NPSD Board of Education Meeting - 12/16/24

001e e e you should that would be helpful all right I will I I will draw people's attention to the that agenda then okay cool good evening thanks um good evening and welcome to the December 16 2024 regular board meeting of the north L P Board of Education would you please join me in the uh pledge to the of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible withy andice for all we'll do a roll call ericae here Becky nordine here Jennifer Payne is here Chris patricus here Kelly roach is delayed Chelsea raker absent this evening Nick Seager here all right we do have a quorum Susie has the board meeting been posted according to open meeting laws yes it has all right thank you um that being said

002I 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 discre of the chair I'll second all right motion has been made to approve the agenda all in favor please say I motion carries all right we're in our meeting Scott is be before we get to the heart of our agenda I just want to send our thoughts and prayers to Madison today um when you walk the Halls this afternoon um we are all one whether it's students Educators any staff member that works in a school um our thoughts and prayers are with the staff and the families of Abundant Life Christian School in Madison if you hadn't heard there was a tragic shooting there today I'm also to

003the emergency management and those that respond to those kind of settings that's one of the toughest things to do they went in and went in right away they don't hesitate and then they went in and served those student staff and we'll need to continue to do that so just from the north of Pines District I just want to send their thoughts and prayers to that community and that school down there today so thank you our first item we have two presentations this evening the Great Northern conference sportsmanship Summit please make sure you're hi I'm Sophie Hoffman I'm in ninth grade I'm Ryan Dar and I'm in 11th grade and I'm Riley Dar and I'm in 10th Grade and we are here on behalf of the student athlete leadership team so some recent updates we have

004we had the battle for the paddle double header basketball game in Three Lakes we held a food drive and we ended up receiving 1,225 lbs of food that we were able to donate to the local food pantry the G has raised $1,825 to the Make A Wish Foundation and we are currently doing reading buddies for grades K through 2 Ryan and Riley have organized dates with teachers to set up a time for groups of different salt members to go over to the elementary school to either read play games or do whatever the teachers have planned so far we have done it once a week for the past two weeks but are going to take a break this week due to busy schedules before we also hosted a GNC Leadership Summit each school from our GNC

005confence had six athletes along with their athletic directors come to meet at our school for the day we discussed what sportsmanship means both good and bad how we could improve our school engagement in athletics and gathered ideas from other schools that we can bring to North and Pines one main objective from the meeting was to come up with a sportsmanship statement conference wide which we all agreed upon It's the Great Northern conference believes that sportsmanship is holding teammates fans and community members accountable for being respectful and compassionate while competing with gr and sincerity at all times coming out of the meeting we had several ideas that we could bring to North and Pine's Athletics we recently gathered all home game themes for each winter Sport and created agendas for the week which are displayed throughout

006the halls and on some of the TVs we are also working on a bigger poster that would consist of themes for the entire month of January we had the idea to start a salt Tik Tok page to promote themes games and any other important information uh we are also trying to make announ at the end of the day for the night of home games with the time and themes to get more participation we are going to start athlete of the week uh leaders from each sport would nominate one player from the team and salt members would then vote on one single player of the week last we are trying to get ideas to help snowcoming with to get more involvement with the salt like community and our meeting is just Wednesday to the side thank

007you thank you thank you don't go away yet just question time kudos to these three and their classmates to step up um and Mr Zia Mr Zia came up with the idea of having a Leadership Summit with all the schools in the GNC where um students could come um we were fortuned to have some amazing students step up and willing to participate and try to make not just our school better but our whole conference better and and they did that job and thanks to Mr Zia he hosted the very first one here in our district and everybody came it was a snowy old day but they still came and participated there's a lot of positive buzz in the room I heard positive comments from students and athletic directors and they were all here too but

008um also Mr hing's here tonight for a different reasons but um him and the students that started salt the student U athletic leadership team are really making a positive difference but more most importantly um they're teaching um young men and women to become strong leaders it's not just something you become you have to work at it and they're doing a great job of that so thank you to them for coming tonight giving up more time and all the things you're doing to make our school district [Applause] better and our next uh presentation is our district continuous Improvement team dcit I told them they'd have a tough act to follow start with uh introducing ourselves my name is Ann Perry I'm I'm J Le uh Jacob Hing and we were asked just to start talking about

009a little bit about the history of District continuous Improvement team and what it means to us um and basically what I've come up with I've been in various leadership positions through the district um kudos to all the admins out there I would never want your job I think that you are going I'm so thankful that you are out there doing that um but what district continuous Improvement team has done that has allowed me and my other colleagues to have a voice in directing um some of those leadership opportunities and developing just as salt as developing leaders we're developing leaders among the staff um and so that's one of the biggest things that I've had um as a positive it's been an advantage for me to have a voice in determining the just the direction that

010our district wants to go so I wasn't on the DC when it first started um but I joined last year um and I just want to tell you like an impact that it had on me when I was um not on the team I saw these three innovations that we have started um kind of the separate yes you know that they work together a little bit but it was really like okay I'm going to work on my PLC and I'm going to work on you know my responsive classroom and my udl and you know I didn't really put them together as a whole completely but as I got on the dcit team um we just decided um how we can improve these things and the first step for me was learning how they all are

011intertwin um they work together when you strengthen one of those Innovations the other ones just inherently also strengthen and so it was really good for me to see how they are pieced together and how they all are growing together with that I was able to go back to our school and um I get to meet with the teachers once a week and I get to share what I've learned and grow in them as well so it's neat for the other teachers to now see how that's working together we can use our strengths to strengthen each other and um it's just really beneficial for for our school and for the district because we are growing that and just making better teachers and better leaders um I have been a member of the dcat since the formation

012which we think is maybe six years CL close to that um and so been through a lot of trainings and and a lot of um uh collaboration and growth I think that's one of the biggest things I take away from the dcit is that um we I think as teachers we innately collaborate but um collaboration with a very set perspective and goal uh is something that these Innovations in the dcit have helped grow a lot um as a teacher we we spent a lot of time working on curriculum and El and unit plans and things like that which helps all of us kind of teach to the same standards um I think that I can confidently say that a teacher is still very unique in how they present their information to students but um I

