001ship with our community, prepare our students for achievement and lifetime readiness by providing opportunities for all. And on that note, I will call to order the board of education meeting for Monday, April 14th. Um, please join me in the pledge of allegiance. 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. [Laughter] Oh, it is nice to see all you folks. Do we have any changes to the agenda you're aware of, Rich? There was an update to the staffing report that was sent out to the board today and changed, but no other changes to the agenda. I'll make a motion to approve the agenda with the noted changes. Second. Rick's motion is seconded by
002Jennifer to approve our agenda as you see it. Questions from anyone? And then all in favor, please signify with I. I. And opposed? That motion clearly passes. Thank [Music] you. Uh we got an agenda approved. The next up, it says confirmation of oath of office. Uh most of you realize we had an election uh earlier this month. Uh we had two of our board members, incumbents actually. So they've been uh serving us very very capably and uh were uh victorious in their election and uh as such they need to retake their oath of office before their term starts. Uh we don't do that at a board meeting. They've both done that. That's Rick and John. And uh they've both done that um prior to the board meeting. So, this is just a public uh confirmation
003that they have confirmed or taken their oath of office and are seated for a three-year term on the school board. So, welcome back to all. Uh minutes are next in our agenda. I move to approve the minutes for the regular held meeting on March 10th, 2025 and the special meeting held March 31st, 2025 as presented. Second. Tracy's motion is seconded by Ed. As you just heard, we have two meetings that this is covering. Our regular meeting and then we have had a special uh meeting in between regulars here. So, questions from anyone on [Music] those. Uh all in favor of approval, please say I. I. And opposed. That clearly passes. And vouchers follow. I'll move to approve general checking account vouchers totaling1,443,543.90 as presented. Second we got a lot of seconds. John's motion is seconded
004by Annette uh to approve our checkin account vouchers that you just heard for the amount John enumerated. Does anyone have questions on the vouchers? And then all in favor of that please signify with I. I. and oppose. That clearly passes. Well, the comment is next. And we sometimes don't have folks wishing to speak to us. Tonight we do. As I picked up the sheet, we have one uh district resident. Uh I would invite Kelly Willoughby up to uh our little lect turns with the laptop open there. She wants to visit on our uh district copier meets. And Kelly will be very nervous, so I'm going to try to speak slowly. But um first off, yes, I am Kelly Willoughby. Um many of you know me through volunteering in Milton. Um but for my career, I've
005spent about 21 years at the Gordon Flesh Company. Um so tonight, I just wanted to talk to you a little bit. Um and thank you and your team so much for allowing Gordon Flesh the opportunity this year to actually um propose a management solution for this little district of Milton. I think the role of the community and so to have the chance to also possibly um support them throughout my work career too was just an honor. So thank you for that. Um, I worked at Garden Fresh for 20 years and our customer service is absolutely top-notch. Uh, we're familyowned and operated, third generation of family. We will hit 70 years or next year. And during that time, our company has worked with over a thousand educational institutions in regards to all things management print. Um,
006for this project, I had uh the great opportunity to work with um Neil and Carl. Um, we did a three meeting type thing. Uh, we went and did a discovery just to learn what's more important about the district. Um, we also do a virtual demo of paper cuts, which is an output management software uses school districts everywhere to help control print output and all things security. Uh, we're one of the top five paper cut resellers in the nation. So, it was really cool to have that conversation and all the impacts so they could, you know, have on school districts of Milton. Uh and in that third meeting uh we got together tied all that conversation together and went over our recommendations did a lot of cost comparison. Um talked a lot about all the GFC
007service and support resources and also looked at new innovative ways outside of that to also save money like switching to cloud faxing solutions and things like that. Um the next day my field service manager and I also visited many of the main work rooms at all the different schools just to take measurements make sure we had everything right electrical and also talked to some power users um including these stakeholders gave us a lot of insight into like the type of medias type of jobs and more importantly what type of frustrations do they have that we can fix and make things easier for them. So, um, throughout all these meetings, we worked together to downsize your fleet from 50 devices to 43, which is pretty awesome, right? In the school district of your side. And I
008was told that there would be savings and we could be saving the district a little over $100 a month with our proposal, which I thought was pretty amazing. That's $1,200 a year to go back into salaries, benefits, building, all that kind of stuff. Um, in addition to that, by implementing paper cut as well, there are going to be savings of the 30% we've seen in all of our districts. So just by implementing that based on the cost of the service program and all of that, if you were to just let's just start 5% super minimal and reduce your output by that, you're saving the district another $1,900 based on your output currently. If you're going to 10% it' be 3,800. So you can see how these numbers by ongoing doing a total manage print with
009this type of solution could really bring a lot of benefit to the district. Um and of course it also goes into paper, right? You buy paper it reduces the output for those expenses go down too. So, it was a great a lot. There's a ton of great meetings. Um, Canon and RICO are our main offerings. Uh, they're number one and two in the industry and it actually represents 40% of the industry as a whole of what people are using in school districts. So, we're proposing Rico for your fleet and we really feel like we've recommended much better technology for less cost as well. Um, and technology, you know, that's all important, but like the heartbeat of our organization is quality. We are all focused on customer service. service to the 18s, whether it needs somebody
