001Um, new business discussion of intermediate school middle school hiring timeline. Scott. >> Great. Thanks, John. Uh, good evening board members and guests to our January special board meeting. Uh, first topic on our agenda is similar in nature to what we uh discussed earlier when we were um talking about our high school principal hiring timeline uh with the notice of retirement to Mrs. Dan Pinch and our congratulations to Mrs. Pinch on her distinguished career supporting New London um as a classroom teacher interventionist coach assistant dean and as now as a principal with our intermediate middle school. We're very excited for her and what lies in her retirement. Um but with that great partner of her leaving uh we need to start a process to find um our next intermediate middle school principal. So board members within
002your materials um if you are referencing the process and timeline that was cited or communicated for our high school principal. This this basically mirrors it just with a few different dates in essence of when the process will start. um tonight uh with no objections uh from the the process. Tomorrow, Friday, we will look to post accordingly through the 13th of February uh seeking candidates that meet the qualifications um for the opportunity. that interview process again honing in on our first round interviews which would be comprised of our admin team um director excuse me our director team representative from our admin team representative from our middle school intermediate middle school and board members uh if so interested to participate uh looking at that 17th andor 19th and then concluding that uh process we would look to
003bring our board together um either on the 24th or the 26th to carry out a second round interview um ultimately with a goal to identify a candidate for potential recommendation. Then after board interview, then we would uh negotiate with that individual to come to a consensus agreement pending final board approval for the opportunity to lead our intermediate middle school and then ultimately with a uh start date of July 1st, 2026. Same intention of process, open, transparent uh feedback gathering as we went through that value shared values exercise. We will do that again to share some of that information and help that interview team process through candidates and get the very best. Any questions on that approach again? You've heard it already once. Again, it just seems a little short to be posting it for only
004two weeks to see if we can get a good A lot of people that might be good candidates might miss that posting. Isn't that a little bit short if we're not even going to film it until July 1st? T typically uh that's that's a window you know uh I guess at the at the end of that window if we felt that it wasn't hitting the mark or we didn't have quality candidates I suppose we we could I guess you know most positions it's two weeks you know unless uh it's a hard to fill position until filled you know and then we're taking a little different approach to that I don't >> this is pretty standard >> pretty standard >> typ typically it this time of the year this time of the year. >> This this
005in that aspect. Yes. >> You know, from and this not to say this is how it is typically, but you'll hear the, you know, notices of of resignations, you know, of superintendent kind of hit the the waiver wire first and then uh and then principles, so on and so forth, and then staff, you know, with aligned handbooks and then that statutorial piece of renewing contracts and how that plays into it. So, I think we're in a really good spot. um as far as getting potential good candidates to seek our opportunity, but I appreciate the the time frame there. >> Yeah. And it's there's nothing out of the ordinary. This this is pretty standard for the way we've done it. I mean, just like there's a process when we when there's an opening on the board,
006you know, you have your you have your opening of of when you can file. You have your your time period where if you're you're not running, you have to file non-cannidacy and then you have your closing. It's about the same thing. Yeah, >> I think anybody who's thinking about something like this, Nate, this is the time of year >> that they start looking. That's what Scott mentioned, you know, and um and that's Yeah, it' be different if it was like November or October and we're looking for July. >> Kind of like uh farmers look at the tractor paper, they're watching this. >> Oh, it's just like that. >> It's just like a second. >> Same deal. And everybody's talking. So, >> All right. Moving on. >> Question. >> The uh certified staff. >> So, board
007members, I just wanted to to share um just that scope of of what we are looking to do. And it kind of follows your question, Nate, the the timing of sequence of of of going after and whether it be recruiting or um finding candidates that are interested in our district through our our posting process. Um, at our last meeting, the board recognized the uh retirement notices of several individuals of our district and uh those positions are noted wi within the tenative position needs that are on page six of your um board packet. The one item that I didn't put that um I needed I should have and responded in the speech language pathologist um and the board is very informed on the struggles to find speech language pathologist but that number in the perfect role
008would be three okay uh that we were looking to to fill that role and I guess the other uh the point of interest I just wanted to talk on about is when we look to to fill a position um it's not hey we're just We're filling it. Somebody retires and we're moving into to the hiring process for that position. Uh that our director team admin team um and then our school structures are are looking at our enrollment numbers. Okay. Students drive instructional staffing needs um in a very uh conservative budget mindset, you know, to ensure that we're making our dollar go as far as we can. We want to be as efficient as we can. uh not to hire people at one point and then to say hey we have to let you go you
009know because of enrollment numbers. So through attrition if it does make sense or is appropriate uh we will look to do that but if we you know study the facts and the numbers and and you know what we we need that second grade teacher well we're going to get that second grade teacher and get a great one. So we will look at each one with the integrity of what the position means to us. And as in past when our process is executed through, we would bring all of our candidates to the board for final rec um recognition and acknowledgement prior to approval through that process. You know when we look at the start date of um this process years ago it used to be April May but now it is February with limited candidates at
010what I'll say our high need specialist positions there's only so many and the sooner we can start uh posting and get our name out there the better chance we have of finding quality candidates. So any questions on on that process that we'll be embarking on and all of you are very familiar with in the sense of the what happens but just wanted to verbalize that out loud. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Moving on to see Joe Mark with reviewing potential approval of revised hazardous transportation plan. >> So Mr. Mark Ward will introduce something I don't think we've talked to and and a point with a um revised hazardous transportation plan that affects our district in the updates necessary through board action that we will look at here. Joe, >> thank you. Good evening.
