001that's wonderful yeah that was really cool how they had the images yeah in the background it was really neat on his team mates um okay that's everybody's here yeah meeting to order at 701 on Monday what is it September 18. and we have some consent agenda items that include the minutes of the August 21st 2023 school board meeting the August 23rd 2023 School Board special meeting board retreat and September 13 2023 School Board special meeting closed session some general fund vouchers and purchasing card transactions fund vouchers number 180273 through 180521 and 292-390 through 292-507 and purchasing card transactions dated 6 21 23 through 8 20. we also have some professional staffing recommendations that their no vote required for so I would look for a motion to approve consent agenda items as presented all those in
002favor please signify by saying aye aye aye opposed motion carries five zero and we will move on to oh out of stuff wow informational items we have representation from the McFarland Youth Center here this evening to present the McFarland Youth Center annual report gentlemen the floor is yours okay thanks take it away well at the risk of sounding like the old new heart show this is Sean and this is also showing yeah right Sean Miller I volunteer on the board of directors of the youth center and this is Sean close our current uh head paid staff person our managing director so we'll get to his bio here in just a second but uh thank you for the opportunity to present tonight and I know many of you have seen a lot of these slides before
003you know about exactly what we do and some of the history and stuff so we'll try and be brief with that but if you want to interject and ask questions that's fine or save them for the end that's fine too so just let us know but okay the next slide so um some quick facts about the youth center this is actually our 25th anniversary uh the u center was started by a group of McFarland High School students in 1998 and has been serving our community for 25 years now I know he's a very humble father but Mr Mooney's two children were actually part of that original group that started the YouTube we had the Montezuma call a couple years ago while we were celebrating unfortunately one of our old staff members that have been part
004of the charter group that had passed away were kind of having a celebration of remembrance for her and and uh there they were one of which I knew and one of which I worked with and I didn't even know he was your son but uh yeah so 25th anniversary and if anybody here or anybody listening to this is interested after the parade this Sunday we have a little cake and ice cream just to celebrate um we're gonna be handing out flyers as we walk down the parade so feel free to stop on by around noon or so and just help us celebrate and and check out the youth center so um our hours we are open three to six during the school year on weekdays and we are open uh one to five during the
005summer and and the non-school days during the school year so like in service days you know things like that we're open one to five um attendance typically we average 25 to 30 during the school year and this is probably the first time we've been able to say that in three or four years since covet you know really obviously we had to artificially lower our attendance um during some of the restrictions and then it's been a challenge the last few years to build it back up but we are now back to that level Sean's done a great job reconnecting with youth recruiting having interesting programming you know that whole stew that it takes to really pump up those attendance numbers in the summer we're a little bit lower we average about 10 to 20 a day
006you know people have stuff going on with vacations and things like that and it's a little bit more spread out over those four operating hours during the summer days typically we serve and this very conservative number over 100 unique youth per year I'd say it's probably more 150 you know if we get back to our historical numbers if you think about that that's it's between a quarter and a third of the Middle School population comes at least once you know during the year um on a month-to-month basis we're probably 70 80 different kids a month that we serve and that number will be consistent throughout the year so we're getting a pretty good representation of you know different kids from the Middle School okay here we go to the next one so I'll have Sean
007introduce himself a little bit more and uh talk about some of his background hi my name is Sean close I have been working I believe in October it's going to be two years okay so and then um uh I was hired I right before that I worked for mscr and then before that I worked for the boys and girls club I was the head of teen programming at the boys and girls club and uh I have a degree in sports management from Mankato State University so our programming uh tends to follow a structure where we start off we get all the kids in give them a snack have them like kind of settle in it's really exciting getting done with the day have them come in settle in and then we have uh one to
008two structured programs a day these are things we have set aside we have a calendar we put out on our Facebook and our newsletter we try to stick to that as closely as possible sometimes things change but I'm pre I want to be there because like some kid might see that or pair to be like I want my kid to really do that so we stick to that I'd say like 95 99 of the time and then if I have to change it I usually switch it up beforehand and then the main thing we have with those is they go into a variety of different programming so they're not the same thing every day so on Mondays we have art on Tuesdays we have science on Wednesdays we have a service and Fitness on Thursday
009we have a free day and Friday we do a cooking program so I really like the cooking program kids like it too I'd like to have a snack in the middle of the day I'm not sure if everyone else does too but that's a really important part of it and these are all activities like I said it's the variety it's keeping kids fun but I also want to teach kids life skills so the cooking program like I know it was a big change when I got out of the house and I had to cook all my own meals so learning not only just like not just like popping something microwave but getting ingredients what ingredients do things need and then actually prepping and preparing a meal or will have a lot of like you know
010you know want Discovery activities like some kids don't know they like science till they get into a science project or don't know they like art like maybe they think Art's like some fancy thing with like paints on an easel and something kind of hey you can just draw something or we're we're making stuff out of toothpicks and they find out that's what they really love so I like to give kids life skills and I like to have kids discover their passion this is an example of our programming calendar this is this month's programming calendar so as you can see it's each of the programs separated in today's and color quoted uh we'll also have special events sprinkled out throughout September we didn't have any but those will usually be yellow on there we do a
011monthly movie night which we are starting back up next month and we have six greater days which is a day where we set aside for sixth graders to kind of have the place to themselves be kind of intimidating with all the the big kids running around so it's nice to have those kind of days and and just anything else that's like a special activity will be located on there and this is always available on our website as well as our Facebook and as part of our monthly newsletter so this is an example of some of our programming on the left was a Martin Luther King Day activity this was at the downtown library there's a bunch of workshops in various other activities there it's actually a pretty cool one that I thought was like really
012nice it was about like I have to remember it but it was like about rhyming and stuff and how like to express yourself through uh poetry but you know jazzing it up so the kids because poetry is like a boring word so just kind of interesting that on the right is our kids playing GaGa ball we do that on the inside when it's accliment weather or it's just cold outside and just get the kids some energy out they really enjoy that activity you get a little too competitive with it but you know I'll have kids get so all right so we have all of the rec room favorites showing off on our left there we got pool table ping pong table foosball table is a little out of frame and we have a shuffleboard table
013I really like these activities uh because it's a thing that keeps kids active but they don't need to be outside they don't need to move around a lot don't need to have a lot of coordination and you know just fun I love ping pong and you can see kind of in there we have some of our more open programming areas we have a monthly Youth of the month award that is Cordell right on the right there and he is uh he's won it several times so he's pretty pretty good at winning that award and me and we keep that throughout the summer but also during the school months they get to be part of the assembly so I go to the assemblies I announce them at the assemblies and they get to have their own
014certificate and everything on the left we have sorry my eyesight is not raised let's say science yep oh it's slime yep that is our number one most requested science activity get a little chemistry a little bit of Art super popular with the kids they like making it more than they even like taking taking it home I always get a big pile of it at the end of the day I gotta get rid of because now they just wanted to make it and like touch all the gross stuff on the right is a basketball which is our most popular outdoor activity uh we have a hoop that all the kids play at and a court where they can shoot and they also have we have an open field on the other side of the center that
015we use for football and Ultimate Frisbee and other field sports on the left we have our bayouth for youth Grant we we were awarded a 2700 Grant to make care packages for the homeless that is Psy and Carradine and she uh she has actually recently moved up to high school so that was a that was a big loss she was involved in a lot of our programming great kid I'm hoping to get her involved in part of like you uh work study program not study just work program and uh yeah that was a pretty proud moment there I really there was a lot of work getting that Grant in cyan did a lot of work I did a lot of work this was at the cat like county-wide yes this is Awards yeah this is
