10/22/2025 Special Board of Education Meeting

001follow the special order. Um, our clock on the wall is a little fast, so I we try to go by cell time to make sure everybody has a chance to be here. couple things that we'll discuss after we do the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible andice for all. >> Thank you. And I would ask Miss Brown to do the roll call. >> Christopher Ael >> present. >> David Bowman >> here. >> Viv Hansen >> here. >> And Holen >> here. >> Mary Luffy Blanik >> present. >> Keith Shaw >> here. >> Harry Tras >> present. >> Thank you. >> Um just a couple a couple of three things before we get

002started. um with the uh I wasn't going to say tree a couple tree the all the families in the district were emailed the plans today so they got them at the same time that that we are having this meeting um they are welcome to pass them on to neighbors friends anybody else who wants to read the presentation if they can't be here so that went out today uh number two there's a public meeting in this same room Monday uh the 28th and uh that is when the presentation will be made to the public group and it's also a time at the end of that presentation where you could ask questions or make some comments to that presentation at that time. Um also your comments are welcome at the November 5th meeting of the school board.

003We always do the the first meeting of the month as public input. You will also have the opportunity on the 12th of December for public input um at that time. So there is none tonight. Tonight is just kind of anformational meeting so let the board know how the committee came up what the committee came up with and we'll discuss that after we discuss this year's budget. So I will turn it over at this time to Mr. Milky. >> Thank you. The uh first piece on the agenda is budget amendments. Uh so the you know we had our pres budget hearing last week. Next morning me and all my business manager friends kept hitting refresh on the DPI web page until the um until the aid certification uh spreadsheet was ready to go. Um you know

004we were we were expecting based on work with bear to to be down about $200,000 from where our uh projection was for state aid. So that wasn't wasn't that shocking, but you know the the the the number that came in for vouchers was you know we did under um project on that. So the the projection we we thought we were going to land at about 5.6 million. Now that's the vouchers and the special ed vouchers together. Um you know last year uh it was around 5.1 million. So we we we uh projected 5.6 six and then it came in just a little bit over um $6 million. So we we're dealing with um $619,952 um to find to to cut in the budget. uh we focused on we we kept we didn't touch any of

005the special ed dollars that we that we moved over uh to to um that was we we made that change based on the data with the kids that have that that we that we have to serve. So we didn't touch that. We we focused on uh fund 10. So the general fund salary and employee benefit uh expenditures. Um, the vouchers are put into purchase services because we're we're that we're we're sending that money out. Um, so that that goes out to the the private schools that have those students uh in their in their schools. So, purchase services had to increase and that was offset with a decrease uh in salaries. Uh and then we used this the state sources on the revenue side of the ledger had to come down. Um and then we went

006to employee benefits to lower that down. You know, everybody's getting paid. Everybody's contract is being met. Everybody's going to get insurance. Um we just, you know, we have, you know, a some less wiggle room. You know, if we had if if the administrative team hadn't done some right sizing last spring, it would have been a little more white knuckle. Okay. >> So, we're we're I I submit these um changes to you, these budget amendments to you to balance our budget, just focusing on fund 10 and not impacting the rest of the budget. >> Questions from the board on the changes from last week? >> Nothing you can do about it, right? >> Just got to do it, right? Just got to do it. No comment. You want me to go for the next one, Mr.

007Shaw? You >> sure? >> Okay. All right. Um, okay. Next up, property tax levy. The number that was presented last week is the number we are moving ahead with. So, uh, the the levy for our district, you'll see on that second page broken down by new municipality. Our total levy is 29,66,534. Um with uh with the changes um in state aid, we're ending up a we're not underleving just under or we're not underleving anymore, just a little over 3 million. Now we're underleving 3.698 million. Um we are staying true to our word. It's a 3% um increase over last year's total levy. Um, and you know, I submit that to you for your approval so I can start doing the leg work of communicating that out with our municipalities. >> I make a motion to

008amend the budget for the 2520 26 school year as presented and to approve the tax levy of 29,66,534 um to be approved by the Manuel Building School District. >> I have a motion. I have a second for Mr. Ael. Um, any questions? That's less than we could actually levy. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Understand that >> under levying. >> Yes. >> 3.6. >> Yep. >> Million. >> 3.6. Almost 3.7 million. >> Yes. >> And remember, we have, you know, we have the operational referendum. >> It's like 13 million, then it'll go to 15, then it'll go to 17.5. All parts of a conversation down the line. you know what we're gonna what we'll do in the coming years, but >> to maintain where we're at. [clears throat] >> This is where where we're

009at for this year. >> And this includes some money on building maintenance. So, we're overcoming that that we haven't done for years. [clears throat] >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Any other questions? All right. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Oppose say nay. >> And we have a budget. >> Thank you. >> Like to thank Nate for that. I also like to thank the people that help you in that office and our hall of fame Mr. Micheller who still came in [laughter] helped us out through the transition to the new person. and Micheller and Mary Blaha really like with the team in the business office put together a good budget. It's my job to keep it in inside the rails. You know, they really did a good job of of setting us up

010for success for this year. >> So, we appreciate your work and also their work and what they did. >> All right, this time we're going to move into the second part of our meeting tonight. And uh before I turn it over to Mr. Tennis, um the board would like to thank those that served on the committees to look at the um building needs in our district. Um the board felt it was very important to get public input and have public sit in and make decisions on some major changes that that we will be going through in the Manito district. Um, so we thank you for being part of that. And with that, I will turn it over to Mr. Tennis. >> Thank you, Mr. Hansen. And, um, I'd just like to begin, uh, before I

011introduce Mr. Hacker to do the presentation. Um, and I know Mr. Hansen just thanked all of you here tonight. But um I've lived in this community for nearly a quarter of a century and um it's accepted me as a transplant from the UP. So I appreciate that. Um but um what I will tell you is the reason that I am still here is because of the people that are in this room. Uh they represent the best of our community. Um, we have a community that deeply cares about uh our school district and the future of our kids. Um, this group came together in the midst of winter last year and spent literally every month together for 90 plus minutes. Uh, whether they served on the staff committee or the community committee. Um, stats don't lie.

012We had just over 30 me uh members of the community show up to our very first meeting. It's always easy to show up to the first meeting of things, right folks? Um and we had 28 at our last meeting in August uh before we did our September joint meeting. Um, and if that doesn't tell a story of commitment and dedication, um, they also signed up for this job knowing that the conversations that have to be have to be had here, uh, weren't going to be easy. Um, we're facing some realities that need to be addressed and um, every single one of these folks um, here represented tonight um, truly are what Manatwalk is all about. So, um, I know we thanked them, but they they deserve a round of applause for the work. [applause] I

013don't want to talk about any of their work because I'd be stealing the thunder of the next guy uh who, uh, will be the man of the hour. Um, we have, uh, Mr. Mike Hacker with us from Cadence Consulting. Uh, Mr. Hacker serves as our district's owner's rep, which means a lot of different things, but in this particular case, uh, Mr. Mr. Hacker uh took on the opportunity of facilitating both the staff and community groups. So we thank him for his facilitation and he is acting as spokesperson for the committees tonight um in addressing the board. So thank you Mr. Hacker and we'll turn it over to you. >> Excellent. >> Well thank you. It's great to be here. I know I've had a chance to meet a number of you uh in past conversations,

014but just as a point of introduction, Mike Hacker with Cadence Consulting. Uh as uh Lee led with owners rep by practice, I'm a licensed architect. I've spent my whole career in K12, so working with Wisconsin school districts. Uh I started Cadence really to help communities solve the problems that are really most worth solving. And to me, if this doesn't define that, I'm not sure what does. And so really a fulfilling process for me just in in why I do what I do and and why I've put so much into to this uh this effort. And so uh a lot of pressure on me. I see a lot of eyes behind me, a lot of matching t-shirts behind me that really represent as has been noted lots of hours of work, lots of really really healthy

015conversation. Uh some of that conversation was high fives and agreement. some was not right and we'll talk about that because a lot of what we did get into really does hit home with what defines manetwalk and and what does the future look like and if we don't have some healthy disagreement on things I I'm not sure we're asking the right questions and I think uh this process really was built around doing that was was challenging how we think of the district identifying what are real challenges what are perceived challenges and then uh where are the opportunities and so tonight I look forward to walking you through that and my goal tonight is to find the right balance of uh not spending your entire evening recapping nine months worth of work yet at the same time

016not glossing over things. Okay. So, I'm going to go through this to the best of my ability hitting on some really important uh topics, but I do want to walk you through the process that this committee went through and then in the end land with their recommendations to the board. Okay? And and uh by all means wide open to questions. Okay? Okay. So, if you want me to press into something a little bit more or give you a little more background, please just let me know as we go through the process here. >> All good. Dive in. Okay. So, uh just to get us going, as uh Lee had noted as our our lead, the district put together two committees. So, we had a committee that was made up of uh staff of the district

017and a parallel committee that was made up of community members uh all volunteer from from both groups. uh both teams were brought through the same parallel process. We actually most months met with them on uh subsequent nights. So we would meet on a Wednesday night with one group and then a Thursday night they did the same exercises just parallel with one another. Uh it worked out really really well. um at you know I think in full disclosure as a facilitator of a process like that uh was nervous at the outset that we'd have some conflicting goals and you know running two different they really informed one another throughout the process there was some great dialogue that your staff was closer to right uh just relative to how the buildings work and how education is delivered

018that really did support the community conversation so it worked really well to have those kind of on backto-back nights but we ran those processes parallel both groups went the same through the same exact exercises and then uh as was noted it came together at the end for a joint presentation to really review this presentation for tonight and and kind of culminate all their efforts together. Okay. Um to kick off the process uh we put together a set of committee uh objectives which is what you see on the screen here really acting kind of as our our guiding principles for the group. Okay. And and a process like this I believe firmly needs some guard rails to it to be sure we stay focused and on task. Right. There are a lot of rabbit holes. There

