McFarland School Board Meetings 02/16/2026

001this meeting to order at 700 p.m. today. Um, and we will go through the consent agenda. Um, we have minutes from the February 2nd, 2026 board meeting, general fund vouchers and purchasing card transactions and certified and co-curricular staffing recommendations. Um, and we had the financial notes, not that that needs a vote, but we had the financial notes summary to review. I would look for action on that. >> Can you um read the motion, please? >> Yes. request action staffing recommendations. >> So you're moving to accept the consent agenda as presented. >> Is that correct? That's okay. Look on this one. >> That was close enough. >> Yeah, I think it's good. >> I can second. I heard Chapman first. >> You can do the next one. >> Um all those any discussion? Anyone want to

002pull anything out specifically? >> No, just a continued thank you for the financial notes summary. That helps guide review a lot. >> Yes. >> Yful. >> All right. Okay. Um then all in favor, please signify by saying I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion carries. And of course, as always, there are personnel items um that do not require a vote. And then next comes um public comment. Do we have any of those? None of those. Any visitors want to come talk? Okay. >> Anything you just want to talk about? >> Then let's uh we'll jump right into the McFarland High School student report. I see we have Anna here. >> Hi everyone. >> Hi. >> Hello. >> Happy Monday. Happy Monday. >> That sounds >> all right. Let me know when you can see my screen.

003>> We can see it. >> We can see your screen. >> Perfect. All right. So, let's get right into it. for our highlights from these past couple weeks. Um, Girl hosted a basketball game for National Girls and Women in Sports Day and they collected donations and worked in the concession stand to fund raise for the Women in Sports Foundation. So, they made this very cool banner and yeah, spoke during halftime, stuff like that. We also had a hope squad hockey game called freeze the stigma where we collected donations for student mental health and just connected with the community for our goal to end the stigma. So just talk to community members. We had a raffle. This kid on the bottom here won a nice raffle basket. For clubs this week is community week for student

004council. So we kind of collaborate. We are collaborating with different clubs in the school. Hope Squad, Multicultural Club, Letters of Love and Girl Up. And we're just trying to form connections between students and clubs. Um, and we had an assembly today. We have like free streets for students each day. And then we're also going to work with the senior outreach center this Friday for a little field trip with our students and their members. So today I've just put in some pictures from the assembly today. We just played some games, wore some wigs, super cute. And then we're also doing our cereal box challenge right now. We just counted last week which was after the first week of collection and we only had 91 cereal boxes. So >> really got we got the word out today.

005And we're hoping to get participation up for the last two weeks of the um challenge, but we're hoping for 500 boxes for great. So, >> we'll see how >> Sorry. >> If if a person were to bring some >> Mike >> Oh, I'm sorry. Um where where would these cereal boxes be dropped off? >> You could drop them off in the school lobby. That would be probably the easiest if you just give them to Carly at the front office or we also have boxes in the library that you could drop them off to. >> Very good. Thank you. >> Thank you for asking. We also had Black Lives Matter at school week two weeks ago. So BSU hosted this week and here are some pictures from the blackout day on Friday. They had dress up

006days and activities throughout the week. Model UN was just in Chicago last weekend for the 36th Model UN United Conference and um delegate Melissa Arcan got a verbal commendation at this she's right down here. Then for performing arts this week we have some blownotee singing telegrams going out. So last year during during lunch they um sold telegrams and then during classes this week they come in and sing to whoever they were bought for. So I got to listen to two of those today which was very exciting. >> And then athletics. Um MHS junior Emily Carl won the regional title for girls wrestling this past weekend and she'll compete next Friday for the sectional title. So, I think we had we had our girl from MG and our girl both win because we have a combined

007team. So, that was cool. >> Boys swim took the sectional championship this past Sunday and then they'll compete for state um coming up after winning the past two seasons. And then coming up is what I talked about earlier. are just going to be visiting our senior outreach center this Friday. This is the last time we visit them during um Thanksgiving time. So, we're going to do the same thing, but actually connect with the seniors and not just not just clean stuff and pack stuff. We'll actually get to hang out with them. So, that will be exciting. >> All right. Do I have any questions at all? >> I don't think so. >> No, thank you so much. Great for >> Thank you guys. >> Thanks, Anna. Have a good night. >> Have a good Monday.

008>> Thank you. >> Bye. >> All right. Um, next up we have the um adult school crossing guard recognition week proclamation. Do you want to give us any background on that, Erin, before I read it? >> Um, sure. >> Do you want me to do that? So, this is an annual recognition of our adult school crossing guards beyond the regular recognition that they get and deserve. And I will tell you that in all of my many, many years as superintendent, this is by far the warmest it has ever been for this recognition. It is usually freezing cold and I am just so sad for them and what they have to do and so grateful. But today was like you're welcome in great weather. So Chief Redmond and I went out and and greeted uh the

009crossing guards today and thank them for their service. But it is it is a recogni recognition across the state and there's a proclamation provided by our state superintendent that someone's going to read. >> That's right. I am I get the honor of reading that. Um yes, we are very grateful for our school crossing guards. We yelled every time we saw them when we drove through in our cars, we yelled out our windows >> much much to our child's >> disappoint or like embarrassment. But >> do you do it every day? >> No, not every day. Okay. Just just today. >> Oh, just today. Okay. >> So, all right. So, the proclamation by the state superintendent of public instruction, Dr. Jill Underly, the 2026 adult school crossing guard recognition week. Whereas Wisconsin's adult school crossing guards

010provide an invaluable service in helping to ensure the safe passage of our youngest, most vulnerable pedestrians, children walking between home and school. And whereas adult school crossing guards serve with dedication, navigating split shifts, heavy traffic, and unpredictable conditions, standing strong in the face of sweltering heat, bitter cold, blowing snow, and heavy rainfall. And whereas for more than five decades, adult school crossing guards have strengthened Wisconsin communities by promoting safety, trust, and a reliable path to learning for children across urban, suburban, and rural areas. And whereas adult school crossing guards are often the first friendly face to welcome students at the start of the school day and the last to wish them well as they return home, providing reassurance to students, families, and school staff alike. And whereas through their daily presence and professionalism, adult school

011crossing guards reinforce lifelong safety habits by modeling and teaching traffic awareness, hazard recognition, and responsible street crossing behaviors. Therefore, be it resolved that I, Jill K. Underly, state superintendent of public instruction, declare the week of February 16th through the 20th, 2026 adult school crossing guard recognition week, a time to recognize and thank the many adult school crossing guards whose commitment makes a difference in the lives of children in Wisconsin schools. So, and we're lucky enough to have one of our um dedicated crossing guards in the audience tonight. >> You're here. >> Thanks for being here. Thank you, crossing guard. >> Okay. All right. Next, we have some other guests from the McFarland Youth Center update. Um transition update. Do you want to come up to the table and >> Yeah, >> please do. >> Yes.

012Just >> so cozy. >> Make sure that you speak into the mic on the >> Speak into the mic. >> Yep. >> Yes. Make sure you speak into the mic or they won't hear you. >> That's right. And as And yes, so speaking into the microphone and then as a reminder, we have we have set aside about 20 minutes for the presentation and 10 minutes for questions. >> Sure. I I think it'll I'll just do a quick intro. Penny will do most of the talking so we won't have to move the mic too much. But thanks for having us back. Um Sean Miller, president of the You Center board. And when we were here for the fall update, it was it was a pretty tough time for us. You know, we we felt we didn't

013have a clear path forward. Um our transition with the village didn't end up going through. Uh we're trying to regroup. Uh Penny will kind of introduce the people and the strategy we've taken uh since we kind of ran into those roadblocks this fall. But we're here tonight just to give an update on our progress and of course answer any questions you guys have. Uh and just kind of let you know, you know, what we've done the last couple months since then. So, um with that, I'll introduce Penny who's been with you center longer than I have. 1998 was just an idea of a bunch of high schoolers. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Full circle. >> Yeah. So, thanks, Penny. >> Yes. And thank you everyone for um having us present. And I'm going to Angie, I'm

014clicking. So, what do I do? Wink to you or Okay, >> I like that method. Yeah, just wink. >> I should have. >> So, just some quick facts about the youth center and I know that um Sean was here I think earlier this year, but our mission statement um we're free nonprofit youth riches program for middle school youth sixth through 8th grade uh in the McFarland community. We offer a free space for youth recreational activities, the daily hands-on programming, various clubs and volunteer and community service opportunities. And if you do the math, 1998 um mic was started by McFarland High School students. It was their dream and they um really championed and it uh organically grew and it we've served the community for over 25 years. Our hours are pretty consistent, 3 to 6, Monday

015through Friday during the school year. In the summer, we shift to day programming 1 to5 Monday through Friday during the summer. And typically our um our attendance is 25 to 30 youth per day during the school year. Uh gets a little smaller during the summer because there's a lot of competing activities, but 10 to 20 um youth per day during the summer break. So over over the year, we serve about a hundred unique um students. Angie. Okay. So we as Shauna said, we were um given the uh charge to um look at how we could come with a new path forward. Uh the village board suggested that we um take take a step back and study. So the youth center initiated a transition advisory council or committee I should say to research and recommend a

016new path forward. And that's who we have sitting around here. We have Tom Mooney Sean who is on the board. Um Tom represents the the crossing guards. No, he doesn't. He Sorry. I'm sorry. He's a committee and I have served on the board. Um Megan Lundy has served on the board for several years. We Yes. And we have Megan Bessler who is serving as community at large and Matt Shanki um the village uh McFarland administrator served on the committee. So to we've been meeting on a regular basis since November with our goal it to come up with a formal recommendation by um by March and so we've met every two weeks for a couple hours with the mission to determine how to sustain the youth center as a 501c3 nonprofit a standalone program that will

017continue to serve our middle school youth for the next 20 years. And so when we when we dove into this work, we had some guiding parameters. One was to maintain the same level of youth programming and services that we have today. We also wanted to come up with a proposal that reflected a far less funding needed that um the village had estimated um a few months ago when we were talking about transitioning the youth center to village services. We also had a um a a parameter of depleting our youth center um b fund balance to a safe level so we could operate and that means keeping you know enough funds in our fund balance for six months of operation but also to spend you know the donations that we've received from community um from others

