school, all over the

118playground. And so they're kind of everywhere. >> And so we've seen on two fronts, people who don't think they're safe, >> and then we've seen from people who think they're messy. And they are messy. And so we've made that transition back. We would have had to replace them anyways because we have to replenish them every few years. So, uh, we're doing it as they need to be replaced. And and we've made some good headway there. But great questions. I I thought the city had something out as far as their playgrounds and not playgrounds, their parks, and they were concerned with what was being released by those rubber chips. >> Yeah, that's there was a group that was working with the city and so the same group that talked to the city talked to us and

119came to us with their concerns and then when we looked at the concerns of theirs and the concerns of of others with the mess, we just said it makes sense to make that transition. And so we worked with them and the city's done the exact same thing. Y >> if you look very closely at rubber chips, you will find that there is some offging of chemicals. >> If you test them for a human health hazard, the like impact on a human, you'll find that there's no risk for human's health. And so it's a combination of like two things. Yes, there is chemicals there that comes off and no, they are not dangerous for humans, but given all the other concerns and trying to move with our community, felt like since we're replacing stuff anyway, let's

120move towards natural chips and and we'll be fine. >> What's the cost differential again? I I know we had that information. >> Uh I could get that for you. It both are expensive. I will tell you both both are expensive and so when we replace those um we have to get rid of them. We have waste that we have to do that. But to do this, I would say was somewhere in the neighborhood of 24 $25,000 roughly >> for one playground, >> replacing those and then adding the the wood chips. >> And we've what we've done is we've put that in the capital improvement budget every year to do one playground a year. >> Hey Joe, on Logan High, uh, bleachers do look amazing. Um, I have not watched a football game, but I've watched

121multiple soccer games, and it does feel uh uh less sketchy when I walk through them. >> Safer. >> Yeah, there we go. >> They look our perspective. It was a safety issue. >> Oh, yeah. That's that's where I was at, too. So, um, the question I had on that was I noticed the signage for Dee Swanson's Field is off. Is it is there going to be is it still going to be called Dick Swanson's Field or is it something? still Dee Swanson's field. And what you'll see if you look, there's a big >> um off to the right of the field, there's a big um I don't want to marker, if you will, historical marker that identifies that and the history of that. So, there is still something on site that does that. >> Okay.

122But there's not going to be any signage on the the press box or anything. >> We're we're working on that. Okay. So, um I know that Logan High School wants to put Home with the Rangers on the back of that. And so there's been some discussion but nothing's been finalized. Okay. >> But it but it still is Dee Swanson field. In fact, I was just looking at the historical documents and and we've committed. >> I'm sure it was marked somewhere scoreboard or somewhere. I just wasn't sure. I knew that was probably going to be a question from somebody. >> Great question. >> I'm surprised. >> Anything else? >> Any other comments or questions from >> Okay. Thank you very much. We'll see you in a few weeks to see what those bids look like. Okay,

123we will then move on. Our next information item is the proposed budget plan. Uh so as uh for some context for folks that are showing up to this uh proposed budget plan for the first time um to put together this budget plan is a eightmonth ninemonth process. It starts in February. Uh Miss Spring will probably show the timeline that's in here. It's a series of things we present to the school board and ultimately is compiled into this budget plan. Uh it's been a process we've used for decades at this point and has been an incredible resource. Um I always make sure to have mine with me just in case. Uh hopefully you bring yours with you everywhere like I do as well. Um whether you're looking for enrollment data or levy data or facilities information

124or studentto staff ratios, there's just such great information in here and I'm super thankful for Miss Frank for putting this together each year. Uh and with that, I'll turn it over to her. >> Okay, so this is the first of the four times that you're going to see this budget plan come to you. It it provides uh a lot more information than just the budget plan for the next year and it serves as a resource as Dr. Engel said. >> Patty, would you pull your down a little bit? Sorry. Oh, >> you're kind of hidden by your computer so I can't see you talking as well. >> Oh, okay. >> Just Yeah. Thank you. >> Could you be taller? That's the word. >> Grow taller. I'm used to sitting down and presenting, right? Um, so

125then anyways, this is an estimate at this point because we do not know the third Friday pupil count, the equalized property value, the voucher school amounts. Good portion of this booklet has already been brought to your attention. Um, and that's why we do that over the the last few months because it's a lot of information to absorb. So yes, there is a timeline in here and I was going to skip past it, but since Dr. angle brought it up. We will look at it. It is on page seven. So Dan is uh helping me out here getting to the pages. And um so this is the timeline that you have uh I think it was brought to you back in March. So it's been a long process. Um I'm going to skip past the other

