08132025 Regular BOE Meeting

001It is 6:00. We're going to kick right in with the meeting. >> Um, no public forum or is there anywhere? I don't see any. Um, everybody's present except um we will >> need >> Oh, is move her into pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right, moving into the consent agenda. E and F have been asked. We're we're going to deal with those in close session. >> Which ones are they? >> E and F. the >> approval of resignation of personnel and approval of employment of personnel. >> I was going to ask about the employment. >> And could I have a motion to accept A through D?

002>> I'll make the motion. >> I'll second it. >> All in favor? >> I moving on to calendar. Scott, >> good evening board members and guests and our visitors online watching tonight. Uh the calendar for the month of August is laid out for our school community to see. Obviously tonight we're here for our August special meeting. Uh just a highlight and I know there'll be further communications coming forward, but our staff development days uh which will be uh started today actually and we'll be forthcoming on the noted days. Um and board members when we get into uh any of our uh PD days are all welcome uh to join us at any time whether all entirety or just stopping in. Um within that our special board meeting will take place on the 27th of August

003at 6 PM here and then we roll into the month of September uh with the noted uh Labor Day and then first days of school um and then our regular meeting will take place on the 10th special board meeting on the 24th and just FYI our fall homecoming will take place at our high school celebrating all things bulldog on September 26. Any questions on the calendar as of now? >> Okay, thank you. Moving into uh my monthly report, several items uh to share and a lot of bulldog pride points that uh were recognized over the the summer come the culmination uh for the board to understand and learn about today. Uh the first uh the Johnny, you want to show the giant check? Okay. All right. Uh a check was issued to the school district

004in the amount of $19,200 uh this summer from the state of care medical center new London quasi endowment fund. uh a a great fund in which our local hospital has retained the ability to help um support our greater New London community and surrounding communities uh with funds to qualify or be a candidate for the the endowment fund. They must be a 501c3 nonprofit, meet the qualifications that are set forth in the the governing document of that. Uh the narrative shows just a you know wide variety of communities and organizations that were recognized for additional funds to support their initiatives. Uh very proudly our our district was recognized with five grants the bullet points additional on your packet to share additional purchases of EEDs. uh partnership funding to help support mental health services uh with students

005and families, little community, uh the new London High School physical education program, and a program called ruling our experiences, which is empowered to support young ladies within our ISMS. So, congratulations to all individuals of our district that took the initiative to advance their grants. Uh the picture does reflect uh a few of our members that were able to be there that day. Uh it was a very proud moment and we should uh be thankful and appreciative of those outside resources that support our community directly and indirectly uh through the care. So thank you. U just to highlight again as I earlier at our back to school in service the noted dates are there for uh board members to to recognize and be part of if you are interested in doing so. uh in the calendar

006as well was that staggered start back to school a verbal reminder to our school community. Uh we take uh the start of the school very serious in the sense of that transition of grade levels to give grade levels that direct instruct supervision and prep them for the year the beginning of the year and the days and grade levels in which and when they will be arriving is there for the community to recognize. Uh just this last week I received notice of the fall WASP regional meeting which uh some of our board members have attended through the years in recognition as well as two individuals that be recognized for their different levels of accomplishments over uh this past year in WASB. Uh John and Mark will be recognized as a level two level three recipient of

007active involvement within WASB. If you have an interest in participating on the regional meeting on the 23rd, board members, please reach out to me, uh there will be some regional voting that takes place for section 7 which we have uh if there is interest of uh nominations for that. Um there's a process which can be followed to represent our section 7 of WASB fall co-curriculars up and running. Uh, as many of you are aware, if you drive through town, you'll see students gathering uh outside the various buildings uh practicing uh preparing uh for all of the great excitement that will take place this next uh several months in the fall of the year, not only on the practice field, but within the schools and our clubs and organizations that are preparing for their co-curricular activity

008as well. Uh show choir has been hard at it as well as different clubs organizations with inside the high school as well as our athletic teams prepping uh for fall competition. Uh tennis has their first meet I believe this Saturday. So we're up and running with the fall co-curriculars. Uh the B212 extra degree of effort to put you on the spot but I want to say thank you. Okay. um two individuals that were formerly started our district operations uh in the month of July. Uh Tamila McCartney and Sarah Johnson. They have dove in head first. All right. To support our district and uh with people services, special education, and teaching and learning. Thank you for taking the bull by the horns, if you will, uh to be part of our school community. uh in service

009today with our new teachers uh prep preparing with our mentors earlier understanding our services for pupil services our staff uh both Tamala and Sarah have done an outstanding job to be prepared and work with staff for the start of the school year as well as our families that they are directly involved with. So thank you for that. Any questions uh on my report for the month of August or items that you'd like to share? Um, Scott, pardon my ignorance on acronyms, but what is >> AE stand for? >> That's the defibrillators. Those are the defiills. Yep. AED devices that support the >> defibrillators if somebody should be experiencing a heart attack. So, >> I think we have a donor about every other meeting, right? We we we are we are really >> equipping our spaces

010which is just on campus and off-campus places where we utilize from the bowling alley to Memorial Park to right >> our boardroom and everywhere in between. So that is tremendous. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right, Joe. Moving into director of business services report. >> Okay. Uh project updates but what I would call very exciting updates. Um, the Bulldog Stadium concession and bathroom project is off and running. You drove by yesterday. You may have saw the what we call track storage behind the the existing portaotties was getting moved. It's in its new location. Uh, they're supposed to come out uh hopefully tomorrow begin saw cutting the space so they can begin clearing out the existing asphalt, putting the fittings in. So, where what's the message? It's starting. It's really exciting for us. We're gonna keep

011pushing forward. We ask that if you get any feedback from anyone about inconveniences that they are temporary this year. We're going to do our very best to not impact any game experiences for our student athletes from our football and soccer program that will be out there. But as you know, if you're coming to the home side, you're going to be walking right past where that construction area is going to be. Uh, we've been communicating with the high school about putting a notation in our programs about the project and just kind of letting people know. I talked to Mr. Swma earlier this week. He's going to communicate uh the construction going around the stadium to the visiting teams as they come in the update. So, we're going to do our best to communicate and not impact

012uh the users of the facility, but anytime you have a big project going on, people are going to see things, ask questions, but hopefully everyone is knowledgeable about this project, we've been talking about it uh a lot. So, we're very excited. Second project that's undergoing or going on this week is the uh Randy Bar Strength and Conditioning Center. flooring is is going down up there as we speak this week. Uh they're doing a great job. They continue to work that team. I was up there today and they're really moving at a a very careful pace to make sure that the installation is really what needs to happen. And I appreciate that because yes, we want it done, but we want it done right. And when you take care and time, you get a better finished

013product at the end. So, I was glad when I was up there that they were really taking good care of making sure that rolling out the floor, cleaning the floor and putting those bricks on top of it um is going to provide the the integrity that we're looking for in the long run. And then the equipment is scheduled to come on Monday. I believe they told me at four semis. >> It's we got a lot going on at the high school right now. Not only like Mr. Lex said with our our co-curriculars going on and staff coming into buildings, we're really starting to get into busy season in all of our schools. So, I wanted to update you on that. Speaking of high school, they're also getting very close to finishing up uh the significant

014portions of our roofing project, not only at the high school, but also the middle school. There is some metal work that will go along on the edges um throughout I would I would say at least the next month. That's very normal. They get all the big work done. Um do all the asphalting up top, do the big things, get that equipment out of there, and then they'll come in with the metal work uh and finish up and then we'll hopefully uh not run into any snags either. They've done a really good job this year, both companies, of meeting deadlines and targets. Uh the other thing at the high school, uh you remember the board approved some flooring up there that is in the spaces. It looks great and we're very happy and appreciative of the

015board supporting that update in our our project plan. Um lastly, I wanted to share that we the asphalt projects that the board also approved where we did some seal coating also took place. Many of you can see that as you're driving around our schools and it looks great. Uh, another exciting development that I want to share with the board is we received a grant to update the well and pump that is out at Greenfield Elementary School. It's a grant through the DNR that we you can apply for. And if you qualify and you're awarded that grant, you can work with a contractor to update the well and the pump that's down there. And Hensky well drilling is hopefully coming this Friday or Monday to do that project. Um, so very exciting things that we'll be

016able to accomplish over the summer. And that's a really important thing for us to be able to do during the summer as you take those two months and just cram as much in as you can and continue to update our facilities for our students are returning here in a couple weeks. >> I'd like to give a firm pat on the back to Joe and Sager Services for uh taking a very creative approach and uh successfully moving the old press box and putting it on a new foundation pad out there. and it looks nice and some very very reasonable storage we can continue to have at our disposal. So, thanks much. All right, moving on to director of people services. >> Good evening, board. Um, I just have a couple of updates for you. Um the

017first is that our bilingual families had their registration this past week and two of our staff members had reached out to the families and um you know our offices are very near where they had them um visit and they worked so carefully with the families and they have amazing turnout and so um so thanks to them. I know they worked very hard to get so many families in and they were able to help many of them to get registered for the school year. So, that was um great to have happen again. And then also an update on our school-based mental health services. Um you may remember that we have been partners with uh Raw High Youth Services previously to provide um services within our schools. And so we are we have recently had some meetings

018about um continuing that for this coming year and expanding um access because the need is there for our students. Um and we also have an opportunity to bring along um uh cartwheel which is a new component and connected to the grant opportunity through the care that Mr. Black shared with you. um Aaron Marsh had applied for a grant and so partially that um is to account for us being able to expand there. So we have two opportunities here that kind of complement each other um and they'll be used in different ways for our students across the district, but we're feeling really optimistic about we should, you know, be in much better place to be able to um have greater access to schoolbased mental health services for our students and families this coming year. So yeah,

