001Welcome to the board of education uh meeting for January 26, 2026. I'll start tonight with our vision. We believe in opportunities, achievement, and community for all. Our mission, the school district of Milton, in partnership with the community prepares our students for achievement and lifetime readiness by providing opportunities for all. And with that, we'll have the pledge of allegiance, please. to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> I I don't think the cameras can see, so I'm just going to point out we have a wonderful, beautiful crowd here tonight. Thank you all for coming and we will start. I will entertain action on the agenda for tonight. >> I'll move to approve the agenda as
002presented. >> I have a motion from Tracy and a second from Rick. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Action on the minutes from January 12th of 26. >> I'll make a motion to approve the minutes for the regular meeting held on January 12th, 2026 is presented. Second. I have a motion from Rick and a second from Ed. Any other questions or comments? All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Thank you. Vouchers. >> I'll move to approve the general checking account vouchers totaling $464,676.13 as presented. I have a motion from Tracy and a second from John. Any questions or comments on the vouchers? All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Uh
003public. Thank you, Chris. There's no public comment tonight. Are we ready for the superintendent's update? >> Yes. We have a couple different things in the superintendent update. We're going to start with our Red Hawk recognition of students and then we'll follow that up with Red Hawk recognition for staff members. Um, >> all right. When the students are announced, if they they and their group could come up and we'll take a a picture of the entire uh group of students um as they as they all are recognized. So, we'll have you come up when your name is called, but then we will uh have you stay up for a picture, too, with the full board. >> Hey, we are here to proudly recognize the following student groups for their remarkable accomplishments, leadership, and positive impact on
004our school community and beyond. Their achievements reflect creativity, perseverance, and strong commitment to excellence. The Harmony Elementary School National Elementary Art Honor Society. So, if you would like to come up, you can. >> The Harmony Elementary School was selected as one of the first schools in the nation to pilot the National Elementary Art Honor Society. an incredible honor and testament to the talent and dedication of our young artists. Through this program, students have channeled their creativity into meaningful service projects that benefit both the school and the wider community. Their artistic contributions include schoolwide positivity posters, a backdrop for the Veterans Day ceremony, and personalized art prints for residents at Huntington Care, helping brighten the days of local seniors. In addition to showcasing their artistic talents, these students are developing leadership skills at a young age
005and learning how creativity can force can be a force for good. We're incredibly proud of their service, talent, and impact. would like a little bit. >> How's that look? I keep taking >> you. >> All right. Next is the NIS and MMS math meet teams demonstrated exceptional perseverance. Southern Lakes Advanced Learning Network Math meet held at W Whitewater. Your success highlights what is possible when scholars are challenged, supported, and encouraged to persist through complex problem solving. This victory marks the seventh consecutive year of math meet success, continuing a long-standing tradition of excellence and advancing our students to the state level to the mega math meet. Your achievements are not only reflections um on their commitment and hard work, but also serves as an inspiration to scholars across the district to encourage deeply in to engage
006deeply in mathematical thinking and pursue academic excellence. We are proud to celebrate this outstanding accomplishment. Math 19. Next up is Stacy's. Stacy continuously grows, goes above and beyond in the opportunities she creates for our leaders. She encourages all students to be engaged not only at school but also within the community. In addition, she inspires our high school students to explore the world through learning opportunities abroad, expanding their perceptions and experiences. We are incredibly fortunate to have Stacy as part of the district and grateful for your compassion and your commitment to your work. Ashley Hughes Ashley's love for helping others thrives is and thrives evident in every interaction. The systems she has initiated have positively transformed the culture of her building for both students and staff. She cares deeply for the people that she serves and
007approaches her work with compassion and purpose. Ashley is truly gifted to her building and she is professional uh in a big wholehearted way. Thank you. Gabby Gabby amazes her colleagues daily with the creative creativity, care, and dedication she brings to her classroom. She is an outstanding teacher who fosters a genuine love of literacy in her students. Her class her classes uh fully fostered a genuine love of literacy in their recent novel study of Bud Not Buddy and it was inspiring to see the excitement students shown for reading and discussion. Gabby creates a caring, safe and inclusive classroom where students feel valued and connected. Beyond the classroom, she takes on additional commitments such as coaching girls on the run and advising the GSA club at North Sight. She also supports student connection beyond our school, including
008coordinating I pen pals with a class in Puerto Rico, often spending her lunch periods helping students with those letters. Gabby truly embodies the values of Milton and we are grateful to have you. Are we ready? The next agenda item is Redhawk highlights and on the second board meeting of each month are members of our administration come up and share uh things that are happening at each of their schools. Looks like Mrs. Stuki is going to start. just today. Um those report cards were shared through Skyward Family Access. So our families get to read those thoughtful comments. Takes a very long time for elementary teachers to do that. So we're grateful for that work that they put in. We also just got done with our um Ames Web Plus testing. So, as you've heard many updates
009in the last couple years around Act 20 that Ames Webb testing is something that is done for all of our K3 students and um that just wrapped up for the midyear testing and we're really excited to see that districtwide we have only about half as many students with a need for reading plans as what we had a year ago from the first round. So, um all of that hard work, all of that learning that we did together has been paying off for our readers. So, we're grateful for that. And want to give a shout out to the instructional coaches, school psychologist, Julie Musgrove. Uh, all those folks went around to the different schools to help our teachers do many of those tests are one-on-one. Takes a really long time, so that extra help was greatly
010appreciated. >> All right, Jeff, I'm here for North Side tonight. I know I'm not usually here. Um so at North Side, uh some of the highlights we have going on is that we just recently had our first Hawk Honors breakfast. Part of um our big push this year is kind of like universal behavior expectations for students and getting all of our staff members and students on the same page with that. Uh Jen has probably shared some of this before, but our four big words this year are polite, prepared, productive, and safe. Um and so we had all of our home room teachers identify students that were going above and beyond in uh displaying those qualities. And we brought it was almost 100 students and staff or sorry not students and staff students and parents um
