001Good evening and welcome to the September 29th, 2025 regular board meeting of the board of education. Will you please join me in the pledge of allegiance to the standice >> here? Yes, it has. >> Thank you. 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. >> Second. >> Motion has been seconded. All in favor, please say I. >> I. I. Is there anyone that wish to speak this evening participation? Reports and communications. Is there any member that has anything like >> there's there's just real quick at your table right in front of you there is the CISA 9 annual report. If you open it up um you'll notice a real handsome
002guy in the first page right in the middle there. The CISA president who may be sitting near me but no kudos to Chris and that team. I don't you know you extra meetings, but uh you know they run CISA 9 the budget and staffing and those kind of things just like you do. So it's an important piece but lots of good things going around CISA. We're glad to be part of it are the good things and we also benefit a lot from the good things done at CISA 9. So just wanted to point that out at your tables that you have their very nice well done annual report and something to share. If you have questions you can pass me or Chris and we might be able to answer them for you. And just one
003thing up as of right now unless somebody changes their mind but we need to know ASAP we have no one going to the fall regional meeting October 16th which is not a judgment it's just for planning purposes so we get it you're busy you already give up a lot of things so but just case we miscommunicated I want to bring up one more time Susie I'm taking it off my calendar unless I hear from somebody by tomorrow otherwise that evening up Wisconin Association of School Boards 2026 Wisconsin State Education Convention January 21st 23rd information in our packet for getting back to Susie would like to because I won't be able. [Music] >> Yeah, there was something sent to us. There's only one candidate that I know of. It's somebody it's Randy. You're probably very familiar.
004He's been here president school member apprentice he did our new we went to Nick and Paul went to the new board training he was the guy that spoke so just he's your only candidate for cease region two so unless anybody else wants that but otherwise I think all nominations are closed if you vote one person vote for >> moving on to the committee reports which are all in our packet minutes for standing board committees are shared in the board docs Does any board member have any questions for other board members regarding the minutes of any committee to the next agenda item? Excuse me. Our next agenda item is the consent agenda action items. Is there any board member that wishes to remove uh any item from the agenda the consent agenda knowing that we can
005still discuss them and action on them separately? Not hearing any. I will entertain a motion for the consent agenda on that. >> I'll make a motion to approve all items contained in the consent agenda. >> Second. >> All right, the motion has been made. Second. Is there any discussion? >> I just wanted to point out Dave was unable to attend finance, but there are two large purchases in there. Um, a new mower with an extra brush. I don't even call it extra, but it's when something breaks down, you know, we run into issues of cleaning our sidewalks and all that. So, the brush seems to be I think Dan and Dave gave a Dan Wine Dave came up with a really good plan to be cost effective compared to some of the other more expensive
006options. Um, Dave is here tonight if you'd like to ask any questions. And then, um, you know, we we shared that we're at a point where this building is 20 years old. The warranties are coming off the roof. So, we're We're putting together a long range plan of costs for roofs. That'll be in talk about in the goals here coming up. Um, but there is some warranty work and now will be the time to do a really small section above the fitness center and save money by using the warranty money to put towards getting that section done ahead of time. That's in here as well. Um, that he would be happy to answer those questions. So, just wanted to point that out. Um that's a little bit larger expenditure as we typically put in consent
007but being that we talk through it and it's kind of it's pretty straightforward but we are here tonight if you have questions. >> Right. Any other discussion on consent items? If not all in favor please say >> I. Any oppose? Motion carries. All right. We'll move into discussion and action items. First on the agenda is approval of health insurance plan review. I'll make a motion to approve renewing the district's health insurance plan with for a 3% increase over the prior year and further for federal guidelines. The employees out of pocket cost will increase by $50 for the single plan and $100 for the family plan and the district will assume the responsibility for another 50 for single and 100 for family within the >> second. Motion made and seconded. have any information for this possible?