126information. It is the instructional priorities, the strategic plan. Those are all the things that our numbers support and uh you have been presented with that information previously. So we're going to skip to page 32 and that is the state funding for K12 education. This was the first year of the state budget uh for the bianual budget and uh they did not so these dollar amounts are in millions of dollars and as you go through the state budget the general school aids you'll notice they did not increase those in either year of the next two years. Um they did include an increase in the categorical aids in the special ed area. You've heard that before. And then the school levy and the first dollar credits, there is no change. And the state uh resident schools, there

127was a slight change. Now you might think it odd that the school levy credits and the first dollar credits are in this budget for education but they are dollars educated or allocated to education. However, the schools never see those dollars because they are considered uh taxpayer relief. Um and as we go down then the vouchers increased on all three levels and that is the state support for private schools. Uh I highlighted the first year the bianual and uh then next year it'll be a little bit easier to approach the budget because we have that known state information. So the next page is the revenue limit and equalized aid change. This information here is from last October. Uh because we do not know those numbers that's going to change these charts. And remember that that revenue

128limit is what is our pie of funding and that it acts for local taxpayers. It does not mean that we have more money to spend. So the um also I want to take note the to the u definitions of student membership and student enrollment because they're two different things. The membership is anyone in the residence of of um lacrosse that we are responsible for educating and student enrollment are the kids in our seats. Kids that come from other districts and are in our seats. We use that of course for uh staffing and facility uh needs. Any questions there? The next one is the state of Wisconsin per pupil revenue limit increase. So this shows the history and for the last three years it has been consistent at uh $325 per member. The next is the

129referenda history. This is always something that you will want to refer to and uh what has brought along the capital referendum that Joe was talking about and the operating referendum that we have in place. And that um also gives you the the timeline for when those uh dollars as far as operating referendum expire. The next page is the referenda history. This is uh we just paid off some debt from the 2008 referendum. So that's great because now we've incurred more debt uh for the referendum uh of the elementary school consolidation. We will pay off North Side in 2033. And this uh borrowing, this first borrowing will expire in 204 five. That's hard to say. It's a long ways off. Um the enrollment history by level on the next page. This is what I talked about

130the students in the seats. Um this determines our facility and staffing needs. As you can see that we have uh declining enrollments for many many years which has led to the consolidation of elementary schools because of the lack of need for so many buildings and and that'll be up updated as we know third Friday comes. Okay. So I'm going to have you um the next pages 38 to 44. They're going to they're all about enrollment, but these are last October's numbers and they will all be updated after the third Friday and in time for you all for your October decisions. Um, so if you want to go to page four, these are also estimates about staffing and enrollment. So these are estimates uh to date as far as uh our ratios and they will be

131updated as a third Friday. Our staffing that we report to the state is also based on third Friday as as our student count is. And the next page is the graph. it goes um we update it as of June 30th of the prior year and show you uh what we have in place as of today I would say but it's it's changing and hopefully we will uh be able to hire those TAs that we're still waiting to hire and um and then we will also have the detail updated for you in October. So if you want to go to page 51, this is the start of the introduction of the financial detail. So in this budget book, the funds 10 through 29 are considered our operating funds. But we also describe then here the other

132um funds that are consistent for every school district in the state of Wisconsin. and it helps with the uh comparison from district to district. We all are held to those same fund funding um sources. So if you want to go to page 53, so the proposed budget um I will tell you now the expenditures do exceed the revenues by 1 million 38,941 at this time. Um we are using designated fund balance that the board designated uh that were funds that we received in a prior year and we will be expending them in this next year. I think three of them are grants and then there's also the Apple buyback dollars that we'll be putting towards some technology projects in this coming year. Um the levy is estimated or the levy rate at $7.51. This is

133about 26 cents more than it was uh last year. Meaning $26 uh more on a home that's estimated value of $100,000. This will change once um we have the property value information on October 1st, but we think we're pretty close. Uh the levy estimate of course is preliminary. So this then goes about um all of the estimated revenues and the different pockets. Uh I was that on page 54 it talks about the uh the special ed aid increase that is in the state budget and that it is um not really guaranteed because it's just a a certain amount of money and depending on uh what the special ed needs are statewide it could mean that we don't get up to the 42 or 45% reimbursement. So for example, the 2325 state budget uh estimated the

134special ed reimbursement to be 33% but in actual we have not exceeded 30.6%. >> The latest estimate I heard from an Chapman from WBO was 37% it might come in based on the some certain amount that that was allocated. So >> good good anything is is appreciated. So um then also I wanted to point out let's see under state grants tuition and open enrollment there was u an act 12 personal property aid that last year we received over $700,000 but it was outside of the revenue limit meaning those were actually extra funds that helped in our operating budget this year um in the state budget it moves those personal property aid uh back into the revenue limit. So, it's a offsetting the uh cost of the revenue limit and therefore providing additional taxpayer relief. So,

