001order. Believe in opportunities, achievement, and community for all. Our mission is the school district of Milton in partnership with the community prepares our students for achievement and lifetime readiness by providing opportunities for all. And if we could please stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance 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. >> Thank you all so much and thank you those in the audience for coming out on this cold, chilly pre-winter evening. We're going to start with I would enter a motion to approve tonight's agenda. >> I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as presented. >> Any questions or comments? >> I have a motion from Rick, a second from Ed. All those
002in favor, please say I. >> I. Oppose. Same sign. >> Motion carries. I would entertain an action on the minutes. I'll move to approve minutes held on October 27th, 2025 as presented. >> Second. >> A motion from Jen and a second from Rick. Any questions or comments? All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Uh, next I'd entertain an action on tonight's vouchers. I'll make a motion to approve general checking account vouchers totaling $671,25929 as presented. >> Second. >> I have a motion from Rick, a second from Ed. Any comments or questions on the vouchers? All those in favor, please say I. I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Student council report. Chris Hello everybody. I'm Chris Kenson and over the past month, student council has been working
003very hard. Lately, we set up the trick-or-treating event at the high school and handed out candy to many kids. The event seemed like a success for us and many kids were happy to go trick-or-treating with us. Also, we have started up the Feeding Milton families event following the end of the SNAP benefits. Student council members and others met up this Sunday and packed thousands of bags of food. We've received some food donations, which is needed in order to keep families moving during the cold fall and winter seasons. Over the past week or two, we have also put out a survey to commemorate the veterans that students may know or want to recognize on slides throughout the school day. As Veterans Day is coming up, holiday week is December 15th through the 19th and there will
004be de dress up days, some trivia games, and some hallway decorating. We also have winter week, which is February 2nd through the 6th with dress up days, an assembly focused on the unity team special Olympics, and the winter sports and activities. We will also have the Betty Purdue memorial badmint interment and possibly a dance on February 7th. You have any questions or comments? >> I think it's a it's a moment of pride for everybody in the community. I think I say speaking for a lot of people and I say thank you. It was one of the most amazing Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Public comment. We have nobody for public comment tonight. So then we move on to the superintendent Redhawk highlights. I have a question for you with the schoolbased pantries. Um,
005what can we as a community do to help keep those uh stocked? Like what's the plan for that? I think. Thank you. And thank you to each of the schools for continuing the efforts. Anything on that? Any questions on Red Highway? >> Right, we'll move on to new business. Uh, fall legislative conference, Ed. >> Thanks, Dr. Smith. And we'll try that. Thank you. Do I thought I pushed that? All right. Thank you, Dr. Smith. Um, last Saturday I was fortunate enough to attend the uh, Wisconsin Associate of School Board's legisl legislation conference. The day had um, five one-hour sessions. The first one was a federal update from Jared Salman, who's a senior policy adviser from Bose Group in Washington DC. The second session was an overview of state budgets and how they affect schools. Uh,
006the third session was uh, working with your board in to do legislative work. legislation work and it was kind of a think tank, a very interactive session. The fourth session was a look at some state data trends and how they impact legislation. And lastly was really for we were very fortunate to have two state representatives there, Representative Kitchens and Senator Faf was there and they really had a very nice informative session on like how best to interact with them if you have questions and how how to efficiently work with them. So, as I walked out the door and I had two hours of my drive home to reflect on the day, um I I took it as a very positive meeting. I I got to interact with a lot of different school districts, which is
007always the best part of getting together uh at any conference um just like we do in January. But I also took away that, you know, I think uh Rich and Ross do a really good job and Chris Tukandorf of um, you know, keeping us up to date as need be. But there's also opportunities for us to be even more engaged. And I've uh scheduled a meeting with Annette and Rich or I'm going to do that tonight. We've emailed back and forth. Haven't set a date uh how best to bring some of these ideas forth to the governance committee. So there's more to come there. Um, but just like our own local budget and Ross does a great job of uh expressing this to us, there's a lot of moving pieces when it comes to legislation
