001Ladies and gentlemen, it is now 6:30 p.m. and a quorum of members is present. The meeting of the board of education of the school district of New Berlin is called to order. Please call the role. >> Miss Crosby >> here. >> Mr. Helmer. >> Miss Kik >> here. >> Miss Schultz >> here. >> Mr. Mr. Cidle >> here. >> Miss Spindler >> here. >> Mr. Zalinski >> here. >> Uh, Mr. Helmer let me know he probably wasn't going to be able to attend this evening. So then I would entertain a motion to recess to close session. >> I move to adjourn into close session pursuant to section 19.85 85 1 C E and F of the Wisconsin statues to consider A the approval of close session minutes of February 9th and B employment performance and
002compensation adders pertaining to staff. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Miss Crosby and a second by Mr. Zalinski. Please call the role. >> Miss Crosby, >> yes. >> Mr. Zalinski, >> yes. >> Mr. H. Uh, Miss Kik, >> yes. Miss Schultz, >> yes. >> Mr. Cidle, >> yes. >> Miss Spinler, >> yes. >> We're moving to close session, return to open session around 7 o'clock. It is now 7:08 p.m. and we're returning from close session into open session. In recognition of the serious and important nature of our efforts here, we will join in the pledge of allegiance to the flag. For all those who are able, please rise to the flag of the United States of America. 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 SENA and the Walkershaw Freeman, all of which have filed requests for all public notices. Do we have anybody for privilege of the floor this evening? >> No. >> Okay. I do not have any messages or announcements. So, we'll move on to administrative team report. Yeah. So, uh, a couple updates. First of all, we have a digital newsletter called the educa the edge the edge. The edge and um uh we we have almost 7,000 subscribers to that digital uh that that digital update. Um, we do
004have a midyear newsletter, a print midyear newsletter coming out. We do two a year. one we do that's typically sent out in September and then we have a midyear newsletter coming out um uh here actually in the in the in the next few weeks. Uh one of the updates that we'll be providing in that newsletter that we shared in the edge uh just uh I believe it was last week was that Weston Eiser West and Eisenhower are among AP honor role elite. Um, so launched in 2023, the advanced placement scholarship or school honor role recognizes schools where AP programs are both delivering results for students and broadening access. This annual recognition is based on criteria that reflect a commitment to increasing collegegoing culture, providing opportunities for students to earn college credit and optimizing college readiness.
005Uh the announcement of the 2025 honor role put the school district of New Burlin in a class uh by itself. West was one of only three traditional public high schools in Wisconsin to reach platinum status with Eisenhower uh was one of only 11 traditional public high schools to receive gold honors. Among WA County schools, West and Eisenhower are among only four high schools to achieve gold or better, which also includes Arrowhead and Brookfield East. Um, as as noted, I'm sorry that I'm having trouble difficulty. I can't see this very small print. Uh, only 8% of the more than 16,000 eligible schools in the US and Canada earned platinum, uh, the highest level, and only 7% get gold. Uh, research shows students who take AP courses and exams are more likely to attend college and graduate
006on time. The students who enter four-year colleges with credit from AP accelerated their path for graduation and build confidence for college success. Uh so congratulations to Eisenhower with to West uh earning that platinum status and of course uh Eisenhower getting the gold. Last year both attained the gold and again that was a quite the accomplishment last year and again last year the only other two gold achieving high schools were Brookfield East and Brookfield Central. So certainly uh uh and again I just want to remind you that yes, we're recognizing Eisenhower and West tonight, but note that our four elementary schools play a crucial part and establishing the foundation for when those kids get up to that to that uh level of success. So thank you very much. At that time, I'll hand it over to
007Oliver. >> Even though we just got a taste of summer, school is not over yet, and students at West are pushing through in class, clubs, and sports. Choir students had their annual spring Valentine on Friday before Valentine's Day where for $5 you could nominate another student to be sung for in front of class. Along with choir orchestra stringfest was held in Newland West Fieldhouse. This allowed all grades 5 through 12 to collaborate and create a concert for parents later that night. Spanish 5 students are reading a book about the gang MS-13 in Los Angeles and how it has shaped many aspects of Latino culture in the United States and in Latin America. and students in anatomy and physiology dissected kid pig kidneys to see how kidneys work and how they filter blood in the body.