019questions. Okay, >> thank you. >> Time for the director of teaching learning report. >> Hi. Um, first thing we're going to talk about is that our Wisconsin board exam results are going to be handed out at the open houses that are coming up over the next week. So those paper versions of those results will be home to parents at that point. So our students will have the results at that time. Um and I think we're going to be starting alluding talking about those um but they're not fully released um public yet. The new thing this um summer was that over the summer we trained um 18 mentors in order to mentor our teachers here in the district. So they actually went through some of the DPI required training and then they worked hard to develop

020a mentor handbook that they are going to be using and that's going to help guide them through the year as they work to mentor their mentees um that they have been assigned. So, what's really nice about that is they own part of that uh work that we did and they um can use it to track what they've been talking about and I can peek in on them and make sure that if there's something that's out there that's needed uh we can react and we can take action on that. So, um some new mentors in the district. Today we had our new teacher in service and we invited all of our new teachers to come. They started out their day at their buildings with their principles and their mentors, those people I just trained up about

021a month ago and they spent the morning there and then Mr. Marsh uh with Mr. Black's help took them on a tour of the district to go see all of our amazing buildings and they came back to the high school. We treated them to some lunch and then we um introduced them to some district level information at the high school. So, they've gotten a little bit acclimated at this point. I'm sure the fire hose feels a bit strong at this point, but um they are they're getting there and we're helping them into that process. Summer school ended. Um gosh, I think like three seconds ago, right? Um I want to compliment Danny Kama and Josh Bernain and Mr. Sloma. Correct. Right. You were in the summer school. Okay. Thanks. I was thinking about that and

022I thought we double check uh for all of their great administration of that summer school. In your board report, it says we had over 400 students. I'm going to up that number now that I have more final numbers from those buildings to over 700 students that participated in our programming over the summer. And we had over 60 offerings of different courses to take. Everything from getting ready to 4K to show choir camp. And I hope you saw the random acts of kindness social media that was out there. That class really stepped outside of the um school environment and into that community to make a great difference. On the note of getting ready back uh for back to school, um Annne Pinch and her staff hosted getting ready for fifth grade. They had a record number

023of fifth graders come in for some pizza and time in that building in order to play with your locks and get to know your teachers and feel safe in that building without all the big kids running around. So that was a real success on August 6th. And then of course online registration is open um for families. So, if you know of anybody who hasn't gotten registered yet, folk them and have them hop on that system because I'm sure Leslie would like to make sure that you they she's got your information and we've got all of our ducks in a row so we can have all the supplies and things ready for the school year today. >> And the Rain group, they were on channel 5. That was really cool. >> That was very cool, wasn't

024it? >> Fortunately, we got here just as they were finishing up. >> So, >> did you say fortunately or unfortunately? >> Fortunately. And they were looking for people to interview and I had just got done mowing the lawn. So, >> but you had some lemonade. >> I did have some lemonade. Yep. And I got a rock and uh what else did we little sayings they had and that was really cool. >> They did some great things. >> Oh, how many new teachers? Sorry. >> You think I'd be able to say that number? >> Say we had 10. We had 10 10 today. Okay. 10 today. >> 10 n 10. Yes, it was 10 because Christina >> 10 today and we're a couple positions we're in the the midst of getting help. >> There are 26

025mentoring pairs, but that's because we mentor first year, second year, third year, and teachers new to our district. So, all of those people need a mentor, which means we have way more mentoring pairs than we had new staff. >> Yeah. Yep. >> Have the second year and third year teachers met their mentors yet? Do they know who they are? >> They know who they are. They've been introduced through email and most of them know the person because they have worked with them in some capacity over the last year. So they've been introduced via email but um if they've met they've done that on their own time. >> Thank you. >> All right, Joel. >> Uh the voucher highlights for the month. We have several of the projects that I just talked about. Garlet is who

026we buy material from for the roofs. DB Chase and Walsdorf were the two contractors for the roof. So, those were our significant vouchers for the month. Uh the facilities committee and I believe the board has also heard us talking about getting that van budgeted for and we have a van replacement for our transportation needs which is definitely needed. We were able to find a good match for us. It's a used van from Peterson Automotive. And then HJ Martin is the school flooring that I mentioned that was a project that was done. So that was just voucher highlights for the month and then a receipt to highlight was that's the last portion of the revenue we received from the WA Fremont school district 663 shared staff agreement that we have with that district. Are there any

027questions? >> Um can you remind us that van? Is that the one that we're replacing that died like a year ago? Like a minivan, right? Yes, we have a a blue van that is ready to be someone else. >> Uh looking for a motion to approve expenditures in the amount of 2,635,458.89 as per the list August 7th, 2025. >> Do we have a second? I'll second. All right. Uh, roll call vote. >> Katie Battton, >> yes. >> Mark Roman, >> yes. >> Nick Grandy, >> yes. >> Chris Martinson, >> yes. >> College, >> yes. >> Andy Thor, >> yes. >> John Tit, >> yes. >> All right. For receipts, record receipts from the receipt register of August 7th, 2025 in the amount of $252,55047. Nothing more to add, Joe? No, sir. >> Oh, cut it.

028Okay. Uh, no unfinished business showing. Moving on to new business. Budget hearing date. >> Uh, not next meeting, but the following meeting, our first meeting in September. We have our budget hearing which precedes our regular meeting in September. It's our common night that we share our budget update where we post the the budget. Then we also those booklets that we provide for the board, give to community members, and it really tells the story of where we were at, where we're headed, and gives updates to our community on our budgeting process. So, I wanted to share again that that night is September 10th. It's about 30 to 45 minutes of of me sharing a lot of things that many of you have heard, but it's really important for us to have that available for our community.

029Not in a physical document form that creates a taped meeting as well where people can go and watch and really learn where we're at with the budget. It's easy to hand out a piece of paper and say there's the budget, but it's also nice to be able to talk about it and really share uh the positives of where we're going, maybe some challenges we're looking at, and really gives us a a state of the state update of our budget. So, I wanted to remind you of that. I linked last year's booklet to your board packet. If you have anything that you would hope to see or want questions on or clarifications, please let me know. We can definitely incorporate that into something you're hoping to see into that time meeting. Any questions? >> All right,

030Scott. in the review of continuous improvement strategic plan. >> Board members, uh in your prep materials, uh the continuous improvement plan was presented for your review. Uh annually, we look at the outcomes of our efforts of the past year. Uh tonight, uh just want to take a few minutes and and move through this document and highlight the different areas and where we scored. uh noting that we have now have outcomes in all of our indicators of success uh component areas and how that reflects of our efforts over the past year. I'll try to scroll along up on the on the screen as well as you page through uh the the document if that would work. Uh just as a as a very high level uh when we look at our district state report card, we

031continued um within the meets expectations mark as a district. Uh we did regress back a few points in that overall uh range, but we continued to uh meet that mark within learning and achievement. uh we scored a four uh within our academic uh indicators of success uh of the hard work that was put forward this past year. We'll get into a little greater detail within that. Operational and uh financial and operational stability, we scored a three. Last year we scored a three overall as well. Uh safe, orderly, and healthy, we scored a four out of five. Last year that was a five. And lastly, engaged and connected. Again, that's the area where we're focused in on our feedback from our stakeholder groups um from students, staff, parents, and community. Last year, we scored a two.

032This year, we increased uh to a three within that overall category. U board members are familiar with the percentage breakdowns as it pertains to uh how that ranges into the overall score. the the next several minutes I'd just like to go through uh the various uh in individual items and talk specifically and if there are questions that come up uh we can most certainly certainly address that as we move forward as I stated earlier in the district report card this was pretty self-explanatory uh with where we were uh last year in comparison to to this year we range in that three meets expectation uh celebration coming from that excuse my moving it around um with a score of 62.8. Last year, I believe we were at at 60 we were at 66.3 within that academic

033score. This year, that that score will again show up in the month of November and we'll reflect back on that as pertains to our academic achievement from this past year. Learning achievement specifically, uh again, we ranged as a four overall. Uh the first one was the preac secure and just for a quick reminders that's that uh test that all freshman and sophomore take which is a preac just as the name states and um gauges their readiness to take the ACT. This was one of the few that uh just dipped just slightly within the range. Uh our score this past year was at 18.2. Last year it was at 18.9 um but still within that range of a four of our targets and what we're looking to achieve uh learning achievements in college and career ready.

