001Ladies and gentlemen, it is now 6:45 p.m. and a quorum quorum of members is present. So, the meeting of the board of education of the school district of New Brilland is called to order. Please call the role. >> Mr. Erand >> here. >> Mr. Helmer >> here. >> Miss Kik >> here. >> Miss Peterson >> here. >> Miss Schultz. Mr. Cidle >> here. >> Mr. Solinski >> here. >> I would entertain a motion to recess to close session. >> I'll make a motion to move into close session pursuant or to adjourn to close session pursuant to section 19.851 851cf of the Wisconsin statutes to consider um approval of close session minutes and employment performance matters and compensation matters pertaining to staff. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Ron and a second by Renee.
002Please call the role. >> Mr. Cidle? >> Yes. >> Miss Kik, >> yes. >> Mr. Erand, >> yes. >> Mr. Helmer, >> yes. Miss Peterson, >> yes. >> Mr. Zalinski, >> yes. >> We are moving into close session and will return to open session around 7 p.m. It is now 7 p.m. and we returning from close session into open session. In recognition of the serious and important nature of the efforts here, we will join in the pledge of allegiance to the flag. For all who are able, please rise. I aliance 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 now for those who wish to prepare for the meeting, we will have a moment
003of silence. This is a public meeting of the board of education. Prior to this meeting, notice was given to the public last Friday by providing the agenda to the city library. The agenda was also posted on the district website. A copy of the agenda was forwarded to the Journal Sentinel and the Wauaawa Freeman, all of which have filed for request for all public notices. Joe, do we have any recognitions? >> Uh, we were actually scheduled to have uh uh we scheduled to have recognitions tonight. Uh because there was a state track event over the weekend, it was a quick turnaround to have some of those athletes show up tonight. So, we're going to invite them to the next meeting. >> Excellent. >> Privilege of the floor. None >> looks like it. >> I do not
004have a president's message because I am not the president and I will let Janet have one next week. >> Uh administrative team report. >> Uh do I do not have an update? I'll defer to the items in open session. >> Okay. Consent agenda. Are there any items that should be pulled out for separate consideration? Do I have a motion for the consent agenda? Motion to approve. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Ron and a second by Renee to approve the consent agenda as presented. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. All of those opposed, please raise your right hand. Motion approved. regular agenda >> uh preliminary budget first read Joe. >> Yes. Uh so we had provided in your board packet the uh preliminary budget approval report
005uh that we had pulled together. Um and uh we also have a short presentation for you tonight that highlights uh uh the several items that are in that packet. Um, so let's just start with what is a preliminary budget and how does this all work? Um, so we need approval essentially for purposes of operating the district prior to the actual budget being approved in October. Uh, it sounds backwards, but that's how school finance and school operations work. uh that you wouldn't actually approve a budget already when the fiscal year starts July 1. Uh so I apologize to you Mr. CPA about the backwardness of this. Um and essentially the preliminary budget sets the fiscal priorities for the upcoming school year. Then in October as mentioned uh after we determine several things including enrollment uh and
006then the revenue limit and general state aids are better known um then we'll we will have uh the budget the the actual budget approval in October and then we will make adjustments literally it seems like every day between now and then uh as new information comes in. So let's start with the two education funds and that's the general fund fund 10 and then there's a separate fund which is a special education fund fund 27. So these are the general fund revenue assumptions. Um we are unlike many districts across the state we are actually increasing enrollment um and FTE. Uh a lot of that is because of the newly formed uh four-year-old kindergarten. Uh but at the same time, the other thing that Patrick and his research has done is that we continue to actually gain
007more students as kids progress through the system. Uh in some cases, not in all cases, but in some cases, it's because of the influx of students coming in from private schools, usually like around seventh grade and then in some cases in ninth grade. And so that's why we will actually experience a trend going positively as opposed to the other way around. Now, what I will say is that that phenomena of declining enrollment is real in Wisconsin. Um I I do think that we are a destination district. Uh people actually seek us out. We actually I don't don't remember the stat, but I think it's over 80% of the parents that we actually surveyed moved to New Berlin because of the schools. Uh and so that again tells us that we are a destination district unlike