011in on Thursday morning had a breakfast to celebrate all their accomplishments over the course of the year and just um recognize them for their positive behavior and their impact on their peers. Um this was also a surprise to me because I didn't realize that this was part of the board meeting today. Um so that's all that I have. Thank you. >> All right. Um, at the middle school, we are just trying to wrap up our winter I Ready diagnostics. Um, and looking at that data. Um, we're really proud of our middle school robotics team. It's our first ever robotics team. Uh, and they went four and three in their first competition. Um, uh, so again, it's the first ever middle school robotics team for Milton Middle School. Um students throughout um last week into this
012week have been trying to guess um a guest speaker that's coming to the middle school. Uh and today it was revealed to the students that Nick Stone, the author, is going to be coming to speak uh to Milton Middle School students on February 18th. Uh Jessica Fetting is an ELA teacher who helped uh organize that. And then uh lastly, our students have been working really hard to get ready for the musical. Um, we have several different productions of the musical taking place in February. Um, the students are going to go see the musical as part of their school day on Thursday the 19th and then there will be shows on Friday the 20th at 6:30. There's a sensory um friendly show taking place Saturday during the day at 2:00. So, there will be like fewer
013flashing lights and sound or louder noises. Um, and then on Sunday the 22nd will be the matinea at two o'clock. >> Uh, the Adams family. Sorry, you caught me off guard there. Yeah. >> All right. And then at the high school, I'll pick up one thing that Ben said, uh, the robotics team. One thing I'll mention about the the, uh, middle schoolers were part of those wins actually were against other high school teams. And so, uh, the that program continues to grow. We're very proud of it. on February 21st will be the robotics home robotics competition. All are welcome to attend. Uh this uh this week actually on Wednesday we will be starting the another round of arena scheduling. We actually uh the week uh last week we started something new. Students the entire all
014week during study flex students were in their home rooms working with adviserss much more intentional this year looking at some of the feedback that we got from our call trucks data in the past from parents and um from our students about the the scheduling process. uh we uh worked with our uh students actually all week last week uh going through uh more of advisory period of courses that would align with their ACP courses that are available to them helping them get ready for the arena scheduling get some practicing within uh the home rooms last week and so uh on Wednesday our juniors are scheduled and then the next weeks we'll have sophomores and freshman will be scheduling uh and then I uh have to mention too obviously we just came off a great weekend at
015Milton High School Rock the Rock uh was a a huge success. It was a lot of fun. Uh we over 20 choirs that participated. Uh I was uh this year since I have a son that was in the show band for the first time. I got to see it through the lens of a a showban dad which you know this is my 18th Rock the Rock that I've been to and I spoke at and usually after I give the awards and it's great and all that and I talk to some folks I get to leave. I got to stick around for the cleanup uh that to to put Yes. Ed's laughing. All right. and um I gained a whole new appreciation for the amazing parent group that we truly have. I've always known that they
016do a lot of work and they've been very val very very much valued. But when I uh uh saw the number of folks, there's over 250 volunteers that help put that on. There's thousands of people that go through that. It's obviously an event that we've treasured for a long time. But a real shout out to the parents group, Theresa Andre, who's the showquire parent presquoire parents president and all the many many volunteers. And it's not just our parents, it's alumni that come back to volunteer. Alumni parents come back to volunteer. So it was a lot of fun. So kudos to everyone. Again, over 20 choirs uh participated. Uh DePier actually took home the grand championship. Thank you. And the last agenda item under the superintendent update are highlights from the 2026 uh state education conference.
017We had a a number of school board members and administrators that spent some time last week in Milwaukee uh learning together with folks from across the state. Uh so if the board we'll start with the board members want to share a a highlight from their sessions that they attended and then as the board is finishing if we could have Julie, Whitney, and Ross come up and share highlights from their sessions. >> Okay. >> Thank you everybody. It was a first of all it was a great great conference and uh I'm sure somebody will say it but since I'm first I'm going to say it first. Shout out to the students from Milton from Red Hawk Media that were there uh filming the kind of the capstone video for the whole thing. They were amazing. Uh
018some of the sessions I uh attended I took attended a session on artificial intelligence and policy around that. It was I found it very very interesting and and and took a lot from it. Um, I also attended a session on how to hold a legislation day in your in your district. And I thought that was something we might look at doing here. And then, um, uh, also on top of that, I went to a legislation update from WASBY hearing what the latest trends are happening up at the capital. And then I went to the, uh, delegation assembly, which took up the better part of my first day. It was about four hours. I won't bore you with all the details, but we'll put a memo together everybody how it all voted, but it pretty much
019went the way we expected it to go. And then lastly, I went to a session on connecting students to um and telling your story. And that was a more of a vendor thing. So, I didn't get as much out of that one, but it was certainly a good experience. And overall, I I made a lot of great connections, talked to a lot of great people, and had a lot of fun with administration and colleagues. >> I was there in spirit. Thank you, Joe. Um, I was able to attend one day um and I kind of hopped around to a couple of different sessions. Uh, one of my favorite one was an a session on AI um and the thoughtful use of AI and it it made for some good conversation at the end um when
020you're trying to balance out preparing our students versus managing our students when it comes to AI. um went to a few on school finance, went to one on a federal update, and then I went to one that I thought was interesting on the WIL and high school NIL. Um and one of the interesting points that they were making was I don't know if it's it's not in Wisconsin, it's one of the states, the legislation where there's that restriction on moving to a new school and not playing on a varsity team for a year, but then that restricting your ability to earn an income on your name and likeness. So, um, couple of really interesting topics that are evolving. Um, and then again, like Ed said, amazing job by the students. So amazing by how many,
021uh, Milton folks were there. Uh, the trade show is always an interesting place to collect fidgets for certain schools that like fidgets and, um, just to meet some really interesting people. >> Uh, yeah. So, one of my favorite parts about the show is, you know, hanging out with fellow board members, not just our board, but the other boards across the state. Um, I've met a handful of people that I try to connect with every year. So, that that was a highlight. Uh, hanging out with uh some of the admins at dinnertime. Um, that was fun to get to know everybody a little bit more. As far as the show goes, I was a little late. I uh had a grandbaby the night before, so I had to meet him before I made the trip over.