034So what this states is that we look to have all of our students prepared and ready to take on what is next after high school. Our our uh score this year increased uh from 83% in 2324 to 90% graduates have passed at least one course or experience postsecary career readiness course which is outstanding. We talk about this continually how we want to prepare our students for the future and bring that forward. We just met that um exceeds expectation mark at 90% which which is great. Our high school will continue to strive to work on the preparedness as we move forward. learning achievement in the area of I Ready literacy and if you remember last year we were talking about growth and our continuation that conversation from our school report card was in growth as well

035noting that was one of the areas where um there's room for improvement to do that within our ranges within and the targets that we set uh from last year to this year. This last year we had 138% of students in grades eight uh K through eight range at that percentage of growth. Uh that's the number four within our matrix that we've had. Last year we are at 133% and again that is on the growth component which our focus was for into math. Excuse my moving this around quick. Um again staging uh the growth factor that we were looking for. Uh this last year we ranged at 131% of students in grades K8 during 2425. We're at that growth factor compared to 121 during 23 24. Again positive directions forward and overall I ready growth scores

036as a district with where we were compared to last year. ACT. ACT is that high school assessment which we look at all of our juniors take. Uh often compared against the state and how we relate. Our ACT uh as communicated out a month or so ago continued to go up. Overall composite score which when we look at all the different components increased to a 21 for this past year which is outstanding up 210 from 20.8 last year. uh the point of interest that is acknowledged over the past three years, we've shown a 1.5 increase overall within our overall composite score which is which is good and we continually strive to be at state average andor above and our students are taking those opportunities to demonstrate best results. >> Scott, quick question. Uh you said that

037the preac and the ACTU uh on this report reflects the one we did this spring, not the one correct done last year. >> Yep. This spring. >> But the assessment test still reflects uh what came out uh last November. >> The district report card was last November. Yes. >> Okay. >> Yep. No problem. >> Uh financial operational stability. Uh the other uh another thread of which is very important to us overall. We scored a three of meeting expectations. that sustainability planning. Our facilities committee works diligently to recognize where we are at our 10-year plan uh was recognized with that five-year future ready plan in place, review adjusted annually. The board itself continually talks about that document within uh to meet our obligations and requirements to stay on top of our facilities within. Uh the next

038is fund balance. really need a mouse here. Almost there. Hang on. There we go. Fund balance. Uh this is the positive although the score is two. All right. We saw an increase of fund balance that was added um this year. un audited fund balance of 4.59 million representing 14% of our operating budget um during the fiscal year. Additional 225,000 was added to fund 46 as board took action on that last year. As far as overall percentages of fund balances compared to last year to this year uh relationship from 13% to 14%. So it is uh continu it moved up a percentage point in relationship to overall fund balance which is which is good. Bond rating uh this is one that poses a a discussion potentially. Um so our bond rating uh because we are debtree

039as a district. Okay. Presents uh an opportunity uh potentially to look at another financial indicator or just remain where this would be in place. So we are rated for bonds when we have debt and we need to when it is out there to be analyzed and reviewed with no debt analyzation uh this past year our bond rating remains the same as where it was from the previous year as a a rating of A2 or a two on the score within that kind of a double-edged sword. We're debt free, but our bond rating was where it was when it was last evaluated at that time. >> Any idea how long ago that was? >> Last year. >> So each year we receive a report from Moody's when you have debt. If you do not have debt

040to get your rating update, you can pay to do that. And in talking with Mr. like as we prepare this tonight, we didn't feel like we should make a decision without talking too much about that. So, the the pay for the rating would be about $3,3500 to get maybe the same, maybe something different, but since we're don't have debt out right now, does it make sense to be rated? That's really where the point of conversation is. It's still good to be knowledgeable of a rating, but it maybe doesn't make sense to spend the money when we're not going out for debt. If we would go and borrow money for a project right now where we would take out bonds, especially if it would be a significant amount, we would be required to be rated by

041an agency, whether it's Moody's or Standards and Pors, we would get a rating update from that and that's part of when you take out a bond. You have to pay for that. There's a rating call that happens. So, in our opinion, it's up to the board to decide if you want to leave it, adjust it, but paying the $3,000 maybe doesn't make sense at this time since we don't have debt and we would have to pay for a rerating anyway if we took out. >> So, you can just wait until you need it. >> Yes. >> I would say we suspend this indicator until we have a until we have a bond rating. I wouldn't spend the $3,000 to just to get a get a bond rating and just put an asterk next to it

042that, you know, the last bond rating was this. And it'll it'll become a key performance indicator again next time we're in a position to to to have a bond rating because it doesn't it doesn't make any sense to to have an indicator of something that doesn't exist, you know. Well, and given our history and the likelihood of future bond ratings, it's kind of an irrelevant indicator. In our in our situation, yes, there's districts this would be very much a a relevant indicator, but in ours, it really doesn't add any value in my opinion. John, John, I uh I like what you're saying, Mark, except that I I think rather than suspend the indicator, we should put into the indicator how debt uh how debtree we are as an as an added measurement because uh >>

043what do you mean how debtree like a >> Okay, so like right now >> we should get points on the on the fund balance thing for being debt free. If our debt is really low, debt to assets is is really low, it should be maybe a little less points, but still get some points. >> The you know, because it's it's very rare. Uh if you if you look around the state, and Joe would probably have a better handle on this than me, I don't think very many districts are debtree. And I don't I don't think very many districts have carried the low percentage of debt that we have carried the last few years. >> That was my first thought, Chris. >> But I've seen where being debtree is a detriment, especially with municipalities and rather

044than borrow money, they would wait until they save the money to do something. And all they did is they kept getting behind in their in their in their projects. And so >> because they all cost more by then. >> What's that? >> Because the projects all cost more by the time they saved or what? >> Well, they just they can't save it quick enough, >> you know, and and um and so the road gets that much worse, you know, and then yes, it costs that much more to to do it. Um so it it can it can work in a negative from a negative standpoint, too. But I because I thought the same thing, you know, we should give ourselves a little boost for being being debtree. you know, as long as we're still able

045to um keep up with the things like we're we're doing roughs when they need to do and and and that. >> I don't understand the point of the indicator if we don't if we still have to get a rating to start the next uh like why why is this in there? Does anybody know? >> Well, because we had debt when this was put together and we had a bond rating, >> right? So it shows the overall financial stability of >> which I'm fine with that. I'm I'm more on what you guys were saying like let's give ourselves some credit for that less. >> Yeah. I mean if if we if we just uh consider changing this measurement not not completely eliminating um the key performance indicator but um but adding in a positive uh posit

046value and I I'm not prepared to say what that would be but just uh uh because it doesn't make sense that we would get marked down for being debtree totally doesn't I would actually just jump in on that I understand where you're going with it but we kind of we kind of have an indicator that speaks to that and that's fund balance and the higher we go with fund balance the better we're able to bridge the gap in our funding. I mean, the the the hope is at some point we get to the point where we do we do not have to do any short-term borrowing to bridge that gap. So, the fund balance really really kind of speaks to that same thing without adding another metric that we'd have to do more research on

047to come up with that number every year. I I could see I could see suspending this until such that time that we do have debt and and and a uh >> shortterm borrowing doesn't come into play here though does it? It's only it's only for the like the capital project, >> right? I'm just saying we're kind of putting a number to what you're talking already, Chris, >> by our fund balance. >> So just so just cross out bond rating as long as we don't have to issue bonds, >> put it back in >> when we do say suspended, you know, >> and if we're going to use that weight >> somewhere else, >> I would just assume we used it on the fund balance. >> Yeah. and weight the fund balance that much heavier because

048because that pretty much speaks to the same issues. >> Yeah. >> Okay. We will suspend the suspend that then if that makes sense. >> Anybody have else have any thoughts on that? >> Good idea. >> Okay. The next uh deals with our financial audit uh which took place a week and a half ago this last year when we had our auditing report out. We had finding one to two findings through the audit which is outstanding in that sense as Mr. Markwart shares from his report. Um we're always uh have one that will come forward and that's a segregation of duties just with our size and um how many eyes look at a document. Uh auditing will always want more eyes on certain documents. It's not that we're doing things incorrectly or wrong. Um it's just

049a business industry standard that acknowledges um that as a finding. So overall a four last year was a four as well. >> So we'll never get a five >> unless we add staff to segregate more duties of responsibilities would be >> well then maybe we should change the to 2011 to two and then because if it's it's you know it doesn't make sense to have Well, >> with zero findings. >> That's okay. Well, I just that's just just my opinion. That's the industry standard, you know, with so >> Joe, do you care to speak to that one? >> This is the board's we don't have time to talk about it. >> We will keep doing you know what findings will part of auditing is a compliance and review of what you do. I think auditing

050firms want to find something. Yeah. Because it helps you continuously improve as an organization entity whether you're profit or nonprofit. It's you want to get better. So I think having it as a four helps us continue to be we got to keep doing a good job. We cannot let it get lower. A five is perfect. We're not perfect. You know, there could be findings every year based upon a different auditor. They could determine I'd hate to see us change it and be like, well, we get a different auditing firm and they put something in that the other one never said anything about and then we're not doing anything different, but then we look worse. So, I just feel like we're okay with where we're at. >> You guys are auditing associates. >> Yes. Y correct.

051You can put some chewing gum under your desk and they can find that and they can pick you for that. >> All right. Uh the next uh and our final uh financial operational stability is on the the quest to decrease the percentage of open enrolled students that are going out and bringing that curb or narrowing that that gap between. In 2024 25 that gap expanded okay uh to 18 where last year it was six. So in a a score of ranking that through it's a score of one. Okay. We went in a negative direction last year to this year. Um just one caveat to to share this. This is a really difficult one to to to share true results because um we have families that open enroll and then they move into our district. Okay.

