001e hello everybody uh Welcome to our board meeting uh we are already in Open Session uh to start the board meeting tonight we have a presentation um on a community survey so at the August 2021 regular board meeting the board approved the development of a community survey by the thirdparty vendor to gather information about the upcoming referendum in the community the board used School perceptions to develop and conduct conduct this survey the survey went through several several different drafts as school perceptions worked with the facility and finance committee on the survey the final survey was approved by the board at their October meeting and was rolled out to the community in mid to late October the survey window closed on November 22nd Rob deuse from school perceptions is joining us virtually to review the results
002of this community survey uh while Rob is presenting the board members are are down here off the stage so they can see U board members are welcome to ask any questions they have about this with Rob but I ask you to come to the podium so Rob can see you you can probably turn around you look at Rob back so all right I'll turn it over to you rob great thank you um audio okay and is just screen up great all right let's hop in and first let me um let me just Echo what I just heard in saying that I appreciate your voting this to allow me to present virtually tonight um we at this time of year at school perceptions are presenting many many uh results to school boards uh just like you
003and so I'm skipping around the state tonight and I you know I I admit I speed but I don't want to speed that bad as as I'm going around so I I do appreciate you allowing me to do it in this format um knowing that my audio and screen sharing is working I want to hop right in U and tell you a little bit uh briefly just reviewing uh who I am who School perceptions is but that's not the point so I'll skip through this uh pretty briefly um like you heard my name is Rob deise um I am a former High School social studies teacher uh once that teacher had goes on um it never comes off I wor that proudly uh but at the same time um for reasons that I'm still coming
004to terms with I went back to grad school uh and got my PhD for in education policy analysis from the University of Wisconsin um when I was at the University I studied uh political behavior in school referendums in other words why people vote Yes why people vote no uh why people change their minds or why they don't um so that led me into to a natural channel into school perceptions um where I kind of have a hand in both sides of the work meaning our staff student parent um surveys and then our community surveys and speaking of school perceptions um I serve as the research director there now uh we just had our 20th birthday we were founded in 2002 or just entered our 20th year rather um and in those 20 years our mission
005has never changed uh we help educational leaders such as yourselves do three things which are to gather organize and use data to make strategic decisions uh so now in our 20th year we've conducted more than 10,000 staff parents students and Community surveys all in the name of school Improvement uh and those 10,000 staff parent student and Community surveys have been spread across more than 800 districts who are all doing exactly what you were doing uh which is navigating both the strategic planning and no referendum planning processes specific to your survey let's talk a little bit Logistics here so your survey uh was conducted in November of this year so it just uh just wrapped up a couple of weeks ago um residents uh within the district were mailed a paper survey so just as a
006reminder here of how the survey Pro process actually worked um households were mail a paper copy of the survey and then they really had one of two options to complete that survey um they could mark up that survey to their heart's content and send it directly back to us at school perceptions um and that was purposefully um done to remove the district from the process we didn't want those to go back to you uh they went directly back to us in order to ensure uh respondent confidentiality um or residents were certainly um uh welcome to take the survey online how did they get there there was a 16 character alha numeric code sprayed on the front the surveys to or excuse me allowed respondents to access the survey online um once that survey code was
007used once once the respondant hit uh finish or submit that survey code expired so that nobody could take your survey dozens of times and potentially skew your data so it was a onot deal um and as you can see uh most of the time people do take the survey online though we do hear that uh that people certainly appreciate being able to have a paper copy in their hands and they look at that they fill up the screen look at the paper fill up the screen uh but for the most part people do choose to take it online as you can see here your total responses were 973 and ballpark about about a quarter of those were uh were done via paper for a response rate of 22% uh whenever I see a two in
008front of the response rate I I'm pretty thrilled um we feel like we can make uh strongly predicted results with a response rate that's substantially lower than that um so when you're sitting at 22% um that's pretty darn good and as we go through here I'll show you some cross-sections based on the demographics of your community and and all in all I feel good about that there's good news on this slide so who made up that 22% who is part of this uh this uh this survey taking group um wouldn't be a good research director if I didn't spend my free time on the Census Bureau website I absolutely do uh and because I do that I know that uh they actually publish yearly results not just the decennial census which is really helpful for
009for researchers um like myself to compare how the demographics of your community look especially in terms of age groups here versus who took your survey so um 1% of your survey takers uh fell into the 18 to 25 age range that is very common um 18 to 25 year olds don't seem to take surveys and on the flip side of that uh they don't really seem to to show up and vote that is the age group that is uh the least likely to turn on in any given election that is not a Loi thing that is not a Wisconsin thing uh that is a nationwide thing so the fact that you're at 1% for your 18 to 25 year olds in terms of your survey takers as compared to 8% of your community um not
010a resounding endorsement of that age group but it's very normal uh your 26 to 35 was almost spot on so 11% of your community Falls in that range 12% of your survey takers fell there between 36 year olds and 55 year olds you were a little over represented your community is about 30% there that falls in these two middle bars um whereas my quick maap tells me 58% of your of your survey takers fell there U that too is pretty normal why because that age group is prime parents and Prime working age and obviously by definition of being most connected to the school Community uh parents and your staff members are pretty motivated to take the survey so it's it's also very common to see a little hump there in the middle and kind of
011see a bell shape um coming coming to the Forefront here your 56 to 64 was pretty comparable um 177% of your community Falls there 133% of your survey takers and then your 65 plus was almost spot OD so that's where our Bell shape kind of kind of comes off the rails a little bit and it goes back up that's good so the fact that we are hearing from 65 plus and the fact that it's very similar to the to the demographics of your community that's the first place my eye goes um when I see this chart is the far right hand side um why because unlik 18 to 25 year olds you're 65 plus they will be there they will be there to vote they will be there in every single election um they are
012the most loyal voters not a Loi thing not a Wisconsin thing that is a nationwide thing so obviously we want to know how potential voters are feeling and your 65 plus is a good is a good chunk of that um and in addition they are most likely to be the age group that is out of fixed income by nature of being retired so all in all do I see representation by your by uh your 65 plus I do that's great um at about a 9010 breakdown here uh the question asked is your primary residence in the school district of Loi um one question I always like to preempt is why would School perception send this to people that live here uh now one question uh there's really kind of three answers to that um one
013your your staff certainly doesn't need to um live within the school district boundaries in order to work there some staff members certainly commute in but by nature of having an email address on file um they do get the survey and same with open enrolled in parent by from having their email address on file they also get the survey and if somebody has a second home within the district but it isn't their primary residence they're going to have a mailbox obviously or a fire number um they will get the mailbox that way what is the point of bringing this up point is we're going to strip off this 10% moving forward and we're only going to focus on the 90% why because they are the ones that ultimately would control any election within the school district
014of Loi um these are the people that can vote there but 90 is what we want focus on will ignore the 10% um in which municipality do you live um I did dou check this Vincent Brent sounds like it's pretty much kind of on track what you'd see the city and town of of Bai are kind of dominating in terms of population centers here but we also have some representation by the town and Village of DNE and then come on down the line into including we then asked are you employed by the school district of Loi um here I'm not at all surprised to see one section of the P graph vastly overshadowing the other because in any given Community most people are not going to be employed by the school district um so the
015fact that 84% your survey takers said nope um I am not employed here whereas 152% or excuse me 152 said yes making it 15% um all in all that comes to about 50 5050 0% of your staff took the survey um which is pretty good we do want to hear their thoughts uh they are very influential members of the community um they're going to be stopped at the grocery store they're going to be stopped at a ball game they're going to be stopped around town uh people are going to stop them when they're when they're talking over the fence and saying hey uh you know something's going on at school tell me about it I know if I got this survey explain this to me we absolutely want to know what they think um and
016then here we asked about parents um so not parents r large but specifically parents of a child that's currently attending the school district of ey I'm C that it's a little bit different in the sense that I want to see two Hefty pieces of the pie um and I do again parents are very motivated to take a school based or a school connected survey obviously so it's not surprising to me to to see a good chunk of the graph being devoted to your parents uh but nevertheless we also see a good chunk of the U of the P graph 40% specifically being non-parent or excuse me being non-parents and that's good we definitely want to know what they think and just so you know about a third of your parents are so responding uh and
017then we ask do you have children younger than school age U 85% said no 15% said yes then we got into the meat of your survey so one thing that we' like to do here um one thing that we like to do here is uh make this report a One-Stop shop for everybody so everything that's included in your survey is also repeated in this report uh in the name of transparenting even if somebody chose not to take the survey or somebody would move into the district open and roll in or what have you uh they would at least be able to see what was on this survey not only how were the questions asked but how did the data work and we find that it's really helpful for you as well as board members um
018if you know a couple of weeks or a couple of months down the road you're scratching your head and you're saying you know what data did we collect or how did we word that or what did we say what didn't we say um you don't have to worry about digging up an old paper copy or worrying that an electronic version is is the F draft you can just go right here at Steve allall so uh we talked a little bit about your planning background we talked about the community members that came together for a couple of nights over this past summer if memory serves me uh I talked a little bit about your financial background so in other words the history of your operational referendums uh and and how things have changed or didn't again
019I'm going through this a little bit quicker simply because this is word for word what was on your survey this is not new information here uh we talked a little bit about what you were looking to do uh and then ask a funding support uh question for your operational referendum this is where we gathered support specifically for that piece um we disclosed what this would cost so we talked about where your bill rate currently is uh and then how your projected Mill rates would look in the future um should this operational referendum um gain support by survey takers and potential voters as well um knowing what the breakdown would be um the gray being without and and the lighter blue here with an operational referendum tax on and then we asked a question and it
020said specifically would you support a $3.85 million operational referendum for each of the next 5 years we just go with what the uh what the mill rate impact would be 97 cents below the current level uh and then again purposefully s like a broken record here we have stripped out that 10 uh that 10% and we're only focusing on the residents of the school district of Loi uh and again focusing on staff then specifically a little a little over 80% of your staff residents uh said yes we would support a a um operational referendum as described in the survey for your parents who are not staff 70% said yes and your non-parents non-staff 40% said yes so a couple things that I want to do and pause here um I always just like I do
021for um for age I always look at this slide first why because non-parents non-staff make up um in any given Community about 75% of that Community not necessarily a low ey thing we find that in communities that in basically any community that we do a survey about 75% of your community is to fall on this slide right here so that's why I go here first U because most people are included here so again 40% say uh yes they would support this operational referendum 45% said no a natural question that I get here was what what about these undecided how how do they ultimately lean uh I was telling Vince and and Brent about this but I I said that what we have found um it's kind of a joke and it's kind of that people
022are too nice in the midwest um and as a midwesterner I will I will attest to this um but about 2/3 of your undecided voters know that they're ultimately going to say no to anything that you would present related to this in a voting boo but those two-thirds of people also feel like that's rude or that's mean and they feel like they shouldn't tell you no so they just to something safe and say they're undecided um so what does that mean here well if the ballparks of numbers that means about um 5% are going to get roped up toward towards yes because about 2/3 are going to fall down towards no about one3 of your H deers are going to move up towards your green what does that leave us at about 45% saying yes
023uh to this operational referendum proposed as it is now that's pretty close obviously so what I wanted to do is some additional analyses here um focus on the same question would you support this operational referendum as it was described in the survey uh this chart Echoes what I was just saying before um just to kind of get a feel for why this is necessary well we want to wait the support that we just saw on the previous slides in terms of how people are represented proportionally in your community so again 75% of any G Community are going to be non-p parents non-staff about 25% of the community are going to be parents of school age kiddos who are not employed by the school and about 1% are staff members so as a fmer teacher that
024certainly doesn't mean that staff members aren't important um or I went to spent some time before talking about the fact that their voices are influential and important nevertheless um staff just aren't a large trunk of Any Given community so um if we remove that 1% and weighed as as people are seen in the community of those responding definitely yes or probably yes when we wait these supports we're at 47.5% for this particular question when we include our estimation of inclusion of onethird of undecided respondents moving towards yes and re re run these weight weights then we're getting to about 52.3% so as you can see here um If This Were election were held today it would be very very very very very very close um it's not until we include the onethird of undecided rule
025that we cross that 50% plus one threshold that you know that you would need to to um pass a referendum in your in your community uh but you know interesting things happen as we move forward here so uh and we went into cost cutting options and we said okay if the community does not support a continuation of our operational referendum uh we may need to make some reductions in order to balance our budget so we went through various options that Sur takers could consider including class sizes course offerings curriculum um athletic and co-curricular offerings technology and Facilities each one of those was tested individually and it went exactly like it does in every community so people aren't necessarily certain that they that they want a property tax hike uh but they also know that they
026don't want to cut any of these services so what you're going to see here and I do have a survey slide at the end here so I'm going to go through these a little bit more quickly but as you kind of you know kind of take a take a step back here and and and look at the the graphs as they are presented as I scroll through here almost all of the NOS are going to dwarf the yes and the no opinion so what this is telling me is is people don't want you to cut uh uh cutting teachers and increased class size people don't want you to cut your college little and PR ready courses people don't necessarily want you to uh cut your curriculum and textbook update don't want you to cut athletic
027co-curricular offerings don't want you to delay technology updates and don't want you to reduce the maintenance budget so where does that lead you this is my summary slide based on what I just uh went through so this brings all of those U po charts together and puts it on one and waits those cost cutting options in terms of uh most supportive for cuts to least supportive for cuts so in other words if I said yes I would be willing to cut something my answer is weighted as a 10 if I say no don't cut something my answer is weighted as a one so quick math there tells me that 5.5 is the middle so when we put everybody together anything above 5.5 is something that a a group is leaning towards saying yes go ahead
028and cut that anything below 5.5 as a group people don't want you to cut that again this data is very common they people don't necessarily want their property taxes increased but they also know they don't want to cut services that are very important to them and as I take a step back here none of these numbers on the screen are above 5.5 what I have done though is there's an asess here on the far right hand side because I've ordered um the support for cross cutting options from most supported to least supported by non-parents non-staff why again because they're the most numerous people of your community they represent the largest portion of your community so the way that I read this is yes no matter what group it is whether it's all residents together whether
029it's staff whether it's parents whether it's non-parents non-staff nobody's really telling us to cut anything but if we had to where would we go cut um the most support cutting options are in reducing athletic and co-curricular offerings and reducing or postponing your curriculum textbook updates why do I say that because these two numbers here in the in the group of people that's that's the highest proportion of your community is getting closest to to 5.5 that middle point so kind of if if if push came to sh and you had to make Huts this is kind of where your community is telling you to start and was slightly lesser extent the maintenance budget uh re Community is telling me not to cut things are delaying technology cutting to increase class sizes and reducing College and Career
030ready cources uh then certainly wasn't the end of your survey um we tested some issues related to facility planning so again no difference here in terms of your survey these are screenshot and reings of your actual survey itself uh so what did we what did we talk about we noted that the district H an outside firm to go through some of your buildings and grounds we talked about some of the some of the most pressing projects being your Building Systems your roofs your track your parking lot um and then we presented the same graph with another little level on it so another little level kind of being this bluish gray kind of up here at the top um and noted that you could begin addressing these projects and keep your mill rate where it is
031at 11 a lot of um so kind the these Stacks here we had where the mill would go to if nothing were approved um the next chunk of the mill rate U was if an operational referendum would go through and be supported by survey respondents and your voters and then the last little bit is kind of well um what can we do in terms of of fting off some more facility projects um at the same time without increasing our meal rate over where it is right now which is 1111 where did we end up so when we asked the question would you support funding that maintains the current mill rate of 11-11 to pay for some of the facility projects listed above and focused again on residents actually each submer was slightly more supportive than
032what we saw for just the operational referendum piece so now staff residents uh 83% are saying uh yes to this question 71% of your parents are saying yes to this question and non-parents non-staff U 53% are saying yes to this question whereas 30% are saying no so let's do some of those additional analyses again just to wait the the support as we see people proportionally represented in your community of those responding definitely yes or probably yes um now we're hovering at about 58% um when we include the onethird of undecided respondents we're at 63% so we actually saw more support for your operational and facility together um to maintain the 1111 as opposed to just having a loow now important be on the side um that's not the way uh that you can do a
033referendum question it would still need to be two specific questions on a potential ballot because it was your operational bit to increase your Revenue limit and then your your Capital referendum so um we tested it in this way for for the sake of survey takers being able being able to understand what's tested of them uh but you won't be able to do uh one question together on potential Val uh and then finally we noted that you wanted to plan ahead and address some future facility projects and test these uh so these are kind of your your outside of your most pressing projects there are a few other facility things that you could take care of including some green space work um some work in your Pac uh what's going on at the highway 60 complex
034uh and then a long-term solution for the track area uh we noted then what's the difference um so there's an operational referendum question what is that uh and then what is a capital referendum question so if we did down the path of each what exactly would that mean we wanted to Define that for survey takers and then we asked the question would you support the district exploring a capital referendum in the next few years to address the other facility projects listed above and again what do I mean by by other here uh it's these the Green Space the PAC the highway 60 complex and the track so the ones that weren't identified as your most pressing needs um would you support us exploring a capital referendum coming up in the future to address those um
035first place I want to go again is the purple bar why non parents non-staff are the biggest half of your community they're the largest group proportionally right out of the gate I'm seeing 41% of non-parents non-staff saying no and if I include my my um my my 2/3 here that are ultimately going to break towards no uh that's 16% so 41% plus 16% brings me well over that majority um that would say no to not exploring but I'm at 57% there um all in all um as my boss would say I don't think this dog's going to hunt um I I don't see this moving forward um I I can tell you Frank if I were if I were a school district of Loi taxpayer um I can tell you to explore till the cows
