001And um our district administrator didn't want to be here tonight. He's just at home sleeping. I'm just kidding. He's in his office. He's not feeling well. He's on the computer. >> I don't want >> There he is. >> We can see him. >> Yeah, we can see him. You guys can't very well, but um so yes, he's joining us virtually. He's not feeling that great. Um, so we are going to start tonight with a presentation by our CVT team that worked very hard, put in lots of time and effort and very very appreciative. So we're going to start with your presentation first tonight. >> Can I introduce them, Heather? >> What? >> Can you hear me? Can I introduce them? >> Yes, you can introduce them. >> So yeah, so tonight we're going to hear
002from our community viability team or CVT who has spent several months engaged in a thorough review of the district's facility and green space. The CV He was established by the board and charged with engaging the community, assessing current and future needs, developing recommended recommendations aligning with the board's guiding principles which are next to all of you. Um, and so they have been spending they spent a lot of time they've been spending six months. So we really appreciate all the hard work they've been doing and uh the commitment they've put forward and again thank you for that. And with that, I'm going to turn it over the community viability team members, Heather Hatley, John Hank, Joel Crane, and Ben Keane to share the work of the team and the recommendations. >> Don't be shy. I know
003at least three of you are >> Mr. Hey, I'm not sure about >> Oh, yeah, for sure. Sorry, >> don't turn my head. >> Tell me when. Is that Is that good? >> Good. >> Okay. >> So, next slide. >> So, this is just kind of an overview of what what we're going to present here tonight. uh basically how we got here, our expectations, our timeline, and kind of go through what our thoughts were and our processes and then the uh the net site and plans and and then with then which will get turned back over to the school board for the next steps and then and then at the end the end of the presentation we'll we'll entertain any questions. So with that, I will turn it over um to Ben. Okay. How we
004got here? >> Okay. Next step, please. >> Okay. So, facility planning decision from the decision of the board in June of 2025, you know, to align the district's strategic plan refresh, green space, identified, additionals areas discussed were the performing arts center, CTE, wrestling, and pool. Uh facility needs tied to the future referendum. So of course next step expert inputs which again us point of POB P CG Schmidt. So again formation of the team to come together to support the planning efforts. >> You can go to the next one. >> So the school board put together a list of people and of that list came the community viability team. Um so all of us were members on that team and spent many a long evening here enjoying the process of uh dreaming, scheming and trying to
005to do right by the district. Go ahead. Um you guys gave us a pretty uh tough charge. Um, but you wanted to take that strategic plan that you guys had uh approved and see what we might need to do in order to update the facilities and outdoor spaces and for us to bring forward a plan that we believed. And so we galvanized uh in January about, you know, over a plan and decided that we had formulated something we felt like we could all stand behind. And so we're here to to uh present that plan to you guys so you can start planning for investment referendum decisions as part of that master facility plan. You gave us some guiding principles uh to work from and we uh vets dutifully read them every meeting to remind us
006where we were starting from, where we had come from and where we needed to be going. And so uh thank you for the guiding principles. um key considerations to think about came out of that strategic plan. Facility priorities, which ones we were looking for, um making sure that we were considerate of capital purchases and requests that would require that referendum money. Um trying to support the ever evolving educational and workforce trends. Things had obviously changed over time. And making sure that we were treating um sports and non-sports activities with some quality community as well as our students lives also um needs to be equally considered. So next slide. This is the refreshed strategic plan. Don't say that fast. Um that we considered as we move forward and talked about our spaces. Next one. All right.
007Um so we engaged our team of experts. Um and hopefully you guys had a chance to listen to the videos that were done early on in the process. um the passion of the people who are working in this space and the concerns that they brought up. Um we met six times over the course of several months of September to last week and made sure that we were trying to walk through all the steps and think about all the things that we could possibly think of and uh more importantly rank prioritize talk about rerank rep prioritize talk about. Thank you Mo for tallying so many rank prioritizations. Um, and what we were trying to do was really to get down to that point where we were ready to offer something to you that we could stand
008behind and and feel good about. So, next slide. Okay. >> Yeah. So, you can go to the next slide. So, some of our accomplishments. Um, so we first started looking at this. We looked at everything and we kind of swung for the fences. We said, "Hey, what do we really want? What do we think the community could get?" So we we started with this big grand scheme and we looked at career and technical education readiness. So we looked at uh the woods department, the egg room, the uh welding, we looked at the PAC, we looked at our indoor athletic facilities, the pool particular area, how that's getting kind of worn out. We looked at the wrestling room. We even looked at exploring a new gym. We looked at the PAC, upgrading the lighting that's 26
009years old, upgrading the sound that's 26 years old when it was built. and we kind of said, "Hey, if we put a wish list, this is everything we wanted." We then looked at the outdoor facilities, trying to bring baseball back to Loi was one of the charges. We looked at what could we do to upgrade the field across the street here. What could we do with the green space we have by the primary school? Um, get some restrooms with running water that we don't have that other schools have. We started reviewing that. We started reviewing uh preliminary cost of that. And then we looked at and we started developing like Heather said, we started to prioritize and then the cost came in and we rep prioritized and then we started cutting and then rep prioritized
010again and then whittleled it down some more. Um, so again, we're trying to get to this number that we feel comfortable with that addresses everything that you guys put us forth in the charge and and the strategic plan put forth. But um, so we started with an exercise where we started ranking, hey, what's most important? And again, the first time we did this, we didn't have any cost associated with that. And then the cost came back and kind of blew us away and we rep prioritized once we knew the cost. And some of those priorities changed. Um, some stayed the same. So, one of our main priorities was career and technical education readiness. So, that didn't change. Uh, indoor athletics was our our second priority, improving those. Performing arts center was our third priority. And,
011uh, the fourth priority without outdoor athletics. And again, it's not coming from us four. was coming from I think there were 12 of us, 15 of us um that that from all walks of life that some people have kids in the district, some people had kids that went through the district. So, we kind of had a really good overview. Um other things we considered and we ranked by by priority. Those were the ones we kind of did add-ons later on. We're expanding the indoor athletics, so new gym uh similar to the size we have. We looked at outdoor athletics, both how do we make it even where if we improve the varsity baseball diamond, how would we do that to the varsity softball diamond because there's drainage issues in both and sinking in both. Uh
012we looked at adding again lights and restrooms. We looked at outdoor athletic facilities with we restructure both fields. We looked at do we do a complete renovation the one over here? Do we just try to regrade it or what can we look at? And then we looked at expanding the the performing arts. So can we add a scene shop? Literally, you know, they they store their props in a shed that has mice and the roof is ripped off. >> Yes. >> That that's not good in my opinion, but that's just my opinion. Um, so we looked at how do we add that in? Um, you can go to the next slide, next slide. From that, we developed, hey, here's some cost estimates. And initially, our kind of swing for the fences came in at $54
013million. We thought there's no way in heck we can afford that. So we kind of dialed it down and with some input from some other um people uh we we kind of tried to narrow it down to hey how can we kind of split that difference number one and we're trying to keep that that mill rate and the tax impact to right around a dollar uh because we heard that usually has some pretty good success and it's it's a reasonable number. So 33.3 million is what we whittleled it down to. Uh that changed the the mill rate to $16 on $100,000 property and that was given to us by company called Baird uh who's a tax tax accountant. So with that data we kind of again whittleled it down from 54 to 33 to say
014hey this is what's essential. From there you can go to the next slide. Um we provided community updates. Hey here's what we're meeting on. Here's what we're discussing. that went through Facebook media, our social media that went through uh the newspaper as well. But again, we're trying to hone this all in. And you'll see later in the presentation, like, hey, here's what we deemed essential, but here's the other things we looked at. Here's what we cut out. And at the end, we we did this puzzle where we said, okay, if we want to swing for the fences, what are the add-ons? So that that that's up to the school board to decide where maybe you want to pull the community to get their input to say, hey, maybe a gym's in order, maybe the PAC
015and new scene shop is in order, so on and so forth. So again, we try to take everything in perspective and and dial it in. And I think we did a really good job. So I think it covers up. So, we're going to go through each of the four areas that we talked about, the CTE space, the indoor outdoor facilities for sports, and the PAC. So, those are four major areas we talked about. So, you'll see a little bit of this color coding sprinkled in through some of those discussions. Um, red for heavy addition, uh, blue for renovation. Um, there are some places where you could pick, I would like to renovate area A and area C, but not B. So, we broke those apart, but sometimes there were clusters of things that if you
016did some work in one area, the dominoes would fall and you'd need to do more than one room. So, that's why you've got some broken down areas. And then everything that you'll see on the building plans really for those essential improvements, you'll see in that peach color. So, we can go ahead and slide. Um the CTE, the career tech, um this is the wing right now. And so, you've got uh animal sciences, small animal First off, you've got the shop. Um, you've got the fab lab. All of those things tucked into here as well as other tech uh, classroom spaces. So, if you want to go to the next slide, >> Heather. >> Yes. >> So, the board has seen a lot of this stuff, >> right? >> But the people on YouTube have not
017seen any of this stuff. So, when you go through this particular part, could you not skip anything? >> We uh, we will have to move quickly through things. Um, and I'm sure there are things we won't always remember that we talked about, but we'll do our best to give a really good detail for you. >> Um, so in this space here are all the areas that in spring of 2025 when the conversations for the videos and the start uh with PO B and CG Smith, the work began to talk about what it is, what spaces we were going to touch and why we needed to touch them. This was what they came up with. heavy renovation and some um addition work that needed to be done for reconfiguring uh wall space to make the spaces.
