001And I believe Joe is going to head that up. >> Yeah, I'll introduce this uh Mr. Edman to that. So, good evening and welcome uh to our annual uh budget hearing for 2526 fiscal year and academic year. Uh before we get into the detailed discussions of of our presentation tonight, I just want to to give just a quick reflection on us as a district and what we've done over the over the past year and when we look at strategic planning and continuous improvement. The letter to the community highlights uh the areas of our district report card, learning and achievement, financial operational stability, safe order, healthy, engaged, and connected. Tonight's budget, which you will be uh learning more about, is built around these continuous improvement objectives. You know, when we think about decisions that the board
002makes, our staff makes, our admin makes, and our parents make, we're making decisions to support where we want to be going forward. I'm very proud and privileged to introduce Mr. Markart tonight uh who'll be sharing the u the specifics of our budget. This is no easy task. Our board has been actively involved prepping and preparing decision making as we've moved through the past academic year, fiscal year, and as we prepare for the next budget. And we know that a budget is fluid and a budget it's okay. It's some things move back and forth within. Um noting the uh the time of the year and when our final numbers are established in uh October 15th. Um this is where we are right now. uh this is a tradition that we've done around the same time frame
003and uh a lot of great celebrations to talk about and where we are. Okay, thank you uh first for introducing Minister Black and then people who are here tonight and then also we do record this meeting. It creates an opportunity for people to go back in and listen to all that we talk about tonight. I know that as school board members, a lot of the items that you hear tonight are things that you have heard uh probably often uh as school board members throughout our meetings. But it is really important for us to kind of create a point of discussion each year to be able to share our school district's annual budget and uh have our stakeholders know what is going on. Uh just kind of a reflection point for me. I know I I
004kind of share this introduction each year and just refresh it a little bit. This is my 15th time being able to have the privilege to talk about our school district's budget to our school board, our community, and that is definitely a privilege. I feel that all of you, all of our staff members, and our stakeholders are represented in our district's budget. their voices are heard to try and create the best educational opportunities we can for our students because that is our mission of our school district. And like I said, it being the 15th time doing this, a goal of every time we do this is to try to have something better each and every year for what we're doing. And I think that that's where like Mr. Black was talking about continuous improvement. It doesn't
005mean that the book is better. It means that our budget is better. And we talked about that today as an administrative team in the back that all of you as our principles and leaders of buildings also have influence on our budget and please share that with your staff members to watch the meeting tonight know be knowledgeable of the budget and all the goals that we have. So all of you have an option opportunity to have the packet um with you. It's also online. I'm not going to go through every page. I'm going to try to highlight what I feel like are some of the important parts. If I miss anything that you're really hoping that I talk about, please just stop me and then I will go back and uh talk about it in greater
006detail. If I don't have the answer tonight or Mr. Black does it, we'll we'll get it to you and make sure that we answer your questions. So, kind of just scrolling through the first page there, Mr. Black kind of talked about the beginning with this letter that is included in the booklet. This introduction here talks about that we just don't do this by chance every year. There are processes and objectives that we have each year that try and meet what our objectives annually are each year to meet the needs of our students. and we want to make sure that we are recognizing that it's an a journey. When we talked to our staff uh at their opening session, we talked about our facility project. That was one thing that I shared with them uh during
007a few minutes is we can't do everything all the time right away. I use the analogy is we haven't been able to do it yet. Our board does a great job of recognizing what we're trying to accomplish and that is always an ongoing journey. So it might not happen right now, but it's if it's something that fits within our school district's objectives, we try and talk about it and get it into our plan. This right here is what in early August, Mr. Black went through that. That's our continuous improvement plan as a one-page summary just showing that a lot of topics in there that relate specifically to what we're looking at each year into our budget. The executive summary talks about, okay, if you really want to take one page and share it with the
008community, these are things that you can talk about. The uh the the budget projects a 9.5% increase in the tax levy and a 4.3% increase in overall spending. I'm going to talk about the spending a little bit later because there's a couple pages that I can show you that show you exactly where that is coming from and what it what it is and it really simplifies the spending component of the budget. The bienium budget is has a really big influence on our budget each year and this year especially with a couple of the factors that are impacting the first note on there as it relates to the tax levy mill rate. The $325 that we are allowed to increase the revenue limit is not going to be funded by additional state equalization aid. So when
009that happens, taxpayers across the state of Wisconsin, this isn't just New London, are putting that bill of the allowable revenue increase that was what was um approved in the bianium budget. So if you simplify this from a a simple math perspective, if New London receives equalization aid on about 23 of our spending, it's up to 65%. That means that the additional revenue limit authority is not 2/3 aided by the state. It's 100% aided by the taxes. So then those numbers up there, especially with the levy and mill rate increase, you could cut them by 2/3 if we normally would have the same equalization and appropriations that we've had in the past. That said, that's the budget we have to work with. We share the information and we know that there's another bianium to come up
010in two years and something else will be in there and that's what our responsibility is as a public entity to respond to that. There are always factors. I if you're in an organization, you might call this a swap analysis. What are some strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats? We have a lot of things that impact our budget each year. Trying to remain competitive with our salary and benefit structure is really important because we are a service industry. Our employees are delivering the service to our students. So that is always going to be one of our largest expenditures. And when we have a serviceoriented organization and they're delivering the services, we want to have a great staff to be able to do that and to attract and retain staff wherever they're coming from. They're looking at what
011are you offering for me to come and work for your organization. Declining enrollment is impacting almost all school districts across the state. That's not a New London only scenario. It's across the state, but when you lose students, your revenue is impacted in the long run because when you receive money on a per pupil basis, as you get increases, but no uh to the revenue limit, but lower enrollment, the the money that you actually get continues to be squished down on it. That's the way the revenue limit formula works. We also have a lot of expenses in all of our buildings. As all of you know, we have seven schools. We have this building. We have a maintenance shop. We have a bus garage. We have a lot of acres of property. We are trying to
012continually maintain what the investment of our taxpayers has has given us as a public entity and that comes with expenditures. Also, federal funding is been in the news a lot. At first this year, we were wondering would we see some significant or major reductions to our federal funding and we did not receive significant reductions, but it's something we're being very cognizant of of moving forward. If that if we get about 5% between five and 7% of our revenues from federal funding, if that goes away, we're still relying on that revenue to help us with our daily operations. Uh then lastly everybody or the last two things lastly a lot of organizations are struggling with staffing shortages. There is not enough people to be able to do the work in all organizations. So that puts additional
013stress on your organization to deliver services with vacancies or you're not able to find a person to successfully fill the position you're hoping to to have. and we're competing against a lot of other organizations around us that are also trying to do the same thing. So that does put stress on our budget. And I always want to talk about student achievement because that's why we're here. We are trying to do our best with all of our grades, whether it's our early childhood students or our seniors, and doing the best we can to help them achieve, whether that's a curriculum or a resource or a something they have in their building. It's our responsibility to try and help get the students what they need to be able to achieve the results that they're trying to have.
