001Regardless of what the clock back says back there, it is 6:30. And we will start with the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And to re to reiterate for everyone, our vision is we believe in opportunities, achievement, and community for all. Our mission is that the W 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, I would entertain a motion to approve tonight's agenda. >> So move. Second. >> So, a motion from John, a second from Rick. Any questions, comments? All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >>
002Oppos. Motion carries. >> Entertainment motion for the vouchers. >> I move to approve the minutes for the regular meeting. >> Oh, >> sorry. Did I >> Sorry, I skipped the minutes. Yes, for the minutes. Appreciate that. I'll move to approve the minutes for the regular meeting held on November 24th, 2025 as presented. >> Second. >> A motion from Tracy, a second from Rick. Any questions on the minutes? >> All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppos same. Motion carries. Now on the vouchers. I'll make a motion to approve general checking account vouchers totaling $574,993.92 is presented. >> I'll second. >> So motion for a second from Tracy. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppos. >> Motion carries. Tonight, our student council report. And just as a note, um
003we have added a microphone for our student council representative. No, you'll still go up there to do your report while you're walking up. Um because we encourage our student council members to participate in our meetings to be able to ask questions and make comments. So, we have added a microphone for them. >> Hi board members. I want to talk about some things coming up at the high school. First, next week we have a holiday week with some fun activities during passing time along with dress up days. Student council is focused on making sure everyone who celebrates and celebrates the holiday feels included next week. This Wednesday, the 4th, athletes from the high school are going up to Stevens Point to participate and learn at the WIAA leadership summit. We'll also have our winter week coming
004up in February focusing on inclusion. During this, we will have the special Olympics during the pep assembly. FBA is having a book drive from the 2nd to the 16 which will be donating books to the Jamesville homeless center and Interact Club is also selling candygrams as we come up on Christmas break. That's all I have for you. Is there any questions? I believe that the projection up there is John's machine and not Chelsea's because I watched him log on and so I'm just Oh, you took it back. >> Okay. >> Yeah. And I that's my board docs just gave it came back. But that's why I couldn't see the vouchers because every time I clicked it was only showing me the >> Got it. >> Thank you. That's >> all right. We >> I can't.
005>> Yes. Okay. >> I I still think if you look above the word school, it keeps thinking. So I I just think it's >> Oh, there we've got tech support help. Um Chris, could you please look and see if we have any public comment? No public comment. So while we are getting tech support, um we will move on to superintendent update and we will start with our Red Hawk recognition. And so let me just move my mic. So tonight we are going to recognize the Milton meals matter and the people who are involved in that. And we're going to start with our staff representatives. So would Sherry Ratenberg please step up? Amber Gregory, social worker. Julie Musgrove, our director uh of instruction, Whitney W. We >> uh Sarah Breal, Caitlyn Lundine, and Carrie Clever. our
006Milton High School student council representatives, Sydney Grady, Brinley Turk, Turkorf, Macy Falovich, Amaya Loper, and Macy Nelson. So, I'm gonna I'm gonna read a >> I'm gonna read just a little bit to help with this recognition. In only nine days, these dedicated staff members inspired a movement that brought Milton together. Their support of our students led to over 12,000 grocery items collected, 71 families served, 196 children fed during a time of resource insecurity, and a renewed sense of community pride. Milton Meals Matter showed everyone just what makes this community so special. One of the guiding guiding beliefs of the Milton High School Student Council is their responsibility to show up for others. When district leaders went to their meeting on October 30th asking for help and ideas to support their classmate and community, these students
007sprang into action. Their sincere concern and desire to help was immediate. Within an hour, Milton Meals Matter was coined. And within just nine days, these student leaders spread the word, rallied their peers, and showed up when they were needed most. Hopping on buses to collect food in the cold and snow, counting hundreds of cans of soup, and unloading bags of groceries. Side by side with their administrators, teachers, coaches, neighbors, and friends, they helped galvanize a remarkable community effort. And I would just add that this is this is now something that's going to help our community through the winter break. Our little free libraries are being turned into little free food pantries and donations to those programs can be dropped off at the meal at the schools. And so something to help during re um limited