008Clubs have also been thriving at our school. NHS hosted a blood drive where over a 100 units of blood were donated through the Red Cross. Donors got a pint of Culver's ice cream, a $20 gift card, and a flashlight. Members of DECA are going to state this week in Lake Geneva where they will be competing at the Grand Geneva for a chance to become state finishers and international qualifiers. Headspace made bracelets for Valentine's Day, including heart themed charms and relaxing music. As sports seasons are ending, our athletes are coming coming and competing at the highest levels. Both boys and girls basketball team are going to the regional round of playoffs this week, hoping for dominant wins to continue their seasons. The United wrestling team is sending five girls and three boys to the state wrestling
009tournament in Madison this week. And this past weekend, nine New Berlin swimmers made their way to Wacaawa West for the Division Two state swimming meet where their swimming and diving will be put to the test. Our very own Palm team went to nationals last week and placed 12th in the nation for small varsity hiphop. Thank you. >> Thank you. Then we have our district reports. Um it looks like out of the list we only have an enrollment report and a suspension report. So lucky you u Mr. Cidle there is no donation report to read this evening. Yeah. So then the consent agenda onto that um which includes the notice, the approval of the minutes of the board meeting of February 9th, approval of the minutes of the board meeting of February 9th work session and
010the financial reports. Are there any items that should be pulled out for separate consideration? And hearing none, do I have a motion for the consent agenda? >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Mr. Cidle and a second by Miss Kik to approve the consent agenda as presented. Any discussion? And hearing none. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. Onto our regular agenda. So, we're going to have um four public hearings uh to request an alteration to the school district boundaries. And so, we will take um each one at a time, the hearing, and then once all the hearing uh portion is completed, then we will move on to the voting. So, I just have to read some things here to make sure that we're not missing anything.
011Um before taking testimony, I would like to review the rules applicable to this and the remaining hearings. There are informal these are informal hearings but we will record all of the information presented. Each person offering information will come to the podium to speak. Please state your name, address, and school district. Speak distinctly so that we can be sure that your information is recorded. The procedure is to hear from the proponents and opponents of each petition. The proponents, those people asking the school board to transfer the territory will be heard first. Following the proponents, the opponents of the petition, those people who do not want the territory transferred will be heard. Following the initial presentation by the proponents and opponents, there will be a short time allotted for rebuttal and summation by both sides if warranted
012in the in the same order. These rules will apply to all four petition hearings this evening. So, I'll start off here. Is there anyone who wishes to speak on behalf of the petition um to alter the school district boundaries for DAK? Okay. If there's nobody here for that particular uh petition, then do we have somebody here uh for Majar? Am I saying it right? Okay. >> Oh, that's okay. >> Major. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, let's see. >> Hello. >> Okay. Go ahead. >> Okay. >> Can you hear me like this? >> Yeah. >> Okay. My name is Rebecca Major. I live at 13310 West North Lane in New Berlin, Wisconsin. Good evening. I represent 58 New Berlin parcels seeking attachment to the New Berlin School District. Our neighborhood is geographically contiguous with New Berlin,
013municipally aligned, and already socially integrated into this community. We believe attachment would best support our children's educational welfare, safety, and long-term stability. Currently, there are four school age children within our territory enrolled in the West Alice West Milwaukee School District. Sorry, that's where I'm we are right now. I forgot to say that in the beginning, so I apologize. um they would be given the option to remain there if they choose. There are also several babies and toddlers in our neighborhood who would benefit from long-term continuity within this district and hopefully my own someday if I'm fortunate enough to become a mother. >> Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you. >> I kept it short and sweet. Okay. >> Do we have anybody who is um opposing this change in district boundaries who
014wants to speak? Okay. Else here. All right. If there's nothing else, then um at this time I will close public presentations on this particular petition and open to the schoolboard questions. >> I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> Stay up here. >> No, you don't have to. Yeah, I'm sorry. You can sit down. >> Different. >> Although although unless somebody does have a question for you, you might have to come back up. So, just hold I'm sorry. It's been a while since we've done one of these. Um, the only information presented hereafter will be on request to the school board members concerning the information received by them brought out this in this meeting. So, are there any questions or information that any board member would like answered or clarified? >> Uh, Janet, before uh we move into
015that portion, I just do want to clarify >> that the administration does recommend approval of all of the petitions >> tonight. Um, you know, we've had the experience already of, uh, another, uh, petition that was actually approved. Um, we were able to make that transition u quite smoothly. We have capacity in our schools. We think we provide a, uh, good opportunity for those potential students to and families. Uh and as the petitioner mentioned, any families within that boundary are still allowed the opportunity to open enroll back to West Dallas West Milwaukee. Uh so again, we would recommend approval of all petitioners tonight. >> Board members, any questions you have regarding this particular petition? >> Um how many parcels will >> 58 So the parcels are included in the documents. >> Yeah. >> Oh, there. Okay.