014And what I have seen over the 15 years of of things because organizations change, we have a lot of options for kids. That's awesome. I think of what our seniors can pick from. They have tons of classes. I think of our middle schooler and high schoolers and all of the programs and co-curriculars that they have to be able to pick from. It is great. You think of our work that our elementaryaries are doing to be able to have a lot of options whether it's direct instruction right in front of their teacher or being pulled out into a small group or having a special of music or art or fiad or technology. We provide a lot for everybody and that's how that well-rounded education is put together. Uh the only one note is just we're debtree
015for two years in a row now. That's a a huge positive for our school district. The only thing that I share with that is a lot of school districts that have debt, they'll use that as a levy smoothing process. Even municipalities do that too where they say let's keep the tax living right here or the mill rate right here and we can use debt service to influence that up or down in that year because even though we record this and we send this information out, I wouldn't believe thousands of residents are monitoring every single thing that we do every year. When they monitor it is when they get their tax bills in December and they look at it and go, "Well, what happened there? How did this happen? So, a lot of times public entities
016will use debt to help them keep things as consistent as possible. But when you're debtree, that's a positive, too, because you're not paying principal and interest payments. So, I look at it as more of a positive than negative, but I noted that that is in there. Um, I already talked about the budget binding, but one really significant positive is the increase to special education aid. It is a categorical aid that school districts in Wisconsin receive for expenditures that they have in what we call fund 27. Last bianium, there was an attempt to increase that as well. And since it's not a sum of sufficient appropriation, it's a sum certain means if there's $5 million, it goes to all school districts. If all school districts were to get 42% of their eligible funding, it would probably
017more than five just using rough numbers of that. So that's the way the appropriation is. We budget for it and hope that we are receiving what was in the bianium but we also plan for um you know changes that happen. So last year when we knew it would be a little less than 30% instead of 33 we shared that with with the board and talked about how it would impact us moving forward. So that is definitely a positive in our next two years of bianium budget with moving up to 42 to 45% and I'll show you the amount impact of that in just a little bit. Another note from the banial budget that is is definitely impacting New London because of specific reasons is open enrollment. So when you have students who open and enroll
018to other districts, there's an aid transfer process that happens there. The school district counts the student if it's your resident student, but then they pay out to another district for educating that student and vice versa. So, if you have students coming in to your district, there's an aid transfer into your district, but you didn't count that student for revenue limit purposes. And the amounts definitely went up more than typical from the prior year. You could see that on for a regular open enrolled student, we received $8,962 and next year it would be $10,12. We also have more students that open roll out than in for special education. We have a closed open enrollment for special education. So that makes sense. That's that's board action that happens in January. Um so when you have more students
019open and rolling out than in, that has an impact on your budget, especially when that aid amount goes up. So that is definitely something that impacts our our estimated budget at this time. Our third Friday count is next Friday. And when we get to that count and then when we get into October, we can talk about what the the final impact will be because right now it is the estimated per people payments. So again, for just simple math, for every two students that go out, we have one student that comes in. That's with a 2:1 ratio of two students out, one student in for our open enrollment program. The voucher program, we've talked about that for several years, but it definitely has an impact on our budget as well. U, it's a little over $1.3
020million that is added to the levy because of the voucher program. And all school districts who have voucher students are paying the same rates up there. It just depends on the number of students that you have uh going out. Last year we had 94 students that were a part of the voucher program. And this year we we don't know how many that might be. I would anticipate the number going down. It has gone up every year that the voucher program has been in place. But that does add to the tax living. School districts are really the fiscal agent for that transfer back and forth. And the hard part of that is is most taxpayers don't understand that. And I know there's been discussion about trying to remove that from the levy piece, but there hasn't
021been a good solution determined in the government processing yet to make that happen. Uh, and then the closing note is anybody you you who see that has questions, we're always here to ask, even if it's after the fact. We want people to feel like we're doing the best job that we can do to clearly communicate, even though it's not always a simple process. The next few pages I'm going to go through just a little bit quicker. This uh mission, vision, and guiding principles has been in there. It's something a foundation of our district. The breakdown of funds here just talks about, you may hear me say fund 10, fund 27. That's our accounting procedures and processes for our district. I wanted to note fund 27 just a little bit more because that's where we make
022a transfer back and forth. So last year we transferred um $3.9 million from fund 10 to 27 to to zero out fund 27 with the increase in special education aid that categorical aid that I talked about being 42%. We're anticipating the number going down to $3.4 million. So that helps with the budgeting process of your transfer that you make from fund 10 to fund 27 because at the end of the year has to have a zero balance. You can't have a negative or a positive. They use fund 27 as the tracking component for that fund to determine the eligible expenditures. Um fund 80 we talk about each year there are some programs that are inside fund 80. There are no changes that are in there from last year. The um for programs I would say
023the one change is we have more students attending our after school programming and we also uh had board action where they increase the after school programing by programming by a dollar for each of the categories. Just wanted to note that we've had the after school program for a long time and it's a program for our students and also our families to take advantage of. >> I have a quick question. >> Yes. >> Um on the fitness center workers and equipment, um I know you have monitors after school. Are there any in the morning and I got a request, is it open to the community to come use? And I'm like, I don't think so. But >> so we have monitors for to supervise the students before after school. >> Uh we have not had the