011Uh tonight we're here to talk about vision potential to our hazardous transportation plan. This has really taken um a lot of this year to bring forward. Tonight, the transportation department has looked at our existing hazardous transportation plan, what was last sent to DPI for approval and has kind of looked at the pickup points, evaluated the routes and where they are this year. We also brought this to our facilities committee as well and showed them the potential draft we need. have a hazardous transportation plan in order to count pupils who live less than two miles from their school to be included in the transportation report. So at the end of each school year, we submit to DPI how many students rode the bus, how far they lived from the school, and there's a proration of aid
012payments that we get for students riding the bus. If students less than two miles from their school. The only way that they can be counted for state aid is if we have them inside our hazardous transportation plan or map. That doesn't mean we don't bus students that don't um fall within that map. We do bus students that don't qualify for aid. That's been a practice of our community where we're picking up students even if they fall within that plan. But to count the students, you have to have the plan. So in your packet, you can see a narrative that Mark of the bus garage put together. That narrative, if you would compare it to what we had previously, is very similar. It has similar roads. It's just, you know, kind of rewarding it, modernizing it
013to where it looked in the past. The map also is in your package. So, it kind of highlights that hazardous transportation area. If approved tonight, we would also work with a partner trying to secure a more professional look to that map as well. So, we're not using our highlighters to try and make the map even the old one with even more data than that. But it's good practice for school districts to this uh Sugar Bush and Refield all so where they're living there's no sidewalks to get to either one of those schools. So students who are riding the bus there are are in the transportation and this is primarily the city. So that's why you see the city map there. If you have any questions, it's a state statute that I put in the packet
014that we take right from the transportation aid section. We get $15 a pupil for um students who ride the bus in the hazardous transportation area. So I think I put 301 students in a packet that we counted last year. 300 times that 15 gets us to $4,500. So that's part of our um aid payment that we get from the state to count those students. >> Do any of you have any questions? >> One real quick question. So like Sugar Bush and Refield, the high school has no sidewalks. So wouldn't that kind of it's busy roads all the way around. So doesn't every student at the high school fall within that category under hazardous transportation? >> I don't want to every student does because they it still needs to be um designated to where we're writing
015it. But Beckert and Persing and Wyman are some spots where students have walk. We also have very few students that ride the bus at the high school as well. So >> do they have to be registered bus riders to be able? >> Yes. Some school districts do leverage the the counting a bit where they will try to find an incentive to get every student to ride the bus one time because that's all you have to do where they'll make it um so like I have two high school students. They have not been the bus since they've been in high school where where we live. We could count them and they're more than two miles from schools. The a payment is higher. Some school districts say, "Hey, we'll let please ride the bus one time for
016X and we'll give you Y." And we don't do that. I don't know if that's the intention of the system, but you're correct that they have to be registered for the bus and have to ride the bus at least one time. And we do have students that ride very few and we tell our our drivers the rule is if they ride the bus one time, even if they don't go to school here all year, you can count them on the report. Sounds to me like we need to look at that a little more. >> That's why I was asking. >> Well, we got our first interim transportation aid payment this Monday and it was $48,000 which is about $15,000 less than last year. There's not large appropriations into the transportation bucket for the aid. It
017is really a service to our families. I'm not saying that the money is not important. It really is. Then they do a final reimbursement as we get into May when they make sure that they have the money to be able to pay every district who submitted their transportation reports. We do get summer uh school transportation need as well. >> Sounds like about a third of a bus payment to me. Um, yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing an initiative on that effort, but I guess that's for another day. Do we have a motion to approve the revised hazardous transportation plan as presented? >> I'll make the motion. >> Second. >> I'll second. >> This isn't among them. So, all in favor? >> I motion moves. Just one followup. Once we get the letter from the sheriff, we
018will then take the minutes from this meeting and send it to DPI and then they have to approve since we're not changing changing the scope of our board approved it, but now we have to send it on as well. All right, moving on to a discussion on supporting youth nurturing connection with the care. Um, Scott and Sarah. >> Yeah. >> Uh, so board members, I'm excited to to talk about this next opportunity in which uh the school district of New London will certainly reap the benefit. And you know, just to to backtrack a little bit and to set the stage, uh, one thing that we've talked about over the past several years, um, are these things right here, devices, screen time, the appropriateness of that, uh, ch children usage of that, is it a distraction,
019does it help uh, when appropriate use, is it a tool, is it a necessity, so on and so forth. for a lot of questions that go into that that discussion. Our partners at Thetaare uh which we're very proud honored to have a hospital and clinics within our community because not everybody has that. And within uh Thetaare New London, there's an organization called the community health action team or chat team. Our district has been representative for many years on that team and the initiative of that group that is led through dataare officials is to to hear the voice of what is happening locally at their rural access hospitals. So New London, Shauno, Berlin, Waka and Wild Rose. And then while listening to what are the the opportunities or what are the challenges their focus is to