016>> Anything else before we move on to the next the next petition? All right. So then um the proponents of the um altering the district boundaries, McCoy Makosi. >> Hi. >> That is actually a one of our group members who's not here tonight. So uh my name is Emily Fearson and I am at 13605 West Wilbur Drive in New Berlin. Um and we are part of the West Dallas West Milwaukee School District. So tonight I'm representing a group of households in the city of New Berlin who are seeking to detach from the West Dallas West Milwaukee School District and attach to the New Berlin School District. Our petition includes 114 homes located west of 124th Street. We have received nearly 90% support from households within the proposed area with 86% formally signing in favor of
017this effort. This reflects a strong and unified community voice. And this petition is about aligning the the neighborhood geographically, academically, and socially within the community that we live. It reflects overwhelming local support, minimal adverse impact, and a clear benefit for our children. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you. Is there anybody who wants to speak in opposition to this change? >> All right. Then are there any questions from school board members? Um, how many school age children are in that area? Do you know? >> 21. >> So that it's two total 58 plus >> 114 so far. Okay. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> And there's more to come. >> Any other questions? All right. So then um we will now consider the request to alter the district boundaries um from Yell Yella.
018So if you're in a um obviously you're in favor of it, so >> yes, >> I'm guessing. >> Thank you. Um she's passing out a map just for you to kind of have a bird's eye view of of what we're addressing here. But good evening. I'm Steve Yell residing at 13125 West Foxwood Drive in New Berlin and I'm speaking on behalf of the six petitioners. Petition seeks um to detach six properties from the West Dallas by the way I'm in the West Dallas West Milwaukee school district that we're looking to detach from and attach to school district of New Berlin. passed out was a map and on the upper half is a broader view of the the New Berlin school district boundary. The bottom half is more of a zoomed in look. And as you
019can see, the six properties that are here or that are pointed out by that blue arrow are actually non-ontiguous to the West Dallas West Milwaukee School District. We do not. I can go two houses to the left, which is west, and I'm in New Berlin School District. I go two to the right, I'm in New Berlin School District. There's six houses in the middle. So, we do not connect at all to West Dallas West Milwaukee School District. 100% of the the property owners are petitioners and we currently have no students. So it would not disrupt any transfers, any staffing and so on. Road access. In fact, speaking of road, today at 3:30, your bus went past my house. Just to point out how that kind of works. But road access, neighborhood layout, community orientation, all
020aligned with New Berlin rather than the broader West Dallas, West Milwaukee attendance area. The petition ensures the district boundaries reflect practical geographic alignment and neighborhood continuity. Um, we met all the statutory requirements. Any future enrollment obviously would go to New Berlin. But in closing, this is a very narrowly scoped, you know, petition in order to align with New Berlin based on the map that you're looking at. Thank you. >> Thank you. Is there anybody who wishes to speak um in opposition to this change? >> And are there any more questions from the school board? >> Uh board members, I do want to just mention a couple of other things. >> Uh these boundaries were set many decades ago. Um what you know why was it set up that way? I cannot answer the question as
021to why there is a portion of New Berlin in the West Dallas West Milwaukee School District. Some of this does not make sense uh as was mentioned, but I think what uh well or at least that's what I inferred. Sorry. Um but that's not because of anything the school district of New Berlin has done. Uh the other thing too is that when this change happened uh how long ago now, Patrick? Three years ago that we had the actual detachment. >> No, the last detachment. Yeah. Yeah. That was uh two years ago. >> So two years ago. I've been here for almost 20 years and there were detachment requests almost every year and um in most of those cases they were denied. So the process is West Milwaukee, West Alice, West Milwaukee School District gets an
022opportunity to have their residents be heard. Uh we then have the opportunity for the residents to be heard. Uh West Dallas with Milwaukee makes their determination, which in the past they've denied all of them. Uh we have always recommended them and been approved. Uh but two years ago with that detachment, what happens is if we disagree with the West Dallas West Milwaukee School District, then it gets sent to DPI and then the the those folks that choose to petition can appeal West Dallas West Milwaukey's decision to the DPI. So what happened the one time that uh and again of those others I don't know how many actually appealed it to DPI but but the the one two years ago they did appeal it and then the DPI overturned uh the West Alis Milwaukee decision. note
023that uh it also went to court. Um as you know it went into the courts. Uh it was challenged in the courts. Uh but ultimately they were able to detach and uh now those families and you know there's a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes for them to become part now of our school district. Uh they're they're now part of our tax equation for uh you know the state funding formula. Um, again, those kids have an opportunity to open enroll back to West Dallas, West Milwaukee, even though they are part of the school district of New Berlin. Um, and you know, as we look at all of the properties that are being proposed to you, Patrick, what is the total actual student impact uh from all the petitioners? So according to according
