Board of Education Regular Meeting - June 16, 2025

001[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Administrative Center occupies the land of the Ho Chunk people. Please take a moment to celebrate and honor the ancestral Ho Chunk land and the sacred lands of all indigenous peoples. Will the secretary please call the role? Mr. Albert here. Mr. Vneski here. Miss FS here. Dr. Garcia here. Mr. Jackson, uh, I haven't heard from him yet. He's excused and he's going to join us remotely. I suspect he's going to be on shortly. Mr. Ma, uh, he's excused. Mr. New Meister, here. Dr. Sprag, uh, he's excused as well. Miss Sukla, here. Okay. Quorum of the board of education is present. So the regularly scheduled meeting of June 16th, 2025 is hereby called to order. We will now stand and have the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the

002flag 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. Okay, tonight's agenda has previously been distributed to the board. I would entertain at this time a motion with a second to approve the agenda as submitted, unless there's a motion to amend. I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as submitted. Second, I'm sorry, Molly. Molly beat you. 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. Uh we have no public speakers this evening. Correct. Um so we have a couple of showcases. So I'll turn it over to you Dr. Engle. Excited to invite um our um folks from Grow

003here uh Bonnie and Kari uh to present on a little bit of the program for the year. Thank you. My name is Ki Versado Braley. I'm executive director and um co-founder of Grow Lacrosse. I have with me Bonnie Martin who is our director of communications and outreach. Thank you again for the invite to come back. I was here about a year ago um sharing um some updates about what was happening. Um, so we're happy to be here again to show some uh up or to let you know some updates from this last year and also give some historical context to some of you though those those of you who uh may not be as familiar with Grow. Um, Grow is a nonprofit organization that was started in 2012 with the understanding that many students were

004showing up to school hungry or undernourished and we knew the detrimental effects this has on learning and focus. Despite efforts to provide nutritious foods in the cafeteria, there was overwhelming evidence that even when provided with fresh vegetables and fruits on their trays, much of the food was being thrown into the garbage. um often as the result of not really having much experience or exposure to those foods, therefore not wanting to try them. Through a lot of research, um Grow discovered that there needed to be opportunities for school-aged youth to experience healthy food in an authentic and hands-on way in order to see this food in a different way. Research showed that hands-on garden-based education had shown to double the amount of produce students consumed. So, school gardens was the way we wanted to go. This

005way, we were able to engage all students with positive and meaningful experiences growing, tending to, and eating food really a full circle seedtotable way. So, it became Grow's mission to connect youth to healthy food and nature through hands-on garden-based experiences to nourish growing minds and bodies. We now do that work um of that mission in school gardens, farm experiences at Deep Roots Community Farm, as well as greenhouse field trips to our greenhouse space on Western Technical Colleg's campus. So, we've been doing this a long time. We are now at the point where students who participated in our programming throughout their elementary school years are now choosing career paths and looking for ways to give back to the community. An example of the impact of our programs are make are making it clear in one of

006our summer interns. We will let Charlie share for herself. Hi, my name is Charlie Goggger. I am currently a student at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. I'm going to be a sophomore next year. And I grew up in the Lacrosse community, going to a lot of the Grow programs, specifically the Deep Roots Farm Camp. And going to those programs and being a part of that um really helped foster a love of the environment and sustainability. and it really helped influence my chosen career path, which is environmental science. And I'm just super grateful to be a part of the grow community, being an intern this year, um, getting all these experiences and just having a chance to give back. Thank you. We were grateful to her that she was willing to be in front of

007the camera. Uh, she did a great job. But it's stories like those that we see now after being uh collaborators of the district for over 13 years that we're seeing that kids have gone started in kindergarten and gone all the way through um with some of our programs. So, we've been working with the district through these years, helping to transform spaces of the schoolyard into outdoor classrooms and living laboratories, providing quality curriculum connected lessons to all students in each school. Currently, we collaborate with seven out of the 10 elementary schools in the school district. Because each class and each student has the opportunity to participate in each lesson. Approximately 1,900 students engage in a garden lesson three times in the spring and three times in the fall. We have highly qualified educators and interns that

008provide all of our curriculum connected programming. Our educators often become an embedded part of the school community. Teachers and students are excited about garden lessons as evident in surveys that we take after every lesson season. Each season there is at least 95% participation from classes at each school. So I want to give you just a little glimpse of all of the garden spaces. We have State Road Elementary School. That was our pilot school. So that's where we began collaborating with um the principal, teachers, parents um and were able to create some garden um beds there. And really what started as a way to con engage children with healthy food has grown into much more as it has become a teaching tool for a majority of curricular subjects and has helped to build resiliency, community, and

009pride in those school communities. We have Hamilton Soda One School. It's had a couple different gardens just because of um some construction across throughout the years, but um they have a garden space and an empty lot nearby and then also uh the food forest in the front of their school. Spence Elementary, um a beautiful big garden that has lots of um fruit trees and pollinator plants and lots of garden art. Um, we know that there are changes happening within the district in terms of those school buildings. Um, so we plan to work alongside uh the school and district staff to kind of reinvision what garden spaces will look like after the school consolidations and the new build. Hinchen Elementary School. Um the hugs um hug garden, hinchen urban garden um is unique in that it

010has a mung demonstration garden in it um because of the large mung population within that school and a teacher there who is Mung herself who has really taken on a lot of that. Um so as you can see from those photos, the goal is to bring a sense of curiosity and awe to learning. Um so we want to instill a sense of hope and empowerment for those students and we think we're doing that. Um Northwoods um has a playground garden um and we've actually been working this last couple weeks to replace some of those beds um that we're breaking down. We received a a grant um from a local um funer that's allowing us to do that. So that's exciting. Summit Environmental School. Um having gardening garden programming there has really been able to basically,

011you know, feed off of what they um they stand what they stand for in terms of the environmental aspect. And so that's I think been a great um addition to their school. Beyond the school gardens, um we also provide greenhouse field trips. Um, Grow has been able to try to expand its way um, the way its programming is and been able to do more year round. In 2020, uh, Grow merged with Hillview urban agriculture and Grow gained access to a state-of-the-art greenhouse space there um, within the horiculture center at Western Technical College. So, we piloted a program four years ago with Hamilton students and some seventh graders from Lincoln. Um, and from there we've actually grown in 2025 between January and April. Um, we had 1,600 students come through those for those field trips. Um,

012we're able to show different ways of growing, hydroponics, aquaponics, what does it mean to grow inside when you don't have regular pollinators. Um, so we're able to kind of teach all of that. Um, and again being able to connect it to what they are learning in in science. Um, the greenhouse field trip experience is now embedded into the curriculum for second, fourth, and seventh graders. We've worked with the science coordinators to be able to do that. And so this last winter, 100% of the classes within the school district in those grade levels did visit um for those field trips. um along with Oh, I guess this just shows a few more um pictures of our our field trips and learning that goes on there. For many students, this is a first-time glimpse because they're also

013um on the campus of Western that they're able to have a glimpse into career and education opportunities available to them beyond, you know, their secondary school. hear lots of comments about I'm gonna go to school here. In addition, we do farm field trips um out to Deep Roots Community Farm. Um classes can sign up for that uh take a bus out there and get to experience a whole different more rural kind of of growing experience. During the summer, we help to support many opportunities for students, families, and community members to engage with the thriving garden spaces during the summer. Um there are a few different ways we do that. Um we have um collaborated with the school district um free summer school program. Um sometimes I've actually taught some of those um garden lessons, cooking

014classes, and that kind of thing. But we also um try to engage with the reading and math um classes that are happening at those schools, bringing them out into the garden spaces. We also collaborate with the district in order to um provide farm camps. Um those are through the free um the free school offerings um during the summer and those always fill up within seconds. um on the um sign up online. Um so very popular and so we always are looking at ways to um look at grants and funding to get more kids out there. So beyond that, summer garden programming. Um we for the last few summers we've engaged youth and families during weekly open garden programs um rotating to all the different gardens um each week kind of highlighting each of those and

015providing um different um experiences. Uh this summer we're going to um pivot a little bit and host a garden party at each of the um of the gardens. In fact, one is happening as we speak at Summit um right now. So, we're hoping lots of families are there enjoying that. So, we've got lots of produce produce in the in the summertime. So, um every summer staff, interns, and volunteers harvest produce and if it's not being used for programming, it goes into the district free lunch program. This past summer, we um were able to take about 450 pounds of produce um into the school lunch program. Um the gardens really are not meant to be full big production gardens. Um but um we are able to provide produce for you know our taste testing lessons but

016then also supplemental produce for you know the salad bar and um going home with families and um also to volunteers who are helping in the gardens today. In fact, I was in the gardens helping harvest and we were able to bring some early um well early summer kinds of produce. Uh 10 pounds of radishes, spinach, kale, onions, cilantro, dill, and basil. We brought that all to Spence, kind of the central kitchen for all of the um free pro free lunch program. So, um, we're incredibly proud of the reach that we are able to have within this community and feel the support from teachers, families, students, administrators, donors, and business sponsors. Over the last 13 years, Grow has proven its staying power and its commitment to students within the school district of Lacrosse and all students

017within the community, remaining true to its commitment to upholding a sustainable model and providing quality programming even during uncertain times. Um, COVID being one of them, we were able to um pivot and continue to do our work. So, we look forward to another growing season of working with students within the school district and the Lacrosse community. Our goal is to increase equity by continuing to collaborate with the district on ways to ensure these opportunities are available to all students within Lacrosse community in a way that is sustainable for years to come. Questions? Yes. Thank you. I've noticed that uh obviously the North Side Elementary School is one that's missing. Um is there any plans to be able to do anything because obviously I think that's an important area where they desperately probably need Yeah. Well,

018we have had conversations along the years with administration there and I think it there's just been interest within that building with teachers and that kind of thing who have um and a community member who's up on the north side who's helped really support that. So they do have a garden and now they have a greenhouse within there. So there are teachers who are really um passionate about it and are kind of carrying that right now. But I think the hope is to be able to support in whatever way we can um if that's wanted and needed. Um you know we'd love to see this kind of programming at all the schools. Um but again we also don't want to force ourselves on them. But you know our biggest thing is that we want from the

019beginning we've wanted to make it sustainable and we know school gardens come and go. People who are interested in them and passionate about them within a building come and go and we we see ourselves as kind of that sustainable piece. Um so yeah, we'd love we'd love to work with them if that's something they're interested in. We do have uh some programming planned there later in the summer. uh we're working waiting on a grant uh to come through but it would be a evening family um time to explore the garden and like a cooking lesson where they would walk away with the ingredients. So so we do even though we don't have um an established full programming we do try to do outreach with some of the schools um the schools that are not currently

020contracting with us. Okay. Thank you. Other questions? Yes. Number one, thanks for doing what you do. And number two, it just piqu my curiosity. I never really thought about, but how do the pollinaries work when Well, you should come to one of our field trips. Um, so actually that lot is handpollinated. So we actually have I did we have a picture in there? Totally. Um, there's a stick. Okay. that has a button and a little fake bee and um the kids love this and we go around and we actually pollinate. So that is one way that we do that. We do have fans so there's that um way of blowing so that the wind is um also helpful in that way. So okay, thank you. Um I've got a couple questions unless somebody else does.