013feel like in all of our classes um doesn't necessarily matter which teacher you have for US History you're getting the same content and that's really important to give all of our students um Quality education so a lot of the dcit work has kind of been involved in that collaboration um yeah and obviously we're here for our students uh and all of these the Innovations work well together for that um me personally um I love the fact that our our lens has kind of shifted from like these specific learning targets based off in my math class and it's focused more on the the whole student um I mean our mission statement says we we're to prepare our learners for life and in order to do that you have to kind of open up your horizons a

014little bit uh and realize that we have a bigger impact on our students than just the topic that we teach uh and we have to keep that in mind as we're as we're interacting with our students as we're talking with them and so um like the dcit conversations have kind of uh magnified that and brought that to light a little bit more than it was when I first started so yeah done does any board M have any questions or anything the team members as I always say thank you for coming and explaining and sometimes we see these things on paper and the acronym and it's nice to hear how what what you do and what what you're doing to work together and so thank you for your extra time of doing that so thank [Applause]

015you at this time we'll have our public participation section of meetings okay um Susie do you have that wish to speak this evening all right so begin the public participation section of our meeting we know that we'll all be respectful and um you have five minutes to speak uh the board does not uh respond back directly to the speakers so our first person to speak this evening is Shirley Koo okay um my name is sh CA my husband and I retired up here in Con in 2007 um I believe that uh the what I'm going to be presenting uh is for informational purposes only and it's not intended to be adversarial at all um and that uh this was sent to District administrator Scott Foster and all of the members on the school board I've

016already received this information from Margo Sharon uh and she's chapter chair for for Liberty um yeah moms for Liberty vence County so this is uh basically just for informational purposes and not uh adversarial at all yeah you have been informed of recent develops involving changes to Title Nine regulations proposed by the federal department of education which may have significant implications for your school district concerned parents and community members feel it is essential for our school board members to be aware of these developments and their potential impact on our students educational environment in 2024 the Federal Department of Education released a revised Title 9 rule which went into effect August 1 2024 this rule expands definition of sex discrimination to include various factors such as sex stereotypes sexual orientation and gender identity furthermore it mandates changes

017in school policies related to access to facilities du process protections for students accused of sexual misconduct and the use of preferred pronouns by teachers and students students while these changes took effect in August it is important to note that currently there are enforcable enforcable preliminary injunctions would delay the implementation of these rules for some time in specific instances on July 2 2024 the US District Court in Kansas issued an injunction that halts implementation of this rule in schools where children of current and prospective members of moms for Liberty are in attendance based on this injunction Norland Pines High School is exempt from the enforcement of these rule change of these rule changes for this and several other reasons Northern Pines school district is not obligated to align its policies with the new regulations at this

018time there are parents in your District who are deeply concerned about these potential implications of these changes on women and girls our constitutional protections and fundamental parental rights including privacy rights protected and furo the family educational rights and Privacy Act to be clear this new rule in title n strips parents of their fundamental rights to direct the upbringing of their children no secrets should be kept from parents especially concerning matters that directly impact the well-being and education of their children it is essential that parents are fully informed and involved in decisions that affect their children's schooling experience furthermore Northern Pine's General community would appreciate any information you can provide regarding how Title 9 has been handled within your school district up to this point uh we ask that you include any changes that have been

019proposed may be considered or have been enacted in response to the proposed rule change transparency and open communication are crucial in addressing these important issues I urge the school board to closely monitor these developments and consider the potential impact on your students staff and educational programs it is crucial to ensure that any changes made to school policies are transparent respectful of parental rights and in the best interest of all students I offer my thanks and my appreciation for your attention to this matter and thank you for your dedication to serving your community and doing your part to ensure the wellbeing of all Wisconsin children thank you thank you Shirley the next person to speak is Cody Vo and Owen all right my name is Owen friends and I'm a senior at North CL high school

020and this is I'm Cody V and I'm also senior we will be addressing 306 individuals that signed our petition to talk about ecd and we will be talking about EC usage so as concerned students of the north and Pines High School we writing on behalf of the north pin student body to propose a policy change that reflects the educational needs of the modern learning environment specifically we request that the board consider revising the current restrictions on personal devices such as iPads and airpods and other Wireless earpods and headphones um and we'd we'd like to propose that we'd be able to use them in class and throughout school we fully recognize and respect the school's efforts to reduce distractions and promote effective learning environment we also recognize and respect the banon phones as they were distracted

021in the classroom and a problem that needed fixing however the current blank blanket restrictions have created unintended challenges for students particularly those who rely on personal devices to meet those demands of advanced coursework dual credit programs and the rationale for for the policy revision the north app High School handbook supports the use of personal devises for medical educational vocational and other legitimate purposes which is SP on page 41 this proposal seeks to align the school's current practices with this guideline personal devices such as iPads and airpods are critical tools for students to complete assignments efficiently access access online cours workk especially for dual credit programs manage multimedia based assignments that require higher quality technology than what is provided by the school school devices are inadequate and do not meet the needs of most students who

022require higher higher quality technology um and then our proposed policy uh to address these challenges we propose the following permitted usage continue the use of personal devices such as MacBooks and other personal computers and allow iPads airpods wirel earbuds and other wireless headphones to be used during the school day for strictly educational purposes accountability isuse of these devices non-educational purposes will result in appropriate consequences which we've seen throughout the school year so far um teacher discretion uh teachers retain the authority to Monitor and regulate devices device usage during instructional time to ensure classroom Focus would be possible see throughout the year um why are airpods and other Wireless items Bann the rational explain to the students behind abandoned airpods and other wireless earbuds while still allowing wired earbuds is simply that there are distraction in

023the classroom and students with long hair can easily hide them while it is true that students can hide wireless earbuds it still doesn't explain why wireless headphones which are very visible are banned the rationale provided by Dr Marine is that he finds too difficult for staff to distinguish the difference between a wireless earbud which is defined as a portable speaker that fits inside people's ears and connects to an audio producing advice device using Bluetooth audio technology and a headphone which is defined as a small pair of loud speakers worn on the head and over a user ear both rationals provided to students by the administration are simply inadequate and are responses that are not Rel back earpods wireless earbuds wireless headphones would have to be connected to another device to be able to produce any

