December 8, 2025 School Board Meeting

001The meeting will now come to order. Do a roll call. Mr. Prost >> here. >> Mrs. Brunette here. >> Mr. Cowley here. >> Mr. Guanic here. Mr. Hirs here. >> M. Johnson here. >> And I am here. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance led by Mrs. Keller. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right, [laughter] I think that was the point. Curveball right everybody on their toes. >> The agenda was posted throughout the district according to schoolboard policy, published as a legal ad in the Superior Telegram, and posted on the district web page. A meeting notice was sent to the connection for publication. Uh, item three, approval of

002the December 8th, 2025 agenda for a motion and a second if I could. >> I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. >> Oh, who's doing that? >> Brock says yeah. >> Yeah. >> All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Uh, anybody opposed? Motion passes. Item four, the consent agenda, uh, the November 10th, 2025 regular school board meeting minutes. Uh, I would trust that you guys took a peek at that. If you had any questions, we'd go from there. Uh, item B, treasures report, Mr. Cowi. >> All right. In the, uh, general fund account on November 30th, 2025, there was a balance of 3,133,643.18 in cash and investments. Receipts since the 1st of December not included in the November 30 balance are1,422,72359 and the dispersements from tonight's December 8th board meeting total

00394,85287. In the flexible spending account on November 30th, 2025, there was a balance of $26,892.92 in cash and investments. In health's reimbursement account on November 30th, 2025, there was balance of $3,7556 in cash and investments. In the debt service fund, on November 30th, 2025, there was a balance of $67,59 in cash and investments. Detailed report on fund activities included in the financial statements. >> Thank you, sir. Uh, item C, payment of invoices. Uh, also I would trust that you all took an opportunity to read that and if you had questions you directed them toward Mr. Fetchel carter unless anybody has any thing they'd like to talk about tonight regarding that. All right, excuse [clears throat] me. Item D, resignations, employment and retirement. Mr. Fetcher, we have uh one resignation. Um, Tammy Anderson was an NES

004kitchen aid. So, um, she is our only resignation. We've actually filled the position already. This is just making it official through the board. No other new employments, internal transfers, or retirements to talk about. >> Do we not have to talk about the hire of that said person? >> We actually already did it, so it just became official. >> Oh, we brought this one. It was a personal matter that she needed. So, >> all right. Uh item five uh approval items. Uh item A, intra district transfer request. Um this will be you Mr. Fetch Cutter, but I would trust that everybody had an opportunity to read the letter. So I believe parents here. >> Hi guys. >> Hello. Thank you very much. So we do have an interd district transfer for our policy. The parent provides

005some written information as to their justification. Um and that is in the board packet. Uh the we we've talked educationally as a team. Um our recommendation would be to approve this transfer from for two students from IRS to NES. Um we're going to make this effective immediately or after the holiday break you want to start. >> Our hope would be to delay a little bit because Iron Christmas is tomorrow. [laughter] >> He's a speaking part. really excited. >> You got to choose one school or the other, >> right? >> Uh so obviously we need your approval uh to move forward. So then we identify classes, do tours and then take the next steps to set up that transfer over. It does take us a little bit of time because we have to transfer information on

006stuff like that. >> The other thing too I know always pops up in these is questions around transportation. I think parents well aware that transportation falls within their purview um and not the district with this particular case. So >> that works out well for you. >> What does this mean? >> Transportation. >> Okay. Transportation meaning >> getting your students to school. >> So I'm responsible for transportation >> and they cannot ride the bus. Well, we wouldn't bring them from Iron River to NES. We would potentially work with, as we've done in the past, of some kind of pickup point that's closest to an existing route. >> Oh, yes. >> That we've done. So, >> yes, correct. >> I've talked to >> Yep. We're aware of that. So, transportation logistics are are taken care of. >>

007Any other discussion from the board? Any other questions? The only other question I have is so there's two children. >> Yes. >> What are the ages or grades that those children are in? >> Grade four or grade two. >> Grade four and grade two, >> which I understand if they're siblings, it's nice to have them in the same buildings. >> Anything else from the board? Uh, with that being the case, I would entertain a motion and a second for the interd district transfer. >> I make a motion to approve the intrad district intra district transfer request. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say I. >> Anybody opposed? >> Motion passes. [clears throat] Thank you very much for your time to write the letter and getting it

008sent in and going through the process and working with Mr. Larby and everybody to help it out. So, I hope it is a good positive thing. Y you're welcome to stay if you wish. Otherwise, you can leave if you want. No, no judgment here. >> Uh item B, a request from Mrs. Meldy, the Northwestern Middle School student council advisor and student council representatives plan to attend an experience day on Friday, February 20th, 2026. >> Well, you look very dapper, young man. I [laughter] >> Thank you. >> You have a choir concert this evening? >> Uh, no. >> Oh, you just look that good. >> Uh, yes. [clears throat and laughter] >> All right. >> Turn it off. All right. >> Turn it off. >> Good evening. My name is Mike Svin and I am the

009NMS student council president. >> Hello, I am Bailey Mily, the student council secretary. I am Malia Garrison, a career representative. Hi, I am Eva Thorson, student council treasurer. This is Ramsay Robinson and Ayanna Smith, our social media coordinators, taking some pictures with student council. Uh we have come to ask for the school board's approval for the Northwestern Middle School's experience day all school activity which will take place on February 20th, 2026. This event has been taking place since during the 1990s is a Northwestern Middle School tradition. >> Experience Day is a fun day where sixth, seventh, and eighth graders get the chance to try new and exciting things with their fellow classmates and teachers. This year we have eight choices for kids to choose from. This year's choices include skiing and snowboarding at Spir Mountain,

010ice fishing in Iron River, Adventure Zone, bowling with skater, Superior YMCA with roller skating, and level of game center with roller skate, elite sports complex with adventure zone, and adventure zone with the maritime museum. We feel that students will enjoy the fun activities. >> We will explain how these activities work. First, there is Spirit Mountain, which is an all day event where you can snowboard or downhill ski. There is a concession stand that has food and drinks for sale. There is a day of swimming and gymnasium space at the YMCA in Superior. Students will then head to a World of Wheels to roller skate. They will stop at a local fast food restaurant. >> Students can also go ice fishing in River all day. Students who choose this option will have the whole day to

011go ice fishing and eat snacks from the nearby snack store. Adventures on in the loop has opened its doors for us again. Students will play be active playing laser tech, hitting a batty cage, and playing mini golf for most of the day. We also have added a day of bowling at Incline Station and roller skating at the World of Wheels. Another option is Level of Game Center in Superior where students can enjoy a morning of card games and then join other kids in roller skating. All of these activities are very fun and we know students will enjoy themselves no matter which one they pick. We added two new choices this year. A morning spent at Elite Sports Complex in Duth playing pickle ball, softball cages, playing games on indoor turf, and the afternoon and lunch

012at Adventure Zone. Our our final option is Adventure Zone in the morning, then walking to the Maritime Museum in Canal Park to learn about the shipping history of the course. This year's price will be 20 to $25 for students. If the student can't pay, no worries, as arrangements are made to the student council. We also received a donation from Northwestern Tigers Educational Foundation help with payments for students and families that are in financial hardships. It is important that all students can attend and enjoy socializing with their friends and making new friends. We are kindly asking that the district help us again with the bus transportation. Costa will range from 2,500 to 3,500. We as Northwestern Middle School student council representatives strongly believe that this year is a great opportunity to help our local businesses and

013show them the first class behavior that our student body displays in and out of the classroom. We would appreciate the school board of approval of this project. Thank you. Do you have any questions? >> What's the date of it? >> Um it is on February 20th, 2026. >> Do you have like a backup date? because I know there's been times in the past when we've had weather issues that have affected it. >> Of course, >> Miss Mely's talked to Mother Nature. It's going to be a beautiful day. >> Okay. >> Yes. You know, yeah, it would most likely be the following Friday we would shoot for, but with all the logistics and transportation, it's >> might not be all eight options. >> Yeah. And some of our options too, we have to have at least

01415 kids to run them. You know, there's a few that won't all most likely we put them out there, but we have to have enough kids for transportation to make it worth it to take a staff member from another area. So, >> well, let's hope for good weather. >> Uh, you have a question regarding the busing logistics. I know we don't have an overabundance of drivers. Uh, is there any concerns with how we're going to manage that part of it? I can tackle this one if you want, Miss Meldy. That would be awesome. [laughter] Go for it. >> Um, these are daytime events, so thankfully we have drivers that they are paid, but are are willing to schedule um to take kids to places A, B, C, and D throughout the throughout the day. And

015then they of course are back before the end of the day. So our transportation logistics, >> it'll be between the routes. Yeah, between the routes get kids in and then for the most part buses stay there and you guys load pretty pretty early on in the day if I remember right >> between 8:30 and 9 depending on when the business will open for us. A lot of them open special for us early so it's worked well and Mr. Amos and the transportation team I think see the the utility in this and it's it's usually a pretty good trip for the drivers too. So I don't anticipate issues there. It it appears as though Adventure Zone has lots of Adventure Zone seems to be a starting or ending point for a lot of this to help

016break up the day. Am I >> Yeah, we used to only offer it as one full day activity. They go to Adventure Zone all day, but from feedback from some of the kids, it gets to be a long time depending on the amount of kids there. It's just a lot. Um, so I had some eighth graders this year that asked if we could try this elite sports complex. It's a new place in Garfield for the morning. And then we also had um a staff member who said, "Can you know morning at Adventure Zone?" And then when they start getting warm, we could take a handful of them if they choose to just walk to the Maritime Museum and kind of go through that. Yeah. Birthday. >> Good idea. >> So, and they're very Adventure Zone

017can host a lot of people, too. Some of our other places that we go can't I have caps on the amount of kids I can send places. [laughter] >> And the YMCA, is that new this year? Did you previously go down to link? >> We went to Link years, probably a decade ago. >> It's been a while. YMCA, we've worked for the last three three or four years. >> Okay. >> Um and they give us they've been very nice with their pricing. They just give us a flat price >> for the morning. So, >> all right. I I mean, I know I had three kids already go through this and a fourth in there and a couple coming behind. So, uh I I've always as a parent in the district liked to be able to