024fitness center open the last several years we when we talked about it the last few years it's really more out of a safety component and the hours would be so limited for community members to come in as well because we're with early bird starting at you know I think 6:45 there people are coming in it's just such a short time and then even after school you have all your athletes using the facility too. Can we ask questions? >> Yeah. Time, >> of course. >> Okay. So, in let's see, going back to the school vouchure, is that um income um orientated as far as is there a limitation, you know, amount of income a family can have before they qualify for that vorture? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, there's that's set set by the level of
025poverty for a family and I don't have the statistics in front of me right now, but I There's if if you Google school choice in Wisconsin, they would tell you what are >> and then going back to the special education funding to get this additional aid from the state. So you're taking you is that going to leave an additional $500,000 then in fund 10 because the way I understood it, you know, with that additional aid, there's going to be um only 3.4 4 million coming out of fund to to um to meet the expenditures of the special education is only going to be 3.5 or something. So at $500,000 is that or will that be is that going to be earmarked for special education to enhance that? Great question, Bill. in a perfect world that
026it would be exactly how it would work where you would have the increase of the 500,000 be able to be there for additional expenditures, but it's not. Um, when we were working through our our budget projections, we were actually hoping for more than $325 per kid because that's actually less than inflation was this year. So it kind of is a trade-off where we were hoping for even 350 or 375 or 400. The board really advocated to try and bring low spending school districts like New London up. I know when you had your legislative meeting with um legislators up at the library was hey school districts like New London have always been low spenders. Help them out by doing both. So, it was um it did give us more revenue than we thought we were going
027to. And the second piece of it is the reason why I had the open enrollment transfer in there is because that increased the expenditures for open enrollment and you have to pay that amount. So, that eroded or ate away at it. And then one other note because it will make sense is there's this categorical aid for um your rolling three-year pupil count average and that has been I believe I'm going to forget the number but it's been the same number for I think it's $742 for the last three bianiums and again that was something we thought that even if it goes up $20. It helps you save off the decrease. So, yes, we had some increases to the revenues, but it was taken away by, you know, some other things that didn't happen. It also
028going back up to some items in our budget, too. Um the the $337,000 that came in revenue limit authority and the $500,000 definitely increases to revenues, but we had increased expenditures across the board as well. There's uh some staff increases that were given for wages. A big piece of our budget is we added school buses, multiple school buses back to the budget where in prior years we only had one bus, so we added two buses. The buses are um $140,000 for the the new It's netted off by a trade in. So easy math, we didn't get $40,000 for the new bus, but it adds that $100,000 to each of those additional units or expenditures. So, we had some increases to revenue, but we also had some increases to expenditures as well. The one note that
029I was I was talking to Mr. collect today about is the hardest piece of the puzzle to communicate is on staffing right now because we just have a lot going on in our staffing pool. You remember earlier in August we were trying to talk about speech and language as an example. was probably the most relevant fresh discussion that we had where we're really trying to support our students with speech and language and not being able to find a staff member to be able to an on-site staff member to be able to support that. And when I was building the budget, we were hopeful that we were going to be able to secure additional individuals, but now what we're doing is we're trying to use our existing staff, still use virtual contracted staff. So it really
030does change a lot and as a board you've seen a lot of the resignations and then in turn hires that keep coming forward but this is what we believe is our best case scenario of our budget. Uh earlier in August the board also talked about during the um the committee uh and the board then approved we budgeted for the additional reading specialist and posted for them. they are built within our budget this year if we're able to secure some candidates. So that is built into our budget if we indeed expend that. We put no FTE change to administrative staff, but you know, we had a change in the high school this this year with Mr. leaving for a different school district and we're working through the changes that have happened there and how to work
031through that. So, it's kind of been a divide and conquer of duties with the team up at the high school really just trying to work within the parameters that the board supported. Other than that, I didn't have anything else. I just wanted to show that whole component of losing students, 47 FTE students, and then how the impact of open enrollment is. So, we're transferring that what I call the net. So, the revenue minus the expenditures of the open enrollment program for the district. And just just as a reminder, more often than not, the students have not attended the school district. They're going to either the district that they've already lived in, moved here, or they've already always been attending because either their parents drive that way to work or for whatever reason. But that said,
032we are very aware of open enrollment and that's always a piece of our continuous improvement plan puzzle. >> Yes, Chris question. >> Yeah. Um the uh the difference between u last year's uh special education aid and this year's special education aid, you're estimating to be approximately half a million dollars. Right. So that, correct me if I'm wrong, that means that um our general fund is a half a million dollars better than it would have been had that not happened because we would have had to transfer that money over to the special education fund and now it remains in the general fund. Am I am I correct in that? Okay, that was my question. So that's that's going to be helpful to these things like adding the reading specialists and things like that that we need
033to do. >> I do think that it's not as simple as just saying that we have 500,000 additional though because we're also >> declining enrollment >> and we also were hoping that we would receive more than 325 >> as the bing process is working. But I look at that as factors change in the budget. You're right. But I mean those factors would have been there and anyway and so if if we hadn't got the increase in special ed aid we would be looking at a much tighter budget. Yes is correct. >> Any other questions before I keep going? >> Oh yes. So, uh, I see on here the 8% budget increase to health insurance plans, but I thought when we did the CPI, the full CPI, I thought we weren't going to do the 8%.