010here to fix something, it's technical support, it's whatever you might need. Um, we do have 178 service techs in all of our territories that we cover. Um, they average almost 18 years of service. So, we really have been in the business a long time um with a lot of people that bring a lot of wealth as well going forward. Um, I know it might seem overwhelming to think about switching to a new partner for services like these, but we really make the process seamless. So again, I just really thank you for the time to let me come in and, you know, propose a solution to you as well as let me speak tonight. And regardless of the outcome, I just wish you all the best of the with every project you have, but I just
011I really appreciate it and go Red Hawks. Thank you. Very good. Thank you. All right. And that was the only public comment that we had um to take care of tonight. So, thank you for that. Next, it's the superintendent update. And uh a little bit of a new wrinkle to that piece tonight. Uh we have an A and a B if you can follow the agenda there. The A it says Red Hawk recognition. And uh this is not necessarily new, but uh we're trying to uh reinvigorate um um a policy and a practice that we've had in the past. And it's really geared around recognizing um our staff. I think you've heard several of us comment at certain points in dialogue about the wonderful staff that we have here in Milton and uh that is
012an understatement in in a lot a lot of regards. Um so in a small effort to shine a light on our staff people that are doing um going above and beyond um are just excelling in in ways that we really can't measure. we tried to come up with a recognition opportunity and are relying pretty much exclusively on your peers to nominate you. So if uh if you are an awardee or uh potentially in the future uh realize that your your efforts while always visible to the administration and to the board um are especially visible to your staff members, your colleagues, the people that you work with because that's who we reached out to to find uh the nominees that we're going to start with. So, um, on that note, uh, we have some folks with
013us tonight that are going to be our first, uh, awardees as we sort of reinvigorate this program. Uh, we have a nice certificate to hand out. Uh, Red Hawk recognition. I will read that when we get to handing it out. And then I'm also going to read, um, the folks that nominated you shared with us uh, two, three sentences or a paragraph or so that kind of sums up why they nominated you and what you excel at. So on that note, if you would able to join me up front, please. Sam Snyder, Emily Smith, and Chris Kle, Chris Sunland, and Katie Grady. Come on up [Music] and folks. No particular order, but outstanding in all of their respects. And I'll beg your pardon. I left my cheat sheet right here. All right. I will start
014with Sam. That's me. Yep. Yep. No, no, I'm good. Make sure we have five folks up here because I have five certificates. So, just kind of double checking. No, no, that is great. And u I don't have my slips in the right order, but now I do. Okay. Red Hook recognition. First, let me read um Sam Snyder was nominated by Ryan Moore and Ryan shares with us that Sam has shown an exceptional ability to impact the outcomes of the students that she works with. She has a passion for what she does and makes lasting connections with the students that receive her support. Milton Middle School is fortunate to have her, as is the school district of Milton. Sam Snder, speech and language pathologist. In recognition of your outstanding service to our students, families, and our
015community, please accept Red Hawk recognition. All right. Next, we will jump to Emily Smith and Chris Flee, joined at the hip, as most of you know. And this one's this one's personal. This one's personal and gratifying because my kids went through both of those classrooms. Emily and Chris go far above and beyond. The love, care, and concern they have for my son with special needs often brings me to tears. They have created a beautiful community with their classroom full of inclusion, respect, and love. I would love to share pictures if given the opportunity. One small example is that they ordered and wore DS awareness t-shirts on DS day without any mention from me. And in recognition of that, it's the same certificate. Chris Kle, fourth grade teacher, in recognition for your outstanding service to our
016students, families, and our community. Congratulations. And nonetheless, Emily Smith and not joined at the hip in recognition of your outstanding service to our students, families, and our community. Red Hawk spotlight. Thank you. Chris is next. Chris Sunland was nominated by Nicole Schaefer. Chris's passion, dedication, and professionalism goes well above and beyond every day. She drops things off to students homes so they can more effectively communicate or finish assignments they may have forgotten. She offers continuous training options so staff and parents can provide the best possible options to support student success. In addition, her professionalism always raises the bar for those around her. She always sees the good and positive growth in students, staff, MHS, and the community at large. She is an inspiration to so many. This does not even count her advocacy in ASL
017club, the parent group, and at large to promote student independence and growth. We are blessed to have her Sunland, special education teacher, in recognition for your outstanding service to our students, families, and community. Congratulations. And fourth of our nominees, fifth, I guess, if you count the number of folks up here, but not last. for never ever saying that. Katie Grady was nominated by Michelle Griffin. She is a wealth of knowledge and has a way to diffuse any situation. People, students, parents, teachers just trust and love her. They value her expertise and find her so easy to talk to. I know I do. She is also an incredibly hardworking individual, always on the move, but will always stop to talk if you need something. She is simply the best. Katie Grady, school psychologist, in recognition of
018your outstanding service to our students, families, and our community. Congratulations. Big hand for all. Thank you all. One one note on that agenda item and again congratulations to our our recipients. We did receive a a number of nominees and we're planning on uh bringing other nominees that have been nominated for recognition to uh our next three board meetings. Our second board meeting in April, our two board meetings in May, and then picking up again in September when the school year starts again. So, congratulations to all of them. Very welld deserved. All right, Rich, you're up. Red Hog highlights. Yeah, a few uh things to highlight. As always, some great things happening across our school district. Uh last week, Milton High School hosted their inaugural Milton Arts Cabaret. And it's a showcase of Redhawk creativity in