008resources is continuing to help our families through this winter break. So thank you all very much. And here for the someone in the MIDDLE Sherry and Julie Whitney, >> we tried to spread out >> and Sarah. >> Thank you all so very much. Um, Carrie's here. So, can I get Oh, >> yes. Board members, could you please join us? Let's see. Um, >> this work should >> Thank you all again so very Thank you for the social online. I feel like I was a part of it. >> You're welcome to stay for the rest of >> All right, we are gonna move on. to Redhawk Highlights. >> I will wait just a second for for people to >> to get out if they're leaving. >> The first thing that I want to highlight uh is
009that we are in uh winter concert season uh right now. This week and next week uh some different uh concerts that are coming up. Our sixth through 8th grade choir will be performing on December 9th at 7 pm. Our high school choir is on December 11th, also at 7 pm. Our sixth and seventh grade band uh concert is December 16th at 7 p.m. And our eighth grade through 12th grade bands perform December 17th at 700 p.m. So, a lot of fun uh opportunities to hear some Milton Red Hawk musicians uh performing. To expand on the Milton Meals Matter uh theme, we have in the past uh always had a great participation from our student body around um opportunities to help out in the community and I want to highlight a few things that are happening
010and that are coming up uh throughout the winter holiday season. We have a lot of student groups, classrooms, staff members, um, and schools that adopt families uh, through the Milton Area Chamber of Commerce Shining Star program. So, thank you to all of those groups and staff members and classrooms uh, that parti participate in that. Uh, they shop for and provide gifts for families in need of extra support during the holiday season through that program. There also are food drives happening right now supporting the Milton food pantry, including the National Honor Society turkey trot, middle school and north side student councils uh have and continue to do some food drives, harmony parents group, the Milton West Macy parade that took place over the Thanksgiving break and upcoming East Eats partnership with par the East Parents group
011to provide groceries for families over break. North Side students also uh have made and are continuing to make blankets for local veterans and youth experiencing homelessness. So, a big thank you to all of our students, staff, families that are involved in all those different opportunities to uh help community members in need. Our a couple or one sports highlight, it's happening tonight, but our Milton boys hockey team has their first ever game at the Woodman Center, which is our new home. uh Ice Arena. Uh the team is off to a strong start, recently defeating Beaver Dam for the first time in 10 years, and we're looking forward to the season on our new home ice. And then the last is something that we found out today. Red Hawk Media uh group at the high school applied
012for an opportunity to be the official videographers of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards Conference. uh every year uh groups that do that type of thing from school districts across the state apply and we found out today that our Red Hawk Media and advisor Garrett Quant were selected to be the official videographers. So in addition to board members and some administrators and some administrators that will be at the schoolboard association conference in January, we also will have a group of five to seven students and their advisor who will be roaming around the area uh videotaping and then putting together a a a videotape uh from their um videos for WASBY to use to promote the conference. So congratulations and we're looking forward to seeing that work from our Red Hawk media team. >> That's very
013exciting. Thank you so much. And when you hear all the things our students are doing, our staff are doing, it's like the best part of the meeting. Um, we're going to move on to the finance committee report. Tracy, thank you, Annette. The finance committee. Wait, sorry. I'll wait. I have a little patience for Stephen and Jeremy to come forward. Thank you. The finance committee met on Tuesday, December 2nd. There was one item on the agenda, the long-term capital maintenance. The district presented two items for the committee's consideration. The first was the construction of a healthcare sciences area at the high school. The second was the construction of a new district maintenance facility in the area on the corner of Municipal Drive and Hilltop Drive. The committee appreciates the comprehensive presentations that were prepared and the
014time and effort spent on the materials but due to the size and scope of the projects is delaying its recommendation at this time so the entire board can be engaged in the conversation. The meeting tonight will be informative only and there will be a special meeting scheduled a week from today where the committee's recommendation will be presented and a final vote held to ensure if approved the district's timeline is not delayed. To ensure clarity for the board and community, the discussion tonight and any potential action on December 15th will focus solely on contracting with architects and engineers to develop construction documents and project costing with decisions on moving forward with actual facility work to occur once that is finalized. I will turn it over to who would like to go first? >> I'll just share
015one thing. Um, in board docs there are there's two separate memos, one for each of the two projects that that Tracy highlighted and uh Jeremy and Stephen and Ross are available if there are any questions. Um, but they can also share maybe some key highlights from each of the projects. Oh, there we go. Green is good. Got it. >> Uh anyway, uh just to kind of recap what the new information was that we presented uh last Tuesday was uh you know the a little bit more specific information about what the project details were. And as Tracy highlighted, uh the district maintenance shop proposed location uh was highlighted to be at the corner of a you know Hilltop and municipal drive. Uh we also uh unveiled what the potential cost of that project would be uh