020embark on programs that will better the overall wellness of the community. They want you know wellness to be a big part of the communities or the footprint they serve. So through this work of the chat team which started over two years ago, the idea and discussions of what is quality um technology usage for for children came up and the chat teams not only from New London but the surrounding communities and as well Appleton um did a ton of work and research with University of Wisconsin um educational professionals, researchers to really look at what that means, you know, through our entire footprint area with the intent and desire not to tell somebody, hey, you should do this or you should do that. Okay? But these are things that our footprint of Thetaare or our community may
021feel are important for us. You know, we can't tell somebody to do it, but we can recommend, you know, if there is best practice that is data driven, you know, through the through the results and the findings with health care professionals, with boards of educations, with educational professionals, medical professionals giving their feedback as to what that looks like. So with that in mind, the the group continued their their quest and the sync or the supporting youth nurturing connection group is now at the cusp of getting ready to launch work in all of our areas of the footprint of state care with the intent to improve overall student mental health. Okay. screen times, understanding what is appropriate, how how does that play into the the life of not just students but families as a whole with
022real guided database instructed feedback and quite frankly with the support of Dr. Andrabi and Thetaare as a system as well. So, Sync will be um gathering their their their processes over the next month and launching into schools to gather feedback from students and families about their opinion on screen time and what is appropriate. And we'll begin that process of collecting that data. Ultimately, the endgame tabulating bringing forward recommendations not just to our school but our school community. All right. as to, you know, what are things that could potentially help support appropriate screen time for a young adolescent or adolescent or what are the things that are leading to that pose mental health risks you know that are driven back to um you know too much time on a screen and that type of thing. Um,
023so we are very excited to be part of that group and Sarah Johnson is taking over my role on the chat team as our district representative uh going forward. I've been on it for the past five years I believe and uh she will be our conduit exclusively to work with chat and help support this initiative in dataare is vesting hundreds of thousands of dollars into this program throughout our community to the point as well of bringing in individuals to be community coordinators. Okay. Uh the indiv there's an individual that will be working to help facilitate and work with school districts. We have one person that'll be working with our district and then the Waka school district as well with community members and school districts and individuals to support the initiative as we move forward. So
024that continuity of what's happening. That's the goal to make it be as same and similar as possible through all phases of it. Uh to get really time-t tested data that they will be able to share and bring back to the schools. So, I know there's there's a ton of information that I could have bombarded you with, but the uh the three or four sheets of who it is, what it is, what do we expect from it, how will communities be engaged, and then ultimately what is our goal and expectations is there for board members to to review and and to take a look at. Just off the cuff, if there are any um questions right now that I could address, I would I would gladly do that. uh at this time probably the just before
025that on page 16 I just flipped to it there's there's three items there the short-term medium-term and long-term goals of what what this really is trying to to do and uh you know those are kind of the marching orders of what the group and this initiative would look to accomplish over that time. Any questions? We will keep you informed as we move through the process then. Thank you. >> All right, moving on to E WASB board of education state convention followup. >> I can start it out. Uh thank you to board members that attended last week down in uh Milwaukee. Hard to believe one week ago tonight we were there. And um I'll speak solely for myself. I appreciate uh board members that were able to to join us in in Milwaukee. Always a good
026event. Uh again, a slate of breakout sessions and vendor conversations that uh I think were well worth our time and I know life is busy for everyone, but if able, I always encourage board members to participate if it's within uh your means and your ability in the future. For myself personally, every session I attended was um was good in the sense that you always take away uh something from that. uh this year's homework assignment if you will was to really look at the facilities planning piece that we are all um had our eye on that and uh I don't want to steal anyone's thunder so I will let you guys talk to the points of interest that uh struck you >> all right I can go ahead >> so I I attended all three of
027the general sessions and then eight of the breakout sessions in the two and a half days that I was there and of the eight breakout sessions uh the first one was empowered communities, kindergarten ready kids, and very much in in line with what you just talked about, Scott. It it was all about getting children in the habit of reading. I mean, that was the theme in a lot of the sessions I went to um as a way to boost their their school readiness. And this was put on by um a member of WASB and CISA 3 who who um developed this program. and they have a program called a thousand books before kindergarten. And what that is is the goal should be to have your children read a thousand books before they go to kindergarten.
