001Good evening and welcome to the March 23rd, 2026 regular board meeting of the Northland Pines Board of Education. Will you please join me in the To the United States of America, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Jennifer is here. Chelsea >> here >> we have a meeting according to meeting law >> that being said I will entertain a motion to approve the agenda. >> I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as presented and leave the order of the meeting to the discretion of the chair. >> Motion has been made second and all in favor please say I. >> I motion carries. We'll start with some presentations this evening. We have the staff and students that went to their medicine trip. >> All right. So, we are the first
002teachers at elementary. We can go to our second slide. Uh so the reason why we go to Madison is because it ties directly to our fourth grade academic standards and it gives them connections beyond the classroom and helps them make real connections. So we did some pre-learning before the big trip where some local clerks from our courthouse came to give a presentation and give them some background knowledge in the judicial process which was really cool. And we got Is it? >> Uh, so one of our first stops was the Madison Capital, which was maybe the most exciting. They got to see the halls and what they learned about in our government unit in actual real life and even sit in those chairs that the legislators sit in and press the voting buttons. Very cool. One
003student, oh, one student reflected, "It was so cool. We got to sit in the same chairs at the legislators and press the other buttons." Our next stop was the Veterans Museum. So, they got to hear some really cool stories and see real life exhibits um and see history um and how it was brought like real life. A lot of students got really inspired and there are a lot of reflections that were kind of along the same lines like I felt proud that our country has come such a long way. I felt proud that they served our country which is really cool. Our next stop was the geology museum. Uh this was some most popular favorites on their reflections. So they got to see and examine minerals and it connects to our cycle benchmark. And we
004got to see how gravity breaks rocks down into smaller pie pieces, which is a fourth grade standard. And one of my favorite reflections was the dino fossils are the coolest. We learned that when when they discover them, they are all cracked and fallen apart and then put back together like a puzzle. So, one of our last stops was a physics museum where the students got to explore interactive exhibits. This was the best part to save till the end because the fourth graders got to see a lot of cool things and see a lot of cool exhibits and use their best listening skills and then they got to touch and do fun experiments and explore. So, one important aspect of this trip is the long haul. They have to be at school at 5:00 a.m. to
005go to this trip. I know many of you have dropped your kids off for to go to this trip. And then we return about at 8:30 p.m. And it's a lot of traveling. It's a lot of adventuring across Wisconsin. And some students haven't been out of Eco River, so they got to see a lot of cool things on the way. And they were really excited and got to show each other. And they got to practice a lot of cool life skills like time management, group cooperation, following schedules, and personal responsibility. And then they also got a chance to practice cooperation with other schools. Like we went with the Lando Lakes kids, they went with the St. Germaine kids. So before they all come together in fifth grade, they got to practice some of those c
006Yeah. One of my favorite comments is these buildings are so tall. >> Yeah. Yeah. This is a city. >> So these are a few reflections that our fourth graders wrote after the trip. Um so I won't read them all, but uh really good reflections like my favorite stop was the physics museum because we got to explore and play and learn. The lasers and balloons were awesome. the black light and glowing rocks and dinosaurs. It was fun searching for fossils in the capital. So, they learned a lot of cool stuff that connects to our fourth grade standards that they had already learned prior. So, getting that real world experience was really well and a special thank you everyone for the opportunity to go and now we get to hear from some of our amazing students about
007their experiences. Hi, my name is Grayson Sto and I am a fourth grade student at Eagle River Elementary. My class has been learning a lot about local government and I got picked to come share what we have learned which is quite an honor. The things that I learned get why local government matters. Like the roads we drive on, the parks where I hang out, even 911, that's all county doing it job. So to give a little background, there are actually four levels of government, federal, state, county, and city or town. My dad is a state trooper, so I know a little about the state level, but tonight I'm I'm mostly focused on county government. That's us county. It's the level that handles stuff closest to where we actually live like our roads, parks, public safety,
008and 911. Here's something cool. Bios county has three branches of government just like the whole country. The people who taught us compared them to a sports team, which I love. The legislative branch is the coaches. They write the rules called ordinances. That's our county board of supervisors and we have 21 of them. The executive branch is the players. They do the actual work every day like managing roads and parks. And the judicial branch is the referees. The courts making every making sure everyone plays fair. You need all three. My favorite part is that real people came to our school to talk to us. We didn't just read about this stuff. We got to meet former Wisconsin State Senator Jim Oak. He served in both the Wisconsin State Senate of House He Senate and the House
009of Representatives. We got to ask him questions and he kept saying the same thing over and over that his favorite part of the job was representing the people. Hearing hearing their stories and helping them solve problems. That really stuck with me. Government isn't just rules and buildings. It's people trying to help people. First up is county clerk. First up is the county clerk's office. County clerkowski is actually an elected official which means the people of Vio County voted for her to do this job. Her office runs elections, keeps track of all the official records and gives out marriage. Mrs. came to our class to tell us all about it. She works in that office every day. Oh, and Mrs. Stern also happened to be my friend Liam's mom. And here's something that actually just happened
010that I thought was really cool. Someone wanted to sell Riverside Park. A lot of people in the community really did not want that to happen. So, they called and emailed the county clerk's office to say so. And the county board actually listened. They voted not to sell it. That's just reg. people speaking up and making a difference. I thought that was awesome. Violet County also had its own lawyers office. It's called the corporation council. They give legal advice to the county would help write the rules and go to court for the county if they need to. Kind of like having a a coach who really knows all the rules and make sure nobody gets in trouble. Mrs. works there and she's actually the mom of my friend Alex. Okay, so this is my favorite part.
011The clerk of court for Violet County is Beth and that's my mom. She's an elected official too. Just like the county clerks, the people voted for her. She works in the courts keeping everything organized and running smoothly. She manages all the records, schedules hearings, and the jury stuff. She came to our class and she came and talked to our class about it and it was pretty cool to watch her explain her job to everyone. Deputy Stern and Deputy Hilo came to our class from the sheriff department. Okay, I have to stop right here. Deputy Hilo is a K9, like an actual dog. He was definitely the most exciting part of that visit. But on top of that, I also learned that the sheriff is an elected official too, just like the county clerk and the
012clerk of court. So people get to vote for who patrols their community and keeps them safe. The sheriff's department enforces the laws and runs the jail. And Stern, by the way, is also my friend Liam's dad, which means both of So, what did I learn? Honestly, a lot more than I expected. County government isn't just some people sitting around in meetings. It's the reason our roads get plowed in. It's why we have to hang out at. It's who answers when you call 911. It's people making elections are fair. It's kind of everywhere once you start looking. And I learned that regular people can actually make a difference. Like kids even someday. The Riverside thing really shows you that. And I think the biggest thing I'll take away is that the government and it's some off.