024sound if a student is using airpods or any other Wireless uh technology during class time they would be functional because your computer would have to be open all teachers when they're talking ask students to close their computer and uh which would consequently shut off the music or any sound playing to them um another way students could have airpods or any other wireless headphones playing would be through the use of the phone which phones are banded in the school so it's not an option for students to use plus having the ability to use airpods and wireless and other wireless headphones could actually make it easier for staff to identify if the student has a phone because if they don't have a laptop open and they're having them in then they must have a phone um and

025then also the phone has to be on their person because if it's in a locker it simply it's too far away and the Bluetooth won't connect so why should these ecds be permitted these ecds as discussed in the prior sections are very helpful and useful tools many students have relied on to complete their coursework the school provided technology has given the students is inadequate for what many students require to complete their learning these devices are slow unreliable and have such poor battery life that they often die before the school day is over the school provided headphones when available are of such poor quality that they actively hinder the ability of students to focus on multimedia assignments earpods wireless earbuds and wireless headphones which are the popular choice for students to provide for themselves here at

026norn PES allow students use noise cancelling technology to help focus and limit outside distractions they also allow a clear and reliable quality that students can consistently rely on a slight advantage that aods and wireless earbuds and wireless headphones provide is how simple their operation is unlike wired earpods aods and wireless earpods Wireless earpods and wireless headphones automatically connect to device as soon as the case is open you have 30 seconds Cody sorry to interrupt okay um it might not seem like a huge deal but when a student has to pull out wired earbuds unang them plug them in and put them in their ear there is much waste of time and it makes a student's life more difficult than it has to be this also creates an unneeded distraction takes away from the time students

027have to learn thank you thank you thank you both for coming and speaking to us this evening thanks guys anyone else that concludes our public participation all right we're going to move on to board committee reports and Communications we'll be introducing our uh school resource officer Chad Christensen yeah I'd like to introduce Chad Christensen um Chad started um this fall um we're very fortunate um you know anytime you have a transition you know I've said it before we've had a long run of really good SRO in our district and Jad has continued that I want to put a name in face with that he's done a great job getting hitting the floor running he has great report of our students he bring some great new ideas it's nice to have a new lens also sometimes

028a change you put the positive and just another set of eyes and experiences in our building has been beneficial but I just want Chad to introduce himself and for also you kind of name and face with Place well thank you for such a nice introduction um my name is Chad Christenson I've been serving Vias County for 15 years come this March most of that time has been with the sheriff's office I did do a about a threeyear stint with Juvenile Justice System um so icept out of law enforcement for a period of time but ultimately been mostly in law enfor I grew up in northern Wisconsin I'm lakel andrad outside the sixish years that I was down in fondet for uh my college and then my first job opportunity I've been here in Vias County

029so I'm looking forward to and having fun so far with the new role and nice change of pace for me and hope I can keep uh everything going smoothly here thank you awesome thank you nice to meet you nice to meet you hope you're having a good first and second trimester so far I am very much so so just um Chad does spend most of his time in this building sore high school and then land Lakes so he's kind of that and then as you remember Shelby spends four days with us between stain and eag Elementary but they both are very much Chad made at home already areas the kids like there as well and also U ched is a parent in our district so we're going to get him to his daughter's basketball game

030here tonight so pop up and then be able to run to that afterwards thank you nice thanks CH all right at this time we have board Communications as of any board member receive the communication you like to share with other board members at this time on my name is Kelly roach and I actually um we received that same letter that we already talked about with shle nicely read for us so thank you shirle um I am going to tonight out of respect for all of you um the notification of non- candidacy I will not be um running again and so I wanted to make that clear to everybody uh and thank everybody do any speeches or tap dances tonight but um I just it is a huge time issue that I am as evidenced by

031very appropriately I could not get here till after time and so I really appreciate all of you for what you're doing in the beautiful school and I will not be running so I do I have a long connection to school I'll just say one quick thing because I don't know that a lot of you in here have that connection but not only my children but myself but my parents my grandparents we've all attended North and Pines so I love it here and I love the school and I appreciate all of you thank you can I put a plug for grandkids over I know that's well Kelly thank you very much for your service and your dedication to the school district and we will miss you but completely understand that but um yes thank you for

032your years of service here she got a few months to go too your input and knowledge not leaving tonight so all right any anything else at this time only thing I was going to bring up and they already said it during the public participation was a survey that was going around that I have been informed as well so I don't know if it's something that we bring it back towards policy to address and maybe at that point we can fix the pagers in there and the policy update it that would be the proper Channel you are correct and should it's not on the agenda tonight so it should get on a policy agenda and then come back to the board if so committee so and you as a board want to do that I did

033one other communication that I would put I know you got this as an email but I thought maybe a hard cop you would nudge somebody um and I realized time is very challenging but our um amazing staff here at the middle school um Kevin grapher um Michelle Richards really are the ones pushing this but also Ryan rley and Alysa here part of the team as well they're really doing a great job of um having a social studies Ela collaborative event and they just need some staff and adults to give back feedback so I if you highlight there Tuesday April 15th 1 to 3:00 they'd love to have a board member two if possible or more of the marrier um would love to have you in here to be part of that give feedback to the

034kids and really see pretty proud of the work they're doing and it's the kids really get engaged when we makes these different subjects together so just thought I give you a hard copy I know for some of you it's very hard with work commitments but if we can get one or two of you that would be amazing and just wanted to promote that Nick do you have something to add yes and then uh thank you Kelly for your time on Board of Education uh I filed my documents tonight to seek reelection in the April election that's thank you for your for stepping up for the last year of this term and um also for seeking re-election thank you I I guess I could add uh one more thing so cisa meeting was a virtual this

035month it's going to be virtual the next two months but you know Mr Foster's name keeps getting brought up every meeting I go to so a shout out to him for stepping up for volunteering other things which kind of takes the load off of me bringing stuff to the table as well so but if you have any questions about cesa I know I'm but Scott's probably more informed last month it was my chance two superintendents every month get to kind of brag about your staff and your district and I had that opportunity and it was hard to pick from the things I talked about the dcit process because I do think it's leading to better student outcomes um it's taking a little time but it's we're heading the right direction then also our national um

036Green School award because the staff made that possible we didn't do anything special what's good for kids to get that recognition that somebody's thought deserved but it's because of all the Outdoor Learning we do all the green growing our Gardens and all the great things our staff does not anything and also Mr bow and the great work he does but just it was a great time to be able to showcase our district and they've gotten a lot of followup questions of others can do this stuff we're doing so all right so for our committee reports we did not have a policy meeting this month um and our written minutes for the standing board committees are shared in the board packet in board docs and are in public view does any board member have questions for