135those aren't extra funds this year. So then the chart is always helpful showing that our revenues, the majority of our revenues come from local taxes and state equalization aid and those balance each other. If there's more state aid, less local taxes, >> Patty. >> Yes. Am I I'm I'm thinking last year around this time I made the comment I was asking about um the the state's commitment to funding districts at 50% and it looks pleasingly as though in our case we've gone up to I think I calculated it atif like 52.3 or something 52.1% it looks like now um which is great. And remember that that funding is also funding our vouchers. So, >> um it's not just all for public schools. Um so then the operating revenues by chart you're familiar with this chart

136because um this is what you see on a monthly basis when we compare this one compares uh our budget for last year are unudited as far as the audit was performed but have they have not come yet to the board to finalize that. Um and then comparison to our proposed budget. So you're going to see um like on other state categorical aid per pupil, the state budget did not change from $742. So that's uh times a three-year average of the membership. And of course, if we have declining membership, then that number will be declining from year to year. So it's slight decrease. And then um our our state local tuition received that was uh that's quite a decrease because that was a charter both of our charter schools PI and CRVA had grants in the

137last two years those have expired. Any questions about the revenues? Okay. So then we always present our expenditures in two formats. One is by program and the other is by type. Uh the budget for expenditures. Uh I wanted to point out it does not include our contribution to the OPED expense. We contribute in past years over $2 million, but we um have decided that if we needed that to balance our budget while we're getting ready for consolidation and the savings there, uh this is one of the years that we're going to have to use it. Fortunately, we have enough in the fund balance in our oped to carry us through for the next two years. So we'll be able to meet those uh promises to our retirees. Then uh this chart also shows about the

138operating expenditures by program. And you'll notice that um instruction and instructional support are our two largest areas which we would expect since we are an instructional institution. Questions about operating expenditure by program? Well, maybe I would be interested in I don't know if you can come up with comparison schools districts, but how comparison districts spend their money versus the way we spend our money. [Music] >> Well, they're all >> instruction. They're all schools, so education, of course, is going to be the majority of their budgets. No, but at the same time even you get into staffing in a little bit and how is the staffing at whatever school compared or district compared to the lacrosse school district. I mean are we where we should be? Are we high or we low or where? >> Staffing

139is an area where it's very easy to compare. There's a public staffing report that we're able to access and we've used that on a consistent basis to look at studentto staff ratios to see if we're spending our money on the right thing so to speak. And what we have historically found is that we have some of the best student to staff ratio, studenttoteer ratios in the state. And so it means that with our limited funds, we feel like we're really investing it in the right thing. The folks that work with kids on a daily basis in classrooms. When we look at our administrative funding, you know, because sometimes people worry that there's administrative bloat or other things. We're, you know, not in the 15th percentile like teachers. We're in the 75th percentile. So, we know

140that relatively we're putting our money where it matters most, in front of kids every single day. Uh, we have a similar amount of administrative staffing to other school districts our size we find. Um, which puts us, it makes us feel confident that we're responding to our teachers needs, addressing the community needs with our administrative services as well. >> Yeah. And then the other side is also looking out for the taxpayer. I mean, totally. >> Yep. >> Yeah. Absolutely. We I Patty and I have talked about how do we compare our budget to other schools budget, but it's even though there's a standard accounting process and how to label everything, people do things vastly different in different places, they've tried to come up with things like um it's like total educational cost or some of these

141other things based on uh these categories. And if you went out if you have a referendum on your books, it looks dramatically different. If you've got a capital referendum on your books, it looks dramatically different. Um, if you contract out for food service as a purchase service versus doing it internally through fund 50, it looks different. If you contract through CISAs for uh purchase services for um OTPT, special ed, you know, deaf and heart of hearing, it looks vastly different than if you do it internally. And so we've had trouble trying to compare the nuts and bolts between schools, uh, school districts, unfortunately. But I think to your point, the staffing is a great one to really get a sense of where we're at. Are we putting our money where it matters most? >> Does

142that go with pay as well? >> Compensation's pretty easy to compare um with that staffing report. We get salaries as well. Uh and then as school districts, we're generally not in competition with each other. And so we're willing to share salary information so folks know. Uh it's publicly available anyway. All we'd have to do is do an open records request if we really wanted it. And so we all share that information freely with each other. And that's how with our um human resources report OE4, we know where we stand in the top one or two for all starting and ending wages for all of our employees in this in this in this western Wisconsin region. And we know that we compare favorably, you know, in terms of averages across the state. It would be nice

143to have uh a meeting on that staffing and and where we are to others and um just so we can toot our own horn or look at areas where we can have opportunity to grow in. >> Excellent. >> Okay. And so the Yep. And then we won't see any significant differences in staffing until the new schools are open and the schools are offline. Right. >> That's correct. >> We as we're on staffing, has we have we seen a change in any of our ratios as far as student teacher ratios at the middle, high school or elementary this year? >> Those have been pretty consistent. We have targets of about 25 to1 in in uh in core classes. Um you know with slight declining enrollment at the high schools in particular this year and trying to