021Um so you're a nonprofit on your own. Yes. So where do you get most of your funding from? Do you want to talk about that or Sure. So um in the beginning our model was kind of a third of the funding would come from a parent teacher organization and then grow essentially raises the other twothirds through grants and fundraisers. Um but as inflation has we all know that there's been a lot of inflation um and we've wanted to keep things as manageable as possible for those um parent organizations that are bringing forth funds. So so it's not really a one-third twothirds model anymore. We're bringing a lot more than twothirds but um we do that through grants and fundraisers at this point. um which is another piece of kind of why we're not expanding because

022um we're bringing a lot of the funding. So any garden that we add that's a lot more fundraising that we're currently needing to bring as well. And we do help establish um business sponsors. So there are business sponsors that um step forward and are are sponsoring. So helping to kind of cover some of that twothirds. Um my other question is on the farm camps that fill up really fast. Do you operate the farm camps? So we're in we collaborate with the owner Anna Scampmp. Um and she basically is uh contracts with us as grow but it's run under grow. So okay you know insurance and all of that um is under grow um and we help to raise any additional funds um that are needed for maintenance on the farm um any other extra supplies

023and that kind of thing. So it is in addition to so the district is helping to pay those staff. So she um and um her sister Laya who is a a teacher in this district um they have run that for years and years and years together. But we do have our interns and sometimes our um other educators that help support that as well. So when you said it fills up so fast, how do we or how do you make sure that um economically disadvantaged students have a fair representation of because I would think that they because of technology and such they may not have the resources to be those first ones to sign up. Yeah. And that has been a conversation for years and I think it is um that is a concern of ours

024and um each year we kind of are trying to work with administration to figure out what the best way is. Um there have been some conversations about holding some spots. Um but then it's like well how do you you know do we engage with Boys and Girls Club and they choose who those kids are? it just gets a little tricky in terms of how we kind of then fill those spaces. But that's why we do try to find funding that um for additional farm camps um to be able to you know bring BGC Boys and Girls Club out for a few days and that kind of thing um just to provide those opportunities. But transportation is a is an issue and we know that that's you know that is expensive um just in general. Um

025but then yes, transportation for all um is not always accessible. So we each year we've worked with administration to try to figure figure that out and um are looking forward to finally coming up maybe with a solution to that. So I I just think about those kids that have the least opportunities and where this can really make a difference for them. Yes, absolutely. Having grown up on a farm, I know how important that is. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you for what you do. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Appreciate it. Go ahead. Um, our next showcase is from the Cross Public Education Foundation and we have now Sandre Scott, our executive director here. Hello everybody. Thanks for having me here. I was here last with an

026update um from Lacrosse Public Education Foundation in February and I'm glad to be back with some new members at the table. So, welcome Molly and Jeff if he's online. Thank you to all of you for your time and service to the community. Just as a very brief high overview, LPF was started in 1988. We're an independent nonprofit. Um we have an executive director, myself, and also a part-time administrative assistant. and we're lucky enough to be here in Hogan uh next to district uh staff and administrators. We're glad to be in this building with them. Um as I reflect on the past school year, I just want to celebrate the enormous generosity of our community. You're well aware on the board of the vote of confidence that our community gave to the school district through the

027passage of the most recent operational referendum. And you do also receive evidence that our community is saying, "Yes, we believe what schools do is vital." All year long through the donation reports that you get um uh there's one in tonight's materials. Um it the with June donations still left to report, over $800,000 was donated to the school district by local businesses, individuals, and nonprofits. This is just amazing. And I have to say it doesn't include support like what Gro was talking about which also supports um students in our school districts. Um community community support that flows through LPF represents over half of these funds. But it's also amazing to see that $180,000 came directly from the dis to the district from other foundations and nonprofits. 58,000 from individuals, 55 from businesses, 90,000 from PTO's and

028booster clubs. So each time these people and groups are making a donation, they are communicating that they believe in the importance of public education, that they believe in the excellence of our staff and they believe in the potential of our students. So I just wanted to take a moment to celebrate that. Um it's just the whole scope of community support and put in a plug for looking at that list every month because it's very inspirational to see what's on there. Um the portion of support from LPF um that LPF played a role in directing to the district over this past year was around $400,000. Um our longstanding um program, random acts of kindness, actually random acts of kindness does not show up in that report because those are our bank accounts. So it's not donations

029to the school, it's payments to vendors, but that program has continued to be a source of flexible funding to meet unique and critical student needs with no other source of funding. Staff that work closely with students who are experiencing really complex challenges like homelessness, parental addiction, or a loss of a parent and other deep financial stressors tell us all the time um how helpful it is to know that our uh RAK is a steady source of support. When I talk to principles and counselors, social workers, and administrative support staff um about the way that they use RAK funds, I'm always so impressed with the care and attention that they are giving to their students and their families. to make sure that those students can get to school and be ready to learn and able to

030participate fully. It's all made possible by community generosity. Um, LPF's longest standing program is our competitive grants uh gold star grants program and it's been a great year in that program as well with over $95,000 awarded for 39 projects. You've had some presentations recently from members um of the staff that have received those grants including Nicole Keefe um and mostly recently uh Brian and Adam were here with the lacrosse confluence um which is just the most fun. I know you I watched that meeting on um afterwards online. I know you all enjoyed that performance. So we are just proud to take like one little tiny bit of credit for the initial the initial funding for that group. Um and I also just want to shout out the partnership from Nick Maru. He gives us great

031coverage on these on projects and kind of sees the mutual benefit and puts um not u photos and stories about them on the Facebook page. And I invite you to take just a few minutes some time to scroll through the district's Facebook page. Um there are so many wonderful stories um excellent photos that really showcase again the dedication of staff, curiosity and excellence of our students. So to take five minutes and you'll come away with such an amazing sense of all the things to be celebrated. Yes, a lot of them are LPF related, but many of them are not. It's just really great to see what's happening here. Um this spring a community supporter made a significant donation to support uh the purchase of instruments and bicycles for middle and high school students. So, those

032purchase arts are still happening, but um basically students in all of the middle and high school music programs are going to have improved instruments and the PE classes for middle and high schools will have access to an improved flight of bikes. Flight I guess fleet is the word I was looking for, fleet of bikes that will get shared among those schools. So that's it's really has a big impact on the way students are able to engage with um biking lessons in PE and they can use them even for field trips to get out and about even more. So um we were really really grateful to that supporter. Also some of that donation will help um Kurt's uh mental health supports program that I'm sure he will talk about either today or another time. As principles

033and administrators and content area coordinators share their most pressing needs with LPF. It is just an honor to be able to connect those needs with community giving external grants and corporate donations. Um, over the past several months, I have had the honor of serving with Deb and several community members on the district strategic visioning steering committee. All those words are in there. I'm looking forward to seeing the result of this process come to fruition with a clear and inspiring vision. And I know that the LPF board will be excited to review that product um and think about it alongside our own strategic plan so that we can move forward in tandem with the district's vision for the future. So, I just want to say a special thank you to Meredith for joining the LPF board

034as our new board of education rep and for keeping you all informed about LPF um in between my visits. As always, please don't hesitate to reach out to me with any questions and thank you all for the time and engagement and commitment you give to our community. Any questions? Jim, do you have one? Yep. Yeah. Just curious, how do you make your decisions as far as who gets what? Is there a board of people? I used to s serve on Lacrosse Public Education Foundation board and I don't know even having served there how they make their decisions or you make your decisions on who gets what. Yeah, we have a grants review committee. So, our committee meets for our two grant um competitive rounds and they use an a rubric that aligns directly with the

035application and they use that to score score the projects and then we kind of look at them all together and decide which ones have risen to the top based on the scores and do a little bit of conversation around those in the middle. Um once we we because we kind of start with the budget, we know how much we have to give out each round. Um, so that grants committee makes all of the recommendations and then that's forwarded on to the full board of LPF for final approval. Thank you. I have a question. I should say there's community members in addition to um and and um a representative from the district administration as well on that. So you referenced the the donation list that we have. So, does LPF get those donations or um and

036then you forward them to the district? Are these outside of the grant? I'm trying to figure out how that whole process works. This past year, it's worked out to be about half comes has come through LPF. So, we receive it from a business or individual or other group and then forward it on to the district for the purpose it's intended. And then I I just happen to look at that report regularly because it's very interesting to me. And so I know that about another half of the other half of that is coming directly to the district from PTO's or individuals or other foundations and businesses, churches as well. Is there a way to mark on there what comes through LPF? It's Yeah, it is. Yep. It's clearly marked. The source is marked on that report.

037Um it's marked by the source is marked specifically by like the name of the individual if it's not anonymous or the name of the business. And if it comes through LPF, it is noted as LPF. And sometimes if it has come through us from another donor, it is the other donor's name would be noted. So for instance, if trust point gave us a pass through donation, it would say LPF/Trust point. So this report there's one from Lacrosse Public Education Foundation. It's the $50,969,000 to the solar project at Southern Bluffs. So yeah, so we do kind of put anything that flows through us, anything that we have a role in in participating, we you know, we that's what we consider as our impact, but it does a big portion of that in the past several years

038has been the money that has come through for souls. So that um separate community group has done most of that active fundraising, but we serve as the role of the fiscal sponsor so that they don't have to become an expert in all of the things that go along with be being a nonprofit. LPFs come in chunks and waves at different times of the year. And then there's the things that don't get seen on here, which would be like um teacher appreciation. Yep. Random acts of kindness. And how much does that total each year? Random acts of kindness is between 40 and 55,000. Last year was 55,000. It seems like maybe that was an anomal anomaly, a little high. Probably more between 40 and 45 by the end of the school year. That's more typical. So,

039so I mean, um, I'm just stepping back and thinking about all the ways that this community Well, I don't know. We'll have that fixed. Uh, the way the community supports um, public education through the LPF, through these other donations that come to the schools, the um, PTO's have their own fundraising group. And um I didn't see on here uh the fundraising that was done for example at the plant sale on the North Side Elementary. Um I if that's on this report or subsequent report or if they that's something else that they there's just I'm just stepping back and thinking about the enormity of how this community supports with their hard-earned dollars public education not just the taxes they pay but above and beyond. And um it's really remarkable to think about that. Yeah, I I

040agree. There is probably a often a little lag between when the donation is re when the fundraising happens, when the contribution is made to the district, you know, and then when it shows up in your report. So Sure. Yeah. What Scott, you had mentioned that community residents serve on the committee. Is that right? or is that part of the committee that gives out funds or that's part yeah and our grants review committee. So it's a committee of our board and it's primarily made up of LPF board members but it also includes um a couple of community members who aren't active members of our board but just serve only on that grants committee. So do we have like are is like the south side's got somebody and north side's got somebody or it is not that

041formalized. It's more it's actually mostly people who used to be on our board and who are no longer on our board, but we're interested in continuing to serve in that way. So, they're not officially affiliated with LPF um as an official board member, but they are still serving on that community um committee, but we don't So, we don't have anything in our committee guidelines that talks about representation from specific neighborhoods necessarily, but we do think about we have two members on our board of directors who are staff members, plus Dr. Angel serves on the board and Meredith serves on the board. And so when we invite staff members to um serve on the board, we're always thinking about um like for instance, right now we have two secondary teachers on. So when we need to

042invite a new teacher, we will likely be thinking about an elementary school teacher. So we think about So your representation now are um staff members from We have a staff member from Logan High and one from uh Longfellow right now. Okay. Thank you. And I would take any recommendations if you know staff members would make a good LPF board member. Any other questions? Thank you for all the work you do. Appreciate the report. Truly an honor. Thank you all as well. Thank you. [Applause] We'll now move on to the approval of superintendent's consent agenda. The consent agenda is a mechanism used by the board to deal with routine business that must come before the body. Are there any items that members want to remove from the consent agenda? I have a couple questions, but I

043don't really want to pull it. I just would like an explanation as far as what something on your means in some cases like so I don't know whether that merits pulling it off or not. But is it on a particular report or on several reports? It's an employment if I can it's limited term contract. What does that mean? So limited term contracts usually as we get later into the summer um and even in summer uh depending on um you know when we're hiring we might not extend a full contract to somebody just letting them know in advance hey at the end of the year we're going to reassess this position. It may not be available at the end of the school year. Um, in particular, as we consolidate schools in the near future, we're more

044conscientious about being upfront with employees just to let them know, yep, hey, this is something that's coming. Highly likely you'll have a job next year. However, we just wanted to be clear, upfront, and transparent. And then the other question was it says a one full-time equivalent district behavior supports specialist level one at Hogan Center moving to TA group to a non union hourly group. I don't necessarily understand that language. So they're transferring between groups. So they I must have See if I can find that one. Is that a transfer? Okay. Transfer. Yes. So they are TA at Central and they're moving to a new position that's going to support behaviors at the elementary level in our school district. So it's housed at Hogan, but it will be supporting in classrooms in our elementary schools. And

045they're moving from the TA group to a non-union hourly group. So they're not going to be in the TA group anymore. They're going to be in a non-union hourly group. They don't meet the criteria for TA the TA group anymore. So, they're in a different classification. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. That's interesting. Any other comments or questions? Otherwise, we'd be looking for an agend uh a motion to um approve the agenda. I make a motion to approve the superintendent's consent agenda. We have a motion. Do we have a second? A second. Thank you, Meredith. Have a motion, a second to approve the superintendent's consent agenda. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify. Oh, we have to do a roll call because Jeff's joined us. Thank you. Mr. Alberts, I miss or Mr. Hi. Sorry,

046excuse me, Miss Folks. Hi, Dr. Garcia. Hi, Mr. Jackson. Hi, Mr. Newmeister. Hi, Miss Sla. I motion passes. We now move on to the board consent agenda. This consent agenda is a mechanism used by the board to deal with routine business that must come before the body. Are there any me items that members would like to remove from the board consent agenda? Hearing none, I'd look for a motion and a second to approve the items on the board consent agenda as presented. I'll move to approve the board consent agenda as presented. Have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second to approve the board consent agenda. Any discussion, questions? Roll call, please. Mr. Alberts. Hi. Mr. Beagnoski. Hi. Miss Fuks. Hi. Dr. Garcia. Hi. Mr. Jackson. Hi.