037the other board members regarding the minutes of the Committees that they do not set onar move on to our consent agenda all right uh does any board member wish to remove any item from the consent agenda not hearing any I'll entertain a motion for the consent agend I make a motion to approve all items contained in the consent agenda I'll second all right the motion has been made and seconded um any discussion of any item on that list be straightforward all right not hearing any all in favor please say I all right motion carries all right for our discussion and action items first item is our state school report cards we have director of teaching and learning Su will update the board of the state report CS all right I'm actually going to combine the

038two agenda items for state report cards and local report cards into um some of the stuff we going to be talking about here so the state report cards um state report cards are vulnerability report cards for student academic proficiency and growth using State assessment data attendance data and graduation rates these this report card came out in um the day after our last board meeting which is why normally this presentation is in November right after or right when the report cards are released but you get this today for me so this year um we scored a 68.2 so we were meeting expectations on the report card so what exactly does that mean and where do we go from here so that's what I'm going to share with you guys next first there was a bunch of

039changes to this year's um assessments that the way they were scored for achievement um this is for the forward exam the prea secure which is um for the nth and 10th graders and the ACT which is 11th graders so the assessments underwent a necessary update to align with recent updates in Wisconsin standards in ela and Mathematics so this format of the forward exam was revised in some of the questions uh the process takes place whenever there's updates to academic standards basically it's because the T the forward exam was no longer testing um the test wasn't testing what was being taught anymore so that's where it it had to be realigned with that also came an update in the cut scores of the performance levels the cut scores the minimum score that a student needs to

040be considered um Advanced um meeting expectations of coaching or developing so those cut scores were also revised to align with the new um new format and new um proficiencies um the other change was in the descriptors if um on the report cards in the past it was always labeled as advanced meeting approaching or developing or those are that's actually the new ones in the Advanced proficient basic and Below basic they change those words to be more user friendly and more um indicative of exactly what where the student is on their academic achievement so the report card is made up before surely we will get you the hand out to y That's we can I can okay so there's four priority areas that are part of the district report card and these are part of most

041of the state of the school report cards as well so the first one is achievement our district score was 60.9 now when compared to the previous year you can see I put in na a because of the changes that I just described you in the way the achievement scores were um the performance indicators we cannot compare our achievement to previous year's achievements they have different cut scores um and different proficiency levels so so this priority area summarizes how students performed on this on the assessments that I indicated that were taken by our students last April or March March or April um this is actually a three-year weighted average with the most recent year being weighted most heavily the other one of the other priority areas is our growth score this measures the change in the

042students performance over Statewide assessments this is a value added formula to compare students to similar students across the state and when we say similar students it it looks at demographics it looks like socio socioeconomic status it looks like a add a lot of factors to compare what average growth would look like for a student um for similar students across the state and then it looks at our students and where did our students fall our growth score it was this year was 64.1 which was a decrease from 67 in last year's report card Target group outcomes these are the um score this score examines students in the bottom Corti of lowest 25 percentile of students in our district which are basically the students most in need of support um it this priority area combines achievement growth

043chronic absenteeism and graduation rate for those students in the bottom cour tile um this is also waited on a year average for the previous three years rip of data as well um the our score was higher by 1.7 points from the previous year and then there's on track to graduation this priority area indicates how successful students are progressing towards completing their education um this in includes chronic absenteeism graduation rate third grade ELA scores and eighth grade math scores Ela and math scores are from the 23 24 State testing data chronic absentee AB absentee data is a leing score from the previous year and graduation data is based on cohorts of four and sevene data and if you really want I would advise you to go to the dpi's website for in-depth discussion of all these

044calculations but that's that may take hours so um you could see that this year our score for that was three points Above the Rest of the state but I also want to point out um that our graduation rate was 99% which our state average is 92 so we are rocking it we need to celebrate that we are doing really well by our students so with the priority areas each one of those is waited differently to come up with that deposit score and this is based on the number percentage of students that is economically disadvantaged in your District so for the 24 23 24 um report card you can see the weight in the center there so 16.7% was on achievement 33.3% was on growth the other two were 25 percentile which um usually doesn't change

045from year to year Okay so how did each of our schools do when look that was I kind of broke down the district wide but if you take a look at each of our schools um you can see that out of our eight schools um it's a score of one to zero to 100 um all of our schools are meeting or exceeding expectations um which is really which is phenomenal um two of our schools are receiving an alternate rating that is because they um do not have enough students to qualify or um for comparative data on the assessments and they have less than 20 students or ex exclusively serve at risk students there's those are the criteria that could be in place for alternate rating in which case we submit our own data to the

046state and they gave us satisfactory progress which is good so exactly what does all this mean for Northland Pines um continuous Improvement I really will say that the DCI team said it better than I was going to because they really summarized all the different things that we have going on here to continually work towards um uh improving um achievement growth um we are working actively on attendance right now across the district even though our attendance is above the state average it's just an area we feel that we could do better at so that is another area we are working on um all of this raw data was available in the board information there was 20 doents over 20 documents shared with you including the state report cards a review of each of the state report

047cards for each of the schools so key takeaways wouldn't kind of look at all of this stuff um first of all thank you um can't compare cannot compare the composite score of our report card this year to previous years because it includes that achievement piece which really is comparable due to the different cut scores and the different um scaling that the state did to make report cards um consistent um across the state so we can't compare previous years to this year in that um overall score or in achievement um second thing to take away is the continuous Improvement um we have a continuous Improvement plan I know the board has um goals that we look at data and it's not just looking at one piece of data um we work on inre increasing student proficiency

048and growth um we do like kind of a plan do study act cycle we look at stuff we work on stuff and then we review our progress we make modifications and we kind of start that cycle over um and we can't look at the state report card that I just discussed as the only source of data we look at many sources of data and you guys have seen that um I've been part of discussions and seen that um in board notes and stuff like that you look at star you look at um a lot of different data points when we're talking about how to improve here at school so more we're more than one test another document or another set of documents that I shared with you was our local report cards and that really