019are a lot of visions for the district that uh folks come in with and and I think all have the right intention, but uh as you know facilitator of lots of those voices and lots of those perspectives, we do need some ability to be sure we're staying on task and and moving the process along. So this did uh map out the ask of the district to these two committees. uh really asking them to focus on three primary objectives really around uh district enrollment trends around our physical building in campus and around our our learning environments in the end being the most important uh thing we do as a a public school district. And so um there was a lot we had on all of these topics to dive into. So our process really was frontloaded

020with some capacity building. So, first couple meetings, we'll talk more about this, really aimed to lay the groundwork for what should everybody enter this knowing, right? Because everybody's coming in with a different uh background, a different amount of of knowledge in the district. This was meant to create kind of a level starting point for everybody, [cough] both from [clears throat] an enrollment standpoint as well as a physical facility standpoint. I think one of the impetus of this process is not just enrollment but was the facility study that was done that identified quite a bit of of uh fiscal need to support our our existing buildings across the district. So uh that we had to be sure was foundational to to the group's work. Um and then the charge at the end you can see uh

021really was to develop a long-term vision or visions for the future of the Manofalk public school district really looking at options and considerations for the board targeting this fall which which we're sitting in right now. And and so the hope here really was to establish a what could become an effort the district worked towards for for potentially but you know the near future, right? So, no district that I've ever worked with does the entire master plan happen all at once, right? It happens incrementally and you phase into it. Uh, but if you don't start with that master plan, you don't know how to prioritize those phases. And so, really, a lot of our effort was focused around how do we we ensure we're looking far enough out yet understand how we can help prioritize some

022of those recommendations. Okay. So, that was the baseline and we started the process by uh making sure everybody knew uh why they were there and and what our our goals were. Uh, one of, as a facilitator, one of my potential blind spots is if we don't have a a true like cross-section of the community represented in in a group like this, right? If if we end up being too heavily weighted with parents and and not enough non-parents or vice versa, uh, if we have a lot of staff but not a lot of community members, we end up getting some biases, pretty heavy biases built into our process. And uh this is uh a visual profile map which is what we started our our very first meeting out with. And you actually see that behind uh

023the the team here uh in real life. And what that really acts as is is a survey of the group where we every uh member of of the committee was given a a string. You start on the left and you make your way to the right and and you start with a question. Are you an alum of the district or not? And if you are in which decade did you did you graduate? Uh where in the community do you reside? So if you live within the school district, what pocket? And we use pins for our elementary schools. Basically, which do you live closest to? Just as a reference point. Uh we then had them take a look at our district's um uh strategic planning pillars, okay? and which of those are they entering with kind

024of the highest priority focus for them as individuals. Um, in a community like Manitwalk, uh, a lot of individuals wear lots of different hats, right? They they might be a teacher, a business owner, a parent, they might be an elected official, right? There's lots of different layers you enter conversations like this. And the ask was, which of those do you feel like is the best lens you're approaching this conversation looking through? Okay, just so again we have a handle on, you know, what does that look like as as a group? And then lastly, if you do have kids in the district, where where in fact schools do they go to? And uh really, I think a great starting point because it it does, I think, show as you as you see on the the real

025life version here in the room, uh just how deeply that web is tied. Okay. So, how much overlap uh how many crisscrosses we do have and I think uh how representative this this is of of the community. Anywhere you see a string or a set of strings where you see a lot of density that means we had a lot of voice with that perspective and spots where you see maybe fewer strings might be a potential blind spot. Okay. And this was something that lived in the room as we had conversations and it just acted as a reminder to us that as we are going down the path of making recommendations and and potentially leading the board towards potential decisions, uh that this is representative of of that cross-section we were hoping to build. Uh I

026felt very good seeing this once we completed all the string work to to show that again we we did have great representation across all schools across pockets north and south of the river. uh and uh certainly uh uh all the lenses that we're looking through. Okay. So, uh this lives as a tool for the district. I'm glad we had it here tonight so you could see it uh in its real uh perspective. Uh we broke our process really into four steps. Uh in February, March, early April, we were really defining the problem. One of my favorite state kind of phrases is a problem well put is half-solved, right? We all entered into this knowing that we needed to get to a solution. Some people came in with what they assumed a solution might look like

027or some form of that. But again, if we don't start with a clear understanding of what the problem is, we're really just spinning our wheels, right? And and so the whole goal was let's let's make sure we all have a firm handle on that. So, we did a lot of capacity building uh in those early months around enrollment. Uh not just what the trends have been, what what they're projected to be, what's leading to that. I'll talk a little bit more about that uh here in a second. Um what are financial impacts of that, right? Is is in Wisconsin, we are enrollment driven on all fronts right now, right? Financially, as as we just heard, it's enrollment driven. uh our facility usage is enrollment driven, our staffing is enrollment driven, right? So because of that,

028we have to make enrollment driven decisions and really wanted the group to understand the layer of how as we talk about building usage and quantity of classrooms, it's really just being driven by how many students we we have in the district. Okay. Uh and then an overview of our facilities. you know, folks, I think, enter in with either a perspective of when maybe they were in school, what the buildings looked like and how they functioned, or when their kids were in the building, [snorts] um, and maybe haven't been in them in a while, or so we we spent some time talking about that, as well as what contemporary learning environments look like, and if we were to compare, uh, to a new school being built, how might ours, you know, compare to those? And so,

029we talked about that uh, up front. Then we went through uh a a really exciting process that we called build your own district and it was this uh very highly engaging collaborative small group work where they developed responses to the challenges. I'm going to present that tonight. We did that over multiple evenings uh that was very hands-on. There were some manipulatives on the table where they could push pieces around and and develop solutions. And that really was pivotal to uh getting to a a series of options that we honed in on ultimately what we're presenting today. So really important layer in our process. September October we uh refined those into specific statements which have been formed into the recommendations and we're here uh in late October just maybe ahead of our November target for a

030presentation of this committee to the board to start to talk about what that might mean forward. Uh so in the very first meeting we did uh an exercise where we asked uh in small group tables every meeting was really set up with uh a uh probably a 15 20 minute u I'll say educational piece and then there was some engagement so we did some educating we did some engaging in in each session um and in the very first meeting the engagement really was around what the understanding of these three topic areas are and they were given a big piece of paper and said What are the district's strengths? Had 15 20 minutes to document everything that they thought the strengths were. What are our challenges? And and as we establish an ideal vision like a

031a you know what the ideal long-term vision of this district looks like? What does that look like? How would you define some of those things? And this was a really really telling and and I use this as kind of the outsider coming in. Educate me. tell me about what these things are so that I know how best to help facilitate this process. And uh we did that again for both committees separate from one another. And you saw some things stand out. So strengths, you saw quality staff, strengths of our our fine arts bands, choir, uh academic college credits, right? Some things that that rose to the top. The the uh tally marks you see were how often those came up in different groups. Okay. So again, we had multiple tables for each session and these

032are how many times that those came up. So again, ranked essentially by by uh kind of heat map almost the things that that uh were said most frequently. Challenges. The first thing was our our aging facilities, okay, and and buildings across the district. Uh a challenge around keeping quality staff and and recruiting new staff. our aging community, declining enrollment and student behavior and so on. Okay. And then our vision uh what would this ideal district look like? Well, the first thing out of the gates was state-of-the-art facilities. Okay. Uh we then heard about this becoming or being a destination district uh where we really are a pillar of of education and performance. Uh a strong we continue to see strong community support. So, um, again, just hitting on a couple of them because I think

033it was a couple key things stood out to me. The fact that one, uh, our staff group and our community group came up with almost identical lists, ranked almost identically to one another. Okay, that was really telling to me, right? A lot of consistency with understanding about who we are and what our honest strengths and where some of our challenges are. Again, fully acknowledging some of these challenges are real, some are perceived challenges that maybe have different levels of of reality, and that's what we need to work through as as we go forward. Um, but exciting really around the vision. So, we saw alignment with staff and community members around a vision. Uh, which I think is is really telling for the work that was ahead. Hey, so I provide this to you. Feel free

034when you get some more time to to go through this in greater detail. This was not a statistically valid survey, but was pretty representative of of that work and I think is is a nice launching point for for the work. >> What month would you say this was completed? >> Uh this would have been I think in February. >> Yeah. Like early on February or March. Right out of the gates. Um we did bring them through the process of reviewing the facility audit that was completed by CISA. Okay. Okay. And I don't need to get into a lot of detail. I know the board has talked about this. Community has, you know, spent a lot of time in this. Um, this was also in, you know, February, March, there was a fair amount of dialogue

035relative to the referendum going on, right? So, there were some parallel conversations where, uh, folks were getting information from multiple sources, but but aligned with this. And I think timing was was pertinent to our conversation because uh that is uh financial investment that is needed within the district, right? And we need to really look closely at how are we maximizing our facilities and in operating them efficiently recognizing that this kind of wave of investment is coming towards the district. And so I think that was a good foundational piece for for folks to to get their arms around. So we we spent some time on that. Um, we then talked quite a bit about enrollment and and again, I I know I led with this a little bit upfront, but this was a really important part

036of our our process. Um, I think when we start to think about maximizing the utilization of our buildings, right, the capacity of how many students we're teaching in each of our buildings. As we have fewer and fewer students, the logical understanding probably is that we have some excess space in the district. How much or to what extent? That's really what this effort was attempting to hone in on. And we started out with just some some core data. So we looked back about eight years. Okay, this would have been uh the 2425 school year data, right? We were working with we now have some newer stuff for the current school year, but recognizing this is timestamped from from last spring. Um we represent you almost a 600 student drop in the past eight years. >> Okay.