018and from our friends of McFarland Youth Center and then also to provide the new executive director with two years to transition really settle in and um move forward. Okay. So what we did is we looked at um our process and this is our progress today and basically we looked at three buckets you know operating model then we looked at reorganizing NYC roles to address our future needs and then to re-evaluate the budget that's needed. So if we back up and look at the operating model, we reviewed um three operating models and we ranked them and the three that we looked at was the independent autonom autonomy which is the standalone service, then the coalitionbased resource sharing model and um the hosted nonprofit administrative model. And some of you who've been around a few years can

019recall that we've tapped a little bit in that coalition and hosted nonprofit administrative model in our years as we evolved. So we recommended our committee recommended moving forward with the independent autonomy model the standalone and then looking at the reorg of um of our roles we reviewed the roles of the board of directors because over the past 20ome years we've had 12 board members and we've really done some the the duties and responsibilities administrative responsibilities as volunteers. So, we reviewed the roles of the board of directors looking at the staff and then also the contracted services and um really identified um the specific duties and tasks within each of those roles and we um reorganized and we aligned the duties with roles for the future model. And what that did was it gave us um

020a takeaway that we would be need we would look we looked at school board we looked at executive director we looked at managing director and then the assistance and that's how we um um move forward and determined that we really needed to add an executive director in that reorganization of the youth center. So in looking at that we had to re-evaluate the budget. We re reviewed our financials. We looked at our existing budget, our operational budget and also the future and what would be needed and we researched and applied some of the wage structures within um the new reorg and that was um help Matt Shanki the village helped us out with that. So we looked at that. So from that from re from evaluating what our needs would be for our new restructuring we

021determined that our task would be to determine the gap in the current budget versus the future model and to move forward with that. Okay. And this is our new organizational chart. Um as I previously mentioned we had we had 12 members um on our board and we have um shifted to seven board with um president, vice president, secretary and treasures executive and three members at large. So a smaller board going over the board of directors would then be um directly respon you know responsible the executive director which we um identified as a point 4 FTE and the executive director would also be um aligned in in dealing with the contracted services and under under the executive director would be our managing director which is really that programming piece which is a 0 75 we shifted

022adjusted hours so that is um been reduced to 75 five and then within that is the two assistants which um average out about point4 so a total of point8 so okay and this is it this is um how we looked at it uh and took the the general responsibilities and in your appendices we have specific tasks delineated for each of those. So if you wanted to take a look at really the dayto-day but we looked at the board of directors which you can see is the administration um some of the PR looking at the PR but then moving more over to the executive director who would really assume a lot of the administrative roles that a lot the board members had done throughout the years and looking at the um active fundraising and the public

023relations and then the managing directors you know um on the ground you boots on the ground sort of be with the programming and working with the assistants So that's how we um you have anything to please jump in. >> I was just gonna say there'll be a 20 question quiz at the end. >> I'm not each thing activity. >> Yeah. Okay. So now move the operating budget. Now you're going to have to you may have to look at your um your own screen if you have that. >> Yeah. This is a bit of an eye chart. Did you want me to talk through this? >> Yeah, if you want. But yeah, why don't you? >> That's fine. And I think you guys have seen this, you know, every year we come and do the the

024presentation in the fall and we've been using this structure of an operating budget for decades and we list our revenues on the left side of the ledger and we list our expenses on the right side of the ledger. And I think we haven't really changed a lot uh on either side, but on the expense side now there is a position in there, you know, for this future reorgive director. And we're budgeting that out uh based on a, you know, significant wage it'll take to employ that person at uh point4 FTE that comes out to be a little over $35,000 a year. So that's something that wouldn't have been in there, you know, say in this same slide this last fall. Um we also um on our revenue side, we've we've had these reserves really for

025the wrong reason because we've had so many employment disruptions that we haven't had to make payroll all the time in the last few years. So it it kind of built up our reserves. Uh we were able to use that to cover some operating uh shortfalls. Uh but for this exercise, the group decided let's zero that out. Let's show what it would with using no reserves a year, what that true gap is between adding this expense and taking away that revenue, you know, from the reserves. So, this is kind of as bad as it gets um going forward. And and what that leaves us in the yellow box is a gap of just under 65,000 a year. And the next couple of slides we'll talk about um some options that our group came up with how

026to work through that. >> But if Yeah. And I just my point is with the expenses you um as you review it it's pretty lean budget >> you know pretty bare bones and um so this is really looking at what we felt was needed to >> Yeah. I mean, our operating expenses are really focused on the people, uh, the people to deliver the services. And as a board, we felt pretty strongly about that. We we shouldn't be spending our money on, you know, toys and gadgets and things like that. We should be spending them on people to have these interactions. It goes all the way back to the asset building, the researchbased, you know, how you want to develop uh, you know, structure youth development in a setting like a youth center. So yeah, that's

027really what it's for is for the uh the people uh to deliver those services. >> Are there any questions about any of this before we move off on to the next slide? >> So keeping in mind with this gap, we had to move forward to problem solve and come up with a plan to address this. So that would be take it Angie to the next slide. All right. What you know have to requesting additional funding to cover that shortfall of 65,000. And so what we looked at um we looked at three years but we loo and we took on we looked at three different options or I should say option A, option B, option C thinking that that would ensure if we took three years that would give us um kind of a solid launch

028and some stability in our new reorganization at the youth center and also the settling the staffing in and it also would give us an opportunity to spend down our reserves that we had and spend it down to where it's a safe level where we still have the cash flow to to back up if we needed it. So, if you look at year um the option A and note that year one, we only really have to come up with it's six months because it starts July to December. So, um when we looked at option um A, we looked at the youth center um with the the 15K or the 7.5K and our other resources um would then come up with the 50K or the 25K. Year two, it would go to 15K for the youth center.

029the other resources um the 50k and then our third year for that option A would be 15K would remain the same from the youth center don um contributing and 50k from the other resources. So that's option A. Option B would be where the youth center would um have the 25K from our reserves and um then 40K from the other and going down um 20 for the second year it'd be 20K from the youth center and 45 from the other resources and then decreasing again for the third year to 15K and then um 50 with the other resources and then option C would be the 45K MU the youth center 20k but rem reminding that it's 10k and the second year would be 10k from the youth center and then the other financial resources would be

030the 55k and then the third year of option C would be zero from our fund balance and 65 from other but in hoping that as we get this executive director who will be a fundraiser and be able to do PR that there will be um revenue coming in from other sources to keep us um moving forward. >> So, >> any questions on that? >> I think I'd just like to to point out option A is just very consistent. Here's the gap. We just cover it the same way year after year. It's obviously prorated that first year. >> Option C is kind of the other extreme. it's an option to uh walk into it slower uh from you know those other resources they may have to levy or things like that uh for those groups to

031walk into it slower and kind of step up year-over-year. And the the converse that goes with that is then the youth center would spend more of their reserves up front but then have to ratchet that down just because there wouldn't be that much left to spend down over the following years. And option B is just kind of somewhere in the middle of those two options. So, >> a question I have when I look at it is the amounts from the youth center seem to be different unless my math is bad across the three options. There's the the first one, right? Option A is 45,000 over the three years. >> Oh, over Oh, I see what you're saying. Mhm. >> Is there a reason for that or >> No, no, we just wanted to maintain the

032same, >> right? Is that what >> Yeah, there's no >> Yeah, I think option B shows a little more. That might be a typo. >> What? >> Um, and I apologize. >> Add up the three. >> Noticed it. >> Do you do you know how much >> the difference is? Maybe not off the top of your head between >> kind of what your target on balance. >> Yeah, we have about 140 to 150,000 in our reserve fund right now. >> And if we look at u the operating budget in the new organization >> of 180 or so thousand a year, >> if we use the rule of thumb that you want to keep six months of that, that means we got to keep about 90,000 >> for cash flow, for emergency, things like that. So

033150 minus 90 leaves us with about 60 maybe it's 65 70 you know can >> I think we would just evaluate it year after year >> but that's that's where the rough numbers kind of lie on the 60 to $70,000 range. >> Are you required or mandated in any way to keep a minimum amount in your cash reserves? >> We are not >> just trying to follow good financial practices. Yeah, >> that's fine. >> Yep. Good question. Yeah. >> And I think the other thing to note about the budget is that the youth center often like these would be the maximum expenses. I mean, barring anything like way outside the realm of possibility, but um under normal operating conditions, this would be kind of the maximum that they'd expect to spend in a year because

034oftentimes they'll get interns as part of the assistance um you know or or grants for the for the for some of that personnel >> um coverage. But this is kind of that total amount that it would take to consistently um operate the youth center >> and maintain the same level of services that we have now. >> What everybody wants. >> Yeah. We we feel strongly about that as a board. I think our customers, if you will, you know, the parents in the community feel strongly about that, too. >> Yeah. Well, and I think that was that was really one of the sticking points that we kept hearing when >> when the village when you were trying to work out, you know, if the village could take it over, like there just wasn't an option to

035be able to maintain that same programming if the village took it over. And so I think that's why >> it's a big deal. >> We wanted to explore that. Yeah. >> What did the the village estimate the cost of running the youth center would be per year? So they looked at it a few a few different solutions. I don't want to speak for them, but I I think my interpretation of it is they they looked at one model where if they just created almost like a recreation department and put the youth center under it, >> then that person to run that department, I think they thought was going to cost like 90,000 a year between wages and benefits. um and it would oversee kind of the youth youth center operations the most similar to what

036we have currently. They also looked at a different model where they would run it under the opices of the library and so the library would need some extra staffing to be able to do that and and some of it would be administrative, you know, some of it would be supervision. Um in that model I believe they looked at it like about a $65,000 a year adder, you know, above and beyond what their current budget allows for contributions for youth center services. Uh so I think it was somewhere in that range 60 to 90,000 depending on what model they would ultimately go >> and the service services would change well >> six to 12 >> that wasn't totally settled out I think in the >> the version of the library was at the biggest risk of