049breaks down um another source of dat a lot of the other sources of data besides just you know the achievement in attendance and graduation rates the local report cards are published on our school website they um are they kind of tell the rest of the story of things that are not included on the state report card they show re research-based indicators for Life ready success that we are already doing in our schools and that the state report card does not include so um couple of the things I want to point out um basically we are more than a single number we are many numbers as you can see on here um I was point out that we were the green ribbon School Scott mentioned that already it's pretty exciting that we were naturally recognized we've

050over 9500 or 9,500 hours of community service last year Alone by our 7th through 12th graders we've saved over $36,000 from solar power our students in all of our elementary schools receive over 100 minutes a week of Art and music we have two forests totaling 138 acres and an estimated 3,000 or more students visit this annually all again embedded into our academic programs our star assessment another data point shows 90% of our grade three students are showing growth in reading and 97 of them in grade one are showing growth in math we have 157 students in grades 9 through 12 that are take and pass an AP exam every year students gain 365 dual credits these are both high school and college credits for a class that they take and this saves College tuition for

051our students of over $100,000 for credits 95% of our elementary parents are involved in open house or Ander teacher conferences with the Community Partnership we have the fork program so we can support our students basic needs so I strongly encourage you to review all these foken report cards on the state or on our district website if you haven't looked at it in the board um notes that were shared we have a lot to celebrate we're a lot more than just the one number on the state report card we've got lots of numbers and there it's pretty exciting so um basically we I think with all of the initiatives we have going on like I said shared with dcit um the Northland Pines Community guarantees rigor relevance and relationships to prepare all learners for life and

052I think that the data between the local report card and the state report card shows a lot of the different things that we have happening here are there any questions okay thank you sue y information and as Sue said those um that information is on our website so if the community members want to look at that Ashley has nodding her head that she has all that information on there people to look at so and thank you for your presentation if you are interested in a copy of the slides so anybody community members board members uh Sue and I would be happy to sit down and have a conversation they have the and we've talked to our legislators about this and there I think in certain to be an agreement is it has become so complicated

053to get to that number everybody wants a number right well to get to that even in our own District District that number isn't calculated the same way at every school as you saw tonight satisfactory progress that's as high as you can get for AR there's no way Atlanta Lakes can get better than satisfactory progress It's Impossible the system isn't built that way Tony has two Elementary Schools they're not even calculated exactly the same of Elementary has gr scores the other elementaries don't have gr scores the bottom line is we are accountable to those to our community and I take that on to myself our staff is doing the work needed to continue to get back um you know if it's solely meant all we want to do is get one day test score to go

054up we could just kind of forget about a lot of those other things right recess PL you know all the things that parents and students want their kids to have so yes we need to get it up and we also our local dat is telling us we're heading the right direction but when you have a threeyear average it takes a while takes longer so when you see growth it takes a little longer for it to actually come in the state report card the local report cards were created last year um Mr T is not here Gretchen is here tonight she played a significant role in creating these um most importantly our community parents and staff played a a role in those they told us what is it on one side of the sheet what is

055it that's important for our students in schools to have those dual credits Career and Technical education classes be active in activities the others the first front side is research based redefine and ready so if you do a search of redefin and ready those are research based so we know when students hit certain data points like with attendance they're going to be better employers employees so those are things that are research based that schools all around the state are starting to say and actually we've shared these with the C9 legislative group because they ACC more accurately Define what our students and our parents want so uh we will be held accountable that's on me to get those report cards continue to improve um a PR of the work we're doing between our reading training our math

056um the work that Dr marine and the staff here are doing with harlon and the Sor High School um the Middle School up in sore everybody's got a plan to get better it's been shared um it's it's defined and our staff's working really hard at it um so I'm excited of where we're going and you know we want that test those that data to go up and that's what my promise is and that's what we're doing to get there but I'm also proud that 99% of our graduates and we don't lower our standards to get a diploma here as Kelly said we want every person to be proud at their Prime graduate so keep those high standards and if they reach them U that means they're employable and and able to do other things in

057the world all right our only real action item of the evening is our school calendar so I will make a motion to approve the 2025 2026 school calendar as presented all right the motion has been made and seconded and now we'll have some discussion so we narrowed this down last board meeting and through committees down to one um however um there are some challenges right now it's a twoe break at Christmas which has some definitely some negatives um it does have some positives as well um allows for travel for staff and families um you know the way it falls it is really hard because we've really not had school on the December 23rd or very few schools also have it on the 23rd because of travel and and really different needs so when you do

058that to come to school for one day is really challenging excuse me um so I have reached out to some other District see what they're going to do um the Lakeland schools are going to do the two weeks that is um Three Lakes I kind of wondering what we're doing um Terry and I had a good conversation we collaborate and talk frequently or regularly Maybe um so I think they're leaning that direction um Tomahawk who I also work with um and kind of see what they were doing um they are leaning towards having school Monday Tuesday because they take off the whole week of Thanksgiving so they kind of have traded the two days for two days so he said he kind of knows staff would rather have it off but because they take the

059whole week of Thanksgiving off it's hard there's only so many days in a calendar you can't move around so or you can move but there's only some pieces one thing the Lakeland group is doing and I think it's a good idea I did mention it one of the Committees is you know we could add some um you know optional activities during those two weeks like a ski trip or maybe some activities for in the Fieldhouse you know we could do some maybe one or two days activities in our district um also we might be able to bring in staff to help with that as well so that is something if we do do the two weeks what are the opportunities within that two weeks to help kids and families because that's a long time for

060many of our families the other idea and I will tell you if you don't want to vote on this tonight I have not run this by a whole bunch of Staff I've run it by the aam and they all kind of looked at me like okay here's another idea coming down the pipe but they gave me pros and cons um I would say our admin is similar to this board we're kind of on the fence some definitely see where we're coming from for two weeks and understand it's um we have not done two weeks since 204 14 su he looked it up so it's rare it'll be rare for it to happen again so know that this is not a new Norm so if we do do it it's probably one of those every seven

061to 10 years it's going to fall but an idea I had and it didn't say it was a great idea it's an idea so you could tell me it's your opinion to give me is we could move the December inservice day which is currently scheduled for that Friday the I believe 13th move that to Monday that would create one less disruption in December it would give us inservice day it would be a student optional day so it cut that two weeks down by one day um I think it could possibly have some great advantages um of not of moving it out of that middle of December and kind of have full week one week disadvantages we know we would like to have it closer report cards to do that would kind of take that away