024to the numbers the students that are attending West House West Milwaukee is I believe and I of all the numbers I wrote down that's not the one I wrote down um I think it's 12 students there are more students that or more children that live in that area that are spread out over multiple enrollments. I think what we were look I I think the number Patrick was around 20 that you know when you and I had talked of of of uh students that are in West Dallas with Milwaukee. There are others that actually go to parochial schools too that are in there but of the ones that you know would actually be currently enrolled at West Milwaukee we're looking at about 20. And those students would be you know you can't assume it's going to
025be 20 kindergarteners. It's going to be spread across know 4K all the way up through 12th grade. Okay. So, if there's nothing um no more questions, no more background information, then we'll move on to the agenda item E, which is to approve the resolution authorizing issuance of order in support of WAWM citizen petition to alter school district boundaries for Dyk. A motion to approve the transfer of the territory described in the petition that the reorganization request in the petition filed with the city of New Berlin on January 22nd, 2026 be granted and a resolution authorizing issuance of an order altering school district boundary be approved. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Mr. Cidle and a second by Miss Kik. Any discussion? and hearing none. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion
026passes. On to the next one. I make a motion to approve the transfer of the major. Um the major motion was uh the motion to approve the transfer of the territory described in the petition that the reorganiz reorganization requested in the petition filed with the city of New Berlin on January 14th, 2026 be granted and a resolution authorizing issuance of an order altering school district boundaries be approved. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Mr. Cidle and a second by Miss Kik. Any discussion? Then all those in favor raise your right hand. Motion passes. On to the M makosi motion. A motion to approve the transfer of the territory described in the petition that the reorganization requested in the petition filed with the city of New Berlin on January 14th, 2026 be granted and
027a resolution authorizing issuance of an order altering school district boundary be approved. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Mr. Idle and a second by Miss Kik. Any discussion? Then all those in favor raise your right hand. Motion passes. And our last motion for yell. I motion to approve the transfer of the territory described in the petition that the reorganization requested in the petition filed with the city of New Berlin on January 22nd, 2026 be granted and a resolution authorizing issuance of an order altering school district boundaries be approved. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Mr. Cidle and a second by Miss Kik. Any discussion? Then all those in favor raise your right hand. Motion passes and that concludes then our hearings and motions. Okay. So now we have our teaching and
028learning presentation for the winter screener. So we have a a cadence of sharing uh various data points student achievement data with the school with the school board. Uh this happens to be our winter 2026 screening data. >> Good evening everyone. Thanks for having us to share our winter assessment results with you. My name is Matt Sepneski. I am the uh director of elementary schools for our school district. And with me this evening is Kelly Kuikowski, our secondary director. And then uh Amanda Merurkwitz, our uh director of student services. So, we've started the last couple presentations with this slide just reminding us, grounding us in the fact that we're getting getting students ready for graduation, but along the way, we look at all of these assessment pieces when we're talking about each kid individually. So, lots
029of data points to look at, but tonight we're just going to pull out a couple for you. And this we we show this one every time as well. We we are identifying if our curriculum meets the needs of 80% of our kids. That's one of the reasons why we take this screener three times a year. We're also identifying students in the other 20% to determine what their needs are. Whether that is formal intervention, whether that is reteing strategic groups, um you know, how we essentially how we utilize our flex in our intervention times. It also gives us an idea if there's anything we should be doing doing differently um in our tier one curriculum. We've done we've added some small group work. We're of course always looking at teacher practice um and how effective that
030is as well. So focusing on elementary kindergarten through third grade takes Ames web plus 2 through 9th takes FastBridge. And so this is oral reading fluency. And so we just we just pulled out third grade achievement on oral reading fluency. This is all students in third grade at or above the 40th percentile. This is a one minute fluency probe. How many words correct can they read per minute? This year's third graders very high achievement compared to last year's different kids of course, but some very high achievement there. We're also looking at a reading. So this is a test that the third graders take. It's an adaptive test that the third graders take. General reading skills. So it's fluency but decod and uh fluency and decoding you know reading passages but then responding to those. So
031general reading skills answering questions um about the passages things like that kind of interesting it's meeting the needs of you know we have 78% of our kids I guess every year. So interesting that that's the same number. Um again we're hoping for 80% or higher. Um but we've been very consistent with our tier one curriculum. Now these are the major these are this is cohort data. So this is the same test. So these are third graders from last year now that are in fourth grade. And this is also like we said that a reading test that general reading skills test that adapts as they get questions correct or incorrect. So third all third graders again the percent that are proficient at above the 40th percentile. And the majority of these kids are the same kids