036C home that doesn't affect my taxes at all so the fact that I'm at 57% here that are are saying don't even bother exploring these would tell me that I wouldn't really touch these with a 10 foot ble Point these facility projects are not seeing support from your community right now and then finally overall satisfaction um so we asked how well are we doing in each of the following areas the four areas being delivering a high quality education keeping the public informed managing funds appropriately and building pride in the community on a scale of poor to R the poor was one great was four so I can't go below one can't go above four got to got to stick between those two numbers this slide is helpful um you know I can kind of dig
037into these numbers but really what I like to go to is the next slide uh which maintain the same question but it provides you some some comparisons here so in terms of delivering a high quality education that was where your Sur respondent scored you the highest um 85% agreed that you were doing a good or great job on that metric for a 3.19 average that puts you at the 69th percentile among comparison schools so just as a reminder of your percentiles um percentiles are are are by definition somebody has to be at the top and somebody has to be at the bottom and by definition there is a there is a median there is a middle to every data set if if I were at the 50th percentile by definition exactly half of schools would
038be doing better than me and exactly half of schools would be doing worse than me or put another way you want to get as close as you can to the 99th percentile because that would mean that you are doing better than almost every other school out there so one bad 99 the best um here you're at the 69th percentile in terms of how your survey takers uh perceive you delivering a high quality education so you're doing better than two3 of other schools in your compar group keeping the public informed you're kind of close just the hair lower um you're at the 63r percentile or you're doing better than 63% of other schools and you're building Pride of the community a little closer to the the median uh at the 57th percentile there the one that
039stands out um and it does stand out because it it is it is substantially lower than the other metrics is managing funds appropriately uh the way your survey takers evaluate you there puts you at the 25th percentile uh among your comparison schools in other words your survey takers lead you to have data that say that you are doing worse than 75% of other schools and better than 25% of of other schools overall then um your average this is kind of a variation of that net promoter score it said on a scale of 0 to 10 How likely would you be to recommend the district to a friend or family member your overall average was a 7.31 7.31 for a a percen went at the 2/3 Mark um so you're doing better than than 66% or
0402/3 of other schools based on the score that your respondents aggravated together gave you at 7.31 uh in other words the way I like to think about this if I could hold this data out of my screen and pretend it was a 3D structure I would want it to fall over because I want it to be top heavy and that's exactly what I see here um you know you're 27% plus 13 plus 20 uh you know that's well over majority that's 60% that are giving you an age or better that's really good news um two fths of your community or two fths of your survey respondents are giving you the highest scores at they can at at a nine or a 10 and I'm seeing very little red maroon and so on down here at
041the bottom uh so that's great all and all what I'm seeing as satisfaction for the school district of Loi there's a little hump here at neutral happens in every single one why to be honest we don't give people a cop out here on purpose we want them to to lean towards one of the polls uh but if people truly truly don't know how to answer this question uh they often times choose neutral because it feels the safest it doesn't put them at one end or the other so I have never seen this slide without a little bit of an elongation in the middle because people just will choose neutral if they don't know in summary then what did we learn uh the Board of Education could consider pursuing an April referendum uh because survey data
042tells us that the operational referendum as it was described on its own remains too close to call that was very very very very tight however support does increase if the mill re can be can be maintained at that 1111 level um and some of those facility projects are roped in what were those facility projects those were the Building Systems the roof the track and the park lot so all in all here um yes this would be too close to call but if I were your choose um I would let the voters make that ultimate decision especially because on some of those metrics you are leading a little bit over the over the majority here um other fac fa projects tested in the survey were not well supported at this time those facility projects being the
043green spaces the PAC the highway 60 complex and the track uh lastly then uh this really is the field good data I mean this is this is kind of the the the uh Ren butter the the meat and potatoes whatever kind of metaphor you want here I haven't me D yet that's not obvious um overall wants are satisfied with the district that's great news you know I only have two thumbs but both of them are up because this is exactly where you want to be um especially in terms of delivering a high quality education and keeping the public informed and you saw that your overall satisfaction puts you better than two-thirds of other districts out there so you know it's really a tough um a tough battle to communicate around a referendum if people are
044very very mad at you um that really doesn't seem to be the case here in what I'm seeing your satisfaction metrics are are in pretty good shape so let me pause take a drink of water and see what questions you have so Rob that's long um so one of the questions uh I had in one of the board members just brought up as well is you mentioned that you know these operating reference um in the um maintenance referendum were asked as two separate questions right the question I guess is could they be put together as a operational referendum that includes you know ongoing maintenance for every year where it's not a debt question because you you had kind of stated that you could you have to be two but in that way it could be
045one question correct yeah you're absolutely correct there if you were decid to pursue some of your facility projects without taking on debt and rather do it by increasing um your Revenue cap you absolutely could do it through one question it only needs to be two if you were to bond for it um so yes 100% agree you're right on you're red there yep anybody else any other board members have a question you must have knocked it out of the park Rob based on how much water I'm drinking all right well thank you we appreciate it and good luck on your other presentations tonight take care have a good night everybody thank you there are testing testing testing testing you can hear me there no taking positive steps of Service Awards tonight so then we move
046on to public input purpose of Citizen input agenda item is for the public to provide comments on any agenda item or to publicly address the board of education on items that pertain to school business the amount of time allotted to each speaker will generally not exceed 5 minutes per person to allow all people who wish to speak an opportunity to be heard however the president May modify the time at his or her discretion if the speaker has a question for the board that be duly noted responses will be provided in an appropriate manner but the board cannot respond to individual questions or individual comments as part of public input agenda item as an additional reminder the board cannot take action on any item that is brought forth during the public input session or on any
047item that was not posted on the meeting agenda citizen input is an important part of the board meeting agenda and the board appreciates hearing from the community on issues concerning them or schol so we have new microphones tonight it should be nice and loud and then I have a list of people who would like to speak and so as I call your name could you come to either the left or the right side and then I'll call the second person who can get ready to do right after go to the other mic does that make sense so test cars first if you want to come to one in the mic and then Janelle Anderson you want to get ready on the other mic hello thank you Loi has professional this works very well doesn't it
048diligent and caring teachers principles administrators staff and School Board I'm concerned that these hardworking individuals have been impeded in doing their jobs and that we can no longer expect to get best value from our education Tas ta dollar if we don't change cores our teachers educate guide and support our kids each day at night the grade papers respond to emails and plan lessons they're systemically undervalued and underpaid for this hard work I myself love kids learning and teaching and the idea of three months off every year but looking at their undervaluation I chose to take my talents elsewhere to a law career this Choice was logical but not heroic teachers are heroes doing their best for our kids and by extension our community and our democracy which requires an educated electorate they don't ask for
049luxurious paychecks in return and we take this uneven arrangement for granted now however a few of us parents are handing our teachers a burden that's just too great to work in fear and negativity lessons that have been taught for decades are now suspect although my children confirm Loi teachers are not teaching for example that white people are automatically racist additionally new teacher challenges like mask enforcement approaches are being criticized coming and going teachers workplace environment is now shadowed by intimidation and censure I myself have worked in toxic environments and I didn't stay in those jobs Long why would a talented teacher who's contented themselves with a lower than appropriate salary just because they love to teach stay in a job that no longer brings them Joy they won't our brightest most inspirational teachers will move
050to more hospitable school districts get Advanced degrees and become College professors get better paid and better treated jobs in the private sector or retire early they're not beholden to us we're beholden to them we've historically undervalued them and now we're actually driving them away to our own harm if the most talented teachers with the most attractive prospects did disappear from L eyes toxic District those that fill their places will be the ones who couldn't get a good job elsewhere consider the impact this will have on our children's education our community and our tax dollar efficiency and that's just the teachers our district has been dealing with constant open records requests which tie up our Technical and other staff by preventing them from doing their normal jobs our taxes are being spent on red tape manufactured
051by just a few individuals our district board and administrators have been threatened with everything from meritless lawsuits to replacement of course our administrators pre-confirmation these public servants don't make a ton of money they do this because they want to add value to our community the least we can do is recognize their contribution and treat them accordingly if they go our community will be impoverished if you think that's not true remember this board's well-reasoned and medically supported health and safety policies have kept our schools open and our kids in person that's the opposite of impoverished that is quality high value educational leadership that is tax money efficiently and effectively spent but most of us do think it's true Lans understand that public education lifts us all makes democracy possible and requires our support a small number
052of us have been hit by unfortunate propaganda campaign fed and funded by political manipulators who are attempting to turn public education into a Battleground by disseminating vague alarming falsehoods and Manufacturing baseless fears the relatively few Lans are being encouraged to spread alarm and the rest of us are so used to public education knocking it out of the park that we usually don't feel the need to speak up and spread support we'd rather just go along taking our lucky situation for granted and shaking our heads of the bullying our educators are currently enduring but we must make clear that these impotent legal threats and hostile attacks are not representative of the LOI Community we love you Educators and we appreciate you thank you for what you do and please stay I know I sounded judgmental when
053I referred to a politically motivated propaganda campaign and I do judge it this alarmist campaign does not have any of our best interests at heart it is manufacturing narratives about Sinister power hungry Educators to get US citizens to attack those Educators this is because certain social and political leaders do not benefit from an educated citizenry I would like to distinguish those propagandists however from everyone in this room and on this this call who I believe is good-hearted and well motivated if you're advocating for your kids' educational experience and you're speaking from your heart I appreciate that and I'm doing the exact same thing but treating Educators like the enemy is a mistake that harms our kids our community and our country and will only worsen when we start to lose the best talent it is
054also a colossal waste of our tax dollars let's move our advocacy into more positive constru RVE involvement thank you Andro Floyd you're next thank you so Janelle Anderson hello um I want to applaud Tess for uh the comments that she made I think the first thing I want to say is that most people in our community and Rob really his data reinforced it really support our schools they support the work that's being done and I think it's really hard sometimes when people are on social media to remember that even I forget that sometimes it feels really low um I think these last few months have been really hard for a lot of us to see and hear some things that we have considered to be really um discrediting and cruel said um from behind screens
055so I'm always sort of saying like stop going on these these accounts on Facebook like like get off of them because they really are just promoting and like feeding back to the algorithm a thing that's not really true which is that people in our town think things are are wrong with our schools most people in our community know that the teachers in our schools are incredible they work really hard they take care of your kids I just think about you hand off your children to these teachers every day and you trust them and so we need to remember um that they are trustworthy um I'm really appreciative for the work that my former colleagues that the the people are doing in the school and like Tess said we need to keep them um even if
056we can hire new teachers into our community um many of them will leave unless we make it a great place to live and to teach and we know it's a great place to live um I stayed living here after I um was done teaching here because it's a great place to live and I sort of enjoyed um telling people in Middleton oh no Loi you know we have running water right like people sometimes forget that Loi is um is out there and it's this Hidden Gem and we need to make it a place that we're really really proud of and that doesn't mean that we don't listen to concerns of other people but we need to stop feeding into this negativity machine that is really dissuading people um like our school board and members of
057our school board from running and uh dissuading people from staying in um the field so thank you for persisting as always um the other thing I really want to say is the just two things quickly um first of all whenever I hear people saying I heard something was happening at the middle school or I heard this thing was happening in a classroom it just sends this like automatic eye roll that happens in my my brain I can't stop it because it has it happens so much to teachers people often say these kinds of things people presume that they know what's happening in your classroom they presume that they know what you're teaching um when they don't and sometimes the thing that your kid comes home to tell you that a teacher said was not something
058a teacher said at all it might have been something a student misunderstood which has happened to me many times um it was something maybe that another student said in class that a teacher had to sort of disrupt or work to sort of correct in the classroom and so that's why adults talking to each other is really important that's why before going on to social media and making all kinds of claims or statements that it's really important that adult to adult you ask the question because the teacher can almost always clarify and you might also roll your eyes and go oh yeah okay that makes sense and and so trusting in teachers so that you go to them and ask them and then when they explain it to you so that you accept that um is
059really important and it's maybe sort of a lost piece in this um Facebook world that we are experiencing and so I just really want to call on people to do that as well and the last thing I want to do is I want to just say that I am not a fan of saying that we don't teach critical race Theory or that we don't teach Equity or that we don't teach these things we absolutely do um most teachers however didn't know those words until a few months ago um but it's the vitamin C in the good work we do to create Equitable spaces for kids and so I will not say we don't teach critical race Theory what we teach is underlined and sort of supported by these these theoretical Frameworks that help us do
060better so that we no longer teach about the founding fathers without also acknowledging the harm that was done by the slavery that they promoted right we're not saying Thomas Jefferson is a bad guy but to not say that other thing is not complete or accurate and so I just want to call out to teachers who are teaching great things doing hard work in this moment um that I thank you and for the kids out there who are feeling afraid and feeling worried just know that there are lots of adults in this community who love you and love your schools so thank you and then an before you go Patty Herman you're up next so an CR Floyd thank you an C Floyd city of Lo resident um first I want to thank the members of
061the school board and the faculty and staff of our school district for keeping our kids safe continuing to educate our most precious resource our children I sleep very well at night knowing how much you do and how much you care and I want to know I want you to know that I trust you to do what is right for our kids secondly I want to encourage you and the people in this room to continue to teach our children about issues that may not impact them here in Loi but that they must know about in order to be successful in the world beyond our Valley we live in a very quiet community something I hope is changing as people discover the quality of life and education they can enjoy here in Loi but most of our
062children don't remain here they work work or continue their education both near and far from our Valley and they must navigate cultures and communities that are far more diverse than the one they grew up in teaching about difference is essential our children cannot leave here ignorant of other races cultures sexual orientations faiths Customs Etc they must have an appreciation for the richness and joy that comes from working with and being friends with people who don't look or talk like them or view the world through the same lens they do the world we are handing our children is facing Monumental challenges and the solutions will only be as good as the diverse group of folks whose voices are included in developing them Sustainable Solutions to incredibly complex problems rely on engaging Myriad opinions life experiences expertises
063Etc and if our children are going to be leading Us in the years to come it is essential that they are taught about the complex history of our country the good and the bad and work to make us better than we are today in order to have a vision of who we want to be we must have a grasp on where we have been and what the current reality is like not just here in Loi but throughout our nation and the world I thank you for navigating these difficult lessons and conversations during a very challenging time for our community and our nation and finally I once again ask all of you to consider running for some local office if you want to bring about change then I want to encourage you to register as a
064candidate circulate your nomination papers and get on the ballot for the spring election we need people to run for the city's common Council town and Village boards the County Board and the school board as I previously mentioned all voices need to be around the table as we serve our communities and try to make them better places for all of us to live and Thrive and finally I want to Echo what Janelle said um I'd like to launch a campaign we all know the bystander um see something say something say I would like to implore everyone here friends neighbors family if you hear something please ask someone so much of the negativity and the misinformation can be corrected with a simple phone call all of our emails and phone numbers are available on our Municipal websites
065it doesn't take long to Simply pick up the phone and get the correct information let's stop the disinformation that is dividing our community please I ask you to just pick up the phone call or email one of us and get the correct information so we can stop all the assumptions that are happening thank you so much goes Alison row can you get ready to go Adam may I jump quick um we just need to make sure that all of our presenters keep their face covering on um we pass up at every meeting so we just need to make sure we do that again thank you okay my name is Patty Herman I live in the city of Loi and actually what you're going to hear from me is going to repeat some of what you
066just heard from an but um since I don't have time to rewrite this I'm just going to deliver it as it is and apologize for anything that's repetitive but as I came into the room and and again as I just look around now I see mostly faces that look similar to mine and that's what our youth see as they go out and about in our Loi Community but as an said most of them aren going to stay in our Lo Community they're going to go out into the bigger world where they're going to see and interact with people of Many Colors many races many ethnicities U many differences than than they're seeing here so we have some choices while they're still living and interacting here in Loi we can choose to isolate them from what
067the bigger world looks like and not engage them in thoughtful conversations about our society including both the positive and negative aspects of our society or we can respect that while they are young brains they are young teen brains are still busily developing they do in fact have the ability to learn about the history of our country including our history of racism and they have the ability to thoughtfully discuss what that history means for what our society looks like today we can respect our youth's ability to hear difficult ideas and engage in reason discussions of those ideas discussions that might even challenge their own conception of who they are in society we trust that when they are given an biased explanation they'll understand the difference between equity and equality and what that means for them and
068what it means for others I think it's safe to say most of us in this room have a common goal and that is protecting and promoting the well-being of our youth we can work toward that goal by helping prepare them for the bigger world into which they're going to be launched in in a few years or we can send them out into the world IL equipped to be the thoughtful contributing young adults that we know they can be we know they have that potential so so let's make the right choice let's give them the best education now help them prepare for the society that they're going to go into and uh protect them and our country's future as well thank you very much and then before Alison goes Heather Baron can you get ready to
069come up and then now we have Alison R good evening I have three children here in the district and um as it's the holiday season I always reflect on the past year and I really wish to to express them appreciation this evening I'd first like to thank all of our teachers for navigating virtual learning this could not be understated what uh an undertaking this was and thank you also for helping our children to readjust to in-person school this fall I had one of these kiddos that really needed some extra support and I absolutely received that from U my child's teacher principal and guidance counselor so thank you so much for that Readjustment support recently my son's teacher t Ted positive for Co and I'm so thankful that he was not infected and had missed no
070school because of the universal masking that was in place so I'd also like to thank everyone who learns and works inside our school buildings for wearing a mask each day and providing that extra protection for everyone I'd also like to um thank the board for supporting Universal masking this fall as well my children are so much healthier and happier now that they're back in school they've never once come home and talked about masking they only talk excitedly about their friends and what they've learned for the day um so I'd like to also thank our district leaders for partnering with Health Systems to offer the vaccine clinics in November and December um as soon as it was uh authorized for our children for parents like me who've been waiting for this protection it meant so much