016per the schematic design documents that were priced out by a couple of our uh construction manager partners with a potential overall cost of that project being about $1.95 million. and the uh healthcare sciences project that uh you know Jeremy has talked about the the programming uh of that uh and the need driven by that uh that project potentially being uh about $970,000. Uh project timeline uh the healthcare sciences project is slightly ahead of where the district maintenance uh project is currently. So, if we were to proceed with uh the architect and engineering services to get those projects through construction documents and the bidding phase, we could potentially be back here uh for approval of a construction contract on the healthcare sciences project sometime in March for potential construction in uh beginning in June for it
017to be uh substantially complete and ready for use by the start of the school year in 2627. And uh for the district maintenance facility, we would be back uh potentially uh maybe a month or so later than that just based on uh the timing for developing that project through construction documents in the bid phase for uh potential start of construction on that facility should we choose to move forward uh in the fall of 26 uh for potential uh you know moving into that sometime in early of 20 of 2027. So that was really the the new information provided. >> Stephen, while you're there and before Jeremy comes up and shares some of the information about the academic side of the healthcare sciences uh facility upgrades, uh in the memo, it has some some details about
018uh the change in size of our district and and gets into some of the reasons for the need for uh additional space for a maintenance facility. Can you speak to that a little bit? Sure. Uh yeah, just to highlight what our current district maintenance facility is. It's the 5,000 square foot building just to the west of the high school kind of by the the greenhouse area. Uh that building was constructed in 1979. And as highlighted in the memo, the district was uh about half the size, actually more than less than half the size of what we currently are today. And uh you know, we currently uh work out of that same facility just like they did back in 1979. Some of the main uh constraints that we have out there is uh you know our
019operations have expanded quite significantly since that time. So a lot of uh you know the overall footprint can't uh you know fit everything that we uh do or move around on a daily basis. Uh it's very limited extremely limited on storage. We have uh you know shipping containers sitting outside of the district maintenance shop storing some of our essential things that we use on a daily basis. And uh you know one of the examples that I had given a couple board members is as Rich was talking about spring concerts here. I'm sorry winter concert season. We have trailers thawing out inside the district maintenance shop right now to allow us to move you know risers from uh facility to facility. just I give that as kind of an example of you know how we have
020made do with what we currently have in the district. You know that's something that we do uh quite regularly just to make sure that we can you know keep what we doing keep what we do as a district maintenance team uh going to support everything that does go on in the buildings. All the things that uh you know we do to support uh teachers and students uh across the district. And you know, I always like to use that example as a relevant one for, you know, what we do to keep things going and not notice that we're a, you know, needing space out there. So, >> you know, and as far as the healthcare sciences, I I guess I'm here to speak and answer questions more about the programming. I've shared in a couple of
021occasions the the growth of healthcare sciences and I'll reiterate that the um I do want to just share too that you know as we have grown that aspect of our curriculum uh we currently uh teach CN EMT classes downstairs in a room that is was not that's that was not the intention actually it was the original art room of the high school in 1965 but it's a space um that's downstairs that um well we are making that work the new facility would allow us to uh extend that being part of the STEM wing. It would also uh just increase access and visibility to the rest of the student body. Uh but more than that, uh it would have uh up-to-date and real life experience with regards to what the the bed stations would be. Uh
022the and the information that we shared out there would be four bed stations for for our CNA classes and potential other nursing certification classes. Uh that would have a mock hospital wall and next to each bed. uh we'd have the ability to have a large class space um a a simulation lab and both our EMT and CNA classes would be able to utilize that. That's something that is similar to what's uh they would walk into a program at Blackhawk Tech or uh UROCK University of Wisconsin Whitewater at Rock County. Uh would also have a phabbotomy lab, the ability to extend relationship with a community uh with a healthcare partner to provide that certification. uh the space that is per that would uh we would have would also be very versatile for future use as well.