008>> Yeah, we want to take it in two chunks. Terra is here to help me as well with this, but um as you know, health insurance um is approaching or it will be over a $4 million part of our budget. So, it's really important that we look at all our options. Um we have a staff committee that gives us some input both on use and um things going on in the market. And then we have an insurance consultant that gives us a lot of data. We talk with them. We look at other options. um as anybody would see out there right now, healthcare costs are rising rapidly. Both the cost of health care and insurance plans for healthare plus throw in kind of the triple effect is we live in a market that has only
009two providers and a lot of issues with getting services to our members. So we've taken a lot of time to look at options. Um we've had some bumps. Remember this is the first year back with UMR. We were with security health prior. We put out for bids. They were by far the best bid last time. They gave us a ceiling of 7%. Right. That's like 13 7%. So, the worst we could do is 7%, but um they they were looking at a much higher. They knew we we had a lot of use. Um that we've had so much issue though. They decided to come in with a competitive. They didn't want to lose us the customer. They want to prove that we can do better this year. they can do better for us this year.
010Um, and they offered a 3% renewal which is very low for considering all the other data we have access to including other people, other districts, other private sector also um seeing our use rate. Um, we never see names, we just see how much use gets done out of our insurance. Um, M3 who is your consultant also agreed this would be the direction to go. We've talked about it before when we had security for multiple years. Not changing is something our staff um there's some good things that come with that. Knowing what's coming, how to use it. So, there are some positives. The clinics and doctors in town and Rlander Manqua when we have group knows who we have, it's a little bit easier for them to navigate if we stay the same. Um so, Tara
011and I are recommending the 3% increase in sticking with UMR even though we've had challenges. We've been working very hard with them. We understand um a lot of it's on the pharmacy side and there's really only so many pharmaceutical companies that we can work or provide here. So that's another whole can of worms. But we have been working hard. I think we've gone through some of the kinks and now it's time to move forward. Um so that's why we're recommending this. I don't hear anything else or questions on that piece before we explain the second part of the motion. Okay. Uh the second part of the motion is the federal government decides every year what the minimum plan is for a high deduction plan. And when they raise it up, we have to decide and
012you've been asked this the prior two years. This is the third year in a row. Do you want to absorb that or should we pass that on to the tech or on to our employees or do you want to split it? and the for the prior two years you committed to putting money in the HSA for them. What this time around and this comes a little bit too as we get to learn how to use our insurance. We've absorbed a lot of cost in the prior years um and we're seeing more usage. We felt like uh it was time to consider and we brought it to the committee and this came out of committee as well that we would split it this year um to pass on a $50 and $100 cost and that's only
013if they get to the maximum or get to their um >> Thank you. We would you as a board and and as a district we'd absorb the other half. That's where the other 1500 comes from. So, we recommended based on committee input as well out of personnel and finance that we would pass along this split amount. Um, so your motion right now, unless you want to vote it down and discuss it, but right now would be instead of $100 going on to the employee and 200 going to the employee, 50 would be for single and then 100 for family. the committee and Terry and I and and now Tony are really looking at options into the future because this isn't a short term issue. This is a long-term issue. How do we look at options?
014How do we find different things? Uh we realize, you know, there's a lot of terms out there and we plan on educating and giving you more information over the long run. We did do that in finance this month a little bit personnel, but we're not ready to do a full board presentation. We will eventually do something on alternatives and ideas. Now is the time to get locked into what we're going to do for next year for budgeting and also for staff so they know what we're doing and then the following year then start working on ideas for the future to keep costs down. Um almost every school board is going through this right now. We see article after article and and and looking at options because healthc care is just becoming increasingly expensive especially in
015the state of Wisconsin. Wisconsin is one of the highest cost states in the country but we want to provide a great benefit a very good earned benefit for our staff. So questions on those two or I'll turn it over discussion >> else have any questions or discuss? >> I was just going to see for people >> if um for people haven't been on the board as long that what the past two years we've absorbed any additional cost just as much we never want to increase cost per employees. This seemed fair. >> And also when we start looking at pay next year, these are things we always give you like what have we done differently that would be more impactful and it doesn't impact every employee either. Remember it impacts those that take insurance and then
016end up using the full amount. So that's just something to keep in mind. But it is real and I get it and you know it is a challenge out there. And our plan is January one. Just so I didn't say that, but our plan starts on January 1. >> Any questions or comments? >> Looking at one of the documents here, is there still an HSA component? >> Yes, we still pay that. We're not reducing that. That would still be at the same amount. It's just we could have put it HSA. We could have passed it all on. We're going to put our half into the H Um, Terra did a really nice document in there to show like the layers of what goes to get to the true cost of our insurance. It's kind of
017a complicated plan. For years, we've looked at trying to simplify it, but it comes at a very high cost. But that is still under discussion of how to simplify our insurance, but yet make it cost effective for our employees. So, we're in the cost effective spot right now. When you really look at the market, we're I think very competitive in there. Um, It would be nice. We would love to simplify it a little bit like take out a one of the HA component. I'm not saying take away the HSA, but how do we make our plan simpler, but it's right now to do that would be a very expensive to the district and taxpayers and probably more costs on the employee. >> Any other questions? Not hearing. All in favor, please say I. >> Any
018opposed? Motion carries. >> All right. Our next item is our approval of the annual goals for the board of education. >> I'll make a motion to approve the annual goals for the board of education for 2025 2026 as presented. >> Second. >> The motion has been made and seconded. Any discussion? >> Yeah. So, usually we do these in August, but we really wanted to get the input of your district continuous improvement team and they um came in in August during inservice. They gave up some inservice time. We really had a robust conversation. Um I think it really points out the challenges we face with trying to narrow down a goal K12. I think we have goals and our our principles, our educational leaders do a great job of working with their staff in their buildings.