028And I'm like, "Wow, thousand books." Well, if you've got young kids, like I have a two and a halfyear-old grandson. I think I've read The Hungry Caterpillar about 50 times. Each time I read it, it counts towards that thousand books. And and the whole idea of it is is just to get them to help them start identifying shapes, colors, letters, numbers, and and counting because these are the things that when you talk to kindergarten teachers, they will tell you is not is not happening when they're coming to school. They're they're they should know their colors. They should understand their shapes. They should be able to count to 20. And um so um again it was um I found it to be a really good program. The next one I went to was called Who's Telling
029Your Story? And being on the communications committee, I wanted to make sure I was at this. And um and it was put on by Hortonville Schools, Todd Tim, their superintendent, and then one of the women from uh CISA 6, who came here and did some work with us. And really what it was is having a strategy to your communications in order to be effective. Most school districts just put newsletters out. Write something. We got a newsletter going out and they sit down and they plan out what there's going what's going to be included in their newsletters for a year in advance and the timeliness of when that's that's coming out. Um and then also the stories are told through the students eyes. So they get a lot of student input uh uh from it. They
030do have a community newsletter that and the and the theme of that is is every mailbox in the district gets one. So they they've worked with a company out of Appleton to make sure that every mailbox in the district does get one and mailboxes outside of the district don't. And I talked with Scott a little bit about this and I think we um can look into this a little bit more with Todd and um and and that and I think it's uh an opportunity to learn learn something. Then I went to another session was the price of parallel systems, how policy shapes three K12 education systems. And this was put on by the director of the association of business officials. And basically what they were talking about is what the true cost is of having
031three systems in the state. The conventional public school funding system that we are a part of and then charter schools independent or district connected. Um, and I didn't realize that there are charter schools that are totally independent of a of a school district. Um, and then the whole voucher program for for private schools. And one of the things that I took away from this, one of the statements was that 95% of the students in the voucher program did not attend a public school the previous year that they were got into the voucher program, which I had my suspicions of that um, all along. And so continued growth in that program and in independent charter school programs is just going to put additional stress on putting together budgets for the TRA for like for us because
032of the amount of fis co fixed costs that we have that really aren't directly related to it to enrollment. Um but that's money walking out the door. And um so then uh another one that I went to was called Student Success Starts with Board Strategy. And this was put on by Elkbound Schools. And basically what they did is is they put together um a strategy for handling behavior and discipline issues throughout the district, districtwide. And it's kind of like what um we've got going on at the middle school. But um in putting it together, they um looked at a lot of data for a couple of years to try and identify gaps and areas that require attention. And one of the examples they give was that 90% of the issues were related to males. And
033then 46% of the issues with all the students, the students felt like they didn't have a person, a staff member that they could identify with in the district. And um and so they gave that data to staff and community members to review and discuss and come up with some ideas on way to handle that. So they got the community involved in it. But the one thing that I really took away from this and they kept stressing it was the main theme of their strategy is follow the chain of command. Anytime somebody steps outside of that chain of command and tries to take a hold of something, it just makes it that much more difficult to try and come to some type of a result. And um you know for us as board members when we
034get that telephone call from an upset parent you know not to take the lead on trying to trying to fix something and they they just said when we looked at at the data every time it was mishandled in some way shape or some way shape or form. Um lacrosse schools put on a session on developing a community advised SRO program. My take away from that was that we're doing the right things with our program. You know, um the biggest issue they have is that they have a large contingent of their of their students that are afraid of their SRO's. And you hear that, you know, like in Milwaukee and that, but here in Lacrosse, that's one of their main issues. And I don't think our kids are afraid of the SRO's. I mean, they have
035great relationships. So, pat us ourselves on the back for that. Um, another one was on child care in Wisconsin and this was put on by the Wisconsin Department of Children and and Family and and this is something that Scott, you and Joe and I probably need to get some details on because again I'm getting a 40,000 view of foot view of this is that evidently there's a program coming from the state starting next school year where if you're a licensed and certified 4K facility but you're not contracted with a a K12 public school district, the state will will pay up to a little bit over $7,000 per student for them to provide a 4K education program. And we do that through >> childare >> child care here. Yeah. that. And so, um, they also gave
036some really scary numbers on the cost of child care. And, um, you know, like instate tuition at WMadison is $12,000 a year. If you have a child in um a regular child care facility, you're paying more money than that because of what what that cost is. And then the last day I went to presentation by Stephanie Hower on the X and of uh the WIAA. In addition to Stephanie, there was some of their administrators and then board members that presented and I thought I knew a lot about the WIAA, but I learned a lot in this session. all of their rules, they follow uh the National Federation of High School uh rules like game time rules and you know student athlete rules. Um when there is a change made in the WIAA, none of their