052We have families that have never gone to school here. um at say the 4K kindergarten and they may go to open enroll to another district. Okay, not making excuses in any way, shape or form in this but those elements of of the family dynamics how they come in and out. Um don't always tell the story, you know, but we've agreed upon this is the gap that we want to work on and regardless we need to continually work on strategies to narrow that gap down. That gap grew last year from last year to this year. >> Alternatively, uh there's a new family that bought a rural house out by Manawa and they're driving their kids all the way to London and they had three kids and it was just based on PR what the realtor said

053and I truly think >> have we I'm not on connections anymore, but I didn't we talk about like redoing the paraphernalia for um >> I'm glad you brought that up. >> Like for real. I just feel like are did we ever did we ever talk about like revamping just that little one sheet or even if it's a link >> um because there's some perception out there and the shining object is farther away and we we I still will say from us moving here how long ago that we have a lot of good things going on and I don't know how well we're telling the story. >> Right. >> Okay. Feedback. Um, >> I agree. >> I think we could do a little bit more, especially on social media. Getting our name out there. >> I

054mean, they lit up to drive >> a couple thousand dollars goes a long ways on Facebook just >> their connections met what Scott, >> it's been it's been a while. It would be a good >> good idea to bring that group together. I agree. >> They're like literally driving past and at some point you would think that commute like is it worth the trade-off? Like what sent you over here? That was the the shiny metal object. But um and maybe that's worth a phone call too. I don't know. But somewhere the story might be getting lost. >> Are you still connections? >> No. >> I am both you. >> We can make a note to circle that troop or that group up that >> there's something else that's going to be up later on the

055agenda that I was going to bring it up. >> Okay. Or do you remember we even talked about a couple years ago in connections like actually inviting realtors and having like a thing on like a board packet like an overview about it. >> I think we did something like that. >> Well, not in the five years I've been on, but I was just saying maybe it's time to re recycle that idea. >> Okay, great feedback. Appreciate it. Uh moving on to the next indicator is safe, orderly, and healthy. And what this tracks is the major referrals all right within uh the district from K12 uh during the 2024 25 academic year 94.3% of students of grade 12 did not have a major discipline incident uh classified school suspension out of school suspension expulsion uh the

056year prior was at 97.8%. That still marks well within that's a four uh for us as a district rank uh safety survey uh looking at how we feel and the perception of safety within the district. 95% of staff responded they agree or strongly agree they feel safe at school. uh spring staff check-in survey was that indicator that was out within uh we had 95% of staff previous year was at 97 uh percent. So our staff continually feel we're preparing and creating environments safe orderly where they are working. Safety planning and processing talks about our requirements of our uh annual evaluation of our crisis plans and our accountability of act 143. All safety plans exist uh reviewed annually. Safety audit is completed. Last week uh New London Police Department was in and did their annual walkthroughs

057within our district to ensure we are continually on the watch for best practice. Uh safe orderly and healthy again. uh the moderating uh this is one that is more so uh through the business office but ultimately is a reflection of of our district and what that is lower number is better is what we strive for. Uh this last year's moderating on employee safety within slips, falls, uh work comp has played into that was 94 for 2425 compared to 87 uh the previous year. Just point of reference, our lowest that we had ever score was 77 a few years back in 2021. um that is a direct indicator of uh financial contributions because it's a non-negotiable if I'm not mistaken in our insurance renewal premium for our facilities and organization. So having low bod rate pays

058dividends back on our financial contributions to the district engaged and connected. This took on a different look this year as we uh set the table last year through our survey. We had fall and spring assessment of school perceptions. Uh the board was communicated that this year we would look at evaluating the indicators of success within each of the areas to come up with composite scores how it ranked. First ones was with uh students. Okay. looking at student engagement overall and uh their average score was 3.12 when we looked at those um indicator connections of connections, learning environment and experience. And again, that was a survey that was assessed in grades five through um 12. Students in 5 through 12, our elementary youngest learners did not take that. So, as a leadership team of our district,

059we strategize ways to continually improve that. Um, as you remember the conversation last year with cell phones taking a different approach in the district. I think that still plays into some of that uh opinion from our student body. But us as board members, school leaders and community, we know that uh that right decision was made to support an appropriate learning environment. that uh within engaged and connected our parents uh indicators of uh success within this. If you remember back from that presentation, we moved uh the needle on all of our indicators with uh the various categories of uniform included educational excellence, atmosphere, and experience. Uh this year's score recognized a 4.01, 01 which puts us at a level four within that overall indicator from our parents that participated in the survey. Uh the last one

060recognizes our students, excuse me, our staff and that engagement survey that is analyzed this year. We were able to address say apples to apples spring to spring analysis within uh that this spring we had an overall score of 3.84 84 and again in those indicator categories of academics engagement support student experience and staff experience again as a board okay admin team leadership team and our staff as well. What are we doing? How are what are we uh acknowledging and how can we continually to um foster positive staff engagement within our district uh for best results for ultimately our students and our academic outcomes within club school co-curricular involvement uh we base that on the participation within the ISMS and the high school looking for active participation among students um to to get involved something outside

061of the traditional um classroom setting. 77% of students in grade 5 through 12 participated in at least one club or co-curricular activity this past year, which is outstanding. What does that tell us? We're creating opportunities. We're finding ways to meet the needs of not only students and parents, all right, to find those opportunities, be realistic, affordable, and uh engaged to that. uh last year we were at 70% um for the academic year. So a nice improvement there. We'll again take on that opportunity this year to strive for even better results as we >> so in just the high school >> we gained 15%. Am I reading that right? 73 to 88. >> Correct. >> So what would you attribute that to? Like I'm just curious does anybody >> our co-curricular activities directors here today >>

062were there more kids in something new or like trying new >> uh yes to all that more opportunities for kids. You had students that would promote share what they have done to recruit kids to join. You see the success of our sports and our clubs that just brings other people. >> Oh yeah. Success. And during our open house, our future freshman night, our college career night, when we have those booths out, freshman first day, clubs will be out in the common or excuse me, always promoting and encouraging the incoming freshman to sign up. That's something that we always talk about. >> Oh yeah, I know you've always done that. I was just curious like did we add something new just last year? Like that's what I was trying to think of. >> What did we

063do different? >> Yeah. Like what was different? might student engage >> girls would be next year then >> talking to each other I know that we had joined FFA as a freshman she never did FFA before but >> another FFA member grabbed her aside and said hey >> we didn't necessarily we didn't necessarily add >> when did we start the fishing club >> three for sure two years ago maybe three >> I think this was the third season >> that just keeps gaining steeper that gets it's like bowling >> bowling yeah there you bowling middle school bowling >> that one is really exploited and like trap and like fishing. So >> I can see where that comes from. >> I was only at Yeah. And I specifically wanted to go to last year like what

064was different. >> I don't think we board recognized club involvement. I don't think there was an addition from that level within within the uh individual buildings. If there were items that brought kids together that >> that's the difference. Uh attendance is our final one. When we look at where we were from last year to this year, always striving for quality attendance. Our overall attendance rate was at 952 for 2425 compared to 937 during 2324. That is something that we take serious and hear a little bit more about that later on today. Is there any questions of the preliminary look of of where we are at with our indicators uh of success for this year? The outcome of this would be that I'll spend time with our whole district staff as we review this and prepare

065for the the next academic year upcoming 2526 to u strive to for continuous improvement within that. Other questions? >> Scott, I would uh if you would anticipate that there would be suggestions to tweak the deal based on changing circumstances, things like dropping out what we talked about dropping out the one thing when we have no bond rating, dropping up the bond rate. Um just a suggestion is maybe uh go back and talk to the staff and then come back to us with suggestions sometime early in the school year like >> maybe maybe not next meeting but maybe pretty quickly after that because we'll also have the possibility of suggesting additional addition. >> Right. Yeah. the the one that I just heard tonight would be suspending that bond rating piece that that would be just kind

066of a a watermark through it suspended, you know, that type of thing. And you would say it's it's there, but it's not active with it. >> No. Okay. >> I can see a couple suggestions for tweaks to that. So, >> okay. >> All right. Well, thank you. >> Thanks, Scott. Moving on to review and potential approval of the board act ad hoc committee recommendation report to address student achievement and growth. So, board members, uh, I'm going to let uh, Chris and Katie and board members that were part of the the ad hoc group of the board to come forward. I know we have some board members tonight. Um, before Chris, uh, introduces, I just want to say thank you, all right, for the board action to bring about this committee. Um, and all individuals that

067actively participated uh, in this, they they dedicated a significant amount of time, as you'll hear. And tonight, the outcomes which will be presented really have been thought out uh in a way that continuous improvement is the the baseline of what this group is striving for within our district. >> I'll just start by saying I deserve absolutely zero acknowledgement because I made it to all three before summer hit and then I had a conflict every night. But it was interesting when I got started out, but I truly was MIA after that. Okay. I'd like to start out by uh recognizing those members of the committee, some of which are here tonight. And when you when I uh read your name off, if you could stand up and stay standing up till I've read everybody there. Um

068first of all, uh well, I first would say that the committee was a good representation of cross-sections of the of the district. We had people from business. We had uh parents. We had staff. Uh we had staff that were spread out among several buildings and uh several um several types of u responsibilities and um uh in addition the the two board members. But uh as I read them off, um we we uh halfway through we broke into two different subcommittees for the two different smart goals. Uh the one was on chronic absenteeism. Um so as I read you off read your name, stand up. Steve Stalker from soccer flooring. Steve Grimwald, retired businessman. Uh Scott Black. Chris Martinson, that's me. and Lauren Thompson and uh Erin Marsh also uh joined us uh partway into into

069that. And then uh for the improving curricula part we had Molly Mine uh Lindseay Yubas Kirk uh principal Kirk Delwitch Bill Ku Katie Batton and uh newly added in in the summer Tamila McCartney. So I'd like us to give Um we were at the beginning we were off to a little bit of a rough start. Um so it it took a little bit longer because uh once we got restarted uh I think everybody really worked hard um and uh stuck to the task. Um, the biggest thing that I would note is we all came in there with some preconceived ideas on how to solve these problems, but everybody showed open-mindedness to listen to others. And uh, I think every single one of us came out of there with a drastic difference of opinion on one

070one thing or another. Um for me just to give an example I never would have thought that I would end up supporting something that would have a budgetary impact and um but the the data was shown and um I became a believer that we need that in the in the area in the second area for the for the u uh second subcommittee. Um we we looked at lots of data um less data than some on the committee wanted more data than others uh would have wanted to look at. But uh uh we looked at a lot of data to first of all narrow it down to two different ideas to work on. And then once we had those more data on how to how to uh make progress on those two um we looked at