144offer the same number of courses you know the the student to staff ratio should be going down just a little bit in those. I know overall we went down a little bit this year you know and it's probably reflected more at the high schools this year than the elementary. You know, we are always looking for opportunities to reduce alongside that reduction of uh of teach students in our schools, but if you lose, you know, one or two kids per class, it's hard to cut a teaching position necessarily. And so your AP English class goes from, you know, 26 last year to 24 this year. You know, you lost $24,000 in revenue, but you couldn't really cut a position because you still need to offer that course for students. And so, you know, on the margins,

145yes, I think we were able to eliminate two high school teaching positions this year and redistribute some overloads and other things in order to to cover all the classes, but it it's really hard to find those uh those uh efficiencies. >> Just one more I think data point if we do have a conversation, a deeper conversation about this. >> Excellent. I will add it to the list. >> Thank you. Yeah, I was just going to comment that the student projection and again we don't have final numbers is down 2.14% small percentage staff increase is up 1.67%. They're different directions small percentages. If we were to adjust the staffing level at the same percentage as the projected student level, we'd see a decrease in staff of almost 22 positions. But this budget's adding 17 positions. And

146so it's actually a difference of almost 40 positions. And so while those percentages are different, 40 bodies start to add up. Um again, I don't want to have the whole conversation about when one when you lose two students here and three students there and you can't do it per year. But I do I think we do need to pay attention to those numbers and I think learning more about how other people staff other districts staff I think is important. I did have a question though on the custodians that went up but we don't have more buildings. it it's just at a point of time. So if you I think when we took those um numbers we probably had some empty positions. So um that's where I'm thinking that that was >> because last year budgeted

147for 58 >> um it was down four from the previous year and now this year we're looking at 61. So we're up three custodians. >> Yeah, we didn't really add any positions. I know it might look like positions, but depending on what time of year, it could have been, you know, a a time where we just had some retirements because unlike our school staffing, our support staff can retire any time of the year. So, at that point, we may have been down when we took the count. >> Those aren't budgeted positions. Those are actual employed positions at that time. Just like our student count, we take the staffing count at the same Is it the same time or is it the >> Okay, >> so there are vacancies, right? Maybe that >> But what do

148we but like >> we've also been short on teaching teacher assistance and other areas for a number of years. >> Yes, I'm aware of that. I um So where do we find the number of staff budgeted for? I think that's I'm I'm looking at page 45. Am I looking at the incorrect page? Um you're looking at page 45. Yep. No, that's that's it. As of as of um probably the first day of school, that's where those numbers. >> Is this what we have or this is what we're budgeting for? Because those are different things. There's >> this is what we have. Those are our staff that are in place. >> So where's the number that what we're budgeting for? >> It's in the budget. Um depending if we're going to fill those spots, >> we

149don't list those in this budget book. So, how do I know what I'm approving in a budget for positions? That's I'm confused. Am I missing? Like, nobody else looks confused. Maybe I'm missing something. >> Well, this the staffing on the staffing report are the staff that we have in place and we compare it to the ratio of the students we have in place. >> Okay, I get that. Yeah, >> we have that in place. But then our staffing, our uh budget, you will find in the budget as far as um when you look at salaries and compensation that that is uh budgeted for for the all the positions that we intend to have. So that that dollar amount is based on if we're going to hire um 10 more TAs, that budget will support the

150hiring of 10 more TAs. And what you'll remember is we have come to the point where we have overbudgeted because we could not fill those positions. >> So we we are budgeting for the staff that we want to have in place. Where do I find information on what staff go into making up the salary expense in the budget? >> Um, we have that split up by uh every employee group has their own >> is that in the budget book already? >> Not that detail. We don't that's in our general ledger >> because you you'd like a snapshot of what what what would full employment look like >> in terms what what am I approving in the budget that's what I want to know and what was it last year and what is it this year

151that's what I would like to know and that's what >> sure if we go to expenditures by type >> we don't go into that detail in this budget but you can look at salaries and that encompasses all of our employees that we hope to employ this year that we need. Are we going to find all those employees? Maybe not, but we will budget for them. >> We can provide that sort of a report if you're interested. >> Well, it would just be kind of nice to know if like we have 30 um janitors, 20, you know, kitchen staff and, you know, a breakdown of that. So, we we have an idea. And of them 20, we only have 18 filled. It would it would be >> I mean, you know, again, devil's in the detail.