037And as we take that data and look at all the information we do have available, uh, you know, we're seeing the potential of another 900 student drop as we look to the next 10 years. Okay. Um, a lot to be said for that, right? And in in every district I'm working with right now. This is very common conversation and I think we are now starting to see more and more recognition of that statewide. Okay. We're seeing more and more conversations, headlines in newspapers, you know, NPR, you know, pieces on uh this fiscal challenge districts are having due to declining enrollment. And right now 70 plus% of school districts are in fact declining in enrollment. Okay? And so we led with for this group that you know this is this is a trend statewide, right? Anytime

038you see data like this, the initial visceral reaction is what are we doing wrong? Right? Like is this us? Is it education? as a teacher, what is it? Reality is it it really statewide comes down to the fact that we have an aging population in Wisconsin and we have declining birth rates. Those are the two absolute drivers across the state. Um are there other factors? Absolutely. Right? Do vouchers play a role? They do. They absolutely do. Uh do uh you know uh does open enrollment play a factor? It absolutely does. Right? So there are things that the district should talk about and that emerged out of these conversations which I think was really healthy. Uh we'll talk more about that in the recommendations. But the reality is this isn't just a Manitwalk issue, right? This

039is a a statewide issue. And you know as we think about uh Manitwalk, I think we would all recognize the community as a whole was built for a population much larger. The infrastructure, the roads, the downtown, right? It was built when the community was very different than it is today. um will it come back to that? Will it continue to grow back? Everybody hopes so, right? But the reality is we do need to consider right sizing in order to be best positioned to support that growth and now is the time. These are the types of conversations that emerge in that effort. Okay. So to the best of our ability tried uh to to you know walk the group through this provided some background. We had a few articles uh the Wisconsin uh the state has

040put out some reports on on statewide uh population decline that's looming and what that may mean. So there are some different pieces we tried to to layer in to be sure folks understood kind of the bigger picture layer to this as well with [clears throat] that we did get quite granular. Uh it's not small because I don't want to show you the numbers but a lot of data that we tried to plug in. We took that enrollment that we have in that last school year and broke it down every way we could to be sure we understood how the district structured right now. So what you're seeing in this chart as as one example is uh there are three tiers to this. At the top you're seeing our elementary schools. So you see six of

041those. In the middle you see our two middle schools. At the bottom you see the high school. You can kind of see the grades on the left. Uh and then we have the enrollment total in each of the grades in each of the buildings. Okay. And what this has allowed us to do is kind of get our arms around how many kids do we have in the district, where are they across the district, what is our um breakdown uh meaning how balanced are we in elementary schools, what does this this look like as feeders to our middle schools. And it helped as kind of a foundational piece to be sure we understood as a district we are structured as six elementaryaries, three and three. Each of those three feed one respective middle school which is

042sixth through eighth grade and those feed to one high school. Okay. So we're basically six to two to one as we're structured. >> Uh [clears throat] you see the totals there. So as an example, Jackson uh 339 students, Riverview 243 and so on. >> Okay. Um broke that down as percentages just so we could kind of get a gut check on, you know, are we fairly balanced across across the district there. So, of those 1700 K through fifth graders, uh you can see 43% of um the uh I'll say the Wilson cohort are are at Jackson, 30 at Riverview, 26 at Madison. Right? It's our way of just kind of breaking down that data to best of our our ability. Okay. That then shows us what it looks like at the middle school as uh

043268 buildings and then ultimately what that looks like when we get to our high school. Okay. So wanted to bring this forth to to the group. So they had this these real numbers in front of them. So as we were were pushing forward they had that data though those are a lot of numbers and those are big numbers and as we push and pull that gets a lot to get our arms around. So we tried to simplify that a bit down to uh basically classroom level. How many classrooms do we have and really focus on our elementarymentaries to start here. So kindergarten through fifth grade. If we just think about what we are referencing as sections, sections equal classrooms. Okay, so how many sections do we have across the district? This gives us a quick

044a quick view of that. So you know essentially uh we have um the uh you know 92 classrooms being taught in across the district. Okay, in total and you can see 16 of those are at Jackson, 13 at Riverview, 11 at Madison. Uh that number ticks up just a little bit on the Washington side. 2020 and and 12 in in Verno. Okay. But again, just trying to get a baseline. Uh this becomes pertinent here in a minute as we start to talk about our our build your own district exercise, but tried to break those uh total enrollment figures down into how many classrooms we're we're teaching in, how many teachers we have and and kind of how in some cases we have buildings with four sections. Like you see Franklin has multiple four section where

045we have four first grade classroom, four second grade classrooms. Uh but in Madison uh you know and and at least over in Monroe we're a two section building. So half of of that even one in this uh fourth grade example. So again just trying to get a sense of of where we sit today. Um we took that data and we had the group do some work around you know what what do we know uh kind of building on the pros and cons of the district. Let's start to map that o over this data. So, give us some feedback. They had a large sheet that looked like this, post-it notes, big markers, and they gave a a bunch of feedback. And I built that into a summary page, which is is what you're starting to see

046here. Um, uh, part of that was again, educate me on the community. And, and so, we got some good feedback around where we think there will be the the greatest potential for residential growth in the community, where we have some traffic concerns as as folks uh, traverse through the community. where we see the the potential for you know industrial growth or more manufacturing growth in the community that's to the west but the biggest thing that stood out and that's why it's bold and you know as clear as I could make it was how that river is creates a north south component of this community that I will tell you that came out to me in meeting one and we continued talking about it all the way through uh last month. Okay. So this is a

047thing that is kind of baked into the community that having two equal middle [clears throat] schools essentially one supporting the north side, one supporting the south more or less um has created some p perceived issues whether that is uh related to academic performance or behavior or socioeconomic or racial or whatever those layers are all of that emerged in this conversation. Okay. And and back when I led this saying we started doing this to bring forth the things that are most worth talking about, this jumped out to me right out of the gate as something that if we don't land with a solution that doesn't discuss this, I'm not sure we've really addressed one of the biggest things we're we're hearing. Okay. So, we're going to come back to this, but I wanted to be sure

048we we hit on it as a group here because it was a pretty important layer of a lot of the feedback we got, a lot of the options that we compared, and ultimately a component, not the reason certainly, but a component of the reason that uh the recommendations in front of you tonight. Um, we then layered that enrollment data on top of our our buildings. Okay? And this is where we start talking architecture a little bit. So here we layered in uh uh some data on uh the square footage of of our buildings, right? So one of my roles is to uh is not to develop solutions on behalf of the group, but to facilitate their process, but do keep a finger on the pulse of are we are we on track? >> Like when

049we say we're over capacity in buildings or or we're under capacity in buildings, are we actually or not? Right, based on on the data. And I tried to do that a number of different ways. One of one of which was was this. So in as an example, if we were to build a new elementary school today, doesn't matter, you know, anywhere in the state, on average, we would see a new elementary school in 125 to 155 square feet per student. Okay? And that range really is on how uh uh I would say more collaborative environments, more flex spaces, more study rooms generally lead to larger buildings. So even at 155 square feet per student as as kind of the high end of that average, you can see uh our utilization square footage per student, um

050I think Jefferson at 184, maybe Franklin at 168 were the closest that even got to the high end of a large new elementary school. Okay, the rest were 200 plus, even up to 350 square feet per student, more than double. So again, not there's no judgment passed in that. That's just my gut check when we're talking if I'm asked if you were to ask me tonight, do we have excess square footage in our buildings? Just this data alone would tell me, yeah, we do. We likely have an ability uh through some form of consolidation to find a more efficient way to deliver education to this quantity of students. Just objectively looking at that data. Okay. Again, brought this group through this so that they could ask questions. The same exercise um at uh the middle

051school. Again, we saw some similar data there. We didn't spend as much time layering in the high school piece. Not to say that that's not a part of the eventual analysis as as how we respond long term to this, but really focus on how we're we're serving the most quantity of students and the most quantity of of square footage across the district. We did gut check that against classrooms. Okay. So one other way we looked at this uh was quantity of uh available classrooms across the district. Okay. Um I will say I um kind of in full disclosure this was an analysis I did uh objectively not layering in. We did not meet with every principal. We did not tour every building to identify exactly how we're using every space. My goal was to simply

052say um was this room designed with the intent to be a traditional classroom or not? Not is that how we're using it today? Right? Because in schools, we find great ways to use every square foot we have. Right? So, I guarantee even though I say we have excess square footage or excess classrooms in our buildings, we're probably using them right now and in an important way, not to disparage any of that, just simply to say how many classrooms were designed districtwide and how many are we utilizing. And this was again just another gut check, but it did suggest that we have about 210 classrooms across the district. And today we're we're teaching out 133 of those across these elementary including Stangle. That's an anomaly in that we're not using Stangle the same way, right? But

053our classrooms there that are are teachable and our middle school. So again me just trying to bring forth kind of objective criteria to say okay if the group starts leaning towards solutions that suggest consolidation in the end uh would the data support that and another touch point suggested it it certainly does. Okay. Uh we then talked about contemporary learning environments. So, we spent spent one evening talking about um uh kind of an overview of of who the district is right now relative to our learning spaces. So, we got a series of photos from classrooms across the district. What are our classrooms look like? And then I did a presentation on what contemporary classrooms look like. So, if you know if let's look at all the Wisconsin recently completed elementary middle schools, what do they look

054like? What are the space types? what are we talking with teachers about in terms of pedagogy and curriculum delivery and how does the architecture respond to that? Um, and that's what you see in this graphic. And so we we uh each small group had a large sheet of paper with uh all these images on it that really represented contemporary learning environments. And the group were given uh each individual was given blue dots and white dots. The the blue dots represented things we really liked. The white dots maybe things we we didn't like as much. And the session was really built around them having really engaged dialogue. Uh, a lot of really good conversation about the things we we saw that were very positive. So you see some images here where you see like in the