071lots of DPI data on what districts are doing who are doing well and what districts uh are doing that were not doing so well. Um but we also looked at data from other states, states that have been doing well in literacy especially and math and what has worked for them. Uh so um uh I think uh with that uh with that said uh I'd like to call up um Steve Stalker who is going to present the information on the um awareness of the attendance awareness subcommittee. >> Hi everybody. Um, so as Chris pointed out, this was a unique committee. I think a lot of us came in with visions of what we thought was going to happen and how it needed to be done. And I think all of us grew from there. The first

072couple meetings, Rocky would be the polite way of putting it. Um, and then, you know, I think we all got together. We all decided to come up with what is important, what do we need, what items should we look at? And one of them we came up with was chronic acetism tardiness. Um so we started out with a smart goal. Um a smart goal is to decrease chronic appetit epism increase attendance in grades one to four by 25% over the next two years. So by June 25 using state criteria for chronic epsitism calculations about 15% of the 20 15% by the end of 202526 school year and then another 10% by the end of 2627. So given us a couple years to work on this program and to help you know reviewing each part of

073smart um pacific. So the goal is to have 20 5% less tardiness, less absentism um in grades one through four and districtwide. Um we did feel it's important to start with, you know, grades one through four um because, you know, people learn from habits. So we want to get them when they're young, get them in good habits and having them want to come to classes. Chronic absentee is is defined as any student missing more than 10% of school days in a school year. Okay, so that's basically 18 days. Um that's a lot of being gone. Um measurable attendance records showing absentee and turdiness. Um so making sure that the teachers record um you know letting the administration know what's going on achievable the district has been able to achieve the numbers in our goal in

074the past co precoid um local law enforcement and new chief of police has pledged to follow up on every truency report from the tenants offices for each school kind of the last resort but it is something um that they have agreed to do that same thing with lower shaw when it comes to enforcing the rules um re relevant data shows that chronicle as students are frequently not reading at their grade level reading is very important of everything that we've looked at and studied through this committee um data from other states show that the Rising attendance correlates with better reading performance in those states. Timebound time 25 to 26 school year, 26 and 27th school year are our targets. Again, giving us some time to go um to work with our set goal and also get

075the staff and everybody behind it. How are we going to do this? Measure, record, report successes. It's very important to report the successes as long besides just the failures, but also we do have to bring up where it's not working. Report progress to the schoolboard at least quarterly. I think Scott, you're going to report how they're doing. Increase parent engagement. This is the most important. publicly through media, websites, and social media proclamations. Um, two new parent engagement events per school year. Again, the parents more involved, letting them know, you know, what we're looking for, how important making their kids get to school. Um, increased truency enforcement with um preparation of local law enforcement. Now, if you would have told me that I would have been pro this at the beginning, that answer would have been

076no. But looking at our data, looking at research, it's almost everybody's having this issue. Many of you may not know this, but I work in over 450 school districts annually. Um, taking a poll with almost every school superintendent that I know, their number one problem in schools right now is attendance. Is getting kids there. talking with teachers that you know it's attendance it's tardinesses um I think this you know when we sat down we had five other things that we were wanting to look at you know from improving curriculum to you know introducing retention for third to fourth grade we had a lot of people who were really pro of that at first and as they started looking at things not so pro above it um bonuses for staff for achieving goals you know we

077really couldn't figure out how to handle that and improving class sizes. Well, you know, four and five we really couldn't do with three the board was already dealing with that themselves, you know, doing a good job of that. Um, so one of the biggest ones was, you know, you got to be in class in order to learn how to read to do math. And that's where we're hoping that with this study this, you know, you the school board administration can help try to increase or decrease the absentees in our district. >> Did you have any specifics on like your proclamation part? Because um I was driving and heard a commercial for a recruit a firm that's recruiting and they do like employee recognition monthly for like not missing a day. Monthly, not yearly. Monthly. Yeah.

078>> And I was like, "Okay, but that's the world we live in." And I know I'm not talking monetary, but like it goes a long ways for kids to even get a little certificate, right? Or maybe >> we had talked about different things from, you know, >> you want to talk about the proclamation idea that the >> Well, Katie's bringing up two things. The pro proclamation is something that um other districts have done where the district will make uh September or October um attendance awareness month and they'll they'll hold a press conference with the uh superintendent and the board president and the and the mayor and other I meant that I meant that like spotlighted with the proclamation and this is what we're doing. >> Yeah. And if if the board um adopts this, we

079um will go to work on wording for a proclamation and come and bring it back to the next meeting. And then if we pass that, we'll pass it on to the city council and other government units to see if they will pass it to get some publicity about it, bringing even the police chief and may uh into it as well to to um to have the uh enforcement part of it. So, >> well, and I know staff already working on this, right? It's been a problem for years. And I I didn't mean to overstep that acknowledgement. It's just that I'm driving and hearing this commercial and I'm like, we're rewarding people for coming for a month. Like, what? This is where the connections committee can come into play. And Scott and I had a conversation

080about this a couple of weeks ago that um just getting the word out, reinforcing the reinforcement. Um, I went to, um, this is a problem statewide, nationwide, nationwide, and I went to a number of sessions at the state schoolboard convention, and there were some good examples of what other districts have done that help getting getting the kids to school, you know, like the the followup on a regular basis. And that >> talking with the other districts, one thing that you're doing is you're looking at the problem. A lot of districts to be honest are not looking at the problem. >> They just have they don't know what to do. >> You know, um, you know, one told me, you know, it's kind since co is kind of what it is. >> You know, I've had

081teachers tell me out there that kids at fifth grade are deciding they don't have to go to school anymore because parents aren't around or aren't there to enforce. Um, so I think it's going to be a big task for you as a board to come up with some pretty good ideas on how to help the administration or help Aaron um, Marsh come up with some ideas. Um, but it is something that I think we have to address. But I'll give you one example. I had one employee tell me today that he went all year last year without missing a day and didn't know what he said a word to him, >> which back in our day was a given, but it's like That's should be celebrated now. >> It used it was even a problem.

082I mean I'm sorry absetes was a problem at my age. I'm not, you know, I'm not going to say that we were better than what they were now, but you used to get, you used to get little things, >> you know, for being I was like we did a and I just remember like we got a certain like a plaque at the end of the year for perfect attendance and that was a thing. And I'm talking about one year, right? And now, like I said, I'm hearing these commercials like you get a bonus for going for a month. I think your idea about really focusing on grades K through four is a really good one because you're right, forming that habit with the parents because when you really get down to what the root cause

083of this is it's not the kids, >> it's it's it's the parents, it's the environment that the kids are being raised in, unfortunately, split families and and so forth. >> Well, and it's going to be explain to the parents kids do better if they are in school. >> Yep. Yeah. And that's >> we uh we we concentrated on on K through 4 and we brought in um a teacher from Lincoln and she told us that all the things they were doing to re reward kids and get kids there which was a lot. That's why we decided to focus on parent engagement uh and add the truency picture into it because um the the teacher that we brought in, Mrs. Anderson, second grade, her frustration was uh her the kids that were chronically absent in her

084class all wanted to be there, but it was parent issues that uh didn't get them there. and she begged us to please add u truency enforcement into this but as a last resort. I mean parent engagement uh there's other ways to engage parents but that that's the final step. >> One of the districts that presented at the state school board convention actually implemented a specific bus just to go around and pick all of those kids up. So they took that excuse out of out of the out of their hands and that that was a major contributor to their success. >> We had talked about that a little bit in our group convention. >> I brought that up after the convention too. I thought it was a great idea. >> Yeah. Yeah. They also review they

085have a they have a committee within the the district of of teachers and staff members. Every month that committee gets together and reviews the attendance records. They don't wait until the semester is over. every month and then they kind of nip the bud, you know, nip the problem in and right away and that was another contributor to their success. So there's some ideas out there. So there is, you know, you know, thing is as talking with the other districts, a lot of ideas, but it's getting a group in your guys' position to get behind them >> and do something about it. It's not something you can just keep pushing down because all of a sudden, you know, June comes again, >> right? Yeah. No, I agree. Would there be anything like come from a donor

086standpoint? I know Melissa I had heard she get like that was her frustration. They were trying lots of unique things. But do you remember the reading club and that personal piping hot pan pizza? Like I would read books like crazy. >> Like just this little pizza. I mean I know >> I think you can go out and ask businesses if you come up with a plan >> having ideas. Yes. >> Yeah. We probably should move to the second part of the uh second smart. >> Thank you. and your committee subcommittee >> where the the next subcommittee um was put together to uh review improving curricula and they came up with a very unique uh idea on that and u uh I'm going to introduce uh teacher from high school uh Lindseay Yubas and Bill Crossu

087uh our community one of our community representatives to come and tell you what what they came up with on smart rule number two. Kirk's going to contribute also. >> Yes. Oh, good. >> And Kirk Anyway, our committee thanks the committee thanks the board of education for allowing us to give this presentation tonight. Prior to arriving at our recommendation hiring two interventionists, the curriculum committee and with input from school principles and that would be um Kristen Gable, Joey Peterson and Anne Edge um discussed the efficacy of the American reading program replacing with another curriculum act 20 grade retention vertical alignment and summer slide loss of learning. After those discussions, we started looking at data and what stood out the most and weighed heavily in our decision based on IRA and AC20 screener data. There are 582