152We don't want to dig too deep, but to her point, I think in order for us to approve some, we've got to see, you know, apples to apples. And right now, it we're just we're looking at numbers, which the numbers don't really equate to anything. It would be nice to have it, you know, to this is where it's going to staffing and and things like that. >> What kind of staff? >> We can bring that work on that. >> As far as what employee group costs how much dollars in the budget, >> not that the past is a justification for the future, but this is how it's been reported for you 25 years in the school district. And happy to add more layers and depth to help folks out. >> I always understood that page

15345 was a number of positions we're budgeting for. Oh, okay. >> Yes, that's what I took it as. >> That's the number of positions that we have in place on account date. >> So, it's either the third Friday just as with our students and uh that's our our staffing at that point in time. doesn't mean that we will not uh hire more because we do have some positions that are not filled but we have budgeted >> in order to fill those >> and we are looking at the percentages of our employment groups >> in comparison with the total salary. >> Sure. >> And and then broken out by category >> and that's why they're highlighted as estimates, right? Because we won't know until the count day >> what the actual numbers are. That's true. >>

154But the numbers that you put in for salaries, you know, how many of teacher assistants and how many custodians, you know what those are? >> Yes, we we start that costing uh way back in January. >> So, it'd be helpful for me, I think, when we have to preliminary approve this next time to know how many positions of each type that you have on that third count, Friday count, I think that's a good breakup. Um, and comparing it to last year or maybe even the year before, I think that tell helps us tell the story to the public. If it went up because students have a lot more needs and need a lot more coaches, then we know how to tell that story. But, um, based on these numbers, I'm I'm struggling with how to

155tell the public we're budgeting for more staff with fewer students. And and by the way, these aren't really the staff numbers. >> Yep, we'll get that. >> Okay. Thank you. And I feel like we have asked for some version of this before and even gotten it for a little bit on the HR sheets. Patty, weren't you adding like >> some positions were open still? >> So, we've asked for this kind of data and gotten it in pieces before. So, I think it makes sense to >> Thank you. >> Okay. And so, by type, um, this is another way of just looking at those same expenditures as we did by program. Uh some people prefer to look at it this way because it's a little bit more detailed as far as your salaries and your breakdown

156of benefits. Any questions on that area? Okay. So, um, the next few pages are all the information that Joe has brought to you in the past about the facilities, the buildings, uh, the long range plan, capital maintenance plan for the next year. So, if we go to page 79 and there we talk about the community service fund levy. So the board has already uh approved the proposed uh levy for community service and that is the breakdown of what we plan to levy for in this coming year. We updated some of the descriptions and we hopefully are more clear to the board. Uh the fund sum summary on page 83. >> Can I ask a question quick on the last one? I apologize but the after school programs >> Mhm. >> I see it's it's like

157jumped significantly the you know last three years for sure but um is that be are we capturing it different or why is that such an increase from the proposed to last year to even like the year before it was >> right? So remember, we have our expenditures and we have our levy. And wherever we levy in this area, we have to use those unused funds from the prior year going forward. And so if you notice around COVID year, we did not have to levy anything because we did not have any afterchool programming. And so we've been using up those funds that have been levied before for that purpose. And now those have expired and we are having to levy more just to keep that programming going. >> So in other words, if we had 2019

1582020 on here, we would expect to see something in the 200,000 range. >> Um that's correct. >> It could be I can I can look back at it. >> So we've approved though an increase in the program the last two years. Correct. >> Correct. Yeah. Yep. It approved. That's that represents the increased partnership with the Boys and Girls Club. Any other questions on fund 80? >> Again, I know I asked this when we went through the fund 80 step. The 300,000 for the co-curriculars is actually a fund transfer from >> correct from the general fund or other? >> No, no, no. It's it's um a whole different program than just our middle school uh extracurriculars because it is a community. So that means that we will extend this to private and homeschooled students that uh

159>> I I understand that I I mean the the the 300 was previously budgeted in a different fund and we have shifted it because statutoily we're allowed to right um to this fund which which has freed up room elsewhere in the budget but puts it here in fund 80 which is a new its own levy. Okay, we transferred an expense and we're able to levy the funds in fund 80. >> Okay, >> I was an English meeting. Sorry. >> All right, so um on page 83 we have the fund summary. We do not include in the uh expenditures for fund 10 the transfer to fund 27 nor do we include the revenue in fund 27 for that transfer. So those look a little out of whack, but um otherwise you're counting revenues and expenditures that

160um are not that are offsetting and the same cost really. Uh the this is all of the other uh funds that we use. We no longer have a God bless you. We no longer have a fund uh 38 because we have no referend non-referendum debt on our books. Any questions? Okay. And then um the revenue limit, state aid, total levy, local impact, those are all numbers that are estimated at this point and will be updated for you in time to approve the levy. uh we feel that they're they're pretty close to what we're expecting. And then the tax levy components history that breaks down for you uh where we are levying. So for the general fund um of that total 52 million that we are levying uh the general fund is 34 million operating referendum

161is 10 million and 10 million.7 uh 800,000 for the capital fund and uh 4 million 305340 for debt and that is our new debt that we are going to be paying off that 14 million. in and then of course the increase in the community service fund levy. Questions? >> I have another question because I'm having fun. >> Okay. >> Um it's my understanding last time I think last our last meeting we still had um contract negotiation going out with a certain group. Correct. >> Has that been finalized? >> Yeah. And where does that how you know because I'm assuming there'll be some back pay or something for him or how's that work where >> Sure. Whenever >> you have that captured in and you have an idea of where you're going to be. >> Okay.