008and it's kind of complex. So being engaged can be very very helpful. There are certainly in the world today those who want to see more funding for education and those who want to see less funding for education. So being aware of the issues and knowing where we stand on them and being able to speak logically and informatively to them is certainly super important to this board. So something that we'll be bringing forward in future governance meetings. It was a great session. Was lucky to be there. Any questions for me? >> Thank you so much for attending and and representing us. Appreciate it. >> All right. We are on to the 2526 superintendent evaluation form and process. >> Okay. Okay. Um, so over the course of each year, the board of education uh completes a comprehensive
009evaluation of the superintendent's performance, reviews progress on current goals, and sets new goals for the upcoming year. On our board meeting on October 13th, the district transition from or to the WASB uh superintendent evaluation framework from our own in-house model. Tonight, I'd like to walk you through the timeline and key steps that we'll be following over the next several weeks. First, uh after tonight's board meeting in executive session, the board will meet uh where Superintendent Diamond will share his self-evaluation with the board. And second, uh tomorrow, November 11th, each board member will receive a link to complete their individual evaluations of the superintendent's performance through the WASB online platform. The deadline for completing the survey is November 17th. So, please watch for that email coming from uh Dr. Smith. And third, on November 24th, the
010board will meet in close session to review the compiled results and share the final evaluation with Superintendent Domin. It's important to note that this prog process is designed to provide meaningful structured feedback while ensuring remain compliant with board policy 1240 evaluation of the district administrator. The WASB framework gives us a clear roadmap and profess professional support through each of these phases. Any questions for me on the process or the dates outlined? Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Next, we will move on to C discussion and possible action on number of instructional days. >> There is a memo topic and schoolboard policy 8210 dictates that the board shall determine annually the number of days when schools will be in session for instructional purposes. The number of days that are recommended 175.5 give us additional
011instructional hours to spare while also allowing a continuation of Monday release time for professional learning communities each week. be very valuable. uh with the 175.5 instructional days, elementary would have a little over 70 uh additional days beyond that minimum and the minimum is a minimum isn't a place where we should be um and we always want to have some extra and secondary about 4.7 instructional days above that minimum once uh the number of instructional is approved, we would finalize the 2627 calendar with feedback from uh the MA and then we would share out those 2627 uh calendar with the board with staff and >> any questions? >> I I have a question. Rich, can you speak to why we have the virtual days built in? Yes, the um we have days open throughout the year
012um where our staff have full days for professional development and they're really valuable days for us to do some training district wide with staff and also to give staff some time to do uh to work on report cards at the end of the semester for elementary students and to work on trimester change over uh for the second staff. And if we didn't use those days as instruction, we could have more onsite days into June. schools are pretty warm without air conditioning and also uh start summer school when we'd like to or it would shorten up it would shorten up or shorten up our breaks like um winter break and spring break. >> Thanks. I I guess the question comes to mind so the virtual days are a benefit for the staff. I'm want to be
013sure that we don't short change the students. Um I think personally I think that in on-site instruction is superior to virtual instruction in most cases. So I'm just kind of raising the question of are we doing the best for the kids by having those three virtual days. The way that we've approached in the past as we've looked at uh scheduling those days is those those three days would be it could be just professional development days without any instruction. By scheduling those as virtual days, we're not taking away days from the students. we're giving them virtual instruction rather than not any instruction or we would have to shorten up our number of um non- studentent work days overall for the staff because uh we have our our sta our teaching staff have 190 days in their
014contract. So with that 175.5 of instructional days uh and then that the 0.5 is because the very last day of school with students students are dismissed half at at noon so that staff have a half day to do report cards and and close things out for the summer. Um, but we would have to have fewer days. If we had the PD days during the year as work days and we added more instructional days, it would have to shrink up the number of u non-instructional days that staff work um at times like the start of the school year to get ready for the start of the school year and the few days during the year. And we we've kind of found a a happy medium with uh the start of the school year workshops because we
015do a lot of training during that time. We do a welcome back. Um but we also give staff time in their classrooms to get their classrooms ready for the start of the school year. Um so I would hate to reduce those number of days, especially reduce them by three. be really really tight on the work that needs to get done before the school year starts. >> I'm I'm wondering Rich, excuse me, if there is some value to our students to have the opportunity to learn virtually as well as face to face if that opportunity exists. if it wouldn't be if there wouldn't be an opportunity for someone in the future to speak to that to answer to answer Joe's question. >> I can speak to that. >> Okay. >> Right now we can get more