022So, uh, some of the sessions I attended, um, systems framework, which was maybe a little bit over my head, uh, but I did garner some good stuff there. Uh, policy that was kind of more shared some case studies. Uh, one of the things, you know, the circle that I talked to, one of the big things was the, uh, cost of health insurance. So, I did attend a session on that. Uh I learned that the US is number one in uh the the number one spending country and in the US Wisconsin's the the number four spending state uh per capita whatever the number is but uh so that's a trend that we will have to try to uh figure something out on. So and the last one was a teacher comp uh just talking about processes
023and um getting buyin from the whole staff. So, all in all, good show. >> First of all, I'd like to thank the district for sending us all of the program. Uh, WASBY always does a great job, and it's always very educational and and informative. I attended a session about the board's role in the financial oversight of the district. The presenters spoke about the types of thing that that a board should be aware of, such as our statutory obligations, how and when to adopt a budget, and what a fund balance is, and why it's important. I I did learn some things from this presentation, but I've most importantly I learned that um it's important to have good people doing those things. So, thanks to everyone in our business office that I know they all uh do
024a great job. Um I also attended a session called Mastering the Art of School Finance Storytelling. Uh here we learned about why it's important to talk to the public about finances on an ongoing basis and not just when you're trying to get ready for a referendum. uh the pres presenters spoke about the importance of financial communication and how to put terms that we might use here such as mill rate and fund balance into terms that would be easier for the u general public to understand. So that was very informative also. But I also just enjoyed spending time with my fellow board members. So thanks everyone for all all of that. >> All right. So, my three favorite were who's telling your story? Strategies for real connection. And what I took away from that session was
025that we have an amazing district with an amazing director of communications and we're doing a lot of things, right? So, I was very proud to kind of be able to sit there and listen and go, "Oh, we do that and we do that, too, and Carrie does that." So, super proud um to just know that we're we're doing the right things as it relates to communication and telling our story and making connections in the community. And um I did attend a session on hiring a new superintendent. Uh and so that was very informative. Uh it was a panel >> at the uh session and it was very interesting to hear um the superintendants and how their hiring process and their journey went. So, I learned some valuable things about what to do and what not
026to do in hiring a new superintendent. And then, um, my other favorite was stronger together, addressing mental health through community connections and, uh, just some really great takeaways. I serve on the HR committee. So again, I feel like I learned a lot about how it is that uh we can address some of the mental health issues throughout the district and maybe uh new ways in which we can utilize current staff and perhaps even uh reach out to the community uh with some of the resources that are out there that maybe we don't tap into that we could. I'll follow up on that because one of the things I noticed as I was making notes about the conference is several of the keynotes addressed um stress and the mental health of people who work in districts
027and school boards. And so there was a lot of of that emphasis also at the conference. I attended quite a few of the legal updates, transportation law, um went on superintendent evaluations, and much like others have said, you'd sit through those sessions and say, "Yeah, we do that. Yeah, we do that, too. Oh, we did that." And it I know we have great staff. And when you can say that, it just like reinforces the good work that everybody's doing here. Uh the other thing that was really valuable is having time to talk with colleagues and business partners and you know learn from each other. I met several uh schoolboard presidents that we're going to stay in touch and so that was really fun. And then finally uh in the exhibit hall our consulting company HYA
028was advertising our superintendent position and so that was kind of exciting to see also. So we had a number of um district admins with us. So they want to share. >> Yes. Also glad to be part of the convention last week with all of you and I'm sure it'll come as no surprise. I did attend a number of finance sessions at the convention. But I also made a point to look at the legal updates and the legislative updates. Um WASBY and SAA both put on sessions on that topic and I look at those sessions as important to me because I find it interesting what those groups tell their membership. And while they did hit some of the same notes, there's definitely a lot still in play. Even though we approved the budget two and a
029half months ago, um there's currently money at the state level that's up in the air right now that's being discussed, including a emergency resolution last week that was discussed regarding the budget surplus and special education reimbursement percentages. So, we'll be closely watching that for the rest of this year and the remainder of the current state bienium. But, um yeah, all in all, great conference. All right. Well, first of all, I got stuck in the elevator. So, that's how my my day started on the first day of the conference. So, I was stuck for 25 minutes in the elevator. So, it was pretty eventful. Yeah. Okay. >> Yes. So, it took five engineers to open up that elevator. So, luckily they were all there. Um, I think the keynote speaker on the first day, Ann Marie
030Anderson, she is an Emmy award-winning broadcaster. Um, she shared her story, not about being the famous person, but more of her journey with her own children. Um, I think it just showed the sense of belonging. So, we talk a lot about the importance of sense of belonging and the impact that it has. Um she talked about her son who um found his place and it just reminded me of the job that we get to do every day and the impact that we get to have on um the scholars that we serve and that sense of belonging and finding ways that um to support them in that journey of finding their place and whatever that may be. I think was just the the start of that conference was so powerful. And I think um for me
031that's what I was rooted in throughout the entire conference of thinking of certain scholars that I've had the opportunity to serve. But then also as we move forward, how do we bring that back to our staff of we talk about sense of belonging in the impact? But um are we really intentional to make sure every scholar has somebody that they can connect with? Um so I think that's that's kind of the big piece that I took away. Um I went to some of the policies kind of the new legislative laws around get kids ready which is the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families that has a new initiative. So um wanted to kind of get some more information around the four-year-old program that's uh that's tied to the child care. So that was something that
032those are kind of the two things that really I focused on. I will echo Julie that um the most impactful to me was the keynote speaker and Marie Anderson. Um just helping to recenter on your why um and remember why we're all there for students and and helping to make sure that the decisions we make are bringing students closer together to find those connections and those opportunities. Um two of the sessions that I went to that were most impactful were um ones on Wisconsin law and legal updates. Um it was great to see that a lot of the work that our student services department's doing is not only student centered but aligned with um the the things that were outlined in those sessions. Um and then the last session that I went to was um
