001You signed it last years. that one. Thank you. All right, we are going to uh call this meeting to order. Um public forum. Anybody here? No. All right. Um roll call. We establish a quorum. Um Nate's missing tonight and let's kick right in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Our student representative not present during June and July and August. All right. All right. Looking at the consent agenda. Um I know there's been a request on E um to to not have that. Do I have seek a motion on on each individual item as we go through? Uh it could be a motion to approve the consent agenda minus letter
002E. Minus letter E. Okay. Then that's what I'm looking for. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor? I I All right. Moving on to reports. Okay. Okay. Good evening and welcome to the June uh regular board of education meeting. Uh calendar shows our meeting this evening and uh what we anticipate will be the special meeting at the end of uh June as well. board members uh that are part of the policy committee. Uh just note, you saw that notice come out, I believe it was on Tuesday, for potential meeting tomorrow depending on discussion and how we uh process through it tonight when we get into one of our topics when we're talking about our act 20 policy. So we will confirm that one way or another when we get into that
003discussion, but it's not part of that. um July our meeting scheduled for the the 9th and then we will stay in tune as to the if we need to meet at the end of July or not. Uh just turning to our celebrations uh within our final celebration and recognizing our students at our elementary schools of their continued demonstration of bulldog cal character and traits which we strive for as they prepare for their next year in the school district of New London. We wish them well. Thank you for their efforts and best practice. uh the administrator's report. Uh just a couple comments on u as part of the the board's directive with our subgroup committee. Um I included uh an update as to the the work that's been done thus far. Uh the group we've met
004three times at least maybe four four times. Um our next session will be on July 7th. We'll reconvene again. the group itself. Um, as we started vetting out different topics with that ELA focus and student growth, student achievement and areas that we would narrow down, um, I won't say it's finalized, but there is strong indication that we're looking at the topic of ways to address reducing student absenteeism and curriculum improvement strategies. uh for within our group. We've developed two additional subgroups of individuals that are in that investigative process now where we are looking at collecting data to bring back and further guide us. There will be a survey that will be go out to our staff. It has not gone out yet. I will take credit for it not going out. Okay. Within that the
005timing of the end of the year, um but that will be going out in short order. We will do our best. I know Chris and I were talking about alerting our our staff of that and with our admin team to gather feedback uh to support u those questions that came from our group and uh seeking some additional perspective on student achievement and growth. Uh the next is our summer hours just recognizing district office will take on a slightly different uh approach Monday through Thursday 7:30 to 3:30. On Friday district office will be closed but there will be people here. Uh that's a day of flex within the office um where individuals may choose to to take some of their their summer and well-deserved time within uh board members always know you can reach out to
006me or you can um connect and and and if it is a Friday and it's something that we need to talk or be here at district office we can certainly work through those uh questions when they come up. And lastly, uh the B212 extra effort. Um I've had this in the past as well and and it's super important in my mind. You know, when we we all year we've talked about uh individuals, groups of individuals from our school community that have gone above and beyond and and all of you have seen that periodically throughout the year. Um what we don't often see are are the parents. you know, we may see him at an event or a gathering or and I'm hopeful a distance and dialogue and discussion when our board members partake in whatever
007those uh items are where you're connecting with parents and guardians. Uh but a sincere thanks to our to our parents and guardians and their efforts and how they support us with um supporting their children and other children. You know, uh, many of our parents are parents of others and good influences, not just to their own, and we greatly appreciate that, and we look for their continued support, um, to assist us with our students and doing great things for the school district of London. Any questions for me? Okay, thank you. All right, moving on. Business services, Joe Markle. Okay, good evening, board members. Tonight there's two topics on the director report. The first is our stadium water and bathrooms discussions just to give you an update that we're at at our last meeting and of course
008listening on uh TV tonight or watch this recording. We're continuing to discuss. We used a facility committee meeting to look at options. London building supply is going to get us a drawing and hopeful to have us uh that drawing by the end of this week where we can take it and use it to contract contact contractors and try to continue uh discussion along that process. We will have a facility meeting whenever we need to. The three committee members that are on there said if we need a meeting just let us know. we'll find a way to uh talk about it and then we would report back to the board whenever we're ready to do so. So know that the boots are on the ground and we're working on trying to continue forward on that potential
009discussion uh this summer if it ends up working out. Are there any questions? The second one is just letting you know uh even though school just got out, we are working along in earnest already. If you drove past the high school, you already see uh work going on there. You can see it being staged right across the middle school uh for that project. If you saw our parking lot, we had some infrared patching already starting. So, we got a lot of stuff going on and that's great. It gives us a time to continuously improve our school district as it relates to our facilities getting cleaned up and ready to go for our students and staff as they come next year. So, it's there's just lots of things that are going on and we're very proud
010of that, but it does take this June, July, and August to be able to make all these things happen. Any other questions on those topics? Thanks, Joe. Candy Martin, people services. Good evening, board. I have three items on the director report tonight. Um the first one is another another donation and you have a picture here of this one is from Gold Cross Ambulance. Um so they brought in three AEDs as well as three cabinets to house them in. Um Jenny Penn has been working with all these donations to put um some 3D placards on the wall that are really obvious and really stand out when we have been implementing these. So now, um, just to update the board, we are fully equipped with AEDs and all the positions that Jenny Penn wanted them updated. We
011have them at all our off-site athletic locations, Memorial Park, um, at the stadium, as well as now with the two teams performing at, um, the bowling alley. Um, we have an AED down there as well. So, you have a picture here of our latest greatest donation. Um, Nick Romanesco and Heather from Gold Cross Ambulance came in and brought those in the other day. Um, and we are getting them installed in in all the locations that Jenny has advised them. Um, two other safety updates here in my director report. Um, the CPR refresher training is already in progress. We've already um been um training our coaches for the summer. We have a big training happening on Monday. We do something called equitable services with our parochial school. So, the entire Emanuel Lutheran staff is coming in
012on Monday to train with Annie Schmidt. She is our physical therapist for the district and she's our primary CPR training trainer. Sometimes we have to supplement with Kirk Merrill from the Waka County Sheriff's Department, but Annie does the bulk of the training. Um, so that will be taking place all summer with our coaches, our teachers, our parapros. Um, she has multiple trainings set up. And then the third safety training update here is our nonviolent crisis intervention refresher. Danny Campba, our program support teacher, is our primary trainer on that and she will again offer multiple non-violent trainings uh throughout the summer and as the school year goes on. So just giving you an update on those, but there those are all scheduled and in progress. Thank you. Scott teaching report out on the director of teaching