023So I've shared the expansion of that program. Um we continue to see more students who want to go into that. This would allow us to expand that growth. >> There's one more thing that I'd like to share uh before we see what questions board members have. Um Stephen talked about the overall cost if we move forward with the projects uh and shared at the committee meeting that the the cost for the architect and engineer fees are 8 and a half% over that overall cost. We'll be looking for board action uh on moving forward with the architect and engineering fees at the board meeting a week from today at the special board meeting on December 15th. But I do want to highlight that uh we have funds available in our fund 46. We've been uh putting
024funds into fund 46 for exactly this type of reason and we would be able to move forward with both of these projects without an impact on our current budget or without asking the taxpayers for additional uh revenue to pay for them. >> Can you talk a little bit about fund 46 and what it specifically can be used for in the district? Ross will share that out with folks. >> Sure. So, as uh Rich mentioned, we've had a fund 46 established in this district since May of April of 2020. And the way fund 46 works in the state of Wisconsin is you're required to have a 5-year waiting period before you can access any money you put into this fund, which affects which has the effect of being a trust for specific capital maintenance projects. Um,
025districts are also required to have a long-term capital maintenance plan of which we have a five and now a 10-year version of moving forward. Um, Stephen has been diligent the last many years to get many of those projects prioritized. One of which the healthcare or sorry, the building services um site we're looking at here is a project that's been on the list for quite a long time and from what I understand prior to my being here was even part of our original referendum discussions for the capital referendum. Um, anything on the capital maintenance list can be a legitimate use of fund 46. And as Rich mentioned, that's what exactly what this fund is for is for the district to find the ability to self-fund some of these larger scale projects that may not fit into
026an operating budget as many districts cannot come up with that kind of money in a given operating budget in a given year. All contributions to fund 46 are expensed in the year they're contributed. So for the past five years, the money we've been putting in there has been part of our operating budget and now the money is sitting aside in this trust for specific capital maintenance projects on that plan. >> Thank you. I'm opening it up to the board. Any questions, comments? >> I just have um one quick comment. I I had the opportunity to go up and Steven showed me around last week and I would encourage everyone to try and get up there. Quite frankly, it's worse than I thought it was. the maintenance shop I'm talking about. And um it's uh it's
027cramped. It's uh um I wouldn't call what you're working in an office. Um I know we had that discussion at the committee meeting and um I I um I just uh Yeah. Yeah. >> It's cold. It's really really cold in there and people working there all day >> and probably really hot in July. >> Oh yeah. >> Yes. Right. Yeah. >> Thank you for that. >> Yeah. So, um um I would just encourage everyone to get in touch with Stephen and um he'd be happy to show you around. So, >> definitely. >> So, I did actually get a chance on Tuesday uh sorry, on Friday afternoon to both tour the high school area and to the district maintenance shed. Um and again was quite surprised by what I saw. It makes a difference when you
028see it in person. Um and then the opportunity for the healthcare science area where they are now to where they could be. Um, one thing I just think you could highlight for the board is we spoke when we were in the shed, um, or sorry, in the facility, um, not in the maintenance area, the other part about the ability for the district to order larger quantities to possibly save, so having a financial a positive financial impact. Can you just kind of elaborate on a few things we spoke on? I think salt was one of them. >> Yeah, definitely. Uh so one of the goals or objectives of the new facility would be you know to further expand what we do for like our district receiving and storage purposes. So we were talking about you know
029some of the bulk materials that we do order currently and like one of the most relevant ones we were looking at on Friday was uh you know our inability to take like a full semi- load of ice melt is just an example. So we have to take you know partial semis and take smaller shipments which uh quite significantly increase like the cost per bag that we pay for and like at a proposed new district maintenance facility in that salt example we would have uh you know sight space uh hopefully with a you know a roof overhead where we can take you know deliveries of bulk salt instead of buying things by bag. So, uh, also paper products, whether that's, you know, your toilet paper, paper towel, soap, trash bags, all that good stuff. We would
030want to really have like a central housing for that stuff and buy that stuff uh, you know, in much larger quantities that we'd be able to store at a central spot and, uh, ship out to schools instead of buying stuff, you know, as needed, stored at small locations inside a building. So that is a definitely going to be a positive financial part that we'll be able to uh definitely add to our services. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. >> Welcome. >> If there are no other questions, I will just reiterate that this item we will move forward with a vote at our next board meeting. So, thank you all. And again, reach out if if you'd like a tour or more information. >> Thank you. >> Next, we'll move on to the governance committee. >>
