001We'll call everyone's president. We've established quorum. Let's kick it right in. Pledge of >> 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. >> All right, moving to the consent agenda. Uh C and D, we don't have any. Uh on A and B, the approval of minutes, looking for a motion on those to >> I move the consent agenda uh part A and B. >> Okay. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I All right. Moving right into monthly celebrations. M >> Mr. Heiden and good evening board members and guests to our February regular meeting. uh monthly celebrations as we uh recognize uh congratulations to all of our students,
002elementary, middle school that have displayed bulldog character traits which are recognized within individual buildings and then as well recognized by their uh classroom teachers, classmates and a full class assembly. Congratulations to all students in participating and leading the bulldog way within their everyday efforts. onto the district events and calendar already in the month of February. Hard to believe, but uh we are here. And uh tonight recognizing our regular board event meeting uh this next Monday uh the district is involved in a professional learning day where students will not be in session but our um certified staff is has a full day of professional learning uh through our director team and our principal leadership team uh to be be very productive and continue on. Uh reminder to our instructional committee that we will meet okay on
003February 25th. I believe that's just before our regular board meeting uh or excuse me the special board meeting on the 25th. So our instructional committee meeting will meeting at 4:45 for our meeting. Uh in the month of March, uh recognizing again our regular meeting on the 11th, our high school juniors will embark on the ACT on March 17th, uh followed by another professional learning day on March 20th. Board members, we're very appreciative of the professional learning days and what that means to us and our ability to bring forth uh current practices, new practices, and the ability to collaborate. So, we very much appreciate that opportunity in our current school calendar. as we look to even emphasize what that looks like in a different way perhaps as we move forward end of third quarter March 25th
004and then we'll round out the month of March on the 25th of March. Any questions on calendar? >> Yeah. Uh we're we're still having on March 18th the uh postsecary job and >> we are >> opportunity. You bet we are. Absolutely. So that'll be of the high school uh starting at 8 o'clock I believe through 11. I thought Mr. Schustler here somewhere. >> Yeah. 11:30 >> till 11:30. Okay. I saw the email go out from the chamber the London chamber today uh looking for vendors as well um to to join that upwards of 80 plus participants as I'm aware of for that event. Thanks for reminding Chris. Appreciate that. Um just uh the note of our January people count. uh twice a year we take our official count in uh the month of September and
005then again on the second Friday in January. Uh just noted that the total number of students physically attending the district is at 1,928 for our record count. On to our district administrator report. Um want to talk about an event that will be happening next Monday and Tuesday. Myself and uh assistant principal Mr. Marine and Chad Yuing SRO uh from the the high school will be attending uh safety training and it's put on by standards response protocol. It's an organization which is kind of the backbone of our safety protocols and how each of our building responds to various u safety actions very scripted uh for staff, students and our school community know what to expect and carry out. Um, specifically we'll be engaging on a reunification process and um, right now we do have reunification within
006our district, but we're looking to further enhance that process. Uh we went to a countywide training in I believe it was October, the safety team members and this is that opportunity now to teach the teachers if you will with the intent of bringing back what we learn and then working through our safety team for process and protocol that can be amped up for the summer over summer with a large scale reunific reunification practice next fall when we return to school with our um school community and our staff. pass prior to the beginning of the year. Looking forward to that. Uh the next Brew London, uh just letting the inaugural episode will be coming out shortly. If you're a subscriber to the city of New London and their um Facebook cable services, whatnot, Katie Hopskins, the
007marketing producer, um her and I sat down for about a half hour. The theme was a coffee talk type discussion and uh I was honored to be able to be their first guest and as a way to communicate all the great things that and initiatives within our district uh in the tail end of that report the areas that that I was talking about the school report card results from last year student attendance which obviously our subgroup committee and what that means and what we've done to stress that uh start a second semester uh open enrollment which officially started here on February 2nd. Winter co-curriculars participation of board members at the recent WSA WASB convention and then some recent successes we've had with our grant writing uh partner in Payton Laneir. So I will let everyone
008know when that is out there. Uh it was good and our goal is to be on regular attendance on that program whether it be me or any of our admin team or appropriate individuals that share the good news of what's happening in our great school district. Lastly, recognizing our B212 exterior effort of the of the month, recognizing co-inter principal, activity director uh Mr. Phil Sloma and I know all of you have been at different various events uh from athletics to fine arts and everywhere in between where his presence is felt organization maintaining safe safety um you know guest appreciation you know all the way through so that people are having a quality experience and we all know that just doesn't happen by chance. does a lot of planning with he and his team as they
009put forth through the very long winter season but exciting winter seating season as we transition to the the spring co-curriculars uh that'll be uh here before we know it Mr. SLman and his team will take their efforts outside and for the spring events that typically take place on our campus so congratulations to Mr. for his continued effort in that role and capacity. Any questions for myself this month's report. >> Okay, thank you. >> All right, moving on. Joel, >> hey, Mr. Board members. Uh, I just have one item on my report tonight. It's school bus driver appreciation week. So, it's a a night that we can recognize and thank our school bus drivers. Mr. Black and I were down there this morning as well, not only recognizing this week for school bus driver appreciation week,