055very top left an image that has only blue dots in it. >> Yeah. >> Right. That really stands out that there's something about that and and there's a lot of uh positives that the group collectively unanimously saw in that. We also saw some images like bottom left, maybe the second one in where you see only white dots, right? And again, things in that image that the the group felt maybe less comfortable with. And so those are really good conversations to have kind of get some handle on what are the collection of images that we think best represent back to that first meeting when we said our most important vision for the future is state-of-the-art facilities. The blue dots should represent what this group envisions as that. Okay. Um, as a facilitator, I really like the

056images where we have blue and white dots. I know that is friction, right? But that's a good thing, right? Because there's something that we like and something we don't. And those are the conversations we should have. So, um, this was, I think, a really positive conversation again to kind of widen the aperture around as [clears throat] we talk about contemporary learning environments. It may not just be like repainting the rooms we have, but it may mean that we need to continue to talk about what the district looks like maybe closer to the blue dots on on this image. >> So it was things like flexible learning spaces or like can you share generalization? >> Yeah. Yeah. So we talked a lot about um kind of fluid learning, right? So meaning we start to break down

057what we define as just the four walls of a classroom. So learning that's spilling out into corridors. So what we used to think about is just a hallway with cubbies or lockers now is is learning space, right? So a lot of the like that top left image is essentially a small in your graphic, but it is a collaborative learning environment that's basically surrounded by a pod. This is like in a middle school house. You can imagine a house with four or five classrooms around it with this shared resource space in the center where students go out and do group work. We can do some specialized pullout intervention work. we can give some students with the ability to step out and do some independent work, some space to do that. A lot of transparency, right? A

058lot of flexibility to allow for in that case walls to open up and classrooms to literally spill out into those spaces. Uh we talked about team, right? Things like that. Um so I think really good dialogues. I would a lot of the maybe the moments of friction in moments like that did come into where we talk about security and safety. You know, we talk about flexibility and glass and transparency. It runs counter intuitive to what a safe school might look like, might might think it looks like. Um, but a safe school and what we think it might looks like doesn't look like contemporary learning spaces, right? Back to kind of cells and bells, old kind of classrooms without a lot of natural light and right, very different. So there is some really healthy conversation around

059what that might mean for for uh the district and that I will tell you is something every district grapples with as they design new space. But yeah, I think most importantly some really healthy conversation at those table levels around what folks saw and and yeah, >> Mike, I apologize for acting here on slide or page 13, build your own district. I see where you use Stangle in in your comparisons here. zero classrooms but 18 available. Do you have the square footage of Stangle? I didn't see that. How does that measure into the district size? >> Yep, we can I can layer that in. >> Yeah, I can layer that in separately. We uh we tried to break down the district how we're using it uh in square footage. So, we understood building by building >>

060if we're looking at the future. Where does Stangle fit into this? >> You got it. Yep. Yeah. It's not lost on the conversation. >> All right. Thank you. >> Okay. So, let's continue into build your own district. So this is where um I think excitedly the rubber really met the road from uh like a hands-on engagement uh level. So uh how this was structured was that uh we were going to go through a process of developing options. This is you know anytime I've worked with a community around a process like this ultimately we have to develop options. We have to develop solutions to this this challenge. How you go about that uh is the question right? How do we how do we do that in a way that folks are engaged that they uh have

061buy in that they understand the why behind the moves they made? Um there's a lot of complexity to this many schools and this many classrooms. And so what we tried to do is develop a process that uh it kind of instilled some ownership of the folks in the room here around how we went through this process, how we landed on on scenarios. So, what you see on the screen here is essentially a uh I'll say like a map of the community that was printed large and sat on a table. This represents all of the schools that we were focused on. So, all of our elementaryaries and our middle schools. Each of those schools generally are located with a pin near their geography in the community, right? So, we can understand kind of generally where where

062they sit. Uh we had some core data on there around square footage of the building, available classrooms in that building. [clears throat] So we knew kind of the context of that building. And then folks were given a uh uh each table was given a stack of 11 by17s. And those 11 by7s were essentially their means of documenting options. Okay. And so what we did was created uh an exercise where each classroom was a cube, a physical cube. And I know I was fortunate to come in and talk with I think the facility and finance committee early on in the process and I introduced a little bit of this to the to the group. Um these cubes essentially like one inch by one inch blocks. Each one represents a classroom. They have a label on them.

063First, second, third, fourth, fifth, right? For for each of our grades. Um and when the committee entered in, we had there's a small group table set up, right? So four or five people per table. And as you see on the screen, uh the blocks were set up with our current um classroom breakdown across the district as it sits today. Okay. So really the exercise was as we sit down and look at the table, this is who we are today. This is how many first grades we have in this building, how many second grades we have in this building as a starting point to the dialogue. Okay? And over uh three sessions really the group was asked to start to move these blocks around. Okay. Uh and by design I will say that uh there is

064tension around dialogue around closing schools. Acknowledge that. Right. First and foremost in every district there is and for for good reason. I designed this such that the first move meaning when the group sat down they had to move blocks away from a building. Right? Right. So there was a moment of tension in their very first move around what that [snorts] meant. So I think by design it was meant to elevate kind of the severity the significance of the conversation we're were having. And I think uh we we felt that there was a lot of really healthy conversation about what that means what it means for neighborhoods uh what it might mean for north south. And so uh I just want to acknowledge that to the board because I think that was a really important part

065of of this this process. Okay. And uh so essentially these blocks just start moving around and as soon as they pause they document that as an option. Okay. So meaning what if we close one school and shift these around? What if we close two schools? What might that look like? What does north south look like? How do we uh create targets? So we did give them some goals. We said, okay, if we're going to uh be a balanced district, what that means is we have all of our elementaryaries the same size. That may never be perfect science, right? But our goal should be that we have a similar quantity of sections, number of students balances teachers. Uh Lee brought some great data to the group about uh running efficient schools from uh like a a

066total student standpoint from a staffing perspective, right? So we don't have fewer itinerant staff running around the district because we're able to commit them to schools of certain sizes. So again, tried to give them some framework in which to work work around. Okay. um asked them to start with uh reorganizing this to match the district uh grade configuration that we are today meaning keep K5 68 right so first start by fewer moving parts so just stay within where we are just maybe different quantities of schools and different arrangements and then once we felt like we exhausted that we said okay what if we change grade configuration right what if we start to rethink uh where certain grades are in in the district um really facilitates some great discussion on both ends, right? What what does

067a transition look like? What's the right age to make a transition from one building to another? Um you know, what does early learning look and feel like in the district? And I know that's got some history in Manwalk as it as we've approached it differently. And so, uh some really good discussion around each of those things. And just a couple photos, uh you see some familiar faces in the room tonight to photos here. And so, uh, again, just trying to display how hands-on this was, literally moving these blocks around. Good discussions. Uh, there was a cube that that said close, idle, sell building, right? So, you had to place that on top of a building to kind of finalize the option. And so, again, those are meant to be moments where we recognize what that

068what that mean as as an option. Okay. So really really robust dialogues, lots of work on my end behind the scenes to take all these options that were developed and compare them. As you might imagine, a lot of overlap. So we had, you know, five or six tables set up in one session, three or four tables set up in the other session. They were doing the same work, coming up with similar options that differed slightly, but a lot of overlap between them. And it was my job to kind of encapsulate that process in a way that reflect all the work that was was done. What that resulted in was 54 unique options, right? So again, the goal at the outset of this was to really make sure this group, if we're ever challenged with, you

069know, did we think of this or why didn't we consider that? The goal was to have exhausted as many viable options as possible. And and as you can see, 54 different versions of that were developed across these groups. And and again, if I can um you know, give props to the folks in the room and those that aren't that were a part of this this work. That's a lot of work, a lot of great discussion. Every one of these options had a significant amount of dialogue to develop it as as something worth us talking more about. So really does I think reflect a commitment the board has made to allowing the community to really be a robust part of this process. But props to the community on really exhausting all the different strategies and approaches

070to to tackle this challenge. Um when we talk about district structure uh again I led with we have six elementaryaries really three and three leading to two middles and one high K5 68 912. Uh we came up with 14 distinct different district structures uh 10 different grade configurations and then in the end tried our best to uh kind of encompass those into these three buckets of how do we understand them based on the district structure the grade configuration and overall enrollment size of a given school. Okay, there's a point at which if you were to say, you know, max out capacity in a building, get as small as possible, what it ends up meaning is we just get really large schools, right? Even if we had the capacity in that building, we may not want

071to teach to that capacity, maybe too large as an elementary or a middle school. Um what does that mean? So, we had a lot of good discussions about what that what that might feel like. Okay. Um so, the goal was not to say here are 54 options. Okay, committee, which is your favorite, right? that would just be a spiral right to the end. It was how can we take and break this down in a way that we could start to digest it, create some priorities and work our way through that. And so how we did that was organizing as I said into these three primary buckets. The first is the grade configuration. So what you're seeing on the screen uh just kind of point this out, we we identified that you know we had this

072K5689 12 which is essentially who we are today. We had a configuration as K4 58 912. We had K4 56 7 8 912. And you can see us kind of marching our way down the line of all the different grade configurations that were developed. Um with this comes a couple other layers. You know, one is uh you know, educationally, what does this mean? Like how do we deliver curriculum K4 versus K5, excuse me, kindergarten through fifth grade versus kindergarten through fourth grade? what would uh a uh you know a a 24 building feel like different from a 23 building, right? A lot of different layers to that. So, we did bring in your uh curriculum team to facil to be a part of some of those conversations just those we had some questions about what