033an opportunity to network with another special education team in the state who is doing amazing things with their special education delivery model. Um they're seeing huge improvements with state testing data, attendance, discipline referrals, and overall creating independence in students. So, a good opportunity to be able to connect with um people trying to do some of the same things that we're looking at, too. >> And I will close that out. I attended sessions on uh finance, legislative, and legal updates that were very informative. Uh a session on coaching principles uh to do the best job that they can do at their schools. Uh a session on AI use by students and staff. and some of the things that I learned will be tied into a a new AI policy that we'll be bringing through the governance
034committee uh for first read at the next board meeting. And then uh Ed mentioned it, but I also want to uh both thank our Red Hawk media team for Milton High School. Uh the students did an outstanding job. I heard a lot of comments from other adults attending the sessions about how professional they were in their work. And I also want to thank our uh staff who supervised them uh Mr. Quant, Mrs. Brel, and Mrs. Cleba uh for their outstanding work taking a group of students uh uh to um learn and to provide a service for school boards from across the state. >> Thank you. And we'll now move on to the high um presentation our 2425 financial audit report. >> Hello board members. Um thank you for having me here today to present the
035audit. My name is Huong. I'm an audit manager with Johnson Block. Today I will briefly go over this financial statement highlight with you. Um I assume that you have already reviewed the financial report. Please feel free to jump in if you have any questions as I go along. Um so in the audit report after the table of content you'll find our independent auditor's report. This is the report that we as the auditor issued uh providing a opinion on the financial statements. I'm sorry. Go page one like up to the Can I control it by the way? >> Oh, no. >> No. Okay. Oh, yeah. Here we go. >> Okay. Um, our report issued an unmodified opinion, which means that the financial statements are fairly presented in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the USA
036and it is free of material misstatement. After the independent auditor's report is the management discussion and analysis which provides additional narrative and supports the financial statements from management um perspectives and then we have governmentwide financial statements. This is more like a consolidated look at the financial statements reporting by the different categories of governmental and business type activities. It is under full acurasis of accounting and then it uh also has the long-term debt and long-term assets presented on the face of financial statement. Then we have fun financial statements. This provides the detail on each of the district's major funds providing the information as self balance uh balancing individual fund. So for governmental funds it has um general fund including special education fund, capital projects fund, debt service fund and non- major funds. For business type funds
037is accounted for similar to businesses which includes the food service fund. And then we have notes to the financial statements which contains summary of significant accounting policies and footnotes related to significant financial statements account which includes cash debt capital assets uh Wisconsin retirement system notes and OPAP studies OPAP notes. Then we have required supplementary information and other supplementary information. For required supplementary information, we include the budget uh budget to actual comparison schedules. Um and WS schedules, OAP schedules. Um then for supplementary information, we have the financial statements for non- major fund. Then go to next page. Um so part of the annual audit process, we are also required by the DPI to certify some district's numbers. This includes the eight certification and audited f balance um certification. So we submitted both certifications on September 11th,
0382025. Um and then we will also issue the single audit report. U we plan to have it issued by the end of January. After that we will submit the data collection form to the federal cleaning house. Besides the audit report, we also issued uh audit uh matters requiring communication to government body mic. This is just a standard communication to the board members. There's no findings, no issues that we found from this year's audit. So basically in conclusion, um this year it is a clean audit. So next page, page three, um it's the 2025 financial highlights. This is um it's kind of a condensed version of the general fund balance sheet. It includes um for general fund it is the main operating fund of the district and under the financial reporting purposes it also includes the
039special education fund. So for general fund cash balance you have 10.59 million of cash which increase about 1 million from last year. Tax receivable other assets are pretty comparable to last year. Um and then current liability you have 4.5 million which increased about 600,000 from last year. Um this also includes uh 2.4 million of due to other fund for uh from general fund and then the total fund balance of 12.2 million which is the total assets minus the total liabilities. And then in the middle of this page it listed the broken down of the fund balance into four different categories. non-spendable fund balance which represents mainly the prepaid expense um balances. Restricted fund balance which is the fund balance that can only be used for specific programs. And then committed fund balance is the fund
040balance uh number committed by the board of board members or by the board and assigned fund balance which is about 11.5 million that can be used for the operating of the school district. Um we also do a calculation or evaluation of the fund balance to next year's um budget. So our calculation shows that you have about 21% like the fund balance is about 21% of next year's budget which um is pretty comparable to last year which you have like 22%. So at the bottom of this page is summarized income statement. it is general fund um kind of budget compared to um actual. So you can see the revenue expenses are all over budget but overall you have a increase of fund balance of 255,000. So next page is budget comparison data. So it mainly leased
041um the expenditures which are over budget um by more than 10,000. So the capital outlay expenditures are over bud budget for about 2.5 million. This is mainly because of the Apple lease that you signed um at the end of the year and this expenditures are covered by the proceeds of that Apple lease. And then it's a debt service is over budgeted by 160,000. And this is mainly um journal entry made by us for reporting purposes for the speeda which is the subscription sub subscriptionbased uh information technology agreements journal entry. So page five um is the other funds fun balance information. So I won't go through all of these but at the bottom the food service fund balance this number is different than the day-to-day um kind of number from the districts this is from our
042financial report which is under full accur business of accounting is different than the DPI regul um requirements but it is under GAAP um so the difference is mainly from the capital assets and the annual depreciation expenses that were report like how they reported on the financial report for the food service fund and then we also include the um allocation of the WS pension liability WS deferred um pension inflows and outflows um also reported here on the fifth service fund. So when you look at the numbers that might different from what you you've seen from the um books from the district's accounting software and then page six is the historical information of district's um general obligation debt um compared to its capacity under state statute the district is allowed to borrow up to 10% of the
043equalized value in the district's limit. So you can see that the um general outstanding general general obligation debt is pretty consistent in the last five years and then um you but the debt limit has increased um in the last five years and overall at the end of the year you still have about 87% of capacity of borrowing. Page seven um has the five-year historical data for the general fund re uh expenditures. So here it also includes the special education fund and debt service fund expenditures. And page eight, same information but in a different um chart. It just break down the um expenditures into different function um but shows in pie chart for the last couple years. Page nine um historical data for the revenue general fund revenue and then page 10 um similar information but