062um I do think it does put another snow day back in the calendar as well um so possibly another day of learning so there are some positives and it's an idea I have not Flo out to staff so I want to be fair to them they haven't had a lot of input on this um I do think some are going to be like I could had a twoe vacation left on a Friday night or Saturday and now you stuck an in service day on a Monday so but it would also our pair professionals have shared some of them and administrative assistance that's a lost day of pay in that schedule so having that day be a work day would also allow for another day of pay so it does have some for ourly staff as

063well that are school year only so um you know I think the thought is that you I should keep bringing ideas because there's concerns so this is an idea that kind of after listening to the two committees so I do listen when you're talking um I try to come up with an idea that maybe would kind of help make something better out of a challenging situation so but I have not had a lot of time to talk to the staff about it so if you don't don't want to do this before June you know you could table it till January or you could vote on it as a two weeks and we can make the best out of it and I'll come up with some ideas before next year so um just wanted to give

064you an update all this is in your board packet under notes so timeline wise if we do table it till next month that's not going to harm anything in the gamee of things or is it some thing that we do need to take care of well you've already made a motion and seconded so you're going to have to vote on that motion could vote on it it could fail and that would be fine um and then we could bring it back to the January committee and board meetings for you guys to finish so if and if we vote on it this evening is this something that is the end all be all we because because we vote on it this evening we could presumably make um adjustments since we're talking a year ahead we've had

065to do that with Co or when we have that 10 days of it not I know Mr patri just thinks 10 days of clim weather is a good thing at some point but um this year yes when we had the year of 10 days of in climate weather the board I did bring the board decisions to make like adding time or adjusting in service schedule so when we do we do make adjustments but it's nice for parents to have that predictable schedule for daycare and making arrangements with family or friends to watch their kids and so on so in the perfect world we usually typically don't change the calendar after you vote on it but they has been I'm not even going to bring up coold now it's a rare unique thing but in climate

066weather day is the reason why we maybe have brought them in the back in the past is there any other anybody El I I was thinking about I would like to know some staff input on it did you feel the idea of coming back on the second versus the 22nd of just the few people I asked did not like that idea seemed com back on Friday I just felt like it was better to keep working work and then be done the other advantage of that Monday is compared to the Friday or the last day is Staff would we've typically done about half the day of the you know structure or Choice and then the other half more free choice of like working on your lessons and Grading and collaborating with your colleagues and so on

067and if you did that on that Monday you could leave for break pretty much you would be ready most people would be ready to teach that Monday you could for break everything's ready to go right kind of a refreshing thought to come back most staff on a twoe break are going to be working a few days during that break getting ready for the Monday and the rest of the semester to come so I kind of see like the advantage I have beforehand you can leave for break kind of know and my room's ready my assignments are ready for Monday when we get back and and move it forward so that was the reason I felt like the Monday was better than that last day I do know Lakeland group does do some in Services kind

068of like this during their calendar they that way they kind of less impact on students and stuff as well so can't say it's completely I I know the concept of it so I just Tred to apply it to the situation I always look back at it and think you know if you're going to ask staff for their opinion and not listen to it then why even ask them so you know do you want to be heard or do you want to just make a motion approve it and not be heard or even take the time to ask them so moot the motion on the table is what the board the I know but my point of it is is how much time have you asked you know we've always said we want to listen to

069our staff we want to listen to our students they voiced it and now we have the choice to vote so the majority as I understand it the majority of people have said that they want this schedule so versus you saying we're going to come back on a Monday or Tuesday or Friday or something like that so again I've worked at other places where you don't say anything because they're not going to do anything so just to clarify so I make sure I know what I'm voting on I'm looking at the calendar that as presented still shows the inservice on the 12th right I just threw an idea that never been talked about because out of the Committees there was concern about the two weeks so I thought you know what tonight I'm going to bring

070at least one last idea not that but I wanted to be to Chris's point be transparent I not have time to rush it through the staff either so but if you want to wait till January because you love that idea so much if you just you could ask for staff input or just say we're doing two weeks Scott come up with some things that would help parents during those two weeks and we can look at those opportunities as well and then the other um piece of this is we voting on this particular calendar as presented uh we also would have the ability to to the end of the school day in the future if we needed to you may need to do that this year that's always on the so that's not that is always

071something to do to add for our in so as long as that option is there I feel comfortable with pursuing well at least vote call the vote we get the 10 or 15 snow days this year hopefully do does anybody else have any other discussion I know we've talked about it for several months so all right well I was I do like the idea of you know the in service day simply because I think adding five minutes or 10 minutes here and there isn't going to be as impactful as a full day of learning like but I also appreciate the fact that you know it hasn't really been vetted and it's it's hasn't been completely flushed out either so that's all I like the idea I would like two weeks if I was a teacher

072yeah I think um being that this is a seven to 10 year rare occurrence uh I originally was opposed to a full two week break for a multitude of reasons but getting the staff input and hearing that the 23rd is so valuable uh to staff for travel and whatever other requirements they may have for the holidays I I would say it wouldn't make sense to be there for just one day on the 22nd or just one day on January 2 um so after hearing the input of everybody else here I think uh to support the staff giving them the full two weeks um and we just revisit this in another seven to 10 years it's just an odd way the calendar Falls for this year it would be S isn't it like this year and

073then the following year too like isn't it back to back years or no might a little it's a little different something else I think there's actually you can have a couple days next year I was be person we're doing this because no matter what we going to be up against it we're up against the it's the start and end of the year that we're up against the June in the end soas isn't as bad it's the June and the start the holiday Falls thank you for well just like the weather we can't control the dates on C so all right at this point I will call the vote um all in favor to approve the 2025 2026 school calendar as presented please say I I any opposed all right motion carries 5 Z all right

074thank you all right next oh yes six I'm sorry sorry Kelly's here I apologize was five at the beginning sorry 6 z um all right moving on to our update on referendum election to be held February 18th 2025 yeah just so you know um you know you made a decision at previous board meeting so now it's implementing that decision so I've talked to the E River Campus did two presentations for staff there I'll be out at St man Landa Lakes this week talk each of those staff um Ashley and Tara and the team worked very hard to prepare a flyer to go home to All Families that'll go they went to the printers by Friday for the needs to get there and then it'll go out after the holidays we're really trying to leave the