019a large number of different areas. There were uh works in robotics, metal work, musical performances uh that were all part of the event and we want to thank our staff members, our volunteers and our students uh who contributed to that exciting event to get that uh kicked off for the first time. We also are Milton Public Library is hosting Milton student art show and this is the last week uh of that. Uh for those that haven't attended, we encourage you to stop by at any time at the Milton Public Library uh this week or join for the closing reception which will be Thursday evening. We want to uh on that same art topic, we want to congratulate Mitt East second grader, Elena Meyer. Uh Elena's art was included in the Southwest Regional uh art show
020in Madison in March out of 600 artists featured. Uh, so these are artists who were chosen to be featured and out of those 600, Elena was one of 40 whose piece earned the state merit award and she's one of only two elementary artists whose work received that recognition. So, a very high honor. I don't know if people got a chance to see her art. I know that uh in the Red Hawk uh review newsletter uh there was a picture of that, but congratulations to Elena. We had three Red Hawks recently showcased their scientific knowledge and creativity at the Ford Atkinson Science Fair. All three brought home awards for their work. Uh Claire K in the grades six through eight competition was first place and the people's choice award for her project compost conundrum. Let us
021explore. L TT let us explore. Uh her research focused on how different ratios of green to brown to brown compost material impact compost efficiently. So congratulations to Claire. Colette P was in the grades four and five category and she earned second place with her study isopods water versus vinegar which investigated whether dairy c how isopods prefer water or vinegar. Congratulations to Colette. And Sully K was also in the sixth through eighth grade category, received the honorable mention for popsicle power, testing the strength of Pratt versus Warren Truss bridge designs using popsicle sticks. So congratulations to all three candidates for their research, dedication, and uh presentation at the science fair. And then uh our FBLA FBA leadership conference was held in Green Bay. Uh we had two students take second place uh Ben Lewis and Braden
022Dorsy. Second place in computer game and simulation programming and they're headed to nationals in California. Emma Stanky placed fifth in marketing and was honored for her community service. Madison Businger placed ninth in healthc care admin and received a community service award. And Max Olsen uh placed seventh in public policy and advocacy was named outstanding chapter member and served on the Wisconsin President's Executive Council. So congratulations on a great showing by our last uh highlight that I had was uh we had shared earlier that North side had done the cereal box donations and there's an update on that. The do good Wisconsin cereal box domino challenge. Uh, North Side won their category across the state for the most cereal boxes collected with 3,529 cereal boxes that were donated to the Milton Food. So, congratulations to uh
023the Milton or the North Side Group and to all of our students for some outstanding uh achievements over the last few weeks or months. All right. Questions for Rich at all? I would just say right to the high school that are very impressive and I just say to the board, I was talking to robotics kids. They are so excited to have a class. And so it it just reminds me the things we do here, they appreciate and I want them much appreciated that they, you know, put this on and it wasn't really I thought it was I was there also and I would add that Mr. Elliot I was surprised he got there off a good number. All right, moving along. Um committee reports. We're going to start with HR Rick. Okay, thanks Joe. Um
024HR committee met last week on April 7th. First item on the agenda was preliminary enrollment and certified staffing for 202526. As is the case every year, administration looks at projected enrollment numbers to come up with staffing needs. Our projections are looking like next year's enrollment is going to be very similar to this current year. For regular education staff, this means that there currently are no changes being made to the full-time equivalent. One 1.0 0 FTE teaching position will be transferred to the middle school from North Side due to a shift in class size. The numbers of staff at the elementary level will be the same. The numbers of sections of each grade in which schools they will be at are yet not are not yet finalized. The goal as always will be to balance these
025out throughout the district. Administration is recommending an increase in special education staff due to increase in student needs and case loads. Thus, they are recommending a 1 0 FTE for a special education teacher at Harmony and a 1.0 FTE school psychologist also at Harmony. Kristen, do you have anything to add to that or Rich? Um, other than that, these uh positions are part of the ongoing budget uh discussions that we're going to be having between now and as that budget's shared with the board in the fall. So there isn't on that same topic there isn't a need for approval of those activity right now that will be as Chris shared built into the budget development that comes to the board that'll later pay. Any questions on that? Next item is discussion and possible action on
0262526 summer school compensation. We had a discussion regarding this in executive session during the committee meeting and the committee was recommending an increase in the summer school hourly wage from 25 to $30 per hour. As stated in the memo, this will allow us to offer our staff competitive wages and hopefully secure sufficient staffing for this summer school [Music] session. Any questions on that? Or Chris, anything to add to that? Something to add. Chris, what's the uh financial impact of that small change? You know, very minimal, John. Yeah. I'll move to approve increasing summer school hourly compensation from $25 to $30 effective for June 9th, 2025. I'm sorry. Speak up. Uh, we have a motion from Tracy, seconded by Jennifer that the president didn't hear. Apologies there. I sat here in kind. Um, so the motion
027second properly presented there on the floor. Do any Does anyone have any questions? We just have I want to make sure in in the motion that's listed, it it talks about effective June 9th, 2025. And the reason that that's the the uh effective start date is that's our first day of summer school. So that would go into effect this fiscal year for the June summer school and then starting July 1st. Obviously that would be in effect for the rest of the summer but would be on next year's uh during next year's fiscal meeting. Any other questions? All in favor of the motion please say I. I opposed. All right. That clearly passed. Next item is discussion of possible action on 25 excuse me 202526 standard hourly rate increase for non-curricular work. As stated in the