073that looked like. They were able to layer in some of that feedback. So, we did bring some of that expertise to to that conversation. Uh we also talked a lot about transitions. Okay. So a transition would be essential when you go from one school to another school. Okay. So today our transition is fifth to sixth grade where essentially we we triple our cohort, right? So in fifth grade we know two or three sections of friends, right? If that makes sense. Uh maybe we have 60 peers. When we step to our middle school that triples now bring three schools worth of peers into one location. And then when we go to high school it doubles again. Right? So, we think about uh transitions and what does that mean to the student? Okay, meaning socially, emotionally, what

074does that look like? What does a transition look like educationally? Right? There's there's data out there on uh transitional impact at certain ages and what that feels like. Also, how long you're in a building? >> Okay, so we had options where, you know, we had this rolling cohort notion of kindergarten is in a building, first grade's in a building, second grade's in a building. A lot of dialogues around boy, that's, you know, nine transitions through the district. [clears throat] That's maybe not practical or or possible. It means we're in a building one year, meaning we get that principal gets to know that student for one year and we transition everything about that student to a new principal. Really healthy for the group to talk about what would that look like as a district, but pretty

075quickly ruled out for for a lot of I think practical reasons. >> But again, this was our approach to start to hone in these options down to what we thought was most practical for you know an ideal district. As we go forward, we did the same thing for enrollment size. So, at the bottom, uh that's basically this sliding scale uh showing an elementary school from zero students up to a thousand students. Uh the circles represent your enrollment today in your elementary schools. So, you kind of get a quick visual of how big your enrollment school your enrollment are in your elementaryaries today. And then those vertical tick marks are all the options that the groups developed. Okay? Okay. So when they push those blocks around and they push pause, each of those blocks represents a

076total number of students. So it's pretty easy for us to estimate how many students would be in a given building in that option. So you can see we had, you know, basically increments of 20 and we have 54 options, right? We have lots of different scales there. But what this allowed us to do is talk about how big is too big, right? We had we had options that had uh you know schools just over 200. We had options that at schools uh upwards of well over 900 students. So really again facilitated a good discussion around like what is the sweet spot for Manitwalk and that differs right we have some districts that have 600 700 students in elementary and they're high performing and that's what the community you know represents the community they're comfortable with

077that we have other districts that are building new schools I would say never more than 400 500 students in it. So every district is different I will say and this did facilitate some good discussion about what what that looks like. And then lastly, what does the district structure look like? And I think this is where we start to tiptoe down that north south divide path, right? As we think about this river and uh really having two equal middle schools mean we have to set boundaries for our middles. And when we do that, we have to set boundaries for our elementaryaries that support finding some balance within that. And with that over time, we have this north south, whether that's uh there are components of that that are real and true and actual or perception woven

078in. is probably a balance of both of those things. But a lot of that emerged as we really started to have these dialogues. Okay. And this looks these again every one of these options you see on the screen is a diagram of an option that was developed by the committee. Okay. So we see in the top left uh as an example who you are today. Okay. So uh excuse me a a uh one elementary smaller version of who you are today. So in this this top left example here, you're seeing instead of six elementaryaries, you're seeing five. So this was an option that closed one and [clears throat] then kept two middle schools and we just figure out how to like set up the boundaries to basically run the same district with just a little

079smaller elementary footprint. Okay, we did the same thing here with four elementaryaries. So same exercise, just closing two in this example. So four to two to one got down to three to two to one. Right? [clears throat] As you might imagine, we're solving for the same number of students whether it's five, four, or three. So, as we get to three elementary schools, they start to become the larger enrollment. Back to that last chart where we had enrollment size, right? So, the fewer schools, the more students we have in them, right? So, that was a big part of the balance as the group went through this this process. We then had really good dialogues about uh just having a single move to one middle school. Okay. um whether that's again five, four or three elementaryaries serving

080one middle school. Uh we talked about uh which will emerge further here an intermediate and middle school component which uh uh becomes an important part of our our conversation as we go forward. But again uh really I think as we got into this started to hone in on two key things that stood out. I think one we kind of had two discussions going. One is how big does the district need or or want to be as an elementary? solution and what does a middle school solution look like? They're interconnected, but they're kind of two separate conversations, right? Because as you can see, we have options of being six, five, four, three, and in theory, the square footage could support that. So really, it's a discussion of how many how many elementaryaries is the right quantity

081of elementarymentaries and then a separate dialogue about what is the best path to serve our middle school students and and what does that grade configuration look like? And we had some really healthy conversations about those two things parallel to one another. Okay. So, out of that, the uh groups were given uh uh essentially a a survey if you will to kind of fill take these circle things you like, cross things out you don't like. They were individually were given pages to the same thing so they could be individual feedback if they weren't comfortable as a group. And uh my job was to start to help hone the group in. And I acknowledged right out of the gates in this this is the point at which we start to as a group become a little vulnerable

082because now we're starting to try to build consensus. Okay. Um I will say in my this is kind of where my job gets hard in that you know if the expectation is we have a unanimous support for every component of this. I would never get to an end product anywhere. Right? I think that's just a reality. lots of perspective, lots of really good feedback. And my goal was to build consensus around the things that seem to rise to the top most frequently or the most vocally and find a way to to message that to on behalf of this group to the board. Okay. And so this process uh again uh large pages, a lot of circles and highlights and xing things out uh emerged into what really started to look like a a heat map.

083Okay. And a couple things you're seeing a little bit small on here, but uh I put some numbers at the top of these that kind of represented the options that folks said we like or we don't like, meaning keep this or or cross this thing off, don't consider it anymore. Where you're seeing some of the blue are where it became pretty clear where we had almost exclusive likes and no dislikes. Right? So I I have to identify where are those things because that those are the things that emerge as where we might be able to build some around some consensus. Okay. And so you're seeing you know we had a lot of good feedback around uh each of these options but really one of them stood out uh pretty consistently as as a key uh

084preferred grade configuration. >> Okay. And I'll talk more I'll break this out in a second. But just to show you that's how we honed in on that. Same thing for enrollment size. Each of these kind of overlapping boxes represents a range that the group gave. So you can start to see where that overlap in density is kind of suggested kind of this four to 500 range is is where we saw kind of a sweet spot for for a lot of overlap. Um and out of that emerged I think this which is the basis of of what you'll see as formal recommendations here in a minute. So what you're seeing here is on the left the option or uh you know the the kind of summary images that support I think uh the ultimate recommendations that

085that we'll talk about tonight. So on the left you're seeing a district structure that looks like four elementary schools. Okay, ideally balanced in in size to the best of of the district's ability. Um you can see those are identified as uh K4 elementary schools. We'll talk grade configuration in a second here. You see that listed on on the diagram on the left. Uh you're seeing an is referencing an intermediate school, a middle school, and a high school. Okay. So really important here because this is where emerging out of all of those good conversations came you know a lot of value in really looking at uh fifth through 8th grade as this kind of target window for how we're thinking of middle schoolers right so there's a high level of comfort with considering taking fifth out

086of our elementarymentaries thinking of that as a middle school grade okay focused on then how do we solve for kindergarten through fourth grade and and do that efficiently and you four buildings at 350ish students as kind of the target as where the group was really comfortable. >> Okay, that then led us into what would ideal fifth through 8th grade look like is that two equal fifth through 8th grade buildings meaning basically move fifth grade into the buildings we have that keeps our north south divide. A lot of good dialogue emerged on what what could we do to eliminate that? And and what emerged here is a recommendation to consider a fifth through sixth grade solution and a seventh and eighth grade solution. Okay. So, what we're terming an intermediate and a middle school as two

087separate paths. Um we've we've uh had in support of that group and since some really good dialogue with the district's uh curriculum team around what might that mean for fifth grade the biggest you know has the biggest change out of all this and how might they fit into a sixth grade more middle school model. Um what is a five six building look like from a teacher collaborative standpoint? What is teacher licensing look like? And so we've had some really good discussions uh around uh around that that I think have been really healthy and very positive in support of of this direction. Okay. Um so I'm going to come back to what that means in terms of building level solution in a minute but wanted to just introduce that as without assigning where does fifth and

088six sixth grade live or seventh and eighth grade live because a lot of discussion is that in one building but in two wings. Is it in two separate buildings? um uh that TBD, we'll talk more about that in a minute, but I think the important move there was, uh essentially no longer does the district have uh two equal middle schools with two separate boundaries. We now have in theory four elementary schools with four elementary boundaries and we dialogue about what is the right makeup of those separately. But after that, we're all ships. Okay. And that's I think a really important transition, right? We see it on shirts all over the place, right? That was an important [clears throat] layer into how we're really starting to think about uh you know building on Lincoln, right? We

089so much of what I I kept hearing about was you know even tonight you leave here tonight, you go to Culver's, you're going to see 30 little kids with ice cream all with ship hats on, right? Their baseball hats on. Like everybody's a ship. You don't feel that when you talk about it at the middle school level as an outsider coming in. That shouldn't be the case, right? Is this an opportunity to maybe best respond to that and improve some of those things that have been embedded potentially in the community for for years? Okay. So, um not to belver that, but I think it's important just to note the you know importance of that in in what you see in front of you here. Um so in the grade configuration diagram you're simply seeing today

090we're K5 68 912 and essentially that's pulling fifth grade out and we now have 56 78 912. we do go from two transitions to three transitions. >> Okay. So, that was a key part of the dialogue, but a lot of the conversation was really uh is a fifth grader ready for a 5-6 model? So, I think you have some experts in district that can really support that conversation further and what that would look like. Um, and you know, is sixth to seventh grade is what is that transition look like? Are we really culturally building a leadership team that's thinking fifth through 8th whether we're in one building or two buildings? Right? we can start to break that down differently than trying to create two equal builders. >> Is there a population cap on the the