019But when we were talking about a district level goal, we knew that it was a challenge to find something because how learning is measured from 4K through 12th grade is extremely different from the state level from the assessment tools we have. If I go to a high school parent, they want to know did my kids get a letter grade and a credit, right? like how many credits I need to graduate. A 4K K12 wants to know can my child read? Do they know their letters? They get better at math. So, and then in between they still want to see that growth and we have really robust systems to do that. So, when it was all said and done both from a staff and then a administrative team, we are recommending that we really look at
020because everything backs down from this. If we can overall improve our grade level proficiency, and you see a lot about that in the news, by 5% in math and ELA, um, when we have a state assessment, we'll use that, and if we don't, we'll use our local assessments, which we always share out to the full board. It's full transparency, but all the the really push to get to there comes from buildings and then classroom teachers making the changes to get to that level. So, it does really flow right down to the students. Um, I will will say too, a lot of emphasis by me and our staff this year on what is the action plan to get those and we'll share those strategies here in the coming months, but we want to make sure you're
021okay with this. We have things in place and from day one of school, we've already implemented changes to help get to here, but we want to make sure you're okay with that. Another one the board has heard a lot about from us, but you know, it's been a something we worked really hard on. We saw some progress last year. We're looking for even more this year is attendance. Some years you've said no, let's not do attendance. We brought it back. The committee put it forward to have attendance as one of your goals. I think it sends a message to our parents and our community. It's a life skill, right? You know, employees want people coming to work every day. Um, students learn best when they're here. There's a lot of great learning that takes place
022outside the classroom, but we need to be engaged with those students and families. Um, you know, we want to continue to engage um staff and retain them, you know, get them to come here and then also um through paid benefits and other things. So that was the human resource goal that came out of personnel um families and community. Um this is something you kind of goes one step ahead because next on the agenda is the community survey. But um if you approve that and every committee recommended it, all three committees saw it, you would use those results um from from that one, the prior parent one, if you choose to do a staff survey. Otherwise, you have data from a year ago um to discuss and create long-term goals for new district administrators. So really
023some forward thinking for you as a board and for the incoming district administrator. And then finally, um we would love to see we've we have these five-year plans. They're critical for the work Tara and I do to help you guide you for the coming years and those especially the referendum, but really to make decisions on spending across the district. We would have all the department heads update them and this would be year one. So it' be this year moving forward. So it ties back into that other long range goal of looking ahead for Tony and you as a board. So it kind of ties the two together. And then I do think one of the ones that you're going to be see highlighted tonight and in the future is um and this is an all
024we talk about articles in healthcare. The other articles you're seeing over and over is declining enrollment in Wisconsin and it's population. It's just not school age children but declining enrollment is impacting the majority of districts by far and in Wisconsin the way we're funded it really impacts there. So what are some proactive things to keep enrollment high or get more people to come? And then what are some proactive things to keep a budget fair to the taxpayers but also able to support staff and students into the future. So those are all the goals that are listed there. Um and be happy to discuss any if you want to modify any you just have to modify your agenda a motion or vote them down and redo them. So anything from the the committees all have seen
025this multiple times except the learning goal. I also have a fantastic team out here that also would be willing to speak if there's questions on some of these topics. I think they look like great goals and we obviously talked them over and there's been a lot of thought put into them. So does anybody have any other comments? Motion is made. All in favor, please say I. >> Any oppos? Motion carries. >> I'm going to ask Mr. Dick to come up and then you can talk about the next one. Tony, you want to come up about community survey? >> Oh, yeah. So, our next item is an approval of community survey proposal. Make a motion to approve the community survey proposal to be conducted by school perception. >> I'll second the motion seconded. Tony will give