034Isn't that what we talked about? >> Yes. Mr. Heaid asked me about that as well. And I'll be honest, I wasn't 100% sure exactly what to put as the number in there because there was a lot of board discussion back and forth about how that looked and the official motion did have the the 0%, but the committee is going to be meeting in October and still has an opportunity to consider adjusting that and pivoting with what is in there. What I used for the budget is just what what happened last year and then how are we moving forward this year. We did have a lot of staff members that decided not to take our insurance moving forward with the health insurance change. Um, so from an expenditure standpoint, it it was less of a impact
035than what was approved because we had staff members who decided not to take insurance in January. >> So that brings me to my second question on that. How much is that 8%. How much do we think that is going to be? >> So with our loss ratio of health insurance, um, we know that it's going to be more than 8%. So the committee will have to decide what changes in the plan to make it less than whatever the board decides to approve. So the the p the board approved the insurance from January to December. So that rate is known from July 1st to December 31st. And then whatever the board approves in likely October or November for the insurance will be the final marching order of the health insurance budget. >> You're just looking for
036like a number. How much is 8%. >> In other words, 8% of what our annual budget is now. What is it? What is that? >> So 8% of our bud let's just say insurance is $3 million. looking at less than $250,000 because it's broken over two fiscal years. >> It's still quite a bit of money >> with without getting too far into that because we've spent a lot of time on that in the past. Um we're we're still catching up as it relates to that. We're we're still catching up from some of our past very large CPI raise years that we've had. Um, we're catching up on bus purchases that we got behind on because of how we paid for those CPI raises. We delayed replacement cycles on buses. Um, that was one of many
037things we did. Um, yeah, we have we again we're going to have a hard discussion on insurance. It doesn't look like our renewal or our our I'm looking for the right term. doesn't look look like our usage has dropped at all and our rates again are going to come in not so pleasant and we're gonna have some hard discussions to have again. But on a plus side, some of the decisions we made last year are starting to look like we went in the right direction. And yeah, we uh we definitely need to be very conscious of the budget because some of the things that are probably in our future we're going to have to pay for and we're going to need the adequate fund balance to do that. So that that's one we're definitely going
038to have to focus some on. Not that we need to remove it, but it it's definitely uh something we need to look at because as we've talked in the past um when we renew CPI and we had that discussion this spring, we did that with the idea that we'd stay flat and that we can't continue to spend more and spend more and spend more because we know what's coming and there's nothing great insurance wise looking at us in the future. So >> I mean that's almost two buses right there. >> Yeah. >> Pays for it. So >> yeah, >> if we have to do that and our budget is that tight and we go back buses again or something. >> Well, that's not really a very optimistic look to go that route again. So yeah,
039that that one's probably not going to be coming in in the future, but um I understand why you had to put a number there. Um, but that's an that's a discussion I guess we'll be having this fall. So, >> okay, >> thanks. >> Can I keep moving? >> Okay. Uh, next referendum information. It's really important to talk about the $1.3 million annually that that can be levied for projects as approved in that particular question in 2018. This year the high school roof and the middle school roof were part of that puzzle. Should be no surprise. We've been doing roofing work the last several years with those dollars and that's what those funds are used for. So I will keep going. Uh grant information. I just I put the federal budget in there just so you
040can see what programs entail with that. The one that I did remove out of the federal budgets this year is ESSER funding. You remember we had rounds one, two, and three for ESER funding. Those were exhausted last September. Always, you know, brought to the board for approval, but those are not a part of our budget. So, when you see federal revenues going down, you remember I said we didn't see a reduction in federal revenues. If somebody looks at the package, that's not true. Look at how much it went down. Well, it's because of the down on the Esser, which we knew was one time funds that were there. These other programs have been standalone programs for several years that we had access to be able to use. And then each each year I put the
041budget that is there and I think the really important line in there is the last one where it says no, the primary increase or decrease to funding of grants is related to carryover of funds not spent in the prior year. So those grants will have a carryover that they allow you to spend and they put that in the wise grants with the portal where then you have to access it in prior years. Usually there's a restriction of how much you can carry over for how long and we make sure that we spend it when we can. And part of the benefit of ESSER was we were able to use that first instead of some of the grants second. And that makes sense because you knew we were going to lose that. Now, they're telling all
042of us, make sure you use as much of your federal funds every year as you can just in case that also gets eliminated so you don't get caught up in, well, we thought we were going to get X, but we didn't get Y because of a change in how the federal government shares funds with the state, then back to us. Uh, I really don't have anything besides just to remind you, we have 15 municipalities. You'll hear that in October. But there's a lot of municipalities that are impacted by the school district's budget. I don't have anything else to share of the the narration of revenues and expenditures. The the next page is talking about debt. We have no debt. The op liability, the board has done an awesome job of trying to not have unfunded
043liabilities. Even though this year the board approved a sick leave payout addition to our certified staff, it's not going to impact the annual budget because we can use our postemployment benefits fund to pay for those expenditures. Fund balance that was an increase of last year and that was not a surprise to because of two major things. We had a staffing change last year right as the fall started when we had an administrator leave. That was a big reason for that. And then the insurance change that I mentioned with changing a lot staff members decided not to take her insurance. So that you know was a budget point but was not used. Uh this number here continues to creep up just a little bit each year. The fund balance is 14% of our general and special
044education funds that is in the key performance indicators or our continuous improvement plan. And as that number slightly ticks up, it's less money that needs to be borrowed in October. You will still be presented with an option to improve cash flow line of credit. We will need that to meet the timing of our revenues and expenditures. I wanted to bring this up. I had a typo on the enrollment page. Um, for the middle school, I put 551. It's actually 531 students uh from the sheet. That's my fault. I just I need cheater glasses. I just missed it. So, that's my fault. Bless you. The enrollment changes almost every day. You know, may maybe that's too much of a generalization, but there are student changes that happen all of the time. And this is just what
045we knew at the time of putting together the packet. Looking into the past into the future, you can see that we are anticipating declines in enrollment. The hardest part about enrollment projections is one year's really shouldn't be your baseline for what happens. Perfect example of that, Mr. Luck and I are talking today. Mrs. Grey knows this very well. We have seven four carers at church this year, right? And we have how many kindergarters right now? 20 >> 24. So those four carers go up to kindergarten. Last year we had a lot of four carers and then you they go to kindergarten. So that doesn't mean we're going to have seven four carers, you know, hopefully moving forward every year. And if that would happen, well then you would know share about it. Usually you need
046a three-year trend of that's what happens. So just enrollment is what it is right now but we wanted to share that where the number of students are and you will see this again during the third Friday count as well. This is the longitudinal um history of levies since 1984. Just we put this in every year. kind of gives people a perspective of where things look at. This isn't I did not copy this in color, but I think if it's it's colored online and maybe in your packet, the if it's not the low line is the the district, we've almost always been below the state average of the tax. So, New London has done a really good job of equalized tax. Just going to flip back here and I want to show you a couple components
047of expenditures because that will show you a couple pieces of the puzzle. So in the special pro you look at the increase in expenditures, the general fund changed by about $300,000 and then the special projects fund increased by the 500,000. that is related to our expenditures to record for the fitness center project. The last year we recorded the revenue as a receivable and then this year we're recording the expenditure to pay out for the equipment. So yes, there's a increase in expenses but that's to pay out what we needed to for the project and then that's reimbursed by those donors that have to do that. So you did you um establish fund 49? >> We I when I talked to the auditors, they wanted us to use the fund 21 instead because it's a yes.