047Mr. Newmeister. Hi. Miss Sla. Hi. Motion C uh passes. We now move on to the information section of the agenda and we start out with the referendum construction plan update. I'll turn that over to you Dr. Engel. uh excited to invite Nathan Dirks from Bray Architects to provide uh a presentation uh particularly focused on the exterior of the buildings that we'll be uh looking at the addition at State Road Elementary site and the new build here at Hogan Administration site. We're getting into kind of the later planning stages and design development. And so we're reached uh we're reaching a critical point to move forward as we as we go forward. And so we're looking for kind of a positive feedback if that's what you have for the exterior so that we can continue to move

048forward uh with our planning process. Um we've been in communication with the city and the planning department and regarding zoning and ordinances and all that other stuff. Uh but wanted to uh give you a pretty comprehensive look at what our exteriors will look like and uh be able to move forward. And so with that, I'll turn it over to you, Nathan. Uh thank you. Uh yeah, like Aaron said, we've had lots of different meetings. A lot of them have been with um the direct staff for these buildings as well as the principles and um community members as well. So all the presentations that we've had looking at the exterior um have been online for comment uh open communication there. So uh there have been pretty significant changes to to both State Road and uh the

049new elementary school exterior. And so up um up here have both of those schools um to look at the physical samples as the the renderings can only do so much. But when you actually see the the samples here and um I'll I'll leave those uh here today so you can see them up close after the the meeting. So if you have any further questions um feel free to you know reach out and we can answer um those questions. So, we'll start with the new elementary school. Um, just kind of a review of the the site plan and the overall location of the building. That has not changed from our last presentation. We are looking for final um approval and comments on the exterior materials for both of these buildings. Um, so we'll kind of show

050the overall pallet of the the building itself and then look at uh previous renderings that we've seen and highlighting where those materials are on the exterior of the building. For the benefit of our audience members, I'd like to point out there is a garden there. Yes, got that in the plans. So looking at our um main pallet, we have our general building. A majority of the building is going to be a standard red brick. Uh feels very um school and traditional, not overpowering. We we originally looked at using the brick from the current building here and it's very orange and it just didn't quite work with um the new building. So going with a more traditional brick and then some different uh accents of a physical stone material and then also um kind of a

051different material that some of you may be familiar with. It's it's a fiber cement panel. Um so the the idea behind this is it's lightweight but it looks there's many different looks to it. So we went with a a look to kind of mimic the physical stone stone sample. And so one of the benefits of these fiber cement panels is the duration of how long they can last. They are also um more sustainable than uh metal panels or other facades just on the way they're made um with a fibrous material and then cement over top. Um they're lightweight, durable. The biggest piece with lightweight is as we get taller up in the building, it just we're allowed to, you know, reduce structural costs by having these panels. Um they are they're durable, but um we

052we see buildings if this comes down to the grade level, um if there's a car or something that hits the building, it'll damage those panels. And so that's where we're kind of using this stone um on the ground level to keep the building durable, fresh looking, but then really making sure this building is economically friendly, um sustainable. So using those panels. So that's like our our main materials for the building. And you'll see that um in the renderings and what you've have seen. And then a couple accent pieces. How does that fiber material hold up like with a serious hail storm or something like that? It holds up um extremely well and all of the products that we have are under warranty. So hail is covered from the the warranty of those panels. How long?

053I believe it's 25 years. So even if a panel does get um damaged and it's past that warranty, it's really simple to replace those panels. Whereas um bricks get damaged or other panels, it's more um stringent kind of process of removing it. whereas these panels can be um replaced if they are damaged. So then some accent materials um different metal panels um the ability to kind of um construct different forms. We're using these kind of as framed elements to highlight those entrances for wayfinding. Um also some updates from the previous renderings we looked at. We've brought down the height of some of those uh parits. um just structurally thinking, talking to our engineer of how we're going to construct that. So, um bringing in a little more of those peaks, pops of fun color, but

054not overpowering as the brick and the fiber cement, being mindful of that this building is going to be in a community. And then um some burnished block um similar to your CMU block that you'll see. Unfortunately, there's none in this room, but it you can kind of picture your typical gym walls, corridor walls. Um little fancier style for the exterior. Again, mimics the stone, but thinking about our um economical piece of where do we want to spend our money? A lot of it is going to be spent on the inside for the kids. Um, but this is a nice accent piece that complements the the stone that's going to be elsewhere in the building. Just pan through some slides here. Um, seeing the exterior. So, the main entrance here, seeing those different um, the metal

055panel, the fiber cement panels, the stone. So very very similar look. Even though they are different materials, they're essentially doing the same thing. One is more durable, the other is more cost friendly and and helps us um keep down structural costs. So a few bubbles just um highlighting those materials on what we're seeing. uh generally the colors those are the metal panels and then it is very hard to tell from the swatches what is the burnish block and what is the stone and that's kind of the purpose of those materials is we want them to be similar but just using different products where it makes sense from a construction standpoint do they age differently so are you going to be able to tell in 10 20 years Um potentially um the you know how you

056clean the materials are going to be different. Um generally they'll age similar and a lot of that is with the warranty. But um even where we have the stone being um trying to be mindful of where that transition is. So even if it does age in 75 years, it's not oh my gosh, it's stepping all over. trying to keep consistent lines um uniform mulling patterns. So there potentially will be some different aging of the materials but overall not concerned with it. That was a good question. Look at the library. By the way, we have one member online. Jeff, if you have any questions, you can just chime in at any time. Go ahead. Thank you. Uh looking at the library, this is considered the blue entrance. So using that metal panel as a a highlight

057of a way of wayfinding um being purposeful with it and not overpowering um the main building. Who picked out the colors? We um kind of suggested them bright primary colors based on how elementary kids picture colors. Um, we've we've talked about more nature colors as well on the inside and then keeping those primary colors on the exterior. I'm uh I wouldn't have probably ever thought of that, but they're beautiful on there. It really it's uh it pops, but it's not overbearing. Yeah. And it's really sharp. So, good job. Thank you. And um within that cement um different variations of that texture. Um hard to see from the elevation and that's kind of the purpose of it is when different panels are next to each other it gives that stone like um quality so you're not

058seeing the same panel every place. Um but playing with those textures is one of the advantages of using these materials. So, look at the downtown view, the main stair within the building, and then the art and music and then the view coming from the bluffs down Market Street. So, very rarely do you see all the colors together. um only at the main entrance and that canopy piece. Other than that, we we trying, you know, to not make this building a circus chaos and again being purposeful with these accent panels. So, moving over to State Road, unless there's other questions. Keep going. Yep. So for State Road, um originally some of the initial renderings they showed, um green panels, the and blue panels, the idea was to to stick with um this nature theme on the

059exterior and talking through it with the the admin team and ourselves um you know, teachers uh had comments as well, but it it felt very overpowering. And so we've actually gone with a more traditional look here at State Road. And part of that is due to the existing building as well. Um, if this was a new building, similar to at the new elementary school, we can play with that colors being very purposeful in where they're at. And and State Road just had some challenges with the existing building. So, um, a match to the existing brick that's on the 2012 edition, which is where the face of the building is going to be. So, that's really lucky that we were, you know, very um, fortunate that we were able to get a match and um that

060is one of the challenges when you when you abut a new building is if you can get a brick match and it is a affordable brick which is also really nice. It's not a custom pallet and they they still have that blend. So then using um metal panel, two different ones, the main um gray matching some of the metal on the existing building. The front canopy has this metal and then the copings along the edge of the roof as well. And then looking at a wood to bring out the kind of the reds in the brick and not overpower it, but complement it. Just giving some visual interest. also a a nod towards the nature aspect of where this school is located. And those are just on the new um new part of the building.

061Are you There is um we were able to get some on the existing building as well. It'll tie in nicely. There's within the twotory portion, some of that brick is recessed. So, we're actually able to put the metal panel on top of it without uh affecting the how the brick is working. Did you do that for just aesthetic purposes? I'm just curious on the cost. I mean, if if I just want to make sure we're very careful on the cost where Yep. you know, we're not putting something that that doesn't need to be there, but if it's Yep. and and with that piece that's going to be part um you know looking at the overall funds of the building there is a potential for that to be an alternate so depending on how the bids

062come back we can choose to do it or not part of the thought process was um the existing building isn't getting a whole lot of updates so a way to kind of tie it all together so it doesn't feel like there's a new addition right next to a existing building but whether or not we put the panels there the nature of that addition is going to fit in nicely. So, it's not going to look like Lincoln, but it's a whole blue addition next to the brick building. Correct. Yes. And that may or may not have been one of the examples that we talked about. So, Jim, did you have a question? Yeah. Going back to the new school that'll be sitting here, I see a drop off for parents and pickup, but and I don't

063see any bus stop. And yet, when I look at the slides, I see a bus on Market Street. Yep. And and the reason for that is one of them will be the bus drop off. We just haven't identified which one it is. Um don't want to cause confusion if it ends up changing and we've been showing it one way or the other. So there there will be a bus drop off. Okay. Thank you. So, looking at the gym entrance here, showing the dark metal panel with the brick. And then one of the materials we don't have up here is just the cast stone sills to match um the existing building. So something similar like this, but it'll be a cast piece that we we add on to the the bench there. And then you're starting

064to see some of it along those windows as well. And then main look from Pamel Creek. And as you can see, this is why we bring the physical samples. uh with the lighting in our rendering program, it is very hard to get uh materials to look exactly how they're going to be. Um so the the benefit of bringing those samples, but tying into that existing building with the brick base and then using that uh metal panel up top, it gives us the ability to also get some more light into those classrooms up there instead of having to follow the same window pattern as the existing building. Is there a cost difference between the metal materials and the brick materials? There used to be. They're very um there's there's more installers now for metal panels. So,

065they are pretty comparable in in cost. They're definitely more of the affordable materials um that we use. And then this is a new um view. So part of the um with the addition of the classrooms in the gymnasium, we needed to upsize the chiller for the building. And so we had an opportunity to move the chiller to the side of the building and actually give State Road a front um approach as you're entering the school. So where that grass is, that's currently where the dumpster enclosure and then the chiller is. And there's we're um adding new windows into that cafeteria. There were some challenges kind of getting them on the the corners with that chiller right there. So um having to upsize the piping and then the chiller itself for the rest of the addition

066in the gymnasium, we had a really good opportunity to to move that and create a nice front entrance for State Road. So, any further questions? Just a comment. I think the color combinations look really good. Oh, thank you. Excited. Wait and see how the buildings will look. Yeah. Yeah. Now, now we're in the anxious part where you have to wait. Let's tear this baby down and get to work. Oh. Um, are there any, because this is an old building, it's got a few, very few kind of ornate pieces to it. Will any of that be incorporated into the new building? There is some potential to do that. It has not been mentioned by, you're the first person to kind of mention that. We've used um floorboards. We'll use the date stone is a pretty common

067one to pull that off of the old building and then have it in a display case somewhere. That's our next steps of as we're going through the interior design is what um is incorporated into that the building itself. So there is some opportunity there and part of it's a matter of what survives deconstruction too. Some of these pieces are you know sometimes it's um not able to like pull it off and save it at the tops of the stairs or Yeah. But the stairwells there's these cool but I I don't know how you'd remove them or reuse them. It is it is a little tricky and it's something that we call out in our documents for the contractors to do. Another thing we'll see um districts will often auction off bricks for people of the

068old building. Um again that you have to clean off all the mortar of it. So there's a little labor that goes into it, but it is a fun piece um to kind of remember a building that's no longer there. We're also working closely with Habitat for Humanity once we've salvaged anything we can use as a school district. Uh we're going to work with Habitat to salvage whatever they can use to help new homes and new families in our community. So there'll be a really great opportunity to repurpose as much of this place as possible. Thank you. Any other questions from any board members? Thank you. Thank you. If there's general positive feelings about all of this, we're going to move forward to our next steps and materially this will be what we end up with.