028memo, this standard hourly rate is most often used to compensate staff for duties performed outside of the normal workday such as chaperoning to dance. The committee also discussed this in executive session and is recommending an increase in this rate from 15 to $25 per hour. This rate has not been changed in a few years and the budgetary impacts of this are laid out. When was that last changed, Chris? I'm sorry. When was that last changed? I want to say close to eight years ago now. Been a while. Yes. Yeah. Quite a while. The $15 has been in place for for eight years. The uh the $25 rate, which is the other there's dual rates right now depending on what the duties are. that was put into place in 2223 that was raised from 20 to
029$25. But the proposal is to um kind of eliminate the $15 category and roll all SRHR work into that $25 per hour. I'll make a motion to approve increasing the non-curricular standard hourly rate from $15 per hour to $25 per hour effective July 1st, 2025. All right, Brick's motion is seconded by Annette, as you just heard, to um move our standard uh holiday rate for non-curricular functions from 15 to $25 effective July 1st. Questions from anyone. And then all in favor of that motion, please say I. I opposed. That clearly passes. That's it for your charger. Excellent. Thank you, sir. Uh next up we'll transition to finance committee John Numer. Yeah the finance committee met last Monday evening. Uh five items on the agenda the same five that will be presented tonight. I will summarize
030items A, B and E. First these are not action items for tonight but rather forformational purposes. Item A is a discussion on field lighting for one of the soccer fields at Shelberg Park. There have been communications with the Milton youth soccer program on the planning and cost to share lights with the field that's located in the southeast corner of Schilbert. Another item for discussion is the potential for a Milton High School a program barn facility. This has stemmed from conversations that have covered a couple of years with Milton FFA alumni. This is still in the discussion phase but at a point for the board to be made aware of. Item E is an extension of our community focused group meetings held last year. Uh this is an opportunity to continue the conversation about school finance
031and state and budgeting. I will let Ross and Rich expand on this score, but as I mentioned, another great opportunity I hope our community takes advantage of. Item C and D are both action items for tonight. I'd like to first thank Neil, Ross, and Rich for gathering all the data for these items. Uh this data allows us board members to make informed decisions. Item C is in regards to the new 5-year lease for the coffee machines. Uh there were two bids from two excellent companies. Um it was the re recommendation of the finance committee at the time to go with the Ryan proposal. Prices were very similar. The district has partnered with Ryan successfully for over 20 years now. Item D is in regards to the Apple refresh buyback of the current fleet of machines.
032As you saw in board docs, a rating rubric was built the four top companies to consider. There is more that goes to picking the vendor and price. Based on this data, the finance committee does recommend Diamond Essence as the vendor to use for the buyback project. Their price was within 1% of the max bid and they have a history with the district and providing excellent work and routinely going above and beyond in service to our schools. So that's a summary of five five items. Uh we circle back to A. I think Steve, you can kick it off. Uh sure. Okay. Yeah. So, thanks for the summary, John. Uh item A was the Shelbert Park field lighting topic. And as we discussed at the finance committee, we were approached by the youth soccer uh group to
033look into the possibility of lighting one of their soccer practice fields. Uh just a summary, Shelbert Park has lit four lit ball diamonds and three lit football fields and none of the soccer fields are currently lit. Uh the field that we land on as a top priority for them would be the field in the southeast corner. That's because it really receives the least amount of nonsccer foot traffic and would be the most uh dedicated soccer field that we could provide them based on the busy um use of Shelberg Park. Uh we've presented uh the youth soccer group with a budget estimate from Musco Lighting who we just partnered with at the baseball and uh that budget estimate with uh with Musco at the time was $175 to $190,000 and uh we talked a bit at
034the finance committee about where fund balance is currently in fund 80 um being high enough where we could potentially uh partner with the soccer club to do some kind of cost sharing on project like this. So, it's much like the bar facility we'll talk about next, but it was at a point where we wanted to talk with the board, finance committee, and finance committee and full board to just bring you up to speed on that conversation and see if you have any uh questions or concerns. Just one quick thing around the timeline. Um, we always want to make sure the board is alert to conversations like this that are brought to us by community groups. So, when this was brought to us, we asked the soccer boosters to put any conversation on hold until we've
035had a chance to to update the board uh on on any future conversations on it and to make sure there weren't any uh concerns that the board had about continuing conversations. Um, if there aren't any if there aren't any concerns about continuing that conversation, then the the soccer club would start looking at having uh public conversations about fundraising and that type of thing. Before anything was finalized, it would be brought back to the board for approval. I'll jump I'll jump in. First of all, that's a great idea. I know it's been past many years. Uh are we talking about the sustainable cost or just start cost? Uh so talking about startup cost is not 175 to 190 but uh ongoing costs are pretty pretty negligible. Uh life expectancy for something like that is over 20
036to 25 years. Uh LED the LED technology uh they stand behind that lasts a long time. Warranties over 15. So, nothing you'd really notice on power really. Stephen, I just want to comment. You mentioned at the meeting, but the lights are controlled via um an app now versus somebody needing access through all the other pieces that need access to the building. So, it's kind of that was a really interesting feature. Um and obviously a cost savings cuz they can print them off on their phone as they're as they're heading out. My only uh and then obviously so not only the soccer clubs but then also the high school students could use that field if they wanted to practice in the evenings as well. Thank you. I think it's a great idea. Yeah, I think this