010but also years of service for our bus drivers. And I think transportation is a real pride point for our school district. Not every school district has their own buses, their own bus drivers, their own terminal, their own leadership, and we do. So, that's something to be very proud of, and we thank our board and our community for supporting that. Uh, transportation happens every single day during the school year. We get kids to school, we get them home, we get them to events, we have field trips. It's a lot of activities that go on and it takes this driving team that we have listed of our route drivers. We also take uh some students off site to placements. So, we have van drivers and we also have our leadership down the bus garage from our office
011to our mechanic. And those 42 people that are listed on that page are really important. So it's a a week that we want to thank them not only for this week but all of the effort that they give our school. >> Anything else? >> Thank you. >> All right. Moving on. Sarah Johnson. >> Hello board. Um um all right. Have a few things for you this month. Last week was National School Counseling Week and we are so thankful for our school counselors and we were able to recognize them. As you know, we have three uh school counselors at the elementary level and two at the middle and two at the high school level. And I really think of these folks as people that you don't necessarily see out and about, but they are just um
012taking care of all the magic behind the scenes and um taking care of our students and our families, working on transitions for for students um that are maybe transitioning into our schools or going between our schools at the n natural transition points. um making sure that when our students leave the high school that they are all set for what lies beyond and they're really spend a lot of time making sure that um that they're ready for those next steps and so we are so thankful for um Lisa Roold Sarah Pagel Jen Tate Teresa Renoso um Ellie Shu Kathy Flanders and Morgan Zilki so um and uh the second thing tomorrow morning Uh I will have the second building connections in special education and we're hosting or I'm hosting that over at the uh ISMS from
0139 to 10:30. So any families from the district that would have an interest um in special education would like to connect with me on any topics um share feedback, ask questions um anything I am there just drop in. So um so I will be there and forward to that. Um, and then the next thing I wanted to highlight was um the Wisconsin Wayfinder. you know, we have many students with disabilities and and some of them have some um underlying health conditions and um the Wisconsin Wayfinder is a very uh slick way to be able to go to one spot and for families to be able to access information or resources or just ask questions where they might be able to go for something. And um I wanted to highlight this because there if you go
014to this website, there's a You can either search through the website or they'll give someone a call and you'll be connected with a a representative. And I know people that have used this before they maybe have gotten a diagnosis for their child and they feel like h you know I just wish I knew somebody else who's maybe gone down this path and want to be connected with another family and that's something that they have. It's a service that they have and they can connect someone maybe locally and maybe it's not even locally but in the state of Wisconsin even. And um so I wanted to highlight that because I'm not sure if that's something that people in our community have used before and I think it's really useful. So um and the the last thing
015I have for you is in the um kind of just to give you a little bit of background about one of the tools that we use in our schools when we think about student behavior or the things that students do. And you may be familiar with these words, but you may not. and it's a bit of that alphabet soup that we use. Um a functional behavioral assessment. We call it an FBA. Um that is um one thing I'm going to tell you about. And then a um behavior intervention plan. We call them FBAs and BIPS. We say that all the time, but these are things that we use when we look at we want to look very closely at at what a student is doing so that we can figure it out and um make
016a plan and um try to help the student to work through those things. So I would tell you that I sometimes feel like a little scientist when we're doing that because we're coming up with hypotheses, right? We're looking very carefully at it, analyzing it from all the all the different perspectives, the things that we see, the things we don't see, um talking to all the different players maybe in a in a student's life, you know, at school and even at home. So when we do a functional behavioral assessment, we look at um things like the function of the behavior. Like you know, oftentimes when we see and when we're looking at behavior, we're we're probably not looking at the things that are like working well for the student, right? We're looking at things that are
017presenting a challenge to their learning and the learning of other um folks in the schools. But um we're wondering, we're thinking about well, what purpose does that behavior serve? like their needs maybe that it's serving for that child or what what is the the function? What is it doing for them? We we look at the environment. Um sometimes if we when we're in it with a student, we may not realize like, oh, it's only happening in environments like this and not environments like that. So, we look really critically at patterns um or things in the environment that might be um contributing to those things that we're seeing. Uh we look at setting events. So there might be things that happen regularly in life that might contribute to those things happening for a student. So say,
018you know, some students um are this happens pretty often, right? They're with um one parent one week, another parent the other week, you know, and so that might be a pattern that we see when they're with one parent. That's just a setting event. When they're with this one parent, these are the things that we see on those weeks. when they're with the other parent that that isn't something that we see or maybe this one of the setting events is um is music, right? The days that they have music um then these are the things that we see, but we don't see that on the days that they don't have music. So, it's just really looking critically and and analyzing and figuring out um if there's um some setting events. We also look at triggers. I
019feel like that has become a really commonly known word. But we think of just things that might happen that I think we all can maybe identify those even in ourselves, but we look at the student and think of is there a thing that just happens and then boop, you know, we see, you know, that it has an impact on that student. Um, we look at unmet needs. So you may be familiar with Maslov's hierarchy when we think about just like basically you know basic needs um just to survive right um but also emotional needs and um and it kind of goes up from there but we definitely always look at like health you know are they getting good sleep is there some kind of other physical need and medical need those types of things that