069You know, there may be some changes when we get to value engineering or some other things, but this is our our plans moving forward. So, I just wanted one last temperature check on folks here. I'm lukewarm. I'm good. Okay. Excellent. All right. Colors. I think it looks good. I do too. I love the colors. And I'll leave these samples here so you can see them uh closer up after the board meeting. Thank you. Thank you, Nathan. Safe travels home. Okay, here. Sorry. Um, so our next item is the annual academic standards and that is a document that the board has to see annually. Is that correct? That is correct. It's a annual requirement for the school district and I'll let uh Carrie talk a little bit about uh this report. Good evening. It is an

070annual document that needs to be brought to the the board. We in uh the school district of Lacrosse follow our Wisconsin state standards. So very straightforward in regards to the standards we use. They can be found on our Wisconsin DPI website. I was there double-checking today. Make sure that link was um was was in place and solid. and making sure that I've also attached the curriculum cycle um as we look all all the way to 2030 three in regards to when we're looking at standards um and the resources that align with those standards within the district. We do have a um six, seven, eight year window in regards to when we're reviewing them. Um financially it's important that we have them spread out. Um quite often if there is a change in um standards that

071we're reviewing it is based on a change that's come from the state. So if there has been an um a review of standards or standards have been changed um at the state level. We will review those standards um within our district and make any um changes as needed and necessary. Any questions? Oh, go ahead, Jim. Hi, Jim. Say way back, maybe four months back, could have been a little longer, but they talked about not just the career ac they talked about the academic standards, but they also talked about the career academic standards. So, how does that mesh with this? So, that would fall underneath the um the standards in general. So, we have like our English language arts standards. There's also standards that go along for career and academic readiness. So, um there would be

072standards for ELA, math, science, PE, health, and so the academic and career standards would be another layer of standards um that would we would review and use within the district. They're the Wisconsin career readiness standards and they're their own. They were just developed in 2024 and those are posted now as well and we use those to help guide our academic career planning, school counseling and some of those other lessons. Yep. I was just curious how is that all going to fit together? Yes, there's a complete timeline on the Wisconsin DPI website as well and a a list of the standards when they've reviewed them at the state level. Um the date is always marked with on within that website as well. Okay. Thank you. It's a lot more than reading, writing, and arithmetic these days.

073Do these standards align with the standard based grading? So, the teachers um choose their essential essential standards from these standards. Yes. So, they're directly aligned um with what teachers are using. So, the state would let's say if there's 20 standards within a subject area, our teachers may choose six to eight essential standards. Sometimes they're smaller standards that grow into larger standards within different subject areas. Um, but they directly align to the state standards is it this is under information so it's not something we approve. Um, it has to be approved at the first meeting in July by state statute and we always want to bring it the month before just so you have a chance to check it out before we approve it. Um, so it'll come back in July. Thank you. Okay, thank you.

074Thank you. Think you want to stay up here because the next one is academic achievement reduction report. Go ahead. Um, so this is another required report by state law. Uh, we receive funds through the AGR program and uh before I step all over Car's presentation, I'll let her present. Thank you. Again, this is a report that's shared twice a year. once in uh January, February, and once in the summer. Um it is we do receive over $2 million um with AGR every year. So there are three strategies that um we can review and choose within the school district. In our school district, we use um our our first choice would be our data-driven instructional coaching for teachers as well as we also for general class sizes are below 18 to1 and the AGR report is

075from kindergarten to third grade. So we're specifically looking at students from kindergarten to third grade. Um this we are in the last year of our our cycle for our goals and our elementary principles have all submitted their um thank you applications application for our next five-year um goal. This year our when we look at the data it's changed a little bit in regards to the tool we used um based on act 20 which also came from the state and um the reading data that we're going to look more specifically at. So again which is achievement gap reduction kindergarten through third grade and we look at both reading and math data when um we share this report twice a year. So if we get into the data, we specifically use local assessment for math at the

076kindergarten level. That has stayed the same over the course of the five years. For reading for kindergarten this spring, we used the Ames Webb Plus letter and sound recognition for reading in kindergarten. That's the data I'm going to start with. So you will see that um spring 2025 we had a 64% profici proficiency rate for our um AGR data looking at our letter and sound recognition for kindergarten. And as you look at this graph you will see the overall proficiency rate is 64%. And then you can see the reference groups down below. And then if you go to the next page we have um it broken down by the last two years. You will see fall 2023, winter 2024, spring 2024, and then fall for this year 2024, winter 2025, and spring 2025. Again, I

077do want to point out for the AGR reading assessment for kindergarten, the assessment tool did change. So, we are not comparing apples um to apples for kindergarten and looking at this data for this goound. So you will notice that for spring 2025 I shared that we had 64% of our students at a proficiency rate that is through Ames web plus which is a nationally normed internationally normed um assessment. The assessment we used prior was a local assessment. So what we chose as proficient um that number that we were looking at was locally created. And so you can see that it looks like we have dropped in proficiency but our local assessment wasn't nationally normed. And so moving forward into the next 5-year application, we will be using Ames Web across kindergarten through third grade. And

078all of those um all of the data there is internationally normed. So we will be moving forward with a normed um assessment. As we move on to the next page, you will see it is the math for kindergarten. We are at 83% proficient in kindergarten math with number recognition. You can see that broken down by reference group. If we're looking at last year compared to this year, we are comparing apples to apples in regards to our data because this is our um local assessment that was created and um supported for the last five years in regards to this AGR goal. Will there be a nationally normed one that we change? I mean, it's so frustrating because you compare scores to a different test and then we say, well, however we did it doesn't matter because

079it's a different test. We don't. It's hard for us as a board member to know if we're how we're doing. It's it understood and it's been years of this. It is. I know. I've I've um heard it from from this board as whether as well as a different board that I had reported to in in the past. What is great about moving forward in our next five-year goal is that we will be using not only um internationally normed Ames Web, but it will be Ames as Web for kindergarten, first, second, and third grade. Um whereas when I start talking about grade one in just a few minutes I will switch to I ready data and we've t we've had conversation about I ready as well. So we'll be using the same assessment tool across kindergarten

080through third grade moving forward. Some of the changes that we've had to make really are in response to our state with act 20. Instead of having um our teachers using multiple tools to assess the same information, we are required to use Ames Web for Act 20. And so instead of our teachers needing to sit down with those students one-on-one again to give a very similar assessment, we made the decision to pull away from that local assessment to move forward with as based on the fact that it was required and our teachers weren't um doubling their time of assessment especially at that kindergarten level because at that kindergarten level they are sitting one-on-one with each one of those students to assess. Yeah, probably they will change the test again in five years. Uh they changed the

081cut scores this last year on forward which was a little irritating because we had finally gotten like three years of postcoid data and wanted to see where that was going. Apparently there's going to be a crosswalk or something that allows us to look at scores across years. They're making good decisions I assume with the information they have. is just frustrating at the local level, you know, trying to see progress over time. Well, it's to see progress and then when there isn't progress, well, it's because the test has changed and it's it's difficult for us to say why we aren't seeing improvements. Well, the test changes all the time. Well, can't you do something about that as a board? So, it's those of you haven't been on the board long enough, you'll get as crabby as

082I am about this. Um, just just wait. We we chose to do the local one for how many years were we doing that one? Um that was before my time, but at least five based on when this AGR goal was written. And I'm assuming they had others back then, but we decided to to do our own. Is you probably don't know this and I'm sorry, but I I'm just thinking out loud. Is that Yeah, there weren't great tests for kindergarten at the time. And so we were trying to come up with something because they didn't tell us what to use. So we had to find a good measure and we talked to our kindergarten staff naturally and we thought about like what's the most important measure of a student's understanding at this age level when

083it comes to reading. Then it's generally letters. And so that was our you should be able to recognize your letters coming out of kindergarten, maybe make a few sounds, you know, and then first grade that's when the magic really starts to happen. They put it all together. Um and then the same thing with math. it was about number recognition getting as far as you can. Uh and so they're really thoughtful good measures I think that we put in place but um even I is a local measure that was something we chose a platform that does have national norming and other things which is great um but the state said you can't use that anymore or if you do you have to use it in addition to this other thing and we don't want to cause

084our teachers to do double work and you know spend all this time testing when they could be teaching instead and so we made the decision to transition position to the required platform instead of asking teachers to to kind of double up their work. And so good people, well-intentioned. We had a great thing in place. Thought it worked pretty well for us, but now we're going to move on to the next thing that we're required to. Well, it's better to do that now. Rip the band-aid off, I guess, and to ask the teachers to do even more because gosh knows we could they do it now. So, and we waited till spring this year to implement Ames web in part because we didn't want to because the the law came through it over summer. We would

085have had to jump through a bunch of hoops this fall to get training done. We said we'll wait till spring. We're not going to cause a bunch of angst at the beginning of the year when our teachers are trying to get classrooms ready and get to know kids. Uh and so we pushed off um the assessment until this spring, which is part of the reason we have two different, you know, benchmarks in here because we were thinking about our teachers and our students first. And you know, this data is important, but it's not as important as the daily instruction that goes on. So let's just hope this one lasts at least five years. Agreed. Kim, I I would think this is true, but I need verification. that is on and each of these for instance

086we're talking about number recognition kindergarten fall of 2024 91% and then in the winter 87% and in spring 83 in all of these cases they've always gone down in a percentage is that because the test gets that much more difficult and students aren't maintaining their level of proficiency so the benchmark will change so let's say in the fall they're required to know 15 of those numbers that benchmark would change by the end of the year that they would need to know up to um a much higher number. Yeah. So, it's a moving target. You'll see two different versions of these tests. For some, it's a moving target. It grows with the kid. And so, the percentage you would want to increase, but it will probably be a high number already. And then there's a a

087version of the tests in here where it starts out the beginning of the year with the endofear expectations. So they'll start out relatively low, maybe 10% proficiency. By the end, they'll hit 40, 50, 60% proficiency. And that's what we will see when we move to grades first through third is that it's the end of the year benchmark that students are working towards. So you'll see the number growing, starting very low and growing into a higher proficiency at the end of the year. I had Well, first I wanted to say I took the ITBS and CTBS tests when I was a kid, the California test of basic skills and the Iowa test of basic skills. So, this changing of tests has been going on forever and states like to develop their own proprietary system that they

088use for their state. As a teacher, I went through maybe four different standard systems and test systems in Texas from the essential elements up to the tax and the star now. So, it's just part of um yeah, part of teaching and learning. Um but I wondered, and you've already said quite a bit about it, so maybe you don't have to say much, but um we've heard a lot from elementary teachers about the pacing guides and the curriculum they're trying to get through. And it's my understanding that a lot of that is a result of act 20 and what's required now for us to do for reading instruction. And I wonder if you could speak to the impact of act 20 on like classroom learning and how that's going through. The expectations for for act 20

089really were slow to roll out last last fall and into um into the fall and that's where Dr. Engel had shared that we put it put the assessments into plates um this second semester of this year. Um, the pacing guide I'm I'm assuming you're referring to is more of our OG, our Orton Gillingham, which is the phonics portion of our ELA instruction, our English language arts instruction. And we have also heard that feedback. Um, here's a perfect example of of what has changed in education over the last 25 years. I was a first grade teacher for many years and what Dr. Engel just said in regards to that's where the magic happens. That's when students start to read. Well, now that rigor that ask of what we used I taught in early, you know, 2000

090in first grade that has that rigor has now been pushed down into kindergarten based on our state standards. So, there's higher expectations for our students as they exit kindergarten, first grade, second grade to be uh more proficient readers. But as we have students entering our schools, they have less and less experience. Um, and so we are we are trying to find the balance of that play-based learning and also making sure that our our rigor is high so that we can meet the standards and show proficiency for our students. So, it's an ongoing conversation that we have with our teachers um with the LEA in regards to expectations for for our students, what that looks like when we're teaching within a classroom, what play-based um learning looks like, and the rigor of the standards. I see