037the most change. >> Um maybe not location but certainly the types of programs that could be offered and stuff like that. the one where it was an independent department probably the least amount of change but it was the most expensive because you had the full overhead to basically create a department head. >> That's my recollection and interpretation of >> where they were evaluating >> and it well and it was it was talked about it would wouldn't just be for middle school. >> It was they talked about doing middle school and high school and high school which completely changes the dynamic of the program. So >> they as they offer it now to high school. >> Do you intend uh for all intents and purposes are you going to stay in the same location you're in

038now regardless of the option? >> I mean that's that's what this >> Yeah. This is a proposal to stay in the same location offering the same services to the same group uh age group that we offer them. >> You tough to find a better one, >> right? Loca location, right? Yeah. Yep. >> Oh, yeah. I would think if your if if your clients have to go across town to go, less would go. >> You know, this way they can walk up the hill or down the hill or >> Yeah. >> You can hit the I think the next >> it says thank you and any questions? But then but then but then there um we it's followed by a ton of appendices which I think you all have and all the pictures that you know

039we always like to showcase the kids but >> that's thank you thank you for your support all these years um doesn't seem I'm really not that old but it it seems >> Wish it could be much more. >> Well I am older. No, >> I think one >> kind of like canned question people either on this board might have or people just watching at home or maybe we'll read about this in the newspaper. I think you know very basic question be well why do the youth center need this new position executive director you guys have been able to exist 27 years without it and the answer to that we didn't state it explicitly today but that was in the fall presentations is because the current board of directors has just continued to absorb absorb absorb

040on those administrative duties and it's it's just frankly reached a tipping point where it can't go on like that anymore >> that was a case when I was on >> Right I don't recall exactly how many years ago it was, but it was a few, but that was exactly the same. >> We did. >> Yeah. The the the new structure is really more about a how nonprofits typically like sustainable nonprofits typically run. So, >> it's really easy to burn out the volunteers. >> Yes. >> Yeah. It really promotes that standalone and it lives on without the the >> the board. Do we still contract with Americanore? >> Well, we we haven't done that in many years. Um, and I'm not sure we would be doing that now given some of the things that have happened

041at the federal level in the last >> exist, >> right? There's some a lot of restrictions. >> I'll just stop there. Yeah, >> we'll just let that one go with the proposal here. It lends to consistency. One thing that has been really contributing to the success of the youth center has been the consistency of board members. And if we can find an executive director that can sort of lead everybody in the for the future direction, that consistency is better built in. and is that the I appreciate that and thank you for all the information um presenting it in a very clear way um to be able to be consumed um for the executive director role. I'm making an assumption, but I just want to make sure I'm not incorrect, that a part of that role

042is that fundraising piece of if we do, >> you know, whatever that other is and whatever that really looks like, then >> that has the potential to be decreased depending on >> the fundraising capabilities outcome. >> That's a goal. >> Okay. >> Yeah, that's right. That was why the three-year agreement is what um the committee's asking for because it builds in that stability so that they can kind of build up momentum to the executive director. >> Yeah, that's why we didn't want to go longer than a request for three years, which is really two and a half because I think it's worth evaluating where are things at, you know, not necessarily even waiting till the end of the three years looking over the cliff. Where are we at? It's just year over year that person

043settles into the position. Where are we at? How has the fundraising changed? Hopefully, it's improved. what do these numbers look like in year four, five, six, you know, hopefully less. >> Uh but but just to be clear, the the other bucket really is a funding request. You know, whoever can help us fulfill that request, school district, village, uh things like that. It's it's not intended to be, hey, we need to we need we know we need another or another 50,000. Let's go have a bunch of bake sales. Like that's we're we're way beyond that. like this is this is what we need to institute this new reorganization get some stability for a few years and then see you know what we can do with it. >> So with the fundraising piece are you going to

044set like quarterly fundraising benchmarks or annual fundraising benchmarks for the new incoming executive director? >> I think that would be on the table. I think frankly there'll be a new board of directors that will come in. I'm not sure it'll be 100% new but it'll be vastly different than it is now. And I think that's going to be for them to work with the executive director on how to ratchet that up and what the benchmarks, you know, are reasonable and, you know, over those couple of years. But I I would foresee that. Yes. >> Okay. Great. I mean, by offering a salary, if you will, for the executive director, we're able to find a higher somebody who has fundraising experience, has executive director experience because you're, you know, there's compensation, which >> most of everybody

045right now is volunteers. And also with the shift to um the board for seven members, we're looking also to recruit board members um with certain skill sets, legal, finance, PR, HR, um youth development. And so um we would have that um you know those skills to build on to and help support the executive director. >> Great. >> And it's I think it's important to acknowledge too that there's already a great deal of fundraising >> Yeah. that occurs now. So, you know, it's going to have to be new sources most likely >> instead of trying to get more out of existing sources. That fundraising has been pretty stable, >> you know, relatively stable and some of the grant writing as well. Uh, but the grant writing is is the time takes so much time >> and

046when you have a change in staffing that's that's often gets lost. My personal intuition is right there too that >> the executive director I think the biggest untapped area is the grant writing. We have some that we get each year. But >> I know from your experiences on other nonprofit boards. There's probably a lot more out there that we just don't have the right people to with the right knowledge with the right connections to go look into >> the networking and the network out there in Dane County. And um true you know the the youth center was started by um discretionary grant DPI AODDA prevention grant I you know that really kept gave us the seed money to keep it going for a few years. >> It's just such a great investment for our community

047and I think that's what people >> the community needs to understand that I mean we need the youth center. >> Thank you. And so I think the next steps then are um the committee is presenting to the village board right on the 24th. >> Next Tuesday. >> Yep. And then um we won't take action on anything tonight because we don't have a formal request or anything but all the great minds from the village and the district will get together and >> figure out what options are. So >> yeah, >> I would just comment, you know, the collaboration between the village board and the school board is really um exceptional. So I appreciate everyone pulling together as Bruce always says, you know, >> we're all in it together. We're all in this together. And we're all

048in it together to support our middle-aged youth >> because without the youth center, there'd be minimal to no support system for them. >> Yeah. Great. Any other questions? >> Wonderful. >> Thanks for your time. >> Thanks so much for coming in. >> Thank you. There you go. We look forward to coming back. Well, and reooking at just like it's really hard to take that internal look in of what you can do better in the future. Um, while also recognizing you all have done incredible work thus far. So, just take a minute and congratulate yourselves that you've done so much and this is not um this is not over and this there there is room and just incredible work. Just don't forget that that sometimes that just gets lost in a lot. But um thank you

049for your dedication and your time over the many many >> years, but not too many, right? >> Thank you. I mean, it's been for many of us, it's just it's been an honor to give back to the community in that way. There's never been any >> bad feelings about this is too much work or stuff like that. It's really been an honor, but but we did want to be realistic about the future and the burnout and how that would impact the services really. You know, that's what it's about. Making sure they can continue. So, >> we aren't bionic. >> I don't think another snowone again. >> Thank you so much. Thank you all. Good to see you. >> All right. Um, okay. Nextformational item is our legislative update from our very own Megan Chapman. you

050guys get to listen to me now talk about super fun legislative stuff. Um, so a little bit will be repetitive just because there's not a ton going on in the legislature right now. Um, but first I want to talk about the state budget and surplus negotiations because as we are all aware there is um a pretty hefty surplus in the state budget. Um, so right now our state leaders are negotiating how to allocate the projected surplus. And so, Governor Ivers uh has proposed a $1.3 billion package including $450 million in general school aid, $200 million in special ed aid, and then property tax relief components. So, when you break it down into the uh Senate and Assembly, the Senate Majority Leader Devin Lamehu >> Leah Hugh, sorry, I look at it from a French perspective.

051uh has indicated that the governor's 400year veto uh must be addressed in any deal. >> They don't like it. >> No. And then the assembly speaker Robin Voss um has suggested that there is a potential path to agreement. But that being said, um the assembly will be concluding their floorwork soon. Um so we have a very small window for things to happen. So with that being said, negotiations are ongoing, but nothing has been solidified yet. >> What is the window? How how big is that window? I don't know. >> You don't know? I'm just curious. >> I don't know. I want to say a couple weeks maybe, but don't quote me on what is it? >> Maybe a week their last session. >> No, just that that that window of opportunity before the the legislative

052session is done. It's not much. >> No, it's it isn't much. I know. And Leoo was not on board. No, >> but he seems to be maybe coming around. >> I was surprised it was >> three days. >> Well, I've never heard him say anything like that. Mhm. >> Well, they're going to have to do something about property taxes because people are just screaming >> and and you know, we got to figure some way to to work this out. I'm just out of curiosity, how would >> I don't know if Jeff or Aaron or perhaps you, Megan, how how would that the proposal, what was the how much was um you know, was he proposing? How would that affect us? Is that anything has even kind of thought? I mean, I'm friends with his chief

053of staff if you want me to text her real quick. I'm just kidding. >> Well, I am curious though. I mean, what, you know, how is it going to what impact does it have to us? I mean, otherwise, it's just these kind of these numbers that are floating out there. We go like, well, what does that mean? And I'm wondering if anyone has done any I mean, I I think I wish the public could understand how it could make a significant difference and they don't. I mean, they just see these numbers and they don't understand. Particularly, I think again, rural districts are just in a whirl. Mhm. >> And I don't I just it would just be nice to give them something to shoot for. Say, "Oh, that's a good goal and let's work towards

054that." >> I'm not sure I'm saying much, but >> I can't recall talks about consolidating districts since >> the early 2010s. >> Yeah. >> When you know, >> people were getting used to Act 10. They talked about consolidation smaller districts, but that's That's a whole >> Oh, that it destroys communities. >> Yeah. The research doesn't support that that >> beyond the last resort. >> Yeah, exactly. So, it'd be interesting to know. I mean, I just I think at some point the heat is starting to show. I think a little bit on Robin Boss. Um, and clearly I don't think, you know, Ivers is particularly happy with the $400 430 is it for how much? >> 325, sorry. 325 for 400 years is is you know he just he's basically said well we got to do