013and learning position board members you may have heard in the in the news or an article that you've read uh that the state uh the department of public instruction they will be overhauling the district and school report cards. Um, you know, we we talk about this often and uh there's a team that's been deci decided upon to to support that uh individuals from all facets of of education and uh governmental oversight as well. Uh knowing that this process hasn't really been uh looked at in about 15 years. I know there were some different cut scores that were adjusted uh this past year, but they're going to do a deep dive. Um, and so one thing that's always continuous in education is change. And we will keep our ear to the ground as to what this
014look like, but their intention is to have whatever changes that are established to be part of the reporting process for this past year and our results as they come forward, which we anticipate will be released in November. So, there will be a learning curve on our new district and school report card based on the work that takes place over the summer and early fall. If items come forward that are worthy of sharing what we might be looking at, uh we'll do our best to to communicate out. I know our admin team as well as our teaching staff are very much in tune and and uh curious to know if there are significant changes or emphasis of the scoring module and how districts and schools are rated. So stay tuned to that and this uh report
015was from the DPI specifically as well and the side there. I just have a quick question on that. Yeah. So we worked that into our um KPIs right for our continuous improvement plan. Do you feel like that is now apples to oranges as far as comparison if they're kind of moving the needle or resetting? I know it hasn't been updated in a long time. I read that, but I'm like, what does that mean for like a baseline, you know? So, right now the the district report card on our KPIs or continuous improvement plan is is one item. Okay. It's the first one. All right. and and ultimately how we would perform on that. Regardless of what the rules and expectations are, we're still recognizing that as that marker. Everything else from learning and achievement, operational
016stability, financial stability, engaged and connected are all elements that influence the stay report card, you know, ultimately. Um, but those are all regardless are important to us and what we're doing every day, you know, within that. Great. Jo the vouchers. Okay. Uh for tonight I only have three vouchers to highlight. The first being Medford Area Public Schools. Again just a reminder that is our students who are choosing RBA through uh their instruction all day or we also have students that are enrolled in some classes that are there. We had 25 students who were there for full-time instruction and we had 113 students registrations for various classes throughout the year. So that is that voucher that we pay Medford the total ends up being paid part in full part now ends up being $112,000 for those
01725 students who are open enroll that we um count on our our membership and then paying them for kind of that instruction. So that's just a note on that. It's a it's a good program for our district to be enrolled in. Savas learning is for the ELA curriculum that the board approved at the high school and K12 technology is for our Chromebooks for next year for our incoming fifth graders and ninth graders. So that's our vouchers to purchase those when the students come for next year. That is that Chromebook set. And I had no receipt highlights for the month. for the month. The highlight Andy, do you uh need a some information on what RVA is? Go for it. I'm going to point to Scott. So, Rural Virtual Academy is an online charter school which
018we are recognized as being partners with. It is a charter school of the school district of New London. the actual onampus instruction for the majority of the operational pieces of the school take place in Medford. Uh the Medford school district is the host of RVA. Uh so we have students that will they live in our our district that would have gone out to another online venue if you will where we encourage them to go to RVA and as Mr. Dr. Markwart said there's elements of reimbursements and student counts where they stay on campus or they stay with us as a district. It's a great, you know, not every student uh sees the online or excuse me the in-person instruction as a relevant piece and if it's a good fit. This RBA themselves is known throughout
019the state. um districts, they've kind of capped districts from coming in because they've grown so quick and their accountability to the integrity of good work. So they they've limited that. Um Brett Pickertz is one of our middle school uh teachers. He is our I'll say our lesson uh with RVA. He's actually on their their board of control uh for the organization. We had an opportunity to give him a leadership opportunity within and in the direction has done an outstanding job with it. But uh were we one of the earlier adopters of that back in the day? Uh it was it was established before we uh jumped on but right at that time there was just a huge in not to bring old old news up co all right online instruction that type of thing really
020it it was existing beforehand. This avenue really uh surfaced to the top as an accountable credible place for online instruction for that. Any other discussion? Otherwise, seeking a motion to approve expenditures in the amount of 1,690,14528 as the list of June 5th, 2025. I'll make the motion. Have a second. Second. Roll call. Katie Patton. Yes. Mark Gman. Yes. Chris Martinson. Yes. Holly Schwitzer. Yes. Andy Thorp. Yes. John Heidman. Yes. For receipts receipts from the receipt register June 5th, 2025 in the amount of 325 or 312,96525. All right. Anything more from you, Joe? All right. Moving on. No unfinished business. Correct. All right, moving on to new business. Review and potential approval of custodial services contract. Joe. Okay. Tonight we are from our facilities committee recommendation re recommending a one-year renewal with SSC and a 2.9%
021increase. Um they are our evening cleaning service at all of our school buildings and they do a lot of our summer cleaning that are day custodians did not do. We feel like that this is a good recommendation. It started at 5.2% when we were met in January with their initial renewals. That was a longer timeline, but we felt a one-year recommendation at this time. Any questions? I'd like to commend you on the negotiation that went on in that contract and specifically some of the terms. I think that was done very well. Um, looking for a motion to approve the custodial services contract as presented. Second. Um, roll call again. Mark Rosman, yes. Chris Martinson, yes. Holly Schwitzer, yes. Candy Thorp, yes. Katie Battton, yes. John, yes. Moving on. 2025 preACT and ACT update. Scott. All
022right. So, board members, uh, tonight I'm going to introduce Mr. Yorkie and he's going to take us through the, uh, year end results of two of our standardized tests which are part of our continuous improvement journey. All right, they are indicators of success when which we recognize within our KPIs or key performance indicators. Um, as in the topic summary that was was shared, um, the pre-ACCT secure and the ACT, um, are two required elements within the state of Wisconsin for students in grades 9, 10, and then the ACT in 11. Uh, Mr. Gerky will share some of the initiatives, the work that has gone in thus far, some results, and then potential strategies which, uh, they're embarking on as we move forward. Brian. Well, good evening. Happy summer. Sure. You all want to hear 30
023minutes on testing data tonight. It's just a funny start to this. So, I asked Scott today if I could give you all some sample questions. And his eyes got about that bigger. He said for them to take. No, you don't have to take any act questions. Uh, but you will see some sample questions in front of you that I will get to in a minute. Now Scott, if you'll jump right to the first slide. I have I think approximately 30 slides on here. This is going to be a highle overview. It would take days and weeks and there's things about these tests that I still don't understand. So tonight's going to be a very high level. Give you some graphs, some easy data points. If you have questions, you want to follow up, but we
024could spend hours and hours on this information. Uh if you do ever have questions or you want to get into the weeds on some of these things, I'm happy to sit down with you and do that. Uh some bullet points up there. As Scott mentioned, mandatory test for 9, 10, and 11. So 9 and 10 take the preac secure. There's been lots of different names for tests for 9th and tth graders over the last 50 years. It's now the preacct secure. That's what they call it in ninth and tth grade. 11th graders take the regular old ACT. Those are used in our school report card that Scott mentioned is going to change. Again, won't talk about the school report card too much, but these are the two primary measures when you look at our school