075community to enjoy their Christmas and holidays and then then we can shift gears to having conversations around the referendum um I'm currently working on those presentations uh we will have updates on our website a whole section on that including if you can't make it out to one of the public events we'll have a screencastify on the paper um reported it it was in the paper on 123 and I've done multiple radio interviews including another one today on the topic of the ref them and um we'll be happy um as you probably also know tax bills are starting to hit mailboxes so this makes it a little more relevant too um you know hopefully I know most people but not all depending on when assessments came out um La last year we were at um 405

076and now we went to 333 so that's $72 for every $100,000 sh came off the majority that's an average so uh on how your reassessment went and when that fell but every basically $72 per 100,000 applied to your taxes should have came off so some have reported to me that their taxes have taken a a significant percentage decrease the school section we don't control the county or the technical college or the other piece of that what we will be asking for is that $72 to come off because we promised our taxpayers when this building was paid for it's off and that's what we did tax bills went should have gone down um I used an example of if you had a $300,000 house at 405 and it got reassessed that reassessment could go all the

077way up to 412,000 and is still not seen an increase at 333 that's a pretty significant 25% plus increase um but if it ain't anything less than that your taxes should have gone down so we we'll do a little bit more of that was kind of exact conversation so $72 off in year one we're going to ask for $16 back to continue to operate the district and have the all the schools last year the board at a goal to keep all of our rural schools open um those it costs a little bit more to transport and have schools and do the things that we do the state formula does not concede that um that all schools don't operate exactly the same you know and we have a larger Geographic we have large property values um

078as well so we'll be getting that information out after the holidays um we have dates I put at all of your tables what I give to the staff the talking points on the back and then the public information dates just a reminder as board members in your official capacity your job is to get people out to get information and to make their own decision you're not as a board member supposed to be out pushing the vote Yes your job is to inform and allow taxpayers and voters to make a decision on their own uh with the information at hand so we've been very transparent with our budget you're going to hear our audit report next I know there's a lot of buzz in the news about Milwaukee Public Schools in their audit our audit you'll

079hear next month came back excellent um we've been very transparent our procedures and policies we meet our deadlines and things like that so that's just another part of communicating to our public what's going on with their budget now we have our administrative reports uh is there any administrator that would like to highlight any item on their report har is up right highlights so I will just update one thing that's uh really recently is on Saturday for Sor high school we had a toy drive at Sor High School which some of you might have seen on social media um and something that um and Perry one of our advisers have worked on in the past we had and she was just here y um and we had a student last year around Christmas Christmas that was

080like we should do a toy drive and Mrs Perry was like Hey I've done something like this before in the past so um they put out the ads the SE uh one of our students the senior is doing it as her senior Legacy project so hopefully another student can pick it up in years coming forward but then it was three students majorly it was um uh a senior a junior and a freshman that did the majority of the work um they called drop off sites they called businesses to get permission to put boxes and drop off sites um they went dropped off U left them there uh we were asking for new or gently used toys and then the students had to go back and pick those up bring those in sort them clean them

081put them through all the things that they needed to go for get them organized for that um and then on Saturday was when families could come in and we had 62 kids that um got some form of gift out of that toy drive um so that was great and then just a kind of a full circle thing of just like you know they could come in they got points to shop from based on the number of kids that you br up with um they could shop and then they could actually do like gift wrapping and that's one of the things that the kids did on that day is they did gift wrapping and things like that so um just a great experience um for the senior that led that for the other students but um

082just overall kind of feel good thing that went on um I think today they were kind of sitting there like wow that was way more work than I thought it was going to be uh but uh they felt pretty good at the end of it awes thank you good evening everybody uh one quick uh we do celebrations every month with staff like all the other building principles do but um this month we celebrated something that's pretty astonishing um we keep track of amazing amounts of data on the huge data wall by Department uh Middle School and High School of failing grades um attendance extracurricular activities involvement something like that but um last uh last year in the fall of 23 um 712 we had 113 failing grades meaning total with all of our students 113

083classes were failed um this fall that number was 83 so it's a 27% reduction um in failed classes uh which is a Monumental that's a massive number um in one year um we credited that to um reduction of distractions and teachers being able to focus more on teaching and not policing um our second year through trimesters we just we got more efficient uh we introduced interventions in October which something we've not done in an extremely long period of time um in this building um and that showed really positive data as well within that um environment and then also you know just a credit to our staff and to our students for the engagement level that they that they have shown so just wanted to share that with you and your one act play went to

084State they did and they received highest marks across the board yeah and a lot of individual um Awards as well again which I hate to say it's the norm but that's kind of where they've been the last couple years which is which is amazing yeah absolutely Excellence is a great nor true you I just wanted to add something that our fied Department did this past week um they had a bring your parents to um fied class so we had about a hundred parents come in um they were able to take um gym with their students um I know it was a great experience for our families um I had a lot of um phenomenal comments such as wow ke is fun again almost somebody walked out and said I didn't realize how many calories I

085probably just burned so it was really exciting to see all of the families in the building but also just um Trina Burr and Mark piny Pinsky do a phenomenal job with our fad program they always have amazing activities for our students and they really look forward to that throughout the day so I really wanted to give them a shout out and thank them for the amazing things they're doing amazing if you got to see that opportunity in kudos to Mark and Trina but I'm also you know we talk about the collaborative and the culture you know I've already heard staff talking about now how do we replicate that in other ways so we've been trying to find better ways to bring parents in to just not events you know what I mean yeah it's we

086want them still to come to events like showcase nights projects and choir but our day in and day out is really worth seeing and you know what does learning look like in reading the math so I know the monor has done that quite a bit of that of getting parents to actually come and sit in the class and watch their children learn and I think we've kind of crested and now we're going to talk about how do we get that at all grade levels get parents more into to see their kids and learning every day couple some of the kids may not completely vote for that um there were a couple times where I'm like H mom not just the PE teacher mom and dad are telling me to behave in this class now too

087but it's uh it's fun to see I think parents enjoyed seeing their kids in a different setting and how they respond to their peers and another adult and so kudos to them and here yes for pulling that up somehow I feel that would be a better Elementary activity than high school iagree being a parent of teenagers I don't know I I I look forward to us doing at 712 I said all kids I I would love for kids parents to come in and see our math and sence Tech and heart business I think it's I think it's really where we have to head as a district I think it's a great idea after participating with books versus badges at least you get the tap out when you're do the full 50 minutes that's great all