055something to to guarantee that funding goes up otherwise we're gonna have a real problem. So >> get people's attention. >> Yeah. But now we need to kind of just start what is this how does this translate to how does it affect you and me >> find out after midterms? >> Oh let's let's hope that window can be we can actually make something happen. It be wonderful. And just so everyone knows, Governor's State of the State address is tomorrow. >> That's Oh, that's right. >> So, tune in. Maybe we'll learn a bunch of stuff. >> Yeah. >> Um, >> thank you for that, though. That is important. That's really important, Megan. >> And if you want to go, you have to have a ticket. So, if you don't have a ticket, I'm very sorry. I don't

056have a ticket, just so everyone knows. Okay. Um, so kind of going into how uh the governor's proposed uh package breaks down that $200 million for special ed is what's going to um bring up our special ed reimbursement to that 42 and 40 45% um that our targets were. Now as we talked about before the funding verbiage is some certain which means >> uh we will not get that 42 and 45 it ends up coming down to like 35 like mid 30% >> what's left >> yes basically so um you know bills have been referred to committee to get that language change but it has not moved forward unfortunately >> what is the current percentage >> I think it comes in at 35 >> that the last I heard was 38 >> 38 okay >>

057is that what you're hearing So >> 38. >> Yeah. >> Is Yeah. >> The other Oh, did you have >> I was just gonna say it's sad that we we could be excited about getting up the 42%. >> Yes. >> I'm sorry. That's pathetic, >> but >> Well, and it was interesting because Megan and I were at the MHS advising night and we talked with a student about special ed reimbursement. Um, and he was shocked because when you break it down to like, oh, we get reimbursed, you know, 35 cents for every dollar. And and he was just he goes, "Wait, we don't get our money back for all of it." I said, "No." And he he just he had so many great questions. He was a sophomore. >> Um, and he would like to

058like the whole political conversation and this and that. And he was like, "Well, why don't they want to fund public education?" 100%. And I said, "Buddy, you are preaching to the choir, my friend." >> No kidding. But it's been really interesting having conversations with high school students about public education funding because they are hearing about it at home obviously with referendum conversations and whatnot. So um you know kids are listening. They're listening when you don't even realize. >> True. >> Um so speaking of kids uh there is a new cell phone policy um that has brought to the table. So right now the current law um requires instructional time restrictions while preserving local board autonomy. So, as we all know, we put into effect a new cell phone policy. Um, and right now there is

059a new bill that would actually require a belltobell student cell phone ban. Um, but interestingly enough, it would only apply to traditional public schools. >> Oh, how about that? >> Interesting. Interesting. >> Um, so right now it has just been introduced uh a hearing. It is scheduled for a hearing um but is in the early stages right now. Is it because they can't mandate to the charter schools and voucher schools and private schools? >> They can. >> Anything that receives state money, they can >> require. >> And keep in mind the the last cell phone bill that was approved has not taken effect yet. >> No. >> You know, because they give you time to develop your policies and things. So there's another one now >> that basically passing time and lunch at recess, >>

060but that's pretty much what we're doing anyway. Am I right? Is that pretty much what we are? >> We currently at the high school students can use it during passing time and lunch and recess. So if this was passed, that would change that. >> Okay. Yeah, I see. >> But it's btobell K8. >> Yeah. >> For K8. >> So that is everything I had for my fun report. >> Very nice. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thanks, Megan. >> It's really good to have that update regularly now. Thank you. >> Didn't make me feel a lot better, but >> I know >> and you know, I try to find the positives. >> But it does give you it does give you some hope >> on that. >> It gives you some hope. I thought so

061too when I, >> you know, read about >> just be glad, you know, you didn't ask me to talk about, you know, some of the stuff that came down in the Senate last week >> because that was rough, but it didn't pertain to schools. So, >> well, and you tend to spend time on things that like there's a lot of other education bills happening, but these are the ones that like have a chance of actually passing or like getting all the way through because the if we spent time on all the other things, >> Yeah. Like there's personnel bills and other things like that that I could talk about, but >> for sure. >> Yeah. I'd rather talk about the things that are critical, >> right? >> Well, critical to the schools and critical to

062the to our taxpayers as well. I mean, that's the that's the crazy thing. >> Yep. >> All right. Any other discussion about that? >> Okay. Then we have our me. >> You are. Thanks. >> Thank you. So then our strategic plan update from Mr. Tarnitzer. >> I am going to ask a question of the board. Oh, would you be okay if we modified the agenda? Uh, I'm thinking of our wonderful director of business who probably does not want to listen to my strategic plan update and my district administrator's report. >> Sure. >> Live necessarily. And so I'm wondering if we could adjust the agenda so we could move to the >> Okay. By me. >> Sure. Director of business. Do you need >> Do we need a motion for that to make that change or

063is that still on the agenda? >> No, it makes sense. It makes sense. >> It's just adjusting the order. It's not like we're adding something to agenda. We're just >> lay it on us, Mr. Money. Is that okay? >> Yeah, that sounds great. >> I just >> Come on up, Mr. Mahoney. >> I would try to go super fast just because I felt bad and I don't want to rush myself. >> So, it's really it's about him. >> It's really about me. I'm trying to make him feel better. Thank you. >> Well, thanks. Um, we do have it. They'll be up on the screen. However, I printed it for you, so it's in front of you. >> Yes. >> Because there are graphics that sometimes look really tiny and >> Yes. >> Um, it's a

064little bit more helpful when you have a little bit of information in front of you, but for our public, if they can take their telescoping lens and take a look at what we have up on there, they can do that. So, uh, board budget update. This is the 16th of 2026, so >> we're right on schedule. Um, so the schedule at a glance, um, page two, uh, just kind of shows our calendar that you approved, uh, in December and, you know, we're two months into this thing and moving right along. So, tonight we'll talk a little bit about just our budget. I just want to ground ourselves a little bit with some information and then um just give a brief look at what a multi-year estimate might look like which is no different than a

065lot of times what we do to kind of see what the future might be. Um and we've chatted about that a few times anyway. So what are we working on? Well, we are always looking at our enrollment uh both resident and open enrollment mostly uh resident enrollments. We're usually looking at this time of year where the uh 4K interest is coming in for our residents and the kindergarten uh interest as well uh because we start hosting things for those grade levels um in the spring. So it is always interesting to see and hear uh the information coming to Emily Broom who is our enrollment specialist and keeper of lots of information that comes to her. Um so um you know just aside our resident enrollment uh for 4K and kindergarten is a little bit lighter

066than some of the interest levels. And what I speak to of with kindergarten is that we're always watching the trends of we already know how many kids are residents as 4K. We do expect most of them to be with us. We also expect 4K open enrollment outs be back with us because they're now in a location. Um but we typically see around 25 to 28 students that have been either just home or in a different type of program. And therefore that's phone calls we start getting in the spring and this time of year. Um and those have been a little lighter than normal. We're not seeing that uptick as many as we normally do. So that is something we're watching and being very mindful of. Uh and then we'll get into a little bit of

067open enrollment here in a moment. Uh we also uh track you know retirements and resignations um as we've passed the February February 1 date and also we tend to see the movement a little bit of resignations if a family or staff member is looking to have a family move. Um so you know another area that is key to us because staffing is over 80% of our budget. So then budget impacts, revenue and expense, uh that changes and goes up and down with enrollment and staffing. So again, things that we're tracking and I did some pies on this one that I think will help ground us in just reminding us how much our expenses are in certain areas. So resident enrollment, uh as you can see, we have talked about this. We had a already a

068big presentation on where our enrollment is looking like. Um our resident enrollment is projected to continue down. Um and this is why in January the board took action to open up uh open enrollment. Next slide. Resident enrollment. This is just for your information. wanted to break it down again so you can see by building where we're projecting where the bubbles will be kind of going through which is really the high school uh for a few years. Um as some of our large resident and open enrollment classes are part of the high school starting next year. open enrollment. Um, as of last week on the 11th, Emily pulled me some data, the board had opened up, for instance, 27 seats for 4K. At that time, 10 uh have been applied for in 5K kindergarten. 11 slots

069of which five um have applied of which three listed another district as higher preference. So even though a family might want to come to McFarland, they have up to three choices that they fill out on their application. So we tend to compete with our neighbors on lots of things. >> Are you able Do they notate what other district? Okay. >> Yes. And it shows it in order. Are they similar districts? Like the other people, the competitive district districts, are they typically the same? >> They're typically the same and they're typically very geographic. Okay. They're right next to us. Okay. >> Um in this case, uh kindergarten has of those five, the other three um had grove listed as >> we were second. >> Some of some of these districts are advertising >> pretty heavily out

070there. >> Nice info commercial right there. It has heated up to the point where some districts are doing mailers to other resident >> I saw sock prairie was doing TV commercials. >> Yeah. >> So that is a new >> several >> again with pretty much every district having declining enrollment across our county. >> Y >> um the need for students because of our poor funding formula that's designed by that organization you were just talking about the legislature. Um, you know, it it just impacts everybody. >> Will this will this change? Now, this is February 11th. Will that I mean, >> yes, we have until the end of April. >> April 30th. Yeah. >> Yep. >> All right. >> It's very early in the window. >> Yeah. I was going to say I hope. >> But

071we've had better trends early on than correct this. >> Okay. So again then in May uh we go through the approval process and then in June the families have the decision to say which district that they want to attend and then we hope that they follow through and show up in September. >> Okay. >> So it is a process. >> Yes. >> Staffing just an update at this point. And I hope I had captured I think where we were Aaron on a number of these. Uh we have a ESL position that's leaving due to retirement. Uh we have intervention technology individual that's leaving due to retirement. Uh the French staff member at the middle school leaving due to retirement. Music retirement. Uh fifth grade we have two retirements. And at kindergarten we have two what

072I think are one's a family move and Another one's a personal choice. >> I hit those. All right. Pretty much. >> I can't think of anything. >> Okay, good. >> I know Angie and I will often play this game of if we can remember. >> Yep. >> And I feel like that's pretty good. >> Yep. I think that's >> Thank you. >> pretty much right up to at this time. So, you know, we do have some staffing uh openings right now um for us to be looking at and we do that during February through frankly even right up until August. >> We're looking at staffing and making sure that we're meeting our class sizes and uh looking at the options that we need for our kids in middle school and high school as well. So,