026us some information on those. >> Okay. All right. Yeah. So, we went over committee meetings. So, nothing else too much new. um on schedule to hopefully have this go in October with the voice of the pines as we talked about. So again, it will be falling out right up the voice of the pine so people will have it in their hands. It'll give us valuable information I think about for long-term planning about what are the perceptions from the community about what our strengths are and some things that they want to know more about in the future. So I think it'll be good val information that we can use for our long-term planning goals, but also maybe even to reinforce these when we get to the referendum as well. Unless there any questions about the specifics
027about the survey questions or anything else? I mean, we've gone through a lot committees and we're pretty prepared to send that out in October. >> It'll go to the printers by Monday. So, now is your chance. >> I think the great what it's whenever we start with an idea and it comes out of um whether it's a board member or staff or administrator that when you can finally see it come to fruition as they say and to have it come together in a timely manner. I think the putting it through into the voice of the pines is a great way to do it because thank you for your work on this. I also will say that we you as a board I think it's hard to quantify because community you know sometimes when you listen
028doesn't mean you always do what everybody wants so they don't think you're listening but you have done a good job and I'm proud to work to help you lead that you do we have taken community input and staff and students we haven't we've tried many ways to get out into the community and I get it they don't want to come and see a coffee clutch holidays they don't want to come to presentation on school safety or school finance or and I one of the colleague one of my colleagues one of the administrators I thought had some great words of wisdom that stuck into my brain when we came from one of the lower attended community events we tried again was how do we go to them like in fairness to them to the community how
029do we get out there to them and go to their ideas so this year I'm going to try to get out to as many town board meetings as possible and hear their voices on what's going on in our district. Also, this to me is kind of that us going to them as well. So, hey, we'll meet you where you're at. Like, we value your input and here's a better way of maybe a better way. Surveys is the best way. We tried face to face and and you do get a lot of feedback at games. I go to different events. So, you know, I know Tony is very involved. Administrative team's very involved in the community. So, we do get input and value. You as board run into people all the time. We love living in
030these communities, the grocery store and wherever, church and everything else, but this will be a little more official. I think it'll cause people to think Tony um I worked alongside Tony on this, but I think Tony and and the team really came up, I think, with some really good questions that are going to put make people have to decide what they value the most. Everything on the list would be great. You could check every box and say Tony and the board for five years fix everything on this list. It's unrealistic. But the majority of the things you are working on but what are the ones you want to put at the top when you have to talk about a tight budget. What are the emphasises in that budget? You know what is the decision on
031staff? What is the decision on space? What is the decision on at least this will help those that take the time to give some input and you can back in and take it. So we haven't done one in eight years. So it's great timing. Kudos to Tony and the board for looking at this for the future. So >> I think it also showcases some of the great things we have that people might not know as well. through the survey like it talks about facilities like what do they value most whether it's walking hours or pines community center things that nature so it's also an opportunity to let the community know about some of the things that we have that maybe they don't know about so good good way too >> I like the um you
032know the graduate success too like what is someone's perception or what do they value I think that is really good people All right. Any other questions or comments? Right. I'm hearing any in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any oppos? >> Tony can stay for this next one. Dave's here as well. Dave and Tony. AJ's out working the JB football game, but Dave, Tony, and AJ have attended the vast majority of the next topic. So, um, maybe this one you're okay with. I give you some background because I'm not sure you do want to vote on tonight, but maybe you know what you're voting on. It'll help decide if you want the motion or not. Is that okay? >> Absolutely. So, we'll be talking about a draft of the pickup association agreement to the
033board's legal counsel for review. >> So, I want to be clear. I'm asking the board tonight and those in the audience to not approve an agreement, but to are we ready for your attorney? We agreed not to spend any money until you felt comfortable with the main logistics part of this agreement. I do have a picture of it up on there. Um, quick refresher, the pickball association came to you um, and asked for your approval to um, basically lease land or come to some agreement. We ended up on a word lease um, the piece of property out at the north side of the parking lot. Um, kind of kind of out from the CLC between the CLC and the woods. before you get to the community garden, if you're familiar with the community garden space.