016if we bring this agenda item back to the next meeting. But um most of our students if they go on to any type of higher education are going to um be expected to do some of their studies virtually. giving students that um practice, if you will, doing that now while they're uh still in K12 school is something that that helps them develop those skills down the road. And there are some great activities that that our teachers put together for students to uh work on during those virtual days. It isn't just a um log onto your computer and just hang out time. there there's some strong planning and and um excellent activities that are are prepared and I don't know if there's anybody in the audience that wants to share anything to that or does that
017>> did that answer your question or not necessarily? Yeah, >> I I was trying to get a clearer answer because that what I heard Joe say is his concern was for students and I heard you speak eloquently to the value for staff, but I wanted to make sure we're answering that question in terms of how and if it helps students and I see someone from the audience is walking up and so okay thank you. Green light's on. All right. So I think um our K3 uh actually K6 have choice boards that have been created that's standards aligned. Some of those activities are extended learning from what they already do in the classroom and it's additional practice. So those are things that kids aren't re they're not trying to relearn not relearn um new skills or
018standards on their own. There are things that they've already been exposed to have learned in the classroom as an extension. So those are done usually independently because um we're trying to teach them independence and how to be responsible. Um so I think that's what we do at the K K6 level. At the seven and 12, they're also still extending their lessons um from what classroom teachers are doing, but then it's just an extension to practice. It's more to show that they really understand the standards or some of the kids just need a second scoop. There are additional supports within some of the videos that teachers are um embedding into the schooly and so kids are um they are learning virtually asynchronously but it doesn't mean that they're not getting any additional education. So we have
019been very intentional on those virtual learning days. We originally had five and then we um took the feedback from our families in the community and we reduced that to three. And um we have gotten positive feedback from families that going from 5 to three um but we have had success in our our scholars who um are learning virtually. So um I just wanted to just reiterate the teaching and learning world kind of covers those um virtual learning days and especially those choice boards for our K6. >> Thank you so much for doing that on the fly. Appreciate it. Any other questions? Do is it the will of the board to have a motion tonight or to wait until next next meeting? >> I'll make a motion to approve 175.5 instructional days for the 2627 school
020year with 172.5 days of on-site instruction and 3 days of virtual instruction. >> I'll second. >> I have a motion from second from Ed. Any other questions or comments? >> All those in favor, please say I. I I >> oppos. Motion carries. Thank you so much. We are on to the spring election. Spring school board election. And just to echo what uh Superintendent Domen just shared, please, if you have questions or you're interested, I would suggest reaching out. I'd be happy to answer any questions about the role of a school board representative. I'm speaking for others on the board, but I don't know that anybody wouldn't be willing to talk to you and share their experience and and encourage you to get involved. It's it's important. It's good work, and this is a really good
021team of people to work with. So, thank you for bringing that forward. >> All right, we move on to action on our staffing report. >> I'll make a motion. I have a motion from Rick, a second from Jen, uh, to approve our staffing reports. Any questions or comments? >> All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Next, we're on to gifts and donations. >> I have a motion from Jen, a second from Ed. Any questions or comments? All those in favor, please say I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Uh, meeting dates. the next two that are coming up. >> Uh Rich, just to clarify, November 24th. >> Okay. >> 25th. That is Monday the 24th. >> Okay. Thank you. That That was a full slate of meetings
022before the end of the year. All right. Next, we're going to move uh we're going to contemplate a closed session pursuant to Wisconsin statute 19851C concerning employment, promotion, compensation, and performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility. And we will be going into close session to discuss the annual superintendent evaluation. Uh more details of that were shared that timeline by Chris earlier tonight. So, >> I also move second. >> So, I have a motion from Joe, a second from Rick, and we will do a roll call on that one. Uh, Jen, >> yes. >> Rick, >> yes. >> Annette, yes. >> Yes. >> And yes. >> All right. We are in closed session. Thank you all so very much. >> Oh, yep. And and just to
023clarify, we will not be coming back into open session. There will be no action items. So, thank you. >> Yes, we can leave the meeting. >> Yep.