018So again, you've got egg uh and small animal over here, some collaboration space, business ed, woods and metals, fab lab, even talked about adding a gallery and um culinary lab with a CNA kind of space and moving out into the English wing, the arts uh sorry, the art and photography kind of area. Maybe we talked about doing photography in here. So this was spring of 2025. a lot of big plans, a lot of big ideas going into the next slide, which was December in 2025. Keeping in mind, we started our work in September. We said, well, okay, looking at all of those big ideas, how could we break that into some smaller chunks because that's a lot to ask for. Um, so this cluster of rooms, opening them up so the teachers could see students
019working in perhaps different areas at the same time rather than having a having a small tiny area to concentrate on changing up. Uh, this is an unused old greenhouse now that we have a nice new greenhouse. Could it be used for small animals? um moving over to break apart woods and metals because right now you're welding next to wood and that seems like a not so good idea for those of us who uh know how to start a fire. Um changing the size of our welding booths uh because right now it is hard to get a student and a teacher in the size of of the little confines and that would open up perhaps some different classes that could be offered uh more partnership maybe with MATC for college credit classes. So really considering um
020how to expand that space. Uh the CTE and business egg adding different uh elements there to change the seating and um noise levels and fabrication machines and all those good things. Um talking then again about photography and the CNA culinary um and some changes that might need to be made in the configuration of the corridors there. So that was where we were in December. Um, and you'll notice things are starting to sort of gray out on our list, choices that we're making, um, and and ways that we're amending the list of things that were originally proposed. This is what we considered our essential improvements list. So, this is what we would present to the board as what we think is really important for this first hit in the CTE area. Um, so doing now combining
021all of those separate areas and uh really looking at that as as really important for the CTE area. And you'll notice some of the things that fell off the list. It's not that they can't be done. We don't want to do sometimes there are other solutions that we stumbled upon that were different ways to fund or to approach um those spaces. So it's not that we didn't care about an area. It's just that some other solution presented itself. So it wasn't something something we had to go to referendum for. So that's important to keep in mind. So this is what we would consider for the CTE essential improvements plan in that 33.3 million. Okay. And John, I believe you're next. So this is the current plan here right now. Um next slide. So these first
022couple slides here um it was kind of as was said earlier um the the limit. Uh don't don't worry about finances, but you know, and so that kind of included um you know, renovating the all the locker rooms, um wrestling room and you know, building a pool mezzanine area here and uh with some seating above there, upgrading the pool area and um you know this and everything on the outside of the the line here is new addition. So um next slide. Well, then next month we came along and uh what about gymnasium? Uh you we're probably one of the only schools in the area here that only gets by with one gymnasium. So, but um but that was one of the highest priced items. So, you know, and again, this was all everything on the
023outside of the line here is all new addition. So, um next slide. your essential. >> So, this was what what we finally came up with here. Um, again, everything on the outside of the line here is a new addition. Uh, the pool area would just be a lot of upgrades in there and get kind of get it back to where it's, you know, a nice pool again. Uh, fitness area expand that' be expanded and then so that the machines ain't all on top of each other. Uh all the locker rooms would be renovated. Uh new lockers and you know instead of the little cubby holes that are currently there. And then uh then we'd have a uh the wrestling room out on this area here with the storage and then a a corridor here to
024keep everything connected, you know, so that you know you don't have to go outside to get from one area to the other. And uh and by doing what we did here is uh we we still kept this green space here but with this addition here that would take out the parking space in the driveway. So what we did is um put the the parking area the driveway and parking area all the way around here so that at some point in the future if we decide for another new gymnasium we wouldn't have to rip that all up again. And by doing that, we basically uh doubled the size of our parking lot in that area. So, so um you know, and that also includes u some restrooms in there again. So, you know, it's just it's
025a major upgrade from what it is now and uh you know, at at a fairly reasonable cost. So, next slide. So, I will talk turn it over here. >> So, performing art center. So again, when we all got together to start this, I probably didn't think I'd be talking about the performing arts center, but we really did. I mean, the communication that we all had as a group to discuss everything that is needed from that first video, I mean, the first videos that we saw in that first meeting we had was was just crazy. Again, everybody's probably been in the performing arts center. You walk in, it's a beautiful place. It really is. walk in, you think, "Wow, this is a nice area to have." But everything behind the scenes is old. It's 26 years
026old. It's it's the lighting, the sound. So, again, when we talked about it based on that video, next slide, you know, it was all of this boom renovations all the way through the inside of this area with again a big addition. Red outside of there means shovels in the grounds. You're starting to get expensive. If you see the cost for the CT again, you're all you're doing is moving walls in there. So, it's it's a pretty easy move. As soon as we start having to, you know, footings, all that stuff that comes with it, it was. So, again, this is what the teachers asked for, which again should be what they want and what we should try and give them. So, when we got together in December, next slide. You know, we brought everything back
027again. We we you know, we cut out the steam shop, costume storage. We still need the sound boost lighting, the stage in the pit and back of house area, but we definitely need the dressing rooms. We need more restrooms. You know, these kids are, you know, the privacy that they need to change between whatever they're doing, you know, the plays and all that fun stuff. So, again, this is where we had it based on that. again still putting an addition on you know which is again cost. So then the final step was in January next slide pretty much that again putting a window in the office I think was a little ad but again still a lot of stuff that we took off based on the fact of how much of this would be have
028to be again an addition. we still have to move the road, but now at least we're we're not moving it to where we're going to lose any of the parking stalls that you come around that that side of the building. So again, I you know, and then we'll see in a couple slides here on a couple of the additions that we're also looking at doing that. But, you know, when we got to this point, you know, it was it was taking stuff away that we wanted, but we knew that to try and get this referendum to pass, it was probably this was it, you know. So, we felt really comfortable with this and I enjoy talking about it. So, I slide again, John. So, this slide I think is a little actually out of place
029here. Um, this kind of goes back to the the gymna gymnasium edition here. Um we're we're recommending that when you do the the the public survey to to include that as a question as you know to see whether at some point down the road that um whether there be would be okay to go ahead with a you know a new gymnasium. But you know again you know like this right now this is all green space here but you know it's all set up without um messing up any of the infrastructure to to put a new gymnasium there. So next slide. So again in the other part the additional one is still that that seam shop you know we we really think but again it's it's a major it replaces the shed that Joel was talking
030about earlier just to give them again more space and again you'll you'll see the cost as they come through. >> Next slide. >> All right. This gets uh there's a lot of configurations of this. This is I wasn't here for the meeting last week so I got stuck with this one. I'll do my best. I would have rather had the PAC I think. Um, >> so one of the things we looked at when we started to meet is the thing when you start adding fields or adding structure that that changes the scope of things for the next 25 or 50 years, right? So you really have to be thoughtful as to what you're doing. Um, you know, it's like the lights taken down on there that affected a ton and like putting those back that's
031a huge expense to do so. So where do we put things and try to set it up to where maybe we don't get lights now, but how do we set it up that it can be added on in the future without destroying everything? Same thing with what John was talking about the the gym that all that site works done. There's a cost up front for it, but it's set up so that hey, maybe we don't have a gym now, but maybe 5, 10, 15 years, it's set up where you can plug and play it in without disrupting, you know, the whole thing. So, when we met back in October, we started looking at the facilities we currently have. And again, even in the buildings, we're trying to reuse as much of the facility, just repurpose
032it rather than put additions on to save some cost. So, we looked at the current softball field the way it sits now. The coaches said it doesn't drain. It comes off the hill. So, we looked at regrading the outfield using some amended soil to improve the drainage. They told us when you do that, you have to actually add oddly enough irrigation to reerrigate it because it dries out too much. And then some soil stabilization. The tennis courts uh are past due. So, we looked at resurfacing all tennis courts with asphalt and putting some new fencing up. Uh and then we looked at using green space we currently have that nothing sits on. So adding some practice fields that could be used for soccer, that could be used for football up at the primary school. Uh
033with that said, there'd have to be some retaining wall put in. And we looked at adding some parking on the back side of that since parking is pretty rough in there as it is right now. The current baseball diamond across the field from here, we call it the Highway 60 field that is sinking. Um I had the opportunity of playing shortstop with the eighth graders there this summer and when I was staying in the infield, I could only see half my kid in the outfield uh because it sunk so much in the marsh. So we looked at what would it take to repurpose that and reuse it but get it upgraded to a normal high school field. So that would involve some new dugouts that would involve moving home plate forward so it's a standard
034high school field that would require regrading soil amendment that would require a retaining wall in the outfield. Um so a lot of things went into that. You go to the next field in December. Then we kind of dialed it back. We got some cost estimates and we said okay uh one of the other things that was discussed is okay if we put the two fields at the primary school. Do we just say, "Let's leave that field the way it is." And do we look at saying, "Let's just build a new diamond up at the high school that would be for varsity baseball." And so that was a new baseball diamond, amended soil, you know, leveling everything out, irrigation, now field fencing, all the things that come with the baseball diamond, the back stops, uh, concrete
035pavilion, and then scoreboard. It didn't include lights, but some of the scope of the work and some of the add-ons that you guys will get would be, hey, what if we added lights? What if we added concessions? What if we added a restroom? What if we added so on and so forth? But to try to dial cost down, we said these are kind of the bare minimums you would need for a field uh and that location and could we move forward with it in that regard. Again, none of this changed. It was just what if we added a field there? Okay, go to the next slide. All right, so we came up with an essential plan and our essential plan was let's look at putting the field up there. Uh because one of the things
036you'll see further on, we looked at repurposing both of those and changing the two across the street into a varsity and JV and then repurposing the softball field and building a new softball field as well instead of the baseball diamond to try to keep it same. But again, cost was an issue and it just didn't the numbers didn't add up. So, our essential plan was to look at building a new diamond with the uh concessions, not concessions, sorry, uh stadium seating, your uh fencing, your regrading, your everything you need for the baseball diamond, keeping the two fields as practice fields, and then repurposing or resurfacing the the tennis courts. So, redoing the tennis courts that are at I don't know what they're at year 15 of a 10 year life, I think it is. Some
037big cracks in there. Next slide. Other options we explored again to go back to priority. We looked at okay as an alternate that you'll see on our proposal. What if we did uh at the primary school uh just a baseball field and we added concessions to it. So there's a separate cost for concessions. It's set up so that you could add light in the future. So that's a separate cost. We had we looked at we looked at upgrading some concessions in some field lighting at the softball diamond. We also looked at uh adding ADA ramps again restrooms in there because again currently I don't know where the closest restroom is unless there's port bodies on on the softball diamond. So uh next slide and then other options we explored at that point we said okay
038if we if we built the field at the primary school for the baseball how do we get that field ready for kids to play on? Um so we said what if we just did the bare minimum here just have them come in and regrade it. Reuse the soil that's already there. Don't move home play. Don't change the dugouts. Don't change the fencing. So, that's a separate cost that we looked at. And we looked at doing the same thing to the softball diamond. Just let's just regrade it to get it playable or better playable and move forward from there to make everything apples to apples, if you will. All right, next slide. The last thing we looked at is okay. Another option, if you will, was what if we reuse do everything that we want to
039do on that field with moving the diamond, putting new fencing and new dugouts across the field from here, and then adding it so that we can make it wide enough to use it as a football field, which is how it was used years ago. Again, no lighting or anything there. Just put it back the way it was without the lighting. So again, concrete retaining walls, sideline fencing, soil, soil stabilization to stop the sinking. and they reassured us that their testing shows that that would work. Okay. Uh next slide. I'm done. >> So if your brains are reeling, ours were too as we uh try to pick and pack uh you know do all these all cart options and figure out what we could put together um as a reasonable request um if you will. So,
040in our prioritization, again, just as a refresher, we priority ranked CTE first, indoor athletics second, PAC third, and outdoor athletics third. And then we looked at some of those other options and we ranked those as well. Um, and so we'll go through those really quickly, but everybody really wants to get to this column over here. Um, so to do the essential plan for each of these four spaces, we have an estimated cost of three. I'm going to round.7 million to do the changes in the CTE space. Um indoor athletics puts us at 16.7 million. The changes on the PAC of 5.1 million and out outdoor athletics would be at 7.7 million. So collectively that gets us to that 33.3 million referendum that we would be looking at again affecting our mill rate um at a
041dollar six cents per thousand. um these other options took us to that 54 million that Joel mentioned at the beginning where we started. So we cut quite a bit down and out and repp prioritized and rejiggered and thought very hard about what those might be. So, if it was uh interesting to the school board to go to the community and question them, the uh community about it, we might want to think about adding that second gymnasium um at the cost of almost $12 million, changing the varsity and primary at the primary and the varsity softball at the high school to add concessions, restrooms, and lights. So, the things that we said you didn't have to go to were not essential, but would be really nice. That puts us at almost 3.2 2 million. Um, looking
042at that varsity softball um, out at the high school and the Highway 60 JV baseball diamond, just to do the regrades and the outfield would put us at, uh, 800,000. To do a complete renovation and upgrades to the baseball field at the Highway 60 would be uh, 2.1 million and to add the scene shop to the back of the PAC is almost $800,000. So, definitely less than that 54 million to start with. Um, but to make some choices of what we considered essential and where we could pull the community to see if they would be interested in supporting if you all wanted to do so. Next slide. So, just a refresher on the timeline. Next slide. Um, we're here in this very long process um presenting our options to you guys right now. And if
043you'll notice, there's this community survey planning that's starting to happen right now. And all through this process, you'll see uh since the CBT was convened in September, we've been working on that community engagement and that will go all the way through the end of the year. Go ahead. Next slide. Um next slide. As you guys are considering what comes next. So look at our recommendations, consider what you all want to present, work on the survey to get the input spring of this year. Once you have that input input, decide on potential referendum by July. Um, adopting that by August and going to the polls in November. And finally, the last slide. >> Yes, I'm sure there are lots of them. >> Wow. So, what's next? >> That's nothing, right? >> On the last slide. It
044looks like it was really an incredible job. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Um, we saw some of this stuff before and I do want to explain that we did pick names for you guys trying to pick all different aspects from the community and we did not want your job either. Um, Scott volunteered to be uh the board liaison, thank goodness. Um, but there was a lot. Even what you're showing us is a lot and I know that you guys started with even more than that. And this we are so appreciative of what you guys have done. And I know there was a lot of time and work and discussions and going back and forth and um and I hope you guys felt like you were leading the meetings. That was our goal. We did not want
045the district. We didn't want Vince, you know, even Scott, I know, had to kind of pull back a little. He wanted to make sure that you guys were getting as much input as possible and I felt I hope that's what you felt. >> I agree. >> Okay, good. Um but thank you guys. I This is >> I think again it wasn't just us four. Yeah. Gallery >> and obviously the point of beginning and P and CG Schmidt were there telling you guys what you needed to know but they were not also guiding it. Um so I just appreciate everybody that was involved in that process because that was a lot. I would get updates and I'm like wow. And the little video or the video from everybody their input you know that you put in
046there that would be good for everyone to watch. >> Oh for sure. Everybody should >> because then you took it and you >> So I have a question on the PHC. >> Was there any discussion about because there is a s there's a chunk of change left from the WOAT family that has been if I'm not mistaken tell me if I'm wrong assign sort of assigned um for the PAC to be used. Was any of that money uh how do I >> was talked about talked about yeah we discussed it Scott you know that >> so I think our charge >> but it's not included >> our charge was to figure out what needed to happen not how to pay for those correct so we tried to be really objective about the needs >> not
047where the money might come from >> it's a good chunk change that's sitting hopefully for the PAC is what I think we had >> tried to designate it for >> which could help with >> interiors inside. >> Any other questions? >> I don't have any questions. I just as being a part of it I appreciate the work that everybody did. You guys are helped the board more than I think you realize. >> Uh we we have a lot of good insights that you have given us. I know that I pushed you guys a lot. I know that I got on some people's last nerve. >> No, not I think what you give have given us is excellent. Uh I know that there was there was quite a bit of discussion amongst the uh community members
048about this upcoming survey and that answers to some of these questions will really help us as a board decide what we're going to pick and choose because again you've given us a fantastic start on this but we're going to have some difficult decisions that we're going to have to to make. But it's it's much easier for us when we know what the community values and >> yes >> sees as important priorities. So thank you for doing that because those are two and a half hour plus meetings uh once a month for >> I'm guessing they were pretty full too. >> So thank you. >> First meeting was scheduled for two hours but that that never happened. Well, and and I just for the people that are watching online or just maybe even here that didn't
049know, um we really tried hard to get this group because we pull from nine municipalities, you know. >> Yeah. >> Tried to get people from, you know, from the different m municipalities from different backgrounds, whether it's sports or arts or business, egg, all of that, you know, and just >> get a really well-rounded group >> to sort of We wanted everybody represent. >> We wanted everybody represented. >> Well, including our student reps. >> Absolutely. >> Student reps. >> Really important. So, >> you sat through meetings too. >> Put them on your resume someday. >> Absolutely. >> So, thank you all. >> Well, we are going to actually go right into um because we appreciate you guys so much taking positive. >> You want me to turn you around, Vince? Okay. >> Yeah. >> Turn you
050around. >> It's kind of bossy, isn't it? >> Yes. >> So, there is a motion. If you look at there's a memo in board docs. There's a motion for the board to accept the recommendation of the community viability team. >> So, Vince, >> and use it to develop a community survey. So Vance, I'll I'll move to accept the recommendation of the community viability team with great gratitude for the time and effort they put into this process and to use those recommendations to inform and develop in the to inform the development of a community survey to gather broader input and to inform future board decisions. >> Definitely second that. >> Got a bunch of motion by Adam. >> I'll go on record a second. >> Second by Scott. Any more discussion? I just want to I
051just want to quickly reiterate we were charged to watch all those videos before coming to this meeting. Yes. >> And just you watched them all in a row and it was like, "Holy cow, I can't I can't believe what you guys had to decide, right, and go through." And so, as Scott said, thank you like a million times over for helping us make these decisions. It's just amazing. >> Yeah. >> All in favor? >> I I motion passes 70. I'd also like to jump and just say thank you and I'm sorry I'm not in the room with you, but you're probably very happy that I'm not in the room with you. So, thank you for all your work. I really appreciate it. Um, and the district really appreciates it. >> And because our district has
052so much money, we're going to each give you guys a hundred grand. >> You want to do the names or no? >> Go ahead. Heather Hatley. I love your first name. >> Tracy Sction. >> Dennis Curl. Is he here? >> We can read. >> Bo Riff is here. Ben Keane Britney here. >> John Hag >> Jason Marsha. >> Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Joel Crane >> everybody that's here Megan Smith >> Rick Pandora. >> Thank you so much. And then who couldn't be here tonight is Britney Dempsey, >> Dennis Crow Jr., Trent Schneider, >> and Shane Clapper, right? >> And then we got Scotty. >> All right. Now, we're all gonna go in front of there and take a picture with the board, too. >> Somehow someway. >> We all have to sit over.