037administration has any votes on that change. That board that's that's their board that um that that does that. They're 100% funded by tournaments and official fees and they're not part of the state government. The state government has no they're a total separate entity. And then um they have approximately 100,000 athletes uh registered in um in the state. And then the last one I went to turned out to be probably the most interesting one for me. It was turning mandates into momentum act 20 without teacher burnout. This was put on by Bo Turner School District which is not part of the Bo School District. It's a group of schools on the outer edge of town that operate totally separately. And what they did is when they got all the mandates that we're familiar with from act
03820 when they sat down to figure out how they were going to deal with these things, they had their director of technology in those conversations. And what their director of technology did is is he and his team developed applications to integrate like with Skyward and I Ready and and so forth to be able to take and pull all that data together and then through the use of Google forms, they made it really easy for the staff to go ahead and produce the documentation required by Act 20, but then personalize things like um report cards and newsletters. is going back home to the to um to the to the parents. And when I say easy, they were talking about stuff that normally would have taken somebody about four or five hours to put all that stuff
039together. Get it done in about five minutes. You know, kind of like running a report out of Skyward for for uh for grades. And um part of the reason it was so interesting to me is this is the type of work that I used to do for a living. Um I didn't do it, but I sold the software to do it. and I had a chance to talk to their IT person afterwards and yeah, a lot of what he and he developed this stuff on his own. Um, so um I think it's something that warrants just some further investigation to make things easier to get more information out to our parents that's meaningful but not putting the weight of that burden on our on our staff staff members. So, I just the whole uh two
040and a half days I like Scott I found it to be really really helpful and um and got a chance to talk to a lot of people. Everybody's got the same issues. Kindergarteners not coming prepared behavior in the in the room because they don't know how to behave, you know, and um vaping, you know. So, >> any questions for me? >> Thank you for Mark reached out to me and asked me if there was any um classes that I thought would be of interest and that was very kind of you. I appreciate that. >> Well, welcome. >> Anybody else like you? >> Anybody want to volunteer any information? Um, I went one day, uh, work just wasn't allowing me to get off much more, but I went to one session which was the pay your
041employees, not the insurance company because I'm on that committee. I just wanted to make sure see if we could do something, you know, pull something back from that. But everything they touched on I feel like we are doing at some capacity. So like um >> was that put on by Elbrook School District? >> They're Brookfield. >> We were there. It was USI was the consulting firm. >> Oh, okay. >> So they did a lot of that presentation. That's too >> All right. Woke was there. Sun Prairie, Edertton. >> I'm not going to say we're doing it all. There was a lot >> that they touched on that we're already doing. >> I mean, were there any takeaways that you thought we should be like investigating or not? >> No, the only thing is as I
042left that meeting, they they flashed a lot of the family premium totals on each of the school districts. And as they said there, geographic differences make difference on your premium. And even with our health insurance this year with the change that happened in the increase, we were still below all of the ones that they flashed up on their slide. So that's not saying that's okay. in in disc in discussions with um some of the other districts on that, >> I was shocked like some of the rural ones that were skyhigh like made us made made me feel really good about where we are and I know we have our share of insurance issues, but wow, they there's some districts out there that have much larger issues than us in the insurance side. And it's not
043just it's everybody that's having problems with increases for health insurance costs right now. It's just skyrocketing. Not just for us, but for everybody. And that was clear here. I did find it interesting one thing that they were doing doing to reduce um to reduce cost and uh frequency that people go to the doctor, the emergency room or urgent care. is a lot of larger districts have an in-house clinic that the staff can attend, the staff's family, students can attend and go to, and it's at a reduced cost. Now, obviously, we're a smaller district. We're not able to do that, but they did have a district there that was able to make a partnership with our local clinic. It sounded like they came in a couple hours a day before and after school or something. So,
044I'd really be interested in seeing what we could work out with Thetaare to work out something where we can bring in reduced care at a reduced price. So they can do screenings for uh age appropriate, sex appropriate screenings uh to catch anything that might go be bad for their health in the future before it gets to that point to avoid those high cost and additional health concerns in future. You know, maybe we could tie in with like Clintonville or Fremont because if they're gonna have to go to the doctor, they're probably going to Apple, you know, so if they stop in New London >> and there were some smaller districts that that kind of created a consortium. >> Did they? >> Yeah, there was some of that. the the solution that we are probably closer