013It's right here. It's my mom and my dad. It's my friends. It's people I actually know doing that help everyone around them every single day. And honestly, that makes me really proud. Thank you so much for allowing me to share with you what I learned. the future to Madison was super excited because we learned everything that could have happened or that happened for sure anywhere near Wisconsin. We had to be at school by 5 or we would miss the bus. After we got to Madison, the went to was the state capital building. We had to go to every room except for the governor's office. In his room, guests are not allowed. We ate down weed downstairs and even saw a famous painting of the writing of the constitution of the US with George Washington. After
014that, we went to the Veterans Museum. We saw everywhere Wisconsin was a state for starting with the Civil War. We even had to use a periscope. Marine during the Vietnam War. Then we went to the geology museum where we saw real life dinosaur bombs. Finally, we went to the physics museum. We saw meaningful things like an auto balloon that only worked on certain colors. On the way back, we got clovers. It was extra fun cuz my dad was shoppering the trip. We used a coach bus to get to and from Madison. And because we were so far away from Madison, we got to watch many movies on the ride. We got back to school at 9 and it was the best field trip I've ever been on. >> Good evening administrators. My name is >>
015I'm a fourth graders. I learned that the members of the Supreme Court all stand for justice because they are justices not judges. It even had starfish steps. I didn't know about the Vietnam War. I learned about that in the vet. In the vice museum, I learned that only certain colors pass through c That was because some colors are absorbed and some colors are reflected. Going on the Madison not everywhere in the world at the same time. It was Madison. I like going to Madison because I could actually see and feel and realize what we were learning about the classes. Thank you for this experience. That concludes the presentation. Any questions? >> I just want to say how well spoken all the kids are and it takes a lot of courage to get up and and
016talk in front of an audience and I can't that is a lot. You said it's a long day. I had no idea you were going to go to that many places. So that sounds like a lot of fun and I'm glad you all learned a lot too. >> Yeah. In the past we've made we've gone to the Veterans Museum. We've gone to the um capital and we've gone to the Wisconsin State Historical Museum, but that building is under construction and it has been under construction. They hope to uh have it open by 2027. We'll see if that happens or not. So, a couple years ago, we decided to uh put in the physics museum and the geology museum. So, we work with the University of Wisconsin Madison and they have those tours available to us.
017There is a charge for the geology museum and we've been able to get grants from the Rotary Club. supported us. So, all the kids get in for free to the museum. So, we appreciate that. >> Yeah. I also want to shout out to the PTAs because they also helped fund this trip for the bus cost. You know, busing keeps getting more expensive, but Rotary has donated last few years and then also the cost of the buses that we pay for some of it and then the PTA's pay for some of it. So, we're very lucky to have a very supportive community. Um, also I want to give a shout out. They didn't. Grace forgot to introduce herself. She's our first year rockstar fourth grade teacher. Leah Leener and Mark um Grace said they have to
018be here at five. Well, guess what? Uh she meant she should have said we all have to be here at five and they also have to responsible for a lot of fourth graders and have to make sure they all get back after a very long day. But I will agree with Lee having gone on the trip multiple times myself. There is still something of being on that bus when you get down there and the students eyes light up and Some of them are saying skyscrapers and we just let that be skyscrapers and big tall buildings and um just lifetime of memories. So, thank you to the staff that make this possible. Thank you to our community, all the guest speakers and some of them are here tonight that came to speak to all the classes.
019It is a full circle moment. It's not just a one day field trip. It's a I love that they tied the whole thing to our curriculum and the teachers do a phenomenal job and our community supports it, too. So, Thanks everyone. >> Um so this evening um this is for the board and for the community as well. One of the biggest challenges we have um and just like any business industry right now is the challenge of health care and it's a huge part of your budget. something we've tried mo many strategies to provide a high quality benefit to our staff but also keep it a cost that's good for our budget and our taxpayers. So one of the things is um we have spent um in finance personnel we've shared that we've really been trying
020for years to find better ways. We've made adjustments we've recommended adjustments um it's a it's a challenging field you hear about in the news that ever changing cost. Um, one of those things though is the consideration of a significant change and that would be to self-funding with a captive. Um, and that's going to be a big decision and I also want to make sure you understand tonight isn't to have you make a decision. It is to take a year's worth of time where you and your and Tony and and the full board will have time to look at your options. Well, I think and Tara's unable to be here tonight. She's on spring break with her family. But Terry and I have often felt like we have to give you options. We don't want to
021get to where you have to make a decision to go one direction because it's then that means you're kind of tied into something that's very high cost typically. So what Tar and I have had over my time is to try to create options for you. Thankfully this last time the rate increase was much lower than anybody around and what the market was, but that's not guaranteed we're going to keep having that. So tonight is a chance to have M3 come in and give the full board their first kind of overview of this and then as the year goes on um if numbers and other processes come forward we'll keep feed spoon feeding you information versus here's a one night presentation why don't you vote next month so um so we asked M3 to come in
022Corey's here tonight many of you have met Jamie she um she said Corey she said he's much better I'll send But we'll send uh bring Corey up to share a little bit about what this is. It Taran and I really had a moment where we said it took us probably a year plus with some of these terms to start getting them to sink in. So now it's the start of that journey for you is just to start being educated so when you're asked to make a decision if you are asked down the road here, you have a little more background. And this is for all of our staff. We are going to repeat this with all of our staff in April at inservice because we think they need to be educated on what are some
023options in our future if we need to go this way. Our insurance committee's already seen this. So turn over to Cy. >> All right. Thank you guys. Um nice talking about health insurance after a fun presentation like that. Take the tone out a little bit. Um really yeah to to that point tonight is really going to be a very condensed introduction for a lot of you. I'm sure at this, you know, table some of you are familiar with selfunding captive, some of you, it's a brand new term. So, really just trying to start the education process. We've worked with several districts um over the past few years. Some have gone through this process, decided to go into a different arrangement for their health insurance. Some have decided it's not for them. They stay where they're
024at. Um our goal is to really make sure you understand the spectrum of options you have available to you so that you can make an educated decision. Um but I will say having board involvement um through this process is key. This isn't something where your administrative team can work on it for two years behind the scenes, introduces an option to vote on. This is something you all have to understand, understand the dynamics, the ups and downs, the pros and cons of that process if you're ever going to make that decision to make a change to how you fund your health insurance. So really quick um again the big three options we see in the health insurance market fully insured which you are today that is very basic. A health insurance carrier says we are going
025to charge you these premiums. You pay every month by how many people you have enrolled in your health insurance plan. That premium is locked for a 12-month period and then every year that renews. You hope for a low renewal or maybe to shop for a different carrier. But really, you have once a year where you see the impact of how the claims ran um and you hope the carrier had a good year and that that annual renewal is low as possible. When we get into self-funding, this is really where you take on some risk. We'll walk through a couple sideby-side comparisons, but really this is where you're taking it where there is going to be monthly volatility in claims because if claims are very low one month, you pay out a very low amount. If
026you have a month where claims are high, you're going to have a higher claims month. So, you're not going to see a steady throughout the year with a bump at renewal time. You're going to see the up and down throughout the year. So, the good and the bad of that is overall we typically see a lot of groups win in that environment over a longterm time period, but there's going to be bad months, bad years over that time. So, you have to be prepared for that. Captives are something that has been around for around 10 or 15 years. um private sector. We've been doing captive for a long time. The biggest difference in captives is instead of being a isolated school district by yourself, self-funding based only on your claims, when you are in a
027captive, you're purchasing with a group. So, somewhat similar to the cooperative model that you see some school districts do on a fully insured basis. This is essentially a cooperative model on a self-funded basis. And the big piece of it here is when you're self-funded, one of the things we'll talk about is you truly are paying your claims after an employee and their family members pay their out of pocket expenses. Then you are as a district paying claims up to a dollar amount. Um could be something like 75,000. Once that cap is hit, then you have an insurance carrier that picks any claim that would be exceed $75,000 mark. So when we talk about captives, one thing they really help with is that secondary reinsurance we call it, keeping that as stable and flat as possible.