018uh see that this was offered for the kids from that aspect. So, >> uh were there any other questions for these uh young folks up front? >> Nice presentation. >> Very nice presentation. >> Appreciate it. With that being the case, then I would uh entertain a motion and a second. >> I'll make that motion to approve the experience in >> I'll second it. >> We have a motion and a second. Uh all those in favor, please say I. >> Anybody opposed? Motion passes. Thank you very much. And I certainly hope you all have a lovely day. >> Thank you. >> Good job. >> Thanks for coming. >> [laughter] >> Link's been around for 10 years. >> Yeah, it has been. [clears throat] >> All right. Item C. Request for Mr. Noose for he and two

019students to attend the halftime leadership conference in Stevens Point, January 1617, 2026. So, hi. I'm Evan Anderson and I'm the vice president of the >> I'm the president. I'm Isaac Fuller. So, we're here to ask permission to go to Stevens Point, Wisconsin on January 16th through the 17th for um a halftime leadership conference. The conference is basically to help us garner a better uh competition season and help the help us get ideas and connect with other FFA groups to make our second half of the FFA year like just better overall. >> Yeah. I don't know what else to tackle the logistics. >> [laughter] >> Uh so it's a Friday Saturday conference down to Stevens Point. Uh we'd leave here about 8 o'clock right at the start of the school day. Um taking likely the the

020Camry, not one of the bands, which is just the three of us. Um down to Steven's Point. There's usually some sort of community service project. Uh in the past, it's been um like a winter coat hat on mittens drive. So, we usually stop somewhere along the way at a Target or Walmart and I have the kids pick out some things to pick up for their drive down there and then uh the conference will start in the afternoon carries in through the evening and then picks up then the following morning and then we'll be back. Uh usually conference ends about 3:00 in the afternoon. We're back here then that Saturday evening. So, it's a one school day and then Saturday. Any questions? >> What is halftime leadership? That's not like a halftime of a football game

021or [laughter] >> it's like halftime of the FFA. >> Yeah. The school year it's it's always in January. It's right around that semester change. Um there at least that's my understanding of the name, but I guess I don't actually know the official reasons why it's called halftime. It's >> It'll be full-time learning. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> Halime conference full time, >> right? Exactly. Yeah. I don't uh that's a good question. >> Any others? Well, then I would entertain a motion in a second. >> I'll make a motion to approve the request by Mr. Nus to go to Stevens Point. >> Seconded. >> We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Anybody opposed? Motion passes. have yourselves a [snorts] good time in Steven's Point. >> Thank you

022all very much. >> Uh item D, Essential Essentia virtual access. I'm going to hand this over to you, Mr. Fetch Patter. >> Yep. Um in the board enhancement there. So, um I'll let Mr. Larby get set up because he's been working with working on this with this, but uh we'll do a little video presentation. Um for the last six, eight weeks, I believe roughly. It's been it's been a while. We've kind of worked behind the scenes and we I mean myself, Mr. Larby, um and our district nurse Christian Clemer kind of meeting with the essentia health staff to look at an new possibility for our students and our parents. And uh we'll talk through this, but the important pieces are more of a teleaalth program or opportunity for our students. We're going to look to

023start small, strictly at the high school level, strictly two days a week, but it'd be something that our nurse here would oversee. But it the intent of it really if you look at the whole process is to try to give an opportunity for our parents to get virtual appointments. It's kind of an you know becoming more and more of a popular way to get care. Um from a school district standpoint it's nice to keep students in school when we can. We know that if we have to go to DUTH typically it's going to be at least a half a day outside of school um if not more. So I'm going to turn over to Mr. Lar here to kind of talk through the the particulars of it, but we we're excited potentially to bring this

024opportunity to Northwestern um as a a way to keep students in school and and hopefully help parents with some of the logistics and keep them working and and do those pieces there, too. So, >> absolutely. Um so, as uh Mr. Fresh cutter said there's uh some some good that came out of uh the pandemic and when we kind of got locked down all of a sudden we started to be able to do things in more of a teleaalth manner and some of those things have stuck. So um I'm happy to be able to bring this forward. Um this is years worth of work from our folks at Ascension. Um so shout out to them um because they launched this program. They developed it, launched it in another school district and then we're excited to bring

025it to us. Um, so I've been working uh with them, Kristen Clemer, our district nurse, and Britney Burhans, our nurse here at the high school, in order to start putting this in place. Um, we developed a a website. This is not published yet, so it's not out there for the public. Um, but this is modeled off of what Esia had built with another district and it provides a way that parents can learn a little bit about it. This is something that would be launched on our website. But then it also gives our families access into where they would gather documents in order to learn about it, but also to schedule appointments um within our nurse um that would then allow them to access a designated place and technology at the school. So, as Mr. Fletcher

026cutter had said, families would be able to keep their students here to be able to do a telealth uh appointment in a confidential location within the building. So as a parent with working in Duth, you would not have to leave work, drive out here, pick a student up, commute back to the hospital, superior duth, and then come back. Um, so this keeps our kids in the classroom to the greatest extent possible. Um, and our nursing staff are very excited to be able to do this because they can also find needs, work with families, and then find solutions for that while keeping kids here. So, um, as as I said, this isn't published, so I'm not able to share this with board members or community members yet, but I'm hopeful that after, uh, gaining approval, we

027can move quickly and get this out to our students and our families. Um, there is a two-minute video that was developed by, um, Essential Health, I would like to show. Um, so I'm going to broaden this and then, uh, play. Hopefully, our technology is going to work. >> It worked beforehand, so it's going to work now. >> It's I don't want to jinx it. and a recast. Um, so again, this is from our our folks. >> Welcome to our schoolcentric program where your child's health and education are our top priorities. In partnership with Essentia Health, we're proud to introduce our new teleaalth initiative designed to bring quality health care right to your school's doorstep. Imagine health care visits that are convenient, comprehensive, and conducted in a familiar setting right on school grounds. This collaboration streamlines

028access to health care professionals without having to miss valuable class time or endure long waits in clinics. Through this teleaalth program, we connect students with licensed healthcare providers from Essentia Health via secure video conferencing. Whether it's a routine checkup, mental health support, or managing chronic conditions, our services cover a broad spectrum of needs. With parental consent, your child can receive medical assessments, consultations, and follow-up care, all without leaving the school. This initiative not only eases the logistics for parents and guardians, but also ensures that students maintain better health, allowing them to focus on learning and growth. Our program is backed by Essentia Health's extensive network of expert medical professionals, ensuring your child gets the highest level of care. With teleaalth, students can communicate comfortably and securely with doctors and nurses who are equipped with the

029latest tools and technology. Each teleaalth visit is conducted with privacy and confidentiality, adhering to all HIPPA regulations to protect your child's personal health information. Participating in a telealth visit is simple. Our school staff is trained to assist students with the setup, ensuring smooth and effective communication with healthcare providers. For families, it means fewer missed work hours and less travel while still being closely involved in their child's health decisions. We're excited to bring this program to your school and empower students to take charge of their health and wellness. Thank you for partnering with us and Essentia Health in this initiative which prioritizes the well-being and academic success of your child. Together, we are nurturing a healthier, happier learning environment where health and education go hand in hand. Welcome to a new era of school-based health care

030where teleaalth makes quality care accessible and convenient for everyone involved. [cough] uh as I shift back on screens as shared uh our hope is to start small and begin with the high school level and then if we uh are able to and it is uh functional and working well then we can expand to younger grades um and and obviously Mrs. Craig and I work together on that with Mrs. Clemer as well. Um, as also shared, the the initiative is to get more access for our students and our families while keeping kids in school. Um, the way this could work, and we kind of piloted it last week, as you can see, there's a calendar tab at the top. As a family member, I can, you know, feel a phone call from the school or, you

031know, have a child that maybe went to school and now they're not feeling well and I'm talking to my my child. I can go through Essentials app. I can look at, okay, well, can I schedule an appointment? If I'm looking at that on my phone, I can also go on the calendar here and I can see, well, the room that is designated for this, the technology that's designated is open at 10:00 a.m. and I can schedule that appointment. So, as a family, you can click on calendar. It'll pop up all the available times. You click on that time and then the student is able to reserve that. It's confidential. The only person that can see that is Mrs. Burhans and Mrs. Cleur. They're the only ones that are knowledgeable of who the student is. And

032then they also are able to get a reminder um ahead of time so they can assist if need be. And then on the other side of that, the family, whoever schedules it, um I scheduled one just as a pilot. Um I got a reminder uh day before of my appointment and I also got a reminder a half hour before. So >> text >> uh via email. Good question. Uh we tried to stay away from cellular just from the standpoint of being inside the building. Sometimes that's hard. Um, so we've tried to work through the email system. Good question. Um, so that scheduling piece could be done uh with the family or as I said, if Mrs. Burhanss had a situation, she contacted the family. If it was possible, she'd be able to work through um

033the provider and the parent to schedule that appointment as needed. So >> I think that's an important point just to reiterate is that the parent is the one scheduling said meeting. We are not as a school district, nor do we want to. >> Yep. It's not our lane. That would be a family decision and Mrs. Burhanss would work with families here at the high school or Mrs. Clemer as a district nurse to see if that's an option that they would want to pursue. >> And in turn, we're not financially responsible for any services that provided me, you know, through an insurance program. Really, our role is to try to provide a venue and then in this case, Miss Bhanss would be be the one making sure student A can get to venue A to to

034hit the appointment up. So, >> do they need a like a note or like if if they have an appointment scheduled, how is that communicated with the school? >> Uh, so, um, the way it's set that it's set up right now, so when I scheduled like a demo appointment, it also emailed the two of them. So, they got a notification that, you know, Brad Larby had an appointment at 10:00 a.m. It was this morning. Um, I missed it. Um, but they they get that notification as well. So the two of them would know that there is an appointment um for anything that was prescheduled. If it happened to be a we need it now type like a child comes down and it's oh you might have pink eye um you know we're going to work

035with Mrs. Burhands to set that appointment up and parent it um so that then the family can have the child stay here. >> Mrs. Burhanss would be the one kind of writing the pass if it's second block. >> Correct. Yep. I got to get them out of class XYZ to come down to my office and then in turn get them to where they need to go. >> So this web page here is this on our would this be on our school website? >> Correct. >> Yep. This would be linked under um I believe family is what Mr. Hson had suggested. >> I think it's also important for the board to know that Mr. Larry and myself have had conversations. We'd be more than willing to open this up to other providers. So Essentia Health is