071to have that extra support and thank you for arranging that thank you also to our District leaders for operating a drive-through testing site at the high school our family has needed this several times and really appreciate having this locally thank you to the board for appointing a medical advisory committee uh of experts who can help guide us through the many twist and turns of this pandemic thank you to the board members who actively seek out data and evidence to help guide decisionmaking and thank you for your willingness to revisit decisions as new uh information emerges or conditions change thank you to the board members for listening to hours of public input each month and probably waiting through hundreds of emails um there are many more things I'd like to offer but my time is limited
072I want to share these examples for the benefit of our community as well um because if you spend most of your time on social media you will think that there's nothing going right in Loi and that is simply not true as others have stated we have a wonderful community and outstanding school district and that's the reason why many families choose to live here but this constant negativity and the aing of grievances on social media has really taken a toll in our community people say it's affecting their mental health and how they feel about living in Loi and that concerns me we want our children to be critical thinkers but we as adults also have to model critical thinking so I want to offer a couple uh reminders for us as adults just because somebody says
073something or post something doesn't make it true if it doesn't add up you can reject it and you can move on and not everything is worthy of your response remember that information people share is filtered through their own lens and consider that lens and that agenda before you endorse it and be careful of what you endorse because key facts can be missing if a news source does not quote or include both sides of a story that is likely not objective journalism and it's more likely to be partisan propaganda be wary of claims using the word shame or bullying these are highly charged terms that are intended to emotionally manipulate above all my plea is this please do not allow other people's political agendas or personal vendettas against the district to change how you see your
074community and how you see your child's education there is so much good here please remember how lucky we are to live here we have so much of what other people do not there is so much good to build on we have such a strong Foundation to build and improve so if you are tired of the negativity I I implore you to remove yourself from it disengage with this type of rhetoric on social media consider uh not giving your audience to this type of energy anymore and redirect it to positive change real and positive change has happens when we stop taking the easy way out and ranting on social media but really show up and roll up our sleeves and be part of the solution i' I've reached out directly to um the principls to teachers
075and to offer constructive suggestions rather than just to complain and I found them to be very responsive so no doubt it's been a tough time for everyone but we've all persevered to this year and better days are ahead um I just want everybody to take care of themselves and take care of each other um and practice what we preach to our children with kindness and respect and hopefully the new year will bring a new more positive path together thank you and then forhead there goes Bill Welsh could you get ready to go on the other mic he's not present okay all right and then mind's on phone so we'll switch to that so go ahead Heather Baron my name is Heather Baron and my family and I live in the city of Lo my husband
076Mark and I attended the LOI school district and we've had two daughters go through the district and have two sons currently in the district we've always tried to raise our children as critical thinkers and I would hope that is the goal of any school district that has ever been critical thinking not only encourages us to actually use our brains but it can get others thinking outside the box as well after hearing different points of view or just subjects that might have ever been considered again I don't really see any negative effects of critical thinking and in fact I'm pretty sure the school is trying to encourage that so they think by introducing critical race Theory from my understanding it supposedly encourages people to think through think from other points of view as far as race
077or background of others although that is how critical race theory is sold once you really think it through and be a critical thinker it's not that at all it's actually causing more division in our schools and encouraging people to judge people only on their race or color whether that be black Mexican Asian white or any other race the reason I'm bringing this up is based more on the school trying to tell us that they believe in equality bringing everyone to the same level and inclusion but that is really really hard for me to believe that right now not only by teaching the equity program or the critical race Theory or any other name that you'd like to sugarcoat it as you are showing us the exact opposite of equality and inclusion by the way our
078school is handling Co I don't need an expert to tell me that the vaccination is not what they said it would be I have known several vaccinated people that have had Co since being vaccinated I also know that both vaccinated and un nonvaccinated are still spreading Co so why are there separate rules for each why are we quarantining nonvaccinated while we know for a fact and not because the experts told us but because we are seeing it with our own eyes and we are witnessing it firsthand that everyone is spreading it so you're trying to tell me that you believe in equality but yet you're separating People based on their medical history at this point I'm concerned I feel like if the experts told you that red shirts can keep Co away you you'd make
079a red shirt mandate we also have learned again not because the expert need is to tell us this although there have been experts telling us this but we've been ignoring those experts that masks are not working surprise surprise Co is still in our schools I know it's a real shocker but yes it's still here just like it's still going to be here for a while just like the flu STP throat the cold pneumonia Etc and yes some people get it worse than others unfortunately just like some people react to medications differently Foods environments all differently again I know this firsthand and I don't need someone to tell me that it's that crazy concept of critical thinking masks need to go away not just for the obvious reasons of they don't work they cause anxiety speech
080delays breathing problems skin problems and just the fact that humans like interaction and those interactions include facial expressions I'm saying maths need to go away because of what is happening in our schools this Mass shaming that the district is forcing teachers and staff to do to these kids is unbelievable and you should really be ashamed of yourselves it's getting insane and no matter what your reasons might be it's really looking like a power trip and it's just getting plain weird teachers need to focus on what they're there for teaching and being there for our students what a waste of their time to be watching and writing kids names down on a list for not wearing mask properly really come on this has gotten so out of hand majority of these kids are not wearing masks
081anywhere else besides school it's time to give it up seriously again let's use our critical thinking and realize that it's time to be done with the mask rule masks should be optional and if people feel better with them by all means wear them I've asked this several times and still have no answer to this question what is the endgame to co it's been almost 2 years in that time we have learned a lot about it one major thing I have learned is that common sense is telling me that life is way more important than Co life is not all about Co remember the days when you had board meetings and you didn't have to talk about medical experts quarantining vaccinations you have the power to get back to voting on things that have to do
082with our school district things like making sure our teachers are happy making sure the children are getting everything that they need from this District making sure the community is involved and knowledgeable about what is happening in the district Co is here to stay it's time to accept that and let's move on stop the quarantine for something that is not a threat to a vast majority of our children and if you're into the quarantining to make yourselves feel better then at least make it equal for all and please please I'm begging you to please be a good example to our youth and be critical thinkers if something doesn't make sense like 90% of the co rules please think about that and just don't go with things that you know deep down are not right I know
083that I want my kids to do things and make decisions that they know make sense and has good reasoning behind it I don't want them to just say okay if something doesn't make sense I would hope that it's what you want for our students at Lordi School District so please be a good example of that thank you for your time Mindy ready okay so the next up is Monica Simpson if you could get ready at a mic while Mindy's on the line here just on so [Music] are you there yes I'm here okay thisi go ahead okay so my name is myy Allen and I am the parent of two boys both of whom are in Middle School Jacob's in seventh grade Noah is in sixth grade I do appreciate the school board taking the
084time right now to listen to my concerns um so I upset at the way the current not math prop uh properly list is being compiled at the middle school I believe the original purpose of the new policy starting in late November was to help reduce the number of kids that would need to quarantine if they were in close contact with another student so basically if you're on the list and you um are around someone that you don't you do have to quarantine and if you're not on the list then you're okay to stay in school the list is supposed to be kept private and for the sole purpose to determine quarantine status and what that would mean to the proper quantin procedure for the school the student and the their family I am trying to
085figure out when the list went from a private um kind of health popal safety issue to a Shameless which is what I'm going to be calling it I want to start off um by stating that I am not here to argue for or against the current masking policy my concern is the way the policy to create a cible quarantine list is being handled at the middle school I cannot speak to the other schools in our district only what I have learned about for the discipline procedure as Middle School itself I have reached out for our district and Middle School administrators and have not received adequate answers or Solutions I have asked why when the new policy went into place the punishment started so abruptly with no warning and no written policy the students were shown
086a 4-minute video that discussed the new quarantine policy but did not um say that there would be severe consequences handed out immediately without warning my next question was then why some kids are being given lunch detentions for being on the list without any prior offenses or Warnings some kids are being told that they'll have to stay separate from their classmates and many are being singled out by being told from an active class to be told that they've been added to the shame list other students are using this knowledge to tease and Bully G kids and many even laugh during class of a student who has been told to pull up their mask or is threatened that they will be added to the list this behavior is completely unacceptable and is not being addressed in addition
087parents are not being informed when their kids are being added to the Shing list only being formed after a punishment like a detention has been given there is also no instruction given on how a child can be taken off the list they did not help they stay on the list for the rest of the school year or if there is a way to be removed from it debate here is clearly not whether or not children should be wearing masks in school the policy in is in place for now and we know all know that eventually this will no longer be an issue but until then our kids should be treated with understanding and kindness and be given a positive place in which to attend school the issue is children should not be ashamed for being
088human and making mistakes kids are learning along with the rest of us how to deal with all of this in an everchanging World they should not feel bullied by other kids if they make a mistake they should not be called nosers or chin strappers and they certainly shouldn't feel shamed by their school district when I contacted the Middle School administration about my concerns I was told that they are handling the improper mask wearing of something similar to a dress code I understand the approach of this being a dress code but if a young student has a br strap showing they don't make her feel ashamed or embarrassed they help her fix it and understand why the exception is in place for school that's how should be in this situation as well we as adults make
089mistakes wearing masks so how can we fault our children for simply doing some of the same things we're doing whether intentional or not especially when we as adults are not 100% perfect 100% of the time I understand the need for a policy being treated similar to a dress forward but it has to be clearly written and understood by all students staff and parents it should be followed closely and consistently across the board so that no child feels like they're being singled out from other students that does not make the kids feel safe coming to staff and teachers if they feel like the people that are there to protect them are only going to pick on them or let other students pick on them without any reprimand there is currently no written discipline policy in place
090in the Middle School from my own personal experience I can tell you that my son Jacob was given a lunch detention on one of the very first day of the new policies without warning he came home that day very confused and now says he feels worthless at school he doesn't feel like a valued student currently after talking with other students and parents I found out that this has been a more and more common occurrence in the Middle School in the past week so I decided to speak out against it and find a safe and positive solution I am currently a very frustrated parents who has two kids that see only some kids are being added to the Sham list when in reality we know almost every student and some point throughout the school day is
091not masking properly what I would like to see is two fold first there needs to be a positive method in which the masking policy can be enforced I understand the need for list for quarantine purposes only however have that list be kept confidential and alongside that create a counterpart in a praise list giving out praise and positive reinforcements puts less stress on teachers makes them more approachable as students have an issue and sending positive messages to our kids instead of the constant belittling sending on email to to tell them to use a positive narration is a step but there is no followup to see if or even how this is being done second if the school does encounter habitual and purposeful offenders then a written system needs to be recorded with all staff parents students
092and teachers with no written system currently in place each student is treated differently which leads to inconsistent punishments and confusion it is not fair to our teachers to expect them to know how to deal with all the new quarantine list system without WR written explanations and procedures that are understood by all I don't believe they were given enough training or instruction on how to proceed if neither of these options are addressed and I believe we need to revoke the current policy that creates this quarantine list and just assume that at some point a student has worn their mask improperly and will quarantine in the case of a close contact thank you again for hearing out this very frustrated and Confused Middle School Parent thanks thank Youk you and then Teresa Valencia could get ready after
093Monica Simpson hi there thank you for considering rolling back masking for specific athletic activities they're so important for school spirit as you know I would implore you to continue baby steps throughout the student body low contact distance activities such as forensics or the spelling beam students who shine at aren't always the same as those in athletics but deserve the same freedom to unmask during their competitive events faal facial expression is so important for forensic speaking pieces in the spelling be briefly removing the masth to spellow word when mistakes are not allowed and pronunciation can be stunted by The Mask would pose less risk than multiple athletic competitions you mentioned the theater um rapid testing for the one weekend and took a lot of resources but if you saw both Productions I they were amazing but
094they were two different Productions and I think theater performances are worthy of our resources I urge you to Branch out to these other activities which reach more and more students at some point hopefully this will extend to the entire student body while Athletics definitely unite Loi and extracurriculars add to school spirit not every kid is a joiner not every kid is involved and it is not very inclusive to consider exceptions for activities for your active kids and leave out the ones who don't have or desire or role please keep momentum going finding places where our kids can Fe freely I know you're considering safety you're considering liability but I want to assure you that the vast majority of parents here and in the district are allowing playdates unmasked sleepovers and dinner parties no matter what
095they say on Facebook they were before the vaccine and they are after I was appalled and really judgmental to find this when I moved up from Madison last year but I apologize for that the kids here are so much more mentally healthy for doing so if you don't have younger kids or kids in the district you must be aware of the unmitigated happiness at these social events so again please take baby steps towards Rolling back some of these um restrictions and then um I just want to speak to some of the equity stuff because I am the daughter of two Public School teachers and how I support them it here is that I am discipline my kids if there's any word on their behavior in schools um I support those teachers I support fundraising I
096limit my children's device time um I don't just hand them a phone so that they are mentally healthier and so I'm creating good students for those teachers um I if I question curricula if I question things it's not that I don't support you these are my kids I'm a stakeholder so we're told to ask in person but when we do ask in person sometimes we're seen as a bigot or we don't support teachers that's not it at all these are our children we love them um everyone of old SES loves their kids um I would be interested in an updated slideshow on the equity initiative because that was it was a really comprehensive thing that I know like some months have passed and um let's see um I guess the only thing is like one
097thing that does concern me with some of the equity stuff is there have been police at meetings because of what happens in other districts I get that um but some of us concern about Equity have seemed like um The District in Virginia where a bathroom policy did result in the sexual assault um it's there was a national news story closer to home at East High School School in Madison there was a huge uptick in violence and sexual assault um and it has been linked to them removing policemen from the schools because of equity guided policies from the school board so we while we might not be there we're concerned about the extremes on that side too we love our children and that's why we're here if we have asked questions or bring our concerns it
098doesn't mean we don't support you that's all I have thank [Applause] you um so while Teresa Valencia is going to go then Abby Clipper could you get ready on the other mic let's go ahead Teresa good evening everyone um thank you for letting me speak um I was here a couple months ago and was very emotional so I just wanted to come back and be a little more calm and be able to get everything um that I've kind of processed since that last meeting um thank you all for being here I just sit here every time I'm here I think about I don't know how you can sit up there and listen to this all the time I just I can't even imagine so thank you I appreciate it um I teach at um Madison
099Area Technical College my oldest daughter is a first grade teacher in another school district and so I'm around a lot of diversity all the time even though Loi doesn't have a lot I do experience a lot of diversity um and at Madison College in Dan County there's a mask mandate my students weld in masks they machine in masks they do wiring and masks they um fluid power mechanisms metery whatever it is we're doing we all do it in masks um I'm not even able to have my finals this week face to face because I have so many students out um that had Co from Thanksgiving and uh hunting and it really disrupts the class and it's very very challenging to them my only goal is to keep my kids in school all of our kids
100in school my son's mental health and I heard a lot of people talk about their children's mental health when they were home and some of their mental health from wearing a mask so I understand having children with mental health issues caused from these things um but my kids need to be in school and the only way I see that happening um is by continuing with the mask wearing I think it really helps I no I know it really helps a lot I see it in our classrooms at school all the time my daughter who teaches um first grade she said the kids never complain about wearing their masks and they're always very kind to each other so I really appreciate the mom that was calling about shaming the kids they're always very kind and if
101they're mask is coming down they'll say oh your mask is coming down off your nose you got to move it up a little bit they're very kind to each other about it they take care of each other about it um which I think is is really nice and I think our kids kids could do the same I understand maske wearing is not comfortable and I totally understand with speech a lot of things um my daughter wears a clear mask sometimes she wears a shield sometimes she spases 6 feet away from the kids to not not wear the mask there's a lot of ways that these can be addressed without having to um worry about spreading the virus to each other um the only other thing after the last um meeting I was really thinking a
102lot I know so many of the people in this town um and I know so many of the people have welcomed my children into their home and I've welcomed their children into my home so to hear them talk about um not wanting some of these things taught in our school it it was painful to me to hear it but then I also given some time to process it like we all want the same thing you know I rushed up in the morning and rushed to work and worked all day and rushed to my son's basketball game and found someone to take my kids home and rushed here to come to this meeting because my kids' education is important to me we all do that we're just rushing if we all work together and roll this
103bolt in the same direction instead of everybody rowing in a different direction um we could all get what we want from this and and when I when I see my son's friends and their parents no matter what they're saying about not wanting to teach Equity inclusion diversity not even want to hear the words or talk about it they're teaching it at home because those kids are learning it somewhere because they're good kids my son's friends are good kids and some of their parents are here I've had conversations with other parents um and teaching these things accepting people doesn't happen in a vacuum it happens at home not all parents are able to do it not all parents want to do it but a lot of the people who are here who are maybe not accepting
104it at school are doing it anyways so I mean it'd be no different how I would teach the students I have at school as to how I would teach my kids at home to live in a diverse Society thank you ABY before you start for a second this light that you guys turned on that's got to go off sorry whatever that light was it's still on though it's bluish yeah shining right at us that might be the projector light though it was brighter thank you okay uh while ab's going to go Jack tetel could you get ready so go ahead AB hi Abby cler town of Resident parent of two high school students uh this is off my script but I really love that metaphor of everybody working to roll the boat in the same