091that at the secondary level, too. Books that we would have read that I would have taught in 10th grade are being pushed down to eighth or seventh grade. Often, when the reading level's fine, the topics, you're like, they're not going to it's not even like they're mature topics. they're just not they don't have enough life experience to understand them yet. They don't have that going on. So, I see that pressure coming down from above. But I think yeah, it's a problem. I guess I'm just raising that I know it's a problem. It is and we are reflecting on that meeting with our teachers. Um I know uh Shelley Charelle and I have met with our primary teachers. We we have conversation during our elementary advisory council that Shelley facilitates around these topics with our teachers

092so that we can have a balance and find a balance of what needs to be taught and still like responding to our needs of our students as they come in and we look at social emotional learning as well as a large part of that. Um so there's a lot to balance and work through with them. I'll just say one last thing about these tests, but it's difficult. I mean, as a board member, I I don't know what is a good test, what's a bad test, but as a board member, it's my job to assess if we're helping our kids do better. And with these changing tests, that makes it really difficult. And that's um I think where my frustration comes in is I'm not I don't know what is a good test or a bad

093test. And if um we're starting to come into the uh kindergarten class is going to be what people call the COVID babies that were born in the midst of COVID and and so what did co do their development and and how are they going to learn differently and how are they going to perform differently? It's hard for us to even assess that when you can't even if you can't compare to what was before. So, and again, that's what our job as a board is to do is how are we doing better for our kids and um not argue what kind of tests we I'm sure it's stress I'm sure it's stressful for our staff too, our teachers more than anyone. So, for sure that's something we are constant constantly reflecting on. I know it's difficult

094to stand up here and share the data when it comes from different tests um because it is not apples to apples and I don't love that either. There are certain requirements the state has now put on us that we are trying to best support our staff um and our students. So they're not um there's not just assessment fatigue and we can spend that time in learning opportunities for our students. So write to your legislators and this is an information report. We as a board have to get this report twice a year. Um this data will also go into when we get a results report and um at that point we can talk more about is this giving us the information we want to measure our results or not and I think which kind of goes

095to the heart of what what I was saying about how are students performing. So thank you as we move on to the next page we are moving on to grade one two and three for I ready reading. Again, this is an assessment that's given three times a year, three times a year as a benchmark assessment. And this is where we are measuring growth towards the end of the year benchmark. So you will see um on the first page you will notice grade 1 55.3% proficient, grade two 61.8 and grade three 60.8 and then it's broken down by um reference group below. And the next page is where um we can compare uh the last year to this year in regards to each one of those grade levels and how they scored fall, winter, and spring

096for the last two years. Again, this is the same assessment that was given last year to this year. I um when you look across you can see some I know Trevor is always looking for the cohort data um as we look from grade one to two um or two to three and looking for growth there. Um so as this page is uh our reading I ready. The next page continues on where you could um track that um cohort data. And you will notice if we looked at grade 1 last year, they were at 60.5 proficiency and as they've grown to first graders, they're at 61.8. Second grade from last year was 57.5. This year is 60.8. So there's growth shown between those cohorts for reading using the I Ready. The last bit of data we'll

097look at this in this report is I ready math from first, second and third grade. Again this is proficiency um at the end of the year. So you will see grade 1 48.4%, 4%, grade 2 51.9, and grade three 43.5. And then the the reference group data below. And as you go into the next two tables, again, it shows um growth. Well, this this year's from fall, winter, and spring. And the very last shows that cohort data again um with math from grade one to two, two to three. I reflect on this data more specifically on the last page because of course I'm always looking for growth in those cohorts. Um, and this data does not show that. So, it just means we'll be digging in deeper and looking at other data that we have

098within the district. [Music] Okay. It would it would be interesting and maybe you track this but follow first grade to second grade to third grade to fourth grade so that they see a whole fiveyear of the same group of students. We do track that. Yep. Uh tomorrow we actually have our district-wide data retreat where we have all of our leadership teams from our schools coming together. Um and this data um along with many many other pieces of data we will be reviewing and writing our continuous improvement goals based on our district data. So that is a piece of the data that we do look at. It tells part of our story. Yep. Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um our last information item is 2526 budget proposal update. Um this is uh

099a new thing that we're presenting. uh this year. I'm thankful to Patty, Miss Spring, for trying to put this together on short notice in the midst of a budget, which is always in the works. Uh but we were trying to get a look at last year to our proposed for this upcoming year to kind of get a sense of where things are changing, where there's difference. Uh and I'm sure Patty will explain this too, but the state budget is not set yet, and that is the largest driver of how things kind of play out. But we're doing our best at this early stage to kind of see where things are at and continue to adjust and move as we go. So I'll turn it over to Miss Spring to explain this uh update. So I

100if you want to go right to the numbers um this is the format in which you see it on a monthly basis and how you see it on um the budget plan document. So, we thought that we should just kind of we've been saying talking about these numbers and and explaining why we have we're going forward with uh a deficit without really knowing the numbers, but we wanted to show you where the differences are. Um, the bottom line is we still have a a a small deficit as we go forward, but you can see there's many budget lines here in both revenue and expenditures that we we don't even have um the information yet to determine how those budgets are going to change. So uh but one of the bigger things is remember always the

101pie and the two greatest sources of revenue from the local taxes compared to the state aid. And so we are anticipating uh less aid so that naturally if the pie stays the same or grows a little bit more um that's going to uh affect our our local taxes. Now this is all based on speculation. We have the budget um uh the equalization aid estimate comes out July 1st and that's totally based on uh all of the districts in the state and their and their budget not their expenditures as of June 30th. Yes. Well, like in the second one, fees, admissions, rentals, and sales. Uh last year the budget was 1,277 271,000 and then this year we estimate 900,000 less. Right. Why? Because we had this year we had the um technology refresh and so we

102sold our uh all of our old computers and uh and gained about a million dollars from that sale. Um, and that we'll put back into technology expenditures probably in the next year. So, yeah, we won't have that big one. Um, we've had some uh revenue from our auction sales. We'll probably have another auction sale in in the fall. So, those are Yeah, those are all estimates as we come by. But that's why that is a big difference. Um the other areas, you know, it's just that that growth in the revenue is not really there because of declining enrollment. And yet, um the state equalization aid, if they add anything to that, this could go y not so bad, you know. So, why are we looking at about a 10%? Is it I think it's about

103a 10% yeah decrease a little better than 10% decrease in that is that why why are we projecting that number because that's a pretty big cut. It is and an equalization aid you know it depends on every other um dis state in the district in every other district in the state plus what the state legislature will allow for that large pot of money. So that large pot of money not only goes to uh public schools but also goes to the private school voucher program. So there is all of this we're waiting for as far as what is the state going to uh allow. So I get the state budget is could make wild shifts, but are there 10% swings from year to year in this equalization aid because of what other school districts have going

104on? Yes. and declining enrollment because this is based on your aid is based on um the average of your two count dates the years before. So um our September count and our So we get dinged on declining enrollment in two areas in the state categorical aid and the equalization aid. Correct. Okay. Yeah. So the my layman's understanding of equalization aid is they're trying to make it quote unquote fair for different types of districts. So you might have a property poor school district like Adams Friendship. You know there's not a lot of wealth, you know, land value in that community. And so the state provides more aid to kind of drive down the mill rate. Otherwise their individual taxpayers would be paying a lot. At the same time, you have very wealthy in land value districts

105like Manacqua. And so the state provides very little aid because with a very small mill rate, they can generate lots of revenue. And so it doesn't hurt the taxpayers so much for them to bear most of the burden. And so what the state's looking at with the equalized aid is what's your ratio of students to your property value. And if you look wealthy, you'll get less. If you look poor, you'll get more aid. Lacrosse has kind of been fluctuating back and forth based on how things go in the rest of the state in my kind of like look at it. We've got river property, we've got Blufflands, you know, so we're somewhere in the middle, but because we've seen declining enrollment and our property values keep going up, we look wealthier and wealthier relative to

106the equalized aid value, even though doesn't feel any different here on a day-to-day basis. And so when we get looked at by the state compared to other school districts, it looks like we're doing better off even though we have fewer kids. And so we get dinged twice. Not only do we get less revenue because of fewer kids, we get less state aid. We get to raise the same amount of money. It just hits our taxpayers more. And so we're hopeful this will equalize out when we get closer to October. But for right now, based on Miss Frank's estimates, this is kind of where we sit. Mhm. The quick question on the local tax increase. Is that because of the referendum? Oh, excuse me, the capital referendum. Uh, no. Okay. No, this doesn't include anything with

107debt. It's just it could be from the operating referendum. The operating referendum is within that revenue limit. So, um I would expect it's from increasing property value. Yeah. If we have more property value, wouldn't that account for some bump in that? Yeah. If we have more property value, that would be less aid, right? And if we have more property value, that is dispersed among more taxpayers, which keeps our levy pretty reasonable. But would it move that number from like 41 to 46? If our property value went up, that number from 41 to 46 that might account for that or part of it or no, we we would look more wealthy and so No, I know for the state aid. I just mean like why is it 6 million or 5 million more and some of

108that could be property value? So you can you can basically look at the local taxes and equalization aid and those are the two fillings of our pie. Yeah. And so if one goes up the other goes down. And so even though we wouldn't raise more money by local taxes, the state would just give us less like so even though property values go up, we wouldn't receive more money. I know the total doesn't change, but this individual that state has gone down and ours have gone up. Yes. The state's gone down because ours have gone up. Ours has gone up in part maybe because of property values going up. Yes, that's exactly. That's what I was confirming. Yes. So this doesn't mean we're looking at a 10% increase on our because we do something else but

109against properties, right? There's so much more to the calculation, but we just kind of wanted, you know, that we're putting out those numbers and we thought that this is a good good scenario for you to look at as far as comparing yeartoyear. Um and again remember so if you go down to the expenditures um you know how we said well we had more like a $2 million deficit really going into the next year but we're not going to we're going to use the um ability of not contributing to the OPED contribution in the next year and that is the difference on the retirement line that we would not u contribute there that retirement ment line includes Wisconsin retirement which is mandatory but it also includes our um local contribution. We don't want to do that

110for too long either but this is kind of our uh tool we're using until all the capital projects are help us get right sized. So um we'll see if if we need to use this as time goes by. Um otherwise, you know, we're expecting, of course, the natural increases uh in utilities, contracted services, but we expect our pupil transportation to go down a little bit because of the two-tiered uh busing. And um yeah, so questions on this. This is just another way for you to look at it just to keep you on top of the budget process. And you've brought this up and so is Dr. Engle many times. This is this is we don't know what the actual numbers will be because we don't know what the state's going to give us. So, this

111is our best um guess, but you'd rather shoot higher than lower um or lower than higher, whatever way you want to look at it. Um because we'd rather be pleasantly surprised than Yeah, we very depressed. We take a conservative approach uh for now. I mean, we're not hearing real good things out of the state process um for education, but hopefully it'll turn out better than we think. The state I think Governor Iver's budget asked for, I think like $1.7 billion added to public education and they came back with like 333 million, you know, so dramatically less in terms of funding for public ed. The $325 per student on the revenue limit will be there. The question is whether or not the state will offset the cost of that to the local taxpayer. So they could

112buy down the cost by contributing more state aid. Right now it doesn't look like they're going to do that. And so the full cost of that 325 would be borne locally in most school districts accounting for the equalization aid formula. And then they did look at an increase to highcost special education aid. Only about 50% of school districts receive that. It's not a lot of money for us. it's uh benefit almost in name only. Uh and then we were really hoping for increases in special education funding. Um so these are federally mandated services that the state only provides some reimbursement for. Historically it's been around 30% I think just under this year. Um they are looking at increasing it to 35% in the next year and 37.5 in the following. And they haven't even indicated

113if it's some sufficient so they might underallocate it. And so the actual percentage might be 33% instead of 35 when it's all when it all plays out. And so we're a bit disappointed at this point. Still a negotiation process between the legislature and the governor. Hopefully they can um move the needle a little bit further on public education at this point. Yeah. And so if you want to just take time to to read through the um text that I offered there and you have any questions, just let me know. But we'll keep you updated as time goes by. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions? Well, yeah, Chad, I just make a comment. I would assume the 148,000 uh reduction in transportation is because of our alignment with school days with the private school. That that's