025report card that are used. Could go into a thousand different scenarios on how they're used. I don't I won't get into that tonight. The ACT is a reading test and why I gave you the the sample questions. I took one question at the easiest level of the ACT. And I'm sorry for the font size. It's the only way I could not kill a tree today. So, and and I don't even need you to read it. What I want you to just understand is when you look at mathematics, for example, 45 questions in 50 minutes. And the math problem is a reading problem. You have to read through a paragraph of information quickly. Decipher information. Take out key words and elements. Do some subtraction. It's a complicated test. You take a look at English. You have
02650 questions in 35 minutes. The first page is the English question. That's one question. So for a student to read that, know that they only have 35 minutes and to answer that many questions. The ACT in every category is a reading test. You have to read a lot of information. It's also a stress test. How well can you answer this many questions in the aotted time you have? Some kids are great at that. Some kids are not great at that. So for us to say that this is the end all beall for kids is not it. It's a one measure we have uh for kids and I'll talk a little bit more about that at the end. But if if you want to look through this at some point with your magnifying glass, this is
027the the easiest level of the ACT sample questions that kids have to take. So just a sample for you. The ranges are up there. Um and just so you know the ACT, so ACT success runs ACT. Their benchmarks are different than DPI. I know that's a shocker to everybody, but they have two different measures for this test. So, the proficiency levels for ACT are different than DPI. So, as I go through some of this information, I'll refer to ACT proficiency levels and I'll also refer to DPI proficiency levels because they are not the same. There's about a two to three point difference between the two. Okay. So, as we jump in, I just added that page of the description of the current test that we're going to look at today. ACT scores on the next
028slide. Scott, the I'm told that's green. Green is good. The other color means we did not achieve our our mark or we did not beat the state or have an improved proficiency level. So, our ACT composite score, you can see that trend timeline there is pretty darn good. And we met with our data guy, Mrs. Uvas, was in that meeting a few weeks ago, and he said, "As simply as I can put it, schools in the state of Wisconsin would kill to have a 21 on their ACT as an average in their school." As you guys should be extremely proud of what we've done, and we are. So, if you look at those measures, Scott, go ahead. There is each content area. So those are the five categories measured in that test and that's how
029we compared against the state this year and slow me down if you need to. There's course specific. So there's math over the last five years. Go ahead. Science English. And I I know there's been a lot of talk about reading levels and proficiency levels and English. I think that's a pretty darn good um picture right there. And I'll show you nine and 10 here coming up about the work our ELA departments have done K12, you know, over the the last handful of years. Reading and obviously we saw reading as an area we need to do improve in and the work we've put in and the things we've done over the last couple years, we expect that continue to to move forward. and writing that score is out of 12. And then these are going to
030be the same scores, but it's just a different way to look at them that graph over time. So school, our school is the blue and state is the the gray or the black there. It's got you can kind of cruise through, but that's just, you know, our trend line looks pretty good on the ACT. Have they changed how they how they score reading? I've been doing some listening on on this and it used to be that they would be given a story and then they would get questions for that story and now they're taking sections of stories and then they're asking them to identify certain items within. Yeah. So if you look at the reading sample on here, the reading question on the last page, that is about a quarter of what that reading sample
031looks like. So I didn't want to cut the rest of it and paste it on here. they have to read that sample of a story, that segment of a story, and then answer that question. Cuz a couple of the things that I was listening to, they were really critical of that that that was not a a true representation of of reading capability versus being able to understand a whole story. And again, the ACT is meant to stress kids. It's meant to I don't want to say trick, but it's meant to mess with you a little bit with how you select and your process and your tools for removing wrong answers as much as finding right answers. So, if you can play the game of of taking this test, well, that's half the battle. And when
032I talk about some of the things we do to prepare kids for this, it's learning the tricks of taking the test. So yeah, be happy to answer more, but for the sake of sure sliding through 30 slides, here's proficiency levels for the ACT. So the the graph on the left is grade 11, the ACT, and for comparison on the right that is 9, 10, and 11. So you'll see the preac secure for 9 and 10 and then grade 11. And and these are tricky to look at because you might look at 18% of our kids are developing in math. And without any comparison to any other school district or standard for what the ACT or the DPI set as a measure, you could look at that and go, are you kidding me? 18% of our
033kids are are basically below basic in math. Well, if you're somewhere between 10 and 20% there, you're doing pretty well. Um, obviously we want the blue and the green advanced and and meeting to be higher than approaching and developing. Again, you take a kid who has a bad test day or doesn't test well. Could they end up in approaching or developing? Absolutely. Absolutely. And I'll show you some other statistical data here in a couple minutes. Um, with these, the next one is ELA. Again, if you look at, you know, 9, 10, and 11 on the right, the fact that our ninth graders, only 13% of our kids are devel are at the lowest category. Our 10th graders, our sophomores this year, that's a remarkable number in ELA. And that's reading and writing combined. Less than
0348% of our kids are in that bottom category. And our data guy, Eric Larson from DPI and CISA, if you're under 10, that's that's wild. That's something to celebrate. Then our 11th graders, 11% there. Okay, Scott. This complicated mess is used on the school report card. So, pointsbased proficiency. If we just go back, Scott, can you go back to that last slide? When a kid takes this test on the on the for the school report card, they get zero points. We get zero points. If a kid is in developing, we get 0.5 points for that kid. if they're an approaching, we get one point if they fall into the meeting category and we get 1.5 points if they fall into the advanced. So then when you go back to that pointsbased proficiency slide, they take
035up that total number divided by your kids and you get a pointsbased proficiency score. In 23, we all remember what happened. They moved the cut score. So we didn't have a giant jump. They changed the grading scale, so to speak. But you can see from 24 to 25, our pointsbased proficiency against the state is fantastic. Now, last year, because they changed the score card, they did not count our achievement because they changed the cut score. They didn't count achievement, and they likely won't count achievement next year. From what we're hearing, they're just going to use the growth score. But our pointsbased proficiency is really, really good. Next one. Scott talked about ACT and DPI using different measures. I know that's super tiny. The nuts and bolts. This is the ACT comparison. And what we like
036about this is it'll say meeting all benchmarks. So what ACT looks at versus DPI is they say are your kids ready for college based on their proficiency level. So you can see our kids meeting all four benchmarks 25% 27% the year before the stuff enclosed in green really really good. That means our either our score improved or our benchmark percentage of kids being ready improved. But this is another another scary thing to look at because if you're not in tune with the data, you might go, "How in the world, let's say in reading, are only 41% of our kids meeting college readiness standards compared to the state? That's pretty darn good." Uh, and that measure they look at is some schools are in the single digits across the board for kids meeting readiness benchmarks. But
037if you don't have that information or that comparative data, it's very easy for somebody to look at this information on a school website or a newspaper and go, they're terrible. Only 40% of their kids met that benchmark. That's not an accurate assessment. Because like most assessments, there's a curve and they want a chunk to fall at the top. They want a chunk to fall in the middle and they want a chunk to fall at the bottom. And those things can be curved that way. So I won't I won't get into all of these pieces. Scott, you can slide to the next. Probably the thing I'm the most proud of. On the school report card, there's a target group, and that group of kids is your bottom 25%, the lowest scoring individuals in those categories, and