105Direction members of the school board I registered to comment tonight simply to express my gratitude for your effort to provide leadership and make painful decision decisions in these unprecedented times we moved to the area 10 years ago and chose our location largely based on the school district and have not been disappointed I wish to show support and Community Spirit during a time when our society is facing many challenges to our Unity thank you again thanks also to the administrators teach and teachers who give it their all every day over the last 10 years I've been continuously amazed at the Quality and breadth of offering to our students thank you thank you to all our teachers and staff who continue to bring your talents and enthusiasm to your job every day and that's it and then
106after Jack is Heidi ruha you get ready go ahead Jack I recently i' I've heard uh Department of Public Instruction scoring for the loai school district uh several times uh they give us a exceeding expectations grade and I want to talk about what appears to be the dishonesty of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction or at least it appears to me and there report cards for Wisconsin school districts for 2019 1 half of Modi School District students were academically full grade l that is Accord according to DPI data from Tes scores it is the measurement showing showing how well Loi students are able to read write and d ma this isn't Mr information this comes from DPI and the test for 2021 DPI revised their scoring system to use district report cards and they lowered
107their standards again that is an absolute fact for 2021 2/3 of all students in the state were below grade level in academic abilities but the DPI Reporting System gave 95% of school districts a grade of meeting or exceeding expectations parents and communities believe schools are teaching kids to read write and do math and parents assume that when DPI says our school district is exceeding expectations that students actually know how to read write and do math at least at their grade level but that's not true true DPI scores scores school districts in a very deceptive manner where actual academic achievement accounts for only 16% of the district score if you search long enough on the DPI website you will find the testing results for your school students L data was also reported in November of 26
108edition of L Enterprise I wish I had the I wish the article had explained that students score basic or below basic on the state standards test are classified as being academically below grade level for 2021 DPI test data showed 61% of Loi students both uh academic grade level in English language arts and 67% are below grade level in math nearly two-thirds of what I students can't read write or do math at their grade level for that level of failure in academic achievements the district I think should get an F yet DPI says Loi is exceeding expectations whose expectations is that of Madison or is that of Loi now these are facts and that's why I'm here because I think the academics are suffering at a time when we're going in equity and social emotional learning
109learning think the kids need to know how to learn uh they need to know how to read write do math they don't need teachers being forced to be psychologists counselors they need you need to let teachers teach the basics thank you and then while Heidi's going Sarah keski could you get ready so go ahead Heidi hi guys I'm Heidi Le Hughes I'll speak a little loud wake everybody up up there um first before I start I will tell you nothing I say will ever express the amount of gratitude both myself and my family have for every teacher in the school district my daughter loves their teacher so much she calls them mom I think she likes them more than me most of the time so make it very clear teachers staff administrator Schoolboard we love
110you no matter what we say so then I'll continue on so my name is he Le um I'm always grateful to be here and to share my thoughts with the school board all the faculty and staff that are here as well as parents that are in the audience or maybe watching live online tonight I first want to address the board if I may recently I was lucky enough to attend a zoom meeting uh Vince was on the meeting as well as the medical Advisory Board I'm not sure if parents even knew that it was an option the first part of the meeting was closed but at the end portion I was able to hear some awesome dialogue between all parties we weren't allowed to participate in the meeting of course but listening to them was
111extremely helpful in getting information regarding our Co precautions firsthand and this is what I took away the most glaring observation for me was that we have enlisted a group of very like-minded thinkers to run the panel it's very similar to the board actually every person on that panel thinks exactly the same I'm not sure how we are ever going to continue to work through Co if not one person is adding a different valuable dialogue and conversations where where decisions are made for our children in that meeting I also heard several times that we're listening to the community and when I really let that sit in I didn't feel like it was the truth we are listening to some of our community my voice is not represented on that committee and it is very muted here
112at times in these board meetings as well so I would like to make some recommendations in order to represent our community as a whole I recommend you add positions to the panel or replace current medical doctors with those of varying viewpoints not all doctors agree with the panel that was assembled and many who speak for parents like me would be willing uh to step in with their information as well in addition I'd like to see our children's mental health represented on the panel en listing the voice of a counselor or a child psychologist would be extremely helpful and beneficial as so many of our children are suffering in silence if we really wanted to round out the panel we'd be looking for long-term solutions to the health of our children so that they are well
113positioned to take on a virus that isn't going away anytime soon speaking with a nutritionist and implementing healthy eating and lifestyle habits would go a long way again Co is not going anywhere and we aren't looking for long-term Solutions I think this would be a wonderful place to start next I'd like to address the parents and our community as a parent I feel our voice is our greatest tool after all we see and hear things that the board faculty and staff just are not pry to I spoken to many who like me believe that we need to REO masks in our schools but where are you you have the same voice I do and many are probably much more well prepared with facts and examples than I am I challenge you all to use your
114voice in a respectful way to stand up for our kids to be a part of the change we'd like to see in our schools it may not be mask specifically but whatever it is let stand up and be heard together show up to these meetings gather your information firsthand and fight for what is best for your family let me ask a favor of you imagine for a second you're a kindergarten teacher now it takes a special sord of somebody so this is going to be a stretch for many of us but say you're teaching a group of five-year-olds how to read how to pronounce letters how to learn to put words together my guess you didn't imagine doing that with a mask on your face children learn these skills by watching facial facial movements and
115cues I cannot begin to wrap my head around how we are asking our teachers to teach this way now imagine you're teaching a group of young adults many who might be struggling with pressure fitting in and all the things that come with being this age can you see emotion on their faces can you tell when they're upset or they're happy the mask is quite the barrier between our teachers and our students and my guest many students are struggling through the day with weights on their shoulders that could have been lifted if somebody just noticed I cannot imagine being a teacher right now these are skills nobody signed up for at the end of the day we're asking our children to do things that we we are not authentically doing in our own lives we do
116not live in a place where masks are required anywhere except here in our schools you can enter any city building shopping restaurants grocery stores SP Sports programs outside of the schools any of it none of our children are masked they play with their friends as soon as the bell rings unmasked they gather in movie theaters they cram in cars go on vacations host family events all unmasked so why for one second do we believe that Co only exists and our schools if other schools are holding class successfully without them so can we over the course of the next month I'm requesting the board to take appropriate steps to ensure all voices are heard as we look to make the next step to move forward without masks I'd like to see diversity of thought on the
117panel we're taking advice from I'd like to see that same diversity of thought be represented here in the board as well again thank you so much for your time uh and I'm looking forward to helping this community all the voices in the community being heard thank you and then as going Chad Walter could you get ready ahead hi I'm Sarah keski I am actually a mental health professional so I could speak to that a little bit um but the thing that I wanted to talk about tonight and I don't really have my words all formalized in a speech but um is the idea that you know as human beings we are we are emotional creatures with a brain we're not thinking beings with feelings and I think we get it wrong and I think that
118means we have to understand that we are all operating from our emotional responses and and the reality is is both sides if you want to say sides because that's kind of what's happened we've divided both sides are afraid we're just afraid of different things and and seem to think that we have the answer and what I would like to suggest is maybe there's much more of a murky middle than there is this like decisive side that is right or wrong I think that takes critical thinking I think that takes emotional maturity I think that that takes the ability to hold two contradictory or conflicting thoughts or feelings together at once called ambivalence this is what our community this is what our world needs more of is this ability to like expand Beyond some simple rhetoric
119that we might hear on a a a TV news station we need to be able to see the value of other people even if they have a different uh a point of view and so I think about this my best example right now about ambivalence is the idea of cell phones I have young children that right now want cell phones desperately because they want to fit in they want to be part of the the society that has you know the Tik toks and the connections through the Snapchats and all that I'm afraid I they're afraid right they're afraid to be left out I'm afraid of the impact of that on them and so the murky middle is not that easy right and so the murky middle is well what what do we do do I
120say no you can't have them because I'm afraid because I can grow up with cell phones I don't really know we don't have enough data really to say exactly what the impact is going to be I'm going to have to make my best gas and that's what I'm trying to do with them and give them some guidance and some some critical thinking skills and some emotional um maturity of how to tolerate some of the frustrations that they're going to feel when they are see that they're not going to be invited on on maybe the next slumber party but I'm also going to be careful about doing that only when they're emotionally capable of something like that and they're not right now so I have to make that discernment and it's not that simple and I
121think we just have to be be able to all Elevate our emotional maturity our critical thinking our ability to have this awareness of the murky middle instead of picking sides and dividing because that will not help our world that will not help us navigate these new hard challenges that we've never seen before and I think we're going to do better if as we said we try to Road Together going forward recognizing that nobody exactly knows everything yet but everybody can come to the table share their thoughts and op and then we're going to do the best that we can with good intentions rather than villainizing the other side [Applause] thanks Chad Walter uh Town taxpayer um a father of one in the district one will be serving next year um I hate to sound like
122a broken record but you know the last time I was here I talked about about my displeasure with some of the board's spending in the past now I just got my tax bill 18% increase 18% and now you want to ask for more money on top of so I think you guys really need to re-evaluate some of your spending practices and that's as far as I'll get into that second thing masks me personally I'm done with them I want to see them go people that that want the vaccine got it people that don't want it aren't going to get it people want to wear mask let them wear it they don't want to wear a mask don't wear either way it doesn't matter to me but last year you guys let it was too dangerous
123to go to school but it wasn't dangerous enough to play sports now you're talking about letting students not wear masks in sports but they have to wear them in schools it's not right I don't even care which way you go make them all wear mask make N Them wear a mask it needs to be Universal the school in the school that should be the priority if it's not safe enough to go without a mask in school then they should be wearing them in sports that's all I got thank you thank you so that's all for public input um we will move on to the next agenda item but I think we're going to take out 5 minutes enough and it's 8 let's say it's 8:10 so let's say 8:15 will come back re I'm car
124[Music] hone I AG but not first SC spe [Music] like for e took my phone with me where' my phone go for 8:15 yeah you should have your mic on yes because you're G to give comment and speak so a little green light will be on all right it is 8:15 we are back B next thing on the agenda is the consent agenda items consent agenda items in this section will be adopted as a group unless a board member request a specific item to be removed from consented agenda and addressed separately we have the approval of the minutes from the November 8 meeting we have vouchers checks credit cards for uh November we have fundraiser requests for the tree plenish LH Lo High School environmental Club and then we have a fundraiser um request for
125Little Caesar sales for girl soccer there are no fundraiser reports there are no field trip requests committee recommendation for approval we have the Middle School uh head forensics Coast position change then under other we have a summary of The Fall Sports and early graduation requests under resignations and retirements we have under retirements elementary school education Assistant two of them seventh grade language ARS teacher under resignations we have the Middle School track coach softball assistant coach Elementary School OC and music middle school music and choir teacher and the primary school education assistant under co-curricular we have high school assistant girls basketball coach a head golf coach and then two assistants a head baseball coach and one assistant the head softball coach and two assistants and a volunteer high school track coach head and then four assistants
126and then for Middle School track we have four assistants we also have a first year mentor and a middle school yearbook advisory advisor excuse me and under Personnel other we have leave without pay requests there are six of those I make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented with the approval of Katie trinsky school special education assistant and approval of the early graduation second Mo my Ang second of my bill is there any further discussion all in favor say I I anyone opposed oh so we have two abstaining okay that's 1 two three four five z school report card information yeah so uh the Department of Public Instruction is required by State Statute to generate school and district report cards Dr Carl has shared a video overview uh of the school district and
127Loi report cards for the 2021 school year Dr Carl is going to give us a brief summary of the report cards and picking questions the board may have regarding for district report cards and then before you go for board members you have it in your dots if you want to watch on screen because we're not real estate it's under yeah SC the video is on there well it says uh the presentation is there also under for us to see okay all right um hello Loi Community my name is Nick Carles and I am a director with the school district of Loi I'm also a father of of children in the district and I'm a proud Loi graduate uh tonight I plan to give you a brief breakdown or overview of the Department of Public Instruction
128state district and school report cards as the 2020 21 report cards were recently released and they've recently gone through some visual design changes but I'll do this disclaim every year our students and my own children are more than an assessment data point and our amazing Educators and principles support them in meaningful ways each day that will never show up on these state reports so I ask us to keep that in mind as we move forward um as a reminder the Department of Public Instruction is required by State Statute to generate school and district report cards report cards are intended to help schools and District use performance data to celebrate success and improve their efforts to prepare students for their Futures many of the parameters or structures of the report cards are put in place due
129to statute or legislative guidance to work through this overview we're going to leverage the school district of Loi 2020 2021 district report card you'll find that much of what we highlight can then also be applied to the individual school report cards these report cards can be found on the District web page or by using the link provided in for docs so the first slide showcases the front page of the district report card and let's dive in and take a look at each section on the front page starting at the top slide please so at the top of the page you'll see General school or District depending on the report card you're looking at information you'll see the grades of the school or District being referenced for the report card serves the enrollment we're looking at
130the top left corner here percent of students that are served through open enrollment meaning they live outside of the school district attendance Zone but select to attend school in the school district of L um you see a chart highlighting the various student or demographic groups being served in the school or districts you see that just below that previous section that I was mentioning you also see the percentage of students within the school or District who are identified with a disability economic disadvantage or as English language Learners next section please the next section is the score summary section and each school or District receives an overall numerical score and this score for the district is just a tick up from uh where it was with the last school report card that the district received the score
131is calculated by combining the weighted average of priority area scores that we'll talk about in a little bit uh the overall accountability score places a school or District in one of five rating categories and again this is language that that is outlined statute um from so the rating categories range there's um from a a a significantly exceeds expectations or fails to me expectations um the the there's also a a star ratings so you can see on there there's a four star rating for the school district of Loi um and that goes up to five stars so this school school year again the school district fell into the exceeds expectations range I want to note that the high school it fell into the significantly exceeds expectations range so kudos to the high school and that was
132the first time that they had fallen into that range and the other schools in the district fell into the needs expectations range and I know that uh Mr jelick and his his board report will highlight kind of how that how high school falls into realm within other other school high schools in the region so as I just noted the summary score is based on the weighted average of four priority area scores we say weighted average because statute indicates there must be a mechanism on the report cards that adjusts the weight of achievement or growth sections depending on the percentage of students identified as economically disadvantaged in the district so in short the higher the economically disadvantaged percentage in your District then there's an increased weight put on grow okay now that's not necessarily the case
133in the school district of Loi we have a relatively smaller population of economically disadvantaged students therefore you're going to see more weight for the schoolers to AV place on achievement again another mechanism placed in statute so the last section that we're going to highlight is the priority score area of the school district and or the school and district report cards and each part of this section is calculated based on data for multiple years with more weight being placed on recent scores so the four areas are achievement growth Target group outcomes and on track for graduation so with achievement that first section in the upper left there you can see the overall score the district or school was awarded in this area and then to the just to the right of that little circle what you
134can see is how the district or School compared in that area to State average and so you can see that purple bar moving across where says 64.7 so that's a school district of loai aggregate score with dat over multiple years um compared to the gry line L which is the state aders you see that above the state average so for instance you can see the district outperform the state in in both English language arts and Mathematics achievement in that aggregate um look and you know and this is reference when I say d data for multiple years it's also multiple assessments so it's the act that are students Tak in 11th grade and then also and then the Aspire assessment the students Tak in nth grade and 10th grade it's the Ford exam that students take
135in grades 3 through 8 these are all state assessments and also our Dynamic learning maap assessment that some of our students with disabilities take as well so a lot of data points to look at um you know and just a note about achievement often times there's there's some misconceptions around achievement for example let's say percentage of students who hit a specific benchmark and just remember that assessment companies and entities sometimes change benchmarks so I remember being a teacher 10 years ago um where about 70% of students in my classroom were considered proficient on the state exam and for those of you that are Educators in the room you remember it was called the wkce at that time and you also remember what I'm talking about where the next year that same cohort of students took
136the state assessment again it was down to about 35% were proficient on the state exam so what happened did they not have access to me as a teacher anymore so all of a sudden they lost other their skills no I'm not that good that's not what happened the state and the assessment system they changed that Benchmark and so we we knew where our students were at as teachers right but we have to take that into consideration and I'm thinkk from the for the state for setting that rigorous Benchmark that we're constantly working to meet and Achieve and our teachers are working to meet and ACH um I appreciate also things like the ACT exam which we've had pretty consistent over the years and as also not just a state assessment but a national assessment so
137we can look at how are we compared uh to other schools in the state on the ACT how do we compare to the state average of which traditionally we've been above the St State average how do we compare to the national average which we've traditionally been above the national average um so that's a that's a great data point to look at as well the next section growth here so growth is the same as achievement and that you can see the overall score and then how the school district of Lise students grew on these assessments and compared to the state average Target group outcomes bottom left according to the Department of Public Instruction the closing the gaps priority area of the report card has been replaced by the Target group outcomes priority area to make the
138measure more reliable inclusive and actionable for schools and districts so Target group outcomes it focuses on students roughly in the bottom quartile of 25% so in a given year they'll take a look at that population they want to see okay how is that population doing and then you're going to see that it doesn't compare to a state a there because that's specific to any District right but what it allows you to do is look at that population look at that section of the chart and say okay next year as a district are we improving outcomes for students who fall into that c which typically houses some of our more vulnerable student populations and the final priority area is called on track to graduation this area attempts to highlight how successfully students are achieving educational Milestones