088for 4K through 8th grade low grade level students. That's 44.9% of students and we have that data sheet that delates all of that. So, we talked about how this would have the most immediate beneficial impact and could also help in mitigating the need for third grade retention. Reading intervention will provide direct instruction to students individually or in small groups to improve reading skills and to remediate students quickly to help learn to read with their peers as quickly as possible. Face-to-face instruction scores very high on um Eddie's barometer. Would you have that? And actually, I think um Tony, you gave me that, didn't you? Yes. Kristen did. >> Yeah, >> that was very interesting. And I think even Pamela, you had talked about Patty's barometer when we had one of our meetings. >> Patty's very well

089known in the very wellrespected literature throughout education. >> It's that half circle that you guys have under. So if you go into the blue, you know, and I kind of highlighted because it kind of got the resolution got kind of scrambled, but interventionist, you know, and and face-to-face instructions are in the blue, which very high on that barometer. So going forward, we acknowledge that adding two interventionists will have a budget impact. But if but if our job on this committee is to identify what what would truly impact student growth and achievement, we cannot turn away from viable school on the basis of cost. If you see the need as we do, you will come to the same conclusion. Hire two full-time reading interventionists, one for the four elementary schools, 4K through fourth grade, and one

090for the intermediate school, middle school, fifth through 8th grades. And now Mrs. Ju will present the rs for the recommendation. >> Oh, good. I've sat at a lot of these board meetings silently and I never thought I would come up to the podium, yet here we are. >> The podium. >> Thank you. Exciting. I wrote this down to prevent myself from rambling. Reading is the most precious gift we can bestow upon our youth as their ability to read not only determines how well they will be able to perform academically in school, but how successfully they will be able to navigate life in the real world. Reading also happens to be very unique in the complexity of its instruction. Unlike other subject areas, the skills and concepts cannot be taught and practiced one at a time

091in isolation. Instead, reading requires the teaching and integration of skills that cannot be practiced separately. Reading comprehension requires mastery of a wide array of skills such as phonics, vocabulary, syntax, and punctuation, leading up to more interpretive concepts like voice, and author's purpose. Much of this is aided by a healthy amount of background knowledge and understanding of the world and people. When children first walk through our doors as four or five cares, some have already gained a solid foundation and are ready to build, while others must still construct the most basic foundations. Considering the complexity and interplay of the skills mentioned before and the widely varying needs our students present, students who are behind require lots of adult attention, focus, and time. The ideal group size for reading remediation is three to six children. One-on-one time

092within those smaller groups is even more important for students with the greatest need. With a number of our students currently reading below grade level, as Bill mentioned, our existing personnel require a larger team of professionals to help guide our students to success. Our students are coming to us with challenges we have not seen as extensively in the past. For whatever reason, and you can name a million, but this is what we're seeing. Um, so we must enhance our supports to reflect the changing needs of the students and families we serve. In our proposal, we have recommended that these interventions be focused on the youngest grades of elementary and middle school, focusing predominantly on kindergarten and fifth grades to help them catch up as soon as possible so they can begin reaping the benefits earlier of

093reading comprehension skills. Students who are unable to close their reading gaps early will have a more difficult time doing so the older they get. and those insufficiencies will continue to put their education at risk in every subject area as every school subject requires adequate reading comprehension. We also see this proposal as one that will ultimately impact the entire district over time as kids who are reading at grade level will not continue to require resources and remediation as they enter into late middle and high school. In a recent survey conducted by the committee, a large portion of district teachers reported class size as one of the main barriers to student success and achievement, a sentiment we have heard for many years. Additional reading intervention support is also a way to help alleviate this issue by reducing

094the number of kids in the classroom during reading breakout sessions. This would prevent classroom teachers from being spread too thinly, allowing them to better serve students. As a committee, we wanted to listen to our teachers, our experts, and if this is a barrier we can help them remove to positively impact our student growth and achievement, we would be most grateful. This heart makes you a little emotional. Um, a child's reading ability will either open doors for them or it will close them. Tonight, we are asking you to help open this door. >> So, so then um the smart goals, okay, S is for specific. So our our goal is to improve student literary outcomes in grades K through 8th grade. And then what we used and you have actually the data in front of you

095on that that sheet for measurable. We're going to use um grades 4K through third act 20 screener. Fourth graders don't take that screener. So we're going to use I ready for fourth graders all the way through 8th grade. And um you know Mr. Delwitch organized a meeting with um Anne Finch and Kristen Greyel and Jodie Peterson and I also attended that meeting and they got together and they actually established the the targeted um achievable goals and Mr. Dich is going to summarize that. >> As Bill said, I'll talk a little bit about how realistic those goals are and the time frame to accomplish those goals. Um the first goal involves the elementary schools. Uh by the end of the 2526 school year with the additional help of an interventionist uh our elementary schools will target

096the reduction uh target reducing the percentage of students below the 25th percentile on our act 20 screeners. You've heard a lot about act 20 uh in the past year. Um, we're looking to u reduce the number of students from 41.6% at the end of last school year who fell below the 25th percentile uh in grades K through 4K through three um to 30% by the end of the 25 26 school year and then again down to 25% by the end of the following 26 27 school year. And again that's 4K through third grade. So the usage of uh the elementary interventionist would be based on need um at the various elementary schools and would focus on 4K and 5K students. We felt that it was important to intervene with those very young kids um with

097this possible interventionist to help them getting get reading with their peers as quickly as possible. Uh to do this the interventionist time would be split as followed as follows based on need. Two days at Lincoln there were 47.8% of students in 4K through three that were below the 25th percentile which equated to 33 students. Um Sugar Bush would get one day a week uh 56.3% below the 25th percentile and that was 18 students. Park View day and a half. Uh they had 39.5% below the 25th percentile which equated to 27 students. And then Reedfield would get a half day per week. They had 30% of students below the 25th percentile which equated to 14 students. Those numbers will be readjusted once we do the fall testing or screening, I'm sorry, uh for act 20 and

098that need could be adjusted one way or the other. >> I just have a question on your terminology with using interventionist for a 4ker >> because are kids expected to come to 4K and know how to read? No, but you do expect them to have some pre-academics able to identify letters, numbers, colors, shapes, >> okay, concepts of print, you know, being able to hold book the right way, reading from left to right, onetoone correspondence with words, all those pre-academics that are so important >> for kindergarten to have in order to be able to read. >> Okay. >> So, we'll work on that. I was just like intervention like they're already like >> it creates a really strong foundation. >> Okay. You're talking about starting the foundation, >> you know, like preschool screenings. It it kind

099of shows us a little screenshot of what what we're coming in with. And so different kids have had a lot more background >> and exposure and some have had almost >> they probably know how to hold a Chromebook, but they don't know how to hold a book with pages in it. I have a question on this schedule for the intervent. Are they just going to come in and pull the kids aside whenever they get there or is it going to be like a predetermined when you're doing ELA for the day at that time? That's when that interventionist is going to show up. We'll develop those schedules to best meet the needs of each school and the teachers involved, okay, >> with those students to get the best effect of science or math >> or even

100English, not even the tier one English instruction. This would be like specific times when kids in those levels are working on their specific individual reading plans already. So, they wouldn't be missing >> education with the rest of the even in language arts. >> Okay. Kirk, uh, we talked about the committee uh the fact that uh it may be too late in the year to hire two interventionists. Uh what does that do to the goals? Um does that roll over by one year the goals? >> Yeah, we discussed that you know depending on the availability of a st of a person to fill that role. We may have to adjust the time frame based on how long it takes. So if we didn't hire somebody at semester, we'd roll those percentages and timelines back a semester,

101which takes if we can't find anybody this year, we move that back a whole a whole year. >> So if you our desire is to post the two positions, if you approve this tonight and then, you know, going forward, if somebody applies and you hire them, I mean, there may be even somebody within, you know, the district already, you know, another, you know, grade school teacher that may want, you know, apply for this job. Of course, have to find a replacement for that person before they retire. But >> our intention is, you know, the sooner the better. You know, >> with like the 4Kers and the kindergarteners and even the first graders, >> what's what's the interventionist going to be looking for? what are they you you mentioned with the four carers you know and

102and the reason I'm asking the question is that in the meantime could we achieve that with with some of our our our volunteers you know through the step program where we could recruit some people possibly through that >> and we have been doing that in past >> yeah and I and I I know that from my my livein partner and that's >> yes we we more than greatly appate those people coming in and u working with our students. This would be a little bit more intense. It would provide a greater availability for someone >> okay >> to pull kids. But we certainly wouldn't pass up the chance for step workers to come. >> Yeah, >> I think the step workers the way I understand it basically read books to students. Correct. >> Well, and and

103that's why I was asking >> more the interventionist. That's why I was asking what what they would be looking for what they would be looking to do because maybe at the lower levels they could do that those things with the teachers and that and you know helping them understand what a the number and the shape and and and things of that nature. So, a lot of the interventions that would take place in 4K would be exactly what I talked about, those pre-academics and and helping kids build that strong base >> for being able to start that process of reading. As we get into 5K, you know, we're expecting students to have a lot of those pre-academics. It's amazing to know that a lot of them don't when they come to us, especially those kids who

104haven't had a 4K or a daycare experience previous to entering kindergarten. So we need to really focus on those kids to catch them up and hence wanting to have them read with their peers. >> We we need to focus a lot of effort on those kids initially >> in order to get them up to speed with pre-academics. >> And the logic there was if you begin behind >> stay behind unless there's some serious >> intervention play. So that's a big task in and of itself working with 4K and 5K on those pre-academics and then also with kindergarteners on those early reading skills. Uh we call it the yellow level with our current reading program. Um but if time allows, we would uh have that person also work in first grade with some of the kids