044in pie charts for the last two years. The last page of this um summary is the net cost of governmental activities by functional programs and the total of this net cost of services of like 43 million. this number or this cost will be is covered by the tax levy and also the general aid. So this this information is generated from page two of the financial report. Any questions? I would just like to thank you um and all of your fellow audit team as well as our business office for all of the work I know goes into producing these reports um in a timely fashion. So, thank you for all your efforts. Um, and the business office as well. >> Thank you. >> I also would like to thank you. Thanks for coming. Thanks for all
045your work. I'm just kind of I'm just curious. Do you have any suggestions on changes or improvements that can be made on the processes or uh anything that you observed while you were doing it? >> Yeah, thank you for the question. Um so for from this audit like we don't have any specific findings of specific kind of recommendations to the district but overall um there were a couple topics in the field that we like to um aware the board members about it and then we also like our clients to know about it too. So first of all is about the cyber security kind of awareness. So we'd like to have all the employees to aware of the cyber security um to have them trained annually regarding the cyber security information um and then because the
046cyber incidents has been kind of um very hot or like kind of the risk has increased in the last couple years. So that is one thing that we want the board and the employees to be aware of. Um another thing is related that so in the last couple years it is another hot topic regarding to the internal risk assessment on financial procedures. So this basically is just ask you to stepping back to see um what can go wrong or how it could go wrong and or like how it can be prevented from any risks. So when you see like this part of the transaction or like this procedures met can cause some problems or cause some risks how you can improve your procedure to prevent the risk ahead of time. So that's another kind of
047thing that I want the board to be aware of or kind of know about. Um it's another hot topic. Uh it doesn't mean that the school district does something wrong or anything. It's just a general kind of topic of um suggestions >> and the these things were talked with the staff dur you talked with the staff about these things during the audit. >> Uh we kind of not directly but kind of cyber security we sent out the cyber security kind of questionnaire to have them fill out to see if you guys aware of you have such like firewall or you change the password kind of regularly. We do those inquiries during our uh audit for internal control. We ask about dispersement procedures, payroll procedures, receipts procedures to see if you have a good procedure there
048or internal control there. But still risks um is there or like kind of sometimes may happen from kind of prevented. So I just this is just some general um things and from audit uh we cannot kind of do audit for that details to see each transactions at standing point. We need our responsibility is to make sure that the financial statements is not materially misstated so we don't kind of do audit for all of the transactions. >> Thank you. >> Hope that makes sense. >> Okay. >> Does your audit involved uh reviewing the internal controls of the district? So in private or public industry we have a Sarbain requirements and not that it would be a Sarbain type audit but in making your opinion do you look for material weaknesses in the internal control structure? >>
049Yes we do um kind of for those procedures that we mentioned about we do walkthroughs we get understanding of the internal controls. Yes we do give some opinion on the internal control that is what we do for the single audit. We will have another single audit report that issued. I send a draft um to Ross today. It has our audit opinions regarding the internal control and compliance. Yes. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Any other questions? Thank you so much. Appreciate your time. >> Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank you. Uh next on our agenda is a hiring committee update and uh Rick and uh John feel free to uh jump in. We met after the last board meeting and during our meeting we completed the planning document and uh we set dates
050for our focus groups both internal uh in person and virtual. Uh we set um we plan for feedback to the board from HYA once they've collected data from the focus groups and um survey. They'll be sending out a survey and if you have been watching our social media and our uh Red Hawk review, you'll see that we have started advertising those dates and hope people are putting them on your calendars to to give us feedback on what you would like to see from a new superintendent. Um, we've set the dates for our the interviews. Um, as I said, the job was posted and it was advertised at the conference and I again I'll just repeat, please follow our social media and our Red Hawk review or go to our website and it is the first
051kind of link that pops up under our school district and that has an overview of our process and locations, times and format for addition for our focus groups. Um, did I miss anything? Looking at Chris. Any questions? The hiring committee will again be meeting after tonight's meetings. >> I would just like to say I did actually see that post and I didn't I wasn't in the meeting. So, when it popped up on my Facebook, that was a great post and it actually had been already shared by somebody I know versus me seeing it on the district Facebook page. So, um, I was really impressed by the post and the fact that those actions were going to happen and I was not aware. So, um, it really got my attention. So, thank you. >> Any other
052questions? Thank you. Thank you everyone. And we will move on to our finance committee update. Tracy? >> Yes. I will wait for Stephen and Ross to come forward. So, the finance committee met on January 19th. There were three items on the agenda and they are here for discussion this evening and possible action at a future meeting. Um, and I will turn it over to Stephen. The first one is the long-term capital maintenance plan. >> Thank you, Tracy. Uh yeah, as Tracy mentioned, uh presented the updated 10-year capital maintenance plan, specifically projects outlined for uh fiscal year 2026 27. And uh we'll cruise through the PowerPoint and uh save some time at the end for questions. Uh so the first slide I always present to the board is uh just reminding the board and reminding the
053community of the previous investments that uh previous boards have made over the last five years. and uh did a bit of reformatting of the previous investment slides to show uh instead of highlights per each fiscal year uh taking a look at the investments that have been made at each building uh specifically over the last five years which I think uh paints a pretty good picture of uh just the overall uh improvements that have been made at each building and a really equitable approach that we've taken to make sure that you know every building moves along the same uh track of improvements uh along the way. And uh one highlight that I did want to add to that last slide quick was just the one outlier that we did have there that makes the high school
054seem quite a bit higher was uh the you know that total does include the grand stand replacement project. So just wanted to make sure to point that one out. Uh yeah, moving on to the proposed projects for 2026 27. Uh the first project uh we'll talk about is at Milton East. Uh mechanical uh projects are proposed for East this year, replacing the gym air handler uh with a rooftop air handler, and that would be uh adding air conditioning to that as well. The original air handler shown in that photo is original to that building's construction in 1958. And we would also be proposing to add air conditioning to the cafeteria that was renovated in 2020 as part of the uh capital referendum. Uh and that is just continuing on our our goals and priorities to