053>> Yeah, maybe we should. >> A lot of people. >> We're gonna go over here. >> Or should we do it over here? Actually, we're gonna do it up here. Good. >> We got Wait a minute. We got one more person there. Rick. >> Oh, yeah. Rick. You were trying to hide. >> Nothing by Mo. >> That takes so much. cost me an arm and leg. >> And you guys, I'm sure want to all stay for the rest of the meeting, but you don't need to. >> Heather, >> what's up? Can we give a quick shout out to CJ for their >> Thank you guys. >> I know he's such a bossy head, isn't he? >> So, next is the gallery walk. >> The gallery walk. >> Gallery walk. Next. Nick, you want to announce
054it and talk about it because we can can't hear him as well. >> We can't hear him so well. >> As in years in the past, we'll have a gallery walk where each building will present an area of focus from their building scorecard this year that aligns with the strategic plan. We will have 10 minutes per session. >> Bam. >> Staying on time administrators for 10 minutes. I'll give you an alert when we're at the end of that. Um, and we can disperse. And >> there's four stations. Correct. >> Four stations, right? So just >> we got a we have a station here. We'll have one in the room right out this way. >> One station here and one right over >> this room over that way. >> You have to tell us where >>
055Yeah. Who's going where? Who? Who are the groups? >> Break us up. >> Yeah, I think we'll go. You guys go here. We'll have you two go there. >> All right. Go here. >> Thanks. >> Vince, do you want to go somewhere or what do you want to do? Do you want do you want to be carried with us? >> Do you want to go >> start? >> We are starting >> 10 minutes. >> Yep. We're starting. >> Welcome. So, um, we get to share with you a little bit about what's been going on at LS and OC. And as we were reflecting, right, one of the great things that we get to do is have these gallery walks and update you on the work that the building was doing in these pillars. And we
056were reflecting on what we've shared and what we haven't. And so, we decided that we wanted to share one thing we haven't highlighted is the way that we um also think about experiential learning um through field trips, field studies, and guest speakers and benefit of that. We kind of cheated because that really expands beyond just two pillars. It's really all three of these pillars. So, pillar one, pillar two, and pillar three. Um, but we know that these opportunities really help students um understand real world um apply what they're learning. Um there's a ton of benefits. It also supports our work within the strategic plan and I get to do a lot of the words and they get to talk about the pictures. But um we think about when you think about field trips and field
057studies um that real world context um it does increase academic performance and we also see just that social and cultural development. >> So >> when we get the opportunity to have experts come into our building u which is such a great thing for our kiddos. Um obviously career exposure and inspiration. We think about the in-depth knowledge they get to share with us as experts. um their different perspectives um and then just really contextualizing learning right like helping students um see how those skills that they're working on could be applied to real world >> so we are going to share each of these and I think maybe um let's see fifth fourth we should start you want to do third >> you can do fourth and I'll help you with fourth do you go with this
058you did not get to go >> so Um, but you want to do third or you want me to? >> You can do third. >> Okay. And then you guys can maybe take fourth. So this year third grade, one of the things that they did is um part of our my viewing curriculum um talks about renovating some spaces um making them more accessible and so they worked with the Malards and the Mards had never had a school group come before but they yeah but they opened it up to us. Um we got to tour the facility, got to play some kickball on the field and got to see all the different um operations of the malards. From that students then took the information they gave there and some other research and they actually have created
059a presentation for um the optimist clubs and the mayor about um renovations to fields um down by um the park and ways that they can make that better. They secured a grant for the village and um that they can now use um to be able to for the city and be able to um use to renovate that area. Also, you'll notice in each of these you can see them >> each of these pictures too. Um >> there is also experience for all of our grade levels as well. This is third grade and this is their recent presentation with the check. fourth grade. >> All right. Center and basically what we got to do is see what happened a long time ago, right? So kids got to experience like the blacksmith and they got to go
060and see like what was it like at a homestead and they got to do their needle work and got to do whatever and understand like what the difference and how much we have changed culturally. Um it was a really cool experience for all of our kiddos to go and see those differences, learn how they were learning, how the changes of how the one room schoolhouse to where we are now. Um >> there we are. Our great fourth grade crew >> at the school forest >> and this was awesome. We had the um W Madison came and they brought different puzzles and stones and everything and the kids got to actually hands on explore in different questions and um >> and the kids got to come up with their own questions. So it was a really
061neat hands on um opportunity for our kids. >> We got >> So, as part of my view, uh, our literacy, there's a a story about Frank, right? >> And we always talk when we started my view of like hopefully getting down to spring green tales and to really bring that machine in into their real life learning experience. What was special about this trip is they've never let a young group of fifth graders go through what we did. And after talking to them and telling them, you know, what we're doing in our classroom, they said, "Yeah, let's give it a shot." So, we were one of the younger groups to go through the whole uh talent and not just like the classroom. And so, it was a great opportunity. It's going to be tied into a
062future project that we haven't told our parents or kids yet. So, I can't say we're still working on that. But it'll be tied in with um everything from the the writing portion of it to arts to >> hands on our school forest again. We're going out uh twice this year. Um and we go out there and uh take time to talk about the history of the forest and also write, read, and then just reflect upon this great outdoor classroom. So, we have a lot of things that were already in place. >> Every year we do a stock market challenge where kids invest $20,000 not real. Wish we could do that. And they buy into two companies and then they watch each week how those companies are doing on the market. And so we brought that
063experience to life with Rob Hatch and his associate from Preferred Tax Advisors to come down and talk about how to invest money, other ways to invest money and then also what he does and as a possible career. We really appreciate Rob and them coming down to make it a real life experience. >> There's game that day. >> Yeah. Our students went to school and they got to see some really cool animals and it was great. There's all teachers. >> We have songs and regulation that we teach. Um and then we um this is the second year we've done this. This has been a really neat opportunity. They teach healthy lifestyle with food. A lot of kids talking about the colors of the vegetables and every part of >> some classual which ones affect your heart
064which affects your blood flow and they got to try somethingual and this one tied really nicely to all tast able to bring that right back into the classroom, too. >> I think they gave us a threeminute warning a little bit ago. So, we want to make sure there's some time for questions. >> When my kids were in school, all they ever field trips. >> We're in our final minute before we'll rotate. Final minute before we'll rotate. >> Students You think of you think of our age of kiddos too, right? Like they're just at that age where they can handle the maybe change in schedule a little bit and some of these opportunities that that provides. And yet um you know our staff do such a great job of being strategic about when that's happening and
065optimizing our learning at the same time. Um and knowing that our learning we don't want it to just Hopefully we'll as a staff that's something to be able to see that I think all of our staff could attest that we often get positive feedback from the places we go or from our guest speakers about how our how our students are behaving and their engagement >> definitely a lot of >> all right we are at our time so we are going to rotate this group over here that way to the conference room right over I'm good. I can stay here. >> Are we supposed to? >> How do we know which one to go? >> Following you level. Do you want to come with us or do you want to stay here? >> She said go.
066We can wait. >> Okay. Jason. >> All right. Welcome. We didn't introduce ourselves last time. So, we'll introduce ourselves. >> My name is Mr. I get to meet the principal. Chris McNeel, fifth grade. >> Don Collins, special education bar. requirements. >> So, thank you for um learning more about us and what we do at LSC. As we were reflecting on the gallery walk, we were thinking about what to present on this time. We we went back and looked at what we have already presented on the last few years and we realized that there was a part of what we do that we really haven't highlighted before and that is really how we um promote and give opportunities for kids to have experiential learning. So, um that's through field trips, through field studies, and through guest
067speakers. Um we believe that our students are at the perfect age um at least no to utilize um these experiences to really transform sometimes abstract concepts into actual um learning um and see how it affects or how it is implemented in the real world um and to learn not only from our amazing teachers but also learn from those in our community and in our broader world. So um >> because of that uh when we thought about what pillars this covered we know we were only supposed to keep two pillars but we really believe that what we these opportunities really cover three. So pillar one preparing for the future pillar two nurturing the whole student and connection. >> All right so impacted field trips and field studies. Okay. So we're we're still doing that. We're going
068to do that learning. They can move forward with their knowledge. They're going to learn hands-on by seeing, touching, and exploring different things and opportunities that they might not get in the classroom. >> Um, real world content. These experience show students how schoolwork connects with our world, not not just in our school, but in our community, increase academic performance. Um, studies show that when we put our kiddos in these opportunities that our grades get better, our um scores are better. >> Um, and it's just giving us our kiddos um, a different outlook and um, opportunities that they might not get otherwise. Um, if you bump >> right there, those are some of the great children that I get to work with every day. And um this year we got the opportunity to work with transitions and
069um one of my friends in the middle there, we go to the bank and we help the boosters every week or every other week and we make sure that uh clothes that we use for Lai Pride that clothes are on the hangers or looking nice for sales for the banks. So we've got the opportunity to go and do that. So that's been a really great thing for our kiddos and it's at that that wonderful um time for them just to learn working on those social skills. So that's been a great opportunity for us. >> Another great opportunity for our students is guest speakers. Um a lot of career exposure and inspiration. So get these students to learn about different career paths and real world experiences so that they can kind of identify what they might
070be interested in the future. there's a lot of in-depth knowledge of these these speakers provide expert insights into these specific topics that they come to talk about. So it's helps kids understand you know beyond what's in their textbooks. Um lots of diverse perspectives guest speakers are bringing those new voices and perspectives into those classrooms. Um and then also contextualizing learning just showing how those academic skills are applied in professional settings that work for a pill or two. examp is there was a project and some learning that happened around how can we make um facilities um better accessible. So they actually went to the Malards and it was the first time the Malards had welcome to school for a tour and so they got to have a tour. They got to be on the field and
071play but they also got to see the behind the scenes and get some ideas that they also then did some additional research on to be able to then write and actually achieve um and we awarded a grant um for on the city of Loi to be able to do some renovations at the park. So they the third graders actually secured this grant um that the city now can apply or use to make some of the renovations that they suggested. So um and then um one other thing that you'll see in each area is we also have each group going out to the school forest um which is a great opportunity for our kiddos to be learning and moving. fourth grade. Um the Pioneer Village is something we do every year um just to see um
072you know back in time. Um it ties directly to their social studies standards in fourth grade and Wisconsin. Um and then we're just lucky that we have an opportunity in Reedsburg, not too far away to go experience that. Um also they had some local um archaeologists um experts come and teach them about um all things rocks minerals and very hands-on. The kids loved it and the the two presenters did a great job bringing that to life and this is their experience. We took the old windows down to spring green for Frank Lloyd. In my view, there's a story on Frank Lay and it's a mixture of art and life and how you can have that balance and so it's always been one of our hopes to get down there. We made it happen this year.