037is a great idea. I appreciate the discussions. I think we should definitely keep going forward outside of the stadium. Soccer kids don't have anywhere to play. Um you know even we all know how many youth there are in the community playing soccer. I'm sure we get plenty of youth. So thanks. They're one of the groups that starts the earliest in March and goes the latest into November. So the facility quite welling on to on the lighting, we can to the FFA barn facility. Uh so again, this is another conversation that we've been having with another group about uh potentially uh constructing a barn facility uh somewhere on the high school uh existing lot. uh we've had some back and forth conversations with them uh over some time and it's to the point where the FFA
038uh has a pretty good uh schematic look at what they would want to do in the farm facility and Jeremy can jump into what the actual programming would look like but uh we're just like I said at the point where uh we're looking at different options placement um also potential timeline and funding for the project would be solely on the FFA alumni for constructing the facility. We're just looking into a bunch of different uh aspects of the project which include you know talking about animals, what the insurance ramifications would be, so on so forth, but we're getting pretty far down the road now where the board definitely needs to be aware of those conversations and uh you know provide input. And this is another item just like the soccer field where uh before we continue
039and and go in depth conversations about uh details on this, we wanted to make sure that the board was alert to it. And again, if there aren't any uh reasons tonight to pause, we would continue to have conversations with the FFA alumni on different options and then bring um those to the board down rolling for uh in action board. I just have one question and I again same as the other one. I think this is a great idea and opportunity. Um you mentioned insurance which is going to be one of my questions. Say what cycle regulatory for disposal of waste and stuff. who who is managing through those questions. I'm just kind of curious. That that's a great question. Uh that kind of brings me to we've also been looping in the city of Milton
040uh regarding the existing ordinances that are in place and what ordinances might be restrictive to do such a facility on our site. So they have ordinances for how animal waste would be handled, which we would have to uh obviously abide by with any animals or facilities that we bring on site. Uh there are some ordinances currently in place that would restrict that, but the city has given us no indication that that would be a problem to to get them changed. We have uh very large lots and they take into consideration the overall size of your property for how many animals you can have on it and so on so forth. But uh we would definitely make sure that uh you know eyes are dotted, tears are crossed for complying with any city of health and
041ordinances for both how the animals are handled and where any facility be placed. And this when you mentioned programming goes along with what you mentioned last year Jeremy about the increasing of the um the programming related to agriculture. Right. So, in in our egg science courses, there's a variety of courses where sometimes we'll have guest campers come in where we actually put a makeshift pen in the parking lot for the day. Um, or this is just going to expand our best science classes, large animal science classes, some classes tech that would give a lot more opportunity. For example, we might post up a pig might come into Pharaoh while schools are there some experience they're able to get them. They just wonderful. Thank you, Jeremy. Quick question. You had mentioned at the uh meeting that
042there's two at least two districts that have uh a similar setup. Is that Medford? Medford and Richmond. Yes. And we've been in contact with both of them. Both getting some of their their policies and and and uh their procedures as well too. Both have very very strong egg programs like others uh that have had this type of facility for a while. New Richmond is actually quite large. So it's a small one. Jeremy, do you envision this being used 365 days a year or just during the school year? So, there would be a two components to it. So, yes, it would mostly just be during the school year. Um, we are still part of the as we would explore for going further is just the arch of the animals very we have local community members who
043are hosting their animals. We're hosting their animals for the year which then go back to their homes during the during the summer months. Um but uh there's also opportunity for this facility to like with any of ours we have partnerships like the 4 groups etc. those might that could happen though we would have to have time to clean it to sterilize it etc during the summer. Thanks. Good question. Is it are we talking strictly animals here strictly animals we're talking about in the barn or we have any props? So this this facility would be geared towards animal science. So, you know, and we're talking maybe a couple stairs and sheep, chickens, maybe, you know, there's we might host a goat. We'll see. But the the this is mostly, but it's still there's going to be
044a classroom. It's not to say that there couldn't be a workshop one night about other natural resources. I think one other thing that I want to highlight is uh what we've been doing since they approached us and this isn't a a brand new thing. This actually has been a few years conversation. Joel shared that maybe seven or eight years ago it was approached and some of the FFA alumni leaders had shared that it was something that they've kind of tossed around a little bit but now they're a little bit more serious about about doing some fundraising and bringing something forward. And so in the preliminary conversations, we wanted to make sure before we brought it to the board, we wanted to make sure that it was something that we felt our students would benefit from,
045that it would be valuable both in the short term and long term. And want to reinforce that our egg classes, our FFA programs. We have really strong egg classes, very strong FFA program, and potential for each uh use uh for this facility. and Stephen and and Jeremy Stacy Scamp uh with our our egg program at the high school have really done a lot of research at in other districts and have had those preliminary conversations and then Ross and I have been looped in as we started talking about insurance needs and ongoing costs. So, uh this is a again an FYI for the board but it it would be something that we continue to look at. One other thing that I want to note is uh we actually have had a conversation really preliminary conversation about
046two different possible locations because we want to know what do the FFA boosters have in mind and one possible location would be just to the west of of the stem wing kind of where Mount Milton uh used to be during our construction time and that would be a nice location very near our egg classrooms but another location that we've talked about because we, if you remember from our 10-year facilities plan, uh a replacement of our maintenance shed has been on that facilities plan. It isn't an immediate need, but it's a a real need uh and another possibility rather than building a new building this new large animal facility and then building another uh new maintenance shed would be uh the FFA alumni potentially using the current maintenance shed and and the structure of that and