162I just don't you know that'd be bad if we didn't. >> No no no surprises. >> Okay. >> U questions on the tax levy components. All right. How about the school levy credits? So they reduce our uh levy uh our mill rate that those dollars go directly uh to the municipalities to help offset the taxpayers uh portion. >> Can I ask a question about that actually? >> So the tax credits are are allocated based on assessed value, >> right? So everybody saw their bill go up, right? As we've talked about. Um, is it correct to say then that if if Lacrosse's uh assessed values all went up as they did, um, but we're an anomaly in the state, we're going to see a higher allocation of those tax credits. If nobody else's assessed value went

163up proportionally the same as ours did. >> Um, yep. They're they're based on the municipality share of the statewide levies. So, okay. Um, yeah, it's always going to be a certain amount of money that the state uh allocates and then it's all the 420 school districts statewide and uh the municipalities in which they reside. So, >> and then in terms of tax impact, you've you've said in the in the budget book here that the the lottery and gaming credits are unknowable. >> Yeah, we don't know. Um we don't know those. These I can get from the municipalities. Um, and they're also based on last year. So, we won't know the impact for this year until December. >> We do know it eventually and we can we can calculate in what what is the actual net

164levy after all tax credits, but not until way later. >> Just just the uh school levy credits. >> Okay. Yeah, with the past referendum last November, we had anticipated our uh the impact of that referendum by itself was about 40. And so had all else been equal, our levy would have been $765 this year. But the declining enrollment and changes in state aid and community service fund changes and all that other stuff, it, you know, came in at only 26 cents greater than we had anticipated last year. So, it's a means less money going to public schools, but uh it's also better for our taxpayers than it could have been otherwise. So, that's a positive story to tell, too. >> All right. And so, the ne the next two, the equalized value history and the

165chart will be updated in October when we know all those numbers. Next time when I come to you, I will also have the breakdown of the budget as it is published for the uh for the public hearing so that you will be able to see what the taxpayers will be looking at uh before the the budget hearing and um and that is where you will approve the um proposed uh budget. Okay, any questions? When do we get a revised version of this book with Friday count and some of those those >> as as they come uh along? I usually do it for before the last meeting. So, um as long as I know it, it's kind of a timing thing. Uh when we have our meetings and when you will be approving it. I think

166last year I was able to get the updates to you before uh you had to make the final decisions and then we will always discuss them before you approve the levy and the budget. >> So likely the third Monday in October we'll see another version and then we approve it the fourth Monday. >> Yeah. The budget hearing is based on on these dollars. So, right after that meeting, we should have numbers before you have to approve it on the next Monday. >> When do you get when are the third Friday numbers final? >> Uh, well, they're submitted to the state. I think by the end of September, they're due. uh October 1st is when we get the property value and then uh October 15th is when we get the equalization aid. So then at that

167time we recalculate the revenue limit because we know how much then the state is going to be contributing. We know our pupil membership and all those numbers will change. We'll also know the voucher amounts. will know the open enrollment in and out and those dollar amounts. So, we'll get you all those as soon as we can get them all together. >> Yeah, we start spending money on July 1st for a budget we don't know the details of until October 15th. It's a funny system. >> That's why it's handy to have a professional. >> Yes. >> Help us guide us through that stuff. >> All right. Years of experience. >> Any other questions on the budget? Okay, thank you. >> Thank you. Uh we will then move on to the announcements. Uh first of all, welcome

168to our student representatives. Um I'm [Applause] um I will call on you in just a moment. You can take we'll start with Owen and Bethany and then Emerson. That's the way it's written here. So we'll um take that. Um, so if you want to give us a brief update on your school, but also just give us a tell us uh in a sentence or two a little bit about yourself. But I have to say before we get started, I am delighted at the engagement already in this meeting and the fact that you even take the board president on and disagree with her. Um, makes us a better organization. >> Sorry about that. >> No, no, that makes I I if we all sat here and agreed with everything, that would make us a a a