038they make up their own report card, which is then compiled into your overall giant report card. And those are our growth scores for the kids in our lowest categories. Anytime you have two points of growth, that's considered a full year. That's a positive trend. So, math with 2.2, that's our bottom kids screw. At least a full year of growth. And our ELA team, and I'm glad Mrs. US is here, did one heck of a job because they almost doubled the average growth score for our bottom kids. Yeah. Which is a pretty cool stat to see. Now, if they don't change the school report card, which they're going to, I think we would do really, really, really well based on how we achieved this year. They'll change it and we'll figure it out, but super proud
039of that fact with our target group and our math and our ELA teams. The next one, this is just a great comparison because you always we always have the conversation of do our classes and our GPA is that a good representation of what a kid really knows. So this is this correlation chart shows the composite ACT score in relation to GPA. And you have some anomalies. You have a kid, you know, we had a kid this year have 1.4 4 GPA and they scored a 27 on their ACT. A classic case of a kid who doesn't really have to try hard in school, maybe isn't motivated, maybe doesn't love the game of school, but is ridiculously smart and gifted and can walk into a classroom and pull a 27. On the flip side, we have
040kids with 4.0 GPA who score a 15 on their ACT because in school they show up every day, they work their tail off, they do everything extra, but it doesn't equate to being good at that test. But the majority of our kids fall in line with where we expect them to from ACT GPA comparison. Mr. Jük, can you share uh how many students had a perfect score this year? two. I had that on the first slide. I think we have had three perfect scores in the last two years, which is amazing. And I I just saw something in the paper. I think a Kimberly student had a perfect score. And we've sent stuff in and we put stuff on Facebook and we've sent stuff out to families. I'd like to get a little more publicity
041for our academic stuff. So, we're thinking about putting some banners in our in our commons with honor society kids and kids and anybody that's scores over a certain thing on a test just to recognize some of those things. But moving on, not to take up all your time, the preac. Again, this is nine and 10. Used to be called a thousand different names. Green is good. The other color is is not so good. Here's our comparison against the state. I guarantee you the average for the state this year is not out yet. It's not been compiled, but everything we've been told and seen, we will be well above state average for nine and 10. There's math. Nine at the top, 10 on the on the bottom against the state. Again, that green color is good.
042Science. When there's not a color, that means we scored the same. Just another way to look at those pieces in the you'll see the proficiency levels on the left side again in the developing below basic. Anything 10 to 20 is kind of the average. The chart on the right, we want green and blue to be trending up and yellow and red to be trending down. Sometimes it can be misleading. You might have green trending way up like this one. And you might see blue dip a little bit. I think at the end of the day, if blue and green combined are moving up and the other two are moving down, we're doing good things. That's grade nine math. This is ELA, grade nine. Again, I like that green. Our ELA team has done a good
043job moving the needle. And this is again that ACT comparison chart with the readiness benchmarks um shows percentage of kids in need of intervention. ACT proficiency levels again different than DPI's proficiency levels. So, it can get confusing when we're talking about all these levels with staff and parents and kids trying to keep them straight. The next one, our plan for next year, uh, you know, we've done a lot of good things and we focused a lot on the ACT, but our our plan next year is to test less. We're actually going to take a test out of rotation. We have to do the mandatory state required tests. We will still do a practice ACT for our freshman in the fall. We want them to get experience with it. We want them so we can walk
044them through the the stress of it, how to prepare for it, what they're going to experience, so they have an idea what it's like before the real thing comes. It will be a, you know, a non-threatening walking them through what that test looks like. It'll also give us a comparable data point. In the middle school, they're using I Ready and forward and those tests don't translate to preACT or ACT. So, we want our ninth graders to experience. We then have a data point comparable to what they will be tested on. What we're going to do is take out testing for 10th grade. We'll have the freshman year data point. 10th graders will have no testing in the fall. So, we'll take that out of the books and let them get a break from it. We
045have the data point we need from their spring actual test. they'll then take the spring test. So, we want to we want to try and reduce as much testing anxiety and focusing on the test. So, we're going to reduce uh what we do. Scott that next slide, our improvement strategies, you know, exposure and and we try not to force testing down a kid's throat. We don't want to constantly be saying, "Hey, here's our ACT prep. Here's an ACT question." through good instruction, through tying those things into what you're doing in class and talking about strategies, we feel like we can get the same result. Do we talk about testing? Absolutely. But do we want it to be the primary focus? No. Good instruction on all of those core content areas is more important. our target
046group interventions. You you saw from our target group improvement, we have some pointed intervention for our lowest scoring kids. Whether it's a foundational ELA class, some supplemental uh intervention strategies in math, we have some focused interventions for those students. Uh focus on literacy across all contents. Uh a focus of ours at the high school is to improve reading, writing, and speaking in every content area. And disciplinary literacy really is not everybody speaking the same, but within teched, what does it mean to speak, read, and write well if you're in the engineering field? What does it mean to read, write, and speak well if you're in the fitness field and the math field? That's different in every in every curricular area. And it's going to be a different set of skills when you translate into the
047workplace. So an individual who's going into the trades, they're reading, writing, and speaking is going to look different than a guy who's reading and writing and speak speaking as a doctor. So we want to have them exposure to all of those things. And if all of our high school teachers are speaking that language and focused on those things, our kids will improve in all areas. And that doesn't mean focusing on the ACT test. Just gets them better in those areas. And then ne last making sure there's a balance between state testing and doing what's right for kids. I don't love state testing. I don't always think it's a a great assessment. I don't think it's a great measure of a kid's abilities. You know, having the conversation with my own daughter who scored really well
048as a freshman and last year took the exact same test and scored much much worse. She didn't lose knowledge. She's not less capable. She probably had a bad test day. you know, she there might have been a million reasons for that result. And as a parent, you look at those results, you go, "Hey, it's one measure. It's one test. It's not going to define your success. Can it open up some doors?" Absolutely. But at the end of the day, it's one measure we use. Uh, you know, unfortunately, it's part of our school report card and it's a big one. Um, but very proud of our school and our kids and our staff for what we've done with testing. I think we have a good balance. We could play the game and we could spend a
049ton of dollars and time and effort and be really really good at testing and our kids kids might miss a bunch of skills in other areas that they are getting in our building right now. So I think we have a good balance of those two. There's always things we can improve on. I'm sure there's a trillion questions on testing people have. Happy to answer anything. So when when they're taking the test now, are they they doing that on online? Yep. Everything. So, is all the pre-esting and that done online? We we try to mimic it as much as possible so they have the look, feel, understanding of what it's going to be like when they take the real thing. That's another thing. How we check them in, what we feed them, the the messaging, everything.