048>> I know you talked about yes >> to it was a meeting in April whatever the school district. >> So how much because I think that's complete now, isn't it? >> Yep. Yeah. So how much of that money was actually cash that came in and how much did the school district front strength center complete you know there's there's three different components of fun funding that there's actual contributions and there's pledged >> we just had that chat the other day. >> Yep. So, we recorded $107,500 as a receivable, and that means that's how much we needed to receive as pledges that came in. Now, this September, I build for $32,500 and then one of the donors said, "I want to pay it all." So we actually after this fiscal year will have $63,000 left to to
049receive as pledges and 48,000 of that comes from one donor. >> So the the project is basically the district loan. >> Yeah. Yeah. 63,000. I know we were talking about 25,000 back in that meeting in in April and it was kind of confusing when you're doing the numbers because >> at that time it seemed like you were using pledged numbers as actual cash in >> I think we were okay with it because of the purchase power right now of today's money over delaying >> what's that >> I said I my understanding we were all okay advancing let's say because of the pricing the buying power now I'm I was just kind of curious how much debt uh you know >> I think it seemed insignificant kind of >> and actually I was I was impressed
050that we're as far along on >> collections of those of those pledges that we are. So that that was a a positive surprise. >> So really after this year we'll have just a little over 60,000 back. >> Okay. Um, I have one other piece of the puzzle I wanted to share. The spending increase. >> Can I ask one question about the grant section? >> Yes. >> Um, probably more generic than what you outlined, but is there any like what are where are we at with our co-op with grant writing as far as the city chambers? We have >> one grant that we're waiting on for the mapping uh software to map uh basically the landscape of each school. It's a grant for approximately 30 some thousand. So that's we should be finding out relatively soon.
051Um hasn't been awarded yet, but that's that's what's on the table right now through that process that was helped facilitated by picking and the high school staff. So is there anything else like is one person in charge of like funneling the ideas towards them or are they seeking out on their own or >> so Payton is doing a great job of putting stuff out to our admin team putting stuff out to >> myself as well our admin finding >> yeah she things are we're pushing resources back and forth to say might this be something if we have an idea that comes forward let's say like on playgrounds or something like that >> um we could say we're interested in something on playgrounds dive into it, see what you can find. So, that's the current dialogue
052that's happening with uh so it's been a positive um process. So, we're hopefully we'll get this grant that we've applied for. >> The last expenditure note was on the capital projects fund and this is where the stadium at Bulock Stadium restroom and bathrooms is coming from. So, that is an increase in the expenditure as well because the board approved the project. So it's budgeted for the capital projects fund. So it comes out of this fund balance that's in there of $1.4 million for the project. So two of the big expenditure components are items that are one coming from a fund balance the 146 to pay for the project and the other one is coming from a bill that we paid for the fitness center project but is being reimbursed over the next few years from
053the donors if that makes sense. Joe, while you're on the topic of the capital improvement funds, um any capital improvement funds that are uh uh that are in that fund at the end of the fiscal year, the beginning of a new fiscal year, is that go towards our fund balance? >> It does not. >> No. So we can't count that as even though it's money that we have in the bank that we're not currently using. It does not we're not credited as part of that 14%. >> No, because the statute requires it to be segregated into a fund because when it's segregated and funds are deposited in there, you receive state aid on that expenditure going in. >> So they don't want you to get it twice by having it in your general fund. That's
054all I have unless some of you have more questions. Uh again, there's the supplemental materials. There's different ways to really look at the same thing at the end. I really appreciate all of your questions because it helps the community too that will review this and and just listen to what is talked about because if you just look at this alone, you might not always know the details. I just have kind of probably more of a point than a question, but um as you're out and about uh people maybe uh in the community augling like what the neighbors down the street might have. Um and overall New London's operating budget is what like 37 million 38. Okay. >> Um whereas like a Hortonville is 70 something, right? Like I just think people forget we're not the
055same, right? like we don't have the same funds available, but I think we do a really good job of what we do have of getting the most out of it. >> It's hard to compare when you drive past, but like we're not working with the same kind of numbers, you know? So, uh, Joe, if I'm if I'm reading this right, um, even though the 325 additional revenue limit per pupil that normally we get in equalization aid, but this year is not going in equalization is going basically uh, into the into the tax levy. In spite of that, am I reading this right? We're still under six mills. U on any given taxpayers bill it's g taxes will be under six mills. Is that correct? >> Yes. I think that's an excellent number because when I
056came on this board I think we were close to 10 you know so uh I think over the years you know your staff has done a good job. The board has done a good job being very thrifty with taxpayers money. I think it's safe to say then as a nonpartisan and we have this conversation when we get closer to December that um this is a projection of an overall average of all 15 municipalities as we know it and if it were divided equally with the individual reassessment of properties you know throughout the 15 minutes this amount everybody won't always be at that 5.5 you know five it could fluctuate depending on reassessments within but as a district as a whole as an overall average Yes, 5.55 is is where we're at. >> I I will
057take this time to compliment Mr. Markwood on the excellent job you do on on coming up with the budget every year and generally our accounting that's second to none. Um while we differ in opinion from time to time on individual items, >> we do a stellar job. >> Thank you. Hold on. >> Roll right into the next meeting. >> Rolling into the next meeting. We uh establish roll call and >> uh pledge of allegiance. >> Before we start, is there any p any interest in public forum with members of our community? Any come forward? >> Okay. >> All right. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> What time do we
058have up there? >> 6:52. >> All right, moving right into the consent agenda. If I can, I would like to combine A and B with the approval of minutes from the regular meeting of Wednesday, August 13, and the approval of the minutes from Monday, August 27th. If there's no objections, um, do I have a motion to approve? >> I'll make the motion to approve that. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Um, C and D are going to be in close session tonight. Uh, moving into reports. Scott, you have your calendar. >> Thank you. >> Wait, C and D. >> C and D are both going to be close session items. >> Uh board members of the month of September. Tonight we're at our regular annual