028So that if you're selfund on your own, that reinsurance, secondary insurance can get really expensive and vary year to year. This really helps stabilize and smooth that out. So fully insured, this is what you're used to. Um this is what the lion share of districts in the state are still doing. Um like we just talked about, very low risk. you know what your premiums are for the 12-month period and it's just the big the big concern is always what is our renewal going to look like. So depending on the size of the district, the size of the group, you have credibility. So larger the group, more credibility, meaning the renewal is based more on your actual claims of your membership. The smaller you are a portion is based on your risk and your claims as
029a group, but a lot of it is on the book of business for the health insurance carrier you're working with. So you have some control, some impact on that, but you're still tied to what's happening in the market and those trends, even if you're a very wellperforming district. Um, a lot of districts, you know, using health reimbursement arrangements, HSAs. The strategy here that you guys are familiar on is when you buy insurance through a normal fully insured carrier, you're buying it at set deductible, set out of pocket maximum, and you pay premium. The lower that out of pocket cost is the member, the higher the premium. So, what a lot of districts have done is they bought up to a higher deductible, higher out-of- pocket cost plan, and then instead of passing that full liability
030on to members when they have a larger claim, the district then reimburses a portion of that out-of- pocket cost. So, that what you're essentially doing is you're reducing the premium you're paying for that policy and the school district is funding some of that risk for those people that have larger claims. So, very very popular. Um, and what I would call that is a a kind of a baby step into self-funding. When you are doing a reimbursement program or you're funding into a health savings account, you're starting to see and utilize and say, "We think that we're going to have less people with claims that we have to reimburse than what we would have paid if we would have bought that lower premium policy." So, there's some dynamics that go into there that a lot of
031districts do and it's worked pretty well. We're starting to see some of that erode over time and that's why we're seeing a lot of people move towards the selfunded capital model. >> This is our plan. But again, the big thing with self-unding is you are actually paying your claims. So you have to pay a third party administrator to administer your policy, pay your claims, but then you're only build for the claims. So an easy example is let's say today you're fully insured. Um let's say your annual premiums a million dollars for that fully insured policy. you have the offset of what your employees pay for that coverage, but otherwise that that million dollars is paid out regardless if you have half a million dollars in claims or $3 million in claims. Self-funded, you're going to
032have a budget for what you expect those claims to be. Um, and that's something that M3, our underwriters and actuaries help you judge. But again, if your claims come in at half a million dollars, um, you only pay out that half a million dollars. So that half a million that wasn't spent can get pulled back into a reserve for future years um offset into other needs and expenses that are needed. Flip side of that, let's say you have a $3 million claims here. There are caps and limitations on how much you can pay even in a self-funded plan. Um but there's going to be more of a um margin between what we expect and what your worst case scenario can be if you move into a selfunded agent. So again, just a quick spectrum. Full
033insurance is where you're at today. Level funded is is programs that used to be more popular. Um still somewhat popular in um employers that have less than 50 employees. But where we see most groups living is in the self-funded captives or partially self-funded. When you get the true um self-insured, that means you're not using an insurance company to reinsure anything. So when you start getting into large corporations with 10,000 20,000 plus employees. They're not buying any reinsurance. They're just paying claims. Whether that claim is 200,000 or a million, they're paying it because they have enough lives, enough premium built in that they're going to absorb some of those. So, what we're talking about is really in the selfunded cap or partially selfunded space. So, it's kind of a busy slide, but I I wanted to
034kind of show them side by side to see the difference between fully insured and partially self-funded. The the moral of the story I always tell people to help visualize this is let's Let's just use that million dollars. Let's say a million dollars the expected cost of your plan. When you're in a fully insured environment, that fully insured carrier is probably going to rate you at 110% of that number. So, they have profit margins, they have reserves, and they have things like that, too. So, you think about it, million dollars is the actual expected cost. They're going to charge you that 110% of that million dollars just to cover themselves, make sure they have margin, make sure it's profitable. When we're self-funded, we would expected cost is is at that million dollars at 100% of what's
035expected in a selfund case. There's also up to 125% of that which is what you call your risk corridor. So that means between 100% that million dollars and 125% of that million that's your worst case scenario where then we have protections alto together. So the big thing you're risking is do we think we're going to save that 10% by selfunding and are we going to do things and put things in place that cost control and and be more effective in the market. Um, but are we also prepared if we have that really bad year, which isn't terribly common, but can happen that we can pay up to 125% of that. So, those are the decisions you'll have to start making with school districts. We'll get into conversations about reserving before going into self-funded. Um, school
036districts, your auditors will probably recommend that you have a reserve put in place to help you if that were to happen. But those are conversations we have. The other big piece you'll see on there, it's not too easy to see. Um, in green is today your spend, and I'm just using fictitious numbers of a million. I don't know exactly what the spend is for you guys on an annual basis, but if you have a million dollar spend today, uh, you're probably looking at anywhere from three to $400,000 in prescriptions in that cost. Today, most medications, especially when you get into brand names and specialty medications, there's pretty significant rebates that come on those medications. Today, all those pharmacy rebates go back to your fully insured carrier. You don't get credit for it. It doesn't come
037off your renewal calculations. It's just a hey, thanks. You just gave them this money. When you're selfunded, you would get those pharmacy rebates back. So, a very easy number to think about is let's just use 300,000, which I'm guessing may be light for the district. um 300,000 in in um charity cost. A low conservative number is about 20% of that number should come back to you in rebates. So right there we're talking an easy $60,000 on that that would be coming back to help you offset some of your claims costs. So things like that. Um as pharmacy continues to grow, there's some dynamics that you have control of. Let alone you also have a lot of flexibility within how you can design your plan. Um you may want to We're going to work with a
038local direct primary care provider. Today, if you do that in fully insured market, it can be a great benefit to your employees, but that is an additional cost on top of your fully insured premium. When you are self-funded or a captive, you can include that cost into your funding. And every dollar it saves from them going to the traditional system or maybe going in there and not needing care that that they otherwise would have been referred into are savings you keep at the district, too. So that's a big conversation that we look into is okay, outside of saving from profit margins, reserves, and things that the whole insurance carrier has and getting your rebates back. How else can we impact claims that bring those numbers down that you benefit from because you're running your program
039versus, you know, today they potentially just go into the savings for the fully inured carrier that you're working with. So, pros and cons. Um, obviously it's not an easy decision. There's risk. Um, anytime there's reward, there's there's risk involved. So, the pros are obviously um there can be some significant cash flow advantages. So, there are going to be a lot of months where you don't have a lot of claims. Um, school districts, we know that there's going to be months when there you are not in school that there's going to be higher claims. So, we need to be okay with that volatility and cash flow. Um, looking at that retaining those cost savings is huge. Control, flexibility and stability. Those are things that we can do through the control and flexibility. Um, you're not now