032from year to year. And so we do have a little dip. you know, a couple students that did not perform as well as they did last year. And so that's one of our areas of growth. Moving on to math. So this is all students, all third grade students at or above the benchmark, which is 40th percentile, which is considered proficient. And so this year's third graders not achieving as high as last year's. So this is another another area of growth, another data point that we have shared with principles who then share with their grade level teams to determine which kids are we talking about and then what do they need and now these are the majority of the same kids. So this is cohort data how the third grade how these students performed last year
033in third grade 80% of them were proficient and now this year winter of their fourth grade year 81% of their of them are proficient but consistent numbers over the past couple years of the of the growth that they make from winter to winter. So now this is third graders again all third graders and this is math automaticity. So essentially math fact fluency this is a timed test where students are doing you know math facts depending on uh their grade level in this case third grade. So this and again this group did not achieve as high as as last year's third graders. Still at that 80% we are we are pleased with that but then we have to figure out what to do with for the other 20% of those students. What kind of math fact
034fluency work do they need? Whether that's within the math block, whether that's as a part of intervention time, teachers and administrators look at every student and how they're achieving. And here is cohort data. So math automaticity, so that math fact fluency, how they performed last year as third graders in the winter compared to this year, very similar. Uh very high achievement there. 84% of the kids are fluent in their math facts. And so specifically, and a lot of a lot of these action steps are similar to um kind of what secondary is going to speak to, but we we point out oral reading fluency. We talked about the math, not as high as achievement as last year's third graders. Of course, they are different kids, but still want to meet the needs of all kids.
035And the schoolbased teams look at these data sets from the fall. So they're comparing each student's winter score to growth they may made made or maybe didn't make from fall to winter and they're looking at classroom performance. The kids that are in that 20% as we saw most you know about 78% of the kids are are achieving or at above the 40th or 80% whatever the numbers you saw the kids that are not they've been progress monitored every week since the fall. And so we're looking at that data, like I said, along with classroom performance because as we heard from Joe Schrader when he was here a couple weeks ago, that achievement is obviously very important, but then so is growth. And so we're looking at both of those. So tonight you saw a lot
036of achievement or sorry, you saw all achievement numbers and then we threw in some of that cohort growth, but just know that we're looking fall to winter growth because the ultimate goal would be to have those kids achieve and do really well in, you know, in the spring. So what can we do? What have we done from fall to winter to get them there? And now, what are we going to do from winter to spring? >> All right, I'm here to talk a little bit about the secondary winter fast bridge scores. And we're going to start with a reading. A reading test is the most similar to our forward ELA test. Um, and they take that, remember, fall, winter, spring. These are seventh grade students. And you can see that 78% hit benchmark this winter.
037When you look at the cohort, so last year's seventh grade winter to this year eighth grade winter, they went from 73% to 77%. These are the same students. It's taking out any of the students who are new to us this year or who left us last year. For auto reading, it is one of the highest um percentage on benchmark that we've seen in years, 86%. And I do want to say in both seventh grade and eighth grade, even though there's a dip that you can see from last year seventh graders to this year eighth graders and they're still at 80%, we included a resource called Morphe Magic. We noticed some of our students were low in morphe, which is some of the basic foundational reading skills in seventh and eighth grade. So, we added it
038into a routine within our middle school block almost every day to get them some extra practice on foundational skills, which will help them with reading comprehension and fluency. A math pretty consistent 80%. 7th to 8th grade cohort, we did see a decrease of percentage of benchmark automaticity. So, like Matt said, this is fact fluency. It's timed 87%. And I would say stagnation from 7th to 8th grade with a slight decline from 89 to 88% for fact fluency. The points of emphasis I want to talk about is reading. A reading are the highest they've been since 2022. The seventh to eighth grade cohort a reading scores increased the auto scores re declined a bit automaticity and a math decreased and the seventh grade math achievement remains stagnant at about 80 81%. I do want to say
039that our school-based teams are using this data to figure out what to do with the students to help them achieve with those state accountability tests that are coming up in March and April for secondary and also to help them keep growing through spring. So, right now they're using what we call Nyx Path. It's our data analysis system that all of our teachers have access to to understand where are their deficits within these um assessments. How do they look different across the different sections of classes like an English seven or a math eight? Who might be instructing better that you want to go look at and see how they're doing something? But then also to see what growth is happening from last year to this year and how those students performed last year at Forward um