073And really cool thing is we were one of the youngest school uh grades to go through the whole tales. Usually our age put them in the school room, but they gave us the whole elaborate tour and it was absolutely amazing and it'll be tied into a project that we'll be doing this year. Um, and then as far as getting ready, >> then we headed out to the school forest again and you can see notebooks because we take that time in that wonderful classroom to read, to write, and reflect um, uh, about what they're seeing around them and usually and really putting those senses on paper. >> So, those are some other ones we have too. We have a different expectation. So, every year we do a stock it up to go in the kids $20,000
074real and they get to invest in two companies and then every week they go through and see how their stocks are doing and this year we brought in tax advisors and they came in took it to the next level to really show real life experience of how you can invest your money in not just the stock market but other things to get ready for those things but we know for some of our students we really appreciate them for >> um all of our class expectation that they set up in the beginning of the school year to see animals that they wouldn't necessarily see in the close. We learned about the food chain and the food web and did lots of indoor and outdoor activities for them. Um, we also made it to the school forest
075and has done a great job building it in PE type so that >> so as far as for the so this one would be kindergarten through second grade for 4K to the school. Um, and they the kids do different lessons on food. So they learned all about the produce here and different colors and how excuse me with organs within our body and how it affected our to make a homemade tied in nicely with our magnetic literacy and there's a whole unit on taste buds >> a little bit >> a minute 30 seconds left to give you opportunity They scored that they feel that they have things. We have different supplies, but they bring everything. They provide the food. They create the presentation. >> I think one of the things that is most exciting for me
076is in our community who are experts that they get together all the time. Um to see other people passion just really brings the best. >> I like who I like who I am as a person. >> Well, thank you. Thank you board for um allowing us these opportunities again. I think our students are just at that right perfect age and our staff do a great job of balancing >> getting to go out >> and also still making sure that we're covered it not only learning but also >> is that a number that's trending uprending down >> all right we're coming to the end of our time. >> We're going to rotate where this group's going to come over here. You guys are going to come to the conference room this way. We're at the end
077of our time. >> He is a task. >> Thing they know how to answer the question. There's so many pieces that go into it. >> Oh, retirement. Yes. currently >> I would have to look at their >> elementary. >> Hello. >> Hi. >> Yeah. >> Pull one up. I'm gonna right here. >> Well, I know we got a good task with our 10 minutes, so we'll get going. So, maybe we'll have a chance for some questions at the end. My name is Eric in case you don't know me. I get to be the principal. >> So, as we were reflecting on what year for the gallery walk, we went back as an impact team and really thought about what are the things we've already covered what we do and is there anything that we haven't
078really highlighted. And so one of the things that we haven't highlighted that we wanted to highlight was just our the powerful impact of experiential learning. So we really believe that our students are at that ripe age um perfect age to utilize these experiences, field trips, field studies and guest speakers to enhance their learning. um we've we've seen firsthand the way that this enhances um you know what they're already learning. It takes some sometimes abstract concepts and helps them really apply that into real life. And it also motivates them because they get to see people who are passionate about doing that same thing. They take those skills that they've learned and they're passionately putting them into the profession and then sharing that with these students which is super motivating, inspiring. Um as we um thought about
079this, I know we were supposed to pick two pillars u but uh we really felt very strongly that all three of these pillars, pillar one, pillar two and pillar three are part of these experiences and are important part of what we do. So before we jump into the impact of of field trips and field studies, I'm have Miss Collins share a little bit about this picture. >> This is why these young individuals. Um we have the opportunity to work with transitions this year and we are um going to the bank once every two weeks or a week depending on what it looks like. And we uh are working with the boosters. Um now we have hangers. Um but before that we were working on our folding skills, making sure that everything looked nice in the
080bank. So when customers would come in and want to buy um LOI apparel um we would make sure that that looks um >> organized, tidy, and uh the kids just love doing that. So if it's nice out, we walk. If it's not nice out, we take a drive. Um but it's a great opportunity for our kiddos to learn what that looks like, being responsible, looking and they really look forward to doing that. So that's a pretty cool opportunity that we've received this year. impact on field trips and field studies. Um you learning students can move forward and they learn hands-on. They get to um have opportunities that they wouldn't necessarily have in the classroom um by seeing using those senses that we sometimes just don't have um by just opening that book. Um real world
081context. Um these experience show students how school work connects to the worlds and not just our community but outside. Um academic performances. Studies are showing that, you know, the more that you get out, the more experience you have, the higher your test scores are, the more you want to learn. >> And social and cultural development. You know, we live in a really big world and >> having these opportunities, let's just explore that even more. >> Speakers come in. Um there's a lot of career exposure and inspiration to the students there to different diverse career paths. Um helping to them to kind of just think about their future interests careers. Um they get a lot of in-depth knowledge. These um speakers that come provide expert insights into these topics and just help the kids understand more
082than what they just read in the textbook. >> They also get some diverse perspectives when we have guest speakers in new voices and just different contextualizing learning. They just show we have texted kind of by each team have some pictures of what they've experienced. So this year students third graders part of their my view literacy um was to think about ways that we could make a park or places better make it more accessible more about your mission or model. Um, and so they reached out to the Malards and the Malards had never had a school come and tour their facility. And so this is their first time, but they did that and they told them a lot about what they do there. And it helped students to do a little research um through experience. And
083then they came back and did more research. Um and then they actually created projects and presentations that they gave to me and they also gave to the optimist and to the mayor and they actually secured a grant u for the city of Loi to be able to renovate their dugouts and the spaces down at the park. Um and so really thinking about their learning and then being able to apply it huge experience for them. Um and then also for each grade level, um we also highlighted our trips to the school forest. Um so this is the third graders as they were getting ready to go hike fourth grade. >> Um every year they go to the Pioneer Village over in Reedsburg and you think about their social studies standards, big Wisconsin history, um part of
084fourth grade and getting to experience that um so to us and what that what life looked like back then in Wisconsin. Um and then also they um had a great opportunity. These two um this couple actually live in Loi and they are archaeologists. So they brought their extensive knowledge and minerals rocks um and they were able to excitement learning. And then we have fourth graders at the as well. >> Fifth grade. >> All right. So, we uh jumped in our big yellow down to Spring Green for Frank Lloyd right in our my view unit. There's a story on Frank, right? It talks about art and life and the balance with some of the structures and how you keep them going. And it's a great great story and we always want to get our kids down
085there. So, we finally did it this year. And the neat thing is uh this is the youngest group that actually was able to go through the whole process the whole tour. Usually they just have our age group go into the class for the school room >> and um talking with them give you the whole experience. So that was amazing for our students to see what we talked about in the book in real life. >> And then school force we head out twice a year in the fall and spring. And as you can see no books at the end. talk about history of the forest, but then also take time to write, reflect, um do some prewriting, some poetry, observation, and using all those senses and putting on paper and just enjoying our great outdoor classroom.
086>> And then each year we do stock it up where the students get fake $20,000 to invest in two companies and they watch their stocks each week uh ride that roller coaster of those highs and lows. And this year we had Rob Hatch and his associate from tax preferred uh advisors come in and share about other ways to invest money uh what they do and just financial uh literacy and a great opportunity for some of our students to take a career with some accounting or tax work. appreciate coming down and making that learning of the stock market. And then different animals. >> So we have to teach aren't able to do these things for affects and then they bring in all the tools all the presentations about this one talked Um just the different colors
087of produce and how it affects different. So every class go in their assistants are not using >> questions you have a lot of lessons. I have a personal question. I remember in fourth grade I took that field trip, but we also dress up as pioneers. >> Giving everybody a heads up. We're in our final minutes. >> Final minutes. >> I think that might have been the Chinese farm. >> No. >> Yeah. Or we sometimes do it at the fairgrounds too at times. >> And I had a full >> but I also had a question. If you want to go back to the top, um, you talked about how studies show that real world We have seen things. >> We are at the end of our time. >> I'm going to ask you to >> finish
088your pizza and then go ahead and rotate. I believe your final station. >> The way our brains Put that down on paper. your son. >> Well, um I think you know all of us we should introduce ourselves. Do you know all of us? >> So um thank you for um coming and listening to our gallery walk as we were reflecting as the impact team on what we wanted to discuss and share. Um we were just about this. That over here. >> Oh, sorry. You're fine. I can use my gym voice. um they um and we decided that we one thing we haven't highlighted is just our field trips and field studies and our guest speakers which are a part of what we do in the building and especially as we think about our age as
089students um and really just at that prime age to be able to utilize um these opportunities to enhance our learning that happens already in the classroom. And so um we really do see the way that this transforms like abstract concepts like actual like oh this does apply to life they're just asking me to learn these things right and so um so I think like that obviously is a benefit on our end but we just really see that light bulb moments we also just the opportunity to be able to connect kids with other people who are passionate about what they do and care for kids is just amazing as well it does support our district mission and obviously the pillars of the strategic plan as well in fact we were supposed to only have two pillars
090but um but before we us in general um >> yeah well when we try to um before we get into the impact I'll let Mrs. kind of share this and that. >> All right. Um these are some of the great that I get to work with every day. Um this year we have the opportunity to um work with transmission. Um Adora, she usually takes her kiddos over to the bank. They're in charge of making sure that the booster club everything is well maintained. >> They're the ones that do that. Nice job. >> Yes. Well, due to our case load this year, one of our friends here um has a seen um has some hard and everything. Um, so my two friends, he is actually mentoring my two friends and helping him. So we go every
091two weeks um or a week and a half depending and together. So I mean the boosters have done a great job for us. They have um we used to have just shelves that was kind of >> now we have this beautiful. >> Yes. So that is super great and it's working on our um socialization. It's working on eye contact. There's so many great positive things that um break bringing us into the community um and giving us a lot of >> those two guys. Did you pick them to work with >> or did they volunteer? >> I I was a group selection of um Yeah. So that was that's been a lot of fun. Um so what does the impact of field trips and these field studies basically it's that hands on you know things that
092we can't bring into the classroom we get to go out and so you know you're getting that seeing you're getting that touching and what's happening is that's making that excitement for those kids to go out and do more and learn more on that real world context getting those experiences and seeing how our classwork and our schoolwork actually connects to something outside of just in our class. Um your studies are showing that you know that increase that increases our academic performances. Kids are excited. Kids want to learn. They find that and they move and they keep on um they keep on wanting to learn more grades, their excitement and everything. Um it's just something amazing to watch them just see that little spark and how it um and the last thing is social and cultural development.
093a lot of our kids don't get those opportunities that other kids do. So like when you're looking at some of the field trip opportunities that our children are getting, our students are getting >> these are opportunities that they might not get otherwise. So by us giving those um opportunities those are experiences that will teach them that they won't forget, you know. >> So >> in addition to that, we also have a big impact with guest speakers that come in gives the kids career exposure to preparation to help them look at these different and diverse career paths. Um gives them some real world experiences and help them look at what they might want to do in the future. Um gives them some in-depth knowledge of this. You know speakers are experts they're coming in and talking
094about. So there's specific topics. It just helps them understand beyond what's available to them class. Um they get some diverse perspectives. So they bring these guest speakers bringing new voices and perspectives into the classroom. Um just demonstrating that learning is a collaborative effort and then conceptualizing learning too just shows how these academic skills are applied in professional settings and then show them how that hard work is. >> So we have some pictures of each of the teams and so this is third grade ales part of their view literacy is looking at how can they improve some parks or spaces. And so they called Malards and actually the Malards had never had a school group in before. And so they we were there first and they gave us a big tour. They got to play kickball
095on the field. They got to see some things in action. Um also um each of the pictures each of the groups are going to see their trip to the school forest. So this is a third grade when they're out on the school forest. >> But when you think about their trip to the mailards, they took that learning and and also some other research and creative projects and then uh they actually thought about how can we apply this and they did it to the fields down in the park. Thank you. And some renovations to those fields and they wrote uh applied for the Optimus grant and they got it and so the city has a grant due to the third graders applying for. >> Yeah. So, um, fourth grade, >> um, Pioneer Village, obviously their social
096studies standards in fourth grade, and this is one of the experiences they get every year, and so they go to Leedsburg and get to have that experience every year. Fourth grade at the school forest at the beginning of the year. >> Um, and then the this couple actually are LOI natives. They live and they are archaeologists and so they brought in their rocks and minerals and they are very knowledable what they do and students got to handle things and got to ask questions and it was just a really neat learning experience for our fourth grade. >> All right. So we did a beautiful drive down to spring for Frank. It's connected to our my view story where they read about house in Chicago and uh for a couple years we've always wanted to get there
097and have them really see it and so we were able to do that this year and really cool thing is normally with our age group they only put them in like the school room where they did all the drafting but after talking with them they're like yep let's give them the whole thing so our kids got a whole tour of >> yeah it was just absolutely amazing and it just brought that to Yeah, hopefully our last will go down with that field trip. One of my favorites. And then uh school forest >> got out there in the fall and spring and as you can see notebooks in hand. Uh we talk about the history of the forest but also take time to do some writing connected to our literacy and just enjoy a great great
098class. >> And then in fifth grade we do stock it up and that's where they get $20,000 not real uh money to invest in two companies and they each week on their stocks and go through the es and flows of the stock market. And this year we had Rob Had and his associate from preferred tax advisors uh come down and present um their knowledge of how to invest money getting that financial literacy other things to do and then also possible career as being accountant. So really really appreciate Rob bringing that learning to life for us. predictable piece right here helps the students miss a great job organizing breakfast. They come in with all the tools that we need food when it comes to Should we should Everybody heads up. We're on our final minute. >>
099So, one of the things I think I would highlight questions is just we get a lot of feedback for success. student board member even before that. I always used to hear from different people. I always hear >> it's true. >> I mean, there are other goods, but they are always right. >> Well, thank you. All right, if you could wrap up your conversation and head back to your seats, that would be wonderful. Thank you so much. All right. >> Go take your advice. I got to have them in the right >> so can't carry you into the bathroom. And it's in my pocket. >> So much. >> Oh my gosh. >> Not No, that's good. >> All right. >> Oh, yeah. >> We did. They probably left. >> All right, we are going to continue
100with our consent agenda. First of all, I do want to say I know a lot of them left, but thank you guys. I know you were part of that, too. Like, that's awesome. We love that. I know. >> It's timeconsuming, but it's always awesome to hear about everything that's going on. So, thank you guys for doing that >> and important to keep us informed. >> Yes. Yes. All right. So, we have our um approval of our minutes. We have our vouchers. We have um fundraiser request um the softball fundraiser request for a launchon call out fundraiser from March 18th to March 30th. We do not have any fundraiser reports. We have two field trip requests. Loai High School Music Trip will be spring break um March 20 20th to 25th of 2027. And then we
101have a baseball tournament in April of this year. Um we have some committee recommendations for approval uh dealing with our calendar. Under other we have a Sunday night activity request and a high school discipline report. Under uh retirements we have primary school custodian, middle school custodian, kindergarten teacher and resignations, volunteer girls softball coach and primary school special education assistant. Under co-curricular, we have a volunteer baseball coach, three assistant baseball coaches, assistant track coach at 70% and assistant basketball coach. Under crew, we have lifeguard amguard WSI. We have two of those. And then we have three volleyball volunteers. Regular staff, we have a long-term primary school physical education substitute teacher. And under personnel, we have one, two, three, four, leave without pay request. >> I'll make a motion to approve the consent consent agenda as presented.