073good news, no cuts necessary. Mhm. >> We're not seeing that because we have uh staffing changes in kind of the right areas. Um so hiring is likely >> as we enter hiring season which is typically >> postings are usually in March, April, interviews May, hiring decisions May. >> Is that is there any chance of that changing if open enrollment spots don't get filled? Well, that's what that would be the big reason why the K5 grade level review continues. Okay. >> Um, and we had already looked at that is unlikely that if we were to look at grades three, excuse me, second, third, fourth, fifth, and 10th. Even though we had open spaces, we really did not anticipate many uh pieces coming or students coming for that. So, we already kind of anticipated that. Um, kindergarten

074is really our where are we going to be at? And right now, since we do have two resignations, uh, we'll be kind of holding for a little bit >> um, at the K2 level and starting to review that with our principles >> because what's the average class size for K2? >> Well, we we hope to have um, around 20. Okay. at kindergarten around 21, first grade, 22 at second grade. >> We stay real close. >> Yeah. >> We're pretty cautious. Yeah. >> On our on our estimates and it's it's an >> we have to add or or subtract a section of kindergarten depending upon or are we set there? >> Well, right right now we will be seeing probably um a decrease um but we'll see how resident enrollment interest comes in and also the

075open enrollment >> not like it used to be the open enrollment you know >> Yep. 10 or 15 years ago. >> Just need large subdivisions right on our border again. >> I mean, that's really what drove, >> Right. >> Yeah. >> So, expense overview. What you know, sometimes people look at, all right, well, you have that large budget and we've talked about where a lot of it goes. Um, so, you know, I just wanted to recap. you know, our 25 26 fund 10 and 27, that's our educational operational budgets. 80% of our budget is wages and benefits. Yeah. >> You know, that makes sense. We're a people business. >> Now, some people get, oh, well, you got all that 15% for services over there. Well, that's a lot of contracted services, transportation, substitutes, um, contracts

076for HVAC technicians, stuff like that. So, really, when someone asks you like, "Boy, couldn't you do with couldn't you do with a little less?" It's almost getting to the supplies budget, which is 4%. That that's what you're looking to carve up. And when you're getting into that, you're talking about your large line items in and supplies as technology. >> You know, it gets difficult to start cutting things we buy to keep a network up and running >> year round, >> right? We're just on a good day these days. So, it's been a rough couple days, by the way. >> Yeah. >> But we we we had a network over lunch on Friday, so it >> the bugs are getting out. So I I just wanted to remind people, you know, and our insurance, you know,

0771% and that's property casualty insurance. That's not health insurance >> because that falls under benefits, correct? >> Right. Okay. >> So the next pie breaks it down. Well, where does that 80% go, Jeff? >> Well, wages is 73% of that. Health insurance is 15% of that. Then you get into FICA and WRS and dental and there's a little long-term disability life insurance in there. So where can you trim back and you know really the movement we had this last year and as part of a four-year agreement is the fact that we had a big shift with our group health and >> uh switch over from dean to group health. um that has helped stabilize and give us a you know a good view of what's happening over the next three years after this year. >>

078Do any of your legislators see this? Do they have Have you ever We should send this to some of the folks that >> Well, it's actually interesting you bring that up. Um Aaron and I were chatting about uh inviting legislators to schools to learn more about like the day-to-day things. >> Um because Stoen did something similar to that. So, >> um, my I mean, we know all about it because obviously this is our wheelhouse. And so, when you look at at least locally the prioritization of what legislators are focusing on, um, it's it's my personal opinion that education and the overall internal financials of each district aren't high on that list right now. >> I agree. Um, but I mean I remember when we were having a conversation, we were talking about, you know, fixed

079costs versus variable costs within our district itself. I mean, I was surprised by just what small of a percentage of the overall pie are variable costs of what you actually can play with. >> And so, I mean, if us as board members are surprised by that, I'm sure legislators uh would be surprised as well. >> Well, I c certainly think the public is there just always, oh, there's things you can cut. It's like, uh, not really. >> It's difficult. >> It's very difficult. Well, and especially when so many of our fixed costs are, you know, increases are completely out of our hands, right? I mean, we looked at our health insurance piece and we said, "Okay, something needs to change." So, you know, negotiating, making difficult decisions, but I mean, prices are going up everywhere

080and we literally have no control over that. >> Sorry, totally. >> No, I was I I led you down that path. Sorry. No, I appreciate the knowledge that our board has and understands that, you know, like you say, the fixed costs that, you know, we sit there and we talk about, you know, working on electrical costs and natural gas costs and trying to live in a budget that we've had for a couple decades now and we continually are trying to refresh our systems that we stay just within those those budgets because >> sharing sharing costs with the village >> certainly >> where we where we can. I mean, we're So, you know what's interesting to me because I didn't try to match this up this way, but when go back to the expense side and

081you talk salaries and benefits about 80% not including services, well, our funding control is about 80%. Uh, state aid and taxes. When you look at this next slide, it's kind of like haven't, you know, and that's unique. Most school districts have a larger percentage of their school district revenue is controlled by the revenue cap. Ours is only a little bit more unique because of the fact that we have a huge chunk of money that um is revenue from our partnership with WEA >> and that is big key to this year's budget and future year budgets. >> So with that I just have a question. Do we have a contract with them? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Is that the right word? >> Yeah. >> Say it again. >> The sponsor. >> You are the authorizing

082>> authorizing the same thing. >> The contract term >> five years fiveyear agreement. >> Okay. >> And the public also needs to realize there is a shortage of now of teachers. So finding some of these positions and you know the idea well let's cut back on salary and benefits and you go like well then you're gonna have teachers leaving districts and it's just it's this kind of nightmare scenario that we're in. And again they just need to kind of look at the a new funding formula or something. >> Exactly. So, you know, we try to take some of that and then think about, okay, Jeeoff, what does our future look like? And there's a lot of numbers here. And I'm really just going to spend our time kind of focused in on because it's not

083a mystery. When we go to kind of the middle of the page where it says fund 10 revenues, fund 10 expenditures. >> Yeah. >> Please note that the revenues that come in for fund 10 and some of the expendit and the expenditures that incorporates fund 27. just so you're kind of aware like that's all part of this. Um so when you look at the current year is in the blue and it shows that you know we might end up with a little bit of a deficit this year. It's probably going to be a very well balanced uh amount this year and right now we're looking at 2627. You can see the 267,000 to the good. That is based on our available revenues that we're looking at for both our revenue cap as projected with the

084enrollments that I've put into the formulas and also you know like I mentioned our WEBA funding. So, you know, it's looking like a good year. And that that includes the um estimate of, you know, just over the 5% in uh wages and some of the other benefit costs that um we've looked at and done over the last couple years moving forward because 2627 is the last year of our referendum. So in 2728 when you start to see that deficit of 816,000 that is that first year without >> the referendum. Then you get into 2829 year two without referendum and then so on. So you go up to 2030 2031 um you know just about $7 million of a deficit. Well, when someone asks where's the deficit money come from? Well, we've been fortunate over the

085years to have developed uh good sound fund balance policies and we've been able to build it up over time again using income revenues from other school districts via the virtual school. >> That's how we built um and we started to avoid short-term borrowing back in 2017. So, we are now just about a decade into not having to short-term borrow. >> So, there's a lot of real good positives and, you know, we do hope that our legislature, >> not only for us, but others, >> yes, >> looks at better ways to fund schools, not only for just meeting the needs of schools, but also the needs of our taxpayers as well. So, >> so one question with WEA, um, we've been seeing increases in enrollment year-over-year. What kind of growth can we expect over the next

086four years from enrollment in WEA? >> So, >> or do these numbers already include forecast? >> What I've incorporated into this is that we're counting on about 2.1 million in revenues, which is if we go back to the inception of it, we used to not count on any of the revenues because it was just about 350,000. So this is our third year of having to count on the virtual school. Um we started the year at 1.9 million. >> Okay. >> Or excuse me, just over 1.7 million. >> Then budget adjustments recently we had it up to 1.9 million. >> Okay. Um, so this is it's a significant piece of our pie because if we think about it, it's right now annually supporting more >> than our next year add-on of fund or excuse me, >>

087state >> revenue cap authority >> of 1.75. So, it's a significant impact that doesn't require our taxpayers to fund more contribute. Yeah. Okay. But those that's already in part of the fund 10 revenues. Okay. >> And Megan, I I have a meeting on Thursday with the the Wea board and um they are they have been estimating about a 10% increase, >> okay, >> in enrollment every year. Okay. >> It just goes on. It's amazing. >> Their enrollment blew up >> during co. >> Yeah. >> They doubled their enrollment from I think 2004. >> Yeah. >> Something you know around numbers. >> So that was a a boom financially for sure. >> Well, it's been a good investment on our part. Yeah. >> The other thing to consider is that the bianial budget um provided additional

088funds to the receiving district for open enrollment, >> right? >> And so that >> that was something we couldn't have predicted >> and it really it really did help. >> So those things make it hard to predict. So >> Jeff's done a great job of being very conservative in our estimates because then if something good happens, that's a better way to do it than if you overestimate >> Oh, yeah. >> revenues and then we have a problem we have to fix. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> We try not to have problems. >> So that's the exciting news of, you know, what our future looks like, which you've known about, >> but it is continuing to show kind of the same trends. You know, um I thought I'd put this slide together because like where does

0891.75 million go next year when we have new revenue authority? Well, we also have expenditure commitments. And if we just take that pi that we had shown earlier and put our estimated increases that we're likely to see in those areas, we will eclipse the 1.75 with expenditure growth in salaries and benefits of 1.8. And that's currently based on the modeling that we have now. This does not >> include any changes with any new salary or wage schedules. I was waiting for you to bring that up. >> Yeah. So, when someone asks, "Where's that money going?" >> Well, you're spending it. >> Nice job. >> Yep. On what you said spend it on. >> On what we said we were spend. >> Yes. Exactly. Um, this graphic has a lot of little information, but you know,

090this is what our revenue limit authority for next year looks like. just over 34.7 million. And then again, we take state aid off of that equals estimated property taxes for >> next year, which is looking at about 20 million. Um, so just shy of 10% at about 9.6% for next year. It's because next slide. If all of this were to be the truth for the next five years, we'll see about a h 100,000 less in state aid next year. That's what I'm predicting. >> Revenue cap minus state aid equals property tax. >> Now, I want to remind all of us that we've looked really good in the formulas for many years. We are very highly funded for the wealth of our community. I'm not saying that's a great thing. I'm not saying that's we should

091be proud of this, but we've really lived a number of years with good formulas in our favor with state aid because it's value divided by the number of kids and we have a small tight 25 square mile school district that had, you know, some growth in resident enrollment and now it's starting to go the other way. So, we're going to start losing a little bit of that state aid under the existing formulas if this is how the next five years look with our legislation. >> I mean, it's it's substantial looking at 2025 versus 2030. >> Yep. >> I mean, it's >> huge. >> $4.5 million. Mhm. >> So, next steps, uh, we continue to review revenue and expense. We're always looking, uh, forward at the salary and wage plans, um, for these next few years.