045to making a reality versus with another school district is with the city of London. They also partner with USI and our current consultant has said that if there's ever a way for both entities to make that work, that would be a venture that would be worth exploring. They do not work with health partners anymore though. They switched their insurance carrier as well. So you do need to have a lot of the stars line up because then you would have a facility that two entities with a number of employees are sharing and then you can hire that nurse practitioner together. You can have the space together and you're sharing out the rent, the utilities, the whatever you to try and design that. And so that's been something we've tried to talk about with with both the
046city and even ourselves to try and figure out how we would ever make that happen. We've tried to negotiate with our fully insured carriers to say, "Hey, would you invest in anything that we would have on site as well where we could turn a space into a private office?" Because you do have to be really careful about your staff feeling comfortable and going into a location for their medical care and not being watched by others. That's as we all go to the doctor you watch your hip protections at 100% where that is sometimes what I've heard from other school districts that's an obstacle as well because let's just say we had it at the middle school across the street and they're walking into a conference room and they're not from the middle school and you're
047coming from Park View and you're walking into the door you go to the doctor for something granted you could outside Theta Care here in town too in the parking lot and see that as well. But it's just that that confidential privacy that you really want to ensure with doctor's visits so employees feel good about it. But anyway, yes, outside clinics are something we've talked about as well. the um on Tuesday we we we we took in the the law meeting that they they they funded that or they sponsored that and uh that was the bulk of it was on finances and and different aspects of finances but it was it was a very interesting meeting and and kind of really depressing to sit through most of it and the the inequity between between small districts
048and some of the large districts that it's obscene the amount of money they get compared to us like double per per child. And honestly, the one district uh sitting there telling, "Yeah, we we just we had so much money we we didn't know what to do with it. So, we just replaced the entire van fleet in the district, you know, and just had to use it up." >> There's more than one district that said something like that. multiple districts you were sitting bragging about their surplus of of budget and then I'm asking them are you do you have an operational referendum? Do you have a facilities referendum? The answer to both is yes for those >> they just keep going back for more. >> Yeah, they just keep going back for more and they just
049keep approving it and just keep having a surplus of money and they don't know what to do with >> the the highlight I don't know if anybody else has anything but >> the highlight um And I'm terrible on names, but it was an older gentleman and you could tell he was kind of the the he was the guy behind that that whole um that whole session. And in talking with him afterwards, he says, "H don't don't worry so much." He said, "There's several lawsuits that are pending right now that he said, I I really feel they're going to have a a bigger result on uh leveling the playing field on funding within schools." >> He said, "Just it's going to take a while, so it's not going to be immediate, but he said probably within
050the next year or two, there's going to be some there's going to be some legal fallout on this." And and he said it might change the whole system. So that's kind of a plus. >> I wanted to ask Andy about the the two questions on decoupling because I sat in at the begin at the on the beginning of the first one and I had to take off. H how did that end up going? Because I was actually quite surprised by by the number of people that got up and spoke against doing it. But then in the that the session that I went into, >> that was a circus. Yeah, I bet >> when I was when I was in that wondering how you like that >> that parallel system session, the last thing that she
051that woman talked about was that the decoupling would make it easier for the state to hide the true cost of vouchers and districts will will have a more difficult time knowing what the voucher cost is to the district. So, it was her message was is that not to decouple it, to leave it leave it the way it is. And that's why that question was on there twice. It seemed like it was a rhetorical thing, but it it really wasn't. So what what did the >> So yeah, supporting decoupling of public and private school funding was voted down. And so then we had to come at the opposing of decoupling and that passed. And it was it was it was weird how that all I I voted against it, but it was weird how it all
052shifted because the the vote on supporting decoupling was close. But then the second one was a landslide the other way, which didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. But um they were saying that it's going to bring more transparency. >> Yeah. Right. >> Yeah. Is basically what I got out of that >> by going with decoupling or not by by going going with it >> by opposing would increase transparency. >> Yeah. Opposing because I was of the I mean my take on it was is that yeah let's let's get this separated out but as she was explaining it and then I heard some of the you know the people going up to the microphone the you know in the time I was in there it's like okay well that kind of makes sense
053you know and and um because then if it if it would get decoupled the legislature would able to to hide to hide the the amounts really easily where the way it's set up right now, it's still got to be it's still got to be broken out. So, still trying to understand that. That's why I was curious what the what the vote was and I got the sense when I left it was turning into a circus. >> Yeah. Yeah. Because I mean there were multiple amendments made to both of them that one passed and then got shut down. So, it was the first one was hard to keep up with, but then it ended up getting voted down. >> So then we went to this one and it there was most of the chatter was that