139that predict later success um the school district of L has much to celebrate uh but this category also highlights a need for growth in the area of Elementary literacy if you look at that third grade reading section um and e8th grade math so chronic absenteeism that's a high score that's good above the state average graduation rate that's good third grade literacy eighth grade math those are true data points that we're looking to improve our internal assessment systems highlighted that last year we started working on that if you've been following the board reports you know we've doing a lot of things with building really strong foundational components at the primary school with when it comes to literacy um we've got a great principal for that and iner over there who's a former literacy coach herself and
140then you think about middle school math our principal doc Derek Bor was considered one of the best Math teachers in the state dist districts try to have him come over and Coach their teachers we got a great person there help with our math as well so this is our school report card some celebrations also some things to work out do anybody have any questions for Nick sorry does anybody have any questions so this is the third time I've heard you cover all of this stuff and it was very well done each time right you hit each piece in each part so so so the public input part is over I'm sorry it's right but it's now the board's time you can contact Nick at any time and ask him questions on on on that time
141he's more than happy to talk to you okay so there's nobody has any questions for Nick we'll move on to co mitigation discussion yeah so thanks Nick again for that comprehensive review of school report cards uh Co mitigation um as was mentioned earlier in our meeting the medical advisory committee met on November 30th uh to discuss our current recommendations regarding covid-19 in the district uh the data since their last meting shows the community transmission continues to be very high in the boundaries of the district within Columbia County uh the numbers are continuing to increase and their concerns about the holiday season may result in increase increasing numbers um there's been very little Co Transmission in the district and the change in quarantine guidelines that were put in place last month um have been successful so
142far with no additional Transmissions here at school um in the current District data indicated that many of the household and a of school contacts are currently driving our our exclusion and quarantine numbers versus School related contacts a lot of times kids get quarantined but because the contact that have happened outside of school um many of the recommendations of the committee Remains the Same um everyone who's eligible should get a vaccine uh they still recommend Universal face covering physical distancing um testing um excluding quarantine of close contacts again with the exception um as I mentioned earlier changes they recommended was piloting uh the following uh doing away with the quadrants at recess at primary school and Elementary OC allowing athletes to remove mask while actively competing as long as athletes are willing to fully and properly
143mask at all times again the committee feeling that they prioritizing academics right for protecting kids in the classroom that means to be a number one priority um Athletics have more chice activity and that's a chance to take a step right in that direction so um just like anything else with Co the committee talks about they're not out plan ripping everything off like a bandaid it's layers like step by step so these are some steps that they've taken um these changes the ones I just mentioned have been implemented because the board's motion uh to the administration is the follow all the recommendations um of this committee um until I hear otherwise so um the full report is full yeah report is in your board box I take any questions that you have so I thought it
144was great public input to get a psychologist on that board so can we look into getting the psychologist on that board that would be amazing the conversation we can have abs okay I had a question or a comment um I think it's a concern of both me and a lot of stud students that um with the quarantine rules with being vaccinated or unvaccinated um for students who don't choose to be vaccinated that they have to quarantine if they a close contact because it is well known that people who are vaccinated still can contract and spread Co so I just think um was brought up earlier about kind of equality in our district and I believe that our school is very very high in that we really try to be inclusive to all people races sexualities
145anything like that it's a really Progressive School in that way but I do think that with that aspect of it students who decide or their families decide that they decide they don't want to be vaccinated I don't think they should be kind of in a way discriminated against by quaning because we're saying constantly let's keep our kids in school let's keep our kids in school that's what's most important but those kids who aren't vaccinated and are close contact are being taken away from that opportunity compared to those who are vaccinated yeah that's a great question um I know the medical advisory committee has talked about that and in looking at the medical research and what if you look on the Department of Health and Human Services website they will really show that the difference and
146risk uh between vaccinated and unvaccinated the amount of transmission that happens between unvaccinated people compared to vaccinated people is significant um again talking to the doctors that is what they would share um and that is why that recommendation is there from not only them but from the CDC and from DHS um is that there is a differentiation between um the amount of transmission that happens um between people and especially kids who are vaccinated um the 12 to 17year old age group has responded very well to vaccines um immune system has done very well and they've seen significant difference in transmission rates and that's what's Driven that recommendation from again people that are a lot smarter than I am and um who study this and I said it comes from the DHS and CDC and again
147they know it's not as as we talked about it's not a zero some game you can't get it to zero risk ever so it's like trying to balance where is the acceptable risk um for to keep students in school make sure we're not having transmission at school um and that's where that comes from that Committee of doctors who who are dealing with it on a daily basis I think it would be interesting too like within our school how we have testing available for everybody and students in order like to if they're exposed they're required to give like the VAC whether they're vaccinated or not if they're going to be quarantine I think it'd be interesting to compare numbers of students who have tested positive like comparing numbers of students that are vaccinated and unvaccinated who
148have contracted Co comparing numbers in our school just seeing down right is this happening even if it's happening globally what's happening in our school and what's happening with our students cuz that's who it's affecting we should have that data yeah we have to look it up and we have to go back and and and pull that we could pull that data we should have that data something we could actually you do thank you given that we have taken steps to allow our athletes to remove their Mas during um competition I think that's a great are you pointed out your microphone I think that's a great stride that we took um I once again I'm just going to throw it out there I'd like to make a motion that we allow the district office to be
149masked optional and allow our board meetings um to be mask optional while there's adults here and if I can get a second on that if we could just have discussion and really appreciate it it's not something I can second I'm sorry can we have discussion with that a second I can't hear you can we have discussion without a second then usually to find out what you're thinking I mean we can we can set the rules aside and have an open discussion about that sure usually you have to have a second to have a discussion but we often set that rule aside so we can discuss that we can I just I'd like to know where I'm off on that and what you guys are thinking as to why you can't second that if they're adults
150and they have the option to be vaccinated and they're in their offices and we're at these meetings and we're spread out and we as adults have the option to be vaccinated just I'm just I may be missing something you may have a very valid reason that I just I'm not seeing so one of the things I would bring up is that we do have students at the district office we have a transition program in back so 4 days a week um so I mean I guess I would say if you're going to make a motion I would say it has to be when there's no students around like so if you're asking board meetings to be that way or um when there's not students in the building but 4 days a week we do have
151our transition program kids in the building in the back so they're in and out and they interact a lot with our staff which is a good thing because that's what we want we teach them how to interact that's one of the teaching tools of being there is teaching our kids how to interact appropriately with adults when adult says hi our staff will say and the kid will just keep walking right and they'll be like no no no no like that's not how we going to when we go to work that's not what you do so that may be something to think about sure the the reason the thing I would say is I would now is not the time to do that maybe in after January into February that might be a time to look
152at that because of omnicron and the the transmission rate in the state is so high and around other states around us it's just really very very high right now and then with this new variant coming in which spreads four times faster the Delta I mean the problem still is Delta right now but the new one is is going to overtake it it seems to have more favorable outcomes but that data is still coming in and is not solvid yet and so I would say maybe but not until like February that would be the time to discuss that's my my opinion it's also that it's too early we need to see how where we go and if the kids are wearing masks I don't why the office would have to be different I can't hear you
153I said I don't see why the district office would have to be different it should be it is on you got I don't see why the district office would have to be different right [Music] here that just gives me some thank you I if anybody else wants to say anything that no mine was going to be the same comment that we have students in the district office because of the transition program who are are um not adults okay uh next thing on the list is the facility Master planning yeah so again at the August board meeting the board approved having CG Schmidt complet a facility master plan to help us determine needs for the upcoming referendum uh this plan is an assessment of a facility and maintenance needs Justin Johnson is here from CG Schmidt
154to share summ the facility master plan um i' ask the board again maybe you guys want to step down off stage you drop the screen again thank you be easier to watch [Music] stand e all right um thank you for having me vin thank you so like Vince noted I'm Justin Johnson from CG Schmidt uh we were asked by the district uh earlier this year uh to come in and do a facilities assessment of the existing facilities uh so we the Elementary uh the primary the middle school the high school um really to kind of start making a maintenance list of what potentially the district should be considering for work from now kind of through the next 10 years um with the buildings that you currently have so kind of the process of the facilities
155assessment um yeah thank thank f um so kind of the process we kind of set out kind of the high level up there of how we go through kind of to determine you know what the recommendations would be um we start with Mr uh meeting with the district facilities team um so we get together uh with those guys we kind of go through the buildings uh talk about what they've done uh what they're seeing in the building like you know they're obviously in them every day uh so that team can give us an idea of what things you know they feel uh have potential issues so it kind of gives us a place to start um it's a good reference point for that that um reviewing existing maintenance lists to the district reports um so
156a while ago Mani mechanical came in had done a report uh so we look at some of those we've had some other exterior reports done so we kind of take all that existing data kind of Bring It Together start to package it kind of in one process um analyze the existing architectural structural so we actually come out with a team uh we spent two days in the district uh we bring a a mechanical uh engineer out um we bring a field service R Mark Schmidt actually of our organization comes out and does it um and the multitude of other people we just kind of walk through the buildings you know we walk down the hallways we go into the mechanical rooms we walk around the exterior kind of look at all the different components of
157the building we go up we look at the roofs really get a sense for you know the quality or the life that's left in those which helps kind of Drive some of these lists that we come up with recommendations that the uh District consider working on over the years to come uh then we prioritize them you know some buildings need a roof right now some buildings don't need a roof 10 years down we kind of put that all into the report uh and then uh each one of those items comes with you know some type of a cost so we we put an estimate together for what it is kind of now but then as we go out through the years we add that projected inflation so that way when you're looking at the report
158and you're seeing costs you know that potentially come up in 10 years you know that's a representation pretty CL of what it should cost 10 years from now not what it cost today so as you're doing your planning you know with your facilities maintenance and your budgets you kind of know where to put those dollars at Future on down the road so does that all make sense so that's kind of the process we go through that drives the data that we come up with so this is the overall uh so you can see uh all five buildings there listed um the way this works is each building has a a huge list uh of individual items that make number um and then each one of those you can see throughout the years so really what
159we came up with you know for the the entire District needs from the facilities and maintenance perspective you know you're really you know kind of in that column one already of things that the district should be planning for um and getting ready to take care of here in the next year so then you have your two to fives five to 10 and so on get year grand total so if you're looking at everything you should do from now over the next 10 years that kind of bottom right number gives you an idea what type of costs from a maintenance perspective that should be uh kind of budgeting for this is kind of a more of a graphical representation and what it does is it kind of breaks it down to system so instead of looking
160at it just from a school perspective it shows you where's your major impacts across the district from a systems perspective so obviously your hbac systems um and your roofing systems are two very large components um the elementary school roof um is close to the end uh the Middle School roof on the gym you know is getting closer you did the the reer of the main building and then the high school R is also kind of coming towards the end so you kind of got a few big things that are all coming together and then the HBA systems kind of the same thing the elementary school the middle school you know a lot of those systems are getting to the point now that they're 20 plus years old so you're getting kind of towards the end
161of that good life cycle where you should start considering making plans to start replacing some of that equipment um so the next one we'll go into it breaks it down by each individual school um and they're all broken into these categories so this is just kind of a quick I won't read through them all because there a lot of them but this is kind of the U description definition of what each one of those items within each School kind of represents so General Building Maintenance plaint floors kind of interior stuff Roofing repairs uh exterior that's your windows that's your talking you know that's the stuff getting inside brick things of that nature cyle parking lots um sidewalks that more build you know the grounds around the building um fire protection pling mechanical electrical systems all
162speak to that individual or specific system that's in each one of the schools and then you get into each category for each of the five different buildings that you have so Primary School brand new you don't really need to do anything to it but you do see once you get up to 6 to 10 years those interior finishes start to need to refreshing you know your carpets your vcts your walls know those things are going to start needing some painting to need some replacing uh Elementary School a little bit bigger needs there um there's that roof that's kind of the big one for the first there and then you can see as you get farther in some more General Building Maintenance kind of along the way fire protection system and that mechanical system kind of
163coming in there kind of in the next 10 years for that building protection is that something that we mandated on or that something we should do correct it is not mandated no um it it does once you get to the point of if you would do a massive renovation if you if you upgrade over 50% of the building then you'll get pulled into the code um but because you're looking at just general maintenance of the facility it's not a requirement however you know it is something that I down the road it's something to consider whether you bring a system like that into your buildings and that's why it ends up on our list and we have that in correct okay y y um so Middle School um site parking so the the one there is
164we've kind of picked up um some work that we're projecting over the green space that track um in that practice football area um you know the lifespan on that track has come to an end um so that's kind of one of the big ones you see in the one year need right away from middle school um mechanical issues are the big ones there you know those systems are getting closer to the end of their life um so it's time to start thinking about putting plans in place to replace out air handling units boilers bumps things of that nature so that's kind of the big ones there high school um you know right now not a whole lot um some site parking lot stuff that's more towards you know the parking lot uh that's outside of
165the PAC here and the stuff that kind of wraps around by the pool so that's the major kind of site component there um you know for those kind of two years and then fire protection Fe and then the roofing you know that's another big thing for this building you are getting towards the end of the you know the 20-year lifespan on these so something to start considering you know in that two to 5 years of planning for some type of a roof replacement project and the last one is the admin building um so just a little bit here and there on that uh that site parking on and stuff that's more of the stuff kind of around the back U Back by the shop the things that didn't get done uh this last summer uh
166with the parking lot up there um Fire Protection in that building again kind of consistent um and then just some of the electrical um pieces of that building you know getting closer towards the end um which you know give you some work here in the next five years or so so that kind of brings it all together um if you really want to see all the detail that goes into that you can go to I think it's the Neil's office um it's about 1200 Pages or something the book's like almost a foot thick um but it's got a very very detailed list it breaks down every school and then each school has each line item has an actual task and that task is associated with the picture so as Neil and his crew are starting
167to take care of some of these items they got a very easy road map to what was the issue what was the cost and where is it at and kind of where does it fall in that lifespan of needing to address it so high note from that is we have some things to fix but buildings in general look good yep yeah it's not like we have ACH of no no you got a lot of really good sound buildings um just some of them now are just starting to start to age out so some of these major components now it's time to start looking at making plan um replacing those you know the roofs is probably the biggest one I each to the buildings coming forward and then the hbac system obviously pulling into that and
168then some of that site work stuff but overall yeah the the bones of the building are very and then the other question is this new um the new um Federal infrastructure bill has a lot of money in there for school renovation if it's um Energy Efficiency upgrades and so like a roof with insulation would that qualify as an energy if there's an upgrade in your in your mind honestly I'd have to look at that I did then I saw it was 146 pages so I haven't really started reading it yet I don't know a ton about that budet Sol yet um so I probably shouldn't say that's fine so it be my opinion and that doesn't always matter our dream of course would be to to encumber some of that funding so that we don't
169have to put it on the district yeah most of the time you know there is like the Energy rebates and stuff that you do those upgrades you know within mechanical systems um there is a lot of incentives out there I know you did a lot of it with uh like LED lighting you're able to upgrade that and then you get the Energy rebates so I'm assume there's a lot of that type of same incentive in there yeah the summary of it says all of that yeah so so it if it holds to how they've done it in the past it would make sense that some of those items you would be able to go after some type of funding or rebates for it good but again that's me no no no and it's brand new
170so it has to be on for sure right thank you thanks Justin so as Justin shared um what we you know he just gave a high Lev presentation of the information he shared with us um there's also this booklet that comes with that which kind of lays it out and as he talked about there are lines in here like all these different lines and they correspond to a as you said a binder that's about a foot thick that has pictures of all those lines it tells exactly where those issues are um so uh the real comprehensive plan um and what I would ask from the board is for us to adopt this plan like this is a our facilities and maintenance 10year plan not that we can do everything in this plan but at least
171it guides where we're going so I think that would be the the next logical step I'll make a motion to adopt the facilities assessment and maintenance plan is presented a second that motion motion by V and a second by Terry is there any further discussion all here say I hi is anyone opposed passes 70 next is the referendum 2022 right so the board will be discussing the upcoming referendum based on a lot of different pieces of information you've gathered over the last six months we did enrollment projections from applied population study the financial projections from Beed the facility plan prepared by CG Schmidt Green Space assessment done by pointed beginning results of the community survey that that we heard tonight earlier as well from school perception and the priorities given to the board by the
172community in the Strategic plan sing finance committee met on December 9th to review possible referendum options those options were that were discussed are on board do uh the board will need to give the direction to the administration of how they want to structure an upcoming referendum so the administration can work with legal council to craft a referendum question to presented at the board at their January meeting for adoption so that's the timeline we have to hit is January for us to have an April and to walk through the just the four options that were shared um they kind of go along with the survey that was presented I think I think before you do that though we need to make it clear that the state legislature has changed the rules we are only allowed to
173ask two questions a year right so in the past you could ask as many questions as you want at any election and now we're limited to two in a year so you have to keep that in your mind as we go through these be two in one election that two in in this next year and that is it wherever they occur so there are two elections there one in November one in April and one in November that we could hit so but we can only ask two questions sorry no that's okay and and we can summize a little bit too like why what we looking at for a referendum right so we thow the number that was put out there was $3.85 Million that's just another number we picked out of the air right we