092We like to monitor the state legislature. We like their sound bites. It's kind of cool. Um, kind of better if they actually did something with them. uh looking at enrollment and then we talked about March through June is usually our main hiring season and then we always continue to monitor what's out there past 26 27. That's what I have for this evening. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Would a bigger tax base get us better aid? >> It depends. If you have more students to get into students per equalized value, >> yeah, >> you want to look poor in the formula. >> So you do that by >> having lots of kids and low equalized value. >> Interesting. >> Which we do not. >> Nope. >> Right. >> We are growing fast in our equalized

093value. >> How is the equalized value calculated? the uh department of revenue calculates that. So our average in this model is 5%. >> Okay. >> And like this last year the state average was less than 8% and ours was 8%. >> Okay. >> So again we looked richer in the formula >> and we had declining enrollment. >> Good times. >> That's across the board. Okay. >> For declining enrollment >> everywhere >> across the state pretty much. >> Pretty much. I think it's like 70 to 80%. >> Yeah. >> But like if you compare us to Stoen from like an equalized value perspective, do you know where their spell falls at? >> I don't. Okay. I used to have a slide on that for the annual meeting showed. >> I would just be curious to know

094how we fell. >> I would be happy to resurrect that. I'll send >> that would be awesome. Thank you. an easy look. >> Okay. Okay. >> It'll show it uh equalized value per member. >> Okay. >> Or student. >> Okay. Awesome. Thanks. Okay. >> Yeah, I'll update that. >> All right. Thanks, Jeff. >> Thank you, Jeff. >> Good as always discussions. I feel smarter already after listening. >> That's correct. >> I feel mentally prepared for >> future scenarios. >> Yeah. >> So, okay. >> All right. Should we go back to the strategic plan now? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Thanks, Jeff. >> Thanks very much, Jeffrey. >> Jeffrey. >> Very >> Heful named Jeff. >> J Money. >> That's what I call them. >> That's probably the good. >> Yeah, I like those. >> I'm

095a big fan of nicknames. >> All right. So, we're gonna just a little update. We have completed year three of our strategic plan. So, you have this uh a copy of this in front of you. So, my display is just for the people at home and I'll I'll walk you through a little bit of this and just give you a quick update and um we will have time for questions at the end. Just a reminder that this is a five-year plan. And so the board voted on this in December of 2022, way back in the early 2020s. Um, and a couple things that happen with this is that, you know, obviously we share this and then our administrative team in collaboration with our building leadership teams, we develop a annual uh progress report. um and

096kind of do an internal report card or action steps and things. So, I'll be sharing that with you and we measure that with our key performance indicators which are also included in the handout. Um just something to think about is that we'll be back at this most likely in the summer of 2027. So, in advance of our strategic plan expiring, we will get back together with a similar process that we used last time involving community members and staff members to develop our next five-year plan. So, a little over a year away from >> starting over. So for our 2025 objectives and this is our first pillar educational excellent. You can see on the left side the objectives for improving academic achievement um with a focus on literacy and closing gaps. And then when you look

097at our annual objectives for last year really focused on what are some high leverage instructional strategies specifically in the area of English language arts or and literacy and closing the gap for students with disabilities because that's where our data indicates the the greatest gap is and that involves providing professional development support for our teachers in regard to these strategies. IES and we had a team came together identified foundational practices with explicit instruction as a high lever strategy and we've been providing professional development throughout the year on that. We also had a cohort of staff about 50 staff that have participated in some lesson design professional development with Dr. Shelley Moore who is an expert on designing inclusive classrooms uh including for students with disabilities. she was a special ed teacher. She's out of Canada. Um

098and um that work has continued and and will continue yet this school year. And then of course we're doing peer observations, collaborative classroom visits where staff are learning from each other and then meeting with staff afterwards to share ideas. Moving forward, we're going to continue the that work. That's really uh the focus. we're not going to jump to the next shiny new thing because this is basic foundational instructional practices. And so that professional development will uh continue moving forward. And I would say one of the other things that we're starting to move towards is focusing on ensuring that all of our students have access to grade level content. Good. So, one of the things that you'll you'll hear about, you know, back in the day, we used to talk about differentiation a lot and scaffolding

099lessons and things. >> And now what we're doing is is thinking very carefully about when we do that, how we do that to ensure that all of our students have access to grade level content. You can't meet a a standard that you don't see. And >> um there's things there's little phrases on the whiteboards to remind us >> u about that. So that's that is educational excellence. Moving on to family and community engagement. This is where we're talking about building meaningful and constructive communication and partnerships to en insure equitable access, representation, and voice. Last year we were focusing on the the kind of engagement gaps with our stakeholders talking about community engagement specifically so beyond our parents and guardians and providing some opportunities for our families to be engaged in some collaborative problem solving and

100making sure that they're aware of different events going on. So, as you know, we've done a lot of sessions on how to use the tools for families, the Infinite Campus and Canvas and Seesaw, how to use those tools. We've also initiated a community newsletter. We're on a cycle now of every other month of having a digital newsletter. And as you know, we will be looking towards having a print um newsletter a couple times a year as well. >> Who compiles that >> that newsletter? Well, that would be Angie Strobe and Aaron Tarneter. >> Our communic our communications department. >> Communications department. Yes. Our communications um team >> um puts those together. >> Highly effective. >> Yes. We also created a volunteer form uh for buildings to make it easier for people to express interest in

101volunteering. Uh we continue to gather feedback from families on different topics like how did you feel about open house night? What can we learn from that? We've had focus groups, surveys. So really trying to engage families in that way. >> Thank you. >> Um and then also begun to look at how we're using the district calendar as a source of information for our students and families. Moving forward, that work continues. Um, we really want to look at what are the barriers for those who are under uh under reppresented in our events. What gets in the way of people attending events or participating in events and addressing those uh barriers? Want to increase our promotion of the activities that we have here including and especially for our senior population so that people know what's going on

102at the PAC and MRAP and we've made some strides there already. And then, as I mentioned, continue that work with the district calendar. We're also looking at how we might be able to use our app a little bit more effectively to make sure people are aware of different events. >> Is there is there a are we I'm sure you are. So, but the idea of trying to work with other districts that try to have a more uniform calendar wherever possible, >> we we do collaborate as superintendents on a couple of things, but most often it is related to the when our spring break is and our winter break. Um, we're we're close we are on for spring break typically, >> but there's always some rogue people. Uh the difference is is that different different districts

103have different structures. So we have full professional development days. Some have early release and late start and so that throws it off a little bit. >> Yeah. >> For different calendars, but generally there's a few touch points. Most people are having the Wednesday through Friday for Thanksgiving. Most people are having this time that we just had sometime around this February time. >> Yes. >> Off, you know. So, there's a few consistencies. >> Yeah, that's what I'm I'm starting to notice that, but I know it's like Verona where my son's kids go, they had was it was it uh oh gosh, maybe I'm getting it wrong with my other my other my daughter's kids, but anyway, there was there was just one day that was common, but then another day was off because there are staff

104who have kids who go to different districts and if you try to >> keep it together. We tend to like in February we tend to um use sort of the old SWO um days where we have off on that Thursday Friday that we did last week whereas some districts are doing Friday Monday. >> Monday. Yeah. >> So today being president's day some have >> have off but um the way that we do it is better. >> So if they would like to to change to our way that would be fine. So leaders collaboration at all amongst districts in terms of you know scheduling vacations and days out >> mostly mostly I think the the one that we're really good about is spring break >> and and winter break is just >> I was going to

105say it's been pretty close. >> It's pretty close. >> Yeah. >> And and certainly Thanksgiving. >> Yep. >> All right. Moving on to things >> other things to be thankful for. Um our exceptional staff >> Thanksgiving. So there's two things, two objectives there about an inclusive work environment that fosters open communication, collaboration, growth, and support to promote high levels of well-being as well as recruiting, retaining diverse staff representative of a global society. So, in terms of our annual goal last year, really focusing on team developments, teams um assessing themselves using best practices to make sure they're highly functioning teams and collaborating well um and also um looking at our our best practices for recruitment and retainment of staff including diverse staff. And so what we did last year was we developed a process for staff

106to teams to evaluate themselves based on their working agreements and that's a standard operating procedure. Now we updated our hiring process uh for staff to reduce bias. We also evaluated our staff survey data in terms of retention. What's the most important things to our staff? And I will tell you salary is not number one. Um, but we've also been working, as you know, on on updating our certified staff salary schedule. That work will continue. We're continuing to look at that recruitment recruitment and and retention of diverse staff. I think the um salary schedule update, if approved by the board, will certainly help. We're also looking at our evaluation process for our support staff, making sure that's up todate and um eliminates bias as much as possible. And then we're really spending time looking at the

107diversity across groups in terms of um to guide our recruitment and retention. and we're going to conduct stay interviews with our our staff who are racially and ethnically diverse and um help help them teach us what helps them um want to stay here and continue to work here. What are the things and to use that to guide our work? >> I think that's great that >> Yeah, it's good work. The last thing is paying for everything. So, uh, we want to have a fiscally and environmentally responsible operational plan. Um, and then continue to deepen our investment in equity and inclusion, diversity, equity, inclusion efforts. So, you know, obviously continue a long ranging planning, which we just heard about for financial stability, but we're always looking at improving our systems more efficiently and and had great