047and retrofitting that. and then we would look at uh the new a new maintenance shed along that same timeline. So really really preliminary conversations but I wanted the board to be alert to a couple different possibilities and the options aren't limited just to those possibilities but but those are a couple of areas that that we had discussions with. Yeah, I can I can share a couple of pieces. Um it's pretty much uh ancient history at this point. But this discussion is an evolution of way back in our facility planning world. Um we at one point had diagrammed or blueprinted a new high school that would have included a large animal lab of sorts that would serve this function. Obviously we didn't do that right. Our plans changed and evolved. So when that went when that
048went away, the A folks were like, okay, well, how can we address, you know, that that piece of the programming and so that discussion has been sort of simmering a little bit um in the time from then until now. And then the other thing is anyone with a long enough look back, I could throw my FFA alumni hat on here for a moment. Um this group has done a number of projects with the school district. uh the football field renovation uh a number of years ago. The entire building that now functions as our uh band choir uh forest area there was uh built and donated to the district by the alumni and then obviously Shelberg Park uh came through through that channel too. So this group has uh has partnered with the district a number
049of times and uh it has been a wonderful relationship over the years. So just just for history history buffs. All right. Is that it on the barn facility? Stephen, questions from anyone? And then before our action items, Rich, did you want to speak at all to our uh community listening sessions or the the reinvention of those? Yeah, we can jump to Jiggy and come back to the action items. Yeah. Um, at the finance committee meeting, as John shared, uh, Ross and I shared some really, really preliminary information about a, uh, summer, uh, community information session. We talked about this uh with the board kind of following uh our referendum. We utilized last summer those a series of community information sessions that really helped build the knowledge among our amongst our community around school finance and
050budget and the the state budget for for uh K12 education and the impact that that has on on our local school and then looking at both short-term and long-term uh impacts to the budget. So, uh, what came out of that conversation actually is is tied to one of my goals for this year is to put together a information session in in the summer for community members. So, Ross and I have been kind of talking through the structure of that. We shared with the finance committee some of the things that that John highlighted. Um, and just kind of in the nutshell, we're looking to hold that separate from the from the annual meeting. The annual meeting is a more formal uh presentation of of our the budget for the coming year, but the intent of this
051is more of a conversation with any NS community members and a focus on inviting folks and having it be open to anyone from from the community and really also focusing on all of our different municipalities. We want to make sure that uh we're keeping that connection and strong communication channels with all the municipalities that make up our school district. Goss, anything to add to that? I think I mentioned here in the finance committee that too much fun doing these sessions. I don't talk about this stuff anymore. I even should, but Rich is correct. There's a lot of topics in school finance that remain from a lot of people. also shared in the meeting that I was took part in a listening session of social legislature at the capital. It was surprising and a little bit
052concerning how many people weren't understanding the primary topics being discussed. So I think bringing that to our community as much as we can and discussing the finer points trying to make it as digestible as possible is on duty I take very seriously. So looking forward to it. We haven't set a date for it yet, but we hope too soon of it. And ideally, it would be uh if the state legislative session and state budget is finalized to have it sometime either in late July or early August prior to our annual meeting. All right. Any other questions on that? Let me just ask if if we don't have a state budget by anybody and wait. I think the preference would be to do it before our annual meeting and we can share what we have and
053then we'll see what comes from the state budget and if we need to do more communication out. We could look at either hosting another one once the state budget is finalized or looking at other ways to communicate that information out because um I'm assuming that part of what you're getting at is that this this year's state budget is going to have a significant impact on on revenue for school districts, not just us but but public schools across the state. Well, I was thinking that it could just be delayed, but yeah, that too. Yeah. Ross, is there a is there an estimate on if it were to come, when would it come? Yeah, if I could tell you that, I'd be sleeping better at night, but I would be expecting to see here something no sooner
054than the end of June. Ideally, most likely. Thank you. You're still up. We got two items here. Yep. So, last two are the action items. Uh touched on them briefly, but uh item C uh item C is the uh copier lease, 5-year lease. Uh Neil, is that you? Neil and Ross can share some information on the copier lease or Neil Kim and Ross is available for questions. Sure. Copy your lease. Um, our our current 5-year term is up with Ry. They've done an excellent job for us over the past 5 years and well into the past beyond that as well. Um, they're another vendor that's gone above and beyond for us. Um, a couple of times they've done free upgrades for unified swaps for us. Um, which is part of the reason we're recommending them
055over um flesh even though there's a little bit more cost savings. Um if you look at the memo uh their last 5year um the cost of the last 5-year contract is $541,000. Going to Ryan, we're going to save almost 20% of that year over year. Uh sorry, sticking with Ry brand, we're going to save $85,000 I think over the course, but that's due to the efficiency of the machines themselves. Um, one other thing is I sorry, Ryan is offering us a a buyback for our existing fleet. They increase their bid on that from $4,000 to over 10 to 12,000 depending on how we take the credit. Um, they also are willing to wave a couple of lease payments in the coming year if we would still owe them. Um, that's not reflected in your memo.