055uh get through all of our elementary schools to add air conditioning in all common spaces. Uh as a priority uh just as a feasible goal for us to do over the next few years. Continue to move towards that. Uh at West, pretty much the same project as East, just replacing uh two air handlers with a rooftop air handling unit and adding air conditioning uh that serve the gym and cafeteria. And that is also original to that building's construction in 1966. Definitely got our money's worth out of all those mechanical systems. uh consolidated in harmony. We have uh no proposed projects for 2627 at North Side replacing three exterior doors that are uh remaining from when we did a bunch a few years ago. Uh that's doors three, four, and five. They're exit only doors on
056the 100 wing. Photo of door five there. That one doesn't owe us anything either at this point. So, uh, one of our two larger projects proposed this summer, that would be proposed fund 46 projects would be to replace the remaining, uh, pneumatic controls at North Side, uh, over to DDC. And as I said at the finance committee meeting, I'm very excited that that is actually the last of our pneumatic controls. So, we'll be 100% digital uh, control district, which is very exciting. Took about 10 years or so to get through the district. So, this is a a large accomplishment for us. Uh, last project at North Side would be to replace the flooring that is original to the building's construction in 1993 from VCT that's shown in the picture there to uh an LVT that
057you've pretty much seen uh around the district at this point as our as our district standard. Uh at the middle school, we would be looking to replace the ceiling, lighting, and paint in the east and north gym hallways. Uh that's pretty much untouched from that building's construction in 1979 with a project total at that those two hallways of around $25,000. Uh project number two for the middle school related would be replacing the flooring stair treads in replacing the flooring and stair treads in the upper level hallways and classrooms. And we would be also replacing the ceiling, lighting and painting in the upper level hallways. Uh really giving that second floor uh a total refresh. And I'll call that phase one because next year would be a similar project in the remaining uh lower level classrooms
058that weren't touched by the capital referendum in in 2020 and 2021 at the high school. The second large scale project uh proposed from fund 46 would be a roof retrofit of the uh roof over top of gym 2. And this is the second to last large roof project at the high school before we're pretty much through uh roof sections uh to that scale anyway at the high school. And we're doing all continuing to do 30-year roof sections uh when we do projects like that. Second project at the high school would be replacing two uh rooftop air handlers that serve the uh principal's office area and the athletic office areas. original equipment from the 1980s and 1990s. One of the unique things about about these is one, it's not an overhead projector. Ed, throw that one.
059Oh, sorry. Uh, but these uh air handlers are currently electric heat, which uh is actually two of our only electric heat rooftop air handlers that we have. So, converting that over to a a more modern uh natural gas air handling unit uh with air conditioning. Uh moving forward and at our district parks, we as prefaced last year, we'd be moving into uh phase one of three of retrofitting our existing field lighting uh at Schelberg Park. And this would be converting the existing poles from metal hali like they currently are today. uh and that was exactly how they were constructed in 1998. Uh over to uh LED and the LED system would be uh identical to what was put in at the varsity baseball field a year ago. Uh identical to what's currently being put in
060at the soccer fields at Shelberg. So, it's uh not only more efficient, better quality light, but it's uh also controllable remotely and programmed from uh our district devices or or controls much like our digital HVAC controls. So, again, this would be a phase one of three. Phases two and three would be, you know, splitting the softball and baseball uh complex in years two and three. Uh that is uh project totals over the three funds uh fund 10, 46 and 80 of approximately 1.659 uh million. And a couple items to note uh just on the actual PowerPoint itself is that uh you know key additions uh to the capital maintenance plan uh from what you saw last year would be the addition of the healthcare sciences lab uh under the high school. So that would be
061uh moving forward eligible for uh fund 46 expenditure should uh should we move forward with that project as well as the uh district maintenance facility as it stands today. Those again are future approval items, but just getting them on the capital maintenance plan approved by the board of education makes that eligible for uh fun use at a later date. Uh yeah, and then part two is the vehicle and equipment replacement plan. Uh the vehicle and equipment uh proposed uh pieces this year would be a uh replacement skid loader for district maintenance and a replacement mower for district maintenance. Uh that total budget is just under $49,000 and that does include uh equipment tradeins for that. Uh and then moving forward there, we'd be moving into cycling through our district passenger vehicles and uh district maintenance
062uh fleet trucks. I guess any any questions from there, >> Stephen, was that was that attachment included the uh the vehicle? >> Oh, wasn't >> we will make sure we have that for next time. >> Okay. >> Yeah, that was my question, too, cuz sometimes we see that one that has like two years out, three years out. Yeah, >> this one. >> Yes. Yeah. Thank you. >> We'll make sure we have that for for next time. We'll get that out to board members in the meantime, too. >> Chelsea, could you bring the um presentation back up? The district park. Um one thing that I found very interesting at the meeting was the comment that this is not as intensive as the soccer fields because it's using structures that are already there. So, it's kind of
063retrofitting. We're not digging anything up. We're we're just taking the lights down and putting new ones up that are more efficient. So, >> yeah, it's really nice. Great great question. Uh what's really nice is the project itself would be really leaving the existing poles and infrastructure as is, and they really just coming with the crane, pluck the old top off, put a new top on, and some new control cabinets. Uh so being able to use all that is existing infrastructure drives the cost per field well below uh what a new construction would be. >> Stephen, with those lights, how many lights are actually there? Because if I'm not mistaken, wasn't the soccer the whole project like a 100,000 for that? >> So the whole soccer project was just about 196 when it was all said
064and done. Uh so there's 12 poles here uh across three fields and there was four poles at the soccer complex. So >> Gotcha. >> And then phase two and phase three of that, how many how many lights would be left or what would like what's that in today's dollars? Like what what would you expect that cost to be? >> Uh so the estimated cost for phase two and three would be approximately $300,000 per phase. So this one is the largest of the three phases to get through all three football fields. There really wasn't a good way to slice this to make it more phases. So doing it in in the way that we have it is the best way we could make it uh you know as budget tolerable as possible I'll put it while
065still keeping it practical. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? Okay. So, this will come up for approval at our next school board meeting on February 9th. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. So, we'll go on to the next item, >> which is the north side playground equipment replacement. All right. So, also presented at the finance committee on January 19th was uh the proposed project of replacing the existing playground equipment at North Side, which is uh the original playground equipment that was installed in 1993 as part of the building's original construction. Uh as outlined in the memo, uh the existing equipment has far exceeded its useful life. uh the useful life for playground equipment in the state of Wisconsin, you know, they generally ballpark at 20 years through all the freeze, thaw cycles, all that good stuff.