114helpful also. Yep. So, we created a two-tiered busing system this year. We changed start times for elementary and secondary levels. We pushed our secondary start times, middle and high school to 8:30, 8:25. Fits with what's developmentally appropriate for teenage brains and waking up. And our elementary is a little bit earlier at like 7:40, 7:45. Um, and so we're able to run the buses first for elementary and then for secondary after that and then do that again in the afternoon to drop kids off. And as a result of having two tiers, we were able to cut like five bus routes. uh and so we're more efficient. It lines up with developmentally appropriate brains uh and uh we'll have some other benefits as well with collaboration with staff at various levels. So we're excited by those change

115and shows up in our our costs. One more Patty. What does OPB stand for? um other postemployment benefits. And how come they're going down by a million dollars? Because we're not going to contribute to that fund in the next year to cover our deficit. We've we've contributed a lot in previous years and so the fund is sufficient at this point for us to not make a bigger increase this year. We can't, like Patty said earlier, we can't do that long term, but we can do that for short term until we get right sized with our buildings. Okay. Okay. Thank you. We will then move on to um matters reserved for board action. The first one is budget amendment. So, Miss Sprain, you're still up. Okay. Um, so this is a requirement every year for the

116board to um approve any changes in the budget uh for purpose uh than what they approved in the beginning of the year. However, every year ours uh if it would if it would change the bottom line, we would have brought that to you of course sooner in the year. But ours are all uh attributable to changes in grants. And the changes in grants would either increase or decrease both the revenue and the expenditure in the same amount. So no impact on our on our bottom line. Um the other funds that we are bringing to you are just for actually transparency so that you know uh the differences that are going to come up and so fund 10 the general fund and the special project funds those are related to grants. However, the capital improvements, you're

117going to see that we could not budget for that revenue that we brought uh from the successful capital referendum because we didn't know if it would pass until November. So now you see that we have increase the revenue to the what we had borrowed in March. However, the expenditures um we did not increase very much because we did not have much in expenditures until June 30th. It was mostly architectural fees. Um so in the next year those budgets will be uh aligned to the budget the the borrowing that we will do next March and also the project expenditures until next June 30th. Um the community service fund that has to do with uh just donations to food pantries that we have. Uh our food pantries are all in fund 80. Um Nell had mentioned about

118all the other donations that we get and that is another big area to the food pantries districtwide. It's kept in fund 80. So we update that um affects the revenues and expenditures in the same manner. Um again the importance of this budget amendment approval by the board is because like I said the July 1st U aid is based on the amended budget for the previous year. Going forward it'll be based on the actual expenditures of the previous year and that's when we get our aid allocation in October. I also did uh mention that last year Miss Sukla had brought up how um Milwaukee had not had their financial uh reports in on time and so aid was their lack of getting their aid affected all of the other districts. And I just recently read that

119$42 million is being withheld from Milwaukee because they're still not on track with their financial reporting. So that's why it's so important that we meet all these timelines for financial reporting because it affects all other school districts. Uh we did receive our aid. Um so we're good and um next year we'll we'll continue to submit our reports on time. So no doubt we had we have no doubt they were submitted on time. So Milwaukee can't have you either. Um also um So, I I do need a roll call vote on this. If there's any questions before we do that, I'd be happy to answer them. We need a motion to approve this report. So, look for a motion. I'll move to approve. Second. Okay. We have a motion, a second to approve the 2425 budget

120amendment. Uh, and we will have that roll call vote. Mr. Alberts. I. Mr. Bowski. I. Miss FS. I. Dr. Garcia. Hi. Mr. Jackson. Hi, Mr. Newster. I Miss Suclla I motion passes. We move on to item 702 operational expectation monitoring report OE2 emergency superintendent succession and uh at this point the uh this we approve the performance of this item at the last meeting. Administration does not have any recommended changes at this time. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. Um so we can pass on then to item uh 703 policy approval for the first reading of facilities. As you recall at our last meeting we um discussed uh some changes there. So we would need uh if you want to pull that up to look at what those slight changes are. It's the I don't have

121that up here. Sorry. Um but we our bylaws would require first reading and then a second reading. So, um, unless anybody has any questions or concerns, we'd look for a motion to approve this first reading. Move to approve. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second to approve the language changes um on OE12 facilities for a first reading. Um, any discussion? We'd look for a roll call vote on that as well. Mr. Alberts. Hi, Mr. Bneski. I Miss Phillips. Hi, Dr. Garcia. Hi, Mr. Jackson. Hi Mr. Newmeister. Hi Miss Sla. I uh then we go to OE12 and again we received the Do you have changes to this one? Yes. So we had discussed it in the last meeting and then um based on feedback we had tabled it and came back um with

122um some slight changes. Um there was some naming of buildings Yep. That that was the the policy change. Um and then the other one was we had talked about the climate action plan and where best to put that. Um we you know listening to the discussion we ended up putting under 12.1 um develop and execute a facility plan that establishes priorities. Felt that that was a good fit for that. So that was indicator 8. Um and then um with regards to indicator uh 12.2 to the second indicator there. The board receives an an update on the current system life cycle assessments annually. Essentially left it the same. Seems like that was still pertinent and of interest. Uh but then uh collectively um um Mr. Levina and I discussed, you know, what does that mean? Just

123kind of give some more definition. And we've got some good ideas how to present some good data on this. And specifically, we're talking boilers, air handlers, chillers, pumps, geothermal, solar panels, and roof sections as the primary areas that we'd be tracking on an annual basis. And so, we're looking at getting a a spreadsheet, you know, that would show date of construction, estimated life cycle, current condition, uh, and was a way to provide an annual update on those critical uh, uh, capital elements. Just for clarification, the highlighted part in the policy where we move the naming. Um, so the it says the superintendent will ensure that the board makes the final selection when naming. We changed that in our last motion to the superintendent may not make the final selection in the naming. So, um, I

124just wanted to clarify for the public on that. And I also want to clarify for the board that that's not what we're approving. The rest of the highlighted sections would be what we'd be approving if we have a motion to do so. Any other discussion on this before we get a motion? Well, on indicator one of 12.2, I don't know. It just it says the board receives and it should be board receives a descriptive analysis. Kind of a minor point, but we'll note that and make that edit for the final copy. Thank you. And then on the was it here? No, that's an I don't know where it was in terms of uh climate indicators that we are to be notified. The board is to be notified. I think that was in number one. I

125think we move that to indicator 8 in OE 12.1 board receives update. He added that right there. Um, and my question isn't really I'm I'm grateful that that's in there, but how did the Lacrosse Public Education Foundation know that Southern Bluffs H how do how did that transpire that that happened? I'm glad it did, but they got 50,000 from the Lacrosse Public Education to do something with solars at Southern Bluffs. But how did that come to be? Yeah, we're fortunate that um uh Souls was looking for a fiscal agent and so as they were working with um uh our school district um they connected with LPF and LPF is the fiscal agent for Souls. So they take care of all the paperwork and the transfers and all that stuff. And so it's been a really

126nice partnership. Souls does all the the great work, the fundraising, the donor management, and then Souls is there as a partner along the side to help make that fiscal process work well. And so ultimately, it's LPEF who donates the money to the school district um in partnership with SOS. Yeah, that's one of the real advantages of having a public education foundation is they can help make those things happen for donors that are interested that don't have the capacity themselves to figure it out. They're a nonprofit. they can cover all those sorts of of issues. And so it's been really wonderful having them there to do that. And they've done multiple elementary schools for us, right? So they're the ones determining the sequence of which schools in cooperation with district admin or Yeah. Is that what

127you're asking, Jim? Well, I I didn't know I wouldn't have even known that it came about unless I read the Lacrosse Public Education handout here. I didn't know that that was happening. So, I don't know if I missed something or what. That was my It was brought up prior to this. Was it last year that we talked about this? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You may not have been Yeah. Yeah. We're fortunate. It's a combination of uh souls looking for projects. Hey, we think we've got a donor. You know, what would be the next building to go? And then it's the uh uh Joe and and Jeff and his team thinking about um what's the roof section that it can go on that's ready to receive this? Is it a building that's going to be in our

128inventory for a long time? You know, so now we've, let's see, Hamilton, North Side, Polytenic, we've got a a system over at Summit now, and now Southern Bluffs will be their last project, and then they're going to be moving out of the the the Soul's business of, you know, gathering funds. They might move to education or some other things. But, um, yeah, we'll see what the federal changes in this next CR. But, okay. Thank you. With that, we'd be looking for a motion to approve the recommended changes to the report template. Make a motion to approve the recommended changes. Second. We have a motion um in a second, Tim. Um to uh approve the recommended changes to the uh monitoring template for OE12 facilities. And any other questions? We'll look for a roll call. Mr.

129Alberts. Hi Mr. Bneski. Hi Miss Foots. Hi Dr. Garcia. Hi Mr. Jackson. I Mr. Newmeister. Hi Miss Sukla. I motion passes. Thank you. Um now we move on to operation expectation monitoring report OEE8 communicating with um and support for the board and uh report is attached and we will be at the end of it looking for a motion regarding compliance. Uh thank you. So OE8 communicating with and support for the board uh describes a variety of factors in which we support the school board's endeavors and communicate with the community as well so that we have a variety of viewpoints provided to the board. I'm going to gloss over a number of these things. It's pretty much wrote, you know, recitation of some stuff that we do. Um whether it's supporting the board through artifacts and

130data, utilizing the work plan, uh ensuring that the board is um notified of urgent issues that might come up, uh providing uh information on workshops and other things. Um as well as anytime we have significant changes in funds, there's lots of um opportunities to kind of review OE8.1 through OE8.3. Um OE8.4 is where it gets a little more um uh meaty. Um you know, trying to ensure that we bring a variety of viewpoints uh in our uh process to the board and um it helps inform our decisions and how we think about things. So there's a lot of stuff there. Um whether it's uh workshop items or um how we're uh meeting with district leadership team, instructional resource team, policy review committee. Um one of the great partnerships that we've had this year was the

131leadership SDLC. Uh and this was in partnership with the Lacrosse Public Education Foundation. Uh brought together a select group of thought leaders to positively transform our region through active engagement in our schools and community. Uh this is the second year that we had this group that met monthly on Fridays um and uh had great discussion around a book study uh by Jamie Wulmer's book schools can't do it alone and then had a presentation by um one of our directors or another person in our school district to u give them a deep dive on how things work in our schools. Really great group this year. It's the second year that we did it. um they nominate the the next uh the cohort that that we'll bring in for the following year and had some really rich

132discussion and they were a little more active this year in political advocacy given the the bienium. Uh and so that was a great group to have. District visioning is listed there and uh and all the the groups that we've met with there so far. Um referendum engagements in there. Uh we got out there and uh had a successful referendum because of a lot of engagement. um the design process now for the state road edition in our new building. We've been out there um meeting with folks um and then um our SRO advisory committee uh meets uh to discuss um staffing and our progress on that program and we meet with student senate and other student groups throughout the year as well. Um one program uh or thing that I want to highlight with um uh

133Mr. Te here is our code of rights and responsibilities. We've typically had this as like a separate workshop. We feel like this is a great place to to put it uh into our monitoring reports. Um it's one of the processes I'm really proud of in the school district because it gains a it gathers a lot of different viewpoints to create a code of rights and responsibilities. I think that is super defensible both to parents, students, and staff. And I'll let Mr. Te talk about it. All right. Uh terrific. Thanks for having me um tonight. Um, so, uh, our student code of rights and responsibilities, the way that we frame it, it's a document that's created by our community for our community. Um, outlines expectations that we have for our schools, rights that students, families, and

134staff have, but also responsibilities everyone has to make sure our schools are safe and effective. Um, purpose of the code is really rooted in a number of uh, statutes and policies. There's some federal law related to school districts needing uh some type of a code. Our Wisconsin statute outlines that. Um we have an administrative policy that that outlines that. All of this idea of uh really creating clarity and consistency in how our schools um operate. Um for uh many years now uh we've been in a cycle where uh we go out to our community, we basically ask how do you want your schools to be? Um and it's a terrific opportunity to meet with student groups and parent groups and staff groups and community groups um really on a range of topics. Uh and there