020we look at we look at definitely at lagging skills maybe there's a skill they just haven't haven't learned yet and we just need to teach them. Those are the easy ones. You know, those can be an easy one too, right? We just need to teach them the skill and um then we see that that particular behavior can go away. So, we analyze it really carefully and it's not like plugging in a computer, right, Chip? But, um we do that and then we come up with a hypothesis and then we write a behavior instruction plan that tells the team, okay, this is what we're going to do. So these are the things that we're going to put in place and um it's a team of people within the school and with the family involved as well
021and we decide this is what we're going to do and then we're going to also track that our hypothesis is proving true that when we do these things that what we want to see decrease is in fact decreasing and um we watch that and if it doesn't decrease if it increases what we would halt things you know and circle circle back around to it. If it um does in fact decrease, then we probably will keep doing those things. Um and then over time um we just keep kind of circling back around and make sure we're on the right track. Maybe we're looking at some other behaviors. Um but that is the kind of the process of what we what we use when we look at student um behavior FBAs and NIPS. It's very useful um
022tool. It's not it's not like a tool that you go and purchase it. It's just more of a framework that we use. >> Yeah. Any questions for me? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. I too have a celebration before I go. So, it's actually a month. It is the career and technical education month. and New London is super proud for really good reason of our career in technical or technical education um programs that we have here. Everything from agriculture to our health sciences, our business education and then of course our tech, our automotive, woodworking, all of those play in. And those are such important skills for our students to learn whether they are going into them or not in the future. And having really strong programs like that make London one
023of those places that you really want to be. So, if you see any of those folks out um over the next month or at any time, please thank them because they work really hard to make sure that those programs are successful here at New London. Uh I have two um just things in my report about enrollment. So, our open enrollment period opened on February 2nd. So, we are um available for getting students in from um other districts if they would like to join us or registration for incoming um families that are moving here or incoming work, our little our littlest learners who are um going to join us next year. Our open enrollment period is from February 2nd until April 30th. So, if you know anyone, send them our way. Uh Leslie Bamman over at
024the uh teaching learning center works really hard with all of our data and with our families to make sure that we're getting all the right information and she's communicating out to those who are um within our district that haven't registered yet. She works very hard at that. So I appreciate that work. The uh RBA uh we have a partnership with our virtual learning option and that enrollment is also open at this point. Those final rosters um aren't actually determined until August, but RVA is also open for any students who would like to take that avenue through our district. Um at the same time, there was an amazing event uh February 3rd and 4th that I can take absolutely no credit for. Uh the high school worked really hard at getting things together to provide the
025opportunity for new less interviews um within um for our high schoolers. 75 high school seniors uh spent some time with 16 community members this year and did some great interviewing. They were all dressed up, sat in the hallway, very nervous. It was a wonderful energy to see. Um Katie Blile works really hard at getting that organized. Leslie Bameon helps out with that situation. So, thank you to those two folks because in the end, our seniors get over $80,000 worth of scholarships um in May. So May 20th they will get the um awards given out to them and we are really really grateful to the community for supporting our seniors. That's not something that happens in every community and this this community is is special for that very reason. So we are very grateful for that.
026And it wouldn't be my report without your instructional insight for this month. We're going to talk about engagement. Um, engagement is I would call it one of those like words that just get thrown around in education, but it's actually really important. I don't know if any of you have children and have ever tried to get their attention when they don't want to pay attention to you. Um, and sometimes teachers are faced with 25 of them who actually have no interest in what's happening or the topic that they've got. So engagement is a constant constant job for our teachers. everybody from those little 4K students who need, you know, to learn how to attend to a task to our seniors who are choosing what they would like to give their attention to. You can only learn
027what you pay attention to and if you aren't paying attention, you don't get to learn it. So, it is a it is a neverending quest and it feels so good when you actually get those kids attention and you actually get them to engage with what's happening. Students are in New London are encouraged to practice, extend and apply learning to make it meaningful and our teachers make all the difference in that. We've been working on everything from universal design of learning to discourse in math classrooms to literacy practices throughout our all of our classrooms um content uh English classrooms and content areas in order to increase that um that engagement from our students. Student attention is valuable. We all know that and our teachers work to get it and then keep it so that learning keeps
028going. If you want to hear anything more about engagement, I've got a whole book on it. I can share it with you. Let me know. But it's every trick in the book those teachers have. It's really where the art of teaching comes out is getting that engagement and keeping it so that we can make them know how to multiply things. Right. >> Any questions? >> Thank you, >> Charles. Good evening everyone. I'm going to highlight some of the recent success that students at the high school have had. Starting off with sports and specifically the dance team. Uh the dance team qualified for state for the ninth year in a row for the their palm routine. So they performed in lacrosse this past weekend and did very well uh for the first year with varsity head
029coach Miss Blanchett. So congratulations to all the dancers. They will still be dancing at some of the basketball games along with the pet band. If you're able to come out tomorrow night, they will be there along with the pep band. And then for girls basketball, senior night was last night where they won against Marinette. They have two games left. They're at Xavier on Friday and then at Wisconsin Rapids next Tuesday. And seats come out next week on the Monday the 16th to see where they will be for the WIA state tournament. And then boys basketball, we have won 10 of our last 11 games. Our next game is tomorrow at or it's home versus Xavier. We have five more games this season. All of them are at conference play. So, a lot of big games