040compared to how they're doing in winter um fastbridge. So there's a lot of different data possibilities. What's cool with Nyx path is now that there's an AI component to it. So, they'll give you suggestions to look at and they'll look at like cross data sets. Um, and it's able to give you information that you it would take hours to do on your own. Any questions with that? Like, can you show you kind of where they would hit on the ACTs or on the forward test >> the predictor? So, FastBridge um correlates with the advanced section. So not necessarily benchmark, but then there's like another section. So the students who are in advance are highly likely to hit the benchmark on the ACT assessment. So you are able to filter it within that. And we have
041found it's a pretty it is a true correlation as close as you can get for students who hit that advanced and you keep going to ACT. Yeah, you want to use assessments and tools that are highly predictive. Nothing. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. >> Then we have the budget forecast presentation. Okay. So, you had um this this part this this information in board books. Um what we are going to Oops, sorry. Uh what we're going to do with the presentation tonight, our our purpose is to provide a financial update forecast scenarios for the next several years and just to give you some information on the the variables that will impact our finances over the next five years. Uh before we jump into um the rest of the slides to give you a little historical perspective um
042I came to the district in 2019 shortly after the district's first referendum since 2008 did not pass. Um since that there have been many many financial decisions that have been made by the district. Um from changes in bus routing that ended up or resulted in a savings. There were some staffing reductions including three people from my staff before I even got here. Um >> and he still came. Um, if you remember the the years during COVID and postcoid when we had um federal money that was a reimbursement for expenses unlike what many other school districts in the area did. They spent that money. We knew what was coming and we since it was a reimbursement for dollars that we had already spent, we put those dollars back into our fund balance again knowing what was
043coming in the future. Um, and then last year we made a decision and you approved a decision that moved a significant amount of money out of fund balance this year into our uh, capital maintenance fund that will fund capital maintenance until 2030. But then that also gives us the ability to focus our dollars on the general fund and supporting uh education programming and not just the capital maintenance. So there are a few factors that um I want to talk about as far as the financial forecasting goes. Uh they all revolve around the state budgets. Um or some of I should say most of them revolve around state budgets. Right now, we're in the second year of the bianual budget, which typically is a relatively stable year until this year. Um, right now there is legislation
044pending. Um, has not I don't believe it's been passed, hasn't gone to the governor's desk yet, but it could change special education funding for this year. the year if you can remember in years past when I talk about the budget I said there we set our budget in October even though we've been three months into the budget and there still can be changes going throughout the year. Well, this is one of those years where we could have a change in special education funding for the year that we're currently in. Uh they're also talking about general aid um negotiations and revenue limit negotiations that all will have uh an impact on our future budgets. And the last big thing is enrollments um average births in the New Berlin area. So you we can pull birth records
045from Walkshaw County for uh 53151. Uh for the last 15 years, the average was 289 uh births per year in our zip code. Uh the average births for the next three years is 279 minus 10. Not a significant reduction. Another thing to understand is it is the trend in the school district of New Berlin that as classes age through the district, the percentage of students enrolled compared to the their their birth year has increased. And so, for example, where we may start with um a year where there's 80 or 90% of the births that are enrolled in our school, by the time they're getting into seventh, eighth grade, ninth grade, we have over a 100% of the the number of births uh for that year, which tells me that there are students that are moving
046into the district and attending uh New Berlin, New Berlin Public Schools. Um, we've looked at the 4K numbers compared to those birth records and what we can from what we can surmise, we're going to have a consistent pool to draw from for 4K as long, you know, for the next several years. And finally, and I don't want to get too deep on this, but our district three-year rolling average has been very stable. And so even if we were to have a dip in enrollment for a year, it wouldn't have a tremendous impact on our on the amount of funding that we get because we're still benefiting from higher enrollment from the the two years prior to that. So again these are the the two big variables that we just we can predict but we have
047to essentially take what we get in September or you know October. Um a few other variables and we had four presentations tonight. We have four detachment petitions uh roughly 233 properties and the number of what I'm going to talk about the number of actual uh children that are in those is anywhere from 55 to I would say 75. Not just the ones that are enrolled in West Dallas West Milwaukee. We've got we've got uh students enrolled in in prochial schools. We've got students that open enroll into other districts. We have few students that are already coming to us and so um you know that could be that could be a a a decent amount of students uh thankfully not all in one grade spread out over K through 12. There's also um a proposed federal