008other districts where it's the opposite. They uh either are are moving and then open and rolling out or are just looking for a different place to move to educate their children. Um the other thing that I want to share with you is that uh we are anticipating a reduction in state aid and this is going to matter significantly when we get to the tax levy piece of the budget. Uh and I'm also going to be expl explain how when we reduce state aid, what does that mean to local property taxpayers? Um then we have we do know because we're in the second year of our bienial budget that we have a $325 uh dollar increase in per pupil revenue limit. Uh and here is where you'll see that actually because of that state aid reduction,
009it's almost doubling uh the tax levy as a result of that. Um then we are seeing a $9.9 million increase in general fund revenue and part of it is because of the decision that we made last year which was to shift $6 million from fund balance into fund 40 or I'm sorry we did that last year and then this year we're shifting some from fund 41 back to the general fund. Um, and so again, we're assuming $2 million of real dollars lost in state aid, but again, we recover that with local property taxes. Uh, and then um there will be a $ 1.9 million increase in the revenue limit uh based on enrollment and uh uh enrollment. Uh again, more details, specific details can be found in that budget booklet that was shared. This just
010kind of gives you a pie graph of uh the projected revenues by source. Uh just to highlight, the majority of our revenue comes from local property taxpayers. Uh and then the next biggest revenue stream is from the state and then we do receive other funds but not to the degree that we do from both the state and from local property taxpayers. I came from a small rural farming community in central Wisconsin and it almost was a complete opposite of this where most of the dollars were actually coming from the state. Uh minimal dollars were actually coming in from the local the local revenue sources taxpayers and it's a lot of it is based because of the um I guess I would call the uh wealth the wealth of our community. Now moving on to expenses.
011Uh the board did approve a 2.63% increase in base wages and then the benefits that are attached to that. Um we also make staffing adjustments based on enrollment. Uh we also I I did inform the board of the changes that we made to the library model uh due to to attrition. Uh and we also because we have speced needs uh those needs continue to rise. So we we adjust our staffing accordingly in that capacity. Uh we are annually always increasing our student transportation per our contract. They usually never go down. Um the uh as I had mentioned to the board leading up to this presentation, we've seen we've seen starting last year uh significant increase in health care costs. And I don't think that we're alone. I know that other districts in the area, Walker
012County are dealing with the same thing. Uh this is probably one of the largest increases that we've experienced probably in the last 10 years. Uh you know, so between last year and this year, um that's kind of what keeps Patrick and I up at night is how are we going to balance budgets with those types of increases? Well, we do that by adjusting the budget and we need to reduce uh in the department budgets in order to accommodate for those increases in healthcare. Um and then we did make a slight increase in general fund transfer to special education. Again, more details can be found in your budget. Again, another pie chart of where I mean obviously we are a people driven system uh employer. So, a lot of our dollars are spent on people. Um,
013and so you'll see the salaries and benefits there. Uh, purchase services. Patrick, can you remind us what purchase services are? >> Sure. Um, purchase services, unlike salaries and benefit and benefits. That's where we are actually paying somebody to do work in our district. A purchase service is when we're we don't hire somebody to do that work. We actually pay somebody else to provide that service. And so at least I would say 60% of our purchase services are directly related to contracts that we uh we get with a different company instead of hiring those people ourselves. So some of those positions would include we subcontract with Mid America for some of our cleaning services and then we also work with a company a vendor to to to do our substitute teacher rotations as well. Real quick,
014Joe, is Boston under that too then? >> Yes, it is. Yes, it is. And then again, just some other uh minor, but again, the majority is people. Now, moving on to the special education revenue expense assumptions. Again, we are expecting a small increase in revenue. Uh the board approved the respective increase, same as with the general fund. Um and then obviously we're seeing that same increase in health care benefits and so on. Uh we do um have to we do provide so other than the transportation company Mitch as you just mentioned we actually do have our own charter service as well. Now these are for like students with disabilities. These are with transporting students between Ike and West for classes uh because we don't necessarily always offer a certain class at both Ike and West.