040buying a plan design off of a menu. We can design things that make sense for you. You can offer multiple options. You can do different things. You can incent people to use direct primary care, use other direct contracts that you may want to have at the district. So, a lot of things you can do. um stability with the captives. Um just so you know a quick stat um we looked at our entire book of business across the state for 2025 and standalone self-insured groups without a captive their average um reinsurance for that stop-loss insurance above 75,000 or 100 wherever you'd want that. Standalone groups average at about 18 or 19% on that portion of premium that you'd still have to pay. in the captives that averaged about 9 or 10%. So we are seeing the
041captive program significantly outperform those that stand alone. Um and a lot of the standalones are larger companies as well too. So I think it's even a larger caveat difference but again we've seen a lot of stability through that cap model. Negatives um claims all monthto month you could have some large claims you got some big months the school district has to be okay to fund those claims as they come in that month. U so you have to look at operating revenues and make sure that there's money set aside so that you can handle that if you have a larger month of claims uh plan termination fully insured today you end the plan on let's just say 1231 the plan at year end any claim that happened prior to 1231 even if it comes in 18
042months later is still going to be paid by that fully insured carrier that you had the contract with self-funded you have to look at contract periods and make sure we have no gaps and things like So, another conversation we'd have just to talk through that because it is a little different situation when you're self-funded versus being fully insured. Um, employer involvement. So, with added flexibility and control comes more responsibility and and effort. This is something we spend a lot of time with our clients on. Um, but it is something where I would say as a board and as administrative team, there's going to be more work in there because you have more decisions to make, more control to make. Uh, So, there's some things that go into it. Um, designing plan documents, designing um, summary
043plan descriptions, things like that. You can have input in, which is a good thing, but it also there's some things that you need to figure out what is, what isn't paid, what type of drugs do you want to cover, which type of drugs do you not want to cover. Um, and you you can set a lot of those pieces. So, there's a lot a lot of things there. So, it does take a little bit more time. Um, on there. Um, high cost claimants. If we have someone who's diagnosed as, let's say, a hemophiliac is a common one that that we get. That might be a $750,000 annual claim. That might be one of your teachers. That might be for a dependent that's going to be on your plan for 10 or 15 years potentially. So,
044there's things we have to look at at how to mitigate some of those risks um and build those into it. Now, that being said, fully insured, you're not going to not have impacts from a claimment like that. But with selfunded plants, we'll work through ways and show you what that might look like and how to if they final one is um you must retain reserves especially as a public sector employer you need to have reserve set aside to help with some of those tougher years if they were to come so they're not in a um you know cash flow situation as well too. So the district um and commonly when we have districts start into this a lot of times auditors will want 15 to 20% of your annual cost um in a reserve upfront
045or at a place where you can get to it prior to moving into this type of situation. So again some financial situations and considerations that need so captive structure we talked a lot about that um and how that works is there's group Stop loss. Stop loss is that reinsurance we talked about. Let's say you pay every claim for 75,000. Any claimant above that 75,000 is paid by that insurance company. When you group in with a captive, each letter there A through H is a different uh company. So there's going to be different sizes companies, companies that buy a different reinsurance level. U but we'll just put you as E for example. So, you're going to pay that that dark blue. All claims up to that 75,000 mark. Then the next 300,000 which is in that
046white area would be paid for by the captive which the captive is funded through premiums from all the captive members. So there is still a fixed cost premium that would be involved in this for that stop loss. A portion of that goes to the captive and then that green that's a portion of premium that goes to an actual insurance company. So the benefit the difference of a captive is in that white section you're still paying premium in to have that benefit of a $75,000 stop gap. But if that overall group performs well and the premium that was paid in doesn't all get used up throughout the year. That's where there can be a premium return back to the members of the captive. So yes, you need secondary insurance to help with any of those very
047expensive claims in a captive model. you get the opportunity to train some of those monies back because you're holding some of those funds in house let instead of just going all up to a fixed cost carrier where once you send them out the door those those funds are gone. So that's a that's a nice benefit to have. It protects you um if the program is running well. Um but again the biggest benefit of the captive is really because you're group purchasing you're getting much better rates on those insurance premiums in a captive than you would as a standalone company. This is just a case study. Um, and you know, we have a lot of different case studies, but one thing we always look at is we say, "Okay, what is your full insurance premium today?"
048And then we're still going to manage and you're going to get much better access to reporting because in this situation, you own your data. So, you'll get claims each and every month knowing how you're running to budget and all those things. Um, but what we'll look at is how would your claims what would be expected that to be in a fully insured environment. And then we compare that to what the budgeted cost was in a captive self-funded program versus what was actually paid in that that captive program. Um we track that over time and this is just one example, but we typically see most people uh significantly outpacing what they would would have had in the fully insured environment. Um and a lot of this too comes back from those uh prescription rebates like I
049talked about earlier. Some school districts has some pretty significant pharmacy spend and right now you're you're paying full for that pharmacy without getting any back in return even though there's several hundred,000 in a lot of cases in those those rebates coming in. So that can offset a lot of costs. So again, a lot of lot of different levers in there that you can pull. That was pretty quick. I wanted to keep it tight, but um I would just say to his point, you know, this is a good conversation starting point. Um getting your your administrative team involved, getting some insurance committees involved um before you actually start getting proposals put together, things like that. Some base education is important. There are a lot of different types of self-funded programs out there. Our job is to
050really walk you through different programs, pros and cons of each. Um what's worked, what hasn't, what are some things we've seen that, um haven't worked so well for clients, what have worked better, and really guide you through that process. I just want to point out a couple quick things because this wasn't meant to be a as said Cory said not learn everything. It's spoon feed you over the long haul. First off just a couple quick points though. One is I know the county went through some transitions and are as a large employee in our community. This is nothing like they did just be very clear. Two I think it really you have to think of this as the longhaul model. This isn't meant to be boom, we fix it like we've changed our plan or
051changed carriers. That's not what you're committing to. If this is a recommendation of Tony and Terra and the committee and all those pieces, um we are self-funded with dental in case you didn't know that or just need to be reminded. So our employees the number one question people a lot of times ask well what our employees look like? Employees will have insurance card. look exactly like they're doing today, just a different brand on the card is what they're going to see. So, they probably will see the lease impact. In other words, we want them to still have that high quality service, but try to bring the cost in control over a long period of time. That's why I say it is a long haul model. And that's kind of Tara and I took a while
052before we even brought it to you at all to get over that. What is the impact on our staff in the district office? and it has come way down from what it used to be when we first started looking at this five years ago to where it is today. The impact on the office is not as great. Um I go to committee or go to meetings with other district administrators. Medford changed over in January one. So they just went through all this like and they made the decision to go last year probably November Decemberish I think their final vote was. And then Rylander's been doing it for two years school district there for two years. They're in year and Mel was supposed to vote. I think they were also looking at going to the selfunding.