030coming up to decide where we'll be playing for playoffs and then also what our conference standing will be. And then seating for the boys comes out in two weeks on Monday, February 23rd. Wrestling was probably our biggest success for athletics. They won the conference championship, their first since 2018. Uh, Phoenix Fletcher won it in overtime with a pen. But I was at the gym. It was very exciting. Everyone was going crazy. So, I don't know if any of you were there, but that was a very fun stand. >> Yeah. >> It was loud. >> Yeah. Um, the girls, they compete Friday at Hortonville and for at their and then also on the 21st at Waka for a trip to state and then the boys compete at Anigo on Saturday for a trip to state. So,
031good luck to the wrestlers and their are in the playoffs. And then hockey, they earned a four seed. So the uh all the students that make up Fox City Stars will have their first playoff game at the Champion Center on February 20th at 7 p.m. So if anyone is able to go out and support the hockey players, it is at 7 o'clock at the Champion Center. So a home game for them. And then ice fishing, their state tournament is in Wasa on February 21st. So 13 anglers from Newland High School will be participating in that. Bowling also competed last week. They beat Amro in advance to state which will be happening in the first weekend of March. And then outside of athletics, there was the young people's concert. So the band, jazz band choir, and
032show choir all performed throughout the day for the middle school and elementary schools last week. Um I was on stage for most of the day. And uh it seemed like the little kids really liked listening to songs that they knew and are looking forward to maybe being a part of that someday when they reach high school. Sticking with music show choir, they placed fifth at sock prairie on January 31st and then placed third at the pier this past weekend where Lily Ley was the best solist. The band got best band and the show got best choreography. And then upcoming events are at Manona Grove on Saturday J or February 21st and then Jamesville Craig on March 7th. And then as Miss McCartney mentioned, new last interviews happened for seniors last week. So I just want
033to say from my point of view, special thank you to Miss BL and Miss Baitman for welcoming all the students when they before the interviews and making it seem a lot less scary than it actually was. So any questions from anyone? The 75 kids are they just they choose to it's not like cut off right at a certain like it's full. >> It was open to all students or all all seniors. >> Okay. And your class is pretty big, right? >> I want to say about 190 somewhere like that. So >> y Thank you. >> Okay. Uh vouchers to highlight for the month. line of credit payback um that coincided with the receipt that I'll highlight in a bit. Uh we also paid for half our payment for our leaison partnership that we have with
034the city of New London. There is a van purchase there from Schmidz. However, that is also offset by a transition grant that Miss Johnson talked about earlier in the year. So that is an expense that's reimbured by a grant that the districted. There was one legal expense that we highlighted from Bon and then also the receipt that I had mentioned is our property tax payments came in after people pay their taxes in December and January. So that helps us be able to pay back that credit. So our cash flow is able to pay our expenditures. Are there any questions of any receipts? All right, hearing none. Looking for a motion to approve expenditures in the amount of 2,564,47412 cents as per the list of February 5th, 2026. >> I'll make that motion. >> We have
035a second. >> I'll second it. >> Roll call vote. >> Okay, >> Chris. >> Yes. There's not anything written down, so bear with me. Um, Mark, >> yes. >> Try that one. All right. >> Uh, record receipts from the receipt register of February 5th, 2026 in the amount of 5 million $64,000 and 146 156 96. Nothing further, Joe? >> No, sir. >> Okay. No unfinished business. Moving into new business. >> Sure. So, board members, uh, as you had uh talked previously, uh, recognizing the board of education business partner of the year. I'm very pleased and honored uh this evening to to welcome the Kuggies uh and Carrie Kugi from Shamarack Heights and Supper Club. I had to reprint it and supper club on the uh posting there. Uh but uh just from I'll speak for
036myself and first and for foremost uh Shamark Heights has been a valued partner for our district for all the reasons that we've talked about uh periodically over the past several years and uh this last year with the inaugural season of girls golf. Um the Kugis themselves were very um excited and ready to offer their their course and expertise to support the girls as well as our boys who has an existing team and been practicing and participating at the course for for for decades if you will. And then as well last year when we supported cross country events, they graciously opened up their uh course as well to to let students from around the state uh participate on a on a greatly groomed facility to to highlight the cross-country skills and spectators to take in. On
037top of that, they're able to support us when needed uh for for events and processes. and we just want to say thank you so much for your efforts and our district truly appreciates everything that you do for us, our kids, our students, our staff and our greater schools school community. So, thank you so much. So specifically uh there's a plaque I'll present and it says school district of New London 202526 board of education business partner of the year Shamark Heights Golf Course and Supper Club in appreciation of your outstanding partnership generous support of the school district of New London. Your commitment to our students and schools has strengthened the connection between education and community, creating meaningful opportunities that help prepare students for success. With sincere gratitude, we proudly recognize Shamrock Heights Golf Course as the
038School District of the London Board of Education 2526 business partner of the year. So with that, we got some swag for you. John, you want to help me out? We need a photo. >> Why don't we go back here? I know everybody hates a good sign. >> Do you want to get in? I can take it. >> Do you want to get in it? >> Absolutely. MUCH. >> Thank you. All right, Joe, you are up. Bus purchases. Go for it. So board members, just to refresh from our facilities meeting, we talked about bus potential bus services and recommendations coming forward within your materials were the bids uh as presented and we will look for potential recommendation andor discussion as moving forward with potential purchases. Mr. Mark, >> uh just a bit of a summary. Um