102>> I'll second, but I wanted to Was there something? >> Let me let me >> Okay. >> Motion by Terry, second by Sarah Ramish. Any more discussion? >> Yes. >> Did you just verifying the dates on the >> Oh, the baseball tournament. >> You realize the dates handwritten thing. He said the n he said April 19th to the 24th and or whatever >> the date the dates that are listed in Bardax are the correct ones. These are the wrong ones listed in >> I don't know if it needs to be corrected on that form or if it doesn't matter but I just noticed the dates didn't align. >> So >> I know what they I know when they're going I know on the boards. >> Yes. >> Yep. 24th to 25th. But then on him
103on his I think he put the 19th. >> So >> I just sent you an email Joe that explains it. Okay. >> All right. >> Thank you, Adam. >> Great. >> Any more discussion? >> All in favor? >> I. >> Anyone opposed? >> Motion passes. 70. All right. We have our administrative reports. We have our LCAT report. All right. So, um, the LOI wrestling program hosted a wrestling tournament to promote mental health awareness on Friday, January 30th, 2026. LCAD in partnership with Prevent Suicide Columbia County attended the event to promote 988 the suicide and crisis hotline. LCAD enjoyed connecting with community members throughout the tournament. In the afternoon, Sarah and Brian set up a booth at the high school during both lunch periods. They had meaningful conversation with high school students about mental health awareness.
104Alcat has been promoting the social media campaign free mind the center of disease control and prevention developed the free mind campaign to help prevent and reduce drug use and overdose among youth. The campaign was created through research and real conversations with youth parents and caregivers. Through these conversations, the CDC in identified a need to address the connection between substance use and mental health among young ages 12 through 17. LCAD has been invited to present at Reachout Loi on Wednesday, February 25th from 1:00 to 1:45 as part of their wellness Wednesday series. The presentation will focus on how to properly and securely store medications in your home. It will also cover how to safely dispose of unwanted or expired medications. This event is open to the public and free to attend. Mark your calendars for a
105presentation by certified prevention specialist Ricky Barton on Monday, March 2nd from 6 to 7:00 p.m. Ricky will discuss the links between social media, substance use, and mental health. Join us for an in-person watch party at Lodai Elementary School where free ch child care will be available. A short discussion will follow the presentation. You can watch virtually. Please RSVP on our Facebook page or website. The presentation will be recorded and available later on the school's YouTube channel. This is March 2nd from 6 to 7 p.m. After feedback from first responders, LCAT members, and community members, we will hold the 12th annual LOI National Night Out on Tuesday, August 4th, 2026 from 5 to 7:30 p.m. It's going to be at Lewis Burns Park in um Harmony Grove um West 10988 Rodney Drive, Harmony Grove. This change
106is pending approval by the town of Lodai Board of Supervisors. This is all happening due to road construction on Fair Street and Hoverman Park will not be available this for this year's event for of Elcad's National Night Out. It's exciting to engage with a new group of residents in our community aligning with our strategic plans engagement goals. Please plan to attend LCAD's annual award ceremony scheduled for Wednesday morning, March 18th from 9:00 am to 10:30 a.m. at the district office. The Alcat award recognizes students, individuals, community members, and groups who advance our vision of creating a community where all youth is empowered to make healthy choices. And that's it. >> It's a lot. I just have a quick question on the um with the national night out >> y >> approval from the town of
107Loi board. Do we know when the town of Loibo is going to >> No, I don't know. But we've got until August. >> Okay. I will reach out to my >> a few people and find out when that up because I'll gladly go and support and say you need to pass this. >> Oh, >> you know, approve. Well, I mean I mean it's a matter of being able to move where we're having it because >> No, no, I know. But, you know, just to get on the town. >> Yeah. >> Do it. >> Yep. So, we know what we're doing. >> Yeah. >> The faster we know. I mean, our big concern, I think, is people are so used to just walking downtown >> and to be able to really get the word out that
108we're we're moving >> for this year. So, but everybody really looked over what's there to offer. you know, the community is making it real, you know, welcoming and easy to have. I think it'll be nice. There's shade. I mean, that's that's one of my biggest concerns always in August in Wisconsin lately is that we have some shade and ability to just kind of hang out. So, >> well, I've heard good things. I think the community is excited about >> Oh, yeah. I think they are, too. Uh, student services. >> Thanks, Heather. Um, last week was National School Counselor Week. >> Well, congratulations. The theme for this year was um school counselors amplify student success. This week helps bring awareness to the specialized role that our school counselors play in our school buildings. So a thanks
109to Val, Carrie, Mike, Grant, and Megan for their work to support students academic, social, emotional, and career development. I'd also like to provide a brief update on our continued partnership with the psychotherapy center of Wanaki. Currently we have five therapists that are visiting our school buildings throughout the week. Um each month the therapists are providing on average 87 sessions for our students. Um we also recently partnered with Pecow in a new way. Um during our January 19th workday staff were invited to schedule a virtual session with a therapist to support their own mental health and wellness. the therapist provided a safe supportive space to talk through challenges, strategies to manage stress and other areas of mental health wellness. We were able to offer 45 minute sessions for 11 staff members during this event hosted by
110the wellness committee. And finally, I would like to um highlight our um educational assistant leadership group. This group meets quarterly and really the purpose is to bridge the gap between that front line of student services and our district administration. Our goals have included continued work on onboarding new EAS into our schools among other things. Um we help they help create an aligned support system across our schools and it's they're very helpful when the district is seeking their input on various topics. During our last meeting, we discussed the upcoming assessment, the spring assessment window, and also thought about new ideas to transition our students from one school year to the next um to have a successful start to that next school year. So, thank you to Kathy, Christa, Amanda, Normmaene, Yolanda, and Abby for all of
111their leadership. >> Thanks, Adria. >> Love it. >> Primary school. >> Good evening. Um, two things I just want to highlight. The first one is in regards to pillar one. We talked um at the gallery walk a little bit about some things we're doing to support our scorecard, but this goal is the kind of like the the foundational pieces that help us reach our scorecard. So, um looking midy year, super excited about the celebrations we have for 4K with identifying uppercase and lowercase letters and working towards our goals for that. Kindergarten, we're working on again trying to make sure our composite score that at least 75% of the students are at or above the 25th percentile by the end of the year. And mid year we were at 87%. First grade we want again the
11275% at or above that 25th we're at 88% for that. And second grade same goal of 75% um we're at 85.1%. Um one of the things is that obviously those goals change as we get to the spring. So it doesn't mean like we've made the goal completely yet. Obviously the little change was going but it's um very exciting to see what our teachers are doing to support our students. Uh pillar two just want to highlight we gave the student and staff connection survey. This we actually gave this in November. Sorry, I'm getting a little bit late back to this, but um uh we did this again. We did this last year was the first time. And you can see the data from uh 2024 and 2025 to this year. And we have um looking at
113the scores right here, 96% of our students had three or more connections um with staff. this year, instead of breaking it down by three connections, four connections, or five or more, we thought that if you had three connections or more, that that really exemplified that number. So, um, we took the survey, we looked at this information, and then Val and I reached out to the classroom teachers to talk to them about any students that maybe did not have the, um, zero connection or one connection or two that they had had to see if that's something that is a deeper conversation. Um, we have lots of different supports already that we're doing tier one, but also Mrs. Bilfield works with different students and I do as well to help support that. But again, continue to have
114a lot of connections between our students and our staff. >> Those are the two main things I want to highlight tonight. >> Thank you. >> Y >> um, student report. >> Yeah. So, I'm just kind of keeping a little things a little bit more brief. Um, there's a lot of really fun events that happen at the high school and for students. Um so I'm just highlighting on some of the things that are different and out of the normal. So in early January um the AC capella group fundamentally sound from WMadison and Impromptu from Wclair um came and they performed some songs and they gave super helpful tips about vocal percussion and singing in a capella groups um just because that's something that's not um in typically in choir classes. It's like an extracurricular that many
115students do. Um, and so it was super fun to get college um, level competition expertise. Um, and that really helped us. Um, we had rock the gym um, which was held on Thursday, January 22nd um, as a result of the cold weather, but we did still have a very good turnout. Um, both girls and boys basketball teams won again poinette. >> Woohoo. >> So that's pretty cool. Um and then forensics did very well placing at Capitol Conference placing first in small teams and we also had some individual conference champions >> um as followed. >> Awesome. >> Good job. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Uh Lota Elementary OC. >> Hello. Yeah, just a couple things to highlight from the board report. Uh first of all, we have parent teacher conferences going on um this week. Um
116So, shout out to staff for um the extra work that that entails and thank you families who um are are taking advantage of that opportunity. Our spring conferences, we call them, are by invite um so any parent can request a conference or teachers can request request a conference with families. Um report cards come home um this Thursday. Um so, thank you to staff for their work on that and families can be expecting those. Um, also we had a nice good stretch there of inside recess. Um, and so just took some pictures of ways that we um had to get a little creative um and ways that we try to give them some opportunities for exercise even when we were stuck inside. Um, and then something that we've been doing for a while is um our
117February kindness calendar and challenge. And so we really look at um ways that we can help students through this month of February and staff. Um, and so there's lots of different little things we do. Um, some of those, um, videos are really about Steve Hartman and kindness 101 challenges and getting kids to think about, um, different ways that they can make a difference and that ripple effect, um, not just in our our learning community, but in the world. Um, and then also I put on here just some information for you for our OSC enrollment information, kind of our timeline of where we're at with that because that has started. We had our um info night, OSC info night um the 3rd of February, so last week. Um and then we have some information going out
118and then that OSC open enrollment um is February 15th through March 15th. And then these are our for last month our guardians of LOI Pride. They're pictures. >> Awesome. Thank you. They're so cute. And Lord Middle School. Uh good evening board. Um first thing our impact team met to highlight our building scorecard and some celebrations that we had in pillar one. We continue to show strong growth in math and reading and math. Uh pillar two 99% of our students report they feel safe at school which is up from 96% and 99% of students feel their teachers care about them up from 98%. Um, we continue to send home room monthly communications and actually the teachers send a picture of themselves with some little blurbs of like get to know me kinds of things like uh
119what is my favorite food? Um, where did I go to high school? Those kinds of things just to kind of help uh kind of foster that connection. >> Teachers are humans too, right? >> So are principles by the way. >> Um, pillar four, we continue to pass around the GOAT award. Uh, each month a staff member recognizes another one. So this week, actually on Friday, um we have a staff member that'll give it to someone else. Um next up is the spelling bee. So I want to thank Patty Heindman for um putting together our district spelling bee. Um and we did it at the PAC at the high school for the second year in a row. So thanks Joe for letting us use your space. Um but then uh the win or the top two
120people from this one go on to the regional spelling be. And if you scroll down a little bit there, uh Kaden Ray, keep going. Kaden Ray, uh was the champion of the regional spelling bee, um which is absolutely amazing. Um so he will actually represent Loi Middle School at the state spelling bee in Madison on March 21st. So >> Oh my. >> So yeah, >> um let's scroll down to uh pillar two, tween read week. So certainly in school we work a lot on skill building but we also need to make sure that we are teaching a love of reading as well. Um so I want to thank Ely Kernney um during our win time for one week. Usually we do it late December, early January. Um she organizes fun activities. Um they played a
121game called library games. Um they did the masked reader. They did cozy up and read. They also created cozy bookmarks. And Tyler I don't know will the if you click on the link will it play it and can you hear it? Yeah, please. >> So, click on the top one there >> so you get an idea of the master reader here. >> Hello. My three clues are that I enjoy being outdoors. I I have seven children and this is my fourth year in Modi. So I know all of you. >> So this is a staff member. >> My favorite place >> and they mass their voice with my kids before they go to bed. >> Staff member in this room. >> My favorite book is touching by Michael. >> All right. Can we can you
122do the reveal here? You don't need to play the reveal very >> you can close this out. >> Close that one. >> Reveal. >> I'm guessing. >> Yeah. I haven't looked. >> It has to be a ton of kids. Who does? >> No, but it's a middle school. >> Oh, it's >> Oh, >> that's fun. >> I'm sorry to embarrass you, but they're just >> That's easy for kids. Easy for kids. >> So, the computer does that voice. You didn't. >> I did not. >> She like has a voice mixer thing. >> That's awesome. >> Did they guess you? >> Most of them did guess uh Eric. >> Seven kids. >> Wow. Maybe >> about seven kids, but there's a master reader every day. That week. >> Um I also have some pictures of indoor
123recess. We did invest in some games this year, which has made a big difference. The giant Uno cards are really funny to watch the kids play with. Um, but the games have been uh uh really good to help them socialize during indoor recess. >> They probably like indoor recess. >> Um, they like it, but they need to go outside. >> Yes, they do. >> If you scroll down a little more, we did have our annual student staff uh volleyball showdown. Um, which was a lot of fun and the staff won again as you can see from the trophy. Um, it's actually one of the interview questions I have now. >> Is this the refs for this? >> Is it staff? >> Yeah, it's just honor system. It's just honor system. But uh um most importantly,