048tax credit. This is a part of the great big beautiful bill um where we could have the school district of New Berlin could have access to dollars um to reduce the costs for students that are 300% u or below 300% of the local average household income. More to come on that. Yeah, in my last board update, I did provide some of the specifics related to that federal tax credit. So, we're certainly keeping an eye on that. Um, again, want to note that the first bullet point, that's a positive thing for our budget forecasting. The proposed federal tax credit is a positive thing for our budget forecasting. >> Thank you. Um, the last two are going to be the not so positive things. uh changes in subgroups uh and the supports that the subgroups need as
049we as we go through the years in the district. We could have an increase in enrollment of, for example, students with special needs. We could have an increase enrollment in students that are uh English learners. That can have an impact on u the expenses that we we have to make to serve those students. And then finally, inflation versus affordability. You know over the last 12 months uh the rate of inflation has dropped but inflation is not affordability. Inflation is how much it prices are going up. And so when we had you know 8% inflation a few years ago that didn't go away. And so we have um we have affordability issues in many of the areas around the district. For example, um one that's very new I is related to uh the computers that we
050purchase for uh students in onetoone. Uh there's up to a 20 to 30% increase in those uh devices. Thankfully, I can report that Brandon um in our regular monthly meetings talked with me about preurchasing uh and we did so for the next year's uh computers, which resulted in about a $72,000 savings to the district. So, we are planning ahead for those things, but affordability is going to continue to be an issue. So, those are all of or I shouldn't say all, but those are many of the variables that go into uh putting these forecasts together. And what we're going to present to you tonight is are three different scenarios that um the the final product next year is probably going to land somewhere in between all three of these particular forecasts. Um the first forecast
051and I'm apologize for the small chart but it is in your in your um board packet. Uh this is the best case scenario and this would be a flat enrollment. What a flat enrollment means is the number of students that we have in kindergarten are the number of students that we have going forward. The number of students in fifth grade that number just keeps rolling forward. and the number of students in 12th grade that just keeps moving forward. Um I say this is the best case scenario. Um but it is what I would say it's it's unlikely for this to happen. We know that we have a large um senior class. We know that we have a smaller kindergarten class, but this is usually the place where we start with our financial forecasting. This does
052include inflationary adjustments that are consider consistent with the consumer price index of 2.63 and it also includes the sunsetting uh debt that will come at the end of 2030. >> Yeah, just uh want to point out for those of you that are here uh these presentations are actually attached uh in the when you look up the board meeting, they're attached there. So just note that you can find them there. Um, and again with the board, you may have to zoom in. We apologize for that. >> So, if you look at, again, when I say this is the best case scenario, if you look at the potential fund balance at the end of 2030, we're looking at over $20 million in fund balance, that would be more fund balance than we had prior to uh this
053year when we move $6 million into our capital maintenance fund. So again this is a best case scenario but this is a place where we start. Are there any questions on this scenario before we move on? Okay moving on. This is a rolled enrollment um scenario. This is the worst in my opinion the worst case scenario um where our kindergarten enrollment is going to set the the numbers going forward. So for example this year we have 253 kindergarteners in enrolled enrollment that is our new established baseline of kindergarteners and that um continues to populate through the grades. Um, so you can see the the difference between um the the final budget with a uh flat enrollment and the final budget with a rolled enrollment. Now, one of the things that this doesn't include is if
054our enrollment is truly going down like this, we are going to be re we're going to reduce staff um as needed. like this last year we reduced the number of kindergarten sections. Um this next year we're hoping that we're going to be increasing those kindergarten sections again. But uh those things are very difficult to predict in these forecasts. I could literally spend all day every day for months doing you know putting all this information in. Um, it also again it includes the same inflationary adjustments in sunsetting debt. Any questions on the rolled enrollment? >> That's this current year. Fiscal 26 goes from um July of 2025 through June of 2026. The last um scenario that we have to present is it's called a weighted average. This is enrollment based on the historical trends of the
055district. So out of all of these scenarios, I would say this scenario is the most likely to to come to fruition. possibly somewhere between this and the rolled um the the rolled average. This does again uh contain the the same inflationary adjustments sunsetting debt. But what it's what's important for you to understand is even though um we have you know a little bit of fund balance at the end of next year a small deficit the following year those differences are easy I would say they're they're going to manageable differences as we uh as we manage the budget. We don't just let the budget happen to us. We work very hard to manage that from year to year. So, in conclusion, um I want to again applaud the board for making the choice to um adopt