015uh and then also transportation to students that are uh you know at WCTC with dual enrollment uh courses and so on. Uh then obviously you see the 3% increase in student transport. Uh and then because our our student with disability needs are increasing, this is purchase services again, we work with CISA, who's our regional co-op, to help us with specific support uh to support our students with disabilities, and we're seeing an increase in that as well. And once again, you're going to see uh where the revenue comes from. The one thing that Patrick and I want to clarify here is that it was actually uh spec was supposed to have been funded fully uh and then at one point they the state said, "Well, we'll fund it at 66%." Well, that never were real ever
016materialized. Uh and so we do still make transfers from fund 10 in order to support uh some of the students with with disabilities. But that's the revenue. And then again, the expenses, you're going to see a lot of the same thing >> for people. >> Um just going back to the special ed assumptions, it says board approved 2.93 salary increase and then the slide >> Yeah, the slide before it's 2.63. Okay. Oh, no, that's okay. I was just curious. >> It should be the the previous number. Sorry. >> And as mentioned, we are early. This is the first step in the budgeting process. Uh there are still a lot of variables. All of those that you see there. Uh as far as state legislation, I do know that um the budget surplus has been a
017real big talk. what are we doing with those dollars? Are we going to provide tax relief? Are we going to uh support school districts, particularly in special ed funding? Well, that did not again materialize. Uh there's talk that it's being possibly brought back on the table. We're not overly optimistic. So, we are just planning for what we know today, which is that that hasn't passed. Uh that that budget surplus bill has not passed. Um and then again, there will be changes between now and the final budget in October. So, uh, we are unique in the school district of New Berlin. Um, and we have debt within the operating budget, which is, uh, substantive. Uh, it's substantial amount. Uh, and that's mainly due to, uh, the district a long time ago, even before I got here,
018building Ronald Reagan and, uh, essentially adding on and, and kind of re redefining what New Berlin West was. uh spent uh tens of millions of dollars, but the decision was made to rather than go to referendum that we would pay off that debt within the operating budget. These are real dollars. Once again, uh now again, the freight train that I saw 19 years ago when I first got here, it was like a 20 plus year process of oh my, how are we gonna navigate and manage this? Well, the light is at the end of the tunnel. Uh with the the plan that Patrick and I proposed last year, we were able to bridge these gaps. And so for next year, uh we are uh we have $5.1 million of of debt that will that will
019be paid off. Uh and then the fisc in fiscal year 28 that drops slightly to 4.9. Then we see a nice drop in 2029 and then in 2030 is when where we will see uh some some really big relief. Um and so um but again we've got a plan to navigate this issue. Uh so we're you know again we're we are poised for success as far as navigating this. Again the X factor has been health insurance though the last couple years. Our guess is, you know, we're going to have to probably make some plan design changes uh to health insurance after next year and we will be bringing those proposals to you uh over the course of the year heading into the future year. fund balance uh essentially through Gazsby 54 which is our accounting
020source that we have to use uh there are no guidance or requirements but we do have a district policy that does say that we need to maintain a general fund balance of at least 10%. uh you'll note that the uh fund balance has gone up, it's gone down, it's gone up and it's gone down and quite honestly the ups and downs have been strategically done uh in order to manage the debt within the operating budget and then just budgets from year to year. Uh but at the end of the day we are still doing quite well. We have a healthy fund balance. Uh it does help with our Moody's rating which is uh double A2 and uh we continue to manage that um as well. And then this is the estimated tax levy and the
021impact. Uh note that I think 12 out of the 16 years uh we've been able to um actually drop the levy, but we've actually got down to $5.87 back in 2324, which was almost double of what it was, double less of what it was back in 2011 when I first got here. And so uh again lots of bianual budgets since then um a lot of things that we cannot control uh but again because of the the 15% reduction that we anticipate in state aid that's where a lot of this uh this increase is going to occur. What does that actually mean? We're looking at about $158 gross school tax levy on a home valued at $350,000. And then the last bullet point I do want to just kind of mention that while the tax levy
022change over the past five years has been uh we've actually dropped it by just over 13%. Inflation over the past five years has been at 21 plus percent. Uh so we are actually uh also fighting the inflationary issues as well and still able to manage state equalized aid. This is what I wanted to share as far this is this is just that these charts are examples only but essentially uh you get a pot of money from the state and that's that $50 million you know we're there are revenue limit factors uh from legislation that occurred back in 1993 and so essentially if your state aid goes down it doesn't mean you get less money it just means that more money comes from local property taxpayers it's the other way around if we get more state