016the mayor was there a lot of important people at that event so we have that framed and on our wall that's uh I'm very proud of that certificate we just dropped those off the other day so like that took that took a long time with Megan but it's done and it was a lot of work for our staff and the kids who did 80 of it so great uh right we have a field trip we took to Spartan Bowl which is the number one requested uh field trip I asked I tell them dream big go wherever you want and every time it's Spartan bowl is the number one place which is great because I have a good working relationship with the staff they're amazing always accommodate all of our needs and it's within walking distance
017so they want to keep going there I'll I'll keep going there I think this is their 50th Anniversary oh really this year yeah a very intense chess match there on the left the kids love to compete at everything and that includes board games and chess so we've been teaching a lot of the kids chess because it's a thinking man's game but it's also just a game that a lot of people know that's a lifelong like skill you can you know you can break the ice with a lot of people by knowing how to play chess and on the right is a couple examples of our cooking club I believe let's say muffins so that's uh we make banana muffins specifically quite a lot because I get bananas for programming for their snacks and sometimes it
018doesn't get eaten I hate food waste so we make a lot of banana bread a lot of banana muffins and uh you know anything sweet the kids are gonna love so I try to mix some stuff in get some healthy stuff we made salsa today getting something a little healthier in there but it always the most important they love to bake that's always the most popular activity so cookies brownies uh bread anything like that our pool table it's I enjoy that pool table a lot full size uh my dad has one in his basement it's kind of rinky dinky one Falls over all the time it's nice at work having a full-size pool table because I love pool and love playing with the kids uh it's also a game that it's just kids always take
019a sec once they pick up on it I'll just know if they're nervous about it they don't want to hold the stick because it feels weird give them correct them a little bit and then they'll just do it by themselves and they'll teach other people how to use it it's kind of a great tool to help the kids teach each other that was our community service day activity at IMs Middle School where we picked up garbage around the campus it was raining about 45 degrees and uh I feel bad for all of the volunteers including my mother who was nice enough to be one of the adult volunteers who I roped into picking up garbage on a terrible day but all the kids had a good time at the end of it so and that's
020the important part oh yes one of our um uh board members uh Sarah she brought in uh she raises Ducks yeah on her property and so you know every year she brings in uh the ducklings and sometimes uh chicks and stuff and the kids love them but they're doting over him all day like taking turns holding them it's really adorable I I enjoy that and then on the right was our um our recycling project that we did um was it net neck next tracks we went around town they have these bins where you put plastic in and then we collected all of it and took it to uh their facility and they melted it down and turned it into a park bench we collected 500 pounds well we collected more than 500 pounds but they
021used 500 pounds of it to make a uh bench so it's pretty neat service project just because not only is recycling important but it's kind of nice to have that um like tangible result of your like work sometimes they do these projects they don't really get to see the end result this was delivered right to us they helped me put it together and that's what we did you collect it you recycled everything here's what you get at the end of it so that was a really cool experience that is salad on the left that was a fun one I got taught how to cut a pineapple on there because I had no idea how to cut a pineapple I was all ready to look it up on my phone because it's like no I I
022got this I know how to do this and showed me how to cut a pineapple believe that is GaGa ball on the right again that's fine I think it's a different guy Apple fault they do it a lot we have a gardening program uh our most successful plant we have had is our raspberry bushes they're kind of growing everywhere which is great because I love raspberries so we have a lot of them in our freezer right now we're using them through baking projects throughout the year and we have some kids who just love picking the raspberries they'll they'll ask me for weeks how can you pick the raspberries and not ready yet and once they're ready we get big bushels of them and uh Art Club over there I believe they are painting in that
023with painting has been very popular lots of uh marker drawing we have uh we got some people were very nice to donate some like Advanced coloring books the ones that have all the fancy Swirls and stuff those have been extremely popular and a lot of drawing we do a lot of drawing prompts which is a fun one so you'll get a look about and it'll mix some words together give them like a wacky thing to draw and then we kind of show each other's results so a lot of good times in the art Club a lot of great creativity being shown ah yes this was our Mount Olympus field trip this was our big trip that we did this summer uh took a lot of planning from myself and my staff and once we got
024down there we were able to take 17 kids all the way from transport them from the center to Mount Olympus and back and uh get them in the park feed them everything free of charge so we were able to do that and we were able to do it uh all within our own budget we didn't have to fundraise or anything for this so and everybody got to go free so it's a great time for everybody looked like a sunny day it was a it was a it was a pretty warm day uh we actually had uh the day was like a hundred and like 10 degrees was our original date we had to postpone it because of that and remember that one yeah it was like 110 and I was like these kids are gonna
025roast in the because it's all concrete at the water park so so I'm glad that we postponed we got a much nicer day but it was still pretty warm but had a great time so we recently uh updated one of our rooms we're kind of one big room but we do have one activity room that's off to the side it's our quiet room and the intention of our quiet room is to give kids a nice calm place to be able to do all of their homework or if they're just over stimulated having a bad day just need to be away from all the craziness that tends to happen in the main room we have the quiet room and the quiet room kind of went into uh disarray over covid so we redid the whole room
026we pulled out everything we repainted the walls we added a whole bunch of new stuff to it and right here is a project where just give the kids kind of ownership over their space had them uh paint their hands plop it on the wall sign their name and this is going to be a annual thing we're just gonna do at the end of every year we're going to add new people to that wall and I hope all of the walls in that place are full of and Prince pretty soon all right something slightly less interesting maybe is our annual budget um I think the good news here is we're definitely not going to go over all these categories but the the good news is we've been able with the help certainly of from the school
027district and the Village of McFarland a number of you know uh very generous donors throughout the community all those contribute we've been able to more or less get our budget balanced the last couple years uh part of that was a covid uh stimulus grant that we've been kind of slowly trickling into our operational budget over the last couple years but that is good news because I know many times in the past we've come here talk about how short we were on funding but things definitely looked better the last couple years and especially this uh our fiscal year is the same as the calendar year so 2023 has been a good year for us we project you know pretty much more of the same for next year we haven't gone through our official budgeting cycle quite
028yet we get to that really in October and then try and find is it by December but as we kind of scan through the preparation for this presentation you know we don't see any major uh knock on wood major hiccups coming along the way either on the expense side or in terms of decreased revenues from any particular source so we feel pretty good all in all about the budget uh and just to wrap it up you know quick slide on partnership again we've we've been around now for 25 years and if you just do some crude math on that you know we've really partnered with the community to give back about 20 000 hours of just operating hours just the doors open kids coming in and out you know for our Middle School aged kids
029we've had thousands of different unique attendees over those years I just saw one from probably 10 or 12 years ago uh Jackie Paul the marker saw her at the outside of the Barbie movie I was going out she was going in my wife and I talked for a little bit and now she's a elementary school teacher somewhere in the Madison area so it's little things like that that really you know make it worthwhile in terms of keeping a place like this going for for us that volunteer and that work there and stuff just little moments like that seeing not that we were the only you know part of her success story but she was part of a group of kids I remember that came in every day and they were really you know looking for
030a place to kind of grow oh so to speak you know their middle school year so that was great um we you know we in terms of programming hours if you put that kind of you know you take each kid and what they've done we keep track of all the service hours and all the structured programming time that you know kid by kid would keep individual track of that data if you extrapolate that out you know we're thousands tens of thousands of of people hours that have been you know in Richmond uh through the the programming activities at the center um support you know we're of course eternally grateful for supporting McFarland School District I mean for many years it was uh you know relationship support in-kind donations now there's also some direct funding on
031top of that and that's really helped ease some of our uh budgetary pressure and uh again we're just very grateful you know for the the support that everybody's had for us over the years on this board and sapphires we have great staff um you know Aaron's been in our corner for a long time as Middle School principal hand that off to Jamie Thomas now she sits on our board meetings off is a part of our board Jill Rundy you know long time States school counselor of the Year Jill runde's on our board so we've just had these great connections Craig was on our board for many years so appreciate that and uh you know if anyone's looking to throw some extra volunteer hours in and want a place to do it we're always welcoming for