053I don't know if you work with me or not. >> They're they're still working through that. >> Okay. Yep. So, at least they're going through the same process is at least fair to say because they're in the same boat as we are. We have been fortunate that we had had some years of zero. We had negative ones. I kid Jamie, they should give us money back and one year we got negative. They get money back at least in check. So, but that's that's hard to keep sustainable. Everybody's starting to see these number, single digit, double digits. Um, we would have had double digits if it weren't for um some customer service issues and the company actually owning up to that and giving us a better price this year. So, this is that preparation in case
054that day comes when you're not at least you have an option at the end of the road, not a you have to take a 13 to 18% increase. The other thing I will say, and this is what we'll share with employees in April, you may still have to pay that someday. It's just you can hopefully keep the cost and bring it down over the long haul as he showed with the numbers that our goal is to keep it for the us and the employees to a fair amount and that's really what the work is being done and information to be brought to you. So, you know, Tony's been part of it as well. It isn't like this will be something completely new for him. Terra's been with it from the beginning. Her and I both
055been exposed to it at the schoolboard convention. I know Tony went to some sessions on it as well. I've been going For years, M3 has been a phenomenal partner to this district and health insurance and a lot of other ways also supporting our health insurance. Even once you have it, you need an advocate and they've been great for that as well. So, I also want to point that out tonight when they're here as well. So, >> I have one question or maybe a statement just being on finance. Um, so I'm somewhat familiar with the insurance officers. Um, so if we're looking whatever we're deciding to do, we would be looking at it from now until most likely making a January 28th. >> No, you would you could consider a change for January 27, but you'd
056be making that decision in November. December is when you we'd have to enroll people in December. So, usually at the November board meeting, you know, you would approve your new you every year we bring to you a renewal, right? So, your renewal would change to a different company because you would have gone out for bids. Um, you still have an insurance company that you work with. You're not taking care of it all on your own. You have somebody who handles your claims and helps all that. Once you decide that, then you have to build the plan as he said. And Medford shared with their business manager and their superintendent said it wasn't as painful as you think it is. It's sitting and asking a lot of questions, but they also said it was really healthy
057because they learned a lot about their insurance claim. You don't spend a lot of time in the fine print when you have this year. And we keep saying go out when we want the same tweaks every year because governmental regulations change and also what um different groups will be. So it was a healthy process. They thought they got better because of it too. So I think there's some offside of this too of yeah you got to sit through a day of kind of picking and choosing but if you're going to stick to something close to what you have now some of that will be pretty straightforward and easy and that's what Medford was living it and they really said they've gotten off to a good start. Um I also think one of the things we
058didn't talk about here but there's a big is um what market you're in makes a big difference, right? Like we have very limited options in our market. That's not a benefit to us right now. We we don't have a lot of competition. They both have insurance companies on top of them having hospitals and clinics. Um so there's some pros and cons. We've looked at some other costs saving strategies that just don't work for us very well right now. Our f we use a lot of data at our insurance committee meetings. We're split 5050. Half our people go to security and half go to Aspires or Marshville I should say or what is it now? >> Sanford was it Sanford? Thank you. I should start using the right >> Sanford and Spirus. A lot of the
059districts in the central part of the state I will say have switched to a narrow network. They've made that cost savings to try that but they're getting deadend roads too. Was been a longtime district of selfunding. Um he's been sharing at my meetings how that's working for them. still evolving. They make changes and adapt and as the markets change, regulations change. Um, it still is an engaged process, but we'd have more voice in that process. >> Thank you for explaining it to us in terms we can understand. >> That was pretty quick. Usually, usually we'll take a couple hours to walk through that, but we want to just give you guys a So, after you come back anytime, talk. >> Yeah. Thank you very much. >> I did like the previous one better though. that
060first little boy he was a very good speaker that all right we'll move on to the next item of the public participation is there anyone to speak this evening no there is not okay not hearing any we'll move on to board committee reports and communication is there any board member that wants to communicate anything with fellow board members I will communicate that I will not be here at the April meeting which is Susie reminded me of our reorganization of officers. Um Molly is graduating from and presenting her portfolio at night for she's learned that college and her pursuit of her early childhood. I will defer to him throughout the week. >> Also, just um we'll send you another email reminder, but um we do need to know by April 13th if you'd like to participate
061in the legislative dinner at DC Everest Middle School. It's a little bit different format. The actual event is April 20th from 5:30 to 7:30. So, we'll probably have to leave somewhere around 4, right before 4 o'clock. Um right now, Tony and I are committed to go to this. Um we'd love to have some people go with us. It is a pretty good night of learning uh topics, hearing from your legislators there of who's committed. Um right now looks like we have um let's see here multiple different representatives from multiple areas because this is a large geographic area. So um I don't see Mr. on there right now, but there may be still people still picking to choose to come. But I think it is an educational night. It's on bigger topics that impact all of
062us. Um, I'd really like to see that Casey and the team is the superintendent at DC Ever is changing the format a little bit. I think it'll be for the better. So something if you're interested, it's a little shorter drive than Medford, but if you'd love to go, we'd love to have you. So keep me in mind and let Susie know if any of you are planning to attend. If we have three or more of you, We'll make sure we post that properly, but otherwise it's been a good evening. >> Thank you. Um, not moving on to the committee reports. Um, all of the minutes are contained in your work packet. Is there any member that has a question for any other member from the other committee action items? Is there any item that any
063board member would like to remove from the consent agenda? Um, remembering that we can still discuss everything individually. >> Not hearing any. I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> I'll make a motion to approve all items contained in the consent agenda. >> Motion second. Any discussion? >> Yeah, I just want to hit on a couple real quick. Um, one is start college now is in there. Um, our students do a great job. I kind of had a a gut feeling and this is why you don't rely on your gut feeling always. Um, that this number seemed a little higher than in past. So Susie put together what we've approved the last three years and actually this is down about 30 credits from the prior years or prior year. Um, and it's up
064from two years ago. So it's probably within kind of the average. Uh we had a few more in the fall than we had uh the prior years, but um just wanted to point that out. U thanks to our students being prepared and able to take these college level classes. Um it is something that I'm starting to hear at my meetings that maybe a push to push this those dollars outside of the revenue limits. Um so right now we pay for these college credits. So the taxpayers pay us to pay colleges. Seems like kind of a full circle and maybe we need to do that in a different way. I do think it's gained some momentum. It's good for kids. Um but it is something that there are discussions ongoing. Um the one that is in
065here um that I wanted to point out because we didn't discuss as a full board, but remember any item in here we can discuss as a full board is the waving of credit card fees. Um this is what we've done traditionally. We're also starting to have conversation in finance whether we need to up the cost. Um it's something I think finance will monitor and give you feedback on if we have to start raising what we charge for our credit card fees just because it's starting to get out of balance. We don't want to make money on it but we also don't want to lose money. So that's something that is the first look at that. If you want any discussion finance we did discuss that. And the last one is the ser shared services contract.