050We want them to have experienced it before because it can be overwhelming for a kid to sit in that room and take that test. Well, I mean, even like just the the the the reading, you know, if you're not used to reading online or you're not used to you're not a good typer typist, you know, um versus in fact, one of the uh podcasts I listened to advocated for going back to the the blue book. Oh, yeah. and writing because that it eliminates the anxiety of this y and um even though in the real world you're going to be doing a lot of that but you're not going to be tested at your job. Yeah. You know in that so the writing score actually improved once you move to a Chromebook because kids were more
051comfortable typing on a Chromebook than they were writing. And how many kids when that test got scored they couldn't read what a kid wrote. Yeah. Right. So scores actually across the nation went up once any school that transitioned to from paper pencil to a Chromebook. Their writing score went up. Board members, the the slides that Merk shared with you, I will forward them out as well and you can have reference to it if you have any questions or want to take a deeper look. I know our subcommittee may have some interest in some of these topics as well as we get into advancing thoughts. And if you want the 200 slide version, let me know because the our staff does a good job of drilling down to every kid and they can look at a
052m kids's math score and what category they did well in, which one they didn't do well in, of their points, and our staff breaks down every kid to find out, hey, what are we not doing well, what do we have to do a little better when it comes to to meeting the needs of our kids. Uh, so there's millions of data points out there. Brian, u it seems like from observing as far as far as the reports that that we get, you know, on what's happening um as far as achievement, it it looks like there's been a lot more um collaboration and teamwork for teaching and learning in the district um this year and at at a time when We don't have a teaching and learning director. U principles have stepped up, other staff members
053have stepped up and and you guys have used that teamwork to uh solve problems and and figure out things to do that have headed us in a positive direction. um and um that you know I I don't I'm not saying there wasn't any teamwork before but it seems like this year has really you know really really been good and I I like the way you cut through the complexity of the of the state report card to focus on the stuff that is actually meaningful to us because you know when I was looking at scores in 2018 when the high school had a much higher report card score. It looked like in 2024 we actually had higher scores on SAT but on the uh on the state report card we had dropped considerably which is confusing
054right and you know cutting through that to say well this is how we're doing versus the state average. Um it's that's the kind of stuff we need to hear um that maybe we weren't hearing before in the teaching learn learning report. So um uh I I think I think you guys are off to a great start, you know, to um really uh keep us, you know, keep us enlightened and keep the district moving in the right direction. What the state does, they're going to do. you say, but you know, if we're if we're doing these things, you know, um I believe that um we're definitely headed in the right direction. And I I want to I want to thank you for your leadership and the leadership of the other principles and other parts of your
055team for really stepping up this year, really stepping up. Yeah, I know at the high school, our our ELA team and our math team and our other teachers have done a phenomenal job of of being much better than me at looking at these scores and and understanding that it's just a data point because there's a lot of other really good things that matter in educating a child than just that data point. And they've done a great job because when you get a school report card that says meets few expectations, it's pretty easy to just burn the boats and and start over and just could have could have been disruptive. And people like Lindsay and our other team members have done a great job of moving slow to go fast, like doing the right work at
056the right time with the right people to to make sure we're going in the right direction for kids. And that's not just testing. Again, this is one small portion of what makes a successful kid. Have you always presented it this way or am I needing? I don't know that I've ever presented it other than the school. I'm like I don't remember seeing it like this for the last five times, right? But I I do appreciate obviously you put a lot of work into that but I was feeling like I don't remember seeing this. So one of the resources that we've been able to utilize as Eric Larson from CISA 6 and Mr. Yorkie had mentioned uh he working with our high school team as he works with our ISMS and our elementary teams. Um he's
057a a great individual that synthesizes out data and presents it in a way for our building principles to utilize to share with and as we ask questions to either build or dig deeper into how can we make this look that it makes sense to us. So was that one of the new like things we added this year was not having he he is not new. Uh he's a resource that's been out there. Our district has utilized them in the past, you know, at different touch points. This year, maybe a little bit more, you know, with some of our our focus of where and how can we get data that is processed in a way to support our building principles. I'd like to commend you. That was a really enlightening explanation. Um, I don't recall that
058we've seen it this way in the past. Um, and commend everybody's work on this. Appreciate it. Yep. Thank you. All right. Moving on to uh policy review and discussion. First reading of act one. So board members uh in front of you at the topic summary is supporting documentation that recognizes uh upcoming board acknowledgement of policy which will need to be acted on by July 1, 2025 in which school boards will recognize specific written policy to address uh state legislation specifically bill 321 and act 20 uh with the the reading act uh that districts are now very much actively involved within in grades preK through grade three. Um our policy committee has met multiple times on this topic to bring forth um a recommendation for first reading and consideration but ultimately uh conversation within at our
059most recent session. and our elementary principal team was part of that discussion as well as uh different survey data throughout the recent meetings within u just to preface uh the the potential policy which is is presented for consideration and as typically our policies have guidelines and in this case as well supporting grade level advancement guidelines are are there for the board to to ask the committee feels that it is hitting the arc of what is um expected ultimately following through on legislation Wisconsin act 20. That is what the board is doing with uh that recognition prior to July 1 as we move forward on the advancement and level advancement and retention. There are key elements that are highlighted within that uh is up for discussion andor forward movement um within noting that uh act 20
060full implementation uh by state statute is not uh I guess the the drop deadad date of implementation is September 1, 2027. Um and in discussion of our policy group, knowing that a tenative start time of 2627 would be our focus and with emphasis on communicating following through on the current practices and um assessments of identifying students individual reading plans, all of the communication pieces and strategies that are used to bring students past that lowest 25 percentile uh with the intent of of grade advancement. Uh the policy within does specifically state out um different milestones in which uh we would look to implement and that be part of our our process. Um some of it reference local opinion as well as items that have been vetted through act 20. just to briefly touch base on the
061advancement guidelines within. Uh that's where you really get into the the nuts and bolts if you will of the strategies that are going to be in place which are in place already overwhelmingly to support uh that advancement and potential retention decision and what that looks like. The one item that I will highlight uh there is an item called good cause exemptions. It's on page 57. um you know in discussions of when we talk about uh their students ability to to advance to that appropriate grade level as Mr. Yorkie has said, you know, um, advanced or meeting grade level expectations. If they are not, well, what are those potential good cause exemptions that play into the the ultimate reason why students might not be at particular grade level? Items one through five highlight those uh good