032more you know board members or just volunteers so just look us up and uh we'll find something to do but again thank you very much and uh anyone's got questions or comments that's kind of the last slide Angie I threw a couple in the appendix you know about the asset data and all that uh research that went into that if people want to review that again but otherwise that's what we've got for this chance come first of all uh -cr movement the Boys and Girls Club your background College management what a great resume thank you because you offer a diverse array of your background experiences to help with these kids so I think you're in the right place to help us out what's the criteria or what's the selected process for Youth of the month
033um so first is um uh first I check to see if they've won it recently I don't want repeats I don't want the same kid same couple kids winning it I want as many people to experience that like Joy of getting I think I've had kids who have like gotten Awards and have said like are you sure me I've never gotten a war before and I'm like yeah you uh then it is um uh then it's uh attendance uh I don't show up every day but it's you know if somebody is there 20 days out of the month versus like seven or eight I'm probably gonna lean towards the 20 and then it is um you know uh participating in service projects uh you know participating in activities um being helpful around the club is
034a big one like I love to see like you know kids Mentor other kids help out other kids with things help them like I don't know maybe they don't know how to log into the computer and just help them with that or they they don't know how to play this uh this board game or don't know how to shoot pool or something like that and they help them out with that so anybody going around being helpful being helpful with the staff like will ask kids to like hey can you help us move something or can you like help this person who's donated something help bring it inside and you know people volunteer for that so that's just kind of my character I don't I don't it's nothing super formal I don't keep a big like
035checklist somewhere in like my computer but it's that and I ask my staff at yeah like when we start going the end of the month like hey notice anybody who's been really standing out like who's been participating who has been contributing though that is my criteria for Youth of the month okay thanks uh you talked about by youth for youth yes and it was a grant yes it's a grant and you mentioned that it required a lot of your time and yes I'll have to write that um I would suggest you know there's folks in the community that have background in writing grants so make sure you try to tap into those just hurry up your time so sorry the grants writing process was not the issue with it was the physical like time it
036took it was mostly keeping the kids mostly keeping the kids on task because it's in the name of the grant it's by youth four years so this was like a thing I'm like I'm not just going to let them slack off and take over halfway through so it was a lot of helping them and getting kids into leadership roles because they don't have a lot of experience a lot of time so it was me telling the kids who were kind relationships hey now this is a thing you can do this is the thing you and you don't need to do all of this you can delegate it's like but it's like you need to know who's doing what and where and you need to you know decide make these decisions and that was kind of
037a big thing with the kids there was a lot of coaxing the kids too that was most my time but it mostly was the kids who took the time out and it was a lot of their time and it was mostly a comment on not like oh this was a big burn because it wasn't it was a lot of fun it was mostly saying hey that was a big project and it's and it's done and we did it it was more of like a celebratory comment that okay anything on that but thank you I thank you for letting me know I will reach out if I need help with that also I had the opportunity to go through the youth center a few weeks ago and drop something off and I would encourage other board
038members if you have time just to stop there sometime between three to six Monday through Friday you know some of the things I saw was uh there had to be I think I kind of like I don't know 15 or 17 kids there they were all engaged they're all cooperating or collaborating with each other depending on what they were doing I think they were doing an activity of their interest probably most importantly uh you talked a little about the assets and the resiliency of Youth uh that's where a lot of it's at and I think the other suggestion I would have is sharing this type of presentation with the seniors here at McFarland because I think years ago when well that was quite growing yup there was one connotation of a youth center but what
039you share here today is vastly different from what's probably a lot of older folks might think of what a youth center does it is today that they could be you're a beneficial I think a lot of the seniors would be very interested especially if they have previous kids or grandchildren thinking of attention do you recommend that through just like the senior outreach program yeah just reach out to them because they just did a presentation of the Lions Clubs shared a lot of these same slides and they were very receptive to that and the lastly you have a nice board of directors there and when they certainly was extend a thank you to them too because they're all volunteers I don't know if they meet they're deeply involved with some of the activities and fundraising efforts
040so if you could thank them for their guidance and support for what is a great asset to our community will do anybody else well I I'd just like to add congratulations on the making it 25 years thank you well you know there have been times where the feasibility of that youth center was in question yeah there were budgets that weren't anything like this one right you know in the past and it was really kind of I'm not really sure where we're going to get this stuff but we're going to and we're going to make it work so that's a tribute to you in here I don't know stubbornness but it's more like passion you know for youth so that's a that's a great tribute to make 25 years knowing what maybe that middle eight or
041yeah was like thank you yeah we're very proud of of what was started what we've been able to carry on as you should be in that tradition and we're very grateful again it's not compliment us and we'll compliment right back to the Community Partners and just our friends of the Youth Center Program how many different people donate you know sums that you can't even believe that come in on you know personal checks and stuff like that and it's just really amazing what a community effort it really is so without great leadership that that pales also I mean we remember those times too yeah yeah but my congratulations it's it's I think it's great uh one other real quick question as far as your space is that status quo yeah that's of course not an easy
042answer there um we've been in the forward Village Library gosh for probably eight or nine years already now maybe even 10. yeah um and it served pretty well um that said the building is kind of Aging I think a lot of people are aware of that um with some of the changes at the municipal site this last year with the safety center opening up now that space is you know sort of freed up if you will at the municipal center like many are aware that their Village government is looking into converting that space into some type of a community center for which the youth center you know hopefully will be a part of that I think that's the bid going into it is that the use Center and youth services would have a physical part
043of that new community center where that's one story or two story that there would be physical space in there to house the youth center and we would leave this property eventually that we're in now and transition over to that property operationally there are a lot even more questions than you know do we stay an independent nonprofit does the village government kind of absorb those operations I think it's trending more towards the ladder right now but that's it's a stuff we just haven't quite gotten to yet in Earnest I think there's some aspirations there that have been talked about and and maybe even formally recognized as some village board meetings but I think the way I understand how the village is moving through this they really want to lock down the capital the physical aspects of
044it first and then we'll get to operational aspects but I think if you know Craig if you're asking to look on the five-year Horizon what does it look like I think potentially does look different you know it looks a new facility for sure which would be great I mean we are not complaining about what we have it's you know much improved over what we had previously and we make it work yes we do but uh just today where you know there's emails of Outdoors that don't open and we've had roof leaks this summer and you know things like that and I think there's just opportunities too not to go on too much of a tangent here in a shared space like that you know collaboration with you know multi-generational stuff with some Library activities I
045think there's just so many different possible opportunities to be in a more cohesive space like that over there that it's really kind of exciting to think about good question anything else last I will uh remind everybody here in the whole community that the youth center has certainly been able to support our district mission and vision again the mission is meeting the needs of every learner every day again these kids that go down to the youth center are ongoing Learners there and secondly our vision for the district and Equitable inclusive community committed to student belonging achievement and growth so thanks for being a partner with the school district directly yes kudos to you yes your your hard work is noticed and it's appreciated don't don't ever forget that thank you thanks guys thanks all right if
046there's any other questions at any time just feel to reach out to myself or Sean and we'll get back to you soon thank you that's good thank you okay next uh we have a presentation by uh Brett Jacobson and that's the annual process to select student representatives to the Board of Education and actually Craig could I could I interrupt for just one moment we had um item four which was public comments we did not have anybody here in person and we did not receive any prior to the meeting either but I just wanted to for purposes of the agenda and the meeting I wanted to that's fine all right thank you thank you okay there he is can you hear me yes yep the floor is yours all right well hello uh I'm just here