034Um, so with that being said, we've been meeting multiple times. Um, myself, the team I mentioned, and the pick law association, we went through multiple ideas. Um, we we used the draft um me memorandum understanding to kind of use it as the talking points like if we would have this, what would it look like? and I shared with the board and every committee um pros and cons of this agreement. Um there were some things that came out with questions during those committees and I wanted to follow up with that. Um the questions that came up during committee was um lack availability for of our students based on times the association is requesting. They gave some very specific times. So um I was asked to meet with the PE teachers. So I met with Eagle River
035PE teachers and also the high school's PE teachers fifth and sixth grade if they go over there because they're grouped together like they do multiple sections. They don't just have one class. They group them together that helps the overall master schedule and it's still a great learning environment for them. They would like to take the whole group over there. So they would need all the cords if they went over and they were excited to go over there and use them anytime they get the kids outside or staff tries to get them outside. just an extension of their classroom and to have something of that quality right here. So, they definitely would like to take and they would need all the courts. Um, middle and high school, they would use it in their a lot of
036their classes, especially ninth grade and then racket sports. Most of the time they thought six courts would be enough. Now, if they had two class at once, um, it would be um, they would love more. When I met with them, they thought more flexibility. and more time would be great if they could have it because their classes, you know, Dan can't build a master schedule for PE around pickle ball courts. It's too, you know, we're we're not at a size to have that. Once you start locking in one or two classes, it really impacts the whole master schedule. Haven't been in that seat myself. I know. And and Dan and I have had that discussion. He's sometimes it gets forced at one section of something. It just it does impact the whole schedule. So, this
037is something we'd have to um impact. We'd have to kind of work through. And then they were really excited though. I will say that is the theme. All of them were excited. They think it'd be great for kids. They think it'd be great for everybody in the long run and our community, but they they did say those times would make it a little more challenging. And they really would like me to figure out a way to get those times. And you know, weather is going to impact even if you book it for two weeks. Um you know, you could have You know, um the other thing is they were concerned about the conflict. Um you know, like they don't want to have to go out there and I get it and I brought this up
038in our meeting like we can't go out there and say we had PE scheduled for this time and even though there's sign there, send six people from the community off the courts. It's just you're asking teachers to be in the middle of a conflict that they don't really need to be part of. And I can't send a principal out there to do that all the time either. So, I think we'd have to have a really heart-to-he heart with the association to make sure we're on the same page with that. Um, parking lot safety was brought up. Um, Deputy Christensen and myself went out there again. Um, he's been parking in that corner a few mornings just for safety of the kids driving in and out. Um, we talked about it. We looked at it. We
039both felt like it would be fine. However, if it didn't end up being ends up being a little tighter with concerns, the plan would be not would be very cost effective. We would just say do not we put in no parking in that section by the grass there, probably like the first three spots where the curb is. And when before we repaved or didn't repave, but put a layer down over the top, uh chip seal, there used to be a line when we first put those speed bumps in there for the kids cutting across and across the whole parking lot. Um we used to have a yellow line to keep people on each side of it to make that corner. Um that wasn't put in there when they paved back. Um cuz kind of we've
040built the culture now and it hasn't been a problem with that corner. So if needed, we could paint one single yellow line to make two lanes. There's arrows there already showing the lanes when you make the corner. We could extend the arrows and lines around the corner if it ended up needed. If Chad and I and Deputy P and I were both wrong. That's a very inexpensive. That's something we can do in house. So, it's not the end of the world either. Um, overall school safety, obviously, you're always concerned with school safety. They're not, it did seem the SRO's weren't overly concerned. I have two law enforcement current and former that can I get it, it's real anytime you bring, but right now people can walk on our track. We don't, you know, don't stop
041that. We have people community guard. We allow disc golf. So, yes, there would be more. The bulk of the time would be in the summer months when we're not in session. So, but I wanted to share that. It was a good question. I want there's no there's never a guarantee, right? Like more people on campus could be more whether it's traffic or any kind of school safety or interaction between an adult and a child. Um I think, you know, we don't have full answers to these questions, but I put them on here. You know what the agreement was for sharing costs because we didn't have we haven't met these committee meetings and then um and then I thought it came out of one of the committees talked about reducing the years like don't do anything