036kind of, you know, we understand that there's more providers in here, but Essential Health is really really they approached us and said, "We've started to get this off the ground. We think it's a neat opportunity for you as a district." Um, one of the parents or one of the people behind this is a parent for a student here. Um, has footprint within our district and um, again, our main role is to provide the space and place. Parents are still in charge of setting up appointments. I can't reiterate that enough. our role in the school district is just trying to help the student get to set place uh you know in front of the computer screen to to get in front of >> so if I understand you correctly [clears throat] when the parent sets up

037that appointment they're also going to be setting up whether it be insurance or their HSA card or something like that >> you know >> yep that's all through their medical provider uh we're simply the host we're giving the child access to a room that's secure and confidential and also to dependable Wi-Fi uh and a laptop that's designated support it. >> Can the parent also participate in like a three-way remove that thing? >> Yes. Uh that's outside the scope of my knowledge, but anyone that's uh familiar with my chart, um I believe the way you set it up is the child would get an email u giving them the appointment and then the parent can be added in as well, whether it be via email or uh by cell phone. defer to >> yeah you just

038log in with my chart give proxy access that you can join there >> so it can be a three-way type conversation >> yeah because that was I mean our biggest concern is making sure that we as a school are not facilitating appointments that parents don't know about that's I'm sure a concern at this table for everybody >> the role of Mrs. burands would to get be to get the child to the uh designated location, help them log in if need be, and then she would step out, the family and the physician, the student can have that meeting. It's confidential. Um, and then log out and go back to class. >> I just have one little typo here. It says or said Amanda Reed, administrator at Essential Health, Northwestern. It should say administrator Essential Health, Dear

039River. Yeah, I see what you're saying there. >> Yeah, >> Deer River. Yeah, you guys I don't think Deer River mind us saying it. We've talked to them. They're correct. They're, you know, >> the first district in our area at least that I'm aware of that has done this. >> Uh and and I can also add Superior is is working hand in hand with us. We've been in the same meetings every Tuesday. Uh so Superior Health team is working which happens to be Mrs. Larby has worked closely with essential to to roll this out in their district as well. I wonder if there's going to be a point where either parents come to us or we want to think about if this goes well what if there's a provider we're not working with who we

040said you know parent comes hey my son's a tell me at 10:00 can you give him a romance screen and >> so yeah this would be driven off of said provider contacting us what kind of what the best way to put it we've done this a lot for mental health we become what's called a branch office essentially >> okay >> um and there's some memorandum of understanding some kind of agreements there that we would have to have from a procedural standpoint before we would do that. >> Okay. >> Um and that's not only to I'm assuming that the provider on the other end would like that as well because there are just some procedural things that we want to make sure we're good on. The reason why we're bringing this to the board obviously this

041would be new. We want the board to approve this. That is our recommendation. We think this can be a good thing, but we are trying to start small and and see where it goes and then re-evaluate as it gets off the ground to see if it is going to expand to different providers different days of the week and what that may or may not look like. >> Steve, I think you bring up a very important point to validate. We have had these working agreements with several mental health providers, okay? Whether it be through teleaalth uh or whether it be through in person, we provide a safe place. They manage all of the paperwork on that side and all of the insurance information. We simply are providing a safe place and as Cody alluded to, we

042have a memorandum of understanding and say, "Here's our role. Here's your role." And it it has worked. So, I've been here eight years. It's worked very well. >> How how fast can you get an appointment at something like this? >> Uh, well, I'll be honest. Mrs. Lar usually schedules all those appointments. >> Well, I mean, the the only reason I ask is is I mean from a tella health point of view I know we've talked about it with the >> staff >> I mean with the staff and and I I know from when we were going through the health insurance um debacle probably [laughter] the easiest way to call that but uh they they mentioned tellahalth and being able to use that and is is there any way that this I mean deer river is

043currently doing this and you're they're expanding into other stuff and currently this is a student only type thing, but are they is there the ability to expand it? Is there even a need to expand it to staff to >> uh our hope and ambition is to include staff in this um simply because it's dependable Wi-Fi and it's a secure location. So, if we had a staff member, I'll just say at the high school because logistically it's probably easier um they could schedule in the same way. They could come down to Britney or they could go on the website and they could click schedule the time as long as that time is is able to be scheduled with uh Essentia um and then they'd be able to use that that location for the same thing >>

044for their own. >> We can do it now. We we've had staff members that have on their prep said, you know what, I gota I I sign up for a virt my my experience is you can sign up for a virtual appointment pretty quick. >> Yeah. I guess that's ultimately I think what I was trying to ask because I mean if you can keep a keep a student in the school as well as keeping a an instructor or a staff member in the school for as much as I think hey I'm going to go to the doctor being gone all day Friday isn't a bad thing either [laughter] >> but I I I completely get it having to not have to have that as the uh as have that as an opportunity to be able

045to do that and I know like you said if we're current currently doing it you may not have to you So yeah, like the student technology, the Chromebooks that they have, it's paired down for a reason. This necessarily would not work on those platforms because we've had to pair it down. This would be a separate device that's overseen by the nursing staff. Um different network to allow some of the the the ability because our student networks are pretty locked down or they're not when they're with us talking to the outside world too much. Um, but this to me I think to put it out there it seems like a no-brainer. We want to try to get it off the ground. We're going to start small, but it's just an opportunity to we believe again reiterating

046that this is through parents. Our role is just simply trying to facilitate an appointment which helps keep students in school which is what we like. Um, it opens up another opportunity for parents if they wish to, you know, we're all busy, stay at their jobs and still try to get some of the medical stuff that they need. This isn't the end all beall of everything. You know, they'll tell you if they can do a virtual appointment or not. And if they can say you got to be seen, then you got to be seen. We can't, >> you know, change that. >> What if a student had a more in-depth visit if the parent wanted to come here and sit with them and be with them? Absolutely. >> I think we'd facilitate that. No problem. >>

047Yep. We could facilitate it. It's it's a private setting. Um so if the family wanted to be part of that, Absolutely. >> Where is that? Uh so our where Mrs. Cole's office is our our uh guidance office. It's a office within that area. So easy accessibility. Our nurse can access it. Students can get in without any uh concern about where >> it's a nice service. How how do you plan to roll this information out? >> Uh great question. So obviously needing your uh blessing on it and then we want to start small sharing this video with families. Um, we have a a press release, if you will, that um, Essential Health has helped us us to be able to form uh, and kind of come together based off of Deer Rivers um, documentation. So, we'll

048be able to get that out. >> It'd be a Skyler type message. So, just again, it's important to note our high school staff is where our high school students, excuse me, is where we want to start. Okay. >> And also informing our high school staff so they know that this is an an addition within their building. Uh you had mentioned um the family makes the appointment and somebody within the district gets a pass or something like that. >> They get a notification uh to their email. >> You said I thought you said there was a district employee that helped facilitate getting them >> correct. U so Mrs. Burhans is our nurse here at school. So I guess a question that I have is if we start small and she has to deal with some form

049of administrative work for that >> um and this continues to grow. Does that turn into too much for her to continue her current duties and add to >> yes >> that and now and now does it have a financial burden to the district? >> And that that's the question that I don't have an answer to. What I will say is that we control this to say this is the capacity that we have >> um and this is the capacity that we can do >> and I can share Mrs. Clemer and Mrs. Bhance and I have sat through all the meetings together and we've had conversations about what's the best way logistically to make this work and Britney feels like this as well within what she can do here at the high school >> at two

050days a week. >> Correct. Yep. starting small. If it increases, like if a student comes down to the nurse now, um she provides care, works with her family, but she documents it within her system. So, we kind of have a running record of the events that happened. If it grows too big, then I think that honestly, I think that's a good thing because we're meeting the needs of our families and our community and then we can reevaluate what does that look like. >> Yeah. And not that I'm not that I'm naysayer here, not wanting to happen. And I just want to make sure that we're not taking somebody who's got a current full load and overwhelming them with something. >> I'd like to make a motion to approve the essenti virtual service, I guess. >>

051I'll second it. Have a motion and a second. Does anybody else have anything else they'd like to discuss before I No. And I will uh All those in favor, >> please say I. >> Anybody opposed? Motion passes. Right. Thank you everybody. >> Uh item E, NHS course description Brook proposed revisions. Uh I'm going to hand this over to Mr. Cowie based on your 4:30 committee meeting today. >> Okay. Yeah, we met before um this meeting and uh talked with Mrs. Troll, Miss Ratic about a new class that is being proposed. It's called human services career exploration. Um it's um an entry level class that could be taken by ninth grader on up. Um for anybody who's interested in career areas such as being a counselor, social worker, a life coach, personal trainer, things of that

052nature. It's mostly an introduction to what those career fields are and what it takes to to get into it. Um, so that it's an it's it's a a new course. It's um a lot of the courses in Miss Ratig's area um involve, you know, foods. And so this kind of gives um students that like that that type of coursework a a different uh a different course to look at. We also um had two other changes or two other um revisions to the book. Uh one on science where they're basically just going to remove um the offering of environmental biology and earth science. It it hasn't been offered in recent memory. I mean, it's been many, many years. We're probably pushing eight to 10 years now since it's actually been offered as a course. So, basically,

053um, just taking it out. And then the third thing that we discussed was in the teched area, um, just some language changes that, um, Mr. Charlie wanted to make to I guess update um a description of Tiger Manufacturing, but it really wasn't anything new, just a an update. So, is there anything I missed committee members? >> Nope. Perfect summary. >> Okay. >> And it is the recommendation of the >> the curriculum committee to >> approve yes all these items. >> Recommend we approve these changes. Uh any other discussion from anybody that wasn't privy to the meetings earlier today? I do know the the Tiger Man one. Um there was a what did they get hooked up with Northwood Tech. There's a particular certification that I think this is the first year we're able to participate

054in that for uh students and I think verbiage on some of that change was to coincide with that particular curriculum. If I >> Yeah, the the like I said Mr. Charlie's class. It's really just a clean up and verbage to more accurately reflect the class and what it is about. So, um, which is what we do with a bunch of different classes. Sometimes it's nice to refresh things and and so there's no real difference in class itself. It's just making sure students know exactly what the expectations are for them instead of classes. Parents can read that, too. Hopefully, they do. So, they know what we're we're signing up for and what the students role and responsibilities are going into those classes because they are going to be working with equipment. safety is paramount with that.