124no one got hurt, so we were able to have school that day. Um um want to highlight our students of the month. So congratulations to students of the month that were um honored for their perseverance. And then under Innovative Community Connection, our sixth grade chorus was selected for Wisconsin in our schools month to sing at the state capital. So they'll sing at the state capital on Tuesday, March 31st. uh from between 12 and 1 will be their performance. Um and I want to thank Angela Roberts for going through the application process and getting that opportunity for our students and for district workforce just highlighting our special education staff and all the amazing things they do uh to support all students um but especially those that struggle most and then um highlight our social emotional learning
125team um for all the work they do. >> Awesome. Thank you. High school All right. Thanks, Heather. Um, first I want to recognize some of the amazing things that our students are doing. So, Michigan Tech Merit Honor, our science department was able to pick two students, one junior and senior, Mara Lane and Jane Dol. So, they were recognized at school um as being hopefully future engineers. Um, this is a program that's been going on for a while and we picked two students over there. Congratulations and Dave. Um, some athletic milestones uh that were put out on social media. Congratulations to seniors Theo Trader and Taylor Reese both uh accomplishing the goal of scoring a thousand points in their career, which is pretty awesome. Uh, it's so fun to talk about those two because they're not
126just good basketball players, but they're good students and they're great people. So, and they're really good leaders in our school. And then in wrestling, we had a couple 100 win um in in their careers. Senior Alex Bryan and Junior Ryer Caves and again great students, great kids do a lot for our school besides just um what they do in their sports. Um you can see our students of the month which we celebrate every year and there they are. Um also some Microsoft Office industry certification Sigler's class. So you can see the four students Riley Burchler, Isaiah Burkram, Sydney Brule, Alison K and Max Overland. Congratulations to them. um they not only got through word but some of them actually got through the powerpoint industry certification as well. So congratulations to them. Emily talked a little
127bit about the next part that was the Madison fundamentally sound clear as impromptu. Um underneath that is Wisconsin metalmith guild. So um Whitney reached out to me Whitney Robart reached out to me about a month ago and said that these uh this guild was interested in visiting our school and it was really incredible. about eight individuals or maybe 10 individuals. They look like retired people that are really into art and they brought in all their metal materials and they worked with our students. So, our students had an opportunity to do that. Um it was a great experience. They actually had a couple openings and I almost jumped in but I decided not to. Um walked away from it. But um so it was it was really neat that they were able to visit. Um I
128wanted to recognize LCAT um Brian Bily and Sarah Mczznney for being for partnering with LOI wrestling. Um they were able to be and LC Memorial Wrestling Tournament. Um, and they were also able to be at our lunch uh the day of to talk to our students about mental wellness um and encouraging conversations about mental wellness. Um, they were there as long as as well as a few other people um to support our wrestling team that night. So, it was a cool event. Um, leadership council, you can read a little bit about some of the things that they're doing. Um, I did want to mention that uh we are going to have our ACT again coming up March 10th and we are going to have a practice opportunity for our ninth and tth graders at this
129point. Looking at my survey, we have about 35 kids that have signed up for that and usually you'll get a few more. So, you'll get an opportunity to take the practice ACT. Um, and then there's some information that's been sent out to scholarships. are to our seniors about scholarships. And it's that time of the year again where there's tons of scholarship opportunities both locally um and in other places that our our seniors can take advantage of. So that's been communicated uh to seniors and their families. Um and then you can also see some of the links that are related to our scholarship booklet, uh scholarship application, what the checklist looks like. So you can click on those if you're interested. And then of course our advocate videos and some of the great photography that our
130takes for our students in athletics. I also wanted to personally thank Mr. Lepkkey and Miss Kennedan so Grant and Megan for all they do for our students on a daily basis and a lot of things that they do behind the scenes that nobody knows they do to think about our counselor. So appreciate it. >> Thank you. uh curriculum. >> First item there is our midyear checkpoint where we have our winter assessment uh window data and I put that together in presentation for educators principles to review. Um they've already done that. They will do that in a deeper level at our Friday PD day this week. And also we review this at the curriculum committee level. So you can go ahead and take look at that when you have time. Um, speaking about our upcoming professional
131development day, we're always so thankful that we have the opportunity to have these. I know, um, that's a challenge sometimes for families to have your child not be in school that day, but we truly feel that on those days, the work that we do enhances the time that we have with your children when they are here with us. So, we have a lot going on in those days. We have building level meetings. We have in each building teacher teams who are meeting in PLC's to talk about curriculum and instruction and how to make enhancements and how to do adjustments uh at different points of the year when we need to change to to better affect uh the way we're impacting student outcomes. And then we have a variety of other things that are going on
132place. So just this Friday we're going to have the PE department will have their annual uh lifeguard reertification. We've got state board exam proctor training, state ACT exam proctor training. We're going to be talking about uh literacy uh in a variety of ways. Um we're going to be talking to our staff uh again about AI um how that can potentially enhance our our workflows here locally, but we're also going to be talking about AI policy um and then also the winter uh data review. So that a lot going on on those Fridays. Speaking of AI, I have just an update here. Yes, we are thinking about it. We have a team in the district who meets on this topic weekly. Um, we have an updated draft policy from our policy partner, Niola that we've been
133combing through and saying, okay, how does that potentially best fit what we'd like to see here in LOI? We're taking that to our educators for feedback at uh this Friday um to get additional feedback. And then we have a number of topics that fall under this umbrella that we're going to be bringing to both the curriculum committee and the policy committee in the meeting in the upcoming months. And then finally, I just want to highlight at the end um February is also CTE recognition month, career and technical education. And we have some phenomenal career and technical education teachers here in the school district of LOI. So you maybe you recently saw this post out on Facebook. Um, we're going to have a couple of more posts coming out that's going to highlight uh for our
134community our increasing youth apprenticeship numbers that we've seen as a result of this group and their great work over the past five or so years and then also our increasing industry recognized certifications that students are earning and I Joe highlighted a little bit of that a moment ago. >> Awesome. Sounds thank you >> Vince. Are you up for the report? >> Yeah, absolutely. Uh, so thanks to staff and administration for being here for the gallery walk. I appreciate that. Um, I also want to thank the board and the administrators for uh attending the board retreat on January 26. It's always good for the board administration to spend time together outside the formality of a board meeting or board committee meeting. Um, but I also understand it's another night out of people's lives, so I thank
135everybody for taking part in those. Um, I also know it was mentioned about parent teacher conferences coming up. I just want to encourage parents and guardians to attend parent teacher conferences. These are important opportunities to connect with your child's teacher. I also want to thank our staff for being here for parent teacher conference nights and other nights. I appreciate the amount of time and effort staff put into those conferences for families while taking away from their own families. A couple other things I want to mention. February 8th to 13th is Wisconsin school bus driver appreciation week. So, we are so grateful for the the amazing bus company, Go Busin, and we have such fantastic people getting our kids to and from school safely every day. And finally, next week, February 16th to 20th, is Wisconsin
136Adult Crossing Guard Appreciation Week. A huge shout out to all those who serve in these very important roles across the district. We appreciate them being out there each and every day to ensure our students get to and from school safely. Thank you. the appreciation didn't hear appreciation week for the bus drivers and also appreciation next week for >> Yes. Thank you. Um I don't know about you, but I have felt like I have had more sick days than healthy days this year so far. I'm bringing up sickness for two reasons. Obviously, it's our responsibility to stay away and try not to spread the symptoms. But I do have to say, at least our world is done with giving mean looks when someone has a stuffy nose or sneezes. I'll be the first to admit that
137the crazy initial co era brought me a lot of sadness. One of the many helpless feelings I had was the fear of volunteers and parent groups disappearing in our schools. I loved my volunteering duties and being involved in as many groups and activities that my kids were associated with. that came to a dead stop when COVID hit, but I'm so incredibly happy to see that groups and organizations have been coming back along with more opportunities to volunteer. I know there is always a need for more volunteers and numerous clubs and organizations in our district. So, please do not misunderstand me and think that volunteering positions are filled. There is always a need for more help, but the opportunities are expanding thanks to many wonderful people in our district that are taking the lead to bring
138these things back. The second reason I was bringing up sickness was that I had to miss out on the community dinner last week put on by our newly formed PTO. Nothing worse than being sick and mad at the same time. I still remember hearing the disappointing news when our PTO was dissolved years ago and I was so incredibly happy to hear it is back. I'm also a huge advocate and very appreciative of our sports and music booster clubs. Those mo may be the most known volunteer groups, but being a parent in our district for 20 plus years, I know all the time and volunteering that our parents and community members do that never gets mentioned. And now being on the board, I also see all the people in our community that are volunteering without ever
139working directly with our students, but their time, effort, and expertise are playing a part in decisions and opportunities that are affecting our students and giving them the environment to grow and learn. Volunteering is such a great opportunity to get involved and make sure that the activity you are volunteering for stays active. Nothing worse than hearing that your child's favorite group or club is going away from lack of help. I can't name names because I will obviously miss someone, but you know who you are and I want to say thank you to all of our district and community volunteers. There is no way to ever show our appreciation for all your time, effort, and love that you have given to our students. So to all of you helping in the classroom, coaching, managing, directing, bringing in
140stacks, giving rides to your child's teammates, organizing spreadsheets, filling out rosters, bringing in extra supplies, finding sponsors, working concessions, being involved in decision-making groups, sorting equipment, and you know, I could go on and on. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. You are appreciated and we are so incredibly grateful to you. You are a big part of why our students, teachers, and staff feel supported and what makes our community so amazing to be a part of. >> Nice. >> Thank you. I was really bummed. I wanted to go to that. I was laying in bed. >> Okay. Um, high school roofing bids. >> So, Vince, did you want to talk about this or you want facility and finance? >> Sure. I can just briefly. Uh the administration met with CG Schmidt to review review
141the roofing bids for the high school project scheduled for this summer. Which is part of the 2022 referendum. Seven bids were received with Mali roofing submitting the lowest bid. The total bid package including roof roofing um some insulation work, electrical and HVAC was $800,000 uh $148 $800,148 which is well under the budgeted amount and I would recommend approval this bid. >> I make a motion to approve the bid package as submitted by CG Schmidt for the roofing project in the summer of 2026. >> I'll second that. >> Motion by Adam, second by Terry. Any more discussion? All in favor. >> Anyone opposed? Motion passes 70 and then our solar panel bids. >> Yeah. So, Upper 90 Energy Coordinated RFB process uh to review solar project scope across the district's five buildings. Upper 90 recommended the
142bid from Elen Electric based on the lowest overall bid, a longer 30-year solar panel warranty, and a strong track record of successful solar projects. The facility finance committee reviewed these bids and is recommending approval of the solar project bid from Elen Electric to the full port. >> I'll make a motion to move to approve the solar project bid from Eland Electric. >> Second >> motion by Sarah Ramish, second by Adam. Any more discussion? >> All in favor? >> I. Anyone opposed? >> Motion passes 70. And then we have our solar lease resolution. >> Yeah. As part of the process of obtaining a lease, the board has to formally adopt a solar lease resolution. The resolution has been reviewed by our legal council and is required for the district to acquire a lease with a taxexempt
143leasing company. So, I would recommend approval of this resolution. >> Okay. I'll move to approve the solar lease resolution as presented. >> I'll second. >> Motion by Terry, second by Adam. Any more discussion? >> All in favor? I. Anyone opposed? Motion passes 70. And then we have our administrator director contract extensions. >> Yeah. In past years, the board has moved to extend administrator and director contracts with one-year extensions at the February board meeting. I'd ask them to do that again. >> I will make a motion to approve administrator and director contracts with one-year extension through June 2028 for Miss Fospender, Mr. Shunan, Mr. Mr. Jelanick, Miss Shrader, Dr. Carl, Mr. Brewer, Mr. Marshall, Miss Carl, Mr. Potter, Mr. Haran, Ms. Price, Mr. Low, and Miss Section with compensation levels to be determined prior to issuing
144of formal contracts. >> I'll second that. >> Motion by Sarah Ramish, second by Terry. Any more discussion? I do want to say that um Vince gave us quite yes explanation of everybody and I just want to thank you guys all for all you do. We see stuff and we think you're amazing and then Vince tells us everything else that we don't even see and we realize that we are very grateful and lucky to have all of you and everyone mentioned on here. But yes, and Vince, thank you. That was several pages of >> Yeah. >> of nice really fun to read. >> Yes. >> But it's deserving. It's not just nice because he's nice. It's amazing because you guys deserve what you >> It makes you feel good to be a board member in Loic.