042over 20 25 years and then have extensions in there but anything longer than that it's kind of really tying the hands of future boards and also what realistic agreement can be 50 years really and this seems like this building's been open forever it's only been 20 so those are the feedback from the committees that not every person got to hear so I wanted to share that with the And then I did follow through with those answers. I'd be happy to answer any follow-up questions to those or future or just allow you to have discussion. If you're the next step that you're being asked to, you can say take it back and get these answered. So you wouldn't vote on it at all. Just have discussion if you so thought I still think maybe it's time
043for Chad to give us some input. Chad Wade is our school board's attorney. I wouldn't happen to have to do the final agreement, but just talk through the main points and bring you that feedback back. So, that's kind of where you're at tonight. Do you want me to work more with the Pickle Association, which we'll have to do either way, or do you want me to work with them and take something to Chad? That's what I'm bringing you tonight. I didn't want to spend any money until I had your chance. I I said this would be the next step. So, this is where we're at. >> Is the attorney aware of any of this at all right now? I asked him on another call he was on for another thing. Our attorney, your attorney? >>
044Yes. >> Yeah. He knows that because I asked him if he had any from other districts. That's the only thing I did ask him. He called me about another matter and I just, hey, the board's been approached. Do you have a draft agreement from another district that I could just look at? This was early on when we first started meeting. So I was like, if you have something that's already been drafted, let's just use that as our template. He said, "No, most of city and county or private sector, you know, so he didn't have the model to share with me. So, I found a different one and that's the one we've been using. Their attorney did look at it and gave some good feedback. So, we got some free advice from them to what maybe
045we should work on. Like, one of the things that we did have in there that their attorney looked at because it wasn't a final draft for them to look at either. They just did the same thing ours would be like things to look out for is there wasn't a grievance procedure in the draft I had but that would be a good idea like maybe they think you should pay for something you think they should pay for something it's not clear in there what is the procedure how are you going to resolve that with both without having to go get an expensive lawyer like most good agreements have some type of resolution process so that's something they recommended so we have that in our notes to put that in questions or discussion at all, but I
046feel like this is probably the next logical step since we are personally my opinion the next logical step moving forward with this process knowing that it's just like a draft of an agreement and getting um our attorneys, you know, just have something concrete to look at. I feel like we've up to this point discussed this to the point that we can discuss it. Obviously, the concerns that still work on it just feels like the next um I'll make the motion to approve and authorize district administrator Foster to take a draft of the pickle ball association agreement to the board's legal council for review input and any recommended revisions noting that the final draft of the agreement would then be brought back to the eligible electors of the district at a future special district which would
047need to be held for consideration of approval as the agreement involves the leasing of school property. >> I'll second. >> All right. Motion has been made and seconded. Any other discussion? >> No, I appreciate some of those questions answered and the feedback. I do agree that I think it's the next logical step in the sequence. So, a lot of the concerns that I had have been addressed and I'm ready to move forward. >> I just want to emphasize the end part of that agreement tonight at our annual meeting which is only annual or special meeting is the only place where you can lease property. So for new board members and those in the community out here tonight at our annual meeting we will vote as an electorate to to a room next door to River
048Elementary to head start. So that's the only place either at the annual meeting, which is a special meeting, or another special meeting. So you won't be able to vote on the final final agreement until it takes extra postings and other information to for Susie to get that out in the community. So just know like if when we get to the final, it won't be at board meeting. I'm going to whip it on there and say, "Tonight you're going to vote." It'll take multiple steps to I just want to give the audience the heads up and maybe newer board members. So, >> any other discussion? >> All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Moving on to our administrative reports. Thank you. Is there any of our administrators and principles would
049like to add um or highlight? Thank you all for your reports and details. I know it's been hard to believe it's among the school already, but hopefully it's all going well. So, anybody want to share anything or thank you for your time and effort into your report and your daily um daily workings with all of our students. >> Maybe just that tired after a lot of work. They're doing a great job. >> All right. We have also have our school resource officer officer and officer Christensson's reports in there. Thank you to them. And the next item will be our district administrator's report update on enrollment. >> Yeah. So, um you know, I shared some facts. You know, we graduated 135, which you know, proud of them. They did a lot of great things. Um we