023aid then it lessens the impact on our local property taxpayers. It's the same pot of money. And the other thing that I do want to mention though as far as the state equalization aid when big school districts and I know I've shared this with previous board members before but for the new board members but when school districts like MPS or Madison or Racine or some of these larger districts they go to referendum it negatively impacts us. So the more they spend, the more money they get from the state, which doesn't make a lot of sense, especially when I don't believe they're managing the dollars like we are. And but that's just the way that it works through the equalization aid formula. So that and because MPS recently passed a very large referendum, other districts have
024passed large referendums. I think Madison Patrick also had passed one a couple years ago. Um Madison did. They don't have as big an impact. I race Rine did. Um not sure. I think um Ashkosh may have. Yeah. So I mean we I mean we just it's just like just keep kicking us around and we'll continue to manage our dollars as best we can and we do. So there are other forms of aid, you So we we are eligible for certain aids and and in some cases we are not. Uh high poverty aid, sparity aid, supplemental aid and yes, this is a real thing. Student transportation over ICE is an aid that we are obviously not eligible for. But again, we are we have limitations uh because of just who we are as a school district
025on what types of state aid we can we are eligible for. And then these are the rest of the dates that I've just mentioned. Uh there's really going to be no board action between now and September 29. Uh but know that uh we there are things that will kind of come in that will shape the the the stuff at the annual meeting and budget hearing and then even between then and the actual budget in October 26, things will likely change as well. We use our best. I mean, we have financial tools. Uh we, you know, Patrick works with other Walkshaw County business officials. Uh we are always working with state associations. We're always talking to our legislators. Uh and then we're also always looking for other revenue streams streams that are not seen here. Uh
026but those are the dates uh for future budgetary issues. At this point, Patrick and I will entertain any questions. We're actually not asking for approval tonight. Uh we'll be seeking approval at the next meeting. >> Yeah. Just one question. Um sorry if you already said this, but what's driving the decrease in the state aid at the moment? So, um because we made a a move of $6 million from fund balance um to essentially fund the capital maintenance that um that shows on the balance sheet as we over spent our budget. And when you overspend your there there are several factors that impact state aid. um enrollment, property values, and the amount that you spend in your budget. And so um when we spend that much over budget, typically you're going to have a uh reduction
027in state aid, the hold harmless amount is 15%. The reason that we did that is when you spend over your budget, you're going to have up to that hold harmless every year. And so by spending that money all in one year, we're hoping to mitigate the number of years we have that 15%. If we can have that one year, that's really good for the taxpayers as opposed to we take a million two every year into um our capital maintenance fund. >> Got it. Thank you. Um, second thing was if we wanted to keep the tax levy flat year-over-year, would the offset be less money available to pay off debt? Would that be the logical place to pull from? Well, we can't put less money in to pay off debt because we're obligated to it. So,
028um, we can't, you know, at at and also at this point in time, uh, we're so close to having the debt paid off, there really is no advantage, um, to paying off some of the debt when it becomes callable in another year. Um, if we had a considerable amount of debt and a lot of years to pay, we could probably save some some interest payments if we did that. we're so close to the end that there just really isn't a lot of of benefit to that. We did do that a few years ago. That was one of the years that we did spend down some fund balance um because we had a a a decent pocket of debt that was callable and we used some fund balance to pay that off. I think we saved
029at that point in time um uh four or $500,000 overall in interest payments. >> Okay. So, we're not actively prepaying debt anymore. We're just making the required minimum payments. >> Correct. Because this this debt this isn't like um home mortgage debt or car payment debt. This is uh debt as an investment. And so, we can't just pay it off whenever we want. Um it's it's a the term is called. So they that's built into the contract so that the investors are actually getting some of their investment out of that. So um can't just it's not like I I wish we could just pay it off whenever we want but it's it's um it's a different kind of debt. If you have any questions between Oh Matt, go ahead. Oh, the other Matt. Sorry, >> this
030might be a a tricky one. So, the um the homes that were petitioning to be part of our district uh the last couple months, as I understand, they've been turned down by CPI. >> Correct. >> The tax levy for them is flowing to our district or to West Dallas. >> So, the city tax is but not the school district tax. But when we did absorb those other homes, that is now funneling through the school district. >> Okay. Do we expect anything beyond what has happened to date with that or is that kind of dead in the water? >> Well, as of as of this year, uh it's uh it's done and I'm sure they will reapply again next year, which has essentially been happening ever since I've been here. Some cases it's, you know, a
031bunch of residents, in some cases just a handful. Uh this last time it was a small pocket, a medium-sized pocket, and a larger pocket. Uh but unfortunately, they were all denied. >> But that but that's why West Albus Milwaukee like we we recommend it for approve, we approve it, West Alice Milwaukee denies it. It goes to DPI for an appeal and then it's determined there. There's there's nothing beyond that for petition for them. There's no >> not this time around. They would have to repetition. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Again, any Go ahead. >> Yeah. One other quick thing. So, um, governor election in November and number of lawsuits related to education in Wisconsin, Act 10, um, then the other lawsuit saying education's been chronically underfunded, etc. Would any of that impact this budget or is