135was a a period of time where um we we didn't do that. Um it was really starting in uh 2019 we we started annually going out to talk with our community. Our process for that is connected with one of our committees. We have a district discipline committee um that reviews discipline data um looks at trends, helps design the the type of feedback that that we get from our community. Uh we gather that community feedback. Um and a lot of it is just like what we consider kind of street data. It's what's on people's minds. It's how they perceive things. It's the issues that are important to them. Um we take that information and we analyze it and we create themes out of it. It helps um uh create good discussion for a district discipline committee

136um in terms of making adjustments to policy uh or guidance um in how we uh handle discipline or or uh you know what adjustments we make to the code. Uh and all that uh comes uh to uh any sort of final adjustments. and we've been bringing those adjustments um to the board uh historically in a in a workshop um tonight um as part of OEA. Uh this is just a little bit of history. If you've been on the board, you've seen this slide uh before, but this just shows the the history um uh of our code and and some of the topics that we've that we've tackled. Um when we design the code uh feedback um we we always take feedback on any aspect of the code. It's always one of the questions uh that

137that we ask our community anything that you'd like to see changed or different with the code um and and give um our community a chance to answer that. But we um typically uh design a focus topic to be able to bring and it could be a pressing issue. could be related to some of the trends that we were seeing when we were seeing some uh elevated uh um incidents of possession use of prohibited substances. We talked with our community community about AODDA sports um and uh how they want us to handle those sorts of things. This past year um we brought a couple different topics to uh our community. Um, one was around uh device policy, personal device policy, and I'll I'll jump into that a little bit deeper, but there is just a lot

138of discussion happening with our community about um young people and cell phones and screen time and social media and, you know, what does all that mean? So, we'll we'll get into that. You can take a look at that. Um, last year, as part of our SRO advisory committee, we did uh return an SRO, added an SRO back to uh the program. And so, um, we wanted to create an opportunity just to hear from our community. We hadn't surveyed them for a while. We made a, you know, relatively big adjustment to that program. So, we ended up getting some open feedback on that. Um, this presentation uh is obviously uh linked in that uh OE8.4 um indicator 2. It has links within it. So, I won't be going in to kind of show you some of

139the videos and some of the the actual feedback, but you'll be able to get in there and then if you have any questions, um certainly we can we can answer those. So, um around the device policy, uh so why do we talk about uh devices? Um increasing concern around screen time, phone distractions. Um we're seeing really an increase just in possession of those sorts of devices. And it's not just phones, it's smartwatches and uh even young kids taking calls in class and and uh the kind of the difficulties related to that. Um we've seen um as schools have tried to tackle this and varying device policies. So school to school, we seeing some inconsistency with that. There's a pending uh bill in Madison uh um for school boards to take action and prohibit uh personal

140technology um use during instructional times. So, we knew that that was out there. Uh and then there's been uh some um kind of the book that's been out there that that has been uh in parent circles and staff circles uh called the anxious generation. Uh the idea behind this book um is really that many of us up here had the benefits of a play-based childhood. We didn't have a cell phone. Uh never had to worry about that. We left the house in the morning and went and played and got into trouble and got out of trouble. uh since about uh kids have had really a technology base and and something that you know we we have an experience and and what the author of anxious generation really outlines and I have uh a link in

141here um on his quote u but but he's really found outcomes for kids have deteriorated uh quite a bit since 2010 in terms of um mental well-being, the number of friends they have, the number of minutes that they spend with friends in in a a day, amount of sleep that they get. Um, not just here, the this data is uh abroad as well. Um, the benefit of having a play-based childhood for all of us hasn't impacted us quite as much um as others. So, that was kind of the background of why we we uh chose that topic. Uh you can see uh we meet with a lot of different groups. This is something we do annually. Um sometimes we'll end up going, you know, we're just kind of listening in here. Sometimes with such a

142robust conversation, we have to go back a couple times to to hear everybody's um input. Um some of the themes that uh emerged this year uh kind of summarize some of this uh information, elementary schools, general consensus was young kids really don't need technology. That is not a good idea uh to to have kids with with phones and spending a lot of time uh on those phones. Um, how young is young? We have elementary age students who are bringing bringing devices in. Yeah, I I talked to this is just anecdotal. I spoke with one student um and and uh I was uh talking to him about um uh cell phones and and uh he goes, "Yeah, since I got the the cell phone, you know, I've just on a lot of apps and and um

143uh he told me uh his his brother was there and I was talking to him about what he likes to do and and uh outside and and playing and uh his older brother goes, "Yeah, I I like to do that, too." when I was a kid and it was only I mean the student was like third or fourth grade and just you can just see that kind of kind of shift happening. So we're seeing it younger younger and younger um you know in terms of kids u being on screen time. um research. If you ever if you dig into any of those links that I they put in there, basically the research is the more time you spend on phones, the worse off you are um with with some of the biggest uh impacts affecting

144especially girls as a result of that. So um that link will take you to the the feedback. Um but generally speaking, the the community response around elementary students um is that they really shouldn't have phones, that they should be out playing Um there's a lot of energy in town right now around um being able to bring families together who are really trying to hold off on smart devices and and make sure kids have um you know opportunities to to play and grow and develop. So uh that was elementary schools, middle schools, uh this was a little bit mixed. Um we had uh we have one of our middle schools um the last couple years has been securing cell phones during the day. Um kids will come into home room in the morning, turn their cell

145phone in, it's in there for the day, they get it at the end of the day and then they leave. Um I'd say two years ago when we went and talked to middle school students there, that's all they want to talk about. They weren't big fans of that. This past year when we talked to them, they they're actually pretty good with it. they they uh uh cited being able to focus in school. Their their feelings about that has changed. Um middle school is really where things become a bit more dynamic in terms of families trying to schedule things and schedules changing and and uh young people having to have more responsibility for uh going to practice or getting home or those sorts of things. So, you know, those were some of the themes that came

146out at uh middle school. We got a question here. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you talk about the cell phone. How about the phone? The wristwatch, right? Yeah. It's any any smart devices. I mean, are they being taken by or turned in in terms of just like a cell phone? I mean, I might be distracted because I'm getting a message on my phone. Do I then take that wristwatch also? Yeah. The uh the students are turning in so they're not to be using any uh personal technology. So, they're uh turning in um their their phone. Um I don't know if any of them are turning in their their smartwatch. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not sure on that. What we've shared is, you know, there are probably students who bring their smartphone to school and don't turn it

147in. We're not searching, you know, students for that. Um but but what the schools are reporting is they're just not seeing them out. And uh um one part is we we we want instructional time protected. Hard to learn if you're staring at your phone or responding to text messages. The the kind of the um bigger issue is we need kids to be able to relate to each other, talk at lunch, and go play on the playground and throw football around. And you know, if if you know, even your downtime is filled with uh staring in the phone and catching up on social media, you're missing so many opportunities to to grow up um with friends. So, it's hard to see because kids don't even they don't even seem to look at each other in the

148eye anymore. I mean, it everything's on the cell phone. They have a hard time, you know, if you're having a conversation with a child, you know, younger It it just it they have a difficult time even looking at you it seems like because they're always just either texting each other or however they correspond. But Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. We always share, you know, a lot of those smart devices weren't developed to improve the lives of people. You know, they're intended to sell advertising and and make money. And we have a lot of folks concerned just about attention spans because so much of that that input coming off the device is such shortterm bits. Um I always share, you know, growing up I didn't have cell phones or anything. If you had a movie at school,

149that's a big deal. Um and now we've got kids who can consume movies, you know, almost all all hours of the day if they wanted to. And a lot of it so it's, you know, short reels which does does pattern your brain. So, um, high school, this is where we see a bit of of a shift. We had a few comments of, you know, folks who were supportive of, um, having restrictions on phones at, uh, the high school, but generally speaking, there was kind of this, uh, feeling like we've got, you know, young people who are becoming adults. they need to be able to manage this and and learn this and and high schoolers are coming and going and there's lots of logistics to kind of work through. So, um those were uh some of

150the themes that emerged there. Um adjustments to the code next year pretty limited. It's going to be just in uh personal owned um technology. Um where we are uh headed with cell phones is we'd like to create alignment at levels. Um so elementary kids really shouldn't bring devices to school. Um if they do, students aren't going to have access to them. Um that kids need to come and learn and play and you know be with their be with their friends at elementary school. Um at the middle school we are going to be uh working to align both of our middle schools uh with this the uh same home room process. Um students will come in um they can have their phone at school, but they're going to secure it during the day. They'll get at

151the end of the day so we can accommodate all the logistical needs that happen. But but middle school is really a time to be connected with people and um uh kind of the greater good of of u you know disrupting that phone uh constant phone issue. Um high schools uh will be off and away uh during the day. Um, and we're really going to try to limit um uh the amount of uh limit the amount of uh the day where kids will actually have those phones out. Um there is a community group uh that's working on something called a be here project and the idea behind it is to market more of a phone phone free lifestyle um or or just be intentional with your with your phone. And so, um, there's some interest even

152at, uh, our lunchrooms at high schools to be able to do some communication with kids. Um, to be able to, um, encourage kids to put their phones down, to eat lunch together, to talk with each other, to enjoy friends. And if you have to use your phone, step away and use your phone, but come back and and be with people. So, um, some exciting things uh around around that uh, code feedback on school resource officers. So this came from um all of the groups and you can see uh some of the themes um that emerged for students and families here. Uh generally speaking students uh feel safer with SRO's uh present. um some of the student groups that we had met with were were really uh sharing especially in the secondary level of um further

153increasing SRO's and and some of that was based on this was kind of interesting because it was you know right after we were talking about cell phones uh they said you know one of the questions I followed up with was um you know when did you start not feeling safe at school and and what kids shared was elementary schools they felt safe because they knew everyone. The kids were from their neighborhoods and they went to middle schools where they didn't know everyone. Um, and they got cell phones and they started seeing things in social media about school violence. And so, uh, the students recognize that like, you know, they to a certain degree feel feel more at risk, uh, being being in middle school, being with unfamiliar, uh, people and and seeing some of that

154sort of stuff. Um there's interest in um having SRO's uh um get more involved in schools. We've through our SROU have tried to really be clear about uh what um SRO should be involved in and and not be involved in and we do work within our SRO advisory group to make sure that that that happens. But um some of the feedback was um to to be able to have them be more involved in the community, do more of the relationship building. Um for families, something that was interesting, uh we had uh parents that val valued that the district um using local data, not just trends from other communities to help guide the SRO um conversation and the SRO program. um felt like that builds trust, aligns with community specific um needs. Um but but generally

155speaking um you know quite a bit of positive feedback on the SRO program uh with people feeling like we have enough or or some that would like um even more uh implementation of the code. So all this uh work goes you know code only matters if people know about it and so uh we've have a presentation that we use with students to be able to share information about the code and then starting last year um we send the full code it's like 27 pages out to families and students. Um last year we created a two-page summary. Um so we update that summary. Uh we've we've found um I was finding you know students who'd be coming in my office for disciplinary meetings often hadn't read the code and so um the two-page summary isn't everything

156but it it's pretty good and it covers um covers the expectations pretty well. So uh we translate the two-page summary also for families. So we offer that and parents get them as well. Yep. Parents will read through it's part of the annual their annual information update. We ask They read them. Yes. Yep. They have to. Yeah. Yes. They scroll through them. Yep. Yeah. We ask them to share them with their and talk with their students about it. But now we make sure we talk with their students about it so they have it. What languages do you provide it in? Uh Spanish and month. Thank you. Jim, is you you skipped over it or maybe it's coming, but vaping situation getting better, getting worse? machines in the bathrooms. Sure. Um yeah, so we looked at some

157data at the end of the year as part of the uh discipline committee. Um we saw an increase in vape detection and uh discipline referrals for possession use of prohibited substances in September. It's since dropped off. Um we've uh seen a reduction even even in terms of students I might be meeting with. I've seen a reduction in the number of uh you know students having to to come in for that. So um people have different theories about that. Um you know what might be happening. Uh some of the folks who are working closely with youth feel like things are starting to turn around vaping. It's not being seen as real popular anymore and and maybe some of the health concerns are starting to catch up with with kids. Um other people think, oh, you know,