088right thank you everyone um and school resource officer reports are also in your packet and it was nice to meet Chad this evening official put a face to a name um and I think at this we have District administrator report yeah just real brief um I did put in the public view or climate weather days um we do have um those always that possibility this time of year ice is always a concern that's why it's not snow days it's cold two enemies actually more than snow um so just we that'll go out to parents and we put on our social media but I'll be do an email out to parents as well is um it seems like when I'm about to send it then we have it in climate weather day so they think we're

089going yet so I always kind of wait till we have a little bit nicer stretch in weather so it doesn't seem like I'm telling them we're canceling school um you probably did hear we did have a situation I updated the board um kind of uniquely Lakeland buses had the same situation so there's actually they're sting they sent away gas samples and they're actually checking to see if maybe regionally we had some gas that wasn't what it was expected to be um if you didn't know in the audience we had five buses last week on that cold morning that um um that early first morning of real cold that didn't run the way it should have and we we were prepared for it we we usually think 20° below cold is what our buses can handle

090the diesel and you know we were minus 9 maybe some areas were 1113 but we had no fears that our buses would do that and we had six buses in the end that didn't weren't able to do their route thankfully they didn't have kids on but parents had to bring the kids in and some actually then parents elected to stay home but um we are working on that but I'm a meeting on Friday I found out the L bus company had the same issue with a different Gas provider so back to flambo they had six buses go down exactly as W yeah they're l so okay yeah they had some just stop in the middle the highway they could move them so we'll be working on that situation and I'll be a little nervous the

091next cold day but Greg and Sue have been working really hard they've had to change their fueld filters and be ready and they've done a bunch work with the gas so we'll be ready for that um just a reminder feed our real kids thanks to the very gen the large generosity of this community so Fork is an entity but they are dispensing the food the the funds from a generous community in Three Lakes Phelps and north and Pines every family that receives a backpack and then at the high school level we did Identify some additional families because we don't do backpacks at nor findes high school um they all got a voucher for $20 at any of the three local grocery stores TRS um Charlie's Market in Atlanta lakes and then camps in St Germain

092um all three you could pick where you want to use that voucher so you know they're encouraged by vegetables or Necessities or basic Goods um so um but thanks to Fork um it's we Christmas break that's extra food and extra meals and it's a time when if they can help out so those will be sent home this week and then finally um if you're not familiar the state of Wisconsin has something called speak up speak out it is a tool we use in this District um they do an annual report it's to the Wisconsin Department of Justice um I just want to mention that it's a basically some of you might call it a tip line so any student parent can either go on their Chromebook or call it in and share a tip of

093um could be anything could be they saw another student vaping it could be that a student threaten to harm themselves harm others bullying is one of the hips um but the state of Wisconsin offers this for free and the other powerful piece about this is um like we had a situation over Thanksgiving break where a tip came in where a student another student was concerned that the student might harm themselves that doesn't just come Dan and I got that and Ryan Chad and Shelby are sro's but since it was vacation it went toight went to dispatch at VI count sh department and they sent the deputy over to make sure that that was okay and if they needed resources or help so it doesn't just stop at the school it is a partnership the Vias

094County Sheriff department has been a great partner um and really work through that um just to give you an idea there's 5,270 tips in the state of Wisconsin this year U bullying was the top one um there was 437 potentially life saving tips you never know if you save one but if one life was saved this tip line was absolutely worth it it is free to school to use um we also the Department of Justice then also um part of speak up speak out and just continue to make us better um they provided the grants for the maps which we have and all of our Emergency Management hals um they also um where they require five documents for every school we have to have those updated Maps safety assessments safety plans violence drills and school

095safety training I have to upload those to the doj every year and just to give you an idea last year our tip line that comes just to north of lines for all of our we trained students 5th through 12th um for that how to use it and parents we had 162 tips last year um with bullying being our number one case and then this year up to this date it's been down a little bit we're at 37 which hopefully some of the things you've implemented with U character strong and also some of the new way we do our uh our our scheduling our Administration implementation of some new ideas as well um you know we're hoping to reduce um I know bullying came up last month at the board meeting I think one reflection about

096bullying that we've really seen and we've had discussion administratively is a lot of these are not the majority of these by far are not bullying there one incident where a student had an incident and really when the state of Wisconsin asked this report they're looking for one person doing multiple incidents to another person what we've really reflected on is sometimes we have bullies who do inappropriate things over and over and over to a wide range of people which doesn't fit the state definition but internally we understand that we are we have somebody who's doing bullying behavior and we have victims so we're actually trying to change how we report that within Infinite Campus to reflect more accurately so you it is to understand what parents and kids are talking also um credit to Mrs roie

097when we look at this data we've been also trying to find the pattern of the victims because if a student is feeling this way that that's a true issue right whether somebody has done something or not we have to make sure that we investigate that and support the victims through that process as well so this tool does help us reflect use that data our threat assessment team does look at this data um when we meet monthly or every other month so just thought i' point that out um it's a deep on the Department of Justice and it's a very valuable tool um I really highly recommend when my peers ask about our use of it it's been very successful it's been a great part of law enforcement Partnership of uh offering help and assistance to

098students asking for help that's my report there is a concert that started at 7 if you want to hear some great concert band music downstairs holiday all right that being said I will uh make our m our long motion to go into close session but thank you uh citizens and everyone for coming to the meeting and hope you have good holidays and happy New Year we'll see you next month Merry Christmas Merry Christmas Christmas all right I will make the motion to convene into convene in close session pursuant to stat Wisconsin statute 19.5 subsection 1 and C to consider the renewal of administrator contracts and secondly Wisconsin statute 19.5 subsection 1 and C to discuss the contracts of two CI certified staff members thirdly Wisconsin State Statute 19.5 subsection 1 and C to discuss resignations

099of certified staff members and any potential liquidated damages fourthly statute 1985 subsection 1 and D to discuss the district safety plan and drill logs the board maintain action in close session and I need a second and roll call Eric Lane yes Becky nordine yes Jennifer pay is yes Christopher yes Kelly Ro Ed Seer yes all right we are in closed