032that all future problems? >> Um, that's going to impact future budgets. The only thing that could impact this budget is the legislation that was just um uh voted down in the Senate. Uh, if that does come back and it's approved, I'm assuming if they revote, it'll be approved again in the assembly and it would go to the Senate. If it's approved by the Senate, that would not only impact the budget that we're just finishing up, but then it would also impact next year's budget, the 2627. And what I would say is if things like Act 10 or even I believe that other um you know the the lack of funding from the legislature, I do believe that those would significantly negatively impact the school district of New of New Berlin. It would it would be
033catastrophic. All right. Regular agenda item B. Do I have a motion for approval of federal tax credit scholarship program resolution? >> I motion to approve the resolution. >> Second. I have a motion by Ron and a or sorry, a motion by Matt and a second by Ron to approve. Any discussion? >> Yes. So this again just the federal so Wisconsin needs to opt in in order to access these dollars that were uh made available through the one big beautiful bill act. Um I you know I did share earlier today I apologize for the sending it later but uh the Badger Institute I did provide my insights to the Badger Institute where um I do think uh the biggest thing is if all these other states are opting in at least allow our families and our
034children to have the same opportunities that all of these other families and kids are going to have. Um, and it it just doesn't make sense to me. I mean, I think we're one of only two states that have actually actually opted out. That would be us and Minnesota. Uh, even uh, and this is, you know, we're seeing opt-ins from both uh, Democratic states and Republican states. Uh, even New York City has opted in. Uh, again, just give us a shot. And this resolution will be sent to the governor's office. It'll be sent to our local legislators. Uh and then we will be sharing this resolution with other school districts to essentially be a model resolution to encourage other board other boards and other administrators across the state of Wisconsin to encourage this optin. Uh similarly,
035Matt, to your question about the election, um I do know that some of the the the Democratic uh candidates have already suggested that they would be opting in even though Governor Ivers has not. Uh and then Tom Tiffany, I think, who's the leading candidate on the Republican side, has also said that he would opt in as well. Uh so there is some light out there. Uh I do know that the they they are recommending opting in by October or I'm sorry, December of 2027. So there is time. Um and even if it doesn't happen at that time, there is opportunity for future years to be considered for opting in as well. But I think this will help with the momentum of drawing attention to our local community and to others of don't let this opportunity
036uh go to the wayside on behalf of our students and their families. >> So or would we be the first district that is formulating something like this? >> I believe I I believe we are one of probably none at this point that I'm aware of. >> Okay. So, we recommend approval of the resolution as presented. Uh, give me one second. Yeah. So, all those in favor, please raise your right hand. All those opposed? Motion passes. Um, next is the approval of student screen time dashboard policy proposal. Do I have a motion? >> Um, yeah. So, >> sorry, we I need a motion. Do you want a motion to approve it? I I motion to approve the uh proposal as presented. >> Second it. >> Are we going to discuss it? >> Yeah. Okay. >> I
037hate how this is worded, but yes. >> I have a motion by Matt and a second by Renee to approve. Any discussion? Sorry. I have a motion by Matt and a second by Renee to approve. >> Any discussion? >> Yeah. So, uh little bit of background for this or on this for the board. So, uh, really good dig digital presentation by the administration at the last meeting. Um, I think we're all excited as to where this goes next. And so, the purpose of this was to uh put forth a policy, which I think will now be a directive uh that states the administration will put in place a dashboard to systematically track screen time for all schoolisssued devices for students. Um it's a tool that would be used for analysis for the administration and also
038to provide relevant information for the board for policy decision-m. Uh and then the second piece of it is it would also enable parents to have greater insight into uh screen time for their kids. Um it sounds like some of this is easier to implement than other pieces of it. Um, sounds like the administration is looking into this, working with vendors to figure out what's applicable. And so, uh, at the current time, it seems more appropriate to put this forward as a future directive slashgoal for the administration rather than a policy that would become effective today. Uh, and so I believe the current initiative is we will vote on making this a goal at the upcoming goal setting session this summer. Um, so with that being said, I'll stop for any questions or discussion. >> Okay,
039I've got a couple of questions. Um, are you working with securely? Is that like did >> Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Um did we collaborate with anybody through the district to make the policy or >> um so it was based on the knowledge that we are currently using securely and I looked at securely's current functionality specifically as it relates to securely reveal which is a module bolt on to I believe our current setup. Um, and it looked like the administrative side of this proposal is already available in Securely Reveal. Um, and it sounds like securely reveal is also working on the parent insight side of this as well, though that's not fully built out. >> Like did anybody like go through this with you with the district? Like did you get any insight from anybody?