056It's just another kind of one to consider. Good question. and thank you for putting all this together. Um, in the proposal, is the Prime proposal and the GFC proposal the same amount of new machines? Uh, they are the Yes, cuz we did some we had the largely bits of combinations and both flesh and Ryan have those same combinations for them. So, you see them and this implements the smart like badging to things like release which increases security and efficiency. Thank you. And you know that's reflected in the rhyme proposal as well. Okay. You know what where's paper cut? I'm sorry. How's how's paper cut reflected financially? Paper cut is built into both of them. Okay. So they charge per unit or something like that. Yeah, it's you know what? I didn't even look at how
057it's broken down like if it's a user license. They just baked it into both of them. Okay. Neil, can you explain or perhaps show us again why have we been spending just over $9,000 monthly for the last five years with Ryan and and now we can get to 7300 flesh. The secret sauce there is in the efficiency of the devices themselves. So 5-year-old technology, the cost per print and the consumables it use and the maintenance it requires is significantly higher. If you look up in the bullet points on the memo, we have been paying yeah 8 cents I see. Yeah, 8 cents per page for color and then six cents per page for black and white. Those numbers go down. The consumption is the line share of the monthly cost. Um we also have currently
058not a lot of visibility into who's printing wine and mirror. We don't have any controls quota set. I'm not saying we'll implement those, but at the very least we'll have visibility into um if buildings are printed more or less than others, trying to leave that out a little bit. Um maybe perhaps offering some incentives or um just for printing less. Right now we have none of that. So this gets us um one step closer. So I mean $13,383 is still significant. So Yep. And if you if you consider the um not the buyback in here, but the uh the wave the way so disposal disposal wash um the wave lease fees um that we would incur if we didn't move um the summer timing and about another $75,000 so that 78,000 also significant just a
059little less. That's over five years. That's what I was going to ask, Neil, that the 7500 that you shared is spread out over those five years. the devices you're using are sharp for everything and the books that we would have propos all those reinstalled on your device and I would imagine that the print drivers are different want to do yeah two-sided and simplifies that a little bit you install one driver and one Q on every computer and you release it at whatever um whatever country you go to. So it does simplify the drivers in the deployment, but that's the same across both. Okay. So there wouldn't be a warning. Yeah. Can you speak about the um again the do you have you have a lot of complaints about the current machines and do they go
060down often? And I mean what's what if I were to ask if I would go to high school and just ask what would they say about their machines? They would say that they break more often than they like, but they are 5 years old. Um, but that the Ryan technicians are super responsive and they get there and not only do they fix the problem in a timely manner, they're also proactive about trying to help find solutions. We had an example at the high school where there were continuous paper jams and they helped puts together and discovered that we needed to buy different people for that so we could not just fix the problem but also kind of cause the cost. And how long does it take a technician to arrive? um they have SLAs's posted.
061I won't have it in the memo, but it's ours. And I understand the value of further relationship. So I I understand taking your recommendations. So on that note, the finance committee recommends approving. I'll move to approve the 202526 copy lease with grime as presented. So, one point of clarification, this is a five-year commitment. So, I think the motion should read 25 to 2030. Oh, I will adjust my motion. Thank you. And I heard a second. Still second. Okay. That's Tracy's motion seconded by Ed to approve our um copy lease uh to continue with Ryan for 2025 to 2030 as presented. Questions from anyone? And all in favor of that, please say I. I. Opposed. That passes. Thank you. One more. Done. Yes. Last up. Item D, uh, student staff advice buyback. Uh, as mentioned, uh,
062it's tied to seller per fleet. Ready for the new stuff. Uh, they put together a rubric which I'm sure Neil will go over. Uh, came down and maybe talk more about the price. Uh there's other factors to consider. It seems like this whole game, this whole world is kind of wild west the way they do things. So having the uh the rubric with the other factors was definitely helpful in my decision. Sure thing. Um as John shared earlier, the recommendation is to go with diamond assets and that's due to a number of factors. um they submitted a extremely competitive bid that is within 1% of the top dollar offer amongst all of our biders. Um and then other factors push them ahead. Um they have a better they have better payment terms than others. Um
063they have fewer deductions based on the accessories that we deliver or don't deliver. They have fewer deductions based on the quality of or the condition of the device that we turn in. um which is a big part of the decision here because we've been using these devices for four years in two hands instead of just our usual two which is what we happen. So we expect these ones to be a little bit more weathered. Um so that was a big part of it. Um all told they they scored out the best. As you can look at our rubric we put everybody through a rigorous process and tried to standardize as much as possible. Um he's been a strong bid and we have good faith and a long history of doing our friends. Neil, can you
064also share on the the second part of that table that's in the memo? I want to make sure that there's clarity around the different rows there, the max value and the percent and the minimum guarantee and the anticipated uh graded adjustment. Yeah, the maximum value of the contract is if we turn in every single device in perfect condition, that is what they will pay us. You know, that's not likely to happen. Based on our previous buyback experiences, we have an anticipated um kind of deduction based on the condition of the device. They also know that all of our biders gave us a minimum guarantee. They said, "Listen, here's your grade A price. We know they're probably going to be about 70% of that. So, here's our minimum." minimum does not necessarily mean minimum because they
065then have a broken device allowance or grade F allowance. Um so that's our that's the second to the last line is our anticipated F grading adjustment based on some other um deals we've worked in the past year or so. Uh we expect not only not grade A to grade C, we expect uh you know 2/3 of those to be in in less than perfect condition and they may be considered non-reelling. So, with all those factors built in, we get to a more reasonable number. We can expect more like $400,000 purchase even though the minimum says six, even though the maximum says eight. That's kind of what we're expecting. Um, and then there's a little bit of math in there for the percentages as well. As you can see, dining assets has 99% of the top
066bid which belongs to second. I would just like to point out something that I I heard in the committee meeting um and that is that there is a dispute on the the F grading uh appreciate that um this business is in our backyard versus shipping it across the country and then not really having a leg to stand on and disputing it. Um so again, vendor relationships matter. Yep. there's significantly more recourse when we were in here. One of the numbers, Neil, that stood stood out to me at the meeting was the uh the last small batch we we uh sold, I think it was Second Life back got that bid and it was 40% F rating. Correct. So even though we kind of predict minimums and all that, it still came in less than Exactly.