055There's there's an expectation there that there isn't a lot of that messing around when we're coming to power tools. So, go figure. [laughter] >> With that being the case, I would entertain a motion and a second for somebody outside of the committee. >> I'll make a motion to approve the recommendation of the committee. >> Second. >> A motion to second. All those in favor, please say I. >> Anybody opposed? Motion passes. Uh item F, the 267 teacher calendar. Mr. Pitchel, >> uh you guys should have a copy of the the updated calendar. So similar to the process last year, um we met administratively, looked at a few different calendar options. We we narrowed it down to two. Um and then thank you, Miss Study, put it out to all of our staff on a Google

056survey to get their input. Um and we had a pretty good response rate, but um the calendar that's in front of you has the majority of our staff vote. Uh the biggest difference and was when Christmas break was going to fall between calendar A and calendar B. Um so calendar B won out with about 55 60% of the vote if I remember correctly. Um, and that calendar has us coming a few days on the week of December 21st, um, 21st and 22nd, which we believe still gave people time to travel, uh, for the holiday season if they wished, and then puts the end of the school year uh, at June 3rd and the staff last day at June 4th. Um, so the recommendation will be to approve this so we can get this on our

057books and out to our staff as we begin to already look at 20 26 27 the I I I guess I have a question in looking at this. So the and maybe Miss can >> on the calendar if it's got a cross through it there's no school that particular day. Am I correct in that? >> A dash or a cross? >> A diagonal. >> That's the end of a semester. That's the end of the quarter. >> So it's just it's just highlighting that that's the end of the quarter. >> Yes. >> Correct. So it's still a student contact day. >> So like October 30th is end of the quarter and then it shows November the 2nd is not crossed off but it shows staff development day in blue. Is that a staff is here but

058there's no students. Am I correct in understanding that? Okay. >> All right. Yes. So, the color coding is the blue highlighted tiles are staff development days. That helps you. >> And there's a little a little legend on >> up top. Yeah. Colors are not my strong suit. [laughter] >> A August is interesting, but the 2526 staff development and then big summer school open house and then staff development. >> So, we we looked at this heavily. So, our new staff would be a new teaching staff would come in on the 20th and 21st. Um, which we like because it gives them some time to decompress. Um, they also they don't have to come in the 24th, but knowing our new staff, they might come in and just try to figure out what end is up and

059what end is down, which does happen with new teachers. Um, and then 25 26 would be our typical kind of welcome back activities for our new staff. Um, trainings, that type of stuff. Um, 27th, 28th of August would be our typical open house. And what we like because by rule we cannot start school before the first without particing DPI. Um that 31st August 31st day would be an in inclassroom work day for our teachers to get ready for kids walking through the door that Tuesday. So, um, it's a good mix of trying to give teachers time to get prep for kids coming through the door, but also for us as administrators to get all the stuff that we have to get done at the beginning of the year, plus throw professional development in there as

060well, too. So, I think it does a nice job of kind of breaking it off into small little chunks, uh, bite-sized pieces. Um, this might be a little bit of a side note, but what do you know about Ashlin proposing a 4-day school week? I know very little. So, >> does anybody know anything about that? >> I know it's they put a survey out. >> Is that all it has been at this point is a survey? >> Yeah, I think it came from staff pushing >> I know they put together or have put together a committee to look at it. I don't know. >> This might be one of those steps, but I will I will find out more as >> well. You don't have to find out too much. I'm just I'm just kind

061of curious as to how that works for minutes. And >> the short answer is I don't have a question. I don't have an answer for that one either. The minutes are still the minutes as far as I'm aware. >> Yeah. >> So, >> we could do a two-month school year if we really wanted to because just cares about the minutes >> 24/7 if we want. >> There you go. >> All right. Well, with that being the case, if there's any other discussion, let's go take care of it. Otherwise, I'll take a motion in a second to approve the 267 teacher calendar. >> I make a motion to approve the 2627 teacher calendar. Second motion and a second. Any other discussion? All those in favor, please say I. >> Anybody opposed? Motion passes. Thank you very

062much. >> Thank you. Uh item six, report on the Wisconsin state report cards for the district and schools for 245. Mr. Larby, >> welcome back. Um so last month I was able to talk a little bit about um how our students did on state tests like the ACT that was put forward. Um so shortly after I believe it was actually the next day uh is when they made public the state report cards. Um so my discussion tonight is just an overview of how the district and each bu individual building fell um in terms of the state report card and I just want to give a little overview of each of them and then I did do some some analysis if you will. I believe it was last month um I did a a little bit

063of reference to they make a mega spreadsheet. It's an Excel spreadsheet where then you can compare all kinds of districts that are you can compare by size, you can compare by CISA, you can compare by uh social economic economic status, you can do all kinds of fun stuff with with data and numbers. Um so I spent the better part of uh a day locked in my office at Iron and put together kind of a breakdown of how we compare with uh other uh school districts around us in the heart of the north conference. So, uh, without further ado, um, you may remember the state assessments, uh, for Wisconsin, uh, public schools are the forward exam in grades 3 through eight and then again in grade 10. Uh, the DLM, uh, is an alternate, um, learning

064assessment for students that have uh, significant needs and will not be able to participate in the forward exam or the uh, ACT. And then the preACT secured is in grades nine and 10. And then the ACT with uh writing is in grade 11. So those are the assessments that come together to form our state report cards. Uh for those watching from home or anyone that wants to uh dig a little deeper in it, if you go to the Wisconsin DPI uh website, you can click on report cards or uh you can email me and I'll send you a link or even come sit down with me and we'll go through it. Um but that green button gives you access to every school district's report card in the state of Wisconsin. Um so uh past uh

065administration and current administration have pushed for uh kind of accountability if you will for schools. So all of that information is there. Um now schools get a different version um that's more of a classified version because it drills down to individual students and individual student groups uh at a level that maybe be able to identify. So the reports that are public um give more general information so that they can't drill down and identify any students or student groups. So it once you get past the prior green button, you get to a screen like this. You can select your year. So you can go back to prior year's report cards uh or you can look at uh this year's and then again you can look at any uh school district in the state of Wisconsin uh

066and also our charter schools and private schools as well. So, what everybody wants to know is in the bottom left if you look at our overall score. Um, so our overall score for the school district of Maple comes in at 74.9. Um, and that puts our district at the exceeds expectations uh rating. So, we've been very fortunate for the last uh oh, I don't know, seven or eight years, we've exceeded the expectations of the state every year. um which I always give kudos to our staff uh and our administration because it's been a very solid growth in my time here and we continue to do really well. Um the inner workings I'll briefly uh touch on because it's a repeated repetitive on every report card that we do. If you look up at the top

067you can see um the enrollment for our district. So you can see we're at 1271 last year. Uh and then if you go down you can see the bar graphs are for the student groups and representation. Uh and then on the right of that the circles you can see the percentage of students with disabilities in our district. Uh those students that identify are identified as economically disadvantaged. That's uh for easy way of explaining as our free reduced uh lunch count. Um and then um English learners you can see we have a a non-existent representation. So um switching down below there's priority areas. So every report card changes a little bit on the two top categories. So our achievement it can vary based on what the percentage of socioeconomic status is in the state of Wisconsin.

068So growth can be measured at a higher amount. If you have more students that are economically disadvantaged. So um I'll use a prior district that I taught in. If I had 80% uh free and reduced lunch or economically disadvantaged, my growth measure would be much greater than my achievement measure. So that's the part that changes uh based off of um I guess uh demographics of your district. If you look at the bottom uh parts, you can see they're both equal at 25% that being our target group outcome, which is the students that were identified as the lowest performers on the prior year. And then the on track to uh graduation um that focuses on our students as they progress through our our buildings uh towards graduation. So they'll stay stable at 25% of your total

069population or your total matrix if you will. Um if anybody really wants to dig, you can go on to the report card um information page that I showed prior and it does give information about how these are calculated. It doesn't give you the formula or anything like that, but it gives you information about how they measure growth um and how they compare one student group to the other. So some of those things are interesting for folks like myself. Others just glance over and say, "No thanks. I don't care." But I want to know how we did. So, um, again, as a district, we continue to do really well. Um, as I said, those, uh, priority area groups, it breaks, the report card breaks it down in more detail of, um, how you do for achievement,

070uh, growth. So, if you look at the top sections, you can see for English language arts, um, the little gray bar underneath it is the states percentile, um, the, uh, or states rating, and then the blue bar above it, that is our rating. So it gives us a nice comparison to how we stack up in the state of Wisconsin. Moving down to this for me is a little bit more telling. Um I think last month I talked about the um EPI for some reason has the charts flipped upside down. So the highest performing kids are on the bottom uh in the light blue. Then we have kids that meet the expectation in the purple. Then above that, the kids that are progressing towards are in the yellow and students that have not yet met the

071expectations are in the orange, which again is upside down to me, but DPI won't change it. Um, and this gives a breakdown from last year's performances to this year's performances. So, you can see kind of where we've moved or or where we're stagnant. Um, something I like to draw attention to when I talk with each of our building administrators, these little arrows right here that look like little triangles, that tells the year-to-year growth or regression. Um, so it's nice to know if we're uh committing, we'll say, PD resources or spending time with our staff working on interventions or uh rolling out new curriculum that tells us where we're moving or where we're sagging when it comes to growth with our students. So those are important pieces for us as principles to work with our teams

072on on how we're growing. Uh so how do we use the information? So this particular data uh chart we roll through and we look at our student groups and then we look at where the percentage of students for each category falls. Um in years past I've talked about the um they call it um uh points proficiency. when they come up with a score, if you will, for our performances, they put more weight on students that excel. So, a student that gets a advanced rating gets a point and a half. And a student that gets a uh meeting the expectation gets a point. Those that are uh approaching the expectations of the state get a half a point. And if they're developing or not meeting the expectations yet, they don't get any points. So, [snorts] it

073it does us better to move the needle to the left when it comes to those student demographic groups. Uh this is the last uh slide before I'll move quickly through the buildings. Um what's what helps us as administrators look at well where should we be focusing when it comes to curriculum development or where should we be focusing when it comes to profession professional development. Um this kind of box and whisker if you will type graph tells us where do we stack up to the expectations of the state with a score of three being the expectation. If you're all in blue on the right hand side, like you see on our math for the district, you can see that we're meeting the expectations in all of those student subgroups. On the English language arts part, you

074can see that we're meeting some of those expectations. So, that helps us uh Mrs. Craig and myself as we're rolling out what are we doing in English language arts at the the prek through 8th grade level, we can look at, well, where are we growing? Where where do we need to focus on as we're doing that? So, it's information for us to bring back to our teams and uh kind of drive our professional development. Uh move quick. So, the Northwestern Elementary School, I'm going to go through each buildings. Um again, if you look at the overall uh score, the 78 or 75.8 uh NES comes in as exceeding expectations again, which our staff were very proud of. Um I'll again quickly go through Iron River Elementary School. Uh top the charts again. They are one

075of the highest performing in the state again with a rating of 89.7 uh which places them in a significantly exceeds expectations category. Big shout out to our Iron River folks. The middle school uh they again top the charts for the middle schools around us as you'll see when I get to the data analysis later. Um they came in with a score of 80.1 that ex exceeds the expectations of the state. The high school came in with an overall score of 66.4, which meets the expectations of the state. [snorts] And as I promised, I gave a breakdown for uh our comparison. So, this is at the district level. So, I'll let it linger there for a second. If you want to take a look at the right column, that right column tells us the overall score.