040>> Uh, no. >> Okay. Um, so what would our minimal cost be? I know you said it was minimal, but I don't know. I mean, that's decently subjective. >> Yeah. Uh, securely reveal I saw was it's estimated about five dollars per students and so you got the high end. >> And so I do want to just clarify. So I I have been working with Matt um since this was proposed and we've had really good discussions related to it. Um I think uh one of the reservations that we had was the timing of it uh was you know starting July 1. We don't think we will have a solution available by that time. Uh I will say that we already do subscribe to reveal. Uh so we do have access to reveal. Uh it has become
041more robust I would say recently than it had been. So I I know that you know we had kind of shared emails back and forth of you know what type of data are we actually able to access as a district which is a lot uh a lot of the better information that we want is through re reveal. Uh and then because of the uh the init or the the wave of concern related to screen time securely is actually in the development stages of developing this dashboard that you know Matt's envisioned. Rene I know Renee after the last board meeting had mentioned uh stuff to our team as well related to this. We talked about it. Uh it's just very early. Um, our goal is to actually uh, you know, we we are good partners with
042with securely. I want to be able to actually pilot whatever dashboards they might have uh, for families as has been proposed. I want to kind of get in the ground level, help them develop it, actually uh, you know, live and learn with reveal to kind of iron out like the usability, the functionality and the feasibility related to this. Uh back to your original question uh Mandy, we don't know what that cost of those dashboards will be at this time just because it is in the early stages if we happen to partner with them as a pilot. Sometimes you can receive uh expense reductions as a result of that because uh we were in on the ground level with them. That's TBD of course. I can't guarantee that. Uh but we don't know what those costs
043will be at this time. But we are currently invested in the securely reveal solution. A couple more hang with me. Okay. So my let me preface with I think that this is a wonderful thing. I'm all about this dashboard transparency. As a parent of course I want as much as I can get. The only thing that gives me pause, I don't know if I can hear um where did it go? Okay, so the custom alerts thresholds. So where it says optional parent set notifications of daily screen time exceeds a chosen limit, I worry about how that will affect teachers depending on how that is set up. I just, you know, you have a class of 20 kids, if every child's parent has a different preference for how much screen time they are allowed to have
044per day, I can see that getting very difficult for a teacher to be able to teach. for the more estate testing like where would those notifications be going off and like would there be a threshold for teachers to be able to say this is the baseline or are parents going to be able to come in and say I don't want my kid to be on it for more than a half an hour a day. >> Yeah, it's a good question. Um, I think that's something we would discuss and parse out because I do think based on the class and based on the curriculum, you would want to have different screen time limits to not inhibit teachers but also get good notifications if um the parents expectation is the student is spending an hour per day
045and it's actually closer to five or six hours. We just wanted something that would pop out to the parent to say what's happening is not within your expectations. >> Yeah, that makes sense. I guess I just if we're going to approve something like this, that would be my biggest pause to not approve it unless maybe we reword it or work with somebody within the district to kind of come up with a baseline just to help the teachers be able to do their job. >> And I do think that that's something that, you know, Matt and I have discussed, you know, what are the implications of this and we're still trying to navigate that internally as well. Um, and so our recommendation from the administrative team is to not, again, as Matt mentioned, uh, we're not
046recommending approval of this policy as is presented, but instead have it be incorporated as a board goal and or eventually one of my specific goals as we head into to the next school year. And then again, I just I think the we think this is a great idea also. It's just the timing may not align with the possible solution that's available to us. >> That's all I have. Again, I think it's a wonderful idea. That's the only part that gives me a little bit of pause, but thank you. >> So, I just wanted to say I I strongly support Matt's proposal. I think last uh meeting two weeks ago, we we discussed uh a lot of parents were coming to us about screen time and and not being able to see how much time that
047their kids were spending on on screen. So, this is transparency. Um we've we've had an overwhelming amount of requests from parents for this. So, um, the only concern that I expressed, um, kind of privately to Matt, and I'll do it openly here, is we, we don't want to completely restrict kids from devices, especially, and I'll and I'll just say I'm an example. I have a seven-year-old daughter in school, and uh, for security reasons and for safety reasons, we want to be able to get a hold of her. So, a full restriction would be a a no-go for me, but um um and and for that reason purposely. >> I also strongly support this. I disagree with Matt. Um I would really like to investigate what a bell-to-bell cell phone restriction further than what we have