066Um we're unable to approve that tonight because we are waiting for a reading grant. Um the elementary staff or administration applied for a reading grant. That will probably give that will give us direction on how many coaching days we need. We're supposed to find out by the end of March. I know there's not a lot of those days left, but apparently DPI plans to use them all. So, um Tony and I and Emily met with um CISA today to kind of go through because Emily takes up a piece of that because there's just services we can't get in the house. And then the other chunk Tony was able to represent one for learning this for next year, but two from the elementary reading uh or coaching cycle stuff. So, we kind of have a tenative
067placeholder in there. Um, as I predicted at finance uh and policy, this number will go up greatly depending on how many coaching days we need, but we are kind of waiting to hear that reading grant to give you a final copy in April. So, we'll bring that back through committee and then bring that back to you as a full board in April for approval, but we did meet with CEUS on supplimary information with that. So, that's what I just wanted to update. Anybody have any other questions or discussion on any items in the consent agenda? Not hearing any. All in favor, please say I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Next are discussion and action items. First, review policy 5136 personal communication devices. >> So, there was a recent change to act 42. Um, so I
068want to talk about this in three chunks. first is this um your administration, Mr. Lucenk and Dr. Marine um played a significant role in pushing us to be listening to our staff of getting cell phones and I think that's where people think about this as cell phones but you'll find out in the coming conversation it's not just cell phones the law actually is personal devices so we were ahead you proved we made a change we've seen significant improvement um based on students having personal devices that includes watches, phones, earbuds in the classroom. The state of Wisconsin gained momentum and said some schools felt like they needed somebody to tell them what to do, which is a bad thing I think to set yourself up for for a long term is to have Madison tell you
069how to run your local school district even though you have elected officials. So, they passed a law basically saying very similar to what we are doing, but they said you could limit them even more than we currently do. We're we're pretty close to that. Um, but they also changed the law. When that happened, Niola said, "Your 5518 policy is no longer valid." We knew we had to tweak it, but they actually said, "You should abandon 55 or resend is the correct term, and replace it with 5136 because moving forward, they're going to update 5136. They're never going to touch 5518. The lawyers and all the other people work on it. That's not a big deal. That's a good thing. That's fine. This happens on other pieces of policy. Just it happens over our time. So
0705136, we had some choices. You see them in front of you tonight. So that's pretty straightforward that part of this discussion tonight. The only thing and policy did recommend these changes. Um you could choose different choices in 5136, but 5136 is still fairly broad on what you're doing. It matches what we currently do. We picked the options that matches what you approved already. Since then, there's been another bill that made it through uh both chambers and is sitting on the governor's desk. For some reason, the bill is not even implemented. You do not have to implement the changes that the previous law passed until July 1. But the legislators in their fine wisdom chose to make another bill that is over trumps the last one that hasn't even been implemented yet by most school districts.
071Their new one is even more strict where it's door bell to bell. In other words, they want to see no devices. That's sitting on the governor's desk. The only thing we know today is we don't know for sure if he'll sign it. He's only made multiple comments. One is he's frustrated because they made it only for public schools and not all all schools. So he kind of finds that if it's good for kids, why isn't it good for all kids? Seems kind of political. And two, he's frustrated like you passed one bill last year, why didn't we just do it once and get it done right versus do it twice. So we don't know if he's going to pass it. So what you're talking about tonight and next month could change. Next month, I would
072think we'll know whether he signs it or not. So with that being said, your first decision is to change policy, which to me is a no nobrainer. It's first review, but I think if you look at it and don't see any changes, the more substantive part of this, Dr. Marine was unable to be here tonight, but you have Mr. Tilly and Mr. Luc here. Um, we have always banned cell phones through through 8th grade. That's been a no-brainer. It's worked well. It's the high school where this has changed. What we're asking for you is to one, you'll improve the policy hopefully next month, but where probably the meat and potatoes of this is and you have received parent feedback that I shared with you and and we have here is really what we call our
073student personal communication device guidelines and the contract that supports that. Um, as Mr. Lucen will share and he put some data in here for you. What we have seen is a significant shift in what our parents are wanting for their kids. They've kind of found an endound of us not having devices anymore. And and Mr. Lucen can share some of this what what him Josh Dan and we've been talking Tony and I have been part of it as well. So this is your first review of what they're sharing with where we're at and what we're looking to do. So Mr. >> So we've had ever since we went one to one with Chromebooks, we've had the ability of students to bring their own device BYOD. Um up until very recently, and this is what I
074shared a policy, um that portion has been very very small. talking about probably less than 10% of your student body uh brought their own device for learning. We're not talking about cell phones at all. We're talking about a MacBook, a personal Chromebook, a laptop, something like that. Um really where you see it in the the data document on here, the uh policy 5518 to 5136 document, it's got some data on it. Um, and you can see in that document the growth of the BYOD numbers over the last three years. So that coincides with when we made the changes to cell phones. So you saw a significant jump in 23 24 uh you saw more significant jump um in 24 25 and then so we went from 37 students bringing their own devices. This is it
075just in the um this is just 9 through 12. Then the next year 55 students bring in their own device and this year we have 85 students bringing their own device. So in that time frame we as administration and a US board have made some pretty significant changes to um you know cell phones and so the cell phones came first and then this year we had a lot of feedback from teachers on student use of AI and that that was starting to um to the level where we needed to pull some things back so that teachers had additional tools and that they could um help students learn how to use that technology but also keep up with the the pace that that was growing. So we put some restrictions on that as a technology department
076and then we saw another jump. You know this would be in November. This is where the majority of those 85 this year started bumping up. They start bringing those their own devices. You know we filter every device that comes onto this network. However, if you have your own device I have no control as technology director as to what they install on that before they come here. If they install the personal VPN they have software, gaming software installed on there, I can't control what they bring in. Um, I've shared before Apple devices, while they're great and I'm a fan, as a school, they have some things built into them that make it very difficult to prevent, say, texting from a MacBook or an iPad because it's built right into the OS of the device. Like, I
077can't prevent them from doing that. Um, and also, um, you know, things like the AI, the Apple intelligence that's built right into the device, and I can't I can't prevent someone's personal device from doing that. Um, you know, so we've seen that growth um in the data do at the bottom. I did, you know, one thing I've heard is, you know, what do the staff say? Um, and we've seen this actually, I've been reading these comments for a couple years on our staff surveys that we do that, um, would prefer that they use our devices rather than their own devices. So, um you have a staff survey, just a very simple, would you prefer that they use our device, our North Pines device versus their own. You have 82% of staff um saying that they