076So, you can see how we stack up against other schools around us. Uh and then you can see I broke it down by achievement, growth, and then target group to kind of show well where are we growing, where are we achieving, how does that stack up? Because again, if if you look at that demographic that I showed earlier, if they have a higher socioeconomic status, that growth is worth more. Uh and if they have a lower amount, as we do, then our achievement is worth more. So it's worth noting some of those changes between districts as you'll see uh on the elementary level um gave a breakdown uh in a similar fashion and obviously you can see on the right hand side that total score where everybody breaks down which NES and and Iron River

077again did very well on at the middle school as I alluded to Mrs. Craig's team topped the charts for a total score. Props to the middle school, Mrs. Craig. And then at the high school level, uh again on the on the right hand side, you can see Mr. Smith's teaching very well. >> So, I know I threw a lot at everybody. I get back to slides if anybody wants uh or board members have it public. I can share this out with anybody that wants it. That's encouraging. I mean, it's nice to see such uh >> I mean, numbers are numbers, but u students seem to be achieving at a high level at at all of our schools, which is certainly a credit to the staff and administration. So, >> you had to you had to

078believe I had have a question. >> I prepped. [clears throat] I prepped. No surprises. [laughter] All right. So I what I'd like to hear is what is that just one thing that Mr. Brad Larby maybe puts on the piece of paper that says we need to put emphasis on this or this is something that takeaway. A lot of numbers there. >> Absolutely. >> But I always like to hear's here's an opportunity we should maybe focus on or we need to do this or how would you how would you answer that? >> No. And great question and uh hopefully uh Mr. Smith and Mrs. Craig can can echo that as well. We sit down every year and we look at well how do we take numbers and put into applications. Um so at the elementary level

079the reason I jump back to this is one of the things that we are focusing on under the guidance of the state is reading and one of the things that we've really focused on is well what is the professional development tie between what we're currently doing in the classroom and how to get better with that professional development. And then for us it's looking at well how does remediation happen? So when we have students that aren't keeping up if you will uh how do we how do we impact those students for that growth measure. So on on NES you'll see at the top this is on our growth and achievement. We're sitting at 69.8 as a growth score. So, one of the things that we are focusing on growing as uh is how do we impact

080those kids that maybe were a lower performer last year and changing that trajectory so they're on par or even uh exceeding the expectations and you can see some of our neighbors have had some pretty good success in doing that. So, I've been in contact with some of them but we're also looking at what does that practice look like. So, at NES we have meetings where we talk about student performances. We have a RTI system, a a way that we look at, well, if a student performed here, what are we going to give them? We'll say like an antibiotic. Uh, you know, what are we going to give them to get them back up to speed to help them? That could be uh more time with classroom teacher. That could be more time with Mrs. Fleming

081as a reading teacher. Um, so we're trying to find a way that we can meet the needs of every individual student. And again, back to your question, how do we take the numbers and put it into application so that it impacts that kid and especially kindergarten through second grade? Because we know if they can't read successfully by the end of second grade, it becomes much more difficult as they go through our system. Good question. >> I would also say, >> yeah, >> and this is to Mr. Smith and Greg as well. The flip side of that is also just as important. I think it's really uh I'd love to hear the recognition for our staff and teachers that are killing it. >> Absolutely. >> You know, because I I think that's as you mentioned, it's

082got some very encouraging numbers there, too. And so, I think that's also worth pointing out that >> there's really good things happening, too. >> This this is the exciting piece. And obviously, I was, you know, shouting from the roof as I was talking to Mrs. Carrian and Mr. Smith. getting the recognition in number form to say, "Hey, we're at the top." Um, and obviously, you know, continuing to be at the top means you have to continue to focus on what are we doing to stay there and how do we keep growing and what do we do different to keep moving that needle forward. Um, because students come through the door every way, shape, and form, and it's our job to educate them as they come through, and sometimes they throw a curveball at us. Okay,

083now we got to learn a little bit about this in order to meet their needs. Um, so it again comes back to our our administration and our teachers and everybody with an all hands- on deck. Um, I would love for anybody here um to come in and be part of those meetings, but unfortunately talk we talk about every need in between and some of that's confidential. Um, but when you sit with our teachers and say, "Okay, where are these kids and what are we going to do for them?" It's very powerful. I'm just looking at NES and and Iron River and I mean Iron River's achievement numbers are higher, growth numbers are higher, but then it says on track to graduation and NES's on track to graduation is higher. >> I'm just curious how does

084that how does that work? >> Yep. So, um so you'll notice there's also not applicable under target group. So, what happens with the the math calculation and again um WMadison doesn't say here use this equation. they won't let us play around with it. But what happens when you don't have all four quadrants is your math equation gets a little skewed, if you will. Uh so it's different. It's not better, it's not worse. It's just different when you have schools that are smaller. So they don't get a target group score because they have such a small cell size. So again, there's 95 kids. Last year there was at Iron River, but only kids in grades three, four, and five take the forward exam, which last year you're looking at pretty relatively small classes. So, they don't

085have enough kids to be able to have that group uh as part of their calculation. So, the way that it I'll say works within the formula is they're missing a piece of it, which changes the the end result. And again, I say this very openly, it's not right or not wrong, it's just different. And that has to do with being a single single section building which has some pros and some con cons down I remember um when you have a a group come through that's bigger as they do this year that third grade group uh which is a fantastic group has a much larger group um so we might be able to have that that target group outcome because it's such a bigger size question >> anything Achievement slower. Go slower. >> Thank you very

086much, Mr. >> You are more than welcome, Mom. I said, if anybody wants to sit down, I can give you more information or give you the Excel spreadsheet to play around with. >> It is a celebration for our staff, what they do here. But we do always look at this data and say, what can we do to continue to improve? That'll be at the core of what we do and have done. Um but it's nice to show some of these numbers compared to districts surrounding us similar um demographics and then also looking at the statewide picture too. So it's a chance we can say thank you and we appreciate what is happening in the classroom is showing up on some of these metrics. So >> and speaking of gratitude, I also want I always like

087every year to just give a shout out to our district assessment coordinator which is Brad. Um this is all just numbers unless interprets all those numbers for us and then helps us apply. You know, what what do we do with that, how we grow, how we um and I I I give Sean Lee credit to one time, you know, he said the meaning he said to our team, you know, we can't think of students as data. We have to think of these as proficiency levels. So when we look at this as a tiger community and see our children are proficient um against their their peers or or next to their peers across the nation um that in itself is something to celebrate proud of. So um we really we honor that embrace that. But uh

088Mr. Larby really he just takes this data apart. He meets with every group of teachers. Uh teachers individually will email him and and want to disagregate it you know deeper go wider deeper and he helps out with that. um meets with teams and I also want to thank he's our district assessment coordinator but he really makes sense of all of these numbers really [clears throat] time to think that helps all of our building leaders and also our school assessment coordinators which are our school counselors they do a ton of leg work to get this this airplane off the ground if you will um and also a shout out to our technology departments our on-site technology team and um site does a phenomenal job does a lot of heavy lifting in the tech world too so

089Um, it takes a village. So, >> absolutely. And I will add, it's pretty cool to be able to go back, guess all the way back to secondary. [laughter] Um, when you can see those students go through the buildings and I can at the click of a mouse and some of our programs say, "Here's how they've gone academically, math, reading, science, social studies, all the way through." It's pretty pretty cool to see. >> It's like a life. [laughter] >> Very good. So, that's just a report. There's no official motion that needs to be taken on that one at all. So, thank you, Mr. Larby. >> I'm going to help out on the EV side as you guys kick off. >> Okay. >> All right. Next is item seven, uh, the report on school perceptions community survey.

090And before we get to that, I would like to, uh, I hope you all have your board enhancement up in there. There are a few things that are in bold. Please un read those on there and understand that that's also what is not happening tonight. >> And I can put that out there too. I don't know. Is Rob able to hear us yet? I think he's on he's on mute. I know. >> Yeah. >> There's going to be a lot to take in and we're going to need to do that to help us >> January. >> So the goal of this is just to so Dr. Rob Deise is going to be joining us here in a second virtually. >> Rob, can you hear us? >> We're going to get you hooked up here, Rob,

091just quick second. But the goal of this is to have the board get the information on the community survey. So, Rob has got approximately a I'll say 15ish minute, give or take presentation on the survey results. Um, and then we'll get an idea as to what our community kind of said, where we we see the the the questions that we have that we >> and when we get it here. So, I'll give Mr. Larby a quick second to get this set up to get Rob coming in here. But the goal is to have >> Rob give this presentation and then there will be time for questions at the end and feel free to ask if you have questions. So, but we're not looking to take any kind of action regarding any kind of questionnaire referendum

092wise. This is strictly a chance for us to get information to the board to try to look through. >> There's a lot of information to share. >> Yeah. Yep. And you guys have seen, you know, it's he's going to go through the presentation here that's been linked into it. So, we'll get a quick second here to get tech going and then we'll get rolling. >> [snorts] >> I would say while they're doing that, the uh the January board meeting, I think maybe collectively between Cody and I will send an email out here in the next few days. Is that fair enough to say >> kind of what the January board meeting is going to look like and >> clear your schedule? >> Was your January board meeting plural or was that same? So the actual