031Thank you everybody. Um I in board docs is a memo for all of you to review. I will give you the 10,000 foot view of it and kind of go over it without reading it word for word. On December 3rd, the governance committee uh met to take our first try at um reviewing the uh Wisconsin associ association of school boards delegate delegate assembly resolution packet which means um law is in favor of things or not in favor of things and there are resolutions that come forward that say we would like you to be in favor of X or not be in favor of X and you get to vote on those at the school board um convention coming up in January. So, it's a tight turnaround. >> So, we did take take a look at
032it and the the packet is broken into two sections. Resolutions that are being brought forward by board members that have been approved by the committee and then resolutions that were turned down. So, we quickly decided as a committee we were not going to spend time on the ones that were turned down. Although, it's important to know that those can actually come up for a vote if 75% of the delegate um decided they want to, you know, reissue that or stand behind that resolution. we decided that that's, you know, very unpredictable and unlikely to happen and we couldn't possibly get an opinion on that. So, if that does happen in the delegate assembly meeting, we simply will abstain from voting for this. And then we went through the uh 12 different resolutions that are uh currently
033in the packet. And as a group, we've decided that we would be in favor of one resolutions one, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and 12. Uh we are as a group, we are not in favor of res resolution three. And we are working with the admin team on where we stand on resolutions 2, 10, and 11. And I want to thank the admin team because a lot of this definitely their perspective is very important. It's it's not something that the board can just say, "Oh yeah, we want to do this. We need we need admin input." So for tonight, you you have been given this memo and you've been given the resolution packet for review for the first meeting in January. So you time to review them. Rich and I are going to be
034working on a summary of the ones that are we're bringing forward and the ones that we're not bringing forward. just a quick brief why nothing nothing real heavy but if you have questions or have feedback on the process we really appreciate because we hope to make this better every year so with that I will pause and take questions okay >> thank you Ed next we're going to move on to the human human resources committee report Rick >> okay thank you the HR committee met last week on December 3rd Third first item on the agenda was the 202526 benefits advisory group update. The benefits advisory group met back on October 29th. Al Jagger from USI joined us at the meeting and spoke to the group. Presentation from the meeting is included in board docs. Some highlights
035from the meeting include the good news that our medical loss ratio decreased from the previous year from 106.64% to 102.91%. This is movement in the right direction, but it's still higher than the carrier's target range of 88 to 90%. Just a reminder that the medical loss ratio is a ratio of claims paid versus premium collected. Hospital admissions also dropped along with ER and urgent care use. The claims for behavioral health, however, did increase by 64.1%. We also had a discussion regarding the wellness incentive. 88.6% 6% of benefit eligible staff completed a preventive visit this past year compared to 77.25 the previous year. So, thanks to the staff who have been doing this. Just a reminder that the wellness incentive provides $200 for single coverage and $400 for family coverage to those staff who complete these
036visits. We also had a discussion regarding the potential of requiring spouses um to complete the wellness visit to receive the incentive. We also discussed that Dean will extend a 9.9% rate cap for the next year if the medical loss ratio is below 103% and if 70% of district employees enrolled have a preventive exam. Chris, did you have anything you wanted to add to that? >> Okay. Any questions from anyone? Okay. Okay, the next item on the agenda is the 202526 insurance benefits review and discussion. The committee looked at some data and had a discussion about our current status and decisions that will need to be made prior to the next fiscal year. Presentation from this topic is also in board docs. We have seen a move over the past three years of more staff enrolling
037in the health savings account plan. As I stated earlier, Dean is proposing a rate cap of 9.9% increase if we come in with the medical loss ratio below 103% and the 70% wellness visits. This means that we are looking at a best case scenario of a 9.9% increase, which equates to around $500,000. This is a third year in a row facing an increase like this. As these insurance costs continue to increase at this rate, it will affect our ability to spend funds on other areas such as educational programming, compensation, technology, and everything else that we spend our funds on. Because of this, the administration and committee will be looking at potential approaches to help control costs. Examples that we will be looking at for this coming year include capping the district contribution of at 85%
038of the lower cost option and separating out the HRA and HSA risk pools. There are some more options listed in the presentation handout that may be may be looked at in future years. Please keep in mind that each option will have pros and cons. Some will control costs more than others and some may or may not be suitable options for our district. The next steps in this process will be to have multiple committee and benefits advisory group meetings in January and February with the goal to bring a recommendation of any changes to the board at the first meeting in March. Chris, anything you want to add to that, >> Rich? >> Okay. Any questions from anyone? >> Yeah, I have a quick one. Uh, the 9.9 rate cap from Dean, is that negotiable? Um right