108progress in terms of our heating and cooling efficiencies with a a company data wrangler that we worked with last year. Um, obviously the health plan, health insurance plan that we talked about and continuing those long range plan development. the certified staff salary schedule is certainly an important part. And then we're also looking at what are some of the financial barriers for our families and looking to address those. I think the um there's a need Oh, a little typo here. Um right there. Um I will highlight my typo. There we go. um a need to um address that those those gaps especially when it comes to to different activities that are available to our kids and make sure that there's no barrier. The exciting thing about our our updated um staff salary schedule, if approved, is

109it would be more competitive with other districts and also recognize work life balance a little more by focusing on what staff are are doing during the school day versus requiring extra things. >> And again, it just with this teacher shortage in this state, it just it's the only way you can compete with them. We have to be >> I think people have to understand that. >> Yep. everybody and it and everybody just keeps increasing how much they're paying people with the limited resources they have. So, it is really a if you can pass a referendum, you set the bar for every other district that just chases you >> supply and demand. >> It is. In terms of our our KPIs, our key performance indicators, it's important when you're looking at the educational excellence one to

110know that the first one, you want to see that number going up, okay? Because it's the percentage of students who are proficient on the Wisconsin State ELA assessments. And you can see for us that has been going up. The next ones, you want to see that number going down because it's the gaps between our white students, students of color, between our students with and without disabilities, our students who are and who are not socioeconomically disadvantaged and uh female and male. So, you can see in all of those areas, we are having slight increases in that gap, which is why we're kind of doubling down on our our instructional design efforts. the the sense of belonging that our students are reporting continues to be very very high on a five-point scale at a four 4.44 last

111year. Um we just took the survey. We have not gotten the results. We will have those to you in a couple weeks >> for this for this year. Um but that's a very high level. In terms of family and community engagement, look at two indices, the informed index and included index, and you can see kind of what those entail knowing what's happening in school and then feeling respected and part of the community. And you can see those have been very high um going up but still over that 4.0 on a fivepoint scale. So uh improvement needed but but in a strong place. Exceptional staff. We also look at the survey. the engagement index where they feel valued, heard, and that they can contribute and had a slight decrease last year. We'll see what it is

112this year um is still relatively high um compared to other districts as well. The staff feeling ex expected, respected, and supported at school. Um accepted, I think it should be um respected and supported at school. That one is um you know slight decline but I point eight is a pretty minor decrease. One that we've added um to the survey to our KPIs that weren't wasn't there last year and we've added now is this this report of how likely you are to recommend the district as a place of employment as that is a common indicator across industries as an indicator of job satisfaction. So could see a nice increase there. So we're going to continue to to monitor that. And then our staff, our certified staff retention rate remains um very high. >> So the last

113part is just what questions make up those indices and that's what I have to share. What do you have for me? Questions, comments? has the district are there any initiatives or uh processes that maybe would help us to attract and recruit a more diverse applicant pool. >> I don't think we have very a very diverse applicant pool sometimes. >> I never we never have. But I like the fact that you're g doing these surveys afterwards and asking, you know, what is it? You know, >> all of um the research really is clear. Well, okay. So, there's a teacher shortage um and there's a significant shortage in terms of Yeah. >> Um uh staff members of color, you know, going into the field that that is so so you're going from a small population to a

114smaller part of the population. But in in everything that you'll learn, it is really about your reputation as a district where someone who is a person of color would want to work. >> That is you need to establish that reputation because people don't want to be one of a few. >> And I think that's you know what what does the community it's not just the school district it's also the community. What does the community value? How well will we be received and supported? And I think that's something that the district and in and the community has been working on for for a long time, but there's still a lot of growth to do. >> I mean, we we have a reputation as white suburbia. >> Yeah. Even with all even with all the progress we've

115made. >> Yeah. in the last five years, three, four years. >> We we find that diversity of our staff is mostly support staff >> occasion. >> Interesting. >> Well, plus living here, I mean, it's kind of like what comes first, the chicken or the egg, you know? >> So, that makes a difference who people see when they think about and what they think about with our district. >> Yeah. And no one's got it figured out. Just so you know. >> Been trying it for a long time. >> We have. We have. >> Thank you for the update. Yeah, >> this is really helpful. >> I think we've talked about I think we've talked about um >> different pieces of this in different ways. And I like just having to see it all kind of brought

116together is is helpful. So, thank you. >> Um, >> yeah, I don't have more than that right now. >> Well, it's a very thorough update to the question. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> And and we we kind of get updates on the other pieces throughout the year. Yeah. >> And especially with the school improvement plan. So, um, >> so this will be on our web website. It will be in the newsletters that we send out. Um, once I correct my couple typos that I missed, I thought I responsible. Yeah, >> it's a new new thing I'm working on. >> Um, so it's important. I think it's nice to have and >> so people can see over time that aren't listening to every board meeting the few that aren't um can know and we never had

117these we've never done these I mean this is correct this is the first one so I think we've you I think Erin you've done an amazing job >> you know um and it's kind of a our compass as it were where we're going >> yes I agree >> and uh I think it's great and we keep learning from it And we'll keep on tweaking it like you say next summer. >> Mhm. >> That's great. >> And it lives and breathes in the buildings. I think if you asked a teacher like tell me about the strategic plan, they wouldn't be able to do that. If you ask them about their building plan, >> they'd be able to do that and that's connected to the strategic plan, >> right? So that makes sense. >> It just pulls

118us all together. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> Okay. Thank you for that. >> Thanks. Um, next we have the school safety written drill evaluation notification and the review per state statute. >> Any question? We just had one. >> Yeah. >> Yep. Just a medical hold at the middle school. >> Yeah. >> Any questions about that? >> Hope the kiddo's okay. >> That's a nice number. >> Yeah. >> Nice number. >> One is a nice number. That's true. >> Um, okay then. Sorry we didn't give you much of a break. >> That's okay. I set it up that way. >> Minister's report. >> All right, let's look at some pictures that there'll be some that you haven't seen from the high school. Um, and this is the Winter Olympics at at the primary school here.

119So, doing some fun activities and learning about, you know, the winter Olympics. Here you can see them kind of having some fun there. >> Bob sledding. >> I want to go on the bob sledding. Bob Sled, right? >> Well, good luck with that. That kind of bob sled. >> Maybe >> that one looks fun. Kind of a fun thing there. >> Uh, we talked a little bit about explicit instruction. So, you can see a living and breathing at the Wabisa staff lounge. So, they set up these little spots with some food connecting to the topic of explicit instruction. So, very clever idea um from a couple of our staff members. Kind of fun. an amazing assembly. You know, those happen across all their buildings and I and I appreciate that they are sharing this with

120us at Wabisa. The fifth grade students are led it a little bit with with courts Casey Ruland's uh leadership and at that assembly. So the class sang the school pledge and talked about growth mindset as a thing to recognize which interestingly the high school staff were just talking about growth mindset during their professional development day on Thursday. So >> wow >> if you'd like to talk to me about that I can help you understand growth versus fixed mindsets. Of course, a little shot from >> here. >> Junior, >> they weren't having any fun at all. >> It was so good. >> So good. >> It really was. It was just positive and >> yeah, >> happy and >> like it definitely made your heart feel warmer when you like it just everyone and everyone looked

121really happy doing it and it looked effortless like it just >> did they record it >> like video recorded? >> Oh, >> I don't think so. >> You can't even imagine how many hours they >> from October to >> Yeah. >> opening night. So good. >> It was amazing. Yeah. >> and it was through the flu epidemic and >> Oh, yeah. That's right. >> You had people getting sick. >> We did. >> I thought it was great. >> Yeah. >> And you weren't biased. >> No. >> Yeah. Good for you, >> Grandpa. For the record that you have said it was great in previous years as well. True. >> True. We're on the record. >> Just this one was the best. Um, >> I do think I mean it really did fill your soul like

122you you know >> if you watch the news this was like the counterbalance to that and I was like oh yes the world's okay we're all okay. >> Yeah. >> Um speaking of great things, Club Unified at the middle school did their their annual um bowling activity together. So a great >> incredible picture >> of them having fun. So, thank you to our adviserss for leading our students there and the students participating. You saw this already. >> It's old news about the the Black Student Union um sponsoring the Black Lives Matter at school week. Another great event. The high school does a great job with our dance team. I had a very strong performance there. So, you can get to see them. I saw on the high school Monday minute that I think their their

123average GPA gradepoint average is 3.76 I think or 3.74 one of those two. >> Wow. >> So achieving on >> Yeah. >> and off the court stage. So congratulations to them. >> Saw this already. National Girls, Women, and Sports Day. Great event there. It's kind of a fun one with this this the French four juniors and seniors do this activity. And I guess it's >> I didn't realize, but it's kind of legendary, I guess. >> So, it got a little some props on social media for them as they they bring this book to life. It's my understanding. >> I see my kid in there. I did not hear about this at home. >> That's disappointing. >> That is disappointing. >> Have to come home. Hey, we need to talk. >> They think is important. What

124we think >> I know completely different things. >> You see this? This we talked a little bit about some of the things we're doing with our senior citizens. Letters of love and multiculture club made cards and goodie bags for our senior citizens. And then this Friday they're going to play games is what they're doing this Friday actually. >> So Mr. Jacobson's going to walk them over Friday afternoon. Great activity. Our Optimus club had some nice treats for our high school. So appreciate that. Um yes. So a couple people we just saw. >> Yeah. So Tom Mooney and Penny Simmons and then Candy Mooney as well there. So >> very nice. And then of course you knew it was school counselor week but it's nice to see their amazing faces and gratitude towards them. And then

125today oh nope love the bus month. Forgot about the bus company. I didn't forget about the bus company but we recognized them last week. Um but continue to actually talking about it with school crossing guard date. Uh Chief Redmond and I were talking about how lucky we are both with our crossing guards and our bus drivers. the way that they welcome our students every day. They get their day started off in a great place >> and they love our kids. >> It really makes a difference for setting the tone. >> There's I'm sure that there are many mornings where my children wished they were greeted by the bus driver instead of me. >> Just a wild guess. >> Mr. Mooney used to do a lot of morning and afternoon >> engagements with his students when

126he was the principal at primary school. makes a difference. >> Well, I think >> we do. I got to be out there greeting him in the morning. >> Yeah, >> that's the fun part. >> And today, >> yeah, >> or maybe it was even yesterday. I feel like it was weird on a Sunday, but >> celebrating it today. >> He's celebrating today, school resource officer appreciation day. So, we're so lucky to have Officer Towns. He's doing a wonderful job and he's just so consistent. He loves he loves what he's doing and he shared that he just >> he has shared many times how much he's how glad he is that he was hired for this position and we certainly are grateful for him. >> Yes. Yes. >> Split that position with the village. >> Yep.