062cause exemptions which could be taken into consideration for uh discussion as an exemption to allow a student to go on with the various elements that play into it. Just one of the the talking points that um I know some of our committee members has brought out was number four uh students documented medical or psych psychological condition that significantly impacted the academic performance. That's a very broad wide statement that um has a lot of open-endedness to that and as to whether or not that would be appropriate or further discussion on that topic would be necessary. So again, first reading I encourage our policy committee to to to chime in and if there are specifics we can do you want to touch on like one of the things I found attractive was um like Brian kind of
063alluded to just talking like what if your kid has a bad test day, right? We talked about um well actually we listened. I think Kristen could probably um and Kirk it was like there were three different metrics like they could reach they could reach their goal with I ready with like there were three ways to get there and I felt more comfortable with that in case like they did have a bad day bad day. Um what were the three I Ready forward testing as web plus that's what I was that's the initial assessment tool that they're using. I felt comfortable that there were three different ways kids could achieve, right? Because Ames was so focused on oral reading fluency and that's a very good predicting measure of a child's ability to read, but some of
064our kids are are just slower processors. Um, so their oral reading fluency might be slower. So the um right now we would start this on the 2627 school year. Um but the state's not mandating it until the 2728 school year. I understand that's the state isn't mandating retention at all. Okay. The state is mandating that that by 2027 we have a policy of retention or non-retention and each of those policies has to meet the guidelines of act 20. So um yeah there uh and they under under act 20 we could not have robust retention third and fourth grade but we would still be required to do the um the extra help for kids that have a reading program education um and we would be required to uh have a curriculum that is robust with things
065like um phonics that strengthen um the ability to to learn to read. Uh it it's it was taken initially from Mississippi, but then 11 states have you know similar to act 20 except they all have a requirement for robust retention timing. Mark's talking about the timing of like when we were starting it as opposed to this this is the latest that we could um uh No, there's there's not a deadline and when we do retention there's a deadline on when we pass a policy correct that says what we're doing and that deadline is July 1st if we're going to make it uh but why does it state here beginning on September 1st 2027 a school board may not promote a third grade pupil to the fourth grade unless the pupil satisfies the criteria for promotion
066specified in the school board's policy. And you're saying that's a year early, right? That's what you're saying. Yeah. Well, and and Chris is saying the the the act 20 doesn't mandate retention and it states right here that Well, because this was our this was our any school could craft their own. You have to have a plan. So, this was what we had proposed based on the success. But like you were saying, is that too late? But the law is making us choose third grade, right? But like you said, should we be starting sooner? Oh, no, no. I'm I'm I'm I'm questioning um do we need to start in the 2627 school year? Um we could start in the 252. Could we start in the 2728 and satisfy this the state the state's requirement because they're
067stating that we have to have a policy by September 1st of 2027. The state isn't isn't requiring this this to be an as retention. He's saying we're starting a year earlier than we h would have to. That's what I'm saying. That's what he's saying. Yeah. Yeah. I don't Is that Is that a conversation that the that the committee had? I I was just thinking that. I was like, "Oh, that's a We could we could have pushed it out one more year if we felt that would be appropriate. Yeah. We could push it out another year. That way we'd have two years of of of gaining an understanding of what we need to be doing and also making sure that the public are our our customers Yeah. are are fully aware of what's what's happening and
068um and give them a chance to start start ramp ramping up because a lot of this is going to be relying upon parental involvement and a a lot of what I read about this is it come that's the root cause is parental involvement and the trickle down right with the younger kids yeah and so um we if if if we can work with devel veloping that parental involvement, direct uh developing our skills and and uh you know with the staff and so forth for two years before we actually implement you know and promote and um the criteria for whether a a student gets promoted or not. I think that's take advantage of that of that two years. We talked about that member. I was thinking one year why I mentioned this like we need a
069PR campaign about the potential implication of not right you know taking your kid to the library whatever but I guess the date the date escaped me on this that we actually have two so the way this is written when would it potentially start so in other words if if we passed it the way it is here so when um when third graders they're in third grade in the 26 27 year um reach the end of that school year, they need to be at third grade proficiency. Otherwise, they will be held back unless they written the way this is written two years from now. Yeah. No one that's 26. So that's what Mark's saying like we didn't pick up on this. It's it would be two years of actually having to happen. Correct. Right. In other
070words, a year from now, it would go 2526 school year, it's not in effect yet. So, kids that are are uh at this time of year would would not be required to be held held back. Oh, but Mark is saying we technically have another year. That's what he's saying. We technically have two years the way this is written. No, because in the second year that's when the decision would be made at the end of the year whether somebody gets held back years. It'll be two years before anybody is actually officially held back. Right. I'm saying because we don't need to have this policy in effect before the beginning of September 1, 2027. That would give us two years before we had we would implement holding somebody back. And so then it would be the 272
07128th school year. At the end of that school year is the first time that the policy would kick in where somebody would possibly be held back. And I'm saying why don't we take advantage of that two full years where we don't have that threat hanging over people's heads to to utilize to educate. Well, we kicking the road or do we have like it? I I mean I see both ways. I actually um would try to make the case that we're not putting it in quick enough that if we put it in for the 2526 school year, we will have quicker benefit of the literacy that flows from Wait, 2526 is right now. That's this coming year. Yeah. In other words, as kids come into school in September, uh those kids will have to those third
072graders will have to be third grade proficient by the end of the school. So, you're you don't even like this date. This is 26 27. remember in committee I I was suggesting we put it in right away but we we talked about it and decided to bring it as um as because I do think we need a marketing campaign in some fashion we would have all we'd have all summer and plus we would have school year to lead up to um the fact it I mean this isn't a new concept it's a concept that's being brought back We've rehashed it a million ways. I mean, I guess I guess I'm open for a discussion on this. Um, I guess my my concern is as a whole, and I understand what Act 10 is laying out,
073the third to fourth grade transition. My concern that seems like that's too late. I know Mark has if you are not a good reader by fourth grade. Yeah, I think it should be first grade. It's plus it's a lot easier. Well, it's never easy to retain. Okay. But when you look at it from a social standpoint, if you're going to retain a third grader who's who's expecting to become the oldest person in that in their school building, that's and that's the case of all of our four elementaryaries. And you are going to hold that child back versus having a first grader who you want to hold back a year. That's a huge huge difference. Well, I'm in agreement with that, but the problem is the law makes us address third to fourth. I know. So