039now we're not sure that's the cap that's the cap that they had said that that would be um if we hit that 70% threshold and kept our medical loss ratio below. So as it stands right now if our medical loss ratio is higher than it will not be negotiable. >> Do we have to hit both benchmarks? It looks like the uh wellness participation is well above 70. So is that mitigate some of the whatever percentage we land on for the loss? >> It will not. They have to meet both benchmarks to be able to get that 9.9. And if we come significantly lower than that 103 medical loss ratio, there may be some room for some negotiations, but that would be done by USI uh on our behalf. Okay. Any other questions? >> All right,
040that's all I have. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, we are going to move on to new business. Um, 2627 school year calendar. >> Yes. Before we look at the the calendar, I want to talk through the process that we use to put together a calendar for the upcoming school year. Uh we always uh start in around early November with a goal of having it finalized before winter break. And that allows families and staff uh to if they're visiting or out traveling with families during winter break, they can start making plans for next year's uh not only winter break but other breaks throughout the year and travel time. Uh and we start that process by identifying what are the parameters that that need to be in place in the calendar. The board has
041approved 175.5 instructional days for next year. So we build that in to the calendar. That.5 portion of that, that day is finished out uh on the last day of school. We have students for the first half of the day and then our staff gets the second half of the day to finalize grades and get things put away for the summer uh and if they're teaching summer school to even uh start doing some planning for summer school. And we also fit those days within the teacher contracted days of 190 total days. And of those 190 total days, as I mentioned, 175.5 total instructional days, a half day on the last day of school. Uh we have 10 professional development days throughout the year where we don't have any instruction. Eight of those are in August to
042get ready for the start of the school year and do training. and then two of those are during the school year. So that puts us at 186 total days. And then our teachers have two days to conduct parent teacher conferences and also two paid holidays during the year. That puts us at that total of 190 uh contracted days for our teachers. I want to highlight a few things then on the on the actual calendar. You can see in August the days that are shaded in green are our uh teacher work days for all staff uh for all of our teaching staff. The 17th and 18th of August are two days of additional training for new staff. So new staff would start on August 17th. Uh all of our teachers would start on would then come
043back on August 19th. The first day of school would be Tuesday, September 1st. And uh then one thing that we talked about uh quite a bit is what to build into the calendar uh over Thanksgiving break. And we actually had two different drafts put together. One uh as listed where there's a uh professional development day on Monday, November 23rd, and then um and that's a virtual instruction day and then there's no instruction the rest of that week. uh and the other had instruction uh on-site instruction on both the Monday and Tuesday of November 23rd and 24th. Um and I'll circle back to those different options here in a minute. Uh in December, you can see um school through December 22nd, but then off and returning from winter break on Monday, January 4th. Um the green
044you can see on January 18th uh is a professional development day with no students on that day. Uh in February another professional development day that is a a virtual learning day. Spring break traditionally is the last full week in March. So you can see that. You can also see the uh end of the trimester listed there and a non-school day at the end of the trimester. And then in April, a professional development day uh without instruction. In May, it's just Memorial Day that's listed there. And then the last uh day with students would be on Monday or excuse me, on Friday, June 4th. And that would be that half day of students and then a half day for teachers to finalize. And with this schedule, graduation would be on Sunday, June 6th. And that's a
045a bit of a change from what we've done. We historically and for the at least for the last few years have had graduation the Sunday before that last day of school. This year that would fall or this coming year that would fall on uh Memorial Day weekend on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. And we have a large number of high school staff that that work graduation and help us make graduation possible. uh principal Bill Horn reached out to that team and a large number of them would not be available on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, which is understandable. A lot of people like to take trips on that time and we also would likely run into some families that are doing Memorial Day uh things with their families. So, uh that will happen
046at times that that Sunday before the last day of school does land on uh Memorial Day weekend. And what we've put in place for this one is just moving that graduation date back to that Sunday, June 6th. I said I'd circle back to Thanksgiving because after we put the two drafts together, we met with representatives from the Milton Education Association to talk through different options and their preference was the calendar that we ended up uh landing on. and uh they had some really good feedback for us around um that thanksgave the length of thank time off over Thanksgiving the length of time off uh during Christmas. The other thing that we want to do is fit those all of those days those 190 teacher days plus any breaks in between the 1st of September. And
047we typically have a goal not to go into the second week of June because we have a number of elementary schools that are not airond conditioned. And if we go into that second week of June, it both uh makes for really hot classrooms uh in a lot of our schools and it also delays when we're able to start summer school and restricts the number of summer school days that we have. So, we feel that this calendar that that we've put together is a good a good mix of when do we start, when do we end, what breaks do we have throughout the year. Uh and uh now that it's shared out with the board, we will be able to tomorrow share that out with staff and with families so that they can start making their