056the budget plan that that was presented to you by the administration last year. That budget plan um we have every indication that it is working as it was projected last year. Um so that will benefit the district going forward. Um there will be, as Joe said earlier, there will be no room for um program expansions over the next three years. Um you know, given our enrollment projections and and the debt that we're paying off in there, it's going to be a tight budget for the next three years, but there is light at the end of the tunnel, and it is not the oncoming train. Um our enrollment projections will be updated as numbers are made available to us. Um right now we are in the process the students for next year or this year have
057been enrolled into their new grade and uh the the building administrators are updating their enrollments with as as students enroll new students enroll and if students were to to move out of the district. So, it's constantly being updated. And then state budgets. Hopefully, we will continue to have uh or I shouldn't say hopefully we're going to continue to have unpredictable nuances with the state budget moving forward. But that's why that's why you have the finance department that you have um so that we can manage those things. We don't just sit back and let them happen to us. >> So, with that, I will open it up for any questions. >> Yeah. Just one thing I wanted to add to the second bullet point. Please know that um we're not going to be hamstrung by a
058budget. If if we need to do something, we will do something. The other thing, and what I mean by that is um we have, you know, since I've been here, we we've experienced some tight budgets. We've we've figured things out and we've managed. Uh I think that that debt in the operating budget was the the biggest piece and now we have a our plan is to get through that without issue. But we've always been able to make adjustments within our current budget. So it doesn't mean that we may not like that like like we may expand programs if we can adjust the budget in other ways. Uh so for example uh we're going to be looking at uh adjusting our library model in the future with and that's more details to come to our staff
059and to others. Uh that does allow us to uh innovate a program but also uh you know with that we're making other adjustments to kind of free up other opportunities for whether it's staffing in a in a different area or programming in a different area. um or seeking funds that are not actually from coming from taxpayers or the state budget that they're actually being fundraised for. Uh something that we also just kind of want to remind you of. So just note that while you know uh you know I think actually Patrick paints actually a really good picture uh you know when you read that second bullet point you know people may think oh my god you know no it's that's from his perspective with the budget there's no room in the budget but if we
060need to we will make room. So just want to clarify that >> and this is not these these next three years are not going to be the first years where we have been faced with you know budget you know tight budgets and um I don't believe that uh Joel or I have said no to any request reasonable request that has come to us through ELT um you know since since that failed referendum reasonable First of all, thank you for being our architect of reality. So you um stated that we might fall somewhere between the three. So best case scenario, we're hoping for the the first scenario, I'm guessing. >> Yeah. I don't I think the first scenario is one that is not going that's the that's the absolute best. And I don't think that we're
061going to have that flat enrollment going forward. >> And that's why the last um scenario I think is probably the most likely. There may be some increases at like I said because enrollment has it trends up as >> as the you you know a class goes through the grades >> that can have a a a benefit to us. But I would say the last scenario is probably the most likely. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you. >> And if you look at that last scenario, Ron, I mean, that is still a very uh very positive outlook. Yes, it is for the district. >> Yes, it is. Thank you. >> Um, I have a question. So, one of the one of our cost is busing. So, are you predicting that or doing no busing costs for the next
062three or four years? >> Oh, no. um when we have a contract uh contracted increase. So um increases are built in are baked into this not just salaries and benefits, utilities, transportation um you know there this is a very um detailed and sophisticated um budget plan. And so, for example, when I enter um a salary and benefits increase in one area, it populates that behind the scenes. Um the general fund, it populates it to um fund 27 where all of the the special education teachers salaries are included. Um it populates it into fund 50 for all the food service people. it populates it into fund 80 for the the folks that we have for um you know for for community services. So yeah, we we've made we've made all those adjustments. >> And how long
063is our bus contract through? Like all >> the bus contract is for another four years, I believe. >> So we had a fiveyear contract with them. Any other questions? No. All right. Thank you. We do not have any items from close session. So, um, next meeting, March 9th, and then another one on the 23rd and the 13th, all here in conference room E at 7 o'clock. Other important dates, March 13th, there's staff in service, no school. March 30th through April 3rd is spring break. There's no school. And April 10th is the end of the quarter. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So move. >> Second. >> Sorry. >> Okay. Let's see if I can give it to you. Um I have a motion by Mr. Cidle and second by Miss Crosby to adjurnn.
064All those in favor raise your right hand. Motion passes. This meeting is adjourned.