078would prefer um students use our device rather than their own. Another 10% um say no preference. So, um that's been something that's been growing with staff for quite a while. Um then we have um the ability to this is something we talked about in policy because they have the questions of you know we do have other devices for students and those are some of the things that are in the um the law as to what the exemptions are like emergencies IEPs uh things like that we do have other devices we've done that before one of the things that comes up commonly is like what if my student has trouble with vision or something like and they could use a different screen well we've done Chromebooks with larger screens for students with 504 plans. Um, we've
079done iPads for students that, you know, it's written into their IEP. Um, but then we have some of those tools as a district to number one control some of the things that they put on their own device, but also, um, monitor what they're doing because that's the thing that commonly comes from teachers, you know, when they use their own device is I'm, you know, I'm concerned about a student in my class. Are they on time wasting things? What are they doing? if they're using their own device. I don't have as many tools to be able to tell with that teacher or Josh or Dan what's going on there. So, um kind of what we'd like our our our guideline to be um is to be um a little bit more selective about who really needs
080that device for learning within our district. And really what it came down to talking to, you know, staff about really what it is because our staff are their classes. They are they are preparing for a Chromebook in their class. So the the classes that we teach should not need a different device. What it really boiled down to was our college classes through Nicicolay or CAP, some of those that it's a teacher outside or a college professor outside of our district teaching that class. Um and some of the online classes, those classes are not prepped with a Chromebook necessarily in mind. They are built by somebody else. So, um, some of them require things that are outside of what a Chromebook can do. So, um, the resources and the guidelines that I proposed, and that's kind
081of what tonight is about, is getting your feedback on that, is that, um, the the guideline for Dr. Marine and myself to approve student devices in the future would be only for students taking college classes and online classes that we offer through WPS. and then they would only be able to use that device for that particular class. So, and right now Orphan Pines High School, you take a college class, you're generally slotted into the library for that and then Mrs. Scrassel supervises you. She knows that you can have that device in that class. If they have anatomy later in the day, Mrs. Justice designs that class to work with the Chromebook, they would use one of our Chromebooks for that. So, that's that's the guideline that we're proposing. I also just add we just came
082off testing season. Every kid that's has a device that during testing season we have to own a device for them to test. They cannot test on their own device. So if their batteries are dead or their machine doesn't work, they have to come to the library get a device. So not every class uses a device every day, but if there is something there that is also so we are really managing in some regards as these numbers skyrocket so do our issues, our resources, our it, you know, it does complex the use of our staff and also our resources. So that's just something else to keep in mind. So this is first review. This is not a final decision. This is we took it to policy and now we're bringing it to the full board. Directions
083on how to modify what we shared or things you would like to know more of. >> I have one question. Um, if a student is using your personal device at home, how well does that connect typically with a Chromebook? Like if they have a preference to use their personal device at home? >> So for anything with the district, you know, let's take an iPad for example, they would be able to have the Google apps that we have at school, Gmail, Drive, those type of things on their personal device at home. We don't have any restriction that would restrict them from being able to sign in at home on that, you know, to those apps on their iPad or their Mac or whatever. >> So the Google Google platform is how it's what they're using. >>
084Yes. >> As is majority of learning management software >> schooly has a has an app where you'll be able to log into it from home as well. I mean, for students, we don't um you know, there are some things as far as like staff at times that we've tried to prevent from signing in off of our network because there's a greater risk there, but for students, we don't have any restriction of like what you can do at school versus what you can do at home learning wise. >> Well, I'm I'm thankful that we are kind of, you know, you guys are ahead of the curve and we've had this policy. This is our second year, I'm correct, of the no device and cell phones and it seems to be >> and you you did make
085the change last last year to like seventh and eighth graders haven't been bringing their own device. So, we kind of baby step toward this as well. >> Well, it makes sense. I know not everybody's going to be happy, but also you have to do what you know obviously have further discussion make sure we try to do what's best for all students. Any other questions or comments? We will move on to approval of act 57 special updates to policy 8462 child abuse and neglect. I will make a motion to approve the polic Child abuse and neglect was presented. Motion made second. Any discussion? >> Yeah, this is a first review and only review. This is there is no choice here. This is state law that changed soon as you pass it. I need to get this
086out to our staff. Um to me, this is best practice anyways. Again, another law and I'm not opposed to this law, but because apparently it wasn't being done everywhere, but This is something that is uh got changed. Nola recommended immediate approval of this and move it forward so that you get it out to your staff. So that's why you have it tonight because I also recommend get it approved right away and we'll get it published and get it out there. >> Any other discussion? Not hearing any. All in favor please say I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Next, approval of the purchase of goals and ground bankers for soccer. I'll make a motion to approve the purchase of two goals and accessories soccer field out of the 2026 2027 budget $10,4. All right. Um all
087in favor please say I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Next is approval of the purchase of fields. I'll make a motion to approve the proposal from Upper Midwest Athletic Construction for the purchase and replacement of football goals and Pines Middle and High School for a total of $33,560 include restoration if needed and that work will be insted. Any other discussion? >> Verify for me how many calls Is that is that just I keep seeing one a year. >> It's for two. >> It is for two. >> I just wanted to make sure as I kept reading through this >> AJ and Dan did a lot of work getting us this amount brought to us. Um >> it's a pair. >> We went with real wide ones this time to help our chances go kickers >>
088taller wider. >> But uh seriously, we really looked at options. AJ and Dave put a lot of work into this. It really came down to a lot of them wanted us to install it. We just didn't feel comfortable. Um it's a big project. You want it done right once. These are 20 year investment kind of things. So do it right for 20 years, get it right. Um and that's why we brought to finance multiple times our options. Plus, we have to redo our tractor. We you prove that you want to do it at the same time. We've heard horror stories of other districts that didn't do it then and ended up damage and you don't want to invest in a nice track and then have damage. So that's why you know would we love to
089spend 33,000 on something else? Sure. But you need it. It gets used for not just high school varsity, it's JV, other things that do use it. So um we definitely need it redone and if you get 20 years out of it, it's a good investment. >> All right, call the vote. And all in favor, please say I. Motion carries. We'll move on to our district administrator. >> Oh, I'm sorry guys. I need a bigger client myself about that. So, okay. Sorry. Reports from principles, directors, and supervisors. Is there any have an administrator that would like to add anything to their reports other than what they provided this evening. Thank you for your thorough reports. Not hearing any. We also have school resource officer monthly report. We'll move on to update on summer school eagle camp.