039this is really an annual discussion of not only our committee but also our board and also our transportation department. School buses are expensive as you can see. As you heard during the director report session, it is important to have a quality fleet of buses to be able to get our students to and from school and events. We send out that RFP every year to ensure that we can you know have bids where they are giving us you know the best price that they feel is what the market would cost >> and we have a mixture of fleets for a second. >> Sorry that's quite right. We have a mixture of fleets and that's by design because when we do the RFP we have four international buses and Thomas buses and that's what we we get
040when we have our and that's okay. We have a mechanic that will be able to work on any of our school buses through our training and professional development that we have. We have drivers who are also influential in the purchasing of buses because just like all of us, when you drive a vehicle, you want to feel like you are confident in being able to use that to do whatever it is, whether it's going places or for them, it's their job. And there are some bus drivers that prefer our Thomas units and there are some drivers who prefer international. It's just like anything. You feel comfortable in what you feel you can best do your job. However, the purchase price is important to us in our budget because it is a it's a it's a big
041portion. So, on the second page, you can see the difference between the international and the Thomas units that have been um offered to the district. And the international buses are what we call the lowest bid. And that's why we're recommending uh to purchase international again from Ascendance Truck Parts. They used to be Midstate if you remember some names. Um they are about $4,000 lower than the Thomas buses. So that was $4,16. And if we trade them in as well, we get more through ascendants than we do on Thomas. So that created the gap that we felt the recommendation of the international buses is better than the Nelson's or Thomas buses. Moving forward, each year we go through this process to determine if our purchasing process is the right one. You can see some historical items
042on there of changes that the committee and the board have supported as far as keeping buses longer and we revisit that process every year as well to see if there's even something different that we can do moving forward. For example, many of us were down at the schoolboard convention a couple weeks ago and there's other dealers down there as well to to look at. So, the bus purchasing process is definitely thorough. I appreciate We appreciate the committee's perspective, our transportation department's perspective as well as we bring this recommendation forward tonight for three minutes to potentially purchase. Any of the committee members have any feedback or any questions that we could answer? >> Not really. Meets meets our goals. >> I was kind of curious because it's my first time being on facilities like with the
043extension of how long we hold on to them. Have you done that way long enough to have any feedback, you know? Um, I has there been anything detrimental by holding it on to one year? I mean, I come from a really small town. I think all the buses are like 30 years old. Like, I'm just really impressed with your cycle. I feel like it's it's very prudent, but I didn't know I if it's come back to bite us at all. >> Well, I don't I don't know if I would ever say anything comes back to bite us in the sense of do you wish you would do different? I feel like all of the boards in the past have taken the best information that we've been able to provide and the decisions were made and
044then you respond to that. I will say that what I've noticed the last few years is the value of our existing buses continues to go down and the the cost of the bus continues to go up. So that residual gap that we were achieving in our prior purchases is growing. There's also an inflationary pressure that we're all seeing in the world. So, I wouldn't say equating it to that as 100% correlation is accurate either because there are always factors that influence any purchasing decision. I do believe in what I see from the used bus market and what you're hearing from the the salesman. What you have to also take as a grain of salt. When you get over a 100,000 miles, there are fewer and fewer either school districts or um private parties who want
045to purchase them because then they're looking at the same thing that I just mentioned about that residual gap of where your purchasing power is at. And then the longer you keep things, the more incidentals that you're putting into them each year from brakes and tires and just wear and tear of anything that you have. They all have LED lights. Everything is more expensive than it used to be. Where if you find that sweet spot of cycling over the fleet or cycling over whatever you have, you try to maximize your investment as a school district. So what I would say to your question, Katie, is I don't know if we would recommend going any further than >> 100,000, >> but our budget may demand that down the road because as we've talked to the committee and
046our level of um with our admin team is we can't prioritize purchasing the buses over our our true goal of instructing our students and having staff. So, it's just we will respond each year to what we need to and hopefully we're always able to make the right decision. And like I said before, that's not always hope. You use the best decision you have at that time to make the decision. And I feel like we've made the best decision with what we know at that time. And you can always look back and decide, well, we can change back, too. If all of a sudden we find out that, hey, trading them in when they're nine years old, not 10 or 11 or 12, is a better decision, then we try to make that happen. All right,
047we are looking for a motion to purchase three buses, three units, not four. Um, >> any more details you want in that in that motion, Joe? >> Nope. Approve the purchase of three school buses from the Senate truck centers. Great. >> All right. >> John, could I ask uh I don't remember who's on the facilities committee. >> I just joined this here >> and myself as well. >> All three of you came out of that with supportive of this. Well, that's kind of why I asked the questions I did with Joe, so you could all hear. >> The goal has been to keep them under 100,000 or to keep our our fleet from aging past 100,000 miles. >> Trying to keep it in check. >> Any other I'd be glad to make a motion. >>
048Okay. >> Do I have a second on that? >> This uh I'll second that. >> Okay. Roll call. Chris Martinson, >> yes. >> Andy, >> yes. >> Katie Battton, >> yes. >> John Pman, >> yes. >> All right, Joe, it's audit time. >> Y the uh board members, annually we present the audit findings. So just to refresh, by state statute, public entities, school districts are required to embark onto an auditing process. Ericson and Associates been our long-standing auditing partner throughout. Very proud and pleased to say through the efforts of the district office under the leadership of of Joe and his team, you know, and the accountability piece of what auditing inspires uh us to fulfill when they come into our building. Again, it's a very favorable result. Mr. Markwart will share the intricacies of what