074that we have we're stuck with that. But like Scott just told me the other day, it's not a new concept in London. Didn't you say you just said in So retention is something that although some may feel that students aren't retained in our district, every year there are students that are retained, but primarily at the our lowest grade level, 4K, K maybe first grade. Okay. within. And those are discussions and dialogues that take place to try to address where there's known deficiencies and whether it's uh you know maturity or just skill sets that they're working on. But that does happen regardless of where we settle on this. That emphasis and focus from our administrative team and our classroom teachers will continue. If there's a child that sees benefit of retention at those earliest grade levels,
075it will be brought up because it is truly best interest at that time. Earlier the better. I would agree with that, you know, and that if we're going to make strides um if a child would be in that position of potential retention, those earliest levels would be best. Third grade act 20 state law, there are parameters that are there. But my you know hope in through this process is that parent engagement will increase. All right. As we've talked at our committ uh committee level uh tier one intervention and instruction uh focused efforts on what that looks like enhancing the skill sets of our classroom teachers and that universal instruction student engagement understanding and knowing uh what we're trying to do. Ameswood we've gone through this process twice now. students are going to begin to know
076and understand what those expectations are even at the youngest age. An emphasis of what needs to be accomplished, I think, is really going to start to come to well, and we we can talk about first grade or second grade all day. We can have our own policy, but that doesn't put us in compliance with like it's making us address, but I think it gives us it gives us time to make sure we are in compliance and those kids are going to pass from third grade to to fourth grade. If we started if we started this this fall, it's it's it's not going to happen. That's that's too much pressure to put on our staff. Well, we wouldn't be starting it this fall because you just suggested the kids have already um been either promoted or
077you know from that's this fall. What you described to us is we would start it in September in this school year. So at the end of this a year from now so nobody gets retained until a year. I realize that, but I think you're putting a tremendous amount of pressure on our staff to make this happen in in one school a year and versus remember it's written as 25 26, you know, there's we have it's written 26 27 still gives us another another another year. And the thing I like about the way it's written right now is this is this is fairly generic in that it follows kind of the guideline of what the state has that's has put forward, but it gives us an opportunity to go through and change it as we're moving
078along with our own requirements. They have some data on that, right? Yeah. you know, and again, starting starting it on September one of this year to me that just that just puts us with our backs. Do we have any are we allowed to ask the the staff on their thoughts that were sat in on the policy committee? Sure. If you have a question for like I just was curious like what's your thoughts on implementation dates? I'd like to know. I would side with Mark on that. The more time we have to inform parents about implications of their child not being at the grade level, the more advantageous it is for all of you sitting at those tables because those parents are going to be in here talking to you when we talked about that too.
079We talked about that too and saying like this was, you know, remember like you were like we're not blaming the staff, blame the board because we had to make a policy on it. But yeah, it's going to take some marketing. But remember um this uh there there's three aspects to act 20. The retention is not a mandatory part. That's an optional part. The other two are mandatory right that the curricular part in terms of u making sure that you have um the phonics robust phonics and there's some other aspects to it which I'm not going to take time to go in but there's probably about nine different things that they're after and in a curriculum. Uh so one has that's a mandatory part to have um if you're going to spend um act 20 money
080for curriculum, it has to be on a curriculum that's that's approved by the early literacy curriculum committee. Uh which we've already determined that the the curriculum we're working with is approved. It does and it meets the and it meets the criteria. It is not approved. Well, we have Uh but we have added u supplemental a supplemental that makes it legal to to use it. The the supplemental is the youly thing that uh increases the robustness of the um which then makes it Yeah. We qualify for it, right? So we're good with that because yeah, we qualify for it. um uh whether or not we want to keep it in the future, that's a different question, but it we do qualify part. So, and policy can be changed at any time with a policy change in
081two board meetings. So, if if uh for any reason we feel we're not ready by the 26 27th school year, the policy can be changed. Um and remember this is an optional part of the policy for us. So, we are um we are proposing to opt in on that through through this uh policy. Um and and one of the uh uh act 20 came from a series of southern states that pass I'm familiar with all that and and the those u states have all three are mandatory and um a lot of those state education departments say that without the retention part of it it would not be nearly as successful. Mississippi for instance went from number 49 to somewhere in the top five. Y and and the uh retention is a spe and that that
082is crucial for for family engagement. So I'm confident that our staff is taking notice of this which I'm I'm assuming that you know you've been a part of these conversations and that even though um we're maybe not actually working the policy in this upcoming year. They're going to be working the tools. Right. Right. as if we had the policy and it'll give us an an opportunity to, you know, to um see what kind of results we're getting from it, see what kind of changes we might need to make make to it, you know, and um and I'm just saying let's take advantage of that of that time, you know, and um um build it slowly. Have we done have we done a as web like is would that be a newer like all these three
083different ways to test is that a newer like gauge for us or have we always done that? Um we were not an in web district prior to this. We were a fast bridge district. Okay. Um but when the state obviously chose web that's what we switched to. So we'd have a good like based on what Mark just said like we could have some comparables that's apples to apples technically unseen what happens and I think giving a year or two that will allow us you know to if not as web because of the the high reliance on the oral reading fluency which I talked about. Um we would then be able to also look at I Ready and other you know forward data to see okay what would be the percentage of students that could possibly
084be retained right that's what I was saying like we could compare percents on the possible and have some you would know so and we've also talked a little more about maybe well you know and like Scott said there was four retentions I three of them. But um thinking a little more seriously about relooking at 4K and 5K retention because like Mark said um psychologically, social, emotional, it's a it's a whole different ball game when they're that little and you know, I don't know if anybody has a summer birthday child, but that's a tough decision to make. Do you send them or do you Yeah. January July 27th, our son, we waited. It was the best decision we ever made, right? Especially boys. And we use we use a the life retention scale, which is more
085of a black and white um like the first question on life's retention, summer, birthday. Second question is male or female. And you know, that kind of helps guide our you know, decisions. It's ultimately the parents decision on retention um at this point, but it really helps us kind of give the parents a heads up. Hey, they you know one more year. What's the advantage of moving ahead one more year in the workforce? Did you in this case this year like did you do most of that initiation or was it a request from the other side? I think between um you know there's definitely parents that kind of recognize hey I I sent them I thought they were ready. They're not especially the summer birthdays. Yeah. And then we have the conversation at especially spring parent