169less successful organization. So I appreciate that. and I respect that. So, but I just want to say thank you um to the bringing up the comments already that you've shared with us and I look forward to a great year with you, but I'll start with you Owen if you want to tell us a little bit about yourself and then any updates from your school. >> Uh yeah, I'm Owen Sco. I'm a senior at Lacrosse Central. Um I currently am coaching football for the for Central's program. I was originally planning to play, but I tore my ACL at a practice and so I'm staying involved with the program however I can. Um, we've got a handful of fun stuff going on at Central. This week is homecoming week. We have our big game Friday against Barabou

170at home. Show up. Should be a really good game. Uh, we played really well last Friday. Really proud of my team. Uh, we have a handful of dress up days this week. Today was dress like Adam Sandler. Um, >> I did not have any oversized clothes. I can't even rate my dad's closet because him and I are the same size. So, I got picked on by all my friends. But, it's fine. Uh, tomorrow's twin day. It'll be a lot of fun. And then dance is Saturday. >> Thank you, >> Bethany or Britney, I'm sorry. >> Um, yeah, I'm a senior at Polytechnic. Um, we have a dress up week planned for the week of Palmine. Um, which will be really exciting. Um, I'm also the president of our party planning committee, so I'm in charge

171of all of that. I'm also on our uh school's NHS. Um, yeah. >> Thank you. >> Herson. Hi, my name is Emerson Hary. I'm a senior at Logan High School. Um, we have a lot of fun things actually. We have a new principal for what feels like a new principal for 100 years. Um, his name is Mr. Madson. He the first thing we had a meeting before this actually. maybe we wanted to go over some things if he wanted me to say anything and um something he felt was very important and I was really happy with this actually as a student um he's implying more studentto student conversations less teacher to student um he I don't know if he himself did some research or if he read an article or something but um he had

172told me that when students are able to teach the uh content they're learning. That's when they are able to truly grasp grasp the information. Um, and I always knew that in my classes when a teacher is just sitting there and lecturing me for 40 something minutes, I tend to lose focus. So, I think this will be really nice. It'll be really good. Um, our football team 3 and 0. We do have a arc dinner coming up. Um I will say that we have the ark. >> So after after how many years of you losing it? >> It's how many years did you not hold it? >> Um our football team has only got better. >> Uh we have a battle for a cause game tomorrow. I would encourage you all to be there. uh were

173the all the proceeds, all the shirts that were bought. Um the link's not down, but it's all going to a cause to um help raise funds for osteio saroma research and helping families and children who are battling themselves. Um >> yeah, that's what I got. >> Thank you. Thank you and welcome. >> Um I will now turn over to Mr. Begneski for the CISA 4 bord of control meeting. >> This is this is very short. >> I was in Omaha celebrating a grandson's birthday and I could not make it back. Something occurred in route so I did not make it make it back in time. >> All right, then we'll turn to Dr. Garcia for the Lacrosse Public Education Foundation update. >> Yeah, LPF had a successful bow tie classic. You played in it. >>

174I did. It was awesome. >> It was a beautiful day. Uh, and Katie was trash talking your performance, but because I don't play golf, I didn't understand what you might have done wrong because I don't know any of the lingo. So, you're still top tier in my mind because I don't know what she was saying. Um, yeah, a chip. Something about a chip. I don't know. >> Oh, yeah. >> Anyway, um, a teacher won the ebike, so that was pretty cool that the raffle ticket one of our local teachers won. Um Nell is talking to staff making the rounds to talk about payroll giving and so she said you could tell the board members if they want to give from their payroll. So um it's a pretty easy process. I do it every month. And

175she gave me the little QR code to pass around. So if you're interested, she said actually if every um employee in the district gave a dollar more than they give right now, they could fund 10 more grants every year. Um, so it's meaningful the impact that they have. And it goes into classrooms and help students through random acts of kindness, which was a program, a similar program to what I used as a teacher to help kids when they needed glasses, you know, when they needed things that their families weren't able to get for them immediately. Um, those grants really make an impact. So join me and get $5. Even $5 a paycheck, um, makes a difference. And if you want it interested in that, I'll send it around. >> That's all we got. >> Thank

176you. >> Uh Mr. Alberts and Mr. Newmeister on the city school consortium group. >> I did it last time. >> Today we hit we had a meeting at 3:00, met with uh the mayor was there for the first time in one of these meetings, which was uh nice to see. And I think we um really made some headway today. We've now decided that we're going to get a committee together um and they are going to uh the city parks board and whomever are going to have two people uh will have two and there's there's going to be like eight total and somebody can correct me when I'm wrong but there's going to be eight total that may grow that may decrease but to start out with and what we're doing is we're we're just looking

177for opport opportunities, ideas on uh what would be best for uh us to work together on a muchneeded pool. As any everyone realizes that uh Logan's pool is no good. Uh Logan Northside pools, the outdoor one is is coming to the end of its life. So, we're trying to collaborate on uh how we can work together to um not only that, but to offer competitive swimming for our high schools and and work with a community to um to enhance that and and to use it year round instead of just uh I learned 76 days average per year we use the outdoor pool, which you know, we we came up that's uh $1,300 a day we spend. and on pools that a lot of times aren't being used. So, we've got to look for better ways