093board meeting like this for January is going to be a long because we have a lot to discuss. There's going to be open session, close session, open session um to to discuss a fair amount of stuff there. Um and those dates that regarding Nick that we had already discussed are also going to happen >> following weeks. the following weeks. Um, a couple [laughter] hundred fire there are. In addition to that, um, I got message from Steve, but over the next couple weeks, if you guys had any thoughts on those people from, uh, that community u group regarding that soup search. >> Hey Brad, I'm going to try to jump in here and see if I can get them. >> Get a list. get a list and start sending it off to maybe Jenny and we'll

094have her put it together so we can >> try to cast Brad. >> You want to talk about >> the superintendent? There's a community aspect to it. >> Okay. >> Put some names to it and we'll all discuss it. Put people on. >> Rob, you want to give me a quick sound test? >> Most of January. I think this will work. Give me one more test, Rob. >> Sure. Testing. Testing. >> Can everybody hear? Okay. >> All right, Rob, we got you in here now. So, um, >> we got you up on the board. Go ahead. >> Um, let me take it away. So, um, I'm here, as I heard mention while I was doing your live stream here, um, to give your community survey report. So, let me hop right in. Um, we are

095going to go through four different types of slides. Oops. Four different types of slides. Not all of them will, I would guess, be the same level of importance. Um, your blue slides. I'm going to briefly reintroduce myself in a second. Um, but also blue slides are anything that was in your survey itself. So, if it was in that thing that landed in your mailbox, maybe either reproducing here or taking screenshots or what have you. Um, so that this report was really a one-stop shop for you. We'll begin in just a moment with survey or respondent information. So, who took your survey, how old are they, where it is, and so on. Those will be in yellow. We'll certainly spend time on green. Those are your results and analysis. And then allocate some time at the

096end for wrap up and questions. So, just to remind folks who we are. Um, this is not our first time working in Maple. Actually, we did your survey. It's going to be eight, nine years ago or so, something like that. Bill working it. Um and I think I was with you maybe three months ago to the date um going through this the survey draft. Um but our mission has never changed at school perceptions. We want to help you as educational leader do three things. Those three things being gathering, organizing, and using data to make strategic decisions. We got our start. We've conducted over three million staff, parent, student, and community surveys. All in the name of school improvement. And those have been spread out over a little north of 1300 school districts nationwide who have

097all been doing or have been doing what you what you've been doing over the last few months, what you're doing tonight, what you'll be doing in the future and so on, which is that dual role of navigating strategic planning and preparation planning process. So let's get to you. Your survey finished up on November 21st, 2025, so shortly before Thanksgiving, you landed at 880 respondents for a response rate that's as average as average gets. You're looking at about 16%, which leaves you at a margin of error of just under three and a half. I will revisit that number in a little bit, but you're looking at plus or minus approximately 3.37% for your margin of error. Um, kind of an unfortunately named statistic because there's absolutely nothing in your purview that you can do about it.

098It is an error that you have no control over. It is only a function of how big your community is. So when we're working in Wisconsin with the Green Bays of the world, the margin of error is very very narrow because there are well north of 100,000 people they can send the survey to. Um obviously in the heart of the north conference there are just fewer folks that you can share a survey with. Um and that's really the only way to make smaller is going to make more people move to to school district. We then asked about age. My eyes will always go to the top bar here first. Your 65 plus is represented at a proportion of 37% in your survey. That is an over representation. Visa your community in judgment. So when we

099look at census data specifically for 65 plus not just in any one municipality but across the entire school district of Maple just under a quarter 23.0% 0% specifically of your respondents are 65 plus. It is okay is good to have those folks be over represented in your survey data because they are also going to be over represented on election day as well. So if they're over represented in your survey data, you have a better match of your voting pool come election day. So that is a good thing. We also asked, "Is your primary residence in the school district in Maple?" Um, nine and 10 on the dots said yes. Um, but there's always a fair question here, but people will say, "Well, why are you sending a Maple survey to people that don't live in

100the school district?" That's a good question. Um, but obviously if I live kind of towards the edges and I'm staff member, I'm under no requirements to live within the district boundaries. So, I could be a staff member commuting in. I could be an open terren or um I may certainly have land. I may have a cabin in in the northwestern area in the Maple area, but I don't live there. Maybe I vote in Minneapolis or I vote in Minnesota. So, buy property within your school district. We need to take those folks out. Doesn't mean that they're not influential and important, but we need to focus on the folks that can control an election within your district boundaries. And that's been here um late last week. Um I think Cody and I briefly mentioned that I

101did want to cover this slide with him just to make sure that it was a good representation of your um municipalities. Uh with this business manager cap on it, it's almost like this was a pretty good representation of where your population sectors are. And the good news is that you do have proportions from every single one of the municipalities that in some way, shape or form pay the school districts. The next two questions in just a moment is going to get us to three key subs. We are going to look at in isolation how staff feel. We're going to look at in isolation how parents feel. But then most importantly because they're the biggest, we're going to look at the no. We're going to look at the not parents staff. Those three subgroups are driven

102by these. The final demographic piece of information is communication for you as you move forward. Um, so note the wording of the question is subtle but important. It does not say how do you receive information from us because I may be as a resident I may be communicating with in a way that I don't want to be communicated with. You know you always sent me why but I really want you to do this. This is a preference question. It's at the end of the day, how do I want to read about the schools in your district? for your non-parents non-staff which are at the top of each bar pair here in purple. Overwhelmingly, when you need your nonparents nonstaff to know something, they want to hear about it through something that is tangible and mailed

103that lands on their want to mail the newsletter to their in second place is a tie between newsletters online and websites. um 60% of that group um was Facebook or social media in general. Your parents are a bit more balanced. Um above two and three are looking for an email. Um but a strong preference for a mailed newsletter as well from your parents. And then I would say kind of in the second tier is Facebook, social media, your website, and a new online newsletter option. I'm going to go back to blue. So I'm going to spend little to no time here because this is exactly what was in your survey. um talked a little bit about the homework you've done this far um in conjunction with your long range facility planning, the work you've done

104with outside consultants to review the quality of your buildings. Um we wanted to do a little education on what a capital referendum is and why the district may be exploring it now. Uh so this is pretty close to the the draft of a few wording tweets here and there uh back from September um by talking about three key reasons um why the district is exploring this now but that you wouldn't move forward without taxpayer and resident feedback and that's where we get to our first green spot that read do you support the school district of Maple exploring a building referendum at this time your staff 86% said your parents just a little over 2/3 68% said yes go ahead and continue to score and you're above majority for your nonparents non-staff nearly 16% 58% to

105be specific of your non-parents non-staff said yep go ahead and continue to explore a potential building referendum at this time we do break those groups out I'll talk a little bit more about that in just a moment um because each of those groups are different sizes My take away from this slide here is that all three of your key subgroups are telling you, "Yep, go ahead and put something on the ballot come April." That's the takeaway from this slide. You have permission to put a thing on the ballot in front of of your voters come April. We do this because that that's not necessarily always the case. Um especially I would say maybe over the last year or two, maybe stretching into three. um your non-per parents, non- staff, it's not uncommon to see them

106fall below 50%. And because most of your voters are in that pool, that's a pretty difficult place to be because in that kind of question in other districts, those folks are saying, "I don't want to hear about it. I don't want you to study it. I don't want you to explore it. I don't want you to talk about it. You insert whatever verb you want." They don't even want to hear about it. That is not you here. you have nearly six and ten of the largest group in your community that are giving you permission to to explore the 28% of your non-parents non- staff telling you don't I don't want to minimize that but I would also say that it's firmly in the average on any given particular community survey about 25 to 33% of

107of not parents not staff will say nope I don't want to explore anything that's 28% you're almost right there but again take away here is your community and across all three subgroups are giving you permission to put something from here. Then we went into what that thing could be. So back to our blue slides here. This is exactly what was in the survey. Um and it was broken up into four big chunks talking about what would happen at east each of the four schools. Iron River Elementary, Northwestern Elementary, Northwestern Middle, Northwestern High, and then the fifth building in Cluster. And that's where we tested a potential plan along with the corresponding tax. The question read, "Would you support 18.9 million capital referendum to fund the facility plan?" Here is only staff and it's only staff

108that can vote in the school district of Maple. Your staff residents an overwhelming yes. Nearly nine and 10, 89% of your staff are in favor of the plan as it was described. Your parents aren't too far behind. Nearly 3/4 of your parents said yes to the plan as it was described. and your non-parents, non- staff. Once we put a number, two numbers I guess, a total number and a tax impact, you really didn't lose any any money along the way. 56% of your nonparis, non- staff would support the $18.9 million plan. >> May I ask a question, please? >> Um, I know it's not question time, but the the probably yes. >> Yeah. >> What is that percentage of actual yes votes? any idea? >> Uh, it holds up almost exactly with a one to

109one correlation. >> Okay. >> We have done surveys where it's just simple yes or no and it will artificially inflate the number of nos that you have. People want a little wiggle room. They're a little nervous about that. They want to wait. So, they're like, well, something could change. I don't want to say yes. So, they say, well, I'm going to be no just to be safe because I don't know where my financial life is going to be in a few months. When we give them probably yes, it makes people feel a bit safer. Um, so that's why we total them up because your guesses are going to stay pretty static. We can pretty much bump the yeses up, but the coral area is also true. We're going to take those probably nos. They really

110aren't going to move any more than your definitely nos. They're going to bump down. So it stays pretty steady once we give people a little bit of weight, >> right? Thank you. >> Yep. >> You did hear me say though that not all those groups are the same size. So now we got to do a little proportional weight. We're going to set your staff aside just for a bolt. Not because they're not hugely influential. They are. They are the first line of ambassadors for your district. They will be the first ones to get stopped at Christmas, New Year's, holidays, winter, vacation, and say, "Hey, what's going on? Are we are we, you know, renovating the schools or not?" So, I don't want to minimize that influence. However, your staff residents make up probably no more

111than 1% of your voting block at election day. So hugely influential, but numbers wise, not that many of them. So we're going to set them aside for just a moment. We're going to focus on parents and your nonparents non-staff. Your parents make up about a quarter of your community, but 75% of your community are nonparents non-staff. So then we have to weight the support that we just went through. So what this is telling us in our, you know, blow through the stoplight system here with red, yellow, green is that you're firmly in the green. One way your support is about 60% of your community is saying yes to the plan that was described in the survey that you sent out a few months ago. So well north of the 50% plus one that a school