105who have personal reading plans um and address those goals within them. for the middle school. Um they have a similarly worded goal that by the end of the 2526 school year with the aid of an additional interventionist uh the immedi intermediate middle school will reduce the percentage of students performing two or more grade levels below same age peers on high ready reading diagnostics from 30% at the end of 2425 uh to less than 20% by the end of this coming school year and then by less than 10% in the following school year of 26 27 uh for students in fifth through 8th grade. Their usage would be um based on the ISMSs interventionist uh focus of fifth grade and new students who are two or more grade levels below their same age peers on I

106Ready reading diagnostics to remediate those students as quickly as possible in order to help them learn to read with their peers. Um, the academic focus will be small groupoup instruction within and outside of ELA classes on specific skills students need to be successful readers. I'm not an expert on the ISMS, but I can take questions on it and give you information as far as I know. >> I can answer. I mean, obviously with four grades, it's you're going to have to target the kids that need it the most and specifically fifth grade. Um, you know, they grow quite a bit from fifth grade reading ability to eighth grade reading ability, but the goal is when they leave as eighth graders, they're prepared for that high school content, which um seventh and eighth grade is much

107more content specific. So, if we can get them early, it gives us the best opportunity. the schedule has a lot of flexibility to have those interventions at a time that it's not going to interrupt core academics. Um there is that bullock time at the end as well. So we're mindful to try to interrupt the day as a little as possible. It's not going to be perfect, but there's definitely opportunities to have that intervention and have the students have a pretty normal day compared to their peers. So all your data includes all of the students, special labs, everything with the understanding that there's some of our students are just going to reach a certain level and they're just always going to be behind or they just maybe not be able to reach a level in that.

108Could you present this data excluding some of that some some of those scores so we can look at this with a a little bit more clarity I think because this because um >> this kind of tilts the scale unfortunately >> I thought you left >> I could delineate that out of the data I presented okay but I think Jody didn't you make the comment because we had talked about that in our committee That would be about Did I hear the number of 18%. Did you bring that up, Scott? Somebody brought up the number 18%. So I know like in I know in in the middle school we have for tier 2 tier three students that's about 166 students. So I mean would it be correct to say that's if you you know 18 to 10

10918% of those students will be um >> on a DM or they're not even the DM students are they're not even in in the% >> yeah DM is like almost not >> one only 1% of the DM you know dynamic learning um >> all these students are going to be taking standardized tests that are going to contribute to our school report. I realize that, but I think just for our our purposes, just to just to get a better handle on what's going on in the in the in the classroom. >> Well, could you use the law of large numbers if we have 20%. Like we currently have 19% kids, right, that are special ed? >> Could you just do 19% of these? >> I don't know that that would >> I don't know that would

110be all I'm saying for elementary level partake in their regular reading classes with their with the exception of our intellectual disabilities. >> Okay. students. So, they all receive tier one instruction with their classroom teacher. They all receive specific intervention either in their classroom or with their special ed teacher um on specific skills and then they come back for a third round if they're um crosscategorical with their special ed teacher as well. So, some kids are getting triple dipped uh with reading and in some cases math. So I don't know that it would be appropriate to exclude those students because we are working very hard to improve those student skills. >> Yes, they they improve at a slower rate but they do improve. >> All right. >> So you see it's really been a team with

111the staff and myself and so on. I mean we spent a lot of time on this and there's a lot of people involved. Going back to the next um on smart goal relevant which is pretty easy aligned with nuance school district values and long-term objective if you look at our mission statement here success for all students I mean improved reading skills will lead to improved student performance even in other course offerings I mean I've heard the the you know the saying or the adage learn to read read to learn you know you're not going to be able to to learn in science or whatever or BS proficient if you don't know how to read you even take math I think a lot of the DCT and the poor exam math questions are actually are actually

112um problems story problems and if you can't understand that if you can't read >> it's pretty obvious what is going to be it's not going to be as as well as if you knew how to read you know at at a higher level and then um you know our vision students become self-directing lifelong learners guiding principle ensures that semester curriculum. It fits right into our continuous improvement strategic plan because we're trying to improve you know you know um outcomes and literacy and it also aligns with one of school district state report card because we are one of the lowest scoring school districts in the state in growth right bottom um cile and in target group and these students may not be um proficient okay at reading but if they get the intervention that they need.

113It's going to bring them up and they're going to be able to leave, you know, they're going to be able to read better, they're going to be able to learn easier and it's going to bring that score up also. That might take time, but it really fits into that. And then it it fits into the act 20 legislations which is intent to improve early literacy outcomes. And I mean, we really feel it will mitigate third grade retent retention because I don't think anybody here wants to see kids retained. They don't have to. This is really going to help in that matter. Really help. As far as time bound, I'm not I'm not going to go through all that, but our smart smart goals are timeline is continued upon the hiring two qualified individuals. We will

114be adjusted according accordingly at the time of the hire. So we hire what I think Kirk talked about that depends upon hiring. But our hope is that you will you approve your recommendation and that you will post that position as soon as soon as possible. >> Does anyone know what kind of money this is for two? >> No, >> I know there's a raise for Joel. >> No, I'm just curious like in general. >> Sure. So looking at a reading specialist uh typically they come in with a master's degree uh in reading to support that or certifications uh which is typically okay a few years into educator's career you know within that just very much off the cuff uh you're looking typically someone in at a very early age or wage of that you know

11550s60s uh some staff that are veteran that take on this route as a reading specialist years of service and where they would fall in that you know 60s 70,000 it just really it depended on the individual and their experience um that they've had within that >> would you ever see this like aging out like and then we would I'm just thinking you know we always take on >> perpetuity actually talking about budget thing because if you solve the problem early on you know what I'm saying like I know we hate to take on permanent uh payments, right? I was just saying is there any hope of like we bridge the gap and then now it's fine or >> the trajectory of society. No. >> Okay. >> I think the Democrat probably I think this is

116going to be an ongoing >> well if I can say something like >> right I think the hope is there that >> among some that that this is this temporary problem or COVID related issue would be resolved and potentially things would improve. I I would agree with Lindsay. I I I think this is going to be a long-term need and we're just going to need to focus more attention, effort, and finances on it. Y >> as a as somebody with a retired English teacher, as a mother, um >> yeah, we talk of these things and um >> yeah, she supports that idea wholeheartedly. So, >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Looking for a motion to approve the recommendation of the ad hoc committee as presented. I'll take that motion. >> I'd be

117super Okay. >> No, you you take that. super glad to be the one to uh make the motion to adopt these uh smart goal one and smart goal two and begin implementation of a second. >> Thanks. I need a roll call vote. >> Mark Gman, >> yes. >> Nate Grundy, >> yes. >> Chris Martinson, >> yes. >> Schwitzer, >> yes. >> Andy Thor, >> yes. >> Katie Batton, >> yes. John. >> Yes, >> John. Just a quick followup is uh I'd like to see what the board would feel about uh the committee having some sort of thank you celebratory thing like a I don't know a open house or something like that. It wouldn't it wouldn't cost very much serve serve something and >> to bring the group in one more time. Is that what

118you're saying? bring the group one more time just to thank them for their service and whatnot >> or maybe >> just a thought >> like during a you're saying during the board meeting or a separate thing. >> Well, it be probably a separate thing. Yeah. Wouldn't want to take up board time for >> I just have one other question on what we just approved. Like what timeline is this? Like can you I'm just I'm concerned about the time >> immediately. The only the only barrier is I mean we've laid laid out goals that >> Right. go for the next two years uh and would begin with this school year we're going into. Uh the only the only barrier is being able to hire the interventionists which means the goals will back up if we >>

119that's what that's what I'm asking like what kind of timeline is reasonable? >> Well, if we can't get them hired for this semester, we try to hire them for the next semester. If we can't by then then the goals get pushed back. But the but the activities can start right away. the things that we want to do especially >> I mean I just didn't want to hire just to hire like that's where I'm going it's August 13th right so >> well no it has to be uh you know in order to reach the goals we have to hire proficient people so we're not going to as a board I don't think encourage people to just >> take whatever >> whatever's out there you know >> that's what my question was >> so do we have

120placeholders in the budget then for these two positions Scott or >> uh we'll be creative to address that u within our current structure, you know, attrition. >> We will we'll find a way. >> Do you have any thoughts on like what bucket? >> We will we'll make this work. We're we'll keep moving forward. Our budget is a moving target every year. We'll make it happen. >> Yeah, we'll find a way to make it happen. This is a strong commitment to great efforts, ultimate success for all students. And my suggestion with the step workers was not to replace the interventions. It was a stop gap measure, you know, to get the ball rolling a little. >> Yeah. >> On the stuff that they could actually handle like, you know, >> yeah, the goals would roll over,

121but we could start working on it right away with what we had. That's that's your point. Like >> and if and if by chance, you know, the the appropriate people can't be hired, um, somebody do it to a child is better than nobody. The the old saying, read early, read often. It can't be said enough. >> That's exactly right. >> Yeah. >> All righty. >> Thank you guys again. >> Sarah Johnson moving on to speech and language services. >> So before Sarah starts in with her topic summary review just to set the course. Uh what are the challenges? So we just talked about potential hiring and whatnot. board has been very blessed to our hiring processes for speech and language uh and Sarah's crystal overview of where we are this year, some strategies to consider

122uh to meet the needs of our uh students that have identified with speech and language needs. So Sarah, >> yeah, so um hello again. Um so when I stepped into the position in July and um just kind of took an accounting of the plans for services um wanted to see if we could find um kind of keep working and see if we could find some more uh ways so that we could be sure that we're providing the very best um therapies as possible for our students. Um, and so we have um three full-time or um most well two full-time and one um 80% uh speech language therapists. I'm not sure if you're familiar with those numbers off the top of your head, but um that provide therapy within the in-person therapists. But then we have

123because we've not been able to hire, we have contracted with some virtual folks that are um doing therapy offsite. And then we've our very best to have people here in house that are helping to support students that are receiving that therapy. And um so there was a plan in place for that to continue to happen. It was kind of to a a little bigger degree than and with some students um to continue into this school year. So I thought, you know what, I just want to give it a shot and see if we can kind of be creative and find some other ways um to try to capture more in-person therapy for students. So, what you have in front of you is um as far as we've gotten and I guess what I'd like you

124to consider what we have kind of for our how we're going to try to pull this together so that we can have as much high quality inperson therapy for our students. Um generally our speech therapy is delivered by a master's degree speech therapist. It's usually you know in person in our schools. That would be what we would hope to have happen. Um, I'm already recruiting for next year, signing up for the um, job fair at W Stevens Point. Um, and looking to have those whatever the need is for next year that I would hope that um, we'll have folks in person for those positions. Um, and before I was in this position, let me tell you, they were working very hard to do the same. Um, but we'll keep working towards that for next year.