047to hopefully report some good news that we have some continued uh partnership with some of our high school students involved in the connect Club um I was able to connect with Joey Lewis and Val vaserberg and they are thrilled about the opportunity to continue to uh come to board meetings and present I was lucky enough to see some of those last year so we talked through it and they are they're willing to to continue that going into this year starting at the next board meeting here in October um in our discussion one thing that they were really excited about or one thing that they really want to try to make happen this year is to not let it turn too much into just the Joey and Val show they would like to uh start to
048invite some other connect club members and maybe just some other uh involved high schoolers to be the presenters at board meetings throughout the year I realized that last year I think it was primarily them or maybe it was only those two but that's something that they'd like to set as a goal kind of for themselves is to start to include some other students or other student groups in on the actual presentations because I think they realize that they're seniors this year and they're only going to be around for the next however many months so they would like to be able to pass that torch on at some point to some underclassmen to make sure that this is something that we can continue to to have happen at board meetings they realize that that's probably the
049most exciting part of most board meetings is hearing what students are doing I know that that's always been the most exciting part for me is uh getting to hear our students reported on some of the fun stuff that they do and some of the cool things we've got going on at school and it's a lot better than uh listen to me blab about it so I appreciate that you guys are are willing to have students come in and and take over that piece of it I think that that's a really neat feature so I'm excited that the board is on board with it and that we've got a couple of students that are ready to run with it so I guess the formal proposal here is that we continue to utilize the connect club and
050a few of their members to be our student representatives of MHS to be able to come to the board uh each regular scheduled board meeting and present about the goings-on at MHS and any of the other kind of events that they have participated in throughout the course of those couple of weeks between board meetings okay okay yeah questions they did a great job last year I think it's wonderful that you try to you know get other kids involved I think it's a wonderful idea yeah I know they've got some ideas of other other folks that they think would be uh willing and able to do that job just as well as they have so I think their their wheels are turning so I'm excited to see what what they get rolling here well I know
051we certainly enjoyed yes each and every presentation last year so you know we weren't fooling and we said it was a high point of the meeting they're they're very optimistic they're upbeat all the time and they say awesome like 15 times so it's it's there we enjoy it very much well that's great they'll be able to share the good news with them I think not only do we enjoy it but also it's a direct link on what's happening with the kids and the clubs and the events here at the school yeah there's just so much that happens so I mean without you know someone that's directly involved in those clubs being able to report out periodically some of it can get lost in the shuffle pretty quick so I'm I'm glad that we're able to
052report out on that stuff because there really is already even just a couple of weeks into the school year so many great things that have already happened so I'm excited to see what their kind of first list looks like when they come in October how's the um the composition of the connect Club determined I don't remember I'm sure someone's told me at some point yeah so their goal is to have representation in the connect Club from every other group that is throughout the school so when they get together as a connect Club they can share hey we're planning on doing this in this club anyone else have any interest in joining us so they I think they saw initially with the creation of connect club that there were opportunities for multiple clubs to collaborate on
053different initiatives and so that's kind of their goal is to make sure that all of the clubs are aware of what some of the individual clubs are planning so everyone's not just doing things in their silos and realizing that there could be a lot of great overlapping opportunities um throughout the throughout the school year thank you yeah yeah and admittedly I mean like a Joey and a Val I mean I know I've talked about those two but there are just so many of our students that are involved in four five six 13 100 different things so I there are definitely a couple of those students that can speak on the behalf of many different clubs and try to be that kind of unifying force yep anything else thank you very much sir yeah absolutely thanks
054for having me looking forward to being there in person sometime soon excellent excellent thanks Brett yeah absolutely wonderful have a good night District administrators report excellent so I've plenty of wonderful recognitions to to share with you one of the things I've promised to do for you is provide some updates on the Strategic plan from time to time as well as a more comprehensive update periodically I'm going to do that tonight in the form of some recognitions and some things we've been doing as we live by our mission of meeting the needs of every learner every day really excited and grateful for the administrative team especially principals administrative assistance and Associate principles for their work on communication so when we talk about family and Community engagement the message was clear that families wanted more information wanted
055to know what was going on in the schools wanted more consistent predictable information so we've been having a Weekly Newsletter provided to families that is consistent in structure across the buildings and have received some positive feedback about that we're also doing a similar thing for staff across all the buildings delivered on the same day so that's been a really beneficial particularly just to highlight some of the things that are going on around the district but also with communication and grateful for the teachers who have been communicating with families about not just curriculum things but things that are going on in in the schools and with their students specifically their strengths and needs the aps have really provided a ton of leadership with the behavioral response plan that we're implementing this year really it was one
056thing to design it over the summer it's another thing to put it into action one of the things families have shared with us is wanting to know more about what's happening with their child in regard to behavior and so that's something they've been implementing and with with the teachers work as well appreciate the leadership that that the director of student services Lauren Rango and the student services coordinator Angie Burnett have provided regarding our attendance policies and our bullying prevention and intervention plan those are things that kind of start from day one in the district and so they've been bringing us together as an administrative team in guiding that work to make sure that we have consistent procedures The Bullying of prevention and intervention plan is kind of a a project that we're working on more
057so now and in into October in regard to belonging which is you know all through our strategic plan wanted to mention appreciative for our diversity Equity inclusion and belonging coordinator Brittany Brazil and for her leadership in our our plan to acknowledge different holidays and recognition days I'll be talking about some of those when I talk about upcoming events but one of the things we're trying to do is provide a consistent message to our students staff and families about some of these different events and do our part to recognize the major events that are happening in our community in our in our state and in our country so you hear some of those I'm very grateful for Melissa Foyle and her leadership with a great group of people who are Equitable multi-level systems of support team
058who's working together to make sure we have structures that meet the needs of all Learners this is part of our educational excellence and it's something that is long overdue in our district and really impressed with that work we actually have a meeting tomorrow of course the beginning of the year is only successful if we have our new teachers ready to go and the mentors have been doing such great work they are getting their own classrooms ready or are doing their own roles and meanwhile they're you know caring for someone who has a ton of questions great questions as a as a new staff member also appreciative for our student council organizing the home coming events so many events the the list of everything that was going out is going to occur was sent out by
059Angie bazan amazing leader this weekend and it's just so many things our students are really lucky but it's through student leadership and Angie's does such a great job of getting them to be involved I wanted to focus too on staff welcoming students at the beginning of the day I've had the opportunity to start my day in a different building each day for over a year now and I think the beginning of the year it's amazing the time our teachers spend support staff spend checking in with kids as they come in greeting them very pleasantly but then identifying the kids that need a little extra attention to ease into the start of their day and problem solving it is intense it is intention if you're not watching you might miss it because they do it so
060subtly but so well appreciate our ap's SRO with officer zietsma all the safety things that have been put into place drills are starting we've done a reunification training training for staff and students on our protocols excellent and lastly for my recognitions wanted to recognize Alicia fix for her leadership with mrap the list came out of some of the activities that are being offered you have adult classes on a variety of topics so it's just a great connection between the district and the community but also new activities for our students robotics chest fencing just really exciting and then also some other celebrations I'm going to share my screen so you can see some of the exciting things that are going on with our photos here today and we have a lot of fun things this was