049that means to us and some of the non-negotiables that are difficult to account for with a district our size as well. >> Sure. >> Thank you. Yes, our audit report has been filed uh just last week in accordance with the federal audit clearing house guidelines. What happens is the audit team comes out in July and August, takes all of our financial information, goes back into their offices, reviews, all of our entries, our procedures, how we classify our revenues and expenditures and what our year end reports are are looking like, and how they're submitted to the appropriate entities. the state receives our information as well and then they compile that report and then through their requirements issue the financial statements and any findings if they have any. And our one finding that we've had for the
050last several years is financial statement preparation. So the auditors do that for us as a licensed CPA firm and that is the case for our school district. Not that it matters about other school districts, but many school districts have that same Bible because they're not doing their own financial statements. You probably saw in some of the literature that they provided, there was no um issues that they encountered in coming doing the audit. Our team was cooperative with them, of course, and gave them what they needed. They were able to find their materials in a timely manner. the staff that we have in the district that also helps um provide information is always on top of that. So that includes anybody from transportation to people services to our administrative assistants in our school buildings. Uh sometimes
051it includes uh our staff members who oversee grants. They have a process where they review items either every year or random or as required to ensure that they continue to touch as many of our areas inside our financials as they can because as Mr. Black stated it is a requirement that we do so it does cost money to do that. So, I did put that at the top of our summary of the $16,500 for our audit this year. And if approved by the board tonight, what we do is we post our audit on our website for individuals to grab. We also end up putting hard copies over there on the on the table there. People come in and they want to see it. Sometimes it's a point of reference that I provide board members or
052new board members as they come in if they have questions where they're able to look at it. Audit statements are really, really long and that's by design because there's a lot that goes into it. However, there's some key pages that are important where they do the revenues and expenditure summaries and comparison from year to year. Also, there's something called the management dis uh discussion and analysis that kind of gives a chance for the school district to put a narrative together of factors that are influencing the school district. Few of the things that I list on there include our revenue limit that we are follow statute to follow. It also includes our enrollment notes, talks about some key revenue factors, and we also note the referendum passage that was maintain factors to the operations of our
053school district. So, it is again done. Um, it seems like as soon as you finish, you're headed right to the next season, but that's okay. That's how things work. And If approved, we'll get posted and we'll have the ability to look at if needed. >> There any questions? >> Yes. Um, one finding that we keep having every year um seems unavoidable to have uh but it also seems like impractical. Is it state law that causes that uh that thing? In other words, that is uh requiring that thing to be judged that way. Uh or is it just a standard that uh public uh accountants have? >> School districts have to have financial statements and we do not. >> Well, I understand that. The finding the finding >> the one where they identified >> the redundancy
054operation. >> Yeah, that's that says um is that is there a law that says if we don't do that we have to have a negative finding? >> Yes. Okay. Our board has got a pretty good relationship with the the uh education committee in the legislature. Is that something that could be legislative be remedied by asking for a change in in that law that would exempt school districts of a certain size and lower and give us another way to comply without spending a lot of money? Do you think >> I'm just throwing that out? >> Yeah. >> I think for the the transparency and I might be hearing your question wrong. I think for the transparency of our community and what we do, having an independent audit where even if they are completing parts of what
055we do is good because there's an outside agency who's putting together >> Oh, I'm not saying to exempt us from from the need for an audit, but to to make that particular uh finding uh something that um uh doesn't apply to school districts of a certain size because it doesn't doesn't make sense financially to do that. It's possible something to think about. Just I don't I don't mean to be a cynic in this. I've sat on other committees that have um financial statements or audits done. And it almost always seems like auditors are going to list something that whether it's the number of journal entries or the timeliness of cash reconciliation or it's the whatever it might be the segregation of duties. Segregation of duties is very common and we've had that in our findings
056when I first started. We had that one of the bindings and that means that they don't believe you have enough individuals in your office to separate who does what and we actively got that changed through some work with our board in support of our staffing and I I I feel like auditors will I don't want to they're not here so I can't say this for them we'll find something >> we corrected that legislatively, they're going to find something else anyway. So, >> it's their job. It's their job to find. >> So, you get what you're paying for. >> Exactly. Okay. If they didn't find something, people would tell them they're not doing their job. >> I'm sorry. >> No, that's okay. >> I think it's a mistake on page 57. >> Uh the third the
057third uh italicized um part down says increased expense. And then it goes on to say expenses decreased by 811,261. I think that's supposed to say increased. I just check 50 page 57. Page which is the third the third header down. >> Yeah, because it went from 36 to 37, >> right? >> Yeah. Thank you for those following along at home. So it makes sense. Anything further otherwise? >> All right. Looking for a motion to accept the audited financial statements. >> I'll make a motion. >> We can There's no call made on that. Okay. >> All in favor? I >> opposed. Motion passes. Moving on to budget updates. Board members to start the conversation. U budget is something that we continually uh are putting in front of our board members in our school community as we