125So right now we kind of have some options for some um our first option is definitely number one. We want to maximize our ability to have as many you know um master's degree level licensed speech language pathologists in person. So, we have our three individuals in person and um one of those people who is part-time has I'm very thankful is willing to increase their um FTE so that they would go to full-time. This this team is really flexing as much as they possibly can to try to meet the needs across the district the best. >> So, is that your that's your 80% person you're talking about? >> Yes, that person. Yeah. Yeah. So, that's a great a great thing. So that's kind of one thing is that we have one person that would increase to

126help to meet that need. Additionally, I've been reaching out to all of the speech therapists that I know and then even some the speech therapists that they know and we do have some some folks that have worked for us in the past that are maybe willing to be coming back. So we do have some additional speech therapists that will we I believe are going to potentially be joining us even more part-time. Um but even and kind of to begin the year. We have somebody that that may be joining us to begin the year and um we're going to constantly just keep pursuing some of these other options. So, we might have some of that happening even during the the course of the school year. So, um so that's our kind of like first line of

127defense is get as many full, you know, people licensed um in person to um support our students. The second option is something I I might mentioned this um during the interview. It was something that I had done last year at Civil Hop to be creative in our staffing. Um we had um we were presented with situation where we did not have a speech pathologist and so we were um we created a speech language pathologist assistant position. So that's um number two on the list here. And so I have met with our three speech pathologists about this idea and um they are open to overseeing uh potentially some speech pathology assistance within the district. So these would be folks that would have a bachelor's degree. They would have already have some training and skill and knowledge

128about communication, language development, probably articulation. Maybe there's somebody that went to school and has a bachelor's degree in in um communicative disorders but didn't go on and get their masters. Maybe they're a speech pathologist um and they, you know, they practice for a while but stayed home for many years and don't want to be a speech pathologist anymore but would like to function as a speech pathology assistant. Essentially, that person works under the license of an SLP and they just they deliver the therapy. So, um it's not something that we commonly do, but it is an option for us to do that. And I'm very thankful for our team of of speech pathologists who are willing to do that. So that is, you know, kind of number two. Um I think that we certainly have

129people who are willing to do that and and um kind of waiting to like throw this out to you as as one of our ideas and I um I do believe that we have some capacity to do that um as well, help meet our need. And then Number three is that then I will supplement and use those virtual therapists as much as is needed at that point for um the remaining students to meet the need for um speech for the rest of this year. >> I just have a question. Is one, two, and three like first choice, second choice, third choice from your standpoint or is it all of these things? >> Um it is a hierarchical um situation. So number one, I'm going to maximize as much um as many in-person speech language pathologists.

130I'm going to maximize that. And then I'm going to maximize as much of the speech language pathology assistance in person as possible. And then the third op, you know, the third option is I'm going to um fill in with the virtual therapist. >> So the third option is currently all we are doing outside of what you have the two FT and 180%. >> Um >> number three we're already doing. >> Um uh yes, we are doing Well, we're doing number one, right, with just the um 2.8 >> and then we have um the virtual therapist lined up, but I'm able to get out of, you know, to come um cut back on those contracts that we kind of have set up and um so we're able to kind of cut back on that. So, I'm

131supplementing with these other options. >> So, is the genesis of student needs? So the genesis of your issue is the case load is too great for what you currently have. >> Oh yeah, the case load is I mean we really do need six or seven speech. >> Okay, that's what I was trying to understand. >> Yeah, >> we haven't been able to fill two in person the past several years uh and with a retirement this year as well. Um so that just creates another another layer another void of inerson instruction which we typically have had. So these are already positions that we have available. >> We once had individuals in but no longer do and we're filling them in with the virtual speech. >> So is this already in your budget? >> Uh yep. There's

132no budget impact if those are positions that were already um budgeted for. We were filling you know anticipating to be filling them with these other types of um of therapists. uh you know but still always looking for and pursuing um folks that would be in person >> given I mean given the fact that it's we've struggled with this for quite a while um I think the um the combination of one and two is going to be reality going forward. I love the idea of having you know somebody working underneath another person's license. It's like going to the doctor. Sometimes you see the MD, sometimes you see the PA, >> you know, um they both are are qualified and when the doctor needs to get involved in the situation, he or she does. Otherwise, the PA

133is um does the does the job. And and I'm sure that for the majority of of what the the the students need, you know, somebody without a master's degree can probably accomplish that with having somebody sitting over their right shoulder essentially, you know, giving them help if they if they need it. >> Yeah. Much of the time, right? there's a lot of tasks that the speech language pathologist does and and much of it is the daily the therapy that happens. Um and so if they're trained and they have that person and they know how to follow the the um plans that they have laid out for a student, they're able to do that. They are children with disabilities, right? And so and some of them are more complex than others. So there's a lot of

134kind of professional decision making that happens you know in the moment. So for some of them it can be you know fairly straightforward but for others it can be a little bit more um challenging. Um but also there are tasks that the speech language pathology assistant cannot do. So they can deliver the therapy, they can follow through on all of that. They can't do assessments. They can't um have IEP meetings. All of that kind of thing they cannot do. But they will I believe that you know I we know some folks maybe that aren't within the district that might be able to help us out in this regard and then I do believe we probably have some people in district when we you know speak of this opportunity that they might be interested as well.

135So, um I think that we will have some people that you know will be able to fill into this position that will be able to do a nice job to deliver those thoserapies just like you said and work under the um the umbrella of the therapist. >> So, we've never done anything like this before is what you are seeing. >> I am saying that as far as to my knowledge you have not. No. >> Okay. Yeah. >> And I think Nate and I were just because maybe this shortfall has preceded our tenure because I didn't realize it like it you you really had seven at one time or you're saying the current case load would be seven. >> We we have always had in-person speech and language therapists. The last few years we're trying to

136struggle to fill those vacancies from resignations or retirements. The fall back was virtual speech correct through you've seen the voucher therapy. So it flipped from a salary and benefit to a purchase service but it's the same budget because we're using >> we have that person in the budget the person is still there instead of uh in person virtual. So the whole component of this is it would be a new posting that others haven't seen before. So Sarah wants to show the board that hey this is not something brand new. It's just another approach to try to fulfill the needs of the students. >> And I think we just wonder about the budget impact what you described as >> we've continually budgeted for those individuals within just spending the bucket if you will in other lanes

137to bring about the services. >> Thank you. >> I can really appreciate the emphasis on the one-on-one versus relying on virtual. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, sure. >> Yeah. Thanks. I I guess I I don't feel like I maybe stated that the speech pathologists, it's changing their role, you know, when they say I'm just going to throw out a number. Say they work at an elementary school typically and they have, you know, 35 students in that school that they serve. They do the therapy for those students. They're connected in that building. You know, they're doing assessments for those students. You know, that's that's their their job. But when the few those therapists that might be overseeing a speech language pathology assistant, um, they're going to be doing that some of the time, but they're going

138to be doing more paperwork. They're going to be doing more IEPs. They're going to have probably for over 50 students, they're going to be having IEPs, and they're going to have somebody else doing some of their therapy, and they're going to be boopping between buildings as well. So, I just want I know that that you I just want to be sure that you understand too that they are, you know, really stepping up and um and doing something kind of a little bit outside of kind of their daily work. But they are happy to do it and they're really um thankful for the opportunity to be able to do that so that all of our students can have, you know, their needs met in the best way because some can benefit. it really, you know, the

139the virtual therapy, it works okay for them. You know, it works well. They can continue to make progress and and so where we have to, you know, use the virtual therapy, it'll be okay. They continue to make progress, it's okay. But there are certain groups of our students that that's, you know, we know that that's going to be really difficult for them. So, I think with this plan, um, while there's lots of moving parts, um, I think that it's going to come together really well. >> Thank you. Thanks. >> For sure. All right. Well, two items of close session. >> Yeah, we have two items to deal with in close session. Um looking for a motion to to go into close session. >> Okay. >> Person to section 19.851c 851c Wisconsin statute board of education

140will convene in close session to discuss the continued employment of administrative certified and support staff members over which the board has jurisdiction and exercises responsibility person to section 19.851C 851C Wisconsin statute board of education will convene in close session to discuss the employment and compensation of certified support and co-curricular staff members over which the board has jurisdiction and exercises responsibility. >> All right, looking for a motion to go into close session. >> I'll second it. >> All in favor? Roll call. All right, >> Nick Grizzy. >> Yes. Martinson, >> yes. >> Holly Schwitzer, >> yes. >> Andy Thorp, >> yes. >> Katie Batton, >> yes. >> Mark Gman, >> yes. >> Okay, we'll convene at the back. [Music]