054it's going to bring more transparency. So that's why it's I I think is why it passed and it to me it didn't make a whole lot of sense because it seemed like it go it went against transparency. Yeah, a lot of the notes I took in the finance was some of the notes was on the voucher system and the cost to public school systems due to that voucher system because not only is it just paying the schools, but we have to pay for the transportation of those students to those private schools as well. >> And uh I it just it seems to me like it's a lot of the public taxpayers money going into a private business >> and it has no place for that. especially when there's supposed to be that separation of church
055and state. It just because that's a lot of what it is. It's uh going to religious schools, private schools if so I I don't know. We I wish there was something we could do at our level to fix that. But really, it comes down to all of us got to talk to our legislators if you don't agree with it. >> You know, >> I would say you don't agree with it. I don't know if you start a petition. I don't know what the answer is, but it comes down to communication with your legislator. >> There was more chatter about it at this convention than there ever has been. >> I think people are reaching >> the point where they're they they've had enough of it, you know, and and and if we don't do that,
056it's going to get out of hand, you know, and that they're going to just continue to to raise the amount and make it easier uh for people to get them. So >> that doesn't make sense. If people aren't happy with our school systems, don't take money away from our school systems. Let us use our money to improve our school system. >> Right. >> There was a added emergency resolution to create a subsection to 2.31 funding for children with disabilities. And this was the WASBY supports legislation to provide the additional funding that is necessary to meet the estimated special education category reimbursement rate when the original sum certain appropriation has determined to not be met by the bianium budget. So that's something to look forward to because that one passed unanimous unanimously. So, >> good one
057to end on with not a whole lot of >> at six o'clock. >> Just the ball. >> So, I can sign so I can sign you up so I can sign you up to be our delegate for next year. >> Yeah, it was good. >> Thanks for doing that. >> Any feedback >> from the convention? >> Yeah, I went to a couple seminars. Um, one was attendance, which obviously is um, not unique to any one school, but um, the notable findings I thought for attendance, which we kind of were proactive, right, in the beginning of the year, but it was start early in the school year with communications. Um, they were very adamant about the time of day for sending attendance related messages. Um, it was kind of like when you drop off your kids
058at school, which I thought >> Oh, yeah. You were >> when you're in the drop off line. I was talking to Scott about that as well. >> They send out the text messages every time the day. >> But not only do they do that, they they send out the text message saying, "Hey, your student was absent last week, two days, this week, 3 days, a month." It was quantifying it, not just quantify, not just saying they weren't there, >> right? It was like because I don't think people pay attention to the adding up um the compounding of it. So it was like be intentional in your email like not your son has been missing a lot of school but like your son has missed seven out of the last 17 days you know whatever. >>
059Um so that was the message containing specific and actionoriented language and then include direct offers of help. So, they gave a couple examples of, and I know our former principal mentioned this, sometimes he would literally have to go pick up the kids. >> Um, which I know isn't super feasible, but um, offering help. And then, um, they said kids are encouraged to attend when they know a specific staff person cares about them and knows kind of what they're up to and like that rapport >> or something like that up to. >> Trusted adult. >> So, you brought something about that. a trusted adult that they can >> Oh yes. >> Right in line with what you said. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Um engage in after school activities was huge. Pro-social activities and peer groups and
060then um >> feeling accepted uh at school and maybe at home. There's you know obviously issues. It's kind of a probably a blinding fula obvious on that one. Um and then I attended a steam one which is really cool which I think we um do a really good job with our project lead the way. It's very similar. Um but Loi school put that one on. If you have a chance to look they had their slides and presentation on the um website but it was pretty cool what they are doing with um steam and they actually use it like a special starting in the lower grade. So, like you know your kids have gym and music, they would actually bring the cart in. Remember like when we were kids and they have the AV cart and
061you're like, "Oh god, we get to watch a movie today." Um, the kids are so excited about it and it could be Legos. It could be whatever. But, um, I thought it'd be interesting to maybe even review their presentation sometime if we have a, you know, we can bring it up on the link. It was pretty cool like having it as a special. Um, and then I also attended one about opening doors put on by school perceptions which we already partner with for our surveys. Um, they offer a service similar to our Zello in the high school. I don't know, have you looked at their school perceptions offering? It's brand new. They actually had the kid present who was the IT guy that's just out of college and populating the system, but it basically is
062like what color is your parachute? Remember when we were kids and you read the book? Um, so similar to Zelda, but it actually matches the kid with a local employer and like did you know that they hire welder like um and it's almost like we do with our job fair but ongoing. >> Oh yeah. >> And uh very intentional in the kids and starting them young with what kind of jobs are out there. So I thought that was totally worth taking a peek. They don't even have it priced yet. It's so new. They have two pilot >> um schools that they're offering at no charge. So, it's uh opening doors by school perceptions. >> Okay. >> Super. >> I'll be having a conversation with Carrie Underman, our in contact in the next >> few weeks.