050have a senior class of 106. So, right there, that shows you. But probably the bigger impact on our over enrollment which is down at at 84 when I took the snapshot of this and it might even be less by the time we get it all figured out for third Friday this Friday. Um these are bodies. This is an FTE tear. We'll talk about FTEES within the annual meeting. But this is that goal you looked at. Um when you only have 64 students in 4K right now, you graduate 13 or 35 that's going to cause some challenges and like I said this is not just the North and Pines issue but in in reality we have to figure out how do we support you know I gave you some of suggestions and you took them last
051year during the budget or during the staffing time um you know I'm not saying that's where we're always going to absorb because when you spread that across the district that's always complication right so but it's something as a board you have to be aware of so we'll be watching that and um you know there it doesn't make things easier by any means um but we'll keep an eye on it and there's a new housing development opening. Let's hope that brings people to town. Housing I would say is probably one of our biggest challenges. We see families that are interested in our district want to come here but they can't find a place to live. So housing is one factor. We've been involved with trying to improve housing. We've done other things too to encourage people
052So, and it starts with great staff and great education. So, we'll continue to focus on that and then work on some of the other things as well. But, so just want to keep you in the loop of where we're at compared to last year in August. We're down 84 or excuse me at the September. Next on my list is >> I got one question on that. Do we have any idea how many reflected in that number that are choosing to go home. Not in the numbers I'm sharing with you. I could try to I can share out how many that we know of. When I say that curious to know how many are deciding to homeschool and start a public school >> we can try to get you a number. Homeschool students have October 15th
053and register with homeschool and then there are other families that never that they're homeoo. So, it's pretty it's a little bit tricky to do that, but there are some that like I said, we want to offer a great opportunity for all students, and that's what we can do. Just the other thing to keep in mind, homeschool families still are engaged in your district. They can take up to two classes, and that's at any grade level. So when I say classes, it could be PE, art, music at the elementary. Um they could take um two high school courses, middle school courses, which you know those are a little easier to segment of what time of day in that thing. They also participate in extracurriculars if they live in our district. We they can participate in our
054activities. And I say activities because it includes musicals and >> those contraptions show up as a >> but they don't count. You don't get any money for them. You don't. Now when I say you don't get money, remember their parents are taxpayers in this community and pay towards a levy. So they are engaged in our school financially in a different way. But we don't get to levy more for them. They they're using resources that we typically don't collect money for them. They do pay a fee just like every student does if they're in sport. So like if they pay the participation fee that the board has for student athletes and activities. Yeah, it's a I would say open enrollment and we're still on the positive side of open enroll. We have more families coming than
055going, but it is a trend. And I will say other districts are sharing a concern of when we push on attendance or have high academic standards or have things involved. I know there's other you hear about political about other things, but when you start holding certain kids accountable for attendance, grades, and certain things, an easy way out. Unfortunately, there are amazing homeschool families and their kids do really well, but there's sometimes we're seeing kids take those routes for avoidance versus and we see it every year. We get multiple families, multiple students back because when you do, I don't want to go down this rabbit hole too much, but >> when you do an online course and don't make attendance, they can kick you out. So, we'll get multiple email, multiple students that are are done.
056They get kicked out of that school because attendance. We don't do that. That's something I get frustrated. I've shared with our state representatives. Um, speaking of student safety, and this is for all families in our community and and neighboring communities. Three Lakes did do this recently as well. We are hosting the internet crimes against children and extortion presentation on Thursday, October 9th at 6:30 right here in this auditorium. This is a partnership between the United Sheriff's Office and Basis County Sheriff's Office and our school district. Um, uh, myself, Tony, and Dufek and Carrie Nordine. Um, we attended this last year at Lakeland Union because we wanted to learn. Um, it was a night that worked for the three of us and it was very eye opening. As somebody who's been involved with this my whole
057career, the amount of change that has taken place and is rapidly changing was eye opening to me. Um, when you think you've heard it all, you just need to go here. And I'm not talking about being scared about, you know, but you know, as a detective, I'm sure Nick could highlight as well, like these are things for parents to learn and know about there. Um, I met with Emily Miller, um, Detective Miller, correct? um last week in preparation she's been helping us with violas and she teaches and does a lot also in our classrooms about this internet safety and and just some of the things she shared not you know like how it this is not a them issue. This is our our community issue. Our kids um that need our parents need to know