174looked at we are dropping a $1.7 million non- ruring referendum ends at the end of this school year um right now that is helping pay salaries that is um helping you know so which keeps our class sies reasonable it covers our routine Building Maintenance staying up to date with technology course offerings all the things that we pay for each and every day well as everybody knows those things have gone up so 1.7 million helped cover that at the beginning of that 5year referendum at the end doesn't quite get there uh State Legislature didn't do us any favors last year by giving us a 0% increase this year and next year um moving forward and you know we just need to look at also you know again we start looking at a strategic plan and the
175things that we talked about Dr Carl was talking about um the academics um talking about the things that we are working on to make sure that we are are getting our kids ready the other pieces of the strategy plan we're looking at is you know again all those things that we're doing with social emotional learning or nurturing the whole child those pieces but then also the back piece of that is the district Workforce you know our strategic our community sh in in the priority of making sure that we attack and retain exceptional team members and engage them and continue to work but we need to look at you know how we're that make sure we're competitive as everybody knows we're in a job a shortage of teachers uh and and other Industries are shortage as
176well um we short short for Subs so making sure that we are competitive work environment um that all rolls into this referendum so uh we need to make sure that we are doing those things um to bring them in and then we have to look at some of the maintenance costs that um that we adopted that facilities plans like some of those things that they're not going they're not going to be any cheaper and a lot of those things get more and more expensive the longer you make them wait um so those are things that we are looking at into this referendum and so looking at different options for the referendum the committee night really discussed four um the first option was and these are not in the order of of priority these are just
177four options the first option was you know the the board approves uh a 3.85 to go 3.5 million non-recurring referendum in April um and if that passes then go to a maintenance referendum in the fall so two different referendums at two different times um but again the combination not to exceed that mill rate of 1111 which was in the survey option two is combining those things into one question like the district will combine an operating referendum and and the maintenance and Technology upgrade referendum one question which would can you know combine 3.85 million $2.3 million annually maintenance and Technology upgrades so it would be a 6.15 uh million 5year non incurring referendum which would again keep you um under the keep that no rate steady at 11 11 option three is to have two separate
178questions um but at the same time you know so the one questions for the non recurring oper referendum for 5 years the other question is for maintenance and technology for 5 years um but as Adam started pointing out earlier drawback to that one is um if that fails you can't go back to referendum two questions you would be able to a referendum again until April of of the following year the fourth option is having two questions one's a non-recurring referendum um and the second would be going out to de like youing taking a 20-year loan out um for maintenance and and Technology upgrades and things like that um it's still staying under 1111 um but the facility finance committee was very hesitant to go to take out debt to pay for rook and technology and
179also really could hamper you going down the road as you looking at referendums and things like that because of that Debt Service value so um that one was wasn't one that was really popular amongst the group but again was option my job is to bring options to the table for the board I've done a lot of talking so yeah so referendum option one right is two questions one in April and one in November so if we ask for the referendum in April sorry the operational referendum in April and it fails we can come back and not do the money one for maintenance in November and do the operational referendum in November so that one is a hedge your bets kind of thing that Mak sense and then the second one um is a combination thing
180as one question so we could come back if that fails in November and ask a different question it could be just the just the refer the operations or it could be another combination question in November but with a different number perhaps and then three is two questions in April which is the dice here option because if they fail or one fails you can't come back why would you do that one then it's these are the options these are the choices right we don't like Po the committee at all so yeah go ahead um so I attended the facility Finance meeting last week and processed all of the information and of course we left the meeting and and it when you deal with these kinds of numbers and this kind of thing it's kind of draining
181and so went home got something to eat went to sleep about 3:30 in the morning my mind had processed where I was comfortable um I think with all things considered for me option two who is the best and here's why it gives us one question it meets both of our needs and it if of course if it fails it allows us to come back in the fall with a different question the other thing is uh on the flip side yeah if at $6,150 th000 it's a big number but understand that we're staying with the uh Levy of $11.11 and the other thing you have to understand is that not only is our current referendum ending at the end of June next year at 1.7 million but um there was more in that referendum than just
182just that so it's um I think it's our best option um so if I can get back to the right place I'm willing to make the motion that we adop there was new data that came in today yes I know can you hear that new data or can we talk about that new data before you Mo sure okay do you want to elaborate sure so one of the other things that we looked at we' talked a lot about 111 being that mill rate um so one of the things I asked beard to present us was what if we drop that mill rate to 11 flat like what would that mean if we had a 3.85 referendum operating referendum and then what would that give us for weing for maintenance and operation and that would still
183if we went to 1111 would still give us $2.1 million a year so 10 million or 10 10 and a half million over those years to do the maintenance cost uh versus a little over 11 some so there's also an option of being able to drop that M rate a little bit CU I know you heard a couple one person today talk about um taxes and I know the town ofai taxes maybe I have Chris talk about this a little bit right because she's had to deal with it um because of the equalized value went up in the town of L compared to the rest of the district um we kept our mill rate actually we dropped our mill rate right we should we should make that clear so over the last 5 years the
184town the school district of L has not raised the mill rate it's been flat for 5 years so it's not even talk about how the some people's went up yeah um so it just with the equalized bage how that works when some people go up their value in our district right So Others May gone down right when you look at so the town of Loi value equalized has gone up significantly this past year um and then you get that so that's what we try to stay away with that's what we we had that flat tax rate so people aren't bouncing up and down with their tax rates which is what happened in this year um and and so which makes it really difficult um the down Lo eyes uh value went up greatly I can't
185remember if they do them in fiveyear increments or seven it's seven required by law okay but that's a complete reassessment that's not what we're talking about it was not assessed it was so there's it was a equalized okay uh where they they have a mathematic equation which includes the Val evaluation of the property I believe the assessment ratio times our school mill rate so people have to understand that the the uh in those um municipalities where they saw where it actually prints on their tax bill where it says 18.5% it is reflective of the other factors in that mathematical equation and it's not due to the mill rate that school district LED if that makes sense I think it makes sense to us on the finance committee but it doesn't make sense to anybody else
186does it right but what I'm trying to say is there is a mathematical equation of which the mill rate is part of that what we're talking about which essentially is the tax rate from the school district our tax rate from the school district has not changed actually it went down this year so the other components of that mathematical equation to um get that to print on that tax bill is what has caused those increases and actually in one case I did investigate and went back and so what what ends up happening is in reality the last 2 three four five years they they've actually incurred maybe negative or very nominal increases where maybe other mun municipalities have been more level and so all of a sudden they're getting a big catchup and that actual great
187that makes sense so unfortunately we have nine M municipalities so this is um kind of a and and of course the biggest ones are the town of Loi and the City of loai so when those two fluctuate there's there's I guess more of an issue there more tax payers affected than the other municipalities but it happens it it it it floats around and and happens different so and then the only other thing I would like to say is that it's um the actual operational reference money amount um is to keep basically to keep the district Sol it and to keep the staff that we do have and to keep them paid enough so that they are not attracted away from our district and so to uh not have this pass would be very devastating to
188the district so that's the only thing I I kind of agree with Bill with the number two but I kind of like option one also because we have to get that one portion of it pass this year otherwise it will be devastating to the district yeah I think that's another thing that most people don't understand is why we have to ask for an operational referendum we get money from the state but about 10 years ago the state said we're going to give you less money all school districts if you want that money go to your your local people and ask them to pass the referendum and so school districts across the state all went to referendum for operational money that's just the way it is and it's been that way since 10 years now approximately
18910 years it's it's a lot of work to get a referendum and again it depends on the factors of in your school district there's some school districts that have or I had to go for a building because they there their enrollments going up but most of the state um are we've been in the declining enrollment district for a while we're projecting that we're going to start growing um but declining enrollment is very difficult on districts because your funding is based on that and so a lot of in a lot of districts in the state have had declining room so that's when you're talking about referendum for operating constantly so it's just something to talk about like if you are being concerned with that tax bump that that the town I got which again we are
190we we talked about it um you know it impacts people's topic and we totally understand that and um one of the reasons we dropped our no from 1113 to 1111 um just to try at least to help a little bit so the question is do we keep you that 111 or go to you know mill rate of 11 um this referendum could you say again if we went to 11 what would be the it would instead of two the it still be 3.85 but then it would be 2.1 so it' be just under $6 million a year and then from the survey that um I forgotten his name I apologize Rob one more Rob Rob Rob thank you he said that there was better support for two option two by combining those two together yeah
191there's more support for for roofs and and again it's not having been in this District other districts that's pretty typical right cuz it's it's a little more neous like we're paying for staff right we're paying for the day-to-day operations well that's hard to grasp I'm a homeowner I understand you got to put a rof on once in a while I don't like it it's going to cost me a lot of money and it always feels like it cost me too much but I get it um and I understand that the furn goes out of my house while I mean the boiler at school has to be replaced at certain times or my air conditioner it's an end of life well that means you know some of our HVAC systems have to be updated I as
192a homeowner I get that so I'm more supportive I don't want to see our and we're very proud of our beautiful buildings that we have here we're very lucky we also know as home owners what happens if we push keep pushing maintenance off it becomes more expensive causes more problems down the road so it makes sense to me that people are are more supportive of that um it's again as we talked about you just here it's hard to explain why you need to be why you have to have operating referendum um why the are going for right so the question is you're having to go to referendum because you put it t field in no that's not why we have to go to referendum that's not why your taxes got raised um but it's really
193easy to point to things like that right so on the on the state WB We have dealt with people for example at this time of the year their tax bills come and then it'll say right on there um uh the cost of your tax the portion of your tax bill that goes to the school district of Loi such and such an amount well actually that's not correct that amount goes to the state they divy it back out so some of that money goes to the voucher schools first and then the public schools get what's left now load out is uh according to their uh formula a property Rich T tax district and so they take the money from us but then in order for us to run our schools we are in a situation where
194we have to go back and do a referend we don't have a choice um I have been familiar with the people in the town of loai getting revalued and having this kind of a response that we got from Mr Wier I think his name was um that's consistent with every time they get reval can I ask a questions yeah maybe FR would be the best how do we know that our mill rate is going to stay in 1111 what I I think I'm getting this confused with how I computed my rate basically there's a a series of um um variables plugged into the model and so our bared uh financial advisor is plugging extremely conservative variables so that we um could maintain that mill rate so for example one is um they use a 2%
195growth on our whole district for the first two years then a 1% growth and so that to me for the school district of loai is extremely conservative I think over the last 10 to 20 years we probably averaged 3 to 5% and that is one of the direct impact uh variables on mill rate it will help us um make a conservative estimation that's one of the variables well and I think the other thing that that people have to remember is our you talk about mill rate right we keep the mill rate steady that doesn't mean always taxes stay steady right because your property values have been raising right right so that doesn't mean so that that's one of the questions that I'm sure we'll get is how can you st keep at 1111 and have
196an operating referendum and this maintenance referendum has us come and have an out right so there's two things one that $1.7 million is falling off um secondly we have been de feing so we've been taking money to stay at that 1111 and paying off long-term debt um to keep that steady tax rate to make sure that um so so that's where that room comes in um for us to be able to move forward um still not raise that tax rate but those that that that the money that comes in will help people overdo it yeah I think one of the other things too that um probably will happen is our lawyers will unlike will most likely write the resolution to say up to x% or X many dollars and that would give the board the
197ability to make adjusts as needed in case that um the variables would change and you wouldn't need to necessarily um Levy that whole amount because if we get greater numbers of students then potentially our Revenue cap could increase and the need to actually Levy 3.85 million may actually decrease for us um it is a series of variables in a mathematical formula um but we are planning on all of those variables having been so conservative that we will have enough ability to manage an 1111 or less and actually the mill rate that you're looking at that says 1111 is more like 11:05 I mean it's it's actually less than 1111 so it's Ultra conservative but my estimations were higher than M Clark's and I was using a three to 3 and a half% growth on our
198on our district and so um he came in more conser and said let's be more realistic Brent let's let's bring that down and make sure the board can manage that mill rate so given the increase I mean don't at this point I feel like it's more of a strategic game than anything should we ask for one question and see where we get with that so we're not to stick or shock anybody with combining them let's start in the spring and see where our communities are at and if it's an overwhelming yeah they went for it we still have one question left and one election as opposed to just hitting them with this huge number yeah I understand what you're saying um but if you think about it let's let's say that we go just for
199the 385 in the spring and it passed and now you're going to come back in the fall and you're going to ask for the rest to do the maintenance and people are going to say they're going to hesitate and then you're going to be sunk on doing the maintenance that's that's why I would rather do the combination in the spring um if you do the calculations if you do the if you check on all the referendums that pass versus those that don't more referendums pass in the springtime than in the fall so there's all these little tiny details it's uh somewhat of a form of being lucky or gambling or however you'd like to put it I think it has a lot to do with the psychology of like how well informed you know are
200you know average person on the street how much you understand about the complicated School financing and you know all these things we're talking about and yeah like is the sticker Shack like one large question or is it like oh now you're asking me another question in the next election you know we're not in the minds of every single person who's who you know what they're walking into the building with so that's I it's hard like what what is um what makes sense to people feel like they're asking a lot in one question and now we're asking again I mean when I was hred being on the school board I could not have told you the difference between an operating referendum and a cap referendum I barely knew what the word referendum L um and I
201mean I know other things but I didn't know that you're you're right chrisy it's pure speculation we have no idea that's the problem right and I see one side of it and and sadly I see the worst side of it just people that come into my office you know so I just think of okay if we're going to have if if the first time we ask for this large number and it says no now we have to pick which one we're going to ask and ask again in the fall why not at least be on the safer route and ask for something smaller now and then later on hope we get it right but rubbing rubbing that crystal ball is not a good way to go and so that's why we have the survey done
202and that's why we get Justus in come in and evaluate everything so we know we try to get as much data as we can right so according to that survey the combo thing is a better way to go based on what the people have told us rather than us trying to guess and then again if it doesn't go in April we could ask for that operational referendum in the fall just by itself and then try the maintenance isn't going to go away we got to have a roof no matter what so it doesn't pass in the spring we can't ask in the fall we come back again the next spring and ask I just see that survey was out before the taxes were so but I mean that's fine I'm a newbie so you guys
203are obviously like you're again we're just this wishy-washy so I mean we're as Adam said it's it's for us for trying to you're trying to figure out what and that's why you had the survey how all this information bottom line still comes down to what our guest tell us that we want to have a referendum pass because it was devastating at this District if it does not pass um and and I totally understand I that's one of the reasons I brought that option up like maybe we should just do that but I also see the other side of that like if somebody would be passed a referendum in April to turn around and say what in November what do you mean you're asking me again didn't we just pass this and having to explain all
204that and and go through that and and not understanding the difference between the two and so I that that was the concern so but I totally see that part too like because our bottom line is we need to put together a think that this board supports and that hopefully our community will pass because the referendum is a lot of work and um the bottom line is about what our kids need um what our staff needs to be successful um because this school is the heart of this community needs to be and we'll continue to be um regardless of all the stuff that's going on now right we've had some you know we're doing with some really difficult things right now but continues to be the heart of the community it's our big we're the biggest
205employer in the commity um and making sure that we are doing everything we can to support our students support our staff um because failing a referendum is is devastating to the district there no question about it we have over 200 employees do we have like 24 220 there it's a lot of peopley I have a kind of comment I'm not a taxpayer hly because I'm just a high school student but seeing from Christie's perspective like from taxpayers I feel like even like as Schoolboard members you understand you understand but the common taxpayer might not and having them all combined in one with that big of a number and if it fails trying to find the differentiation of why why people wanted to pass it and why people wanted to fail or not approve it could
206be difficult Go Changing from Spring to Fall just seeing I don't know every single day Society politics views everything's changing so quickly and tax prices of everything is going up and down increasing majorly so everybody's views are changing drastically I'm a 17-year-old girl and even mine are and I know like a lot lots of adults I've talked to theirs have as well so I think even if survey wise it would be like safer to do two like logically it might be better to do one cuz like you said it would be devastating if we didn't get anything if that failed and then you made the kind of a dice roll wrong decision that you put one certain one on the one fall and then it gets failed again and then you're left with nothing one
207of the reasons I wasn't I my comfort zone for just asking for operating next spring was if you ask for that 38 3,8 3.85 million and it fails now what are you going to do people are not going to be looking they're not going to be agreeable for you to come back with the same number so you're going to have to take less to operate and the truth of the matter is what the all the research that we did between us and Barett and Brent that's the number that we need to accomplish what the people have told us that we have to do retain our teachers pay them operate the school I I I understand it's a big number Brent what is our operating budget for the year is it we're we're over $19 million
208as an operating budget 18 you said 19 19 yeah that's the other thing when I first got on the school board I had no idea how much a school spent in a year and then I found out it was that number and I was like wow that's a lot of money but that's what a school cost so and so and what what percentage so there's a very high percentage that is related to payroll to teaching and all staff correct cuz I have a figure here from two years ago that's over 12 million just for that you're in my wheelhouse um lighten them um you know a school is typically between 75 and 80% Sal sorry that speaker is echoing right back at you can you come like on this side of yeah than you that's
209a monitor it's sorry about that whatever it is it's it's going right back at you now we can hear you before we can hear you now um typically a school district is 75 to 80% salaries and benefits Loi school district has some contracted services so we don't hit the 80% Mark but we're typically between 72 and 75% salaries and benefits so yeah we're we're at $12 million plus and benefits but but the contracted services are people also that's a great point that is true it's all for going to instruction yes so I guess I would offer a compromise like to look at option two but go down to that 11 flat rate right so you're again going a little less to the taxpayer but you're having one question moving forward um in the spring that