112district would need for. In just a moment, I'm going to um go slightly in a different direction. talk about pause here though and just see what questions you have about the referendum data so far. >> I'm a little surprised that our parents represent 25% of our community. It seems high to be >> um we did use uh I think it's the American community survey which is actually a subsection of uh uh the D semiel census data and they do update that actually every year. So, we looked at, but it's go pretty deep. We looked at uh households with a child under the age of 18 years old. Um, and it was right around the corner almost exactly. We do take into account, you know, birth to five because actually by the time this work is

113done, they're probably going to be the ones that are approaching school age. So, we do group them on purpose. In fact, sometimes those those parents that have kids younger than kindergarten can arguably be more supportive than parents who have a kid that's just about to finish up. But we can check that based on Monday. It's updated. Actually, it's a 2024. So, it's actually a pretty good estimate based on the most recent gardening community survey data. >> Rob, you talked about red, yellow, green in terms of percentage there. What percentage kind of gets you in the yellow range? What percentage gets you in the green range in terms of your metrics? >> Uh, actually, thanks for bringing that up. Um, so I mentioned early on that margin of error was at about plus or minus 3

114and a half%. So that's where we kind of go in the yellow. Even if you're above 50, but you're within the margin of error, that would be firmly our too close to call is a tossup. So taking that math, I would put that 46 12% to 53 and a half% would have been the yellow range because that is within the statistical margin of error. That is firmly the it felt either way. When you're outside of that one direction or the other, that's when you get a red or in your case, that's where you get a green. >> Okay. So, roughly four plus percentage points ballpark. >> Yeah. Give or say. Yeah. >> Any other questions from the board? >> I'll let you jump to the next slide there. >> All right. Keep thinking. I just

115got two more. Um we then finished off with a couple of questions that I that I hope are really good news for you coming off your report card data there. Obviously a lot of good news here. Um and that's going to continue on the tracks. We ask people to evaluate specifically we said how's the district doing in each of the following areas. The scale being four fair good. So you can't get a score lower than one. Can't get a score higher than four. So you got to be somewhere in the middle there. Um and actually the middle of the scale is two and a half. We ask folks to evaluate you on four areas. To what extent are you delivering a high quality education? Are you keeping the public informed? Are you managing funds appropriately?

116And are you building pride in the community? We separated those out across our now three familiar subgroups. So first thing I do when I eyeball this data, there's 12 numbers up here. The first thing I do when I look at them is to see what numbers are above or below two and a half since that's the middle of the scale. You don't have no numbers that are below two and a half. All of your numbers are leaning towards the building is not great range. Your staff are exceptionally happy. They're leaning towards the grades in terms of the school being a source of pride in the community. Delivering a high quality education, but across the board, your staff are in that good grade range. U your parents as well. your parents really see their schools as

117a source of pride in the community. They're very satisfied with the academics that you're providing. Again, not surprised based on what I did hear from your report cards. And your non-parents, non- staff, um that's sometimes a challenging group. By definition, they're kind of the most disconnected from schools. Um you know, that time doing that is probably out of the way. If there was a number that I would have expected to fall below two and a half, it would be down here. your non- parents, non staff, evaluating to what extent or how well you manage funds nearly uniformly. That falls belong surveys like this because that group of folks will say, "Well, you obviously must must not be managing funds appropriately or you wouldn't need to ask me for a referendum. So therefore, you're not managing

118funds appropriately." Um, well, that number is a little bit lower. You're still above the middle of escape. That's surprising in a good way. That doesn't happen. um your non-parent staff will also see you. They're north of 3D businesses [clears throat] a tremendous source of pride in community. Looking at that in a slightly different way now we retoolled everybody together. Same question, same scale, same items, but now we just said putting everybody together, what percentage of your survey respondents are telling you that you're doing a great or good job? What is the overall average? And then maybe most interestingly, how many districts are you outperforming? So we put you in a pool of other districts that look like you. And what I mean by that is um we've adopted a methodology from the National Center of

119Education Statistics and they will look at your enrollment um the amount of money you receive per students, your statute ratios and the percentage of families in your schools experiencing uh poverty along with being a K12 mixed position across the last three years. So in other words, we want to put you in a pool of districts that look like you across various metrics. And then we say, well, if you got this score, well, is that good? Is that bad? Is that kind of what everybody gets? Is that is that good for a school district that has our characteristics? And in your case, the answer is yes. The comparison percentile tells you what percentage of districts you're outperforming. So among your comparison pool, you're doing better than 76% of other districts on this question based on what

120you're hearing from your community. You're outperforming 84% of other districts on how well you're keeping the public informed. You're outperforming 61% of other districts in terms of how well you're managing funds. And 87% you're outperforming 87% of other districts in your comparison pool by which you're building pride in the community. So all of these are well above the median of 50%. In other words, your community is really telling you that you're doing a much better job compared to other communities that we survey that look similar to you. You'll also see that board on a scale of 0 to 10, how likely would you be to recommend the district to a friend or family member? This is our version of a metro motor score that they will call motor so they don't get sued, but it's

121the same. Um, the one I want to look at are your eights or nines and results. When you sum those up, 30, 15, 18, um, you get 63%. So just to air under two. Why is that important? Ambassadors are people that give themselves a score represent of being of being an ambassador. Um they will go home and talk well about the district without you having to do anything. They are the conversation starters. They are the ones two weeks ago at Thanksgiving that sat down with their family and initiated a conversation about the good things happening in Naples schools. They're going to do that again in about three weeks over Christmas break. They're going to talk about that with the person behind him in the basketball concession stand and so on. So you have twothirds of

122your survey respondents that are in that pool. You add in another 12 for your six and seven and you got 75% of your survey respondents three quarters that have a positive association with what you're doing. That is not normal in a good way. And you can see that drawn out in the lower right here. On a 0 to 10 scale your score is a 7.53. A normal score for a district with your characteristics is 6.72, which means that you are outperforming 84% of other districts on this particular measure. So, I recognize that these last couple of slides took a few minutes here. I don't know what my time limit was. I'm confident I overshot. I apologize. You know, this isn't necessarily why you hired us, but I do think it's important for referendum behavior because

123nobody in any district will say, "Boy, am I unsatisfied and I am really enthusiastic to give you more property taxes." Because if people think that's not how they do it, it's really really important that your staff are satisfied, your parents are satisfied, your non-parents non staff are satisfied because there has to be some level of satisfaction there before people are willing to open up their wallet. And you can see these across the board here that you're outperforming most of the district that we ask. In fact, even north of 50% in terms of referendum support, I would say that's not necessarily kind of by default. is whenever we do a rough ride survey over the past couple of years has been pushing it to get 50% support. So the fact that you blew the bat on

124the water and are north of your marching we got a lot of things to celebrate. Okay, now I'm done rambling. I apologize. Any other questions? Whether it's about the referendum, the satisfaction data or so on. How can I be most useful for you guys? Just give it a second. Look around the room here, Rob. VINCE [laughter] question [laughter] take that personal. Um it is Rob thank you for I mean we had met before this Rob and I had met and talked through this and it is something that I do want to reiterate is at least according to the metrics that you see comparing us to similar districts across the state. We are doing some really really good things here in Maple not only as seen by our staff and our parents but also people that

125do not have a direct connection to the buildings. Uh which I think is is important to share. It's something to celebrate. I always joke we're far from perfect, but I am proud of the good things we do day in and day out in our buildings. So, um that is something that we will continue to try to push out to our communities um and celebrate what we can. As I talked about earlier, the goal of this presentation was just to share the information of the survey. And I'm not going to put words in Rob's mouth, but the respondent rate looked good to you guys. Correct, Rob? >> Yeah. Yep. Birmly average. >> Yep. Um and a little bit over representative from our 65 plus category which are usually going to be the people that most often

126show up at the polls if and when that time comes. So I'll reiterate no decisions and I'm putting out in the community as well. Right now no decisions have been made which direction to go with the goal tonight was just to get forward this information. So, >> other questions? Otherwise, Rob, I will send you off. >> Sounds good. If anything comes up after a hang up, which is usually how it goes, by all means, just let me know and I'll be happy to answer. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Take care. >> All right. Item eight, administrative reports, communications. Mr. Petrolott, let me jump over here. So, we do have a thank you from the um Tammy Anderson and the Neil Anderson family. That's the school district maple. Thank you for your gift and thoughtfulness uh

127during the passing of my husband Neil. So, that uh is the communication I received that we received only one for this month. Thank you for that. Uh item B, the verification of candidates and drawing of ballot order will be at 9:00 a.m. on January 13, 2026. Uh current board members up for reelection are Dan Cowie, Katherine Brunette, and Mr. Vince Hirs. Um if they so choose to run, uh and is it J December 26th is the dead? >> 26th is the deadline for them to get their non >> for an incumbent to do the non-real. And how long do new candidates have to submit paperwork? >> Deadline for nomination in candidacy forms is 5:00 p.m. on January 6th >> 2026 >> January 6th 2026. For all of you people listening out there in the >>

128TV land and in Google [clears throat] tweet face, please uh put on your shoes and come see Miss Keller and get on the ballot. >> I will say because Miss Keller will not say this, but she would really really appreciate if you aren't going to run to let her know before December 26th [laughter] for some of the reasons I think you might be able to put together. So item C the maintenance report again Mr. >> So Mr. Amos provides these now in terms of what we have here. So some pretty basic stuff. Um obviously we were in snow removal mode. Mother Nature got off to a good start with our snow storms. Um thankfully they did occur maybe to the sugarin of some of our students over our breaks. So um we're working on just

129general stuff. Um, and these are things as part of the, you know, the the infrastructure needs. The booster pumps at NMS really do need to be replaced. We're going to limp those along to keep them running because obviously having water at NES is a good thing. Um, we uh also are continuing to battle our water heater in this building. Um, and we'll hopefully get that work through, but it's getting to a point where all the guts are going to be due on that thing before we're said and done, I think. [laughter] Um, but we haven't quite got that licked either. Otherwise, it's just general general stuff going on here. So, >> so is there any hot water in the building? >> There is. Um, it's we're still working through some sensor errors and stuff like

130that. So, it's kind of here's priority one. We try that. Okay. Now, that works great. Now, okay, something else pops up. So, um, I will come back to the board here probably next month, if not February, of really kind of putting together a plan that we need some redundancy in this building. Whether it's a brand new boiler in there or not, it's not the world's best setup because we have one source of hot water and it is bound to break down every once in a while, whether it's brand new or not, and we don't have an op another option. So, that's not the way we typically want to work. >> What's it like that in every school? >> Not every school. Well, this is the only school and I don't know why, [laughter] but it