091intermediate level and the middle school level 5678? Um looks like 360 for our elementaryaries, but is there a limit or what we would project those those two buildings populations to be at? >> Yeah. So, >> what kind of what population would they be looking at? >> Yeah. So, essentially, you know, if you think about the let me just I'm going to step back to our our data. if we're using just the same numbers. Uh let me see if I get back to here. So right now, uh as an example, fifth grade across the district is 360 students. Sixth grade is 360 students. So you can assume 700ish students for each of those two buildings. Okay. Uh again today they have uh 480 to 560. >> Okay. [clears throat] >> Um so potentially uh more but

092because of uh you know again you can see the when we look at the square footage analysis uh we have in theory the space in the buildings to support that. >> Okay. I think let me circle back to I want to talk recommendations in a minute. >> I think it'll tie more directly to how we respond to that at the building level. So, let me just pause there for for a moment. Take a deep breath uh as a group before we talk recommendations. Are there any other questions from certainly Lee, Nathan, others? I mean, at the admin level, feel free to add. I'm just wondering about and I was a little worried about size but the elementary size my I had two concerns on is there any and maybe Heidi may know this or or

093Katie could get this but any data or studies on transitions for kids and what they go through and and you know former special ed teacher I I know sometimes that's more difficult for kids and and I was just wondering about that. And then my other question would be the transportation issue. Um I don't have a problem with North South, but that would also take those middle schools out of that. Not that they're neighborhood because >> but that would be another thing that I'm just wondering if >> the transition thing I'm worried about. >> Yes. >> Yeah. I'll definitely defer if you have any feedback on transitions right now. No, that would that would just be general knowledge like I don't have any research. >> Yeah, I can share some things that I've learned. Um, so

094intermediate schools um in the state are a thing. A couple that are near us uh would be Kimberly and Depier. Um I had a conversation on Monday night with Holly who's superintendent and Kimberly and we talked about this structure that they use. Um they've had this structure in for a very long time. Um she talked about the pros and cons. Um she did say that um I asked her would you keep the structure. She said yes. Educationally it's really good um for instruction and for getting those fifth graders um you know a little bit more of a move up. Um she talked a little bit about the need for good systems and transitional programming when you're moving kids. she talked about that they've had to develop systems in which they're communicating between those buildings um

095as they go so that the relationships you develop in a K5 setting are going to be stronger naturally because you have longer time. But what she said that they do is they really have systems in which they communicate between the two buildings when the students transition. We've also internally had conversations knowing that transitions are very important to build extra time within our calendar really for all of our students whether they're transitioning into uh you know a new grade structure but also thinking about the kids who may be changing school buildings and how that is also a transition. So, how can we use our school calendar to ensure that we're putting time and effort into good transitional programs for kids so that they um can make those uh seamless transitions into learning in their new schools

096and or their new grade configurations. Thank you. >> Yeah. And not to fast forward ahead of the recommendations in a minute, but we're showing five, six, seven, eight as two steps. quite a bit of dialogue about boy would it not be ideal if they were under one roof. If we could set up an efficient building where we had a wing that was 68 that had a bell schedule, excuse me, excuse me, 56 to support 56 learning, right? And the the hours they need in certain grades and allow 78 to be there separate, but maybe we share a cafeteria so we can, you know, adjust, you know, and have some efficiency built in or, you know, share a teched wing so we don't have two of those in the district or something. So, some really healthy

097conversation where you start to blur that line of if they're under one roof, does that feel different? Right? That transitions from one one wing to another. Does that feel different from across town, right? As we might think of two existing buildings today. So, um I think important to maybe lay that as a part of the discussion. Again, this group was charged with creating a long-term vision. I think we've had some really good conversations about what that looks like, but this group was not charged to to develop an architectural solution to that and provide that to you. So that's we wanted to and I will say there's a lot of conversations around how how quickly can we get to that point but it's not my job to to fast forward to that. We got to start

098incrementally with this. So I think that's a really important question but it may be stunted a little just in that you know the dialogue may want to continue to be around creating a 58 culture whether it's in two buildings in the community or under one roof. Ideally it's successful no matter which of those two were constructed under. And then too, just to touch on your transportation question, um when this was all getting fleshed out, um we did sit down with Brandt um to talk about, you know, first of the first question is is feasible, right? So the the answer was yes. And then the next question is okay, knowing these are the recommendations, can we start to look at like estimates of things? And so that's all in the works. It's not ready at this

099point, but it's in the works and will be part of uh further information as we move through this process. >> Thank you. >> May May I ask how much discussion went on as you got close to this uh recommendations for build your own district for future proofing >> because as you yourself point out, we're looking at a 100 to 125 student decline annually. >> Yeah. And that means the these [clears throat] I assume are the projections at what we see peak >> which means those numbers will drop drop drop. >> Yeah 100%. >> And there's there's two ways to look at that right. One is you know optimistically I don't want to say pessimistic realistically or optimistic. >> I know I know what you're trying to say. I got you. I think the optimistic view

100is that jobs are coming and you hear the the mayor and city folks talk about new developments coming and more housing and all and building new schools positive things, right? [laughter] And ideally that is the case and ideally those bring more families and if we're in that position, it's a very different different conversation. Um that likely is offsetting the decline we're we're projecting to continue to experience based on our our birth rates and our our aging population. Manitis County does have an older population in comparison to a lot of others around. So, it does align with that. Um, but you're not wrong. And that's I think what I didn't point out here on the bottom of this image are are those three buildings in gray. Okay, those are again if we look at uh the

101cross-section of the the district's like architectural portfolio like all the buildings you have your teaching out of uh you know you include Riverview and Stangle and everything in that in this model there are three idle schools. Okay. And I say idle meaning what do the district would have a decision what what do you do with those buildings and and again that's a part of the guard rails in this conversation you know we wanted the group that was participating to give some feeling on those things maybe layer that into some of their recommendations on what you keep open and what you close based on reuse of a property or you know something like that but that wasn't the goal like we didn't we didn't charge the group with coming up with an ideal like which building

102is worth the most to sell right, as an example or something that wasn't the charge. But what this does do is position the district to really look closely at those three buildings. Like what in a scenario where we know we have some other layers, right? The the district um uh should be thinking about the short term operation as efficiently as possible. But also what happens if we we do what if if you know we we pivot and we see some spikes in enrollment and we see some positive shifts and like the sky falls and the state provides more money for you know all of a sudden we're in a different position right then you know we should be dialoguing go how much what of those three should we hold on to and what maybe shouldn't

103we in the long term uh we need to consider how much investment is needed in those three buildings right that goes back to that CISA study because that's that would be a uh you a deferred needed investment, right? Multiple millions of dollars in each of those three buildings. We have to if we keep them, do something with them, we need to invest in them. That is a part of the the layer here is is, you know, how much do we keep in hopes that we do rebound and aren't just like building new schools when we had them, right? We want to avoid that. The community certainly would probably respond well to that. Um, I will say this, uh, this really was focused on the majority of students. I I want to point that out. We

104did talk a lot about, uh, making sure we're mindful of our special ed population, our alternative high school component, some of our virtual pieces, some of the the ancillary that aren't the majority that we're not lost on this. And that's a part of, I think, what comes in a recommendation from the admin team, right? Not that our community isn't positioned well to give some feedback on that, but those are really specialty areas that I think your administrative team would probably have a really strong handle on what's the best solution for, you know, the alternative high school piece or or what does u you know 4K look like as a district long term. That's really I think an admin le thing which those gray boxes on the bottom there I think become a key part of

105that dialogue like how are we supporting uh that um the other layer I I'll point out when uh a a more formal recommendation on which buildings again this committee was not charged with putting names on these buildings you're seeing that right that's not me like ducking behind the fact that we're not putting >> nor would they want I know >> I know it's not not lost on me the group was really charged coming up ideal visions for the district. >> And to me, that's an admin and board level discussion around how best to to respond to that. As a part of that, I think the board should expect to see what would the capacity of a building be versus what we're projecting would go into that. If we have bubbles move through, can we absorb

106that in a building comfortably? And I think that would come as a part of a a sound recommendation if if that were a next step. Sure. >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Um, you know, when this first came up, it was almost exclusively a financial, this is, you know, boards gone by. It was almost a fin almost exclusively a financial situation. The assumption was is if we cleared if we we closed down schools and if we reduced staff, there would be just assumed to be uh a lower tax levy. uh that this system would be cheaper to run, etc., etc. Is that a is that a at all a challengeable assumption? >> Yeah. I in the districts I'm working with, so it's not I'd say it's I'm fortunate to work with a number of districts. It's

107not always a fortunate conversation, right, in those districts as we talk about these challenges. >> U this that's always the rub, right? And the reality is most districts are in a position where uh they just need to like be black on the bottom line. >> Yeah. We need to find a way to be fiscally solvent. Otherwise, we just perpetually would be in operational referendum mode forever, right? And could we do that? Could we stay exactly how we are today and just keep asking the community for more operational revenue to run the buildings we're in? Of course. Right. But is that sound fiscal strategy? Would you run a private business that way? Would No. I think most especially in a you know kind of conservative state fiscally conservative state which Wisconsin very much is I think

108the expectation is the board is challenging itself in looking at how are we operating our facilities and and to me this is how how you do that which is you know what is a healthy uh size district being mindful of the long term which I think is is a great question um but doing so in and operating as efficiently as as practical in a way that still allows us to deliver education at the highest level, right? Which, you know, like I've said, there are ways that this we could have fewer elementary schools than what's here, right? But that means larger school sizes, more kids to manage in a building, more buses and parents showing up at that building every morning and afternoon. And uh this to me feels like one of the the merits and

109and successes of this is finding a balance amidst all those layers. Um, so let me walk you through this this piece because we're having some good discussion which I think ties ties into this. So this one pager which I'll enlarge here in a second um encompasses the recommendations uh to the board from the committee. Okay. And they're really broken into three parts. One is kind of a high level uh kind of macro view of recommendations. Then we got specific at the elementary and at the middle level to give some some specificity to that. Okay. So, just starting out with a statement that kind of defines our existing conditions. Uh, and I'm just going to read these so folks that are watching or listening that may not be able to to see the screen hear them.