059meeting, regular board event meeting tonight on the 10th. Uh noting that uh we will have our special meeting on the 24th. As we roll into October, uh we'll keep that same cadence of the second Wednesday of the month on the 8th and then note our special meeting on the 22nd. I believe there's five Wednesdays in the month of October. So, everybody gets a break at the end of the month there with an extra week within before we move on to the month of November. Um I know Charles will be commenting on some of the other items on our calendar as well. uh to my report uh just to give some brief highlights of where we've been since the last time we've gathered in in August. Our all school convocation took place on the 26. Thank
060you to board members that were able to attend and be part of our welcome back to our our staff. uh great sessions that were presented uh reflecting on our continuous improvement plan and work of our subgroup and really setting the stage of expectations and success for all students as we move into the new academic year. Uh just highlighting again as all board members are knowledgeable of our hires throughout uh the past several months as we prepared for the beginning of the year. uh just publicly noting and welcoming our new administrators and certified uh staff members that are joining us in leading our students in their respective areas as well. Um September 2nd we started our academic year as all are very aware of with our staggered start with our freshman and our fifth graders and
061uh selected grade levels at the elementary and then flip-flopped on that day two. Uh our staff were outstanding in the sense of uh getting the the wheels going, if you will, and uh we're excited to bring our students and staff back. Uh just a shout out as well to our transportation department on the the first couple days in which uh can be a little hectic at times for our newest riders and sta students and staff as some processes and routes change. uh the marshes if you will down at the garage did a great job as well as our drivers making sure that families were informed. Uh our drivers were um ready to roll and the students arrived safely and found their way back. So well done by all facets of our organization. our STEP program.
062Tomorrow morning, uh we will be kicking off uh just a late breakfast with our STEP workers, our senior tax exemption program, which is led by Patty Gman. Uh we know our step workers are supporting our classrooms and teachers and buildings in great ways through that volunteering, which also comes with a um exchange of tax relief as noted in your board report. Um, if you know of individuals that meet the qualifications, uh, feel free to have them reach out to Patty or myself to be part of that opportunity. And lastly, looking at our B212 extra degree of effort that, uh, um, like to highlight, uh, Wade Bergwin and, uh, Chris Burbridge of our our system engineer and assistant technology individual of Chris. Uh, no easy task every year, as Mr. Margaret mentioned, you know, purchases and
063updates of technology as well, other systems to ensure uh fiber optic breakthroughs that take place, you know, in and around the area that stress our system to make sure that we are able to communicate and function um on a regular basis technology wise. Thank you, Wade. Thank you, Chris. Our staff thanks you as well as getting them up and running for the academic year. Any questions for myself? Um, we could just add the policy committee meeting, right? >> Yes. The policy committee meeting, I believe it's on the 29th and the connections will be on the 17th. Yes. Committee members that are knowledgeable are on those committees have been communicated that. >> Um, what was the date for connections? >> 17 or >> 18. It's the last it's a Friday. >> Okay. Yes. Right. >> September.
064>> Okay. and the 29th of September as well for policy. >> Y >> thanks Katie. >> All right, moving into C business services Joe Markquin. >> Two quick items tonight. The first is this has been a a discussion for each of the last Septembers with the school bus operations on their own. Now um state really wants to make an emphasis on individuals stopping buses that are stopped. They gave you some data of the alarming statistics of people passing buses when their stop arm is out. We talked to Mark um this afternoon and said if you could give me an average of how many times this happens. Uh he said right now definitely daily but he says as the year goes on it ends up being once or twice every few weeks where he said right
065now he he believes just generalization people aren't used to having buses on the road from June to September and now they're on the road again. They're just trying to we don't want to say relearn but just remember that we across the the state have buses on roads. So, we just it's really important that people aren't stopping because you know that there's people crossing. It can't always do side. They're crossing in front of buses as well. >> I I would say I'm in reading those numbers, I was quite shocked and u that that's that's depressing, but um in the future meeting that I know Scott and I are going to have with the Sheriff Tim Wells, I have an idea on on some maybe some enhanced enforcement or possibly some activity on that front. Maybe we
066should discuss with them. So, thanks. >> One note on that is Mark Marsh said that the Waka County Sheriff is incredibly responsive to whenever we have violations. They'll they'll catch it, they review it, they call, they make this the report, and the citations issued. Said that the county is doing a really good job. So that's a plug for them that when we report it if we especially if we have video evidence too they're definitely going to receive a citation. Second item uh again this has been in topic summaries for I mean sorry director reports for a number of years donation from Tigerton Lumber to our high school woods class this year was uh white ash and red oak. So that's awesome for that donation. Chris, thanks for helping. Always try to work through them to
067to make that happen. And we sent thank you letters to um them. Was it Sarah Morak? Is that her name? >> Sarah Morick. She's the comproller. Uh it's a new contact for us. They've had change in management over there. Uh so from last year to this year, I was a little worried that whether we would continue to receive support because they're obviously in a different school district, two districts, two or three districts over from us. But um uh they not only continued it but they doubled the the value of what they uh donated doubled the the board footage and the and the and the value as well. So >> board members remember that was the board's recognition of the uh business partner of the year last year. We recognize them. So continue thanks. >> Maybe
068we can get some pictures of the projects the kids do and then enhance our thank you mode this year. Yeah, >> I mean like you know the boys came home with like a really cool nightstand and >> it might be nice to see what happen what happens to it. >> Yeah, it's over $4,000 worth of value. >> All right, moving on to pupil services necessary board. Um um just kind of calling to light some of our staff um towards the end of their summer that they were very busy getting ready to share some of the training and um expertise that they have related to um non-violent crisis intervention and also CPR and we had a host of um staff you know training um all over the summer but um Danny Campba had led our nonviolent
069crisis intervention training which focused on posit behavioral supports. We had a good number of staff that took um part in those trainings on a couple days in August. And then um those same days, Annie Schmidt, um our physical therapist, she did um CPR and AED training. And then our um physical therapist, occupational therapist, and school nurse, they had come in this summer and um planned some rotations for instructional um for our um instructional assistants uh to do some training as well. So, just wanted to recognize um them and appreciate their time that they spent doing that this summer. And then so excited for our um youngest learners, our littlest bulldogs, the community connection. Those are the uh child sign screenings that we do during the school year. Those will be coming up starting next month.