048plans for the 2627 school year. Any questions from the board on the calendar >> regarding the senior class? Would the plan be to just have them go right through June 4th with the >> No, they the senior class would finish a few days before the 4th and that allows us to finalize who has uh reached the number of credits to be eligible for graduation and get diplomas ready and our the staff at the high school need a few days to do that. Also listed on the bottom are open house dates and conference dates. I didn't mention those, but you can see those uh that are also listed. Rich, could you circle back? I thought I heard you say something about an eitheror or a little bit of ambiguity about the that week in November that
049was going to be either completely off or just have the virtual day at the front. >> Yeah, I can speak more to that. When we met with the the Milton Education Association, we brought two different drafts for that conversation because we wanted to get feedback from them on on a few different things, but particularly around that break over Thanksgiving. So the the either or were the two drafts that we presented when we had our conversation with uh the MEA staff and uh our admin team that work on the calendar were comfortable with either of those options and based on feedback from the MEA uh we went with the option that has the the Thanksgiving break as listed here. So you can see on the calendar if you look at November on the calendar uh that
050November 20th that Friday is when the first trimester ends. Monday the 23rd is a professional development day with virtual instruction. And we utilize that day as a half day of uh for the secondary staff a half day of professional development and a half day of time for them to do trimester grades and to prepare for coursework that's going to start new coursework that's going to start uh on that first day back after Thanksgiving with the second trimester. Whereas the elementary staff has a full day of professional development that day. And then we flip-flop that at the day in January. On January 18th is a full day of professional development for the high school staff, but it's the end of the first semester. So, elementary is doing report cards. So, we give a half day to
051the elementary teachers to work on end of semester report cards that day. >> Just a philosophical question here. uh as these calendars evolve, they obviously look quite different than maybe some of us lived or experienced or whatever, is the spring break uh week uh tied at all to Easter or are we just targeting the last week of March? >> We've our tradition has been our tradition lately has been to tie it into that last full week of March. um that allows us to plan for scheduling athletic activities and any student sometimes we have some student trips that take place. So if we have that consistent time year after year, it it makes that scheduling easier. It just this coming year and it would be in uh March of 2027. It it just happens that Good
052Friday falls on that uh March 26. So it would correspond with Good Friday and then the the weekend after spring break immediately following spring break would be Easter weekend. But it but it the spring break isn't designed to do that. >> Where I was going with that is would there be any thought to if we if we are fully embraced in the trimester world and I realize our elementaryaries aren't or aren't there yet. the this week break at each of the trimesters looks like it's becoming more and more logical, right? If it lands in November and March, uh is there any thought to planting those week offs between the tries and get three complete three distinct uh academic windows? >> We've talked about that and and the end of the first trimester works really well
053around that Thanksgiving week. Um, and it always varies a little bit on the number of days that we can get in from our first day of school through that Thanksgiving break, but it always comes really close to what our the number of days that we would have for the first trimester. Uh, we've talked about being, excuse me, flexible with spring break, and as you can see here, it would mean moving spring break up two weeks to match it with the end of the second try. And that would put us right in the middle of a lot of winter sports um state tournaments and and tournament time. And um that was one of the biggest concerns with the lack having spring break moved up earlier. And we also um look at what do other districts in
054our area have for spring break. We have a number of staff uh or we have a number of students whose parents uh work in other school districts around our area and having that consistency with them sometimes helps families and staff plan their time off. >> Quick question, Rich. Uh it looks like the first day of the second try is the PD virtual day. How does that work for senior I mean for high school students that have never met their new teachers and what will that look like? >> I think I'll have Jeremy speak to that because the the secondary teams are the ones that uh that would impact the most. >> Yep. Yeah. So we we actually did this I believe a year ago or two years ago. Um what it would do in that
055time it' actually be uh it' be a lesson where this teacher would introduce themselves. Obviously, uh they have not met the teacher yet, but there'll be like there'll be an assignment about uh looking at the syllabus. There'll be an assignment in that day about looking at some of the course objectives and initial reading. Uh sometimes a lot of the get to know you activities that they would do that traditional first day of school. So, the staff has uh gets to know those individual students. There'll be you typically be an assignment like that. >> Thanks. Yeah, Jeremy might want to say so John, you jumped I had the exact same question because I looked at it and said what? So, thank you for that. My other question is you may want to add a note here.