058you know Joey had referenced. You know, we we end a process and we start a process. Budget development is a year- round process as well within the the state of Wisconsin. As we know, this is something that's continually in the news as our state legislators look at um how they choose to support public education. Ultimately, the trickle down effect does make its way down to the school district of London. You know, annually we put forth our efforts to develop a budget that meets our student needs, okay, in supporting programming, staffing, and all those entities that are needed and necessary. And it's no easy task. uh it's a sometimes it's it's a moving target that we stay on to ensure that we're meeting all of our targets within our continuous improvement that we recognize on an
059annual basis. Um we feel it's very important to give uh a detailed update right now so that we can always stay on top of the changing landscapes because we know that can happen uh at any time. Uh so then how that plays into us particularly the school district 11 Mr. Markart. Okay, thank you. Uh, this is about the time of the year where we bring kind of a midyear update to the board. Through seven months, the budget, if it ended as of January 31st, we would have recorded a surplus of about $300,000 in our budget. Above that, I highlighted some bullets as to the wise. Behind that, we have some staffing vacancies that are going to issued through some resations. Also, the We were able to find a couple positions as well and those were
060in our current budget. We also have two factors that could potentially either increase or decrease that um 300,000. And I'm going to talk about categorical aid for a bit. Categorical aid for special education is in the news a lot right now. It's also on the second page of the summary where um there's a medal from WBO. So WBO is an organization that I'm a part of the Wisconsin Association of School of Business Officials. A couple of you when you were in Milwaukee at WSB convention where I think had a session or two that they put on really talking about the state of school finance. Categorical 8 was a big deal in this this bianium because in the past school districts were receiving about 30% of their special education cost via reimbursement. This bienium projected 42%
061in this current year and 44% in the following year as reimbursements. And as the fall began and into winter, the the amount available to give to school districts were eligible for that categorical aid reimbursement was not enough to support school district expenditures because it's not a some sufficient meaning that some sufficient is hey all school districts are going to get 42% of it. Some certain is there's this pot of money to divide all the school districts and that pot of money is going to be divided between your eligible expenditures. Therefore, giving you that percentage of reimbursement. It's not abnormal in any categorically to have a little bit of variance, but when it starts to be potentially six, seven, eight% of what was said, that's definitely impacting all school districts. So, a math example of that
062is is I've been sharing this with our principles and our director team the last couple months. So let's just say that our our special education budget is about $6 million each of this. If you take 6 million times 7% it's about $420,000 that doesn't come to the district. You forecast that over a couple years of your fiscal year. That really matters into the operations of what goes on in school districts. And school districts, they're not all the same, but our special ed percentage in the school district is about 20% of our students. There are some districts that are higher and there are some districts that are lower. We're a little bit above the state average in the amount of special education students that we have for our district. When you have a little bit more
063students, you have a little bit more of that impact. Sometimes there are challenging conversations that revolve around something that creates a lot of money. And this this reimbursement rate is a lot of money when you look at going from the 30s into the 40s. And I believe I that everybody has their best faith effort when they're trying to determine a um an appropriation. So those legislative fiscal bureau likely gave the committees on deciding what the budget would be and all the parties, hey, this is the best information that we have at this time. This is the amount that would probably help you meet the goals of that 42%. That was already a couple of years ago likely when those those research was happening. Well, since then, a lot of school districts have had needs and
064therefore there was likely is not enough money to meet the percentage that is there. The reason why it's been in the news a lot lately is because there's a surplus in the state budget due to a number of factors. So, um, school districts, boards, individuals are advocating for those additional dollars out of that surplus to get closer to what school districts were told will be a part of the reimbursement. Sometimes there's I call a false narrative, and I don't don't mean this to be negative, but sometimes I've heard, well, school districts are just spending more to get more categorically. that that's far from the truth in something like this because for every dollar you spend, you don't to get a dollar back. You get 42 cents back on the dollar if they met that. Instead,
065you get 38 cents. So, there's just and that's okay. That's sometimes what's happened when articles are written or people are frustrated to say, well, where can we find this, you know, 200 additional million dollars to fund it over the couple years? Well, we'll just have people reduce costs. Well, when you're we're talking about a unique scenario, it's not that easy. There's laws and requirements to support. So, I just say stay away from that and get closer to okay, what was what was intended to be a part of the budget because the the other side of a just put on the revenue limit where then it goes to all students versus the categorical. Well, we control that either. So the point of the discussion tonight in the budget update is it is really important that if
066you feel so to advocate as a school board or a community member or an individual to get closer to that reimbursement because it it really factors in over the two years of our budget and the money is there in the state to get to what was I hate to use the word promise but was approved because when we got the budget summaries from the legislators, that's what was in the bullets. So, we we felt confident that they would get close to the 42%, not when you're talking about, you know, 36 37 38%. And we've heard different numbers of how that would look. That's why we haven't heard much of it yet from a board perspective potentially. we haven't had it on a gen topic because to me you wait until you know for sure that
067it's that's likely what happens. It's it's you don't want to cry wolf if you don't need to. It's really okay. We're really seeing that as we get seven months into the fiscal year and we've gotten some prorated categorical aid so far that it is likely looking around that 37 to 38%. So that 4% on six million could be $250,000 over two years. So it ends up being $500,000 of revenue that the district would not um receive due to the lower funding amount. So what that memo was sent and what you've seen in some negotiations through the legislators right now is maybe there's an opportunity to not only meet the special education gap but also the property tax um levying as well where property taxes went up for I don't want to say every school district