070So, the first one will be October 10th from 9 to 10:00 a.m. at the library. So, um families children who are ages three to four to be sure to bring their child and that will happen every month. The first one is is coming up. >> Thank you much. Moving on. Teaching and learning services, Tamil McCarthy. McCartney >> McCartney. >> Sorry, I'm a little we'll get there. >> I'll get there eventually. >> You corrected yourself. >> Uh good evening, board. Um, I wanted to uh remind you of that September 19th third Friday that Joe brought up about four times during his budget because that's a really important date. Um, our enrollment counts happen that day. Um, and so if you have any buzz of anyone who needs to get enrolled, it's really important we get our
071paperwork done at that point. So I'm just going to bring it up again so that one more time cameras can hear us say if you haven't enrolled your child, we'd really like to make sure you got that taken care of that day. >> Would you say that we need attendance awareness for that day? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. So, that's coming up on September 19th. That has a fun to do with our budget. Um our staff this summer did some work to implement our UFly um resource and remember we've had conversations about ARC and need for that phonx and phenemic awareness um support that that curriculum needs and our K4 staff um completed training in UFly and have been practicing and implementing that now for the first seven days of school um and it is
072um going well. But I wanted to let you know that that is in place and our staff are using that at the moment. That training was a part of some work that some teacher leaders did. And this next section is really long in your packet and it lists a lot of teachers. And what I can tell you coming into a school district um is, you know, one of the things I'm looking for is is culture and trying to pick out those pieces that I can see are working really well. And one thing that's working really well in the new London School District is those groups of teacher leaders that are taking it upon themselves to have done the good research, to have done really good work and then to be spreading that work throughout their
073peers. There's nothing more convincing to a teacher is when another teacher tells them, "This thing is working and I think we should do it and here's why." And has those examples. So, some of those groups I worked this summer um that we had a group of K12 math leaders who started last year with the help of Jodie Peterson and Nan Pinch. That team met this summer to set out a professional development plan for this school year and we have a solid plan in place in order to continue with the movement with our math instruction. We have a group of um high school staff who last year went through training through CISA 6 on the disciplinary literacy. And disciplinary literacy is the idea that you read, write and speak in everything that you do. So it
074needs to happen because you have to communicate when you are building something. You have to communicate when you are doing math. You have to communicate when you are doing music or when you are in those English classes. and disciplinary literacy is a way to get students to interact in those fashions throughout all courses. So there's a group of teachers listed there who worked last year to learn those strategies and this year through their IE structure. Um they are going to be supporting their other staff members in implementing literacy strategies and practicing them with kids so that it becomes a a continual practice throughout the high school building which is a really strong practice. So, we have those teacher leaders. And the last one I'm going to highlight today is a group of 4K through fourth
075grade teachers who came together to start the work on developing a three-year strategic plan for literacy development within our district to make sure that what we have in place for literacy has a clear base. and we are moving forward and making changes and adjusting and looking at strong instructional practices as a way to make sure that we are keeping moving forward in our literacy instruction. I want to say thank you to all of those teachers because they have given up time, energy, um, and have been a wonderful mouthpiece for some best practices we want to see happening throughout the district. So, they deserve all of the recognition for that work. Please, if you see them, thank them for that. And then the last thing um I would like to add uh just a twominut it
076says five minutes but it's really going to be shorter than that um opportunity to be your teacher teaching and learning director also. So, school board, I would like to offer up to you that each schoolboard meeting, I would like to give you a very short glimpse into something that is educationbased that you may or may not be aware of because you don't work in the world of education every single day, even though you have your hands in it and you are a part of these conversations. There are things that are happening in schools here and across the nation that I just want you to um have a window into. So, I've chosen the first topic and we're going to talk about instructional coaching for just two minutes today, but then I want you to reach
077out if you have something that you'd like to learn more about or you have ideas, please let me know because I'd like to make sure that as the director of teaching and learning for the district, I'm including you in on that um in that benefit. So, today we're going to talk about instructional coaching. Instructional coaching is a researchbased strategy where a teacher is uh assigned a coach and a coach and teacher work alongside each other in order to make improvements for students. That seems like a really simple concept except for to find the human and the time in order to do that during a school day is often more of a challenge. In our district, instructional coaching happens from our administrators and from each other, but in a really informal manner. So there are some
078title teachers who work really strongly with our classroom teachers in order to improve practice. Our administrators are always giving feedback and offering support to our teachers as we go as they go through their day, as they go through their rapid cycles for educator effectiveness. An instructional coach. There are instructional coaches in other districts whose only job is instructional coaching. And those coaches are thinking partners and professional development partners for teachers. and their entire purpose for the district is to work alongside teachers. When a teacher has a goal, I want to increase this happening in my classroom, then that instructional coach works works alongside that teacher to improve practice together. There are many experts in this field. Jim Knight is an expert. Elena Eguiler is an expert. Diane Sweeney is an expert. Kathy Tol is an
079expert. You want to find any more information about that, let me know. But I wanted to just shed one little um one little area that I don't know that's been highlighted necessarily to this group of board members, let you know and ask that if you have another area you'd like to learn more about that you let me know. >> And you did the instructional coaching at your former job, right? >> I did. >> Yeah, >> I did. Yep. And it's happening informally, just not formally here. Does that make sense? Yeah. >> So where I was keeping records and I was doing a little bit more of that, it's just happening a little more informally. Yep. Any questions? >> Great. >> Thank you so much. >> All right, moving to our student board representative report. Mr.