090We're talking about summer already. Y especially after all the melting today we were going to get the save the dates out. We do that before spring break and then I printed 500 flyers to go home. actually register. >> We've already gotten phone calls. >> That's awesome. >> A lot of work. Um we shared that policy. One thing keep in mind, not only is it a lot of work, um but with the adjustment too with the reading plans, um there's going to be some things both cost, but more importantly, hopefully some impact on reading, but bring some new challenges. But Carrie and the elementary administrative team have put together some I think some good options and you know it's going to be one of those we're going to try to do our best and then get
091better from it and that's what this group does and they came up with a really good I think some good options and we probably narrowed it down to not just a regular eagle camp year which is enough work on top of it but has some new wrinkles to it update on foury old kindergarten enrollment. >> Yeah. So, this team also put together not only just a good quality remember for a lot of these families, their virt experiences and hopefully you got to see some of those pictures, but um their signing days with big old pencils and great backgrounds and um every kid should be excited to attend school. They'd be ready to start now. Some of them I think with the excitement that was created across all three buildings um and our good job by
092our staff being first impact. You know, Megan does a great enment and then all the ones put them through these screens and we have some partners from alliance clubs as well. Um, but I will say we're at um we've had one and that's kind of kind of make sure we get those kids and families soon as we can so we get to build that relationship with them. Um, and then we'll have another one in April on the 10th and 17th. So, and a student can sign up at any time but we'd love to have them go through the screening, get to know who we are a little bit and come through the door. We are currently sitting at 59 4K students. Um, again, we'd love to see hopefully a lot more show up, but we'll
093continue to advocate and encourage people to sign up. So, just want to keep you in the loop of where we're at for enrollment. Um, interd district transfers. Um, as you can see, there's some requests. Um, we talk about those in late April as an administrative team, what they're asking, why, and go through that process. We used to not do that till June or July, and that's not really good for prep. So last few years I've moved that way up so that our administrative team and our teachers do a great job of getting out our 4K staff to build relationship with parents over the summer. So the sooner we can make this decision, they know what how many kids are going to have, who they are, so they can they do lots of connection things. So
094want to make sure give them all the best chance. Now I will move on to talk about the Northland Pines Community Foundation. >> Yeah. So just I'll be try to be as brief and quick as I can here. Um there is a document there on the back table. Our community foundation is a great partner in our district. They've given out teacher grants to help purchase. We had our first award awardees. I guess there's winners last year um that had things this fall that are already impacting learning in their classrooms. That grant is also available going into the spring. Um also um through a generous donor partnering with the community foundation. Um there's going to be five awards. Some of them are just for staff, some are just for support staff, and then some are for
095anybody um that shows leadership, dedication to our district. These are cash awards that'll be selected by the foundation and a few of our staff. Tonyy's heading that up and has done a fantastic job of getting this to the finish line. It's something that a gentleman that I knew in town here dreamed and kind of talked to me multiple times and I thought maybe he was just dreaming, but he actually put the money and time behind it and partnered with the foundation. So, we're really excited for this. Our staff to know that somebody in this community cares enough about them and what gets done here to put some success and awards behind it is pretty cool and amazing. Um, hopefully you all of you are anybody in the community if you had that teacher that made
096that big difference in your life or your child's life, now is a great time to nominate them or colleague. All of you are welcome to encouraged to nominate people. Again, it's for all staff. Include all support staff, custodians, paras, you name it, they're all have options. Um, one on next one on here, books versus badges. Um, we know some people in this room are very involved with that. Um, I won't say whose coaching records a little better, but we'll leave that to say and won't bring that up. Mr. Zia, we won't say that, will we? We'll just keep that quiet. We'll take the high road. >> You did approve field goal post. But no, seriously, um, kudos to the sheriff's department. We love being partners with them. This is for all schools, Vio County. Um,
097the sheriff's department does a fantastic job. They deserve the credit to get this off the ground. Um, this is a fundraiser annually. We have a lot of fun. Our local businesses really step up. They've impacted multiple families with this. Um, and again, another opportunity this year. Um, that's April 10th. Um, really highly encourage that kid Nick, but he's done a great job. representing the the sheriff's department and um and really it's just a fun night. It's I really love looking up in the bleachers. It's a community event. It's hard to have community events and bring people together and this one not only brings people together but it's for a great cause each and every year as well. So I don't know if anybody else wants to say anything about that. Nick, are we good there?
098>> Yeah, just looking forward to it. So, please, if you're just want to come out and support some people in the community, families in need in our county, please come out and have some fun. Some high quality athletic basketball going on, too. Let me just tell you, as long as no injuries. No injuries. That's a district administrator says no injuries. Um, I just I shared out with update on snow days. Um, as you know, we're already into our virtual learning days. Um, we were hit hard with those two days here back to back. I think people sometimes um those are the times where parents out, you know, and unfortunately some of our neighbors to the south that got the 30 inches didn't have school on Tuesday, but um you know, we'd love for kids after
099two days, they're all parents are ready to have their kids back in school and ready to go. Um and students are ready to come back and go. So, um those still two days of learning and I appreciate staff stepping up. We obviously love to have students in person, but sometimes that's not possible, and this makes it um more more doable. Unfortunately, as you see, if you look at the top right, um it's not uncommon and unheard of to have days in April. We're not going to have any this year. Um but uh it is something that we'll monitor and and really uh kudos to this administrative team, too. We did meet um virtually um before um on Sunday to kind of come up with some other options. We were worried. Um, I worked with Mr.
100Bonan. We were ready to open our campus up u, this building. If we had large power outages, our community was in distress. We were ready to open this building. We would have made sure people could have got to the back parking lot. Um, thankfully they didn't see that power outages, so we didn't choose to go that route, but we were ready. Um, we talked about what would be some alternatives to bring to you tonight. Um, if we knew if we couldn't have a good day of learning, we weren't going to have it, right? If power outages and people were in distress. Yes, there was a lot of shoveling, but we decided to go with the virtual learning day. We felt like with conditions um we met Sunday right before I canceled school. So, we knew
101we were going to cancel and I had communicated with the bus company and and Christ Lutheran and others about it, but we wanted to make sure as administrative team how we wanted that day to look and this team came together on a Sunday on their own time and helped me make that decision and and get us prepared to have good day of learning on Monday. Um I just shared another one on funding. I thought I We have an update for you from last month of what our go our legislators and governor might have for tax relief and also funding of special ed. Um apparently there's still ongoing conversations. There's still a chance that they may come to do something in the next month or so, but um nothing has pro nothing has been decided move
102forward. So unfortunately can't give an update. I also want to give kudos to um both buildings and leadership on this campus, Gretchen and Brooke and and Josh, Dan Harland. Um AJ was also part of that. Tony was here a little bit too as well. Um we did have with the derby situation, we met this summer, came up with a plan. Um the elementary staff did a fantastic job of being supportive and and allowing us to try something totally different. Not only did it go off well, it did it did also teach us in case we ever had to do something like that in an emergency, what what works, what doesn't, what we might want to tweak and adjust. So, we did learn things kind of thankfully. One of the things about the snow day and
103Friday was one less day of trucking kids over. So, in some regards, we got to try it, but we didn't have to do it for three days. We only did it for two. Um, there's some things that we learned that we'll talk to the derby about, but you know, we wanted to give them some time. Um, so with some prep prepation, SRO were critical and in a positive way to that and also I want to give thanks to the Uber Police Department. They were very helpful working with us as well between them and our SRO and our staff. It went much smoother than I think it could have gone and yes it's inconvenient. Um but you know they are good neighbors to us. We want to see them be successful. Brings lots of people into
104our community and unfortunately people have asked why don't you plan days off on those? They literally do not know that race date or if they're going to host it till summer. So we can't we have to pick dates that are best for students and staff and families. Um so unfortunately as much as it'd be great to adjust but we need to we have requirements from the state to have reading plans done. We have end of trimester. We have all these things that take our inservice days. So um it doesn't really make sense to change around a date that we don't even know until summer. So I'd love to work with them. They did. The derby was good to work with and they even communicated with me during the first days to see what we could
105do differently or what we needed on the fly and really went much smoother than last time. Very much much smoother than last time. So that's kudos to the team at the buildings here on campus and our SRO. That's that's my report. >> All right. Thank you all for coming this evening. I am going to make our motion into close session. So everybody walk and drive safe. Thank >> but I will make the motion to convene to close session pursuant to Wisconsin statute 19.85 subsection 1C to consider employment promotion compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility. specifically one to consider the issuance of a preliminary notice of renewal of certified staff member to Wisconsin statute 118.22 22 subsection noting that the board may take
106action in close session. Two to discuss certified staff contracts and compensation for 26 27. Three to discuss the issue of administrative contract and compensation for 26 28 for the position of assistant principal. Four to consider resations from certified staff members. >> Oh, sorry. I'll second it. >> Eric, yes. >> Yes. Jennifer Payne is Chris Patriquez. >> I think I got it, but can you repeat? >> Chelsea Roaker. >> Yes. Sample unit.