061one that I think is just so exciting is this idea of um Mr Addison and Mrs Hershey before school you know kids are out there some are playing well why not why don't we just say I have a little performance out there so I'm sorry I missed that yeah it would have been amazing um a cool thing to do for them exciting thing there we also have a bug visitor at recess very exciting whenever a student finds a bug it's a big deal so I wanted to to celebrate that the staff welcome back days this is the middle school doing some challenge activities some connecting activities on the left and then part of it is to have a food thing with Jamie she's very proud of the quality of her pancakes she takes great pride
062in her pancake making abilities so uh yes she's got some tips and tricks she shared with me and and staff always appreciate that she goes out of her way for that the first week of school this is also the Middle School the opening assembly they do it in the stadium with some fun activities have a relay no one was hurt in that relay and a really fun really fun activity this is the high school staff with their annual they like to do a photo at a drone photo the staff they they can spell those three letters there we did well I'm not sure how long it took them to get into that shape there was a lot of stress in in terms of that but does not look good very nice very good symmetrical mm-hmm
063very proud of them some accounting students doing a fun review game one of the things that as a district we're really committed to is providing engaging activities because especially at the high school when you have a 90-minute class it's got to be up and moving the days of sitting and lecturing are long since gone so appreciate his creativity Spartan a headquarters what a great job they've done they were really selling stuff at that tailgate by the way doing a great job leading that such a neat thing this business within our school and speaking of that we've got the marketing class they did escape room activity um just those are always fun we've actually done those with staff too but again engaging activities and they're learning at the same time whether they realize it or not
064this was the staff Welcome Back event uh what is that so yeah so that would be me in an inflatable cow costume celebrating a culture of warmth I've got a lot of interesting feedback on that presentation and it's interesting because staff really expect that that's what I'm gonna wear at all times throughout my job so that has not been the case that has not been the case but it was a fun light-hearted way to start the year they had enough serious things to worry about but that cultural warmth is something that is a theme this year and we are really celebrating we also had a nutrition staff training days you see them putting out a fire there but it's so important that they have annual training to make sure we're up to date with the
065safety protocols you know handling food and the the Machinery that they use the equipment that they use is it is very important that they get those annual trainings and they have just done a phenomenal job for the start of this year I eat a school lunch every day and the students just love it too a very creative meal options some new ideas that have come up so good stuff we had a natural circle of support professional development so you can see that optional for for staff they are compensated for coming but that's not why they're there they're compensated with learning so a nice group of people representing all buildings working together to make sure that all of our students feel successful and that they belong in terms of um our relationship with the Ho-Chunk Nation
066we actually have on our staff Joe manarski is a dedicated building sub who gives tours to our staff of the Effigy mounds and he is um pretty fancy fan fancy pants with the president of the former president of the Charles E Brown archaeological Society so I've been on one of his tours really cool and you can see staff out there the beginning of the year so thank you Joe that is my slides upcoming events uh as well passed but wanted to acknowledge September right is attendance Awareness Month appropriately as well as Suicide Prevention month so we've sent out some information to families and to to students about that as part of that month Hispanic Friday was a big day we had Hispanic heritage and Heritage Month starting Rosh Hashanah began at sunset in pow M.I.A
067recognition day September 16th is Mildred fish harnak day one of the observance days that is legislated in the state of Wisconsin mfh as as I refer to her is uh was actually one of those people that she's the only native born American known to be executed by the gestapo and Nazi Germany was a and and being verified verified by our board historian during World War II she became a spy and provided important secrets and information to the United States and Allied Forces cool thing born in Milwaukee uh to Tomorrow is National I.T Professionals Day so we are so fortunate to have the amazing Technology support and services in our district Wednesday is Wisconsin day and also the open also a required observance day in the state of Wisconsin um MHS open house is coming up
068Friday's the staff development day of course the community Festival kicks in as well we have the ceremony the land acknowledgment ceremony with amazing speakers performers that will be coming one thing I wanted to point out that I don't think I have shared with you but and thank you to Angie Stroud for getting us the flags but we do have a Ho-Chunk flag right here in our very own Board Room by President Harry and we're getting one for we have received them one for each building as well which so if you're able to make the 23rd great young Yom Kippur starts as well over the weekend bullying awareness day coming up Francis Willard day coming up on the 28th because what I'm going to say about that required observance day in the state of Wisconsin an
069educator and women's right activist from Janesville and then October we have a lot of stuff coming up before the next board meeting but that month is National principles month down syndrome Awareness Month National bullying prevention month and lgbtqia plus History Month so a lot of major things when we meet next on October 2nd it's also custod National custodial workers day and we have an amazing team that is a lot of me any questions or comments a couple things yeah yeah well Visa Mr Addison and I think it was the choir teacher no it was uh Orchestra Orchestra excuse me you know what a great way to start the day for kids to get them into that food or mood positive you're going from being really active on the playground to you know join that group
070and singing It's just well a very effective way for kids to start school and then secondly as a board I know you're my first term uh the board who wanted the teachers to be aware of what the board was doing and some decisions that the board was doing we weren't quite sure if some of our work was getting conveyed to teachers so with this new District staff newsletter that's going out will there be a section that talks about board news or something like that yes okay good I'm glad you brought that up we were just talking about that I have some ideas about that so um and also for families as well in that newsletter providing you know a reference to the to the agenda links to the video If people want to watch it
071so again making that as accessible as possible because that's something the board has expressed numerous times I think in addition to that decisions that have come come from the board yep so if it's one thing that really irritates me is what I hear people I have no idea what the board's doing yeah do they make decisions or not yeah yeah so if we can yeah improve that certain arrow that would be great yes chat is on the list and I would say I um I would also like to Second your recognition about the communication consistency that has definitely been visible from a parent's perspective so that is it's great to have kind of a similar thing to look at from each you know venue for me to school um and just it just makes it
072so much easier to digest and like to know one place to go that is really helpful so that's thank you for doing that um I had another one I don't remember it was so that's okay so just thanks that's awesome you'll think of it I will think of it eventually what's going on for the open house um I think they you know people can come and meet the teachers walk the schedule that kind of thing they've done that for many years here at the high school and then coming up there's another one CPS Maybe maybe does that sound right it's in October I think yep but they've done that for a long time the high school doesn't have a like a drop off day the welcome I think we called it back welcome back of
073nke did that well 4K 8 to them so this is kind of their replacing that yeah and there's lots of information available to families so it's really become a pretty big deal the steps open house is Thursday October 5th here we go okay I remember I also remembered what I was going to say um just related to new staff onboarding and also like the new positions in student services we've had the opportunity to get to know them a little bit better in this first couple of weeks of school and I think um my kiddos have received a little extra attention that maybe they couldn't have otherwise without those extra positions so that is um that feels really good as a parent and is also noticeable so that's great to see at the high school I
074imagine it's probably the same feeling at the other schools too but yeah so that was that's great to hear yeah absolutely yeah the hope is that they can be more proactive and less reactive and start addressing some of the things that when you're short staffed I can't I can't I can't do that right um so we're excited to hear that feedback okay anything else business managers report Mr Mahoney welcome thanks I don't have any fancy pictures with me though okay just a PowerPoint that looks a little bit similar to what we've been using since last year oh November so we're getting closer having a final budget and all the fun stuff that goes with it so this evening you have a action item on the annual meeting notice and budget hearing which will take place
075in October but let's kind of dive through a few things that are always kind of build into this and get us ready for that annual meeting a calendar that barely anybody can read on the screen but again following where we have been today is September 18th so our action item would be making sure that our legal notices are prepared and sent out to the newspaper so that there is communication to our community legally um next slide so what we'll change I wonder if you guys are getting sick of this slide but uh our third Friday in September count just took place yeah last Friday but it's really not just last Friday it's a review of before the third Friday and after the third Friday so that's how we find out who is really with us