066So, we've definitely far exceeded uh what that playground's life span is. Uh and you know, the way that it currently sits today, uh I'm not going to say that it's unsafe. It's not unsafe, but the way that we have to address things as they as they fail is that we basically take that piece of equipment out of circulation and make it unusable. And it's just less less pieces that that the kids get to use moving forward. It's really not feasible for us to continue to uh try to piece and patch that equipment together as uh it's just structurally getting to the point it's past its useful life. And uh we did take a look at and we talked with our playground consultant about you know trying to develop a plan that would allow us to
067you know phase in replacement of that existing playground equipment because it is the one of the largest playgrounds that we have in the district. But that playground equipment is actually grandfathered into safety standards where if you touch or modify that playground equipment, you're required to touch and modify the entire thing. you can't uh take bits and pieces off of it. So, taking a look at uh the equipment that's currently there, talking with Mrs. Kramer and the you know, the playground supervisors down there at what's what's used the most, what playground trends are they seeing uh kids getting the most use out of it. Other playground projects is really where we uh developed and got the proposed project uh that is in the in the board packet. Uh, you know, we did, uh, go through a
068lot of different renditions of this, and this is, uh, the one that garnered the most excitement out of the north side staff. One of the unique uh, circumstances here at this north side project is just at the elementary schools. Traditionally, the playground equipment replacement and/or additions have uh traditionally been funded through parents groups, but uh being the size and scale of this project, replacing it in a timely manner through a fundraising effort just isn't something that's feasible. So, the uh overall project budget based on what's uh proposed here tonight is $250,000. and $250,000 includes the equipment installation and uh the playground wood fiber surfacing after the fact. The district ourselves would take care of the removal and site preparation uh ahead of that. And sorry, I lost my spot. and talking with uh with Ross
069and Rich, the proposed uh funding for that $250,000 project would be uh a 202526 fiscal year expense. uh with the plan to use unspent fund 10 budgeted funds to do so. Uh moving forward with a with a timeline of this project, what the proposed timeline would be is uh if this project moves forward for approval at the meeting on February 9th, uh we did confirm with the playground uh manufacturer that upon time of order of that we would have it in time for uh an installation in the month of June. So that timeline can be met. And we did also uh after the last finance committee meeting confirm that the new playground equipment does feature 31 different ADA accessible stations which is wonderful news and uh you know it features a lot of different uh
070ADA accessible stations there. There's additional ADA accessible uh swing locations. It's really a tremendous upgrade on that front as well. And just that's what that little block on the end of the walkway that allows for the accessibility. Is that what the idea was? >> Yeah. So that's a transition from the sidewalk down to the wood surfacing. So yeah, that's one that's one of the features that would be part of it. Yes. >> Thank you. >> Is north side used for summer school? >> Yes. >> At all. Would that be an issue >> with the timing with >> I mean because that goes through what the beginning of July, right? >> July. >> Yeah. So, >> uh, talking with Mrs. Kramer, you know, we >> think it could be manageable getting that done in the month
071of June. It's, uh, it's going to be a three-week total process from demo to site preparation to installation, but that's something that we feel like we can navigate. >> I'm just thinking of the kids. I mean, they probably play out there in between sessions. And >> we do have the playground expansion that took place last year on the back side of the building. And there's uh you know basketball courts. They got the Gaga ball pits. We got the playground expansion. So there are are a lot of other options that hopefully we can get them >> to use for that window of time. But yes. >> Yeah. Chelsea, if you can bring up the memo, the other picture. This did come up at the the committee meeting. Um it's up in the back if you want
072to just It's in the upper corner where >> where the expansion is. >> Yeah. So where they would be able to play during summer school if you scroll >> in that area. So they would be able to keep them away from that that area. >> And the parents group is also continuing to work on the playground expansion. So they they did phase one of their playground expansion on that. or said it's actually not on that last Google Earth vision, but they're continuing to fundraise toward expanding that on that side, too. So, it's not like there's not a fundraising effort uh by the North Side Parents Group. It's just, you know, not a a scale that they could ever accomplish in a timely manner. >> That was gonna be my statement was just put a plug
073in for Friends of Northside and the projects they have done the last year, too. So, I know it's >> quite quite a bit for a parents group. So, >> yeah, they've done a done a tremendous job. I think I highlighted in the in the memo there too, the playground expansion last year. The previous year they did a bunch of uh replacements of existing basketball equipment. So, they've done a great job keeping up on things that uh are tangible to keep up on. So, yes, they do a wonderful job down there. >> Any other comments? So, this will be an action item as noted on the next board meeting on February 9th. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. And then we have an update on debt defeasement planning. >> Thanks everybody. >> Hello again. I'm not
074as tall so I'm gonna put this back down. Um we talked to the finance committee uh last week um if you recall in the fall we talked about a strategy for debt defeasence in fund 39. The only debt we're currently carrying as a school district is related to our capital referendum from 2020. And in 2023, we actually did a $3 million defeasement uh when Carrie Bradley was here. And over the last couple of years, we've been um moving our debt defasence levy lower and lower to the point where we have about $4.3 million in there for an additional defeasance package. And I'm working with our financial partners at Baird and I've invited them to come to the February 9th board meeting as well to discuss the timeline for the defeasance and any questions the board
075members may have. But the sample information we have today um is based on current market expectations. And of course until we go to the actual market, we don't know what our actual rates are going to be or what the uh savings will be. But at about a $4.275 million defeasence package, uh we're looking to save just over $1.5 million in interest off of the back of the current referendum. So, we'd be erasing the 2039 final payment entirely and the 20 2038 payment would be down to almost 25% of what it is now. Um, again, we're not um bringing any language to the board until the March 9th, I'm sorry, the March, yes, March 9th meeting uh for the resolution and after that, we will take the um borrowing package to the markets with Baird and