048now would look like, especially at middle school and high school. So, I mean, I think we talked a lot about this. I'm a big proponent of locking down. I'm not against more time to use iPads on actual curriculum things. I think the bigger problem we have is YouTube, just open access to internet. I think that's the bigger piece in getting a tool into parents hands that can say my child's on YouTube for seven hours a week or a month or whatever it is and having them have that visibility. I think we owe it to them. Um I know teachers are doing the best they can but there's 20 kids in a classroom and it can be difficult to manage or 30 kids in some classrooms and it can be very difficult to manage and I
049think if parents have that information it's a tool. >> Just a general update. So when we last presented, we had shared that our four-year-old kindergarten through third grade students are restricted on YouTube already. Moving into next year, we are restricting fourth grade YouTube access as well. >> So they would have no access to YouTube. The only access that they would have is if a teacher presents something from YouTube. That of course >> is in the classroom, but it's not available on their device. Note that we are also looking at restricting YouTube for fifth grade as well. We are currently working with our teaching staff uh to just determine what those implications could be. Um and so we are also looking at restricting YouTube for fifth grade heading into next year as well. And if it's
050not next year, it would be the year after for sure. >> I have another question if nobody else has one. Um, one thing that I also get from parents is not always necessarily the amount of screen time, but where the screen time is also taking place. Is there any way when we put out this dashboard that we see it like they're going to gym or they're going to the library? Do we need to bring our iPads to gym? Is that something that we could cut? So then that's one less little piece of tech time that they have. Did you look into that at all? >> Yeah. So in the securely reveal product synopsis, they did talk about um being able to drill into screen time by time of day or by class. And so you
051could get very granular to see these are the classes that the student is using the device in. These are the times of the day that the student is using the device. And then you can back into are they using it in gym class or not. >> It becomes very difficult though because they don't have gym at the exact same time every single day and every single day. So it's analysis by paralysis. There's only so much I assume with the data analytics that you can really look at at a high level at a school or at a classroom and be able to look at. Now drilling into your individual student, they might have that ability, but I don't know what functionality they would have on that. But I'm guessing that becomes more and more difficult. And
052again the other thing that I want to share is this this parent dashboard is still in the developmental stages. It's not been it's not available yet. So there are a lot of questions. But another reason why we would want a pilot is because then some of this feedback that I'm hearing from you we can share with them as they're trying to customize this solution. Do you want to re wait to review this with Joe for another meeting and revise it or do you >> Yeah. Would we take the vote now to add this as a goal at an upcoming meeting or >> I think we'd have to revise the motion. >> We'd have to revise the motion. >> Yeah. My suggestion would be that um we we table the the vote at this time as
053it is or resend the motion and then we could come back. I did speak to Janet. She's in support of moving this into a goal for the board as well as for me which would be a for the administration and uh we could have that vote at the next meeting. >> Does that make sense? >> Makes sense. Do we have to resend the vote? >> Yeah. >> You want to resend? >> Uh, a motion to resend the policy as presented uh in context of the current discussion. >> Can you second? >> Second. >> All those in favor, raise your right hand. All those opposed. All right. So, I think we're all in agreement that you'll work on that and >> come with a proposal. Um, the last item is action items discussed in close session.
054Do I have a motion to approve items discussed in close session? >> I'll make a motion to approve the employment performance matters pertaining to staff as presented. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Ron and a second by Amanda to approve. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. All those opposed. Motion passes. >> Oh, you guys are really giving me a hard time today. >> All right. Board meetings. Future meetings and dates. Board meetings are generally held on the second and fourth Monday beginning at 7 PM in conference room E at district office unless noted otherwise. The next meetings are June 22nd, July 27th, August 10th, and then other important dates are June 12th is the last day of the year school year. June 12th, is Eisenhower's graduation as well. And the
055next day, June 13th, is Wes graduation. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> I'll make a motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Ron and a second by Renee to adjurnn. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. All those opposed. Motion passes.