076and make sure that our documentation is up and running so we have equalized value we're going to cover a little bit about that state Equalization Aid We're going to cover a little bit about that tonight Revenue cap and final text Levy amounts and uh revised budget again all of this information is still being in the process so next slide Revenue cap I know everybody can read all those numbers so I'm gonna boil it down to the next slide I'm not giving Angie a minute to even do anything else so this is much better Jeff yeah I think so too because I just really like to highlight the revenue cap is a formula and you take the cap you subtract off the 8 and that's what equals your Levy and for our purposes the revenue cap
077controls your general fund and your Capital fund so your Revenue cap which is about just shy of 28 million for this coming year as estimated again this is all going to change because we won't have the final from DPI until October 15th which is eight shopping days before our annual meeting so we will be doing some some calculating there you subtract out the state Equalization age which reduces the property tax and you come up with our general fund will be about 12.8 million plus another 249 000 for our Capital fund that's been our tradition that we have a little bit of capital fund money some interesting numbers and figures to the side is over the last six years our Revenue cap has only grown by 21.26 that's four percent on average as you know our
078expenditures and I have a slide on this later we're seeing our salaries and benefits over that same period of time at about five and a half percent utilities are 10 12 percent um so we certainly are uh and we'll have another slide here to talk about what's up next but you know something that's really fascinating to me is that um you know our general fund it's been up eight eight and a half eight point six nine percent you can't read that number up there over six years that's one percent growth each year our infill for the last two years has been last year and this year significantly the yes or three funds so so that's the revenue cap uh yes we can move along uh now again we're going to look at a document called
079equalized Aid and there's a lot of numbers there too and so we're going to skip past that one and again we're kind of going back to our equalized Aid so we are looking about five hundred thousand dollars more that's the green area of the metal about 14.8 million that was the July one Aid estimate from the state of Wisconsin so again we don't get to know that exact number until October 15th so then again for the annual meeting we will provide on October 23rd the updated final numbers the next slide talks about this is something that always confuses even sometimes people that I work with a lot is how you know how is it distributed how is that Levy distributed well it's distributed by the portion of property value that a person has as a
080percentage of the rest of the community that's in our school district so um right now we're looking at just over 2.1 billion dollars in value for this school district now when it gets to being someone's property tax bill it gets even further confusing because we know what an equalized value is which is a mill rate per thousand dollars of value and at this moment I'm estimating about 8.35 cents in the last six years that's 29 down from where it previews previously was but that's because our equalized values up 61 now that's both additional property value that's been brought into our community and then people's existing homes that have increased so it's a very complicated system and I have a slide that I'm working with and I hope this kind of helps the Board tonight and
081it gives me a good Reflection Point of will it be something that I can share more out at the annual meetings so it's coming up so we go from from cap to Levy again you have an estimated cap you minus the state aid the equalized aid and that equals your Levy and then is distributed but the big thing I really always want people to take away is the levy is increasing based on the cap we have of about three percent for this coming year well that's that's pretty low and one of the most significant things that is occurring in what occurred in our state biennial budget is tax credit if you don't know what that is on an individual's Property Tax Bill and this happens the lower half happens to be someone's uh property tax
082bill for 2022 so last year happens to be someone in this room in this District and so everybody's like I better remember what I had last year but the school levy tax credit is money that the legislature indicates that they're helping fund Schools they're not helping fund Schools they're reducing the amount of tax burden for our property tax group that that's great and it's wonderful but this year moving forward for 22 to 23 they are increasing that Levy credit by 27 on average across the state so I thought it'd be interesting if we took last year's tax bill for school district tax only and for this individual unnamed in this room paid 3 685 for their District tax however it was reduced by 625 dollars so their net School District tax for last year School
083District tax only yeah there's other jurisdictions just over three thousand dollars 3060. now let's say that our Levy is only going up about three percent well that person is going to pay about a hundred and ten dollars more this year if equalized value didn't change remember equalized value is just a distribution model so if it stayed the same you're still having to distribute to all those people that are involved so 110 dollars more our legislature with a 20 27 on average increase so again this will not be the actual for this person but it's going to be pretty darn close if their property is increasing on the average equalized value that that person will see a 169 increase in their school levy tax credit so their school levy portion that they are contributing to the
084school district it's going to go down by about 60 dollars that's a significant message for our community I believe in the fact that while the state is pumping more money into State AIDS this is counted part of it this is a portion of it but it doesn't come to the school district to have additional resources or to not have to rely on one-time money for the from the Esser funds it is a direct credit to the Property Tax Group again what a wonderful thing um but it is a significant story that again will probably play into our referendum plan so can I ask a question so is is that effectively saying that the state is giving us more money but then Property Owners get more of a tax credit so then our school district is
085getting less money and then that might be why we go to referendum okay so they they another way to look is in the support of school funding school funding is defined by what the legislature puts forward they consider this to be part of school funding but it's not going to the school district to be able to keep up with its expenses or offer more supports for its students without going to referendum okay the next slide actually has what's been going on with the school levy credit again I probably can't read that's pretty small I'm even having to put my goggles on over here so they are jumping from 940 million dollars for last year to what's known as the 2024 for them to 1.2 billion dollars and then the following year is another seven percent
086increase so it is significant um another significant thing that falls into this is the fact that there are districts that had um successful referendums so the district levy gets factored into this over a three year period of time so the 21 through 23 there'll be some folks that will receive a little bit more than the 27 percent some will be less and then it depends on how it's this is probably more information than it's fun for all the business managers because we've been talking about the fact that some municipalities use Tiffin and some use Tiff out equalized values and that can make it a little bit more wonky but again if we just kind of focus on the average is a three percent increase in our Levy and on average across the state there's going
087to be someone getting exactly 27 percent of a credit increase and therefore in a stable situation some of our taxpayers are going to see less just from that credit 2324 Revenue I've covered this at our last meeting but again we did get a little bit of a revenue cap adjustment of 325 dollars per student that is nearly about 600 600 probably too low for what would have needed for this year with regards to funding if we didn't have the Esser funds I had mentioned our Aid estimate was up about a half million compared to last year and then our property tax for general fund is up above 428 000 and again we're using three million dollars of our remaining Esther funds as recommended by joint Finance a few years ago so we're doing another exhaust
088that will exhaust it completely our expenses again uh mentioned about five and a half percent and wage changes and benefit covers 76 percent of our budget you know and I think at the last thing I also talked about you know we're early estimate of just getting us ready for 24.25 would have a rough run of about 3.4 million so next steps certainly tonight is the annual meeting postings action item which number 18th we'll be getting our final equalized value from dor early estimate was about 12 percent growth some of that again is new and some of that is just the natural for those that have property that's existed October 15th we received the final DPI Aid certification which means then we can finalize our uh Revenue cap and then also what our final numbers are
089for our actual Levy and then October 23rd favorite day of the year our annual meeting and then be on that some fun talking about our referendum for fiscal year 2425 and Beyond that concludes my report if there are any questions I'm happy to answer them or if you ever have follow-up questions suggestions please feel free to email me or call the third Friday count um I don't know if it's been finalized completely yet but is it where you thought it was going to be have there been some pretty big shifts yeah um you know compared to what I've previously reported which we've in the summer we were down about 78 kids and then we were starting to get closer to about maybe 55 kids then expected and we have seen some shifts our kindergarten class