063We'll ask kind of curious and I think our counseling um staff at the high school like probably can do some of their own homework if it's worth it. I mean, again, everything's got a cost, but Maybe it's nominal. They they wouldn't even A couple people are like, "How much does this cost us?" And they were like, "We don't even have it priced yet." So, it's very new. >> Sure. >> Did you win any door prizes, Joe? >> Damn, the bad luck. I signed you up for a ton of them. >> Is that why I'm getting all the emails? >> I got I got more. >> They're all coming to me. Thanks, >> They're all coming to me, >> Mr. Grundy. So, if you have the if you have the app from the from the um
064convention and you go and you choose a session way down in the bottom if they've got handouts, you can click on that and then they then they pop up. Now, >> was it last year or the year before that those things all disappeared within like a week? Oh, >> so I've been going through and they're still out, you know, and then I've been saving them on my phone and I can dump them into my in the in the Chromebook. >> That's a good idea. Thank you. >> Okay. So, I didn't know they disappeared cuz like I had wanted to go to the um the WIA one on early Friday morning, the X's and O's and all the updates with WIA, but um I was petrified to drive in minus 40 weather, so I left Thursday
065night. But um I got the impression it was going to be out there for >> uh I I and maybe they're they're changing their you know their um rules on that. >> Okay. >> And and that so but I I went to that one. I can tell you you and I can talk later on. I I talked about before you walked in. So >> Okay. Sorry. So one more thing I did have uh I did do a lot of um facility planning uh breakout sessions along with the finance sessions and some of the takeaways I had from there was um uh number one is to have like make sure whatever we plan well we have our facility study that we're doing which is great so we're already ahead of the ball with that. Um, so
066once we get narrowed down on that, they suggested having a committee including teachers, public, and everybody else to what else we might need for the district or what we might need to look at. But when you're looking at it, you got to look at it through the lens of declining enrollment, which is one challenge we're facing right now. But it doesn't necessarily mean cutting budget so much as maybe reallocating budget, maybe adding budget to some places to give us um look make us look better to the surrounding districts to hopefully increase our uh open enrollments. So just because we have declining enrollment doesn't necessarily mean that we need to start cutting budget right away, but we need to look at what we can do to increase enrollment into our district. Um, so that that was
067a pretty common theme that I was hearing in in the sessions. And one of the ways some of the school districts have been successful doing that is communicating it um not just um on social media uh but through mailings like you brought up or uh because not everybody is on social media and Facebook depending on what age group you're in. But when you do uh relay the messages on social media, a lot of them are going to a company that does that for them. I think we do a pretty good job on Facebook. I see the post all the time, but it's getting that message outside of the district as well through likes and follows. And a lot of that happens organically based on how uh the message is written, what the post look like.
068And then it should always be like a celebratory post even when it's um even when it's something about changes coming to the district and there might be a referendum or something. They always make it more of a a celebration type post and there's a company out there that does that that I found very interesting. So, I'd like to maybe be part of the communications committee and talk about that a little bit. If you want to add me to the committee, I'd be happy to be part of that. >> Um, but again, so just facilities planning, I think we're on the right track. I think we're moving in the right direction, but it doesn't necessarily mean that we have to cut the funding on everything or reallocate everything. >> All right. And hearing nothing further. Um,
069looking for a motion. I I read all those out. >> Uh, looking for a motion to go into close session. >> I'll make it. >> You have a second? >> I'll second it. >> All in favor? >> Roll call. Roll call. Sorry, >> you need to read them though. >> Yep. Pursuits are section 19.851C Wisconsin statutes. Board of Education will convene in close session to discuss the continued employment of certified support and co-curricular staff members over which the board has jurisdiction and exercises responsibility. Uh person to section 19.851c Wisconsin statutes. The board of education will convene in close session to discuss the employment and compensation of certified sports and co-curricular staff members over which the board has jurisdiction and exercises responsibility person to section 19.851c Wisconsin statute the board of education will convene in close
070session to discuss the evaluation of administrators over which the board has jurisdiction and exercises responsibility also pursu pursuant to sections 19.851AF 851 AF NG and section 120.131C Wisconsin statutes. The board of education will convene in close session for the purpose of approving the minutes from an expulsion hearing which was heard in close session. >> Andy, >> yes. >> Uh Chris Barnes, >> yes. >> John, >> yes. >> Ny, >> yes. >> Mark, >> yes. >> Katy B, >> yes. Yes. >> Okay. time to do that. Thank you everyone for joining us tonight. >> I don't sound like much of a youer that I wanted to take on. My car is 10 years old and it had 150,000 miles. Something sweet.