110Uh, the man Mattwalk public school district has experienced declining student enrollment and is projected to continue experiencing [clears throat] it. This has led to operational and educational inefficiencies and an excess of building space across the district. Okay, that is kind of a a macro paragraph kind of summarizing everything. We we led with the why why we're here. The uh Matwalk Public School District's buildings are aging and facing failing infrastructure in outdated learning environments. Again, supported by the CISA study and uh uh you know contemporary discussions we talked about as well as I think real time what we're experiencing managing. So the committee's recommendations uh we'll start with kind of the macro level uh one two three four five of these statements. So the first one is consider comprehensive strategies to stabilize and grow the student

111enrollment. Okay. So regardless of how many buildings we're in, regardless of where they're located in the community or what the grade configuration looks like, the recommendation to the board and to the admin is to like let's figure out the root cause of this, which is our declining enrollment. What levers do we have? What strategies, what discussions should be had to position the district to either write that chip, balance that out, or look for strategies to increase that enrollment. Okay. Again, uh if it were completely up to the district, we'd probably have already made those decisions by now, right? The reality is the root cause of that decline isn't the fault of the district, but if there are things the district can do, we should be having dialogues about what we should be doing to to

112strategize about that. Okay. [clears throat] Um the second one was consider adjusting to uh excuse me consider adjustments to district structure to create equitable educational experiences for every student. Okay. And and that emerged out of I think recognizing that not every student goes to a school of the same size. Right? So we saw some schools with one or two sections at any grade level versus schools that have three or four. That's a very different experience for that student. uh it's a very different uh experience both socially and emotionally as well as if you like have special needs. It's it's more difficult to have our our specialists in buildings where we have one or two sections in them all day long. Right? So if that student has a need, it's going to be different. Uh the

113expectation should be different that that aid is there different than if we had a building with three or four sections where that aid is in that building all day long and likely is available if that student needs that support. So things like that we see we don't we just don't have that that balance across the district. That's just one example but uh no different than um a lot of other strategies. So whatever we do coming out of this the recommendation is to do our best to create an equitable experience for every student. Okay. I think an admira admirable goal to to shoot for. >> Consider the operational and educational benefits of shifting grade configurations within the district. Okay. Okay, we started to talk about that, but we'll talk more about what that means. Consider school

114building consolidation to maximize operational educ educ and educational efficiencies while optimizing resources for student success and well-being. And then lastly, consider physical capital improvements to all educational spaces we put in interior and and exterior districtwide to align with current district curriculum delivery as well as contemporary learning environments. uh architectural design and best practices. Okay. So again when uh we are talking about improvements whether that's replacing carpet or painting walls or placing roofs at any of those moments in our existing schools we should ideally be running it through this lens of a goal from this committee which is making sure that we're we're picking carpets. We have a vision for transparency or you know curriculum alignment. Right? If we if we do want students to spill out into that corridor when we replace lockers, that would

115be the time to take a look at what that wall looks like, right? So, let's be sure we're setting that expectation as a district as we go forward. Okay. I think the assumption is we leap to just building new buildings. It may not be that. It likely is not that across the district. So, how are we investing in the buildings we have to still achieve these goals? We then, as I noted, broke this down into elementary and middle school. Like I said, really a lot of dialogue about what's the right quantity of elementaryaries and how big are they? And then really what does middle school structure look like as a district. So at the elementary level, three uh three recommendations here. Consider closing, idling, repurposing or selling multiple elementary school buildings to maximize operational and

116educational efficiencies within the remaining four K4 uh kindergarten to fourth grade school buildings. Okay. So words chosen wisely there. Okay. So this this committee really saying, you know, I think that running four elementary schools, kindergarten, fourth grade, uh excuse me, kindergarten through fourth grade would uh be the right quantity of schools at the right size. What the district chooses to do should be to consider how we repurpose those remaining buildings. Okay? Leaving that open to further discussion and consideration. Okay? again closing, idling, repurposing, selling really important as keeping that wide open for the district to really assess what is the right long-term solution for that building and site if not being taught out of it in this model. The next one is consider uh uh consolidation of students and staff in ideal grade configurations within

117those remaining four school buildings with balanced student enrollment totals. And then lastly, consider maintaining a dedicated educational center for the district's earliest learners. Um, K4. Okay. In in particular, I know a lot of dialogue in district here around K4, a lot of dialogue statewide around K4 and what that means. Okay. And then at the middle school level, uh, the two recommendations are to consider creating a rolling cohort middle school path. That just means we don't have equal schools anymore, meaning we roll through middle school. All right. uh fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh and eighth. So consider creating a rolling cohort middle school path for all students by creating one intermediate school serving fifth through sixth grade students and one middle school serving seventh through eighth grade students. Okay. [clears throat] And then the second point

118is consider uh utilization of the two existing middle school buildings in the short term with the recommendation to study optimal long-term architectural solutions for this age level. Okay, this is what I was kind of leaning into earlier, which was we have an obvious path on day one to set this in motion without uh needing to like build a new building or make a significant right. there's there's a path to potentially making this breaking variation work. >> As soon as the district's comfortable and ready to do so, yet some really really good dialogue around is that ideal, maybe or maybe not. They're asking the board to consider continuing to study that in the long term. >> William know anything about the numbers on there >> like like one middle school >> five six seven eight >>

119quantity of students. Yeah. >> Yeah. It would be basically >> it would be basically Lincoln, >> right? >> Yep. So, uh >> Yep. >> And I know you know when we think about middle schools, I think important different from elementary. Elementary students enter in the same door more or less and move around the same hallways more or less. Middle school is a different animal, right? Eighth graders have a different bell schedule than fifth and sixth graders do. Um it's very common to have separate lunch periods in one another. um specials are dealt with differently, right, as you move through those ages. So, um I have been fortunate to design a number of fifth through eighth grade schools, right? Middle schools almost always they're set up with wings and you break down those into smaller communities,

120not just grade level, but house level communities. So, middle school different from almost, you know, any other school type, a lot of ability to take a large school and and functionally make it operate as as smaller communities. So less concern from me as we start to look at larger numbers under under one roof at that level. It's not to say it's still not a lot of students. It is right in in one in one building. Um but I think there are strategies that successfully we see in the state right now. >> Um in the elementary school section getting my eyes here. It says consider the benefits of a dedicated educational center for district's early learning center. Is that early learning center >> part of the part of the four is that an additional building or

121is that to be inclusive in that four elementaryaries? >> Yeah. So that's that comes out of the recommend well assuming a a uh the admin team brings forth a recommendation. I think the goal there was to have uh that discussed as uh what is ideal for delivering K through fourth grade curriculum. Is that half day or is that full day? Makes a big difference. Right? Just from a capacity standpoint. how many students were fitting. >> So, so one building would be early learning and K4. >> Yeah. So, I think to answer that question, it's dependent on what the district's strategy is for delivering 4K. Okay. Um, so itemize that here because the group saw a lot of benefit in in focusing on that also as a strategy to uh, you know, bring in uh, students

122early, get them into the system, build relationships with them, get support around them and and maintain them as as a consideration for increasing enrollment. That's a very common strategy being discussed right now. Um what that looks like relative to uh can it fit in one building? Which building would it fit in? That I think is dependent on >> So it is inclusive in that. Okay. >> Y certainly Lee feel free to >> Yep. You're right on the >> So that transition >> possibly >> if you choose to be in the 4K model. Yeah. I mean that's always the variable. >> Correct. here is is that still an option for families? And so >> y >> I think um >> what's what I'm hearing in the community is um ideas for elementary and middle. Where where

123is the high school >> like that? [clears throat] It feels like it dropped off of discussion and I don't think it did but when you see a piece of paper like this >> Y >> can can you respond to that? Yeah. So, right out of the gates, the the conversations were starting with grade configuration because we only have one high school and right now it's serving the quantity of students we have in that building, right? Um, so the discussion would be are we comfortable moving eighth grade to that high school or seventh and eighth grade to that. So, it's more of a grade configuration discussion to start than a capacity discussion. Right? The goal right now is we have more square footage than we need. So if if that's the case, my response would be,

124oh, we got to move more students to our one high school we have, which is more of an educational delivery discussion than it is a ideal capacity. It'd be different if we had two high schools, right? Or one we were busting at the seams of or something, right? That's a very different conversation. So it's not to say that, you know, we didn't dialogue about that or that that shouldn't be a part of the solution. I think um again tried really hard not to talk architecture, right? I tried really hard when the group brought it up to facilitate good discussion, document it, but not like drive towards what the architectural solution was. But there was a lot of dialogue about the high school and what does that look like and what does it look like long

125term. I think as a part of the recommendation you see here at the bottom like continue a study of what the right long-term solution is for middle school. To me, all considerations should be on the table, including like is the high school serving the high school appropriately and and is that not maybe a part of the discussion as a whole? >> And then what about some of our innovative school pieces? Was that >> discussion? >> Yeah. So, uh, again, the the goal in working with the the greatest quantity of students was to work with kind of our core kindergarten through 8th grade to be sure, again, we're looking at the mass square footage. U, we did take into consideration as we looked at quantity of spaces and buildings, making sure we maintained space for special

126ed and for music and art. Again, we had said one of our biggest strengths was music and art. And so, we had to be sure we're not losing or or punching that space. So, we did acknowledge that as a as a part of making sure whatever this smaller version of who we are still maintains space for that. Um, but again, what that looks like from a a special ed standpoint, I would say contemporary special ed spaces, contemporary practices around how we're supporting that population, uh, probably look different from how we have the space to support that today and should be a part of whatever the solution looks like uh, into individual building. I I would say the uh outcome in my experience out of something like this would be to then acknowledge okay you know