131is what it is. It served us well for the since 2008, but we need a backup plan, too. >> Who is in charge of the uh addition in 2008? >> Um, >> is that Myron? >> No, Krauss Anderson was the general. >> All right. >> I think LHB was the LHB would [laughter] >> get a refund. I get a refund. You want me to go back to and say what's going on here? >> I think there and I don't want to throw anybody on the bus. I think there may have been, but you know, plans had to change as as funds were were dispersed. And that's true for any big building project that plan A is never usually the plan that goes through without some kind of tweak and adjust. >> Yes, it did. >>

132Item D, donations. Again, Mr. Fetch Potter. Let me get back to where I need to get to here. Sorry about that. >> Sorry. Moving along. >> No, you're doing a good job. >> So, we have a couple of different donations and we're thankful and more than willing to recognize these folks. So, Karen Nevin um she donated gently used hats, gloves, and scars for the NES borrowing locker, which I was down there this week and was helping Miss Height pick out certain colors for kids. So, I did a very good job with that. Um, but that stuff is being used every day. Um, Alyssa Dink for a new pair of girls snow boots at NES. Um, Classics by the Lake, they made a $500 donation to the NES music department. Um, Ron Mackey made a $5,000

133donation to offset the travel costs for state football. uh NBC Bank and Heidi Chelle um was the driving force behind that, but NBC made a $2,000 donation to our district to offset the expenses to send the football team to state and then also Carl Morren provided $250 as well. So, we're very very happy to >> to uh recognize acknowledge all of our donors. Um it is something that is unique to our community and um we are thankful for. or no donation is too big or too small. So, we appreciate everyone. So, thank those folks. Very nice. Uh item E, the WASB correspondents and legislative report. Mrs. Brud. >> Uh yes, the December update. So, Governor Etos vetoed nine um different bills uh including legislation related to the following additional time for military recruits and schools

134um essentially setting that federal laws already create uh an expectation that they are able to come on campuses. uh legislation that changed teacher preparation by shortening student teaching. He wants to ensure that um those expectations remain rigorous uh and then legislation that required higher educ higher education institutes to submit uh additional data if you felt like there was this was an administrative burden. [clears throat] Um special education prorated aid rate and November payment information. Um the first fiscal year 26 aid payments for uh the 2425 expenditures. The amounts for November um payment for special ed and school age parents category aid. The first payment of the year um have been determined. This year's November through March interimm payments will use a proration of 35% a slightly lower rate uh that is used for these payments

135to avoid overpayment. The final payment in June will reflect each um LEA's full aid eligibility at the year's final pro prorration rate. Um the proposed resolutions for the 2026 delegate assembly um can be found here. I included the little link. Um, this packet includes resolutions formed to the delegate assembly by the policy and resolutions committee. Uh, resolutions as submitted by member boards and resolutions turned on by the committee. The complete and official materials for the delegate assembly will be mailed to each WASB delegate or the board president if your board is not designated to the delegate and district administrator in early to mid December. Um, on Capitol Hill, law m lawmakers are developing a [clears throat] strategy to resolve the fiscal year 2026 spending bills before the stop gap measure that reopen the government expires

136on January 30, 2026. My guess is is we will hear more in the coming weeks. And I did not see anything regarding the cell phone um use as far as kind of policy to guide boards in what that needs to look like. >> Thank you. So, >> I'm guessing that that will come spring. >> Yeah. Uh it's a tag on the back of the WASB. The uh WASB state convention is [cough] I'm not sure if anybody has submitted whether or not they would or wouldn't be attending [snorts] that. It's going >> I guess I haven't looked. I think it might go Tuesday, Wednesday, but [laughter] >> we better talk. Yes. >> Real quick rooms. >> Okay. Well, I stay. Uh, all right. CISA 12, Mr. Bernett or Mr. [laughter] Mr. Pros. [clears throat] CISA staff

137are working with districts to address Native American student achievement, working with districts to identify factors that influence attendance at the high school level and how to address those factors collectively. Um the next meeting on that is December 17th in Ashland. Uh the CISA 12 sportsmanship summit was held last week. It was a big success. All but one district and CISA 12 attended. The focus was on the connection between mental health and athletics. Um and they are starting the superintendent search in Naples school district soon. Um director updates shared information cease staff collaboration that happens monthly. This gives our consultants an opportunity to work together on district supports to ensure continuity and cohesion in different services that might be pro provided to a particular district. In addition, monthly staff meetings provide CISA staff time to work

138on technical pieces around agency function. Um we received a presentation on the activities that they provide to CISA 12 districts through the gifted and talented grant. Three programs that provide each year uh creative writers public service announcements and lead with confidence which is a new program. >> Thank you sir. Uh and then item G reports on the uh from Iron River Northwestern Elementary Schools, Northwestern Middle School, Northwestern High School, the athletic and activities director, director of special education, and the Yeah. And that any questions on any of that? And then the most >> are patient. >> You you guys you what you went through tonight is going to serve you so good in the future of learning how to be patient and sit through boring meetings. [laughter] Please students give us the uh rundown as

139to what you've got for us. >> All right. So I'll start off with clubs. So, our DECA chapter, some of our members are going to two harbors this Friday um to compete in a mini district's competition which will be during the school day like 9 to 2. They'll get um back before the school day is over. Then FBLA has a couple of meeting they have had a couple of meetings discussing events and preparing for competition for later this year. Our Fact and Sad group hosted a movie night last Friday, December 5th, where members of the community were invited to come together and watch the Grinch. FCSLA has held a couple meetings those last couple weeks for members to choose events and prepare for their own winter competition season. One act last um month November put

140on their apostrophes performance along with small actors on the night of one acts and then advanced to state on the 22nd where they earned medals for their tech and the set they created. As for the musical, they held auditions last um week for their parts and their first rehearsal starts tomorrow and the cast list can be seen through their musical website. Some of our National Honor Society members have been volunteering recently to spend some time with elderly community members to bring with um our younger community together with the older community and they're going to meet with each other around a total of five times and invite them to like school events such as concerts, sporting events, etc. [clears throat] the student meeting with them will participate in. And then to end off the at the

141end of the school year, they'll have a fun bingo night. And this Saturday 12:13, they will go to um they will also go to shop for kin. And then the following Saturday, the 20th, they'll bring in small Christmas trees to Essential Health Hospital in Superior to decorate for the patients. They um student council is sponsoring a door decorating contest throughout the entire high school to make the hallways festive. One adviser in one department will win a traveling trophy and treats after break. They will also host dress up days leading into our winter break and student council is collecting toys and monetary donations for kids kids in need this holiday season. So anyone interested in helping those in our community can bring contributions to the office on or before Monday, December 15th. They um will be

142added to our collections in the commons. And if you'd rather make a monetary donation, you can um contact Mrs. Fetch. Our band's fall season ended off with their performance at state and then the very next day they performed in 2025 Christmas in North Parade. And since they've been preparing for their winter concert on the 15th and their jazz concert on the 17th during the school day, the choir has also been busy rehearsing for their winter concert tonight at 7:00 and their small group performance at the jazz concert as well. >> I know about a few of those. >> Um, okay. So, all the winter sports have started. Um, girls hockey has a record of 2 to one and will take on the Northshore Storm tomorrow. They have had a great start with their last game

143winning 5 to2. As for our co-op ladies, Nika >> Na, I can never say her name. I feel so bad. Um, ended Saturday's game with two assists and Paisley scored one of the five goals. All have been all have been a critical aspect to the team. And girls basketball has picked up. Their record is currently three to zero and will take on Cameron at the next home game Thursday. They are having a promising season. One of the key players this year has been Jillian K. She leads the team with an average of 17 points, 11 rebounds, and five blocks per game. The boys basketball team has started their season with a great start after beating Baldwin Woodville and 61 to 43 win. Leading the Tigers in points is Canden Crow. I'm so sorry I butchered

144everyone name. [laughter] Everyone. Okay. Wrestling has also started their season with relentless conditioning. They have had their first meet on Friday and it was successful. They're hoping to continue with success as a team and individuality. >> That's all I got for winter sports right now. [laughter] >> You want to say anything about the fall sports wrapping up? >> Yes. So, uh I I will say this. Um there there's more names than what we can recognize between our fall sports and and extracurriculars. It's important for me and and I believe in extracurriculars. Those of you that know me, obviously I have a sports background, but I believe that extracurriculars of any sort are important for our students no matter what that is. And I think we're about 90ish% of our students at the high school are

145involved in at least one club activity or or or athletic event. So, um, kudos to the one acts and their very successful run to state. Kudos to the high school football team who, um, ended up state runner-ups. Um, didn't quite finish the way we would all have liked and that's the coach and me, but it is a season to be very, very proud of. Um, we had all state performances um, through football, through volleyball, through cross country. um [clears throat] very very proud of all of our extracurriculars and our student athletes in the fall because there are more accolades than we can spend time talking about tonight. They are in in your board reports for you as well too. So kudos to our students, our our staff and our coaching staff um and adviserss who

146support our kids with things that they are very interested in outside of school. It's a huge part of what we do. So, thank them. >> I don't know what you're doing, Jenny, but my computer is going nuts with what you're typing. That's Is it supposed to happen, aren't I? >> That is crazy. [laughter] >> All right, I got new stuff happening on here. [laughter] >> Yes, you do. >> Well, you wrote that about Cody, too. [laughter] >> And then item H, student, staff, and community recognition. We probably touched on that. >> Yep. Um and >> yeah, it was it was it was quite quite the fall um for the district and I and >> I think you you the student representatives there, you touched on it, but I can't remember what was the the the

147Wednesday that the football team took off. >> Yep. There was also was it one act that also took off and they were gone and then they got back late and then did something else. >> So the the the pep band made the drive down Thursday morning and made the drive back Thursday night to then in turn I think they left right around 3:30 Friday to get up to Duth for the Christian City of the North parade. So it was >> busy. >> I mean it's that's that's >> dedication there. So, >> and it was well attended. The the amount of community support >> in Madison was was I was very impressed. >> It was Yeah, it was it was fun. >> All right. Well, item nine is comments from the audience. Now that we have

148concluded the business of the board, we will end the