127And then those are some of the recognitions that I have. Some other things um to highlight to you. The middle school does a great job with World Readaloud Day where people come and read aloud. I don't know if any of you had a chance to >> to read aloud there, but that's a kind of a nice event and reading aloud is a is a life skill. And we had our first anxious generation community event >> and there's another one coming up on the 25th I feel like is in my head. >> And that was nice. Small but um committed group, right? and we worked really hard and and talked about the impact of social media, technology, smartphones on our youth, their mental health, their ability to persevere and we all made some commitments. Um, some

128of us are keeping them, some of us are not. Um, but with good conversation as well. The the high school orchestra concert I didn't attend. I did attend advising night and thank you Megan's for being there. >> I went to the concert. >> You did go to the concert. >> I went to the concert. >> How was the concert? >> It was good. It was in fact I I was really impressed with the the music that they they chose to play. They had a a a Beethoven a Heiden and the last one I try to remember what it was. It was really interesting. And then they did this one >> um Oh my gosh. It was interesting because it was written sometime in the middle ages and it was actually uh it was a the

129composer allowed the students or the players to kind of uh improvise >> and so it was all this improvisation from the violinist. Yeah, it was it was amazing. So I thought they wonderful job. >> Cool. Wow. >> Well, thank you Bruce. >> Yeah, >> Vising Knight was was just amazing. I mean, Penny Thompson and Beth Campfield, I think, are the main people >> that do that planning. I It is >> unbelievable. >> Yeah. >> It was a very attended full time. >> Universities, employers, all of the staff, departments, clubs. >> I mean, it's a great event. >> Sessions. >> Sorry. Go ahead. I was really shocked how they walked around with snacks. >> Yeah. Mhm. >> Like walking around if you need a drink, you need like popcorn or gummy bears and I mean everyone

130had candy obviously, >> right? >> But uh No, it was it was fun. >> It's that extra touch. >> They thought of every detail. It's really impressive. >> I just think I just wish my kids would have had that kind of an experience and I would have had that when they were in high school. >> One thing that struck me was how many questions we got about the youth apprenticeship program. >> Yes, true. >> Yes. not only, you know, people that were interested in having their kiddos be part of it, but also businesses wanting to bring on youth apprentices, which I thought was pretty cool. >> Those that have had our kids before >> 10. Yeah, they do. >> Our kids as well. >> We still have the strongest program in Dane County, >> right?

131I was going to say we're setting the standard there. >> Yeah. And I appreciated our table placement, too. I mean, kind of a >> silly detail, but that was a big deal because we really were able to like >> see a lot of people come in. >> Um, and it was funny because one of the families that we talked to for probably 15 minutes was um we went to the overture last night and they were sitting behind us. >> So, it was like a really fun way to connect. We were like, "Oh, we know each other now." >> Were these meant for >> like uh the robotics? >> No. Um, we we did I don't remember exactly what we talked about anymore. >> Oh, okay. >> Um, >> no. >> It's a family of three.

132So, yeah, it was really it was fun. >> It was good. Well, I think it was a great idea to have >> a table. That was a new thing for us. >> Yeah. >> So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> It was also that same night was uh the open house >> at the primary school. So, you think it was busy here at the high school. Mhm. >> It's a lot bigger parking lot at the high school. I'll tell you, >> it's hard to get a spot at the primary school. >> That school really shows well. >> I know. >> Yeah, >> it was well attended and Meredith provided popcorn. >> Amazing. >> Served a lot of popcorn. Thank you, PTO. Like, it was we had a line out the door. Like, >> it was

133on. There was all sweat going on. It was >> nice. >> Very h very smiley kids. And it was very cool to see them happy to show off their space. >> That's the funnest part. >> Yeah. I don't think we give it enough credit or I maybe had not given it enough credit of like, oh, this is like their space and we get to like be in it >> and they're showing it all. Like it was very um >> heartwarming. That's one of the reasons why they've moved it to later in the year >> is so that students have that sense of comfort, pride, and confidence in the space. >> Earlier in the year is nice for the parents, but the kids are still not sure. >> So, I think the way that they do

134it, and the teachers are so delightful. >> I did not get around to everyone because I was too busy chatting with people >> and they're just so happy and positive after working a very long day. >> Yeah. So that's true. >> Really impressed. >> Actually, we did. We actually got feedback at advising night from people who were coming from >> Nice. >> Primary school saying how great it was. >> Yeah, it was. >> Yeah, that's why everyone should have their kids come here. >> Yeah. >> Just saying. Open enrollment, >> right? Yeah. I'm sure they're all watching the board meeting. Um um >> wasting their decision on the board meetings for sure. >> Recognize our staff also for preparing for conferences. uh those are very intense and so this is a challenging time in the

135school year and they're adding that on top of their their list as they partner with families. Uh we had professional development last week. We had some social emotional learning professional development, those foundational instructional practices. We've talked about a lot of content collaboration. This was also one of the curriculum um council meetings where K12 teams get together and collaborate and align their curriculum. The compensation committee has continued to work. I believe they have met for the last time. So the next step will be >> uh bringing forward to the board uh a proposed new schedule. >> Um I I want to recognize the hope squad here at the high school. They put together some lessons for the advisory here for all of the students at the high school just about mental health and suicide awareness that

136just is important work. So grateful for them. >> Um we also hosted the I know they talked about the the boys swim team winning sectionals but we hosted that right. >> So just a reminder that's a big undertaking. So Kayla Stu, a lot of work goes into that. >> 13 schools. >> Yep. >> Wow. >> That's a lot. >> And we really won. >> We really won. >> Yeah. >> That's looking good. >> We blew them out of the water. >> Ah, that's really good. Very clever. And um I would like to give a special you're welcome to the area businesses for the amount of additional business that they received because >> we hosted sectionals. So you are welcome >> any sectional event that just >> brings to the village for sure. >> I mean

137any multi-chool event. >> I wanted to recognize our school social worker at the middle school Lauren Noriega. She has done all this work um to make sure that we have a new service on Mondays at the middle school. Dogs on call. So, uh therapy dogs are coming into the buildings on Mondays for a couple of hours. >> Wow. >> Can I come visit >> with our kids? >> Really? >> That's cool. >> Neat. >> Oh my god. I just need >> things. >> Um upcoming events. What's What else is going on? Um the we talked about school crossing guard week. We've talked about community week. You've heard about that. The 17th is the lunar new year and it's the year of the horse which is a time for progress, prosperity, and opportunities for achievement. >>

138Sounds like a strategic plan. >> Of course, we have President's Day. Um Ramadan >> um also starts uh tomorrow. an election tomorrow. >> An election tomorrow. Primary election. >> Election tomorrow. >> The U McFarland School's Equity Collective meets on Wednesday night. We'll be starting at the library, the public library to look at the unjust deeds exhibit about racial covenants and then we'll be discussing that. You're all welcome to join us for that. The jazz ensemble concerts also that evening we have incoming kindergarten orientation on the go. that's that time of year. >> Um, in addition to what I talked about with the equity um, collective meeting on on on Wednesday, there's also a presentation this weekend uh, the 21st at 2:30 p.m. the um, state historical or the Dne County Historical Society, right? Yeah. >>

139Um, is presenting >> about explaining a little bit more about the exhibit. and I've seen that presentation. It's very good and worth attending if you can make it at 2:30 >> on I believe it's Saturday. >> George Washington's birthday is coming up. The youth unity summits the 26th. >> Uh the anxious generation I mentioned is 25th. Another incoming kindergarten orientation the 26th. also the middle school family fun night and uh the orchestra string fling concerts that following weekend. So, lot happening before we meet again. Do any other do any board members have any other recognitions for us beyond what I have shared? >> Um I have one. It's um maybe a little belated but um but you know as when our legislators recognized Aaron for his annual or for his award um I realized today

140that I that we didn't recognize Casey Ruland who nominated him >> and um so thank you Casey for doing that. I I think it's um important that our staff and um I mean anyone is just noticing the good things that you know their colleagues are doing and so um so I want to apologize for not including her in that event on Monday. Um but just wanted to give a shout out because that's I mean everyone needs to be recognized for good work. So >> that's nice. >> Thanks Casey. Yeah. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> All right, I think that moves us into our action items tonight, friends. >> All right. >> Okay. Um action on the McFarland High School summer early college credit program. We have just one request from one student,

141I believe. >> I would move to approve the course approvals and denials for the early college credit program requests as recommended by the Farland High School Administration. >> Thank you, Mr. Howry. >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Miss Huey. All right. Any further discussion? All right. Then all those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. 5-0. Um, and then last but not least, we have our action on recommended WEVA DCA, Insight School of Wisconsin, student transfers to resident districts. I move to approve the WEVA destinations Career Academy and Insight School of Wisconsin recommended student transfers back to their resident districts due to lack of engagement. >> I can second. All right. Any questions? I mean, Mr. Mooney was actually here. >> Yes. So, >> he could have made

142comments. >> It's pretty short. Um, which is nice to see, but granted it's the beginning of a new semester. Um, and it was nice to see that there's no K through five on there this time. >> Agreed. >> Yeah. >> So, good things. >> All right. >> That is good. >> Yeah. >> Hasn't always been that way. >> I know. >> No, they've done a really good job last time. >> All right. Any other discussion or questions on that? All right. Then all those in favor please signify by saying I I. >> Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion carries. 5. >> I move to adjourn. >> Second. >> All right. All those in favor please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Hearing none. Motion carries. We arejourned at 9:03 p.m. >> 3

143minutes. Three minutes over.