090grew a little bit so that's good because we did decide to keep eight sections and that really helped out our 4K is still limited uh it's it's low but you know we have pretty good in growth at the Middle School sixth grade and Ninth Grade which again then impacts what do we do with open enrollment for future years because you you you can't over promise and then see the fact that we have Trends continuing of sixth grade and ninth grade in growth because you could be then having to face a really difficult thing which is saying well thanks for coming to us from kindergarten to fifth grade we don't have any room so we've always based our policies on and our recommendations in January on if we're going to welcome in new students we're keeping
091them for their entire entire time so okay in keeping them for the entire time that's mandated Now isn't it or is it not no it's not okay okay I think that sixth grade class is right around 200. yep but it's good that we do that educationally it's so solid to keep these kids at school district yes as always well done thank you thank you well done and easy to understand that's right complicated little thing thank you thank you thank you very much Jeff okay next would be our action items um first is action on the 2023 to 2025 McFarland Youth Center memorandum of understanding Administration recommends approval of the attached memorandum of understanding between the McFarland School District and the McFarland Youth Center I would look for a motion to approve the memorandum of understanding
092sure I'll move to approve the memorandum of understanding between the McFarland School District and the McFarland Youth Center as presented thank you Tom do I have a second I can second that thank you Megan any other discussion hearing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries five zero second action item is action on 2023 2024 process to select student representatives to the Board of Education per policy zero one four one annually the the school board shall approve the selection process established by the high school administration and the student council I would look for a motion to approve uh the before mentioned process the selection process for student representation at board meetings is presented by the high school administration and the student account thank you Kate do I have a
093second I can second that Bruce any additional discussion is there some reason why we can't identify the student reps in spring for the following school year and all they're talking about you know mentoring coming students I don't know to me it would just make more sense is to start the school year off knowing who the connect reps will be to the school board well we've never done it's all in this at this point it'd be yeah is that a recommendation that we do in the future is that what you're saying okay I would make that in addendum to this recommendation sure yeah we just need to do it annually yeah mm-hmm do you want it after the school board after the new school board member said take it sure that I would say in April
094or May do we need to change the motion no not for this year any other discussion hearing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye opposed motion carries 5-0 action on McFarland High School early graduation request MHS Administration recommends approval of the attached MHS early graduation request I would look for a motion to approve I'll move to approve the attached MHS early graduation request is recommended by the administration thank you go ahead second in second that Megan discussion I think it's a great option for kids absolutely I have a just a question um I noticed that for this one specifically the student was requesting to graduate early and really didn't start this semester so they you know they were requesting to start at graduate early as of August 30th or 31st
095right um what I guess what happens if this doesn't get approved and they're not currently a student I have to say I wanted the same thing yeah that would be a problem I mean I I have no idea no issue with this is a little soon this is now two or three weeks after yeah and typically this is a significant exception I don't know if that's ever happened before it was just because of unique work that was done over the summer which I think is is okay but I think that's a good point and that has been communicated okay that we want to just avoid this whenever possible okay it was a good idea yeah but of course we didn't want to make them go you know a semester either so probably not a good
096point anything else okay all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries five zero action on notice of annual meeting and budget summary to be published prior to the annual meeting at this time we seek board action on approving the attached budget summary to be published prior to the annual meeting that will be held on October 23rd 2023 this action item is necessary at this time so the proper notice to the community is posted I would look for a motion to approve I can make that I moved to approve the publishing of the budget summary as presented in preparation for the annual meeting to be held on October 23rd 2023. thank you do I have a second I'll second okay thank you discussion hearing none of those in favor please signify
097by saying aye aye opposed motion carries 5-0 action on second reading and Adoption of policies 5200 attendance 5410 promotion placement and retention 7440 facility security 7544 use of social media 8800 religious activities and observances 8802 patriotic activities and observances Administration recommends the approval of the second reading and Adoption of these policies I would look for a motion I I'll move to approve the second thank you reading of an adoption of policies 5200 5410 7440 75 44 8800 and 8802 as recommended by Administration thank you join second I'll second time discussion hearing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries 5-0 action on first reading of policies policies 5517 student anti-harassment and 5771 search and seizure Administration recommends approval of the first reading of these policies I would look for
098a motion to approve I moved to approve the first reading of policies 55 17 and 5771 as recommended by Administration thank you Kate boy the second I will second that thank you Bruce discussion I had some questions here sure on policy 5717 page two which happens to be the second page of 11. under days up on top there's notice definitions between days talks about business days when the district office is open the question is breaks the office district office may be open during Christmas break or spring break so those are counted is that correct it's not student days except for state recognized holidays so it would include not student days but when district office is open correct yeah business days including state recognized holidays so if it was over a winter break you would have
099Christmas you know would would be a holiday that is a state recognized holiday so that would be not for those one or two days and then on page 3 of 11 number three now below inappropriate boundary invasions um that paragraph there found invasions may be appropriate or inappropriate and they list a couple examples for example a kindergarten who needs support toilety okay that would be an appropriate time but then Coach touching her is doing during wrestling or football uh can be appropriate that's our double standard yeah we see that in the football field or elsewhere and all of a sudden kids think they might be able to do it elsewhere how do we differentiate how do we explain to kids it's okay here but it's not okay there just because we've done it this way
100traditionally is it appropriate because it could be quite subjective I just bring that which need to be changed well the question is is all inappropriate boundary invasions may include any touching except for developmentally like in kindergarten yeah when I when I look at that language what I see is for example is the language used and then can be appropriate it doesn't say is appropriate so I think within that if I'm you know showing a wrestling move as a coach to a wrestler that would be appropriate in that setting whereas if I showed a wrestling move to a kindergartner at recess that may not be appropriate because that's not the agreement of the scenario so I don't know if there's if if a language change and you know it certainly could be a unique one but
101that's what I think it's trying to do yeah and and I tend to agree with that we would understand that but kids understand that and how about athletic trainers exactly you know how are those situations addressed I don't have any suggestions for that I just bring it up as a big question mark and I think you know when I think of boundary invasions largely that's in many cases that's defined upon the the context of the situation and how it's perceived by the student how it's received but it's hard to define those I think it's dangerous in some ways to even put examples in there because in I mean because where'd you draw the line right so maybe we just take out the examples then they could and then um is that is that something I
102would propose that we take out the examples so do you mean the exam of like a kindergartner after a toileting accident or a coach touching a student during wrestling or football or do you mean the examples of inappropriate boundary invasions I would take out the example cited like toiletine at the kindergarten level and you're in um football and wrestling [Music] so pretty much from for example through grooming [Music] I just think once you start signing examples I agree and we know they can't be all inclusive so maybe we just don't have examples and then on the next page number 15 being overly touchy with students to me that's really subjective I mean I don't know that should even be in there if we don't have a better descriptor than that if you put it in
103quotes it's probably not very yeah it's probably pretty subjective right mm-hmm I'm fine with that there seems to be some interest from the yeah I agree with that Tom so I would suggest that we remove that yeah yeah I don't yeah number 17 again it's doing off class to visit with a staff member you know I found that interesting and I know why they have that in there but there are times when people do get students out of the class might be the nurse my two student services might be the mentor I just want to make sure that it's saying what we wanted to say like that one because it says to visit the staff member might feel different maybe we want to be defined that like out of class for anything that's not educational
104related or you know what I mean because I think that's maybe using that word visit as a more defining Factor than it probably actually conveys because it could be a hot word based on that's what I mean history that's what I mean yeah like I think it's it's a little vague to your point um you have your thesaurus with you I mean computer yeah I'm not sure how we would reward that I'm not sure either I mean it does say may right all of these are amazed if I'm the only one I'm just basing this on previous experience here in the district regarding a non-school sponsored topic or you know something if you use School sponsor then the assumption would be that that's related to class or true yeah a club versus something unrelated yeah