056Um, and again the same question that came out before about the seniors because it doesn't say la like I think intuitively the graduation was considered the last day for seniors and now you have graduation. So from the family's perspective, what would that date actually look like if you were able to publish it? because I think it might add more questions and answers. >> We can calendar before it's issued because you might get a lot of calls. >> We could do that. I have to take a look at that. We were going to identify what that last day would be, but it' be a few days beforehand. We could do that. >> I think historically would be we graduation the week before in theory that the >> we Yeah, we >> Yes, we could we could
057do that. >> We'll put a last instructional day for seniors on the calendar before we we share it out with families. >> Thank you. Any other questions on the calendar? >> All right, we are going to move into an executive session. >> One more agenda item. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you very much. I got that from everybody. I appreciate it. Discussion and possible action on the K12 library plan. And we had a wonderful presentation about that at the last meeting. >> Yes. and they all are at place. So that's why they are not here tonight. So um if there's any questions I can try to answer them accordingly. >> Yeah, we they shared out the information at the last meeting. So uh tonight is uh taking action on approval of the plan. It's included
058in the inboard docs. Both the the plan and their goals are listed there along with a recommended motion. Julie, I I do have a question. So, at the last meeting, this is the exact same presentation we were presented with last meeting. So, and again, are the goals flexible in a way? For example, it says it talks about AI. Well, AI is going to change the minute that you commit to a goal. So, is it something that's flexible that can be they can adjust as it can be real time. It's not written to and again it's harder to understand the whole thing but it's not set in stone where >> so we have to uh report it to DPI. So every three years we do have to submit it to DPI but then we also resubmit
059every year of updated within the goals of how we've met the goals. So it does get adjusted and that's why they present every year to give you an update on the progress of the goals. >> Okay. Thank you. Can I get a motion, please, to approve the plan? >> I make a motion to approve the school district of Milton K12 library plan presented. I'll second >> a motion from Rick, a second from Jen. Any further questions or comments. >> All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Thank you very much. All right, we are going to move into close session. And two things before I read uh why we are the board is going to move into the conference room and you all will stay here if you
060choose to and we will be coming we will reconvene in an open session after our meeting. So we are um contemplated a closed session pursuant to Wisconsin statute 19.851C 851C considering employment, promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility. And in this case, we are going to be discussing a teacher resignation. And I think uh Rich has a little bit he wants to add for to that before we go into close session. just that uh you you had shared a net that we'll be returning to open open session for the rest of the agenda for all of the different things under miscellaneous. Um if it's okay with the board, uh I'd like to have an executive session in addition to the board, myself
061and uh Chris Tukondorf and Jen Kramer and Whitney Weiss. So, just wanted to let folks know that that is our plan and and those folks can help answer any questions that might come up. >> Are there any concerns about that? >> All right. >> So, move motion. >> Thank you, Joe. I have a second from Rick. All those in favor, please say I. >> Roll call. Thank you. No, I thought we were >> I saw move to move to executive session as the >> Okay. I thought you were making a motion about adding people to the meeting. So >> that's a consensus typically. >> Okay. Thank you. That was my mistake. Yes. Roll call. Ed, we'll start with you, >> Tracy. Joe. >> Yes. >> Annette's a yes. >> Yes. >> Jen. >> All right.
062We are in closed session. >> Can we leave this here?