210you have one question right has it all on purpose we just did this big facility study that Justin just shared for us just to kind of put that on the shelf for 6 months doesn't always make a lot of sense um but to incorporate both those together um but then also drop that from 111 which we talked about in that survey a lot but then drop it to 11 um but still give you $2.1 million a year for maintenance um it still allows to cover I mean obviously even with as J shared some of those numbers we weren't going to be not going to do everything in there and some of those things we're going to cover in our data operation anyhow but you know I can't we can't cover a $3 million um for
211this building um or almost a $2 million bill for the elementary school without referendum but that way it kind of compromises in between that it it it softens the blow a little bit to taxpayers because it moves from 1111 to 11 plat um but also goes to that one question in April that's an opportunity for us are you looking for a motion on this or we are waiting for a motion okay I'll make a motion TR uh I would like to make a motion that uh we ex accept the referendum uh option two but I'm going to amend it uh the so it shall read the district combines the operating referendum and maintenance and Technology upgrade referendum into one referendum question on the April 2022 ballot this would combine the $3.85 million referendum question and
212the 2.1 million maintenance and Technology upgrade referendum to 5.95 million uh for a 5-year non-recurring referendum this combination of these two referendums would keep the mill rate steady at 11 can I justdate that the five would be 98 Z okay 5 5.98 y I'll second okay motion by Julie and the second by bar further discussion so the next thing if we adopt this the next thing that has to happen is the referendum questions have to be written in a specific way yes so I would take this information if you this is the direction you want to go I will take this information to legal council and have them craft the question bring it back to finance and then bring it back to the board for final adoption and then board meeting January in January so
213this is just giving me guidance on do we want to just say um um mill rate of $11 and let somebody f out the correct number that was it he had you sure sorry I do calg arithmetic on paper and Pen any other discussion let's do a v call oh just I want to make sure that I'm clear on this that because I didn't answer your question real well before you would have the ability after the resolution is written to amend the facilities portion right so if something happened and it hit a target of 11.07 next fall the resolution should be written so that you could bring the facilities portion down to hit the mark that you promised the taxpayers I want to bring comfort in the question that you asked that's how you would
214as a board would work toward that 11.0 or 1099 or whatever that your target is does that make sense yes thank you you're okay with that Julie you're okay with that part it makes sense you can't get it right on the pen okay any other discussion yes yes yes yes yes yes yes pass to zero another step it's a very long journey going through yeah thank you everybody for for that conversation and all the data You' had to take in over the last 6 months yeah all right next new course proposals for the high school yeah so Dr Carl and Mr jck have submitted the new high school course proposal um they were reviewed by the ccum committee at the November 17th meeting the committee unanimously voted to move them to the full board with
215the recommendation for approval for approval I'll make a motion to approve the 2021 2022 Loi High School course Cog oh that's the wrong one I was on that one that's it oh that's course catalog I apologize that is8 of course it's the motion does say course h uh new okay I'll make a motion to approve the 2022 2020 three staff new course proposals sure I second it motion by Julian I second by Terry any further discussion in favor say I hi anyone oppos that's a 7 to zero now the cour get yes so now the course catalog so those two items obviously going to the cour catalog so Mr J has submitted the high school course catalog um with the recommended changes and we confirm motion to approve that so we can start scheduling for
216next year already I make a motion to approve the 2022 2022 2023 Lo High School of course C and I'll second that motion by Angie and a second by Terry any other further discussion all in favor say I anyone opposed passes 7 to zero the agenda tonight has a lot of discussions that are going to be long so the next one is the Middle School DC trip so I I know I warned you it was going to be a long agenda this month yes um Washington DC trip uh so I've put together a memo uh just sharing that um we have not yet started to plan for the C trip because of all the things we've talked about Co and things of that nature typical year it takes us at least 6 months to plan
217for this um so typically we' take it in March so if we started planning now it would be in either May or June that we would go um so in looking and working with World strides um some of the things that would be in place if we would take this trip with them is uh participants uh must quasi quarantine 14 days before travel except for going to school um pre-t travel there would be testing uh you have to test either a CO PCR test within 3 to 5 days or an antigen test taken within 2 days departure um participants have to submit test results um anyone receiving a positive test would not be able to participate in the trip um and then they would get they retain their money minus the cost of the down
218payment which is $189 um if somebody is in close contact with someone who's tested positive for covid-19 within 14 days of the start date they're not able to participate um unless um this is not going to make actually happy but unless they've been vaccinated um or um you know have tested negative 3 to 5 days after exposure so if you're exposed like a couple days before the trip and you're not vaccinated you can't go again this is these are World strides um which we would have to follow um except for participants who've also recovered from covid-19 within the last 90 days U face covering would be required participant exic symptoms um world stries would help them get tested and safely separate them from the rest of the group while awaiting results this is a piece
219that makes me nervous they will attempt to keep them in the same Hotel um as the rest of the group um if the diagnosed participant is a minor which all of our students would be going unless the staff member who was diagnosed world starts with arrange and cover the cost of flight for a parent or Guardian to join the student at the program location but there's no discussion of how they would get home right so then somebody would have to rent a vehicle and bring their child home um participants who are not fully vaccinated required to take a CO this is post contact we just kind of have to follow our post contact rules um so yeah so and all those things make it sounding why would we even think about this but the other
220piece of it it's a Once in a Lifetime trip for our right they just don't have that opportunity um huge Educational Opportunity missed if we don't go and it's also a choice right it's a choice activity it's not a required activity um like going to you know e8th grade social studies class is a required activity going on this trip is not a required activity um the other issue we may have is finding shf room if PR R May and June right because our um we just W have staff who are going to want to do that and staff and staff want to have like I'm not comfortable right with this but it will be May June when in theory who knows rub crystal ball again it should go down again all I can say is
221our crystal ball with Co sucks it doesn't work is there a minimum amount of students that's what we would have to figure out so if we would say yes go ahead then obviously we would have to work with world's strides and have a minimum amount uh of people before we could go on a trip Jo knows better than I do he's never had but he he ran this trip many years probably one bus yes yeah probably a b well World strikes may also be modifying their numbers because they want to stay in business and I this is such a great trip I did get an opportunity to chaper on it one year and first of all the number of students who really hadn't been out of Wisconsin much or you know hadn't been to a
222lot of places and to see Washington DC was it was lifechanging it felt like it was amazing I I think that this trip um you know if world stries is willing to administer the trip there there like many travel places around I mean they're great I mean I I my interactions with him I think Joe's also um you know they're constantly trying to find ways for travel to occur in this time period um they they uh policies may change over the six months um it parents will have to understand what all these policies mean for them um if there is Staff who are interested in I mean yes we may struggle to find um people on RN but we don't know know that yet um I just want to Advocate very strongly for this trip
223if there's any way to allow students to go I mean and it maybe there's you know fewer students than typical which is unfort very unfortunate um but at least it would be an opportunity and I feel comfortable with world's drives again that I you know again the district's relationship with them has been um good as far as I know um that they are using their expertise to try to make travel as um safe as possible and without you know acknowledging that it's never going to be completely I'd agree with you on all that and I'd go as far as to make a motion to allow them to plan this trip for this year I'll second that motion motion by Christina second by Angie any further discussion all in favor saying I I anyone opposed that's
224a 7 zero strategic planning update yeah so uh as you guys are all aware uh the district has provided a short video of the implementation of the Strategic plan and the development of a district balance scorecard the video is available for the board and we post on the district's website um it's not being shance tonight because we have such a long agenda um but we're available if you had a chance to watch it um talk about the implementation of the Str plan plan how that worked um the next steps in that development is development of building scorecards which are based on our district scorecard um and I would like to at the end of the meeting schedule maybe a board administrative Retreat where we can have a kind of what we call a gallery walk
225like we've done before we've had um board administrative retreats in the past where we kind of talk about goals this would be an opportunity for us to like talk about the balance sare card and then like have a walk a gallery walk where you sit and meet with each building principal and have them walk through their building scorecard and they can talk about um what they've developed the other piece that I would like to do is reconvene the vision element study team and and share all this information with them so you get their feedback one of the concerns when we pulled that group of people together was is this just going to be a plan you create stick on a shelf or is this something you're actually going to implement um so it's something obvious
226we've been implementing and um again it's it's it's it's a drive driving all the work that we're doing right now it drives uh our work with nurturing the whole town um it drives to work with um a referendum and what we're looking for traffing maing staff um so it's really important work and and again we're very lucky and very fortunate as I say in I'm going steal Dr Carlos's line again we are so fortunate in Loi and i' have to guess what our community wants when it comes to our priorities they gave it to us in our strategic plan the board was you know gracious enough to approve that 7 nothing so we know uh the work that we need to be doing I just want to make sure we're updating the board on on
227our strategic planning invation and any questions you would have for myself or any other administrators who were part of that video this took a lot of time yes this is yes it took you're right it took a lot of time and to figure out exactly and new right so this is not something that we've ever done before so it's it's a kind of like the old adage of of building it while you fly right so some of the things that are in there we're doing right now um even before we had them down on paper but um for us it's like figuring that out how we're going to do it how we're measuring those things um what our priorities what should what should be what we call cascaded down should we we working at the
228at the building levels and what should we just like we're just touching basic right now um there's a couple of them and we're just we're just working at the district level not getting down because I don't want to overwhelm our staff either um but there these are our priorities and we need to work on them hats off I know Brent and Adria and Nick have spent a ton of time um meeting with myself and with our consultant and going through this and putting this together so it's amazing reading through it it's amazing so you don't need action on that it's just for us to no okay and then when do you think that order tree would be I'm thinking like the end of January I'm wondering like we get to the end of meeting like
229meeting dat like maybe like the last Monday in January like there a there's a fifth Monday There's January 31st is a Monday um maybe that might be a date um to look at the possibility again looking at schedule a lot people have stuff weed for the second Monday do you want to do it right now since you're talking about we could I don't know if that works for people January 31st is last Monday in what time are you thinking like 6:00 like pizza and gallery walk I'm only coming if there pizza pizza or something like pizza whatever something food stuff some sort but we can do it mean I I just want to make sure we you know Cog city of your guys' time I don't want to for too early for 5:30 I don't
230know what works best 5:30 530 or0 5:30 the working folks say 5:30 we're good 5:30 and the 31st we just do it here probably at the high school library or one of 31st of January January okay all right for just let us [Music] know yeah we do need them there yeah yeah so we'll plan on some so Str planing we're done with plan State Convention participation so all of you should have your forms into Mo and it says by December 13th but that's today you got them all now everybody let me know good than so the other question I have is the are people interested in going to the the bear reception typically on Wednesday night my understanding so this is this is the new superintendent coming out I I've only been to this convention
231once so we've always gone to that and had a good time and so okay so be Thursday night where's the reception at yeah where they always change where the it's it's in the uh for the buck Stadium down by the deer district for the Milwaukee Bucks Stadium used to be the old Bradley s an out next door the visor Forum the buck play that night as well okay so it's like a buck watching party when I went they actually gave you let you go to the buck game for really cheap they don't do that anymore cuz they want to Championship so now you can't go to you one year we went to a hockey game too okay okay good candidacy and non- candidacy paperwork yeah so incumbents um if you're not running you need to
232have notice of non candy file ler than December 23rd at 5:00 p.m. so that's Bill and JW and the candidates who want to run for the Board of Education must have their paperwork filed by no later than Tuesday January 4th um by 5:00 p.m. just to reminder our district office is closed um starting at the evening of December 23rd and we'll open again January 3rd is there anybody listening planning on running make sure you working at you know reach out to myself for marine um and then obviously our two incumbents know what they need to do as well but they can also file with State too correct has has to come to you it has to come into the district office loc There You Go pass come next we have educational options uh approval of
233notice parents and G yeah each year the district's required by January 31st provide parents and Guardians with a notice of building and district report card data along with summary of educational options available from the school district of Loi um this is the January 2022 letter to parents Guardians it's ready for your review um the addition this year was the youth options no I'm sorry youth um youth apprenticeship information had needed to be added this year um and the initial draft went in there was an air at the top as well that was we fixed that so I'm just looking for approval I'll make a motion to approve the annual notification notice for parents on school options as required under the 201 55 second by bar second by Angie any further discussion all favor say I
234I anyone opposed pass 7 to zero board self evaluation it's that time of year yeah TR believe we at that time of year again uh so every year the board conducts a self evaluation so um there is a copy of the form in here we have more you that Google it's right in there yeah it's right in there so yeah Mar make it a Google do okay send us a link and then it all be culminated next and then we'll pull together so we just asked you that you uh pull that together before um by the end of by January by December 23rd so that giv us time to get to you um for the January meeting we pull that together and if it's a Google Google form it'll be super easy to just click
235buttons Y and type in some stuff okay policy first readings right uh so policy through three uh we're looking at public or policy 187 public participation of board meeting a revision and policy 187.5 public participation of board committee meeting revision um both of these came to your November meeting um and the board sent them back to the policy committee for revision the policy committee made the revisions to both policy based on the feedback from the board um so four of these policies were sent back to the Board of Education with a recommendation of approval on a 2 to1 vote from the policy committee um if you look at the policies um the red is uh what has been what changed the first time the green is what was added after the second piece of feedback
236um so on this one I was the no vote on this one cuz I was just in turmoil over the 10 people versus 30 minute time frame I just didn't feel like it left room for adding people very easily and I just didn't feel like it was pitched well to our community and that's just a personal thing well I wonder about having 10 people like um I mean obviously the balance of meeting to get word work done and hearing public input it's a balancing act but like how would we handle the signup what if it's the same 10 people every time like you know having a certain number of people um is that like I was just wonder if that's logistically like the sign up doesn't open till the day of the meeting that's what
237the thing says right the number 10 first come first the number 10 uh with each person getting three minut minutes mhm means we're going to have more than a half an hour of Citizen input tonight we had according to my account 10 people um but there was some adjustments in the policy that we needed to make in order to be efficient because uh for example theight we were here two hours and however long we weren't efficient to do our job yeah yeah you know like when we have um issues that are um you know over over the years you know there have been different things that people have wanted to come and talk about and um you know obviously there's a um we got a statement in here that we can increase the time so
238if we had many people signing up we certainly could in increase the time um yeah I I guess I don't know about the 10 people so just to give you a backround on the committee the committee wrestled with 10 people 45 minutes running clock the issue came down to timekeeping like so if you say 45 minutes and it's 15 people well that's not really you know cuz there's there's gaps and and I think we we're really efficient tonight by having somebody be ready and but there so it got to the point of how's when's the clock start once's the clock stop when it so it the committee kind of went back to 10 people 3 minutes right and then there's that Gap in between so was saying um so it's not like it's the idea
239is like 30ish minutes of public comment but there's going to be some like dialing the phone and things of that nature that takes up so it was trying to figure out a way that was like really clear that doesn't come with interpretation of you know cuz I had initially when I after the board had given me feedback I put in like pieces of like clock starts here clock ends here me said no let's get rid of those well I guess I mean if you had if you said it was 30 minutes but then 20 people signed up do you just stop after 30 minutes and then half more than half the people don't get job so when how it's written is either before the meeting you know that 30 20 people have signed up and
240you say yep we're going to allow we can vote to go to 20 minutes I'm sorry 20 people or no it's just the first people who sign up are the ones who need to sign up that's how it's written out we can write any way but that's how that's the commit start so what if so I just have a question about this so like say for instance we have h a meeting in which you know there's topics or whatever that we know there's going to be a lot of public input can we have a listening session as a separate meeting and not have public we've done that in the past just for that one thing nothing else on the agenda wouldn't have to be part of the meeting and we've even had open right so
241it's an open discussion where there is no public in it's just wide open right right so so in that case would we have a school board meeting that would have we'd have to have the 10 people up to 10 people no matter what we couldn't say at this meeting it's the it's our working meeting this is for this meeting right right if we had a listening session that's a whole different thing right we would always have public input at this meeting even if we were having a listening session yeah still 10 people show we would need to we would have to yes a minimum option to offer because I feel like especially right now like in a normal year efficiency obviously is the key when you have so many things to get done especially now
242that like we're working on the referendum and everything like that but like with Co especially I think people have a lot of thoughts that they want to share about what they think and what they they believe in what research they've done as well so I think it's really important that we offer enough time and you know even today some people went over after the timer went up they were still talking people have to finish their sentence yep know that's and that's okay some people had multiple multiple sentences even sometimes over like over 30 seconds after the timer went off which is okay but you just have to like realize people have stuff to say and you can't just say oh you're done cuz it's not going happen that way yeah and I don't know in
243like a respectable fashion how people are still going to be able to and like limiting 10 people to 30 minutes like we're thinking people we have we have five minutes now and people were going over with five minutes I think it'll be hard to allow people to say what they need to say within such small amount of time even if we need to get stuffed up can I ask for Amendment on the time that they sign up to give input and um change that to 24 hours before the meeting just more I was mulling over this and thinking about it people that work full-time and are super busy and they go straight to work in the morning and then if if we're cutting it short to 10 people I want to give as many people
244a fair opportunity to sign up Sunday at 5:30 started at Sunday at 5:30 right and then the emails can be times automated or is mean well they have to email to get oh and so it would be time stamped when their email came in unless that was too much of a hustle for you and you would like it the Friday before it's time stamp you're fine with it you'd have to repeat repeat what she said if if it's time stamps she's fine with it so it could be on right I think that I mean it makes sense because like if you're driving to work at 8:30 or whenever that opens up then you don't ever get and then you get to work and then you're working and then yeah so you do it you your
24524-hour rule well that's what first readings are for is modification so so sign up for public input the day of the meeting would change to sign up for public input 24 hours before the meeting people won't know what that means so you almost do we write Sunday at 5:30 p.m. or the day before the meeting at 530 I I mean I'm sorry but clerically I mean MO is that like I'm not trying to dismiss what you're saying but looking at time stamps like if you get 30 emails go through and look at all the time stamps to see signing up on that Google D that Google D is time stamping when they sign up when I can I can take that right into a spreadsheet so that goes right into it okay so it would