105class four student purpose sure I agree that's it's a little bag and I mean these are again [Music] examples but I think this is a different type of example that you do want to include because it gives you know the ideas of what might be inappropriate that are in the more gray area well for example if this is in the handbook and a student goes home and says I didn't go with this person because it says you know student to visit with the staff member is deemed inappropriate or may be deemed inappropriate and that we know we do have to pull some kids off class once in a while to further you know Provide support to them or whatever it is do we want to change anything around any verbiage around I mean I think
106I like all of your suggestions Tom I think it could be getting a student off class with no educational value or something but that's kind of subjective too yeah I was gonna say just I think I like Kate's language outside the daily curriculum or lesson plan or could not not just non-school related yeah that's probably the cleanest yeah because that covers a lot of ground purpose not super related purpose yeah yeah okay anything else yes um page five of eleven Under Disability harassment we talk about some areas here but one thing we don't talk about are the transgender harassment or lbgt harassment or is that in another area we're going to talk about disability harassment so that's a good point I feel like we should not put it under disability harassment only because you know
107it's it's not a disability but I I do agree with you that it should be addressed maybe maybe it deserves a category of its own it is in our harassment statement so you would think that that should be included here or at least remember to that enforce it's in that third paragraph on the first page is that what you're talking about Aaron well I just mean like for a resolution our statement that we put on all of our documents oh yeah I think that protected class yeah that's probably what you're talking about but there's a bunch of other things there that we don't have um we do call out a lot of the different types of harassment but not interested in that in this particular standard disclaimer that comes out after every well we I
108mean we like we have that basic list but then these other detailed like the there's the title color harassment and religious Creed harassment yeah I think it needs its own little paragraph that's it does you know harassment related to gender identity and sexual orientation I can check on that there probably is because there's probably some Title IX language that may be in policy other policies okay that would cover that um but I will check it is interesting that there's that it doesn't necessarily Define all of the ones listed in the main no it doesn't so that's interesting I guess I'd be curious to know um specifically why some of them were pulled out and not others would that have been at neola's B Hester would we have done that we wouldn't have done I don't
109think we would um yeah I'm not sure how did they decide which ones to highlight they might just not have caught up to exactly um oh well this one is I will check on that before the second reading okay and then are we ready uh page eight of eleven halfway down uh there's a say one sentence paragraph that talks about to the extent required by law or permitted by the district the parties may be represented at their own cost at any of the above described meetings are hearings in the my question is what parties are we talking about because I wasn't quite sure it would seem that the way I'm reading this policy is that it's anyone who um is accused of harassment or is um an alleged victim of harassment so the complainant I
110guess what is the term that they're using yeah or the alleged I don't know what they use but there's the word I use but yes so really anyone any of the parties involved so if it's a teacher a staff member a board member that's been accused of it we could be represented at our own cost though right yeah the district correct pay for and then the last paragraph on 8 11 page 8 of 11. just a grammatical error in the second I guess it's one big sentence one the first sentence we have to change the art is during the course of an investigation the CEO instruct person who are in a leader or who is interviewed just we'll instruct each each who interviewed about the importance each one each the co will instruct each will
111instruct each person each person we took out that part so now it is should be singular thank you and then page 9 of 11 right the top directives during investigation um and my question is how do we determine if it's going to be a paid or unpaid leave of absence under administrative leave yeah so those are exact right how do you determine that hearing yeah really it is based on the evidence that you have at the time that you're making a decision a paid leave is typically used when you're really at the start of an investigation and you don't want to penalize someone with a loss of income when it could turn out to be a false allegation when people have unpaid leave is when you have um enough evidence initially to determine that a
112significant violation has occurred and you know typically in in my experience has been paid leave that that has been my that's been my experience um people have had um been suspended without pay as a disciplinary consequence but I don't know that we have even historically as a district use unpaid leave during an investigation and that's why I bring it up because during some of those investigations the person was found guilty of whatever they were charged up is there anything that stops us from having them it being unpaid and then once everything's settled if they aren't guilty we give them retroactive pain I suppose because otherwise you could and guilty yeah we've had them here for months only that they're going to do something different now to just says to me it's just a waste of
113taxpayers money those that are found guilty until proven guilty that's what I was going to say I don't disagree with what you're saying paid leave is the more appropriate if there was a way to maybe not the cleanest or the least messy I don't know typically done if assuming the person isn't terminated what we have done is then issue um days of suspension without pay so then once that decision is made they're you know but they don't lose the their compensation during that paid leave because the length of time for the investigation varies on a lot of purposes I mean some of that's on us too right yeah you know and so they're not accountable I suppose in a case of determination where they're no longer working with us you then you don't have that
114flexibility but I think that's just the risk you take when you do paid leave is there any way to retrieve that money back if they're found guilty of the charge I'm not sure if you don't think so because what we're doing is we have someone on leave and someone has replaced them okay in most cases yes so so we're paying two positions for the service of one it's just it's just a concern I have yeah I'm trying to do the right thing but so it's just a comment I don't expect any change yeah right we want to have the flexibility that's included in here but I appreciate the the sentiment and certainly we don't want to you know belabor any investigation right yeah anybody have anything else no thank you that's our discussion those in
115favor please signify by saying aye aye aye are you talking about uh first reading 55 17. yes yes yes yeah so is there any discussion about the 57 57 71 I'm sorry I jumped the gun no uh yeah okay uh do we have a breathalyzer here in the high school we don't we don't have it on staff um through a police officer yes okay uh and then on page two of three parking permit not required um or a student may bring a vehicle on school property without a permit a school administrator with Reasonable Suspicion to believe the search will produce evidence of a violation of a particular law school rule or a condition that endangers the safety our health the student your student driver others should request written consent to search the vehicle so so
116let's say there's an activity here at the high school athletic activity the car didn't have a permit to park here but we want to search it so the student has to give their approval for someone to search it is that right so is there uh check a check off thing that we had that student or how how does the student give us permission typically I will tell you it typically hasn't happened written consent typically it's been verbal request a verbal consent okay um so you know we have the canine unit com they hit on a car we bring the person out we say can we search your vehicle they say yes we do it okay um actually that's one where the to be honest now that I think about it the law enforcement is involved
117in that so I don't know that we've ever searched a vehicle without law enforcement being involved so that's why we haven't used written consent because we always have the law enforcement there yeah anytime you're doing something that I I still I'm trying to think of a school rule where we would ever search a car but but I can't think of one okay thanks they're more more so violation alone so is it so do you it kind of sounds like what I'm hearing is that in practice if there is suspicion you typically call law enforcement okay and we often have law enforcement present in many searches um we typically do them with law enforcement present but to your point I think it would probably be good to have some kind of documentation other than verbal if
118yeah if we're the ones doing them yeah research and if the law enforcement wasn't available to search the vehicle that's what I would say we would need and then the last suggestion I have is use of dogs in the opening paragraph or they talk about specially trained dogs and then a b and c we just talked about the dog or the dogs um I would suggest that we add specially trained dogs to each of those that a b and c so would you change the heading to yes I would I mean use of dogs just seems so generic and they could be canine dogs or special dogs I don't see where that should be a bother at all it's better good catches Tom anything else in that case all those in favor please signify by
119saying aye aye opposed motion carries 5-0 and we are adjourned at eight fifth oh we need a motion oh we didn't do that I'm sorry I would look I would look for emotions for adjournment I will make that motion just a little bit thank you all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries 5-0 and we are adjourned at 8 50. how about that