076we'll bring back the results to the board at the end of March. Uh other than that um this is just an interimm update that we're currently working on this and we'll be bringing the defense back next time as well. >> All right. Thank you. >> I think just the one thing that I wanted to share it's related to both of those topics is a thank you to Ross and Stephen uh in both of those topics on the capital maintenance and on the debt defeasence. Um they really are taking a long-term view. They're they're looking at what do we need in place now, but how can we also set things up so that future students, future staff, future school boards, and future property tax uh payers are are benefiting from the decisions that we're making right
077now. So, thank you for your work putting that together and thank board members on the finance committee for your work. >> Thank you guys. Um that is the update. Thank you. And so now we will move on to new business discussion and possible action on the 2627 open enrollment space limitations for special ed. And as a reminder, we we looked at this uh at our last meeting also. >> Perfect. Um so attached as a memo uh the memo summarizes the information discussed at the um previous committee and board meetings as Annette um had said. So, um, our board is required to designate spaces for non-resident students for the next school year per our policy 5113. Um, so that is happening at this January meeting. Um, at the bottom of the memo, you will find our
078recommended case load ratios which we previously discussed. Um, on the following page is all of our information about projected enrollment plus our new referral and movein numbers. Um, and that information um, finds us with no space in our special education um, services for almost all of our programming with the exception of our guided flight and store program at the high school um, which offers one space available um, based on those ratios and information that was set. Um, as it's important to be noted, we still follow the process for determining space for special education and open enrollment for applications that come in. So any IEP that comes in still is reviewed in entirety um to determine if we have space based on that student's IEP. Um no assumptions are made about special education related services um
079based solely on identified disability area. Um and a weight list will be established in the event that there's changes in projection enrollment or projected staffing for the 2627 school year. Um, so it is recommended for 2627 that space remain available for regular education open enrollment at all grade levels. All currently attending special education open enrollment applicants um will be guaranteed a seat in all grade levels based on their current IEP programming. So that students who are already in the district um and it is recommended that there'll be one space um be made available only at our high school guided flight or so programming for 2627 and all other special education programs will be closed for open enrollment due to no space availability. >> Any questions? I would entertain a motion. I'll move to approve the
080open enrollment recommendation with one special education seat available in the guided flight soar program at Milton High School. All other special education spaces are at capacity for the 2627 school year as presented. >> I'll second that. >> So I have a motion from John, a second from Tracy. Any other questions or comments? All those in favor, please say I. I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Uh, Whitney on again. >> All right. Um, so previously this year we had talked about the guided flight expansion into Milton East. So I just wanted to give you a little bit of an update on some things that have been happening since we talked then. Um, so that board meeting was on a Monday night. Um, and that next morning, um, Principal Shivy and Principal Swingles met, um, with
081myself and the staff at East and West to talk about the expansion, um, and to give, um, some general information just to let them know that it was coming and that the things that we were planning to do to support that transition. Um, that same day, the principles at Milton East and West connected with families who might be impacted based on that change. Um, at our last PD day, staff um, at East were um, provided with the opportunity to connect with staff at Milton West to ask some questions, do a little bit of a Q&A about um, how to meet some of the student needs and things that they might be experiencing next year. Um, so they got the opportunity to collaborate with their colleagues there. Um, today was the first day at Milton East
082for our uh, pre-flight academy playgroup that started. Um, so that's that progression that we talked about from early childhood on. Um, so today was the the groundbreaking opening of of that. Um, in our staffing report, you'll also see a new health aid who we had talked about with staffing who will support the increasing um, health needs in our district, including supporting at Milton East. Um, our next PD day in February includes sessions for all of our staff um, to attend and select based on their needs that support um, both the mental health of our students and our staff. Um and we have additional PD and communication um that will be coming as as the year continues. You have any questions? >> Will there be any facility needs at East to accommodate the change in the
083program? >> Yep. So we had um have talked about we had staff from Milton West come over to Milton East to look at the the space that we have um available and what that looks like. Um, we're looking at a potential um, sensory room space to support the sensory needs of students. Um, and looking at some ADA compliance of of uh, bathrooming space over there, too. That is something that's this is not a new conversation for some of those needs. It's it's just something that we're seeing more of a need for now. >> That's that doesn't need to go um, Rich through a any type of capital. How would that be accounted for? >> Those changes are all things that will be able to fit within the existing budget. Thank you. >> And this is
084another example where our our staff really work together to come up with a plan moving forward that's going to be extremely beneficial for our students, our families, and and our staff. So, great work. >> Any other questions or comments? Thank you. Thank you for your work on this project. >> Thank you. Um, we are on to miscellaneous 7A action on staffing reports. >> I'll move to approve the staffing report as presented. >> I'll second that. >> I have a motion from John, a second from Rick. Any questions or comments? All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion carried. Forformational items, we've got our month monthly financial report. Are there any questions or comments on that? As usual, I thank thank the business office for that. It's it's very informative.
085Uh 7 C action on gifts and donations. >> I'll move to approve the gifts and donations with gratitude. >> I have a motion from Tracy, a second from Ed. Any questions or comments? >> All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. uh meeting dates. >> our next regularly scheduled board meeting is on Monday, February 9th. And between now and then, we have a number of committee meetings. Uh as shared earlier, tonight after this meeting, we have a data workshop. And then following the data workshop will be a superintendent hiring committee meeting. Then also coming up next week, a governance committee meeting on Monday, February 2nd at 6:30 uh here in the PDC. A HR committee meeting on Tuesday, February 3rd at 2 p.m. in the second floor conference
086room. And an HR committee meeting on Wednesday, February 18th at 100 p.m. in the second floor conference room. Is there a governance committee coming up? >> Yeah, the governance is on Monday, February 2nd at 6:30. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. I think that's everything. I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> I move we adjourn. Second. >> A motion from Tracy, second from uh Rich. Rick, any other questions or comments? All those in favor say I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you so much.