086teacher conferences like We thought they were ready. They aren't. Um, yeah, it's it's a collaborative effort between parents, staff, that decision myself. Yeah. Um, John, I guess if if I could ask one thing, any any other input on what Scott brought up, the good cause exemption, specifically number four. I know that was something that has been thought of. Um, I guess I I would have concern if if we could narrow the exemptions because if if X, Y, and Z are all exempted, it kind of takes any teeth out of having a policy in place away. So, yeah, those are in the administrative guidelines. And um uh I'd actually like to request that you know the committee uh policy committee have another swipe at them at them to make it uh we did a lot of
087work on the policy and we didn't spend a lot of time on the administrative um deal and we c we kind of were running up against a time deadline. Um uh I think can't you make changes though to the policy throughout the before throughout the course of the next year as long as we submit something by the by July 1st. That could be this, right? And you can go back at any time and make a change, too. Well, the administrative guidelines, you don't actually need two meetings to make a change, too. That's uh why I was suggesting that that we um uh take another look at the administrative guidelines from the standpoint to make sure that the things we listed here are the things that really um flow from the law only. You know, as
088opposed to u open up opening up a few other loopholes. And as far as the other point that you both talked about, whether it's two years from now or three years from now, if we implement a two-year and looking ahead during that year, oh my god, this is going to be a crisis of sorts and we need to take another look at it. We can do that. We could we could we could take another crack at it at that point if it's going to be a problem. So I guess what is the group's consensus? What do you want the what do you want this committee to take another look at? Well, I think the committee or just you're happy with it the way I think the main thing was the date, right? Is that what
089we were the main thing? Yeah, the date we can settle at the board level. I I'm always trying to say something here. Please, Mrs. Crarabel. So, do you do you agree with Mr. Delich? I mean, and his what you I mean, yeah. Who's our other elementary? On our meeting. She was in on our meeting. Yeah. I I don't know. I agree with Mark. I think they're And like Scott said, we'll continue with the littles to make sure they are truly ready for school. Whether it be summer birthdays or such. We can't pass the policy tonight because it needs two meetings, right? So, it sounds like the only contention in the policy is which year and we can we have until uh the second meeting in June to think about that because that's the first time
090we can pass it. So, I I would recommend we uh we leave the policy the way it is for now, but get you guys to think about it and decide which year and then um uh I will see. What's the point if we're just going to move it? Huh? I mean, it doesn't make sense. We can't pass it tonight because it needs two two meet. Oh, I see. Yeah. So, so is there a need for the committee meeting tomorrow or not? you know, with what we have. Yeah. And and I would advocate we do have a committee meeting in order to address the administrative guidelines, tighten them up a little bit, right? But that wasn't as the administrative guidelines don't need two movies. They, you know, we can just Can you change that in September
091or October or anytime? Well, then why have the meeting tomorrow? uh of the committee. So I'm just this is the only thing on the agenda tomorrow. It's just if there were a need to come back to address the either policy or guidelines policy is what needs recogniz Nate is in it. Yeah. Yeah. Are you No, I can't remember. I don't care. I don't think there's an we we've talked about this ad nauseio. Really? Yeah. And It's not going to change anything timewise. Like administrative guidelines can be changed in one. Like I don't see why we have to meet tomorrow, but I would. I moved my work date around, but it doesn't Yeah. Like nothing's going to get accomplished that can't also be accomplished in a couple months. Yeah. I mean, we have two years. We
092just talked about Well, um the um administrative guidelines could be addressed at whatever the next That's what I'm saying. It doesn't it doesn't have to be tomorrow, right? Did we know if Nate was available? And and I would suggest we address it while it's freshener might have next. We'll set a new date. We don't have Nate to even know what was his schedule. Well, when we left that meeting, we set that date tenatively. If there would be substantial change where we had to be to, right? It doesn't sound like there's substantial change. there some guideline adjustments or clarifications that can be done at a later time. So Jill looks like we're cancing our policy committee meeting for tomorrow. We'll put that on the web page and then we'll need to set our next meeting you
093know a few weeks a few weeks out or whatever is appropriate to do that then that there was no action required right now forward at the end of the month. Moving on, review and approval of 202526 WIAA agreement. Uh board members uh that have been part of this uh before Andy annually our membership in the Wisconsin Scholastic Association Athletic Association takes board action to recognize our membership for tournament series competition. Uh that is done annually. Just a brief note of uh once we've had membership fees within that they've been waved over the past several years. Uh we recognize two institutions within our district that are part of WIA uh New London High School as well as our Catalyst Academy which is part of our high school age students who would have eligibility to compete should
094they seek a co-curricular opportunity uh in one of the recognized sports. Uh this is a recognition board action and then Mr. Soma or I would sign off electronically. It's not a document anymore that comes for signature. So, looking for a motion appropriate. Fair enough. I will note as I have I believe in the past, I don't like the heavy-handed um some of their some of their policies um a note in our in our uh in our handout. A school voluntarily terminates membership in the association shall be denied readmission for four school years. Um, I don't like the heavy-handed nature of WIAA, but it's not like we have an alternative. I was gonna say, is anybody not in the WIAA? Some choose to to bow out and then they can only compete at a JV level
095for for four years. That's the they can compete, but and they don't compete in any of the playoffs. That's what ultimately happens. How like how many schools are you talking about? Minimal. It's probably minimal, but it does happen because it would really hinder our kids. Oh, yeah. we're we're going to adopt this. But I and especially in in the last year, some of their some of their statements, some of their comments specifically direct directed toward the annual meeting, the WSB, I think they went they went well below the belt. So just my note, um I'll make a motion that we accept the uh the agreement as proposed. I'll second it. You can't second. All in favor or do we need a roll call on this? No money. There's no money. No money. All right. All
096in favor? I opposed. Moving on. Uh, do I have a motion to go into close session? I'll make that motion. You have to read the pursuit to section 19.851c 851C Wisconsin statute. The board of education will convene in close session to discuss the continued employment of certified and support staff members over which the board has jurisdiction and exercises responsibility pursuant to section 19.851F Wisconsin statute. Board of Education will convene in close session for the purpose of considering personal information concerning financial, medical, social or personal histories of our disciplinary data of specific persons except where paragraph B applies which if discussed in public would likely have a substantial adverse effect upon the reputation of any person referred to and such histories or data. Do we have a motion? Yes. So second I'll second. All in favor
097call. I'll roll call on this. Chris Martinson. Yes. Holly Schwitzer. Yes. Andy Thor. Yes. Katie Batton. Yes. Mark Rosman. Yes. He Okay. Thank you everyone for joining.