145>> Yes. >> Feeding the good wolf. >> Yes. >> All right. All in favor? >> Anyone opposed? >> Motion passes 70. >> I will make a motion to move to the to approve the issuing of a two-year contract, district administrator contract to Dr. Friday commencing on July 1, 2026 and extending through June 30th, 2028 with compensation level to be determined prior to issuing a formal contract. I'll second motion by Sarah Ramis, second by Sarah Riff. Any more discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Anyone opposed? Motion passes 70. Okay. Okay. So, did anyone else forget their state convention notes at home? Because I did. >> I wasn't sure if we were supposed to talk about this or who was. I >> usually what we do is report on one thing you found helpful or interesting
146or so that everyone can hear. >> So, if you have one thing you want to talk about, that's all you got to do. >> Wow, there's a lot. >> I'm going to start with mine then. >> Okay. Because um I went to the student and really encouraging and having your students being leaders and um it was oh it was Platville I think >> and I I'm not sure how big the high school was but they have been doing this for a while. They've been doing it for a while. So basically they had 500 students in the high school and 100 of them are very active in you know what we would call the the um science club and uh but anyway so then it's moved down into middle and they really got started for a
147lot of reasons to work on projects, you know, and we've got certainly we have that wonderful um that wonderful impetus here, but they had pretty much started because some kids had watched other kids be left out or be picked on or whatever. And it's kind of like well, you know, just kind of starting this different kind of a culture. So, they kind of branched off. They're in all different areas. Um, some are more science-based, some are more sportsbased, some are more, you know, different. They do everything. But what was really neat is when they all meet with the freshmen at the beginning of the year when the freshmen come and they invite them to come to their first meetings. Like they'll one-on-one invite somebody to come to a meeting. Well, if you if you're a
148freshman and a senior invites you to come to a meeting or a junior or whatever, you're probably going to hopefully show up. And I just thought that that was such a that really struck me that that was such a unique way of and you know once you've gone to the meeting you know that if the right things happen you'll probably go back you know so I don't know I just thought it was really fun to watch and it reminded me of what we've got going on and all the great things and bathrooms and so anyway but that there was a whole lot and of course I went to finances again and you sit there and you go we sat there for two you know, and you're just >> I think they do that because then
149they make you really appreciate your business manager. >> They do. They do. And we And we do. >> And they make you feel really dumb when you sit there. >> It's just so complicated. >> It is. It's crazy. >> So, I listen every year. Now, this has been, I think, my fifth year of listening >> and, you know, trying to kind of grab on to the pieces and parts. So, that was my thing. If I could interject on the part about entrepreneurship. So in our school, you know, we have SAPS club which has grown from a science club to >> problem solving >> more which is where we get SAPS from. But I do think like we also have had an increase in participation in a lot of other clubs. Like recently our leadership leadership
150council meetings have grown too big to hold in a classroom that they have to meet in the commons. >> Oh wow. >> They and almost every table is filled with groups of friends and >> whether they are 100% active or planning things they do go to like big buddies and >> want to interact because >> they have also spread the word about that and um >> it keeps going. >> Yeah. As an interact club president like I know that We work with the community and stuff like that, but that club has also grown so much that we sit on the floor and the interact classroom. And I think SAPS is a big part in growing these programs, but everybody is really enthusiastic about joining things. And >> we probably need to take you guys to
151the conference sometime. >> I It was really and and I don't know, snow days and other things under the and the it was also um their finals or whatever, but they ended up being able to bring >> a whole >> the school got cancelled. >> Yeah. They ended up like with 20 students. That was a really cool day. >> Would not have had happened otherwise. >> And then we didn't get to go rock the gym. >> No, they do not >> because we were in Milwaukee. >> Yeah. Um there was one that I um went to and I wish Adria was there because it was about how they kind of have redone their whole um special education teachers and like how they do interviews now. They like do interviews that last like almost the whole
152day and they have the person instead of just asking the questions and then giving the right answers like going in and working with these kids and then it's for them to see if they could handle it in a way but then also like it would be for you guys to see like is this going to be a good match if we want this person in there. Um I think the school was Campbell I have to look up the name. Um, but I got her card because I didn't know the right questions to ask and my daughter is in that now. So, I kind of went I was in I would have loved to have her there because I know she would have and because I was talking to her about and then she started bringing
153stuff up that I didn't know what she was talking about. But, um um so I thought that was interesting. And then there was one there was another one I went to where it's a um they come into your school and they look around and see kind of they almost give you like a not a report card, but in a way like tell you what things you could do to make kids feel more included or you know um on like um like a race thing. Make sure that you know you have posters that just aren't all a certain kind you know or gender or not even that but just in general just making things more it it is actually crazy to think how posters in classrooms really do affect the kids. I mean, they're sitting there
154sometimes probably just staring at it, you know, or looking at it, seeing every day. Um, so I thought that was kind of interesting and not necessarily I think, you know, I don't know if that would be something that we would need too much in Loi. I feel like you guys do pretty good job of that, but it would be something that was interesting. I thought just to kind of make sure that kids are always feeling included and involved and stuff. So, trying to think again. I don't have my notes in front of me. >> Well, also a big shout out to our dear Sarah Rip who was on a on on a panel and it was on AI and it was really quite I thought it was incredible um because it just made me think
155about AI and all the different directions. But what I loved was when somebody who um obviously was involved with an elementary school and not happy about AI was um really put it to this one presenter about well how can we be using AI with um with like little with with kids in primary school and elementary school and we can't just have them not, you know, learn things. And so he gave a great answer even though he's a college professor. His answer was just so wonderful. But it was like just to like how they can start a writing assignment and then they could do a little guided AI to help like kind of spur on that, you know, kind of like a project based learning thing. go to the next step and then after that take
156some more steps and creating their own. I just love the way he I mean it was like well yeah it's a tool you know >> it's uh it's like going from uh when we did everything in cursive and now they're typing every you know it's like yeah we can do this >> but anyway it was it was just very it was interesting because it was more about um and then also how AI when they're using it like in a college or high school level and how your languages make a difference like if you have English as a second language and how like you might ask the question how it might you know give >> misinterprets it >> misinterprets what you said and give you a funky answer very funky answer >> even with that I've
157started to use it more and more at work for emails because >> I'm a pretty common Gen Xer >> and I just kind of say things that probably shouldn't be said that way and so I'll Hey chat GPT >> make this sound more professional. >> Yes. >> Anyway, >> that was also an extremely I mean there were they were all good. I mean, I find it two days of just well, >> there was a great session on referendum getting referendum passed is by West Alice in West Milwaukee school district and they have a very politically charged school district that lies in two different municipality areas and and they're two very different worlds. and they had templates and everything laid out on everything you should do and it was all there linked up and so I
158summarized that and sent it to Vince and Jason so that we could use all those templates and use all those parts and follow their pathway to pass our referendum hopefully. >> Nice. I I you know really enjoyed all the sessions I attended, but what I actually kind of walked away with um that I've been like thing I've been sort of thinking about more was actually all three of the keynote speakers um kind of talked about this idea some more explicitly used this this term and others it was sort of inferred but this idea of I see you >> and I've been thinking about it a lot that there that's I think one of the things that maybe again we're not always explicitly saying that with the things that we're doing in the district, but that's
159a huge thing like um with kids, with us as just human beings, like just seeing each other and finding value um and finding something special about you know, everybody has something like unique and special. And so, um, I mean, I just I I that's what I've just been sort of thinking about quite a bit ever since the conference. And I really appreciated all the the keynote speakers. >> Yeah. >> No, they were awesome. >> And actually, Nikki, the saxoponist. >> Oh, the saxophone. >> Um, I don't know if I showed you guys. I told you guys this. Did I? Yeah. It was pretty cool. He played the saxophone. He was a um I had won a Grammy for his outreach, educational outreach. And afterwards, I just went up and I just said hi to him
160after the presentation because he was just standing there like nobody was talking to him. And so I was like, I loved your presentation. And said, "Oh, I have a seventh grader that plays a saxophone, too." And he goes, "Well, what's her name?" And like then I said, "Well, can I get a picture with you for my daughter?" And he goes, "Oh, I'll I'll make it even better. I'm going to do a little." He played the saxophone and he had me videotape it and he gave a little shout out to her. I was like that is very cool. She thought it was really special. >> He was a seventh or he was a middle school band instructor and a Grammy winner. >> Amazing. >> It was very cool. >> It was cool. >> Yeah. I the
161keynote speakers every time. So last year I went and this year I went and teaching at a technical college for a long time and been to a lot of beginning of the year things that are um none of them have ever been like either one of the conferences that I went to because I leave there and I'm like I can do this. I see you. I can go to school and I see all of my students. I see my co-workers. Like whatever it was that they were focusing on is like feels lifechanging to me because I'm at a point in my career where I'm nearing the end of it and thinking I've seen this and done that and no, not even close. Like what you guys do and what the teachers at LOI school do
162is like I feel like nothing compared to what I've done honestly in my whole career. And those conferences point that out to me like how you go above and beyond. I always thought I did. No, you guys go above and beyond. Way above and beyond. And then of course I went to the finance meeting because I just keep thinking there's going to be some creative thing that comes up that's going to be like I got the answer. It never happened. So, it's just like >> Jason, >> they're they're just like for our school district, it's just the way that the system is set up. It like it needs to be a complete change and the legislative level above what we can do. >> I'm going to keep trying. And a big sale is not going
163to cut it, but you know, hardly >> there's got to be some other revenue sources we can come up with. >> Um I just I just want anybody listening like I really appreciate all of our administrators and and all of our teachers and what they do. It's amazing to me. >> No, I get that. That's why that conference that convention means it really you walk out of there just feeling amazing about our district. It's very validating. Plus, you get some new things. Yes. >> Well, you guys should be going. I should be staying. >> That's how I feel. Every time I go, I get going. >> All right. Well, thanks guys. And always, always thank you. Thank you. Thank you to the district for letting us do that because it is quite the experience and
164it's a good bonding experience and we learn a lot and have fun at the same time. So, thank you. Um, we're going to move on to policy review. >> Yeah. The policy committee met on Wednesday, January 28th, uh, to review the most recent updated recommendations from Niola. The committee reviewed unanimously move 15 policies and administrative guidelines to the board with a recommendation of approval. >> A motion to approve the revisions to policies as presented. >> I'll second that. >> Motion by Adam, second by Terry. Any more discussion? >> Yeah. I just have one thing like as I'm reading through every one of these. Okay. I'm going to say policy is not as bad as I thought it was. Some of them were interesting. >> Oh yeah. >> But the changes are just what's in green.