158wonder if they're doing it somewhere else. Um so, but we've seen a at least a reduction in in a reduction of those sorts of incidents. Any other questions? Keep on with the rest. Thank you, Chris. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Um just a couple other things to highlight. We meet with our leadership groups regularly through our joint leadership process. So, um, that's a great way to gain feedback with representative groups, um, in our schools. And then we developed a community-based climate action plan this year, which has been, uh, phenomenal and wellreceived. Um, moving through the rest of the report, um, you know, major changes of assumptions. There technically weren't any, but we have been talking about, um, potential, uh, uh, more union rights in the future based on future uh, state supreme court action. Um,

159no complaints about media. Um, no complaints or concerns about governance culture or uh board superintendent relationships. Um, board agendas have been organized. Um, and uh items um presented um have some additional information there as well. Technically, we only have one employee, the superintendent, but really the the thanks for that goes to Laura. So this is a lot of Laura's report really. Uh could not do the job without her. Um me materials have been distributed to all board members at the same time. Use board docs. Um and then um we I just want to highlight um you know our monitoring process. We have 207 indicators in the operational expectations and 27 on the results. So that's all the data that we're tracking in our school district. There aren't a lot of school districts that can say

160that they're tracking that many different things and providing feedback to their school boards. And so it's something uh that I think shows a lot of transparency to our community and we can say, "Hey, on all these measures um we're making uh adequate progress or meeting expectations by the the school board. On 93% of indicators for results, we made reasonable progress and on 99% of indicators we were in compliance uh and operational expectations. So, uh, that's exciting to see. Uh, and then there's a number of things that the school board must take action on. We listed those in 8.11. And then, uh, no complaints, uh, this last year from the school board to the superintendent. And, uh, any changes, uh, no significant instructional changes made this last year. So, that's about it. Happy to take any

161questions from anybody on it. Um, so I'll start out on indicator Oh, Lord, there's so many of them here. Um, we're on OE8.4, indicator two, page eight. Um, so the superintendent considers a variety of viewpoints in communication to the board and then you list the number of many, many, many, many, many groups that you communicate with. I believe you've you're in compliance with this, but um but there's always a butt with me. Um I I many of these are committees that are formed by you and picked by you. So to say that those are always include a variety of viewpoints. Um you know, I think you're like just the the work you've done with uh all the meetings with the referendum engagement would totally meet compliance in my opinion. I think listing these groups that

162that are committees that are set up by you, I think there's just a bi there's a there's a capacity for bias there. And so including that in here, I probably wouldn't do that in the future. That's just my own two cents worth. Jim, did you have comments on this? No, I was I was waiting for Scott to comment because on the front page of this document, it says central students and it doesn't say Logan Student Center. I was going to, but I remember that they chose a different route. So, yeah. Okay. I did see it though. Any other comments? And I hope you took my comments. Oh, yeah. No, I see that for sure. Yeah. Um, so we would be looking for a motion um regarding the compliance um of this. I can read the

163motion if would you like me to read a motion? Somebody say yeah I make that motion. I'll make that motion. Okay. In regard to monitoring report policy OE8 communicating with and support for the board with and with respect for provisions of policy BSR5 superintendent accountability. The board of education concludes that the superintendent and the district are in compliance. Is that your motion Jim? Yes. Do you have a second? Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Good job, Jim. Any other questions? Roll call, please. Mr. Alberts, hi. Mr. Bneski. Hi. Miss Foots. Hi. Dr. Garcia. Hi. Mr. Jackson. Hi. Mr. Newmeister. I Miss Sla. Hi. Okay. We then move on to the announcement section and we'll look first to Mr. Begneski for the CISA 4 board of control meeting. Well, a lot of it

164if you ever are on the CISA board is involved at this time of the year elections. So, elections as far as who represents what area and there might be five schools and they have to pick a person that represents those five schools on the CISA board. Uh Lacrosse is one of the the largest district in the area and therefore I automatically get on it. Uh and then that was a small part of it. But another thing that was really interesting is there were two presenters from CISA 4 that were really over excited about this program called Liftoff. It's uh AI powered human human centered educational transferred. Um, two schools in the CISAR area piloted this school. This uh document this process of educating students. They were Elma and Whiteall. Maybe Eliva Strum was in there

165also. But they they piloted it and then they wrote comments. The teachers wrote comments on how it went this year as a pilot. And the students also looked at it as far as what did we learn? How did we learn? Um, one of the big points they make is as an educator, if you stand in front of 25 students, who do you teach to? You have some on the top and some on the bottom. So, the idea was always you teach to the middle and the top is obviously going to pick it up and maybe you work with those on the lower end with this is I don't know how it works. I I'm intrigued by the possibility it personalized education for all of them. There was a guy by the name of it's called

166the clone academy and years ago he came up it's probably 15 years ago now that he started his academy but he said if as a math teacher you go to the board and you show the students how to graph a parabola and most of the students get it but maybe there's two people that said what did he say? Well, if you go to the video clone academy, he says the student can replay it and replay it until that student picks up what he may have missed in your in that presentation. Well, this a powered human centered educational transfer is supposed to personalize education for each student. Now, I'm impressed with AI. I've dealt with it and the superintendent in Whiteall I know quite well. He's been there forever. Um and I don't really know the

167superintendent in Elma, but both those the staff members and students spoke very highly of this particular program and I'm suggesting that the lacrosse school district at least take a look at this. I don't know where it's going to end up, but listening to the two people from CISA 4, they were super excited about a change in education using the technology that we have today. And when you can say that students, it's personalized to that student. They used to say that 20 years ago when I was you have to personalize this. Well, how could you? You have 25 students in front of you. How can you personalize this 25 different ways? Well, I can see that AI can do it. How it does it, I don't know, but I think it's worth us looking at. Thanks,

168J. So, and this is they had there were like 40 people there representing the different school districts in Caesar. And if you were fast enough, you got to the front of it and grabbed a booklet. I have a booklet and maybe we can copy it and give it out to board members or whoever. or else you can go to CISA 4's website and look up liftoffs. I would also assume that they would send us some if we asked. Uh they were out of them at that time. So whether I don't know who prints them, if they print them or who um they said that CISA 4 is on top of all the other CISAs in the state and they're getting all kinds of requests from the other CISAs to say demonstrate what you're doing at

169the West Salem CIA for business plan. Uh, and some of this came out of San Diego. And so, um, I don't know, some of the the two people that were presenting actually went to some conference in San Diego and pulled some of this together. It works on any number of different platforms. So, it's not particular to this platform or this. Um, but all I can say right now is it really looks like a very innovative program using AI. And I think AI sometimes gets a bad rep, but I think there's a lot of potential there. I saw a presentation about it at by given by CIS4 rep, our CIS4 rep. She's very enthusiastic, but I have questions. Yeah. Well, as I was saying here, and I mean, we just saw a presentation about how students

170are not connecting with each other, and a lot of these arguments for personalized learning seem to be ways to silo students off into well, separate here many times it's it's not so much you know learning by listening maybe when I was a younger teacher I was the person that delivered the message uh this now actually the students work in twos or threes so that human and it's not only I find it amazing it's not only good for teaching the subjects it also talks about personalized not personalized learning but the core skills uh and so they've incorporated how I I don't know but um it's relevant in terms of showing you where would I use this math or where would I use this science and then it also talks about the soft skills um collaborative teammate

171problem solver and critical thinker strong communicator um I don't know if the district would want to copy and give people this document or where we want to go with this but it was one of the better CISA form meetings that I've been to. We'll find a copy of it, send it to you all via email and um we're in close connection with CISA 4 and we've got an amazing uh instructional technology person ourselves and and Bethany Nent and she's uh closely connected to those folks and we are in the process of exploring if it would make sense for us to pilot something or check it out. Yep. Dr. Garcia, Lacrosse Public Education Foundation update. Nothing. We had Nel's presentation tonight. So, we got a look at how important LPEF is to our teachers and our

172school district um in helping them implement programs that are really effective in supporting students. Um but the only announcements are the social this week on Thursday at the Freight House and the Bow Tie Classic tickets will be on sale from now until the bow tie classic in September. So, you can go to the website and look for them there. Um, for my announcements, uh, I do want to tell you the next, uh, meeting, uh, July 7th. Um, will be a very short business meeting. Molly, you're on deck to do debriefing, so it'll be really easy for you because it'll be a short business meeting. Um, but we're going to follow most of the evening will be, um, and we'll probably be here till the 9:00 time. Um, we want to look at a first, uh,

173uh, draft of what the visioning committee is coming up with, and then we want to spend some time talking about policy. And I would like to give you all homework. Um, uh, I would ask that you bring to that meeting areas of where you have felt that policy has, uh, made doing our job as board members more difficult. And if you haven't, that's fine. Maybe bring examples of where you felt it made our jobs easier. But, uh, instead of going through policy by policy, like, do we like this? Like, should we change the word among to between? like that that I don't we we've done that and I don't think we've gotten anywhere but there's been a lot of discussion about coherent governance and um I really would like to facilitate a conversation about where

174has it hindered us and where has it gotten bogged down. It doesn't mean coherent governance in itself is is bad. It's where where is where is it bogged down and then we can have a discussion about what do we do about it. I think those are um going to be some good conversations. I suspect it won't be our last conversation. And I think we'll get some good discussion started and we'll see where it goes. I'm I could argue for it as well as against it. So I'm pretty neutral on it and um so I think it'll be a good discussion and um and and plus we're going to hear from the visioning committee and they've been doing some really good work and Nell kind of um mentioned that and I'm excited to share that with

175all of you too. That's all I have for my announcements. Oh, Jim. Yes. Um, just one more thing. A couple meetings back it was brought up that I can't remember the exact words, but we're to recommend or you were looking for recommendations on some business that we might recognize as supportive of the school district. Yes. Yes. Um, I mean, if you're looking for a recommendation, I don't know. The one that comes to my mind is Dford with their top-notch teacher award. and I saw some different grants and submissions that they made. So maybe somebody has different recommendations, but that would be one I'd look at. Excellent. That's a great one. Laura will take note and we'll add that to our list. Okay, go ahead. Uh school's out for summer. If I could sing, I'd give

176a better rendition of that. However, school's back in for summer because we have summer school going on. Great programs already. Uh it's awesome to see kids out and about doing great things and being engaged both in the core academics, but in the summer we try and weave it in through all the fun engaging activities. And so uh already busy this summer getting kids out and about providing meals. Uh never really slows down. So uh it's been a great start to summer school. That's it. Thank you. Um agenda planning. We have in front of you the agenda for the brief agenda for the meeting on the 7th. Um and then that is list there then the workshop to talk about policy and the district vision uh presentation. Um anybody have any other recommendations on that. Otherwise

177we'll need a a motion to approve this um agenda planning. Make a motion to approve agenda planning. Second. Have a motion and a second. Did you get the names, Laura? Mhm. Thank you. Any further discussion? All those in fa Oh, roll call. Yep. Mr. Alberts, gives me that look. Mr. Begneski, I. Miss Phillips, I. Dr. Garcia, I. Mr. Jackson, I. Thank you, Mr. Newmeister. I, Miss Slo I. Motion passes. Thank you. Uh, board debriefing. And it is Mr. Albert's turn. Um, okay. Um, showcases. Love showcases. um they get us they uh give us information that we probably generally wouldn't get um from these organizations if they didn't um stand in front of us and let it let them know or let us know a little bit more about them. Um I'm we have great discussion

178as always thorough discussion um and it gets us you know clarification especially for some new board members on on things. Um love Jim's passion passionate person Jim love you. Um, what didn't go well? Probably I there's not much. I mean, it was a good meeting. Um, not much to to say about that. Um, what can we work on? Um, it's this is just a suggestion, but in the financial part of it when we see there are some notes in there about, you know, you know, the $2 million discrepancy from, you know, the previous years is maybe just a little bit more clarification on why. Um, it does say, you know, like busing, but like more examples of it maybe. Um, that's really all I have uh for things to work on. And that's a new

179report, so we'll correct continue to refine that. Sorry for creating more works. Any other comments to add to the debriefing? Good job on that debriefing, Tim. Yeah, nice work. Thanks, Scott. All right, then. Hearing no objection, the meeting is adjourned. I appreciate the look that you give me. [Music]