068but most school districts in the state because of the 325 that was on top of the revenue. revenue limit, but no increase in general aid. And unfortunately, New London doesn't have a large referendum out there right now. Yes, there's that 1.3 annually, but you get aided on your referendum amounts as well. And if you're not keeping up with other districts in the state, and when you're a heavily aided school district like we are, that just pushes our aid down. And a lot of school districts do defeasence this year. This is really getting in the deep in the weeds, but I think it's important to share. When school districts do defeasence, that increases their shared cost and then pushes ours down, which has us get less aid. The reason why a lot of school districts did
069defeasance is because they saw the levies going up double digits. So the individuals in our roles are going to the board and say hey you have an opportunity to lower your levy by defasing some debt either now or into the future or creating some levying. There is a there's a mechanics of doing that. We don't have that because we're debtree. We don't have any debt in fund 39. So you almost feel like you're held hostage by some of the good decisions that you made. But again, that's just part of the mechanics of how the funding formula is so challenging to explain across the state. And I I always look at as it's okay. We're dealing with what we have to deal with. So the purpose of that memo in there and then also what you
070saw maybe in the paper. I didn't the post crescent wasn't had didn't have an updated article that before we did our board packet, but they talked about how there potentially might be closer negotiations to meeting this special education aid and potentially general aid that would really help in London because first the reimbursement of the 40 plus% on six million and then additional general aid even if it's next year to help offset what will happen um this year. We can't refund the taxes that were already charged this year would be on next years would be amazing for when we wanted community because we're also a heavily aided school district where 60 plus percent of our revenues to offset our revenue limit come from general aid versus property taxes. So more of that aid pushes that levy
071down in next year. So that surplus in the state's budget, you know, there's a lot of places it could go. But to schools, what we're here for as board members and and our leadership team is to advocate for that if possible because it will help London, not only in our local budget, but it also helps our taxpayers potentially see lower bills in the following year. And I know there's a lot of talk talk about how well the ve the 400year veto is the big reason why that is well if if the revenue limit was booked to inflation we actually could get more than that amount on the revenue anyway so that's just again you know white noise around the challenging discussions of funding you know public education so I know I talked a long time
072on that and there's a lot of information on it and I apologize if that where last year but it is it is part of what we do year round as Mr. Black said it's a budget development is going on all the time. So if we can advocate for more categorical aid, it helps our budget this year and next year. If we can advocate more for uh equalization aid, it definitely helps the budget next year. And I know it would have been easier just to say that and be done with it, but giving all of that other information helps all of you understand more of just how everything is tied together. gives the people here tonight either at the meeting or listening online or watching it later more info that there's just a lot of connected
073parts that help schools and that's what we're here to advocate for. So, does anybody have any questions of anything that I've missed in the summary? I would just have a comment. It it um the message you have uh I think is a good one is we need to talk to our legislators about that gap in the special ed funding. Uh I think that is a can be a unifying voice around the state of school boards and school uh board members. school board uh around the state are composed of fiscally conservative people and not so fiscally conservative on the other side. Uh but I think this is a message that resounds with everybody because uh special education a lot of what we do is mandated um to be to be done a certain way and to
074have certain expenses in and I think uh I I don't know a school board member around the state that wouldn't say guys you you know you can't pull this stuff and say okay it's going to be 42% and it's approximately it might come out and then when it comes out different we we need we need to have more certainty in our budget and in special ed especially we don't have a lot of choice but to spend enough money to to do the right thing uh by the idea act and and whatnot so I think I guess my point is I have no problem selling this idea to any board member that I run into from any any school district. All right, nothing more. Moving on, discussion on the WASB board of education self- evaluation process
075and analysis objectives. board members just revisiting that from I believe that was in November when I presented this our our talking points then where let's go to the conference uh take in what we've lived and learned through that process talk about it and then come back to take this survey so what I'll do they'll send out an email link to all of you um to complete the survey two weeks John think that'd be enough time to that's our normal >> right all right I'll send out some reminders but it'll be a unique link that goes directly to you. Uh just complete it. I believe everyone has done that last year. So um you'll be able to um go through that process and then we will process through the results and reflect on them when they're
076done. So nothing new there. Follow the link in the instructions once you receive them. All right. Uh looking for a motion to go into close session. >> Second. >> Okay. >> Um all in favor? I need to read it. I can read it out. >> I would read it. >> Section 19.85 85 1F Wisconsin statutes board of education will convene in close session for the purpose of considering personal information concerning financial, medical, social, or personal histories or disciplinary data of specific persons including students except where paragraph B applies which if discussed in public would be likely have to have a substantial adverse effect on the reputation of any person referring to in such histories or data. Mark call. Yes. >> Uh, >> yes. >> Chris Martinson. >> Yes. >> Amy, >> yes. Thank you. >>
077I think they won last second shot. They did. Yeah, they were missing some players though. So I think tomorrow there should be >> what where are you guys at with the conference standings right now? Right now we're tied for fourth with Watti, but Seymour's undefeated in conference.