246be automated and they come in in order as well it'll show off like this came first that's fine I just want to make sure that it's not cusing you work on Sunday night or Monday morning and in in general we have less than 10 people talk anyway it's only on rare occasions at more than did you get what you needed no so you Sunday at 5:30 or do you want to that's the question oh sign up for the public input 24 hours before the meeting yeah and then maybe in parentheses Sunday at 5:30 in case people do not know when the meetings are or sign up begins one more time what if your meeting is on a different night you have a speci meeting or [Music] 24s 5:30 the day before 5:30 the day before
247well 24s we might meet at 4:30 24 hours 24 hours before the posted beginning of the meeting there you go post it's going to have to be that way yes yeah I can fix that or change that that's what people want sounds like that's what we're get and then next month these will come up for a vote of approval we have no second policy readings did you want to right over that no 1873 is the same thing so it's just for yeah 1873 is exactly the same thing you're just looking at a time frame five people um that's first read second policy we do have second policy read of retiring two policies policy 187 public registration of Board District meeting uh correspondence of the board through Board of Education and then uh revision just adding
248the mission to the school district clity Mission policy one these are all talk the October board me or and motion I'll make a motion to retire uh Board of Education policy yes is 7 to zero I'll make a motion to approve the revisions to Board of Education policy 110 as presented a second by jul second by Angie there any further discussion all in favor say I I anyone opposed pass is 7 to zero gifts and donations we have a $5,000 donation from Mod Methodist Church for the highway 60 marqueis sign make a motion to accept the 5,000 donation from the L United Methodist Church for the highway 60 Mar sign gratitude and I second motion by bar and second by Terry any further discussion yeah what do you think it's going to cost to upgrade
249it haven't got that far right well there was a down payment in the vure I can get it to you I can get it to you I don't have it on top of my head Brent does not well so we made it down payment on it it's in the vouchers okay yeah so we we've been working at we we've ordered it until get it fixed because we just can't have a sign out there we've back together for many years so held together with Bubblegum and band stepen put it all together for a lot of years so yes yes administrative report student services it's right on the top the power button they're brand new it says mute push push and hold mute and hold it for a while I think I got it all right um
250I have three things to highlight on the board report today the first was from our self assessment I told you that I would keep you in the loop as far as our progress we are in the correction phase of this self assessment all of our Corrections are due January 15th of 2022 and I would like to thank our special education staff and service providers for their work throughout this process we hosted our second developmental screener on December 1st we had five students and their caregivers attend um we are already full for our January screener and um looking at resources to open up a screening in February um because we have a need in our community to do that um on December 3rd we held a collaboration day our certified teaching staff participated in professional development
251that day and uh the focus of that day was to support our work in uh pillar two of our strategic plan nurturing the whole student we had trainers from responsive classroom and developmental designs lead the trainings in all of our school buildings um the responsive classroom and developmental design approach brings everyday strategies and routine in the classroom for building relationships with our students working on social skills and establishing a safe Learning Community um I would like to recognize our Educators for their work on this day um the trainers that came into our schools expressed great GR gratitude and shared their enthusiasm for the staff and the administrators in Loi I shared some feedback um on the board report that was straight from our trainers I also just wanted to give an additional Rec recognition um
252for our pupil service staff an kers bomb Grant lumpy Sia Cowart U Michaela Lee and Bill bilky for their leadership in this area um some of their work is often times done behind the scenes but their expertise in this area is is a huge resource for our students and our families and our community okay thank you go Primary School um just wanted to highlight our Winter concert the 4K that we had just last week was a huge success and then this Friday is our concert for kindergarten and first and second Gren so thank you to Mrs Weber for all of her work trying to get everything all ready and organized for that um the other area I want to highlight is just the work we're continuing to do with Jan Richardson she had come and
253done some training at our school this summer and then this fall and just really proud of the teachers and all the work that they're doing to just Implement her guided reading as well as alphabet tracing just some of those fundamental skills for our students so those are my two main gos S screen and Elementary School uh the biggest highlight that I would say the two biggest highlights would be that like Amy said Friday afternoon the stage was full of risers with kids for the first time in two years at our school having a music program um made possible by the hard work of lexine specifically because we had a music teacher transition not long before our um music program so lexine jumped over thanks to her awesomeness and Amy's support too uh we got Subs
254over there so lexine could come and finish off the program preparation with the Le students so that was greatly appreciated by everybody involv and then the second piece I would highlight was um the uh student the SC L uh assess self assessment done by kids so you will see pieces of that self assessment that will be part of the score card um this they don't match perfectly because when we did this when we did these highlights the scorecard details weren't exactly available but we now also have two years of data for that um so looking forward to utilizing that data to broadcast but also to make instructional changes okay thank you Middle School the first thing I want to do is welcome Tara Carol to our staff so Tara's going to join our staff as
255an educational assistant Tara brings a background that includes caregiving for elderly and resides in barou so we're excited to welcome her to our staff student of the month uh for October we recognize students that give efforts in the classroom and just on a daily basis so was fun to celebrate the effort of those students uh Adria had mentioned the collaboration day from Friday December third so I won't go into that but I do want to recognize Paula and Jenna Kramer for organizing tween Read Week for our students at the lde middle school so in the beginning of the day we have a class we call win and really if I was to describe win it's working on really heavy literacy work it's a really uh intense class for students and students and staff needed a
256break and they organized what they call tween read week and what they have there is a week of really just fun ways for us to celebrate reading and my highlight for me personally was dress up as your favorite character day that was my favorite day to see all the kids running around is Harry Potter and all the other uh characters and books and I provided plenty of photos uh for those I also want to highlight our sixth grade team because they helped our students celebrate Veterans Day they had special guest speakers that were veterans and I want to recognize Neil Bishop Larry Johnson Savage Clark cliff Roberts and Charlie panosian for spending the morning sharing their stories answering student questions and for their service for our country and I was also in in a part
257of these presentations and it was it's just fantastic for the kids and what else um we also had a candy drive so we had Michelle how organized a candy drive for our students they uh students brought in their candy and Loi Valley Dental donated $1 per pound of candy to reach out Loi and we brought in 181 lbs of candy you can see the picture of all the students holding the candy which is fantastic and this candy was actually sent to our troops so for a great cause and save some teeth and uh a great donation that's all for my report High School um so first of all if you take a look at the school report card yes we did we did really well at the high school um significantly exceeding expectations and you
258see the charts that I added to the report showing um a comparison between Capital conference schools but also area schools um I attest this to our staff our students and our families making education a major priority but also like systematic changes that have taken place over the last like 10 years when Vince was the principal and Derek was in our math department lots of things that they have done over the years and then also on the bottom um the consistency of staining exceeds expectations and then finally reaching the significantly exceeds expectations this year so you can see that comparison over the years as well um I thought Nick brought up a great point in saying that the success of our students cannot just be gauged based on one data point and that I think it's
259interesting in all the admin reports it shows all of these other successes that have nothing to do with testing which I I think is really important and if you would look through the rest of my ad report you see lots of examples of that and I want to just highlight a couple um we had our High School Musical and it was a great success hopefully had an opportunity to to come and enjoy that um there were four performances that were held 1,339 tickets were sold um the on we had an online ticket system that worked really well tickets were a little bit more expensive um compared previous years but it's because of that online ticket system but um a lot of good feedback about it working really well and then there's a list of thank
260you for everybody that was involved especially Erica Bardwell director and choreographer and then Ashley can attest there a lot more challenges this year um definitely absolutely um and then I wanted to thank um Jean winter kristo Curts bu Palmer and Mr Brian aier for the planning and exec execution of our rapid testing Clinic that we we used in order to um have our actors and actresses up on the stage without mask um I thought the performances with mask were great um and then I came and watched them without mask and it was really nice being able to see who was talking and who was singing um so they did an amazing job a special thank you to etc for how so along the high SCH could use a state of art lighting equipment couple other
261highlights lde fabrication lab store is opening up and I give you some of the examples of some of the items that they are creating and it's all created by our students U with the advisement of Mr lick who was an awesome teacher in our school um Adria did um mention something about our development designs professional development and I want to thank Adria for organizing that and we had an awesome uh trainer name was Joselyn Linsky she works in the Madison School District and it really gave our teachers an opportunity not just to learn some strategies that they can use with their students but it also brought our staff together really for the first time um and it was really nice to see some of the camaraderie um during that um I wanted to appreciate some
262of the district parents that are walking around with a coffee and treat cart every so often in our school it is a huge surprise for our teachers when they show up at their door and offer them coffee and treats um I really appreciate that and then the last thing I just wanted to mention there's going to be a new feature in the Blue Devil bulletin that's going to feature our staff and it's going to show pictures of them with their families but also asking them the question if I wasn't in education um and going to have the opportunity to say you know what Jason Marshall if he was an associate principal he would have been a pilot right Mr Marshall there you go um so we'll feature maybe five or six staff members for every
263bulletin and that is it for high school thank you uh curriculum so i' I've got a number of things in here but I'm just going to highlight two things really quick I want to say big thank you to Michelle how you're going to see she was awarded the sock Prairie Healthcare Foundation Grant of $2,500 using that to purchase the flex Farm hydroponic tower garden for the middle school which will be you know an additional just an addition to to the egg department and the science department and the life skills class we'll all be using that and I want hope to get over there and grab a little salad for my lunch sometime too so take a look at that picture it looks really fun for the kids to explore um using that device and and
264I believe she's working on getting that ordered soon yes we did check with Neil and it meets all stipulations so we're good there so again huge huge thank you to Michelle how and I know she's going to be um trying to get you guys some information of some pictures and things relative to that the other thing I just wanted to say is um another a big thank you to Eman Meer she's been putting together these substitute baskets that are around uh The District in each building just a welcome and and thank you to our substitutes so they can pop in the office get a water get a snack there's a thank you in there get some candy and uh I think she's on her second round of updating those baskets so substitutes are so incredibly
265important in the district now more than ever and and just a huge thank you to our substitutes okay thank you um there is nocat and then sure so so um we have our finals coming up in January we usually do link crew does a Coco and cray so it's like kind of a tutoring session where students can come and have some hot coco and get some help if they would like um tonight we held before this the cookie baking Workshop where we taught fourth graders about fire safety in the kitchen and the all the ingredients how they're made what goes into cookies it was really cute they got frosting everywhere and then um coming up December 15th our FFA chapter is holding a blood drive um it's completely full already so we're really excited about
266that and then our Winter concert is tomorrow so we're all really thrilled to sing in front of people again and um we wanted you guys to know that the students are really enjoying our lockers not lugging around winter jackets and um also we have a giving treat in our Commons right now that the FFA has started and we that's a really big success we have a pile of gifts we're going to donate to reach out l so that'll end this week if we're really excited about that thank you thank you uh District administrator report uh yeah first of all thank you all for being here through this meeting right it's a long one thank all our administrators and actually full day of school and Min at full day of school and are here um I
267just have a few things one I attended the school leaders advancing technology and education the Slate conference in Wisconsin Dallas past week um one of the reasons I attended it with Tyler Potter I'm on the actual the planning board for the Slate conference so um initially I wasn't going to go and then like oh I have a meeting I but it was really good and one of the things that Julie's been talking to me a lot about is cyber security and that was a really big piece of what we talked about um is I was sitting behind Tyler in one of the sessions and or he was sitting behind me and the person from hon was saying well the hardest part is getting your District administrator on I Le back to T isn't that true
268um but we've been doing a lot of great things but it was really you they sit and listening to Jamesville um their presentation and TI there as well listening to them what all has happened to them since their ransomware attack that is taken out their entire network and they're rebuilding step by step in all the pieces that it's taken and um makes it feel really easy to do all the the little bits of training that we are doing um to try to protect and there's other steps we will be absolutely taking um so thanks for all his work and the whole tech department all the work they're doing but it was really good um go um I did share an email out the staff this week and I just want the community to know um
269it's been a you know it's been a long year for staff and students and everything you know we're all tired right the co and Mas and everything else that's going on in the world I want people to have a break so when when the holidays come around so I let staff know that I not expecting that they be checking their emails over the holidays um that once that they put on a um automatic responder as of at the end of the night or after school December 23rd that they're not checking their email again until they come back to school on January just want to give them permission to do that um hopefully it didn't helps them get away just a little bit and refresh and relax a little bit so um wanted to make sure
270that the board and the community was well aware of that uh wanted to thank U Marie and Jean for all their work and every other volunteer for putting together a vaccine clinic we couldn't have done it without their organizational skills putting that together for 5 to 11 year old and the booster shots for people and then also the the volunteers to make that happen and Gan and also pushing the testing site that we have here at the high school talking to other schools our testing site runs much better than most places and part of this because of us pushing really early and often and we did have a little Gap there you know um where but we also recruited some people who are local to try to like bu that guy um so it's just
271such a great opportunity for our community but not all schools have that even though we have the testing sites it's not that way everywh so um Again part of that a lot of that falls onene and and her pushing for that um so we just really appreciate that and all the hard work that she's done and you for contract so it doesn't cost us any money for the testing site does cost us labor to get it set up and going and it it it cost us labor to get it set up it cost us um just making sure that that it's running and we had our like Jean has sat in a couple different days um and then I finally said you can't like there's no way too far we have to C the uple
272days um but it is just it's such a need for our community to be able it's hard you know um I just had this conversation with my SPS today but why is it not EAS to nothing right between 9 and 12 school look hour should beas we try to make it E great okay thank and I already said this but I really want to thank the everyone who was involved with the referendum planning not board members but the administration and and on and on and on the workers and stuff it's a huge thing to put together a referendum and it's happening again so and then that strategic planning I already mentioned I know a huge amount of work behind that and I wanted to say thank you for that and lastly uh Shel per thank
273you you're out there somewhere for jumping in and Eric barwal thank you for jumping in we really needed you and we really appreciate the work that you're doing for us reports from cesa 5 uh we did not meet since the last that's easy curricular the wrestling team wrapped up a lot long day at Sun Prairie on Saturday with an overall second place finish three Loi wrestlers took home individual championships and 12 wrestlers finished in the top seven for their weight class the wrestling team plays host to Middleton for L Ziggler night at loai high school this Thursday at 5:30 the boys basketball team is off to a 4- one start with wins over wiconsin Titans Ashton ederton and new glare and when I look at ederton didn't we go down to Edington and lose twice
274in regionals in the last yeah that rips a Band-Aid that was my [Music] K the boys next game is Friday Lakeside Lutheran the next chance to catch the boys basketball team at home is Thursday December 23rd ver sto the boys are under the direction of a new head coach Ben Lio and after all of these years I can finally pronounce his name the girls basketball team started the season one and five earning their first victory in a 5756 win over Marshall the girls basketball team starts a three game home stand tonight versus Westfield with additional home games on Friday December 17th versus Columbus and Tuesday December 21st versus Portage the girls are under the direction of new head coach Nathan mortar the norski co-op hockey team is one two and one on the season picking
275up their first win this past Saturday at manona Gro or versus Mon gr the hockey team will take the ice at home to Brown night versus aquinus at the Ice Pond in Wan and again on Saturday versus Beaver Dam girls our hockey Co-op one high school student is participating in the student Co-op girls hockey team home events are played at the mant hockey arena in stoen the next home game is tonight versus blo Fury mock trial team competed in their first in-person competition in 22 months on December 6th at w a key scrimmage the mock tile trial team travels to beaverdam tonight for another scrimmage their first competition is on January 15th at the LOI tournament thank you thank you uh We are continuing to talk about um our strategic planning that we're doing that
276the districts did as well as roles and responsibilities and um some evaluation tools and the kids did uh presented their first quarter projects last we so you did project night or do not a project night they just did it during the day day okay so they just did a all day great that's not until March or February March okay because I was like they're going to come back right they're going to do those again the big project night is still those are a big thing okay uh board reports contract revie uh we pretty much covered everything made a short meeting we did have a really um you know good attendance in our uh listening session prior to that and sounds like there been people attending all of them um sessions we've had so far so
277that was really good that was actually much more time getting that um our meeting our agenda is pretty sure good I don't know about the rest of you but the listening sessions I would like to do every year me personally I think we keep doing just keep yeah like continually I think it's great to have committee meetings outside we got a tour School curriculum take it sure I will do my best I did not bring a pen that day to write down next time I will be much more prepared um so I am the new chair of the curriculum committee and we had Michelle how come in and present to us and speak on a lot of what she's doing the biggest thing I took away is that she misses her four minutes a day
278of science um which is great because it shows her passion in her area that she teaches um we also had paon correct at that one y and she spoke on um selection of books and her I guess her pedigree really of um how she got to that position um and we as well had a listening session I was unfortunately late tonight cuz I had to work um but I think we got some good stuff out of that one because we talked about like the quadrants and the teachers really spoke up and we were able to eliminate that and help them right off the bat I feel like they were able to speak and then you know there's action that came from it so um anything I'm missing uh prob help oh yes they did I
279remember and she was very excited because they they do they have a plan that they all do why was she well they're all working together so they're all they have they have new staff members so they have staff member at the primary school in a newer staff M the elementary osc so really excited about the energy that they brought Department yeah so that was Michelle poles and yes very very excited and then we also we covered new course proposal we had a long agenda that yes new proposals and Reps yeah uh facility and finance uh we met on uh December 9th uh we had the mayor of the city of loai uh and the chief of police uh from the city of Lo I uh come and speak to us about the possibility of a
280Loi uh School District resource officer and then we also spent a lot of time on talking about the referendum um and that's really that was about it and it was a long meeting it was a long meeting with those two things policy uh everything that the policy committee worked on was to the board tonight uh the only thing that I'm a little confused about is why didn't policy 187 since it was worked on twice go to a second reading tonight cuz the board the last time we met the board direction from the board was to bring it take it back to the policy committee and bring it back for a first read that was the direction this board gave to the policy committee okay and knowing that some changes or adjustments are people are interested
281in some changes the next time we address it we'll second read next time thank you future meeting and agenda items so they're all listed there um the notice of policy committee was rescheduled for the State Convention so was a curriculum we had those already down the edge and then uh so I motion we I'll second motion by Terry and a second by Julie any further discussion all in favor say I anyone oppose 7 to zero we are now adjourned