127not to jump ahead but if the [clears throat] study were to continue which of the buildings are we holding on to how do those buildings serve the curriculum delivery not just quantity of students but the populations we're serving. Um some of those buildings are older some are younger they have different dollar amounts associated with maintain all those things need to be taken into account. uh again trying really hard with a lot of really dedicated folks in the community to facilitate a lot of good conversation to get to the point to set us up for helping answer that level of detail I think in our next questions >> you've done all the shovel work. I mean I I really appreciate >> I just want you know getting to this point. >> Yeah. And I just want

128to reiterate um I'd always said it was hard work at the outset, but now you really see that it indeed was and the level of uh depth that that we went into in terms of the learning and the exercises that Mike created to get us to where these are. Um, I I I do want to go back to and I and I do like the goal of a our thriving district for both of these groups was to have really great facilities. And so there's a reason that this is still called a facility advisory committee. I I know it doesn't this isn't coming with a referendum attached, but quite frankly, we have to solve for X before we solve for Y. And this means putting our district in a position to sustain itself. And I think

129we have to go back and talk about the reasons why. And I know it automatically comes to people's minds as we're declining in enrollment. But as Mike talked about, the driving force behind that decline is dollars and cents. And we know that we have three things in this district for resources. People, money, and time. And it's our job to make sure we maximize and optimize people, money, and time into student learning and achievement and their experiences here. And in order for us to maintain the high level of opportunities and programs that we offer kids at every one of their levels in this very comprehensive district, we have to look ahead. And in order to do that, we have to rightsize ourselves so that we can maintain those programs for our kids and high quality staff.

130And I mean, these are the reasons we're here. And those things get lost in this conversation. They're the output of why we have to do hard things. And um you know, and I've heard people say, "Well, we should have done this." Like, let's leave all that aside and let's just say we looked at this together. And this is the thing. We're united as ships. We looked at it together. We we involved our community. We involved our stakeholders in in this district. Um, and you know, for some from someone who really I mean, I took a backseat in most of this. I observed and I was there to answer questions. Um, but from a process standpoint, I am very very proud of what these groups did. Um, I bring these I'm kind of like walking into

131my team, right, and going, well, this is what they're thinking. And, you know, the team of experts say, "This is this is really good stuff." And so, you know, like all along the way, um, they did their homework, they worked hard, they were very re The other thing, too, is we're talking about these backgrounds that you see up on this board. The the high level of respect and listening and, you know, seeking to understand that they distributed or displayed during this was was just incredible. So again, I thank Mike, all the team members to um bring us where we are today because it truly was very impressive as a bystander. >> I I'll echo those thanks. I'll give a lot of the thanks to the people who served on the committee because you must have

132went through something with him leading you >> through a lot of steps and and and believe me, we appreciate that. That was one of the concerns of the board during this process that it couldn't just be making decisions at this level and forgetting the community. >> So you guys step forward to help us make those decisions. One [clears throat] thing we have to understand is that we are one of it's seven, eight or nine counties in the state of Wisconsin that has lost population since 1970. And I don't know why that is, but but our population is down and everybody else is growing. So, as a district, we have to provide the best we can to get the children that are here, the students that are here interested in in the Manito public schools. And

133I think some of the things we talked about tonight in in in be them new buildings or renovation to old buildings and and getting right sized and doing things are processes that can help us become that district that people choose to come to again. Um hoping [snorts] it's 4K, maybe it's 3K, who knows? And and we might have room to start something like that. But those kind of things are the innovative things that I I hope the board will look at. But the thank you has to go to the people who step forward. I mean, you guys gave up your time to help out and do this and I truly truly appreciate that, Keith. >> Yeah, I just to reiterate that I am completely blown away by the work that you people have done. >>

134This is outstanding information, more than more than I ever expected. And I think the board this is something that we have asked for for two administrations and and we finally have it from the community. This is what we've looked for. So, thank you. Thank you all for a tremendous amount of work and this outstanding bit of information. So with that being said, I make a motion to direct the superintendent administr administrative team of the Manro public school district to take the recommendations brought forth by our staff and community facility advisory committee and develop detailed plans and recommendations to be presented to the board of education at a special board meeting on Tuesday, November 25th, 2025. You want me to read it again? >> Do I have a second? [laughter] >> Would you like me to

135read the second? >> Do you have it memorized? [laughter] >> Energy. [laughter] >> Um Chris, you have a statement or do you want to wait till this is voted on? >> Well, I I have one about this too now. So now I've got two. So >> Okay. Um >> you're ready to start discussion on this. I'll wait. >> So is there any Is there any discussion on the administration coming up with a plan? >> Is there a second? >> We had a second, didn't we? >> Oh, yes. >> Yeah. Discussion. >> I I I think that's exactly what we expect them to do. Um, however, I'm a little concerned here about the timeline when the board hasn't had time to process this and then come back and say our whatabouts. is an absolutely I want

136you to understand this is in complete deference to you. We need to look it over. We need to think it over and then we need to say what about for example I as everybody who's been listening to me for two years knows I would love us to start our preschool stuff at age three. What would that look like if we say we want to know how that's going to look? We need to have those per. So we need to have those discussions as a board, I think, before we ask that they start because I don't want them to build one thing for us and then we go, well, what about this? What about this? What about that? So, so I just want to make sure we don't have our district management team spinning wheels. >>

137But you're taking we're taking a study and we're discussing it as a board with administration. So will we get that input >> that you're asking for through >> through the process process >> I'm asking and and and also in terms of timeline I'll remind the group that our goal was to be done by the calendar year with recommendations we're clearly ahead of schedule which means we have time so in terms of us coming up with some recommendations that reinforce these okay >> I think it can derive from that special meeting where there's conversations about what are we missing? Uh what other things do we want to know more about? Because then there's also time from that meeting right before Thanksgiving until our next regularly scheduled board meeting, which I think is December 9th. So that

138that would give opportunities for those types of things to be investigated, created, and data brought back for the board at that time. So I think we're good about we're pretty good on time uh for that dialogue. >> Okay. I think the timeline that that stated draws us to some kind of conclusion that we have to we have to have these kind of discussions and we just can't keep the labor in the point. We have to have a a definitive timeline to really discuss these options to get a final recommendation. So that's all that timeline is on there for >> and just want to make sure we also capture public input >> before. So it sounds like the timeline will still accommodate that correct because we'll have the public input session >> and if we need

139to move that timeline we can move that timeline. It's just right now it's a parameter >> it in my head and I might be wrong. It's getting this started and getting the process. We have an outline what they came up with some very good recommendations. We may have that discussion and not agree with some things, but at least now we're talking about it and there's a plan rather than just where we were. So, I >> if I can share just on public input because I know that that's definitely something um that you know these folks spent time and effort studying and and coming up with these recommendations. Now it's our time to share with our community and then allow for questions, comments, and concerns that they may have to be part of this process. And

140those are already built in. So on Tuesday, next week, Tuesday, here at 6:00, we're holding a meeting for anyone who wants to come. We'll do an a bridged version of this and then ask for questions, comments, and concerns. Um, and then post that, uh, you know, it's out there. We have a regular board meeting in November which allows for public comment. And then we also um you know we'll have opportunities post the plan is already to schedule another public information once we come in with the detailed recommendations because people will likely have feedback and questions about that too. So there is going to be a ton of dialogue that will continue to happen in the community. >> Any other discussion on the motion to get this process officially started? >> Yeah. Read the motion again.

141>> [laughter] >> Carrie, I knew you were here. We go. Um, I move to direct the superintendent and the administrative team of the Manto Public School District to take the recommendations brought forth by the staff and the community facilities advisory committees and develop detailed plans or recommendations to be presented to the board of education at a special board meeting on Tuesday, November 25th, 2025. >> Got it. Because what else would you want to do two days before Thanksgiving? [laughter] >> All righty. Any other discussion? >> All those in favor of the motion say I. >> Oppos say nay. >> I I'm just I'm silence is what the group decides. Okay with me. >> Okay. So So is that enough? Is that a Okay. >> That's silence. Silence is ascent. That's an official. [cough] I'm just

142saying. >> All right. Okay. Yes, [clears throat] Chris. >> Yes. Now, what I wanted to say before somebody moved something, um, this is exactly exactly what we needed. Year and a half ago, we knew number one, we had to do triage because >> the buildings are bleeding. Okay? So that's why we went out and got money to do triage to try and save the buildings on an interim step. We also clearly foresaw then first we need to figure out what we're going to do at the grade schools, then the junior highs, then the high school. So this really gets us I I'm super pleased that we're two steps down the line. >> Yeah. >> With the grade schools and the junior highs. So that's just great. That really was what we were looking to have

143so that we could get moving in the next year. >> Thank you. Anybody else? >> One more thank you to everybody sitting in the audience >> and those watching. Thank you. >> Thank you. [clears throat] >> Nice job you guys. [applause] >> Well, if I look at the agenda, there is nothing else. >> I have a motion to adjourn. [clears throat] Just before we do that, be >> Yes. >> You were ringing off some dates at the beginning. I think one of them might have been wrong. >> Yeah. >> So, just for the record, can we clarify? >> Hang on. >> I haven't. >> It was like a date. >> I think November might have been the wrong >> It's November 11th. The regular board meeting is November 11th. >> I'm sorry. >> Had a

144little dyslexia. >> We can have committee meetings, >> right? So, November 11th is public input. I can do >> that. That's up to the chairs. >> I [clears throat] don't have anything to do with that. >> That's why I'm >> Are we having Are we having a routine committee meetings on the 4th? >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Sure. >> Committee meetings. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> At their normal time. >> Let's just do it. >> These will be at 5:00. >> Anything else? >> Is there a motion to adjourn? So moved. >> Mr. Bowman. [laughter] A second. >> Let it die for one of a second. >> Second by Shaw. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. Say nay. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your service. You're >> a