178for our taxpayers and the school, but everyone else can add some more to it. >> No, that's way more detail than I would have said. >> So, A+ >> A+. >> No, it's a it's a great thing that we're actually collaborating with the with the city. I it's something that I had brought up when I first got on this board and why we hadn't in the past. Um, so it's a great thing that we are we're looking for opportunities to uh to share some to share some things with the city. So, >> great. Still in the exploration phase. We'll see where it takes us. >> Um, for my uh announcements as board president, um the if you'd like to schedule with Laura uh one-on- ones with the superintendent, feel free to do so to do

179that. Um, the other thing I wanted to mention is not listed here is a email that I got that I'll have Laura maybe forward to all of you if you're okay with that. Laura, thank you. Um, from the Alpha Z Delta um, group at the university, they have their annual Z Golden Gala benefit um, for the Lacrosse Area School District homeless services. It's coming up Saturday, October 11th at 5:00 PM at the Lacrosse Country Clubs. Um they support the Lacrosse Area School District homeless services through fundraising efforts. If you want to get tickets, if you want to donate, um they're interested in in uh hearing from you. Um they their mission is to benefit all students that um to have equal educational opportunities whether they've lost housing, have unstable housing, currently living with friends or

180family. So um I think it's a great uh thing. They have great food, silent auction raffle opportunities, and an ac capella performance by Vocal Ties. I don't know who they are, but they probably will be awesome. Anyhow, so I just want to tell you about >> a capella group. Yeah. >> Thank you. Uh Dr. Angel, >> I attended the gala last year. It was awesome. Uh it's nice to see uh local college students raising funds for the school district of Lacrosse and for our students who need it the most. So if it's something that works out for you, awesome event. Um we're cleaning out the Hogan Administrative Center. Uh here is one of the nifty things we found, including some great pictures of our schoolboard members from the times that look like they were hand

181cut out. >> So I will pass this around. We will continue to find artifacts to share with folks. >> This around too. >> Um so it's uh it's there's a lot of material to figure out what to do with. We can't keep it all. We're memorializing what we must and what uh makes sense. Uh, but that's an example of some neat stuff. >> Um, Governor Ivers visited Hamilton Elementary School on Friday and the visit wasn't at Hamilton but out at Hixon uh forest. Uh, and he met the students, I think third through fifth grade at the trail head. Uh, they went on a hike, did a scavenger hunt. Uh, Governor Ivers was there, Senator Brad Path, uh, Representative Tara Johnson. Uh, it was awesome event. It was great to uh see those folks there. The

182kids had tons of questions for them uh including what was your funniest moment and you know how old are you and all the other things that kids ask. Uh so that was awesome. Uh Governor Ivers is kind enough to visit us each of the years I've been here. Um he likes visiting lacrosse and celebrating our schools. It's nice that we get that attention. So uh and then uh that's pretty much all I have. uh looking forward to uh continuing a great start to the school year. >> Great. >> There's uh 15 students from Luxembourg here in Lacrosse going either to meeting with students at Central or Logan and uh it's a two-eek thing and if you haven't signed up already, maybe you can do it next year in terms of you going to Luxembourg and

183spending two weeks with students there. So, it's a good program that way. >> Great. Thank you. >> Uh we'll then move on to the agenda planning um portion here. We have a proposed agenda for the September 22nd meeting. Um any additions or look for a motion to approve. >> I make a motion to approve the agenda as presented. >> Okay. >> Seconded. >> Okay. We have a motion and a second. Any other discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Those opposed. Board debriefing. We turn that over to Mr. Newmeister. >> Oh, that's good. I thought it was it was a good good meeting. I appreciate that we have our uh high school group back and it's going to be nice to get to know you even more. Um, I think uh

184it's probably not the easiest day for you to start because that budget stuff can get uh pretty pretty boring as much as it's popular, but it is what makes everything go around. Um, I think everybody uh had their apple apple they had their chance to to give their thoughts and I think obviously we treated each other with respect and gave everybody the opportunity to speak as I I'm very impressed in how well we do that with each other. Even though we may disagree on some things, uh, I think we give each other the time to um talk and at least get out what we believe in. And I I truly appreciate that. And I think uh I think you know the arc's probably going to stay at Logan. >> Um and we really appreciate that

185as well. So thank you. [Music] >> Other than debate on the ark, anything else to add to the >> go Central. >> Go Riverhawks. >> I object. >> Okay. With that, uh hearing no objections, this meeting is adjourned. There will be a workshop following in the library. >> Thank you. It's a pleasure getting to know you all. [Music]