165Correct. >> Yes. >> Or red struck out. >> Yep. Because we've reviewed >> took me a little while to >> Right. Because we've done all these once. >> Okay. And these are like the minor minor updates. Y >> So I do have a question on um PO 1230. >> Um I'm just curious. >> Where is it? >> Yeah. >> Um why are we not putting it on the website? Just >> shall be published on the district website and be readily accessible. Just curious >> administrative guidelines and handbooks. She's asking why we're not putting those why it was crossed off that those are not going on the district. >> We haven't in the past. We've had the administrative guidelines behind the scenes and guide books and things of that nature have always been um for the
166administrators and for us to work through. Um they have not been since we switched to they have not been on >> the website. Website >> okay. I mean they're there for people to look at. They're just >> Yeah. So, somebody could come and and ask to look at it. >> Yep. >> Yeah. But we just don't need it on our website >> because that's what we've always done, right? Is that kind of what I'm getting the gist of? >> Correct. >> Okay. >> The guidelines have everything. >> Okay. >> But they're not. >> Yes. Yes. Any more discussion? All in favor? >> I. Anyone opposed? >> Motion passes 70 and a donation. >> There's a lot of them. >> Yeah. >> I'll make I'll make a motion to accept with great gratitude the donation of
167$500 from Rhonda and Bernie Frederick for upkeep for the Jessica Frederick Memorial. donation of 40 basketballs to the Lodai High School girls and boys basketball teams from the Dan Mark Foundation at a value of $3,400 and another donation of $7,847 from an anonymous donor for the cost of two buses for the 2026 8th grade Washington DC trip. >> That is wonderful. >> That is that is >> I'll second that motion. Yeah. >> Motion by Adam, second by Sarah Ramish. Any more discussion? So, >> with them paying by the buses, I'm assuming the cost is going down for the kids. >> My question, too. Yeah. >> No. So, we had to reach a certain number of kids in order to take two buses. This is actually not written quite correctly. It's actually to cover the cost
168of the second bus to go >> because we didn't reach enough kids to have a second bus. So, we had a waiting list of kids and an anonymous donor came in and said that they would pay >> the difference so that those kids would be able to go. >> Oh, great. >> That's awesome. Because I know that's kind of been an issue in the past, hasn't it? Like that waiting list kind of gets nerve-wracking. >> Usually, it's been pretty good. Um I can only think of one one year where we had a wait list. Um >> so how so now there's two buses going? >> Yep. >> There's two buses going now. Yeah. >> So now everybody on the wait list can go. >> Everybody can go that sign up. And how old? And how
169many kids are going then? >> 59, I think. >> That's great. That's such a great trip. Thank you guys for still doing that. Well, thank you for all these donations. That's amazing. >> Uh, any more discussion? >> All in favor? >> I I Anyone opposed? Motion passes 70. And our committee report CISA five. So, I did not go because I was teaching and uh but I do know we talked they talked about Jeremy's contract. >> I'm assuming people were >> Who's Jeremy? >> He's the one who was running season five. >> Like Vince, but it's season five. >> Okay, got it. >> Um co-curricular items report. >> Okay, so >> the girls wrestling team has had a busy last few weeks. On January 30th, the team hosted a varsity girls competition at Loi High School
170with both uh Zoe Lic and Yalin Campa placing third. This past Friday, the team competed in the conference tournament with Zoe L repeating as conference champion. The team will compete this coming Friday night at regionals in Wanaki. The boys wrestling team has had an exciting last few weeks of competition. This past weekend they hosted the conference tournament with the team coming away as conference champions. Owen Dorhor, Everett Dorhorse, Xander Kellogg, Brier Caves, and Alex Brinig all took home individual conference championships with an additional five LOI wrestlers taking second place. The team will travel to Richland Center for sectionals this coming Saturday and will host team sectionals at home in LOI on Saturday, February 21st. The boys basketball team is uh 11-7 on the season with a conference record of 24. On Saturday, January 24th, the
171team traveled to Fizer Forum to take on Mount Hore. The team came up just short on the Bucks court, losing 58 to 54. Recent wins include a rock include a rock the gym victory over Poet and a 6548 win over Reedsburg. The team heads to New Glaris tonight and will host Lakeside Lutheran on Thursday night. Girls basketball. The girls basketball team is 614 with a conference record of 34. The team picked up a huge conference win at Rock the Gym, topping point at 50 to 47. This past Saturday, the team won a nail b nailbiter against Nuclaris, coming away with a 3938 victory. The girls have two conference games this week, traveling to Wapan on Tuesday and Poet on Friday night. For boys hockey, the update here we have is the Norski co-op hockey team
172is 614 with a conference record of 3-7. Recent wins include a 6-2 win over Bo and an 8-3 conference win over Barabou and Portage. The team will travel to Monroe on Tuesday and Monona Grove on Thursday. The powerlifting team competed in the NADA competition this past weekend. 11 LOI students competed all with all of with with all of them placing on the podium. Rayan Waters and Logan Newire both placed first in their varsity groups. Two students Trenton Schlender and Marin Daly have advanced to the state competition in March. That's awesome. >> This past weekend, the LOI mock trial team competed in regionals. For the second year in a row, Loi took home the top two spots with varsity earning first place in the JB team finishing finishing in second. The varsity team will head to
173the state tournament on Friday, March 6th and Saturday, March 7th at the Dayne County Courthouse. The forensics team has had a busy last few weeks. On January 31st, the team placed fourth in large teams at the DeForest tournament. Last Monday, the team competed in the Capitol Conference tournament, coming away as conference champions in the small teams division. Individual conference champs were Simon Ricks in information demonstrations, James Walsh, Henry Homouth, Hunter Lurang, and Chase Mass in play acting, Andy Lemy in poetry, Jaylen Reinig in storytelling, and Aaron Lkkey and Caleb Pollson in pros. >> Lots happening. >> Yes, lots of fantastic discussions. Yeah, mock trial. >> Yep. >> So, we did place first and second and two teams can go to state, >> but >> you can't have two teams from the same school go to
174state. >> What? >> So, varsity placed higher in scores. So, they go to state, but the third place team Wii actually goes to state and RJV does not. >> Which row, right? >> Yeah. It's the second year in a row that we have swept that. I probably should change that rule, >> but we're they can't let us go to state. >> Jonathan needs to put that in the paper. >> Yeah, >> he left early. >> Somebody called him newspaper. >> Um because we did score a lot higher than many of the other teams. >> Yeah. >> And we beat Wanke beat Wanke by kind of a lot. But um But unfortunately they cannot go. >> This is this is off this well kind of piggybacking off of that. Who are the um adviserss for the
175for mock trial? >> Um so Miss Potter is the head coach. Um and then we have two coaches. So Mr. Carl, which is a math teacher, is his first year doing it >> and then Misty Agustinino. >> Um I think this is her second year coming back. Okay. >> So, Miss Potter is very, very experienced and she has led teams to state pretty much every year. I think it's every year. Um, >> and the other obviously leads JB teams to be varsity teams. So, >> thank you for filling. >> That's interesting. >> But I think that wasn't in my report. So, thank you for >> Yeah. Additional information. That was really fact because it rarely happens, but we've been Except in Loi. >> Yeah. >> Too good. >> Might have to be writing to the
176mock trial academy and saying you might want to change that. >> You should have a JV. >> Okay. Well, thank you for all that and I'm sorry to our JV team. Good job. >> Yeah. >> All right. OC. >> All right. So, OSC met on the board met on January 21st and um The meeting consisted of the OSC school report card presentation via Nick Carl's presented the OSE board about OSC's school report card and the overall score exceeds expectations. OSC update Mr. Schunamman um shared information about assessment results coming home soon. report cards are coming home February 12th and OSC enrollment OSC um info night for second grader families that might be interested in OSE for their third graders is Tuesday, February 3rd. Um and there there's more out on the website too. Shared communication
177with second grade families and discussed enrollment timelines. OSE fundraising. This already happened. They had a trivia night over at the Wadd in fun. >> It was adult trivia. It was so much fun. >> Yeah, they have to do that again. >> And my my team my team beat these guys. So, just saying. >> So, you know, >> which I did not think was going to happen, >> but they had one more person on their team. >> We brought six, which you're supposed to. >> We were minus one. >> Were they cheaters? >> No, it was just good. >> They were not cheaters. >> No, >> we just know random >> and they obviously are really good loser or winners. Good winners. So also discussed penny word to help students be engaged and how they will
178go to the bank and they'll go to the bank and see the money counted. That is very loud when you count pennies. >> So and the next uh board meeting is Wednesday fe February 18th at 3:30. >> Awesome. Thank you. Um board committee reports personnel. >> All right. uh personnel committee we met on February 3rd. Um we approved the co-curricular payment schedule which you also approved tonight. Um Jason made the percentage increases or decreases um using the conference benchmarking, regional market analysis, internal audit hours and role and responsibility assessments. He put a lot of effort into that and we appreciated it. it was easy to approve. Um we also approved a calendar adjustment um which gave teachers flexibility in meeting the required workday prior to school starting. Just gave them a few extra options of
179the days that they could go in and meet that requirement. Um we also had a discussion on the referendum options. Obviously we didn't take any action. We just um Vince put it on so that we could talk about it during the meeting. Um and then uh Dr. Bry shared information from the recent staff workg group meeting. Um there was like 10 questions that he put out. If you're interested in the questions and answers, um which there were some really good ones. They're in the minutes of the not in the minutes, they're in the agenda from the personnel meeting. And then our next meeting is Tuesday, March 3rd. >> Thank you, TR. I just want to make one correction. The um the co-curricular pay schedule was not put on consent agenda for this meeting. We're we're
180going to put that on a future um board agenda. We're just going to save some time to speak to the staff members that it affects. >> Okay. To administration. >> Oh, my bad. I'm sorry. >> Well, that's okay. >> Thanks, Jason. >> Yep. Absolutely. >> But we voted to approve it. >> That's right. That's right. Sorry. >> Okay. Well, thank you guys. Uh >> okay. Well, we met on January 28th. Some of the highlights from that meeting. Uh first of all, we had a presentation by Mr. Gelanik who came to give an update on the exchange programs. Uh he provided an overview of current district exchange programs including Germany, Thailand, and Costa Rica. Costa Rica will be be replacing the Spain program. He also reviewed updates to ensure consistency and transparency across programs. Uh we
181talked about some of the other specific items related to that. Um we spoke about ongoing challenges with recruitment for host families. Um we talked about um establishment of a common application timeline, interviewing rubric and staff input process for all exchanges. We also talked about payment procedures. Um those were clarified including signed contracts, schedule payments, tracking spreadsheets, and a requirement that students be fully paid two paid up uh two weeks prior to travel. Um there were some other things, but those are sort of the key items. We had a presentation on um health and from the health and PE department uh 4K through 12th grade. Miss Ples provided a department update from each building at the primary school. Uh there's uh they're currently working on a striking in hockey unit focusing on routines and expectations. Uh
182the high school's fitness for life students will um are will be mentoring primary students through monthly visits. The elementary school level uh we discussed the positive impact of high school student assistance in the PE classes. New stage enclosures um have created opportunity for a gymnastics unit and potential need for some gymnastics equipment in the future. The middle school level uh swimming units continue to be successful. Students had previously been exposed in grade those who had been exposed in grade five now show greater um confidence and skills in swimming. Uh digital safety lessons have been embedded into life skills courses at the high school level. Health classes are partnering with elementary students through a pen pal and in-person connection program. The healthy lifestyles class supports little explorers and senior citizen pen pal programs. Unified PE enrollment
183is strong 30 to 31 students and mentors apply and training focus on inclusion and leadership. The lifeguarding course has been reported as highly successful this year. The committee discussed equipment planning and thank Miss Ples for the breath of programming. We then heard through uh excuse me heard from the 4K through 12th grade reading and language arts department. Miss Kierney reported on ELA work across the district. The department has returned to a unified 4K through 12 structure following the act 20 training. At the high school, expanded use of Ames web to monitor progress in principles of literacy. Middle school is in year two of my perspectives implementation shifting from startup to refinement. Summer work aligned writing standards across grades to clarify expectations and the primary elementary schools continue keys to literacy implementation. Magnetic magnetic literacy pilot
184are underway with the K through2 and OSC programs. Um, department focus areas, development of consistent grammar conventions, instruction across all grade levels, uh, shared expectations and practices for writing instruction. There may be a greater need for onboarding to support new staff and discussion of tools such as Grammarly and the balance between technology and authentic writing instruction. Uh, we went over winter assessment results. An overview of winter benchmarking was provided. I ready reading and math results were compared to Wisconsin and national norms. Ames web oral reading fluency data showed generally showed growth. Um discussion included how students in that are going to quote need support ranges receive assistance literacy supports through reading specialists and wind time math supports primarily classroom based and ELT block at middle school was noted. Committee members discuss interpretation of categories and
185grade le grade grade level patterns. There was also an act 20 update. Uh some of the updates for that included that new teachers must verify completion of approved act 20 training um or completed this year. There's a review of core materials, explanation of reading plan process and family notification system through next path which will direct contact prior to electronic notices. And uh we clar clarified how plans may continue beyond grade three and how they interface with IEPs. Lastly, we had um K through five math program review and oh, we don't I'm sorry, we tabled that to discuss at the next meeting. So, we didn't actually talk about that one. Uh, future agenda agenda items will be to follow up on the math review and do an AI update. Our next meeting is scheduled for February
18625th. >> You guys are busy. >> It was a lot. It was very good. Yeah, >> it was a lot. Thank you very much. >> Facility and finance. >> We met last Tuesday. We went over the solar panel bids that we also just went over. We were going to go over the high school roofing bids, but they didn't come in in time. We had discussions about the referendum which is going to be on every single facility and finance committee meeting discussion moving forward. >> Um and that and then we went into close session to talk about other stuff but that that was it. And then we'll meet on March 3rd again. >> Okay. Thank you. And policy went through them all. Uh Vince, will we have a meeting in February >> for policy? >> Yes.
187>> Uh, probably not. The only thing we have is the AI policy. If we're ready to bring that, I don't think we'll be ready to bring it. >> Okay. I'll be on an airplane and we'll be unavailable that day. >> Well, we can't have one without you. >> Well, you can you can have the two of you. >> I I think we could do it. >> All right. So, our next regular school board meeting is Monday, March 9th at 5:30 close, 6:30 open. Our curriculum committee is Wednesday, February 25th at 4:30. Policy >> maybe not is but maybe Wednesday, February 25th at 6 o'clock. Personnel will be Tuesday, March 3rd at 4:30 and facility and finance will be Tuesday, March 3rd at 6:00. >> And we do not need to reconvene into close session, I
188believe. Then I will make a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion by Sarah Ramish, second by Adam. Any more discussion? All in favor? >> Anyone opposed? >> Motion passes 70. We are jerk.