058what these phones and gaming systems are opening their kids up to. And I hope we get some parents to come out and see this. I thought it was very well done. Um, we're going to do a mini version of it with our students in grades 5 through 8, 9 through 12. Um, we'll be sending a letter home to parents here real soon letting them know if they if they don't want their child to be in it, then we won't make them go to it. But it is very eye opening, I think, to help them because in that age group, almost every one of those kids were seen with one of these. Almost everyone. But it is their um really something we have to focus on. >> Can I jump in on that? Yeah, this is
059uh been probably one of our most well attended presentations we've done. Uh extremely relevant. The tech side of things is changing very rapidly, but we've received a ton of positive feedback from this presentation and I would highly recommend it. Um I just want to share real quick in case you've heard differently. We partnered um really they came to us, we give them use of our parking lot and we also let them use a forklift. But tons of positive about the recycling event. Yes, the line was long. The reason it was so long was this is the first year they ever did scrap metal and they took anything with refrigerants which normally you have to pay to get rid of and it cost twoour delay for a lot of people but they could have paid $40
060and taken it elsewhere. So I'm not judging but for if you didn't want if you want to save $40 then you stood in line for two hours. I'm hoping to get more volunteers for the group that did it. Uh we tried it was just a tough Saturday for a lot of people but um thank you um you know the in for allowing us to use this space. Um they came to us and we just were willing to help. But there was drug takeback. Um thousands of dollars were raised from the food pantry. So we talked about our mission of being positive in the community. Trailer loads of recyclables came from the national forest, from the people's backyards, from this roadside. So this is really an overall making our community better through volunteers and and really
061a great effort. Just want to share that in case you get asked. One of the things to mark your calendar for um any of you who want to come that's great. I know it's a tough time to come but one of the best attended coffee chats I ever do and it's really a fun one. Not that when people come to my other ones are not fun but um just a lot of repeat people that come to it and that's our veterans coffee chat. Eagle River Roers has been gracious to host us every year for this. gives free coffee to the veterans and us and treats. But on the 21st at 8:30 a.m., I'll be hosting that again and it's just um just come and listen. They ask a lot of really good questions. They have
062they want to know things are going on and also it's a great way to publicize and advertise the amazing three amazing veteran ceremonies that are done across this district. Lo, St. river. So, kind of coincides right before that. So, we can kick that off, but we'd love for you to come to that as well. One more item that's not on the agenda, but I just want to share out. Um, school safety, as I've talked about, is really critical. Mr. Tilly and I attended a walk through reification drill exercise at Rylander Union, Rylander High School on Friday afternoon, last week, last week. And then today we um we do this three times a year. We get all the superintendents, the SRO's, emergency management's been coming um and we meet three times a year to kind of
063talk about where do we want to go from here? What are we working on? What is you know how do we how do we use our SOS for the maximum mobility? What are drills and safety techniques they're using? It's been really positive. We got we've gotten better from it. I think the other school superintendents would say the same thing. A lot of cross sharing. We're all using the same platform now for our safety protocol. Um we're we're doing a lot of drills and today we discussed and Tony hosted us out at St. Germaine thanks to St. Germaine Elementary. It was extra work for Barb Elish. She did a great job and then also for Monasuri for cooking. I don't know how they got volunteered but they did. Somebody might have hard twisted arms today but
064uh they do a great job. We had treats again out there. So, but it was a great meeting. Um, looking forward to it. Josh intended that as well as he's taking up more responsibility to school safety going in the future. But we are going to build we set a goal for ourselves as schools is to start building reunification team between vioa county. We're going to focus on violist but invite and then do a large reunification drill next year in October when we all have that professional development day and we don't have we don't that would be an off year yet of not having but we would include emergency management share maybe the other we want to get it to where um merch management's involved more too because they're kind of in silos right now. So
065I'm really excited. I think it really could lead to all schools working closer together meaning all and Onidita County. Um Onidita Countyy's got good stuff going on, too. But if we all could get on the same page, there's a lot of shared services. And for example, Three Legs is our neighbor. You know, there's a county line, but you know, I consider them a neighbor. You know, like if they need help, we're going to go help. And if we need help, I know Terry would call and say, "We're coming to help." So, um we want to just keep building that, making it a little more formal. So, I'm going to reach out to the Naider County Schools and then keep this work moving forward. But, Just want to give kudos to St. Jermaine for holding us
066and also want to keep the board in the loop that we're working really hard to get us to be better and safer. Thank you the county board again for the opportunity to work with SRO and move us forward in that direction. >> At this time otherwise that concludes our um regular board meeting. So I just need one final motion. >> I'll make a motion to adjurnn. >> Sorry. Motion is with a second.