080Sloan, >> good evening everyone. I would like to highlight some of the big events that have happened at the high school in the recent weeks as well as that will be happening. Starting off with freshman first day. On the first day of school, many clubs and activities were present with boards out in the hallway trying to recruit new members in the newest grade at the high school. As well as Bulldog peer mentors, juniors and seniors were um there in the morning to help welcome the freshmen, walk them around the school, and just make sure that they were comfortable in a new big building where they'll be spending the next four years of their education. We also have the Randy Mars strength and conditioning center at the high school that we have talked about tonight with
081a new early bird class there that has around 40 students that use the fitness center every morning as well as sports teams that can hold entire team lifts. Something that usually wasn't able to be done with old fitness center due to uh limits and the amount of equipment that was up there. Along with athletics, soccer has started undefeated and hasn't allowed a goal yet this season. So hopefully they can continue that throughout the season and make a strong um run in the playoffs. Girls golf is also in its first season this year, something that hasn't been a sport before at the high school but or has been growing around the state. Volleyball also has three teams this year, something that hasn't been done in a few years. So it just shows how the numbers are
082growing as well as the culture that the athletics are building around the school. Football has their second home game this Friday at Bull Stadium where the pep band will be playing pregame as well as halftime. Hopefully they can pull out a win against Shauno because I know the fans as well, the students are really looking forward to seeing them do that. Home cross or there's also home cross country meet at Hatton Park on September 20th which is the only home meet for the cross country team. There's a musical coming up where 50 students are making that cast crew and pit. It takes place October 10th through the 12th. It's called the pajama game. Um I'm a member of the pit and so I'll be down playing music. Hopefully many of many many of you are
083able to be there, but it's a fun time. Really grow, show off the skill that the music department has at the high school. Homecoming week is also coming up. It starts on September 21st with the hallway decorating and then also girls powderpuff is that night. Uh hopefully the seniors are able to win this year. Haven't we haven't gotten to win any of the other years, but hopefully this is our year. >> Did you say it's a Sunday night? >> Yeah, it's a Sunday night this year. >> So before homecoming week starts. >> Yep. No. >> Yeah. So, the weekend before the big dance at the end and then the week ends with the football game on Friday against Waka where the band will be playing at halftime and then the dance on Saturday which is
084open to all grades at the high school. >> Well, thank you much. Appreciate the report. >> All right, moving back to you, Joel. Okay, for vouchers this week, we are expecting our buses to arrive tomorrow. So that is a voucher that is there to pay for the buses as they arrive. And then ED Chase is another progress payment for the high school. We have a close out process that will take place as well. One more payment for that project. Highlights for the month. We did receive our August tax settlement since our last board meeting. So that is the biggest voucher or the biggest receipt for the month. And then also for the last several years there's that sales tax revenue sharing from Alagami County that we receive and that's the 50% of the the amount
085that they give us August and then usually in January February there's another portion that comes. All right. First, we are uh we're looking for a motion to approve expenditures in the amount of 1,573,881.13 as as per the list September 3rd, 2025. Roll call. >> I'll make a motion. >> Do we have a second? >> I'll second call. >> Roll call. >> Who was a second? Uh, Mark Rosson, >> yes. >> Nate Grundy, >> yes. >> Chris Martinson, >> yes. >> Andy Thorp, >> yes. >> Katie Battton, I'm a Yes. John Heman, >> yes. All right, moving on. and record receipts for the receipt register of September 3rd, 2025 in the amount of 2,38,41.31. Um, moving back into new business, are you wanting to speak again, Joe, or just go right? We can just uh take
086each each motion uh as appropriate as noted in lines A, B, and C with the roll call vote following each of the uh of the items that would be appropriate with a motion to second and then the roll call to approve. >> Yep. Noting some of the discussions we had and and future discussions that will come of it. Um looking for a motion to approve the 202526 budget for all funds in the amount of 38,3 3,390. >> I'll make the motion. >> Do we have a second? >> I'll second. >> Roll call vote on that. >> Uh, Nate Rundy, >> yes. >> John Haidderman, >> yes. >> Chris Martinson, >> yes. >> Andy Thorp, >> yes. >> Katie Battton, I'm a yes. Mark Gman, >> yes. All right, moving on. Approval of 2025 uh fund
08710. I think that's supposed to be 2526. Fund 10 tax levy in the amount of $10 million, $153,795. Looking for a motion. Motion. Do >> I have a second? >> And I'll second it. >> Second. again. Roll call. >> Chris Martinson, >> yes. >> Andy Thorp, >> yes. >> Katie Batam, yes. Mark Gman, >> yes. >> Nate Grundy, >> yes. >> John Heidi, >> yes. >> Uh, approval of 202526 180 levy in the amount of 130,000 even. I'm looking for a motion on that. So moved. >> I'll second it. >> Get a roll call. >> John Hidman. >> Yes. >> Chris Hortonson. >> Yes. >> Andy Thor. >> Yes. >> Katie Batton. I'm a yes. Mark Rosman. >> Yes. >> N. >> Yes. >> All right. Person to a section 19.85. 851c Wisconsin statute board
088of education will convene in close session to discuss the continued employment of certified support and co-curricular staff members over the wi over which the board has jurisdiction and exercise responsibility uh person to section 19.85 85. The board of educational will convene close session to discuss the employment and compensation of certified and co-curricular staff members over which the board has jurisdiction and exercise the responsibility in person to 19.85 Wisconsin statutes. The board of education will convene in close session for the purpose of considering personal information concerning financial, medical, social, personal histories or disciplinary data for specific persons except where B applies which if discussed in public would likely have a substantial adverse effect upon the reputation of any person referred to in such histories or data. Looking for a motion to go into close session. >>
089I'll make that motion. >> Roll call. Roll call on that one as well. >> Uh Katie Batene, yes. Mark Gman, >> yes. >> Nate Grundy, >> yes. >> John Heidman, >> yes. >> Chris Hson, >> yes. >> Andy Thorp, >> yes. >> 718 session. >> Very good. >> Thank you everyone for joining us tonight. >> What do I need for this? [Music] Thank you. Sounds like a lot of it seems like the busiest time to start