067Yep. And that's one of the reasons we had that extra factor. We got maximum and then minimum and then a little bit of extra there because of that in in that um smaller batch. How old were those machines? Three years. The other thing in the committee meeting um and Rich you could talk about this a little bit but this is actually board policy. We don't have to go to the board to make this decision. superintendent could make that decision but we decided that it would be best or the board to make a board policy is that the district administrator can uh implement sale of district property not of land property but of of materials and property. Uh we had that conversation with the committee and landed on this being a a big enough amount that
068the board the the finance committee preferred that the board make that action and I think that that's a good idea in situations that are this large to and and the policy doesn't prohibit that. It just states that I have the authority to make to sell those things. I'll make a motion to approve the app the device buyback pricing with diamond assets as presented. Second. Thank you. Rick's motion is seconded by John to uh approve our buyback uh process through diamond assets as the uh memo shares and as it's been presented. Does anyone have questions? And all in favor of that motion, please say I. opposed. That clearly passes. I think Mr. Doomer, you were done. Yeah, that is it. Thank you for that. All right. One piece of new business as Mr. Doz is making
069his way up. This is the uh annual deal, shouldn't say deal, process that we need to go through um for the Wisconsin school nutrition uh resolution and agreement. Uh we're renewing uh policies and practices that we already have in place. So, Michael Thank you, Joe. Um, yeah, this is just the renewal we've done with the Wisconsin nutrition co-op for a number of years now. It's been a real benefit to us when it comes to purchasing power for different products, specifically our food products and stuff. Um, the $300 membership fee continues to be very economical for us. Um, some of the highlights from this past year, uh, we did add four new schools since last year to our co-op. Our quote continues to be strong and continues to grow. Um for products and rebates and credits
070for the 2425 school year, um we got a check from the co-op for a little over $6,200. Um we continue to work with our procurement specialist this year with no consulting. Um, and working with pyramid specialists really helps us um, to ensure that we're complying with DPI and USDA regulations when it comes to our requests for proposals for like the the breads and the milk bits and stuff and so on. Um, and we continue every year to work with our food vendors and manufacturers to uh, you know, get the best pricing possible for all of our products um, thereby saving us cash. So, I'll move to the Wisconsin school nutrition nutrition purchasing cooperative resolution as presented. Second. Thank you. And that's motion is seconded by Ed to uh continue our uh participation in and renewing
071our membership in the uh school nutrition purchasing cooperative as has been presented. Questions? All in favor of that motion, please say I. I and opposed. That clearly passes. Thank you, Michael. And miscellaneous A is staffing report which has an updated version as mentioned. I move to approve the staffing reports. Second. Rick's motion is seconded by Jennifer to approve the staffing reports and the original and the updated version as presented. Questions? And all in favor of that, please say I. I opposed. That clearly passes. Gifts and donations follow customarily and that is a nice number. Move to approve the gifts and donations with gratitude. Second. Tracy's motion is seconded by John to approve the gifts and donations with the gratitude of our district. Questions from anyone? Let callers donations. It is it's bigger than some months.
072facilities is obviously worth noting $69,000 from our generous generous community. Some very generous individual donations too. Some of our donations come from the businesses or organizations but we have some some very generous uh individual donations in this uh uh document and throughout the year we have very very supportive community for our schools. One other thing to note too is that even the ones that say like friends of North Side, those are parents, you know, those are parents working the ground and getting those donations as well as the individuals. So, um, kudos to our parents groups for the large sums we get to work. All in favor of the uh, gifts and donation approval, please say I. I opposed. And thank you for that meeting dates. Mr. We have our next regularly scheduled meeting on um
073Monday, April 28th at our regular time and location, 6:30 p.m. on Monday the 28th. The following evening on Tuesday the 29th of April, we have the board rules and responsibilities session with Shaina Lewis. And then we have uh M&A negotiations scheduled for Wednesday the 16th at 5:00 p.m. Uh and a possible HR committee meeting on Monday the 21st at 6:30. I think Chelsea reached out to the HR committee. Did you hear back? All of them? Yes. Everybody's available on Monday the 21st. So that would be a a yes on Monday the 21st at 6:30 for HR. Any other meeting dates that folks need clarification on? All right. Well, that exhausts my regular agenda. We have an executive session scheduled, the uh description of which is rather lengthy, so bear with me. I would consider a
074motion to go into executive session pursuant to Wisconsin statute 19.85 sub 1 sub E and subc and statute 19.82 A2 sub1 and statute 111.70. Those are deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public properties, the investing of public funds, or conducting other specified public business whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session. And considering employment, promotion, compensation, or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility. All of which is targeted toward strategy and proposal for negotiations with the MEA and staff compensation and benefits. So move second. Thank you. Motion from Rick is seconded by Tracy. Pulling the audience. Annette, yes. John, yes. Ed, yes. Joe is yes. Rick, yes. Tracy, yes. Jennifer, yes. That is unanimous. Thank you for joining us. We are in executive session.
